I should have been an obedient daughter and gone home. I stared at the guy frightened so long, he started doing some hand signs to the girl named Sonia behind him.

Finally, after I didn't move an inch, guy who called himself Edan, sighed. "You know, we can be here all day but if you want to talk to us and not seven feet tall robot man..." Sonia gave Edan some kind of tablet. "So, who do you choose?"

"What are you- What- What are you going to do... to me?"

I finally looked around in the room I fell. It was small, and the only light came from the stairs Sonia and Edan came from. When I stood up right, the ground under me felt unstable. At least the ground was soft. Well, there was a possibility that I fell to my death and this was all a big hallucination I was having while I was bleeding out.

"Depends on why you are here and if you have good connections inside and outside. While we wait for Samuel to come back, we can do the form."

Edan pressed something on the tablet. Several questions started floating around him. All of the questions were reasonable like, one was about my allergies, and one next to it was about family. One question made me jump. "Do you have any connections to Hayer-Grey family?" Does Neela count? I hope it didn't. Hopefully it only meant Neela's brother and his weird family I have never talked to.

"Who-" I tried to ask something but I got confused when Edan started to walk around me, looking at me up and down.

"Are you one of those forced marriage girls? Did you have some family drama or did you get one of the gods angry?" The girl punched Edan on the rib and did some hand signal. "Oh come on, only nice thing about this work is to hear gossip from Ashphodea."

"Are you- Are you always- always this rude to people?" Edan laughed. I was horrified that those words came out of my mouth. I don't know what they would do to rude people, unless we were talking about some children stories I heard growing up.

"I don't know. This is my first time doing this by myself, or technically with Sonia. Samuel usually does this, or whoever is on the trapdoor duty. Samuel said he would show us the ropes but he went to get a drink before a shift because it was going to be a slow night." Edan tried to be cool and mysterious but his ripped t-shirt got stuck in the door that he was trying to lean on. "If I was my mom, I would pat you on the head and say something cheesy."

I remembered the picture on my dress. I breathed slowly in and out and took the picture out. "This is my family."

Edan finally got silent. He looked at Sonia, did his weird hand movements, and looked back at me. He grabbed the picture from my hand. He had suprising enough strength in his arms for such a skinny kid. "Where did you get this?"

"Hazel, my grandma... Well, not technically but like- Okay, her husband is,was, the guy on the pic." I pointed at Izaiah on the picture.

Edan looked like something clicked on his brain. He started smiling way too wide. "Are you close to him?"

"I guess? I don't-"

"What's your name?"

"Andi. I need to-"

"Do you want to make a deal with me Andi? We can help you with any thing you are here for if you help us."

I felt like I didn't have another choice so I nodded. Edan walked towards the chairs and looke back at me, waiting for me to follow him.

"We have to move before Samuel gets here."

"I have-I have a friend. She is- she might-"

"I'm sure we might she her on the way here." I sighed and followed the boy. Sonia came after us, like a small guard dog.

We wealked in silence couple of minutes till we got to the ground. Those two minutes were like torture to me. Paranoid thoughts filled my mind. What were they going to do to me? What was his grand plan?

I stopped walking, forcing them to stop walking at the same time too. "Where are you... Where are we going?"

Edan started to say something but stopped. When I tried to say something again, Edan put his hand on his mouth and pushed me in a corner on the room. "Be quiet! We can't let Samuel see you."

Loud foptsteps were coming toward us. When I looked around the corner, I saw a giant robot man, the same one that steered the weird ship Gorgos escaped in. It walked slow and loud steps, like a machine ready to attack. Even tough I was terrified, I waved my hand towards it.

Edan pushed me back against the corner again. He punched me in the shoulder. "What the Hades are you doing?"

"Answer... Answer me or I go talk... that."

Edan wanted to fight me, I could clearly see it. He looked around and made some othe handmotions to Sonia who just looked at us and waited our altercation to end. "Not here. Outside."

This was the compromise I could settle. At least I could get some answers from him.

I looked around. The room we were in was very open. There were two doors. One were the robot man stood. We all ran towards the other as fast as we could. We could hear a deep voice behind us. "I'm going to tell your mother about this!"

We only stopped when we arrived at a small crossroad. Edan and Sonia giggled like crazy. I was just trying to get some air.

