25. The Lost Twin

*Aranelda*

It’s cold and dark. It’s been this way for a long time. No light, no warmth. Just darkness and pain. I don’t know what I did to deserve this. They keep calling me names, saying I’m the son of a whore, pieces of shit that not even the slut wanted to claim. A worthless being that’s only useful when Hades is angry so he doesn’t whip the others. Persephone tried to save me once. That ended tragically. Hades didn’t want to kill me and I didn’t want to give him a reason to, so the next couple times she tried, I didn’t use the items to escape. I simply buried them next to a large rock. Maybe someday I could leave here. All I could feel was despair. The imaginary friends from my youth were still with me, but they didn’t speak much and I couldn’t see their mythical forms any more. I was too depressed for them to come around me. I had taken to carving my story on the wall, maybe someday someone would read it. Probably long after my death. I started from my first memory.

*Thirteen y