"Okay, dude. I will answer three questions. Then we start doing what we want to do."

I was about to ask some of my thousand questions I had in my head but I got distracted. This was the first time I had seen Tartaros on the inside. It was the most beautiful sight I had seen. Every house had a painting on the side of it. I didn't even know that this many artstyles were a thing. In Ashphodea, people like realism. Here... the building in front of me was painted so colorfully. It didn't try to be anything but it still facinated me.

"Beautiful..."

Edan laughed, small smile escaping his lips. "Wait when we walk more that way. There's one of my favorite works."

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Are there paintings on every wall?"

"Yeah, mamy people who come here are artist that want to leave their mark here. It also helps covering up the past people don't want to think about, you know." Edan sighed. "Okay, that was one. Two to go."

"Wait what?"

Edan smiled annoyingly and started walking away. "We are in a hurry, so you better think your questions well." I wanted to stangle him. If I wanted to get ignore, I should have stayed home. I wanted to cry but I couldn't see how easy I was to annoy. I just had to follow him and Sonia.

Edan didn't even seem to care. He did his weird handmovements with Sonia and laughed like they were in on a joke I didn't get.

"What's with the hands?" Edan stopped walking. They looked at me like I said the most bizzare sentence in a world.

"What's what?" Edan tapped Sonia's shoulder.

"That... handwaving... thing."

"You haven't seen anyone using aign langiage before?" Both Edan and Sonia laughed but got serious when they saw I was serious. "You have never seen sign language before."

"No... I haven't."

"Sonia is deaf. This is her way of comunicating. Good for talking about someone you are in a same room with." I have never met a person with such a drastic "physical flaw" before. It was... People usually get a special ticket to Elysia if you can't be cured here. Of course people in Tartaros had to live with these things.

I smiled widely and grabbed Sonia by the arm. I hoped Edan would take the bait. You can only beat an asshole in his own game. "So, have you been deaf... since birth?"

"It was some accident when Sonia was a kid. Made her almost completly deaf and made her stop speaking. But like, where does she even need it anyways. She's a badass now." Sonia and Edan smirked. Edan eyes sparked with pride. I wish I had such a good relationship with someone. "Well, if that was the last question-"

I raised my hand to quiet the boy. "I... You said you would answer three questions. I was asking this... from Sonia."

Edan smiled. I didn't know if I was just seeing things but I could swore I saw a bit of proudness in his face. "Okay, fine if you want to be a pedantic about it. Let's hear it."

I smiled hopefully. "Do you know... Valentina Vera?" Edan turned to Sonia. Their annoyingly smug faces turned dark. They pitied me, I know they they did but why? Why did they pitied me?

"You don't to sugar- pity- I can handle it." That was a bold lie but my new aquitances seemd to bought it.

"Okay fine... I don't know who Valentina Vera is but that robot man we escaped from was named Samuel Vera. All, except one of his grandchildren died coming to Tartaros. The only surviving Vera is a guy so..."

Was I a horrible liar if I would start crying? Sonia punched Edan's shoulder and they started fighting with their hand movements. "But I thought... I thought... I got a letter from her after her funeral."

"Probably she wrote it before she died. I don't know, I'm not respobsible for letters. Mom usually sents some that she gets from relatives." So I was alone in a town that hated me, with no way of helping people I care about. Couple of tears fell on my cheek that I tried desperatly holding in. My only option was to go bacl home or follow complete strangers. I hated both of those options so much.

As I composed myself, Edan was ready to continue his mission forward. He fully ignored my crisis and grieving of a friemd who I thought was alive. So, my only option was to pretend I felt fine. "So, where are... Where are we going?"

"Just turn left and walk until you see a wall." I did what Edan told me to. There was nothing else I could do. I only stopped when I saw the wall Edan mentioned.

It was a big picture of five creatures thay were carrying a young woman in a glass box, which is filled with flowers. The creatures looked like ghosts. All of them, except one, had their faces smudged. Only person with regonizable facial expression was a young girl right in the middle of the ghosts. She was young, no more than ten. I could feel the girl's pain trough the painting.

"Since I mentioned it, this is my favorite one. Just right in our way." Edan marched next to me.

"It's beautiful."

"I have always wanted to know what does the pic mean. Maybe some kid died coming here." Edan's eyes locked into the woman on the coffin. "Well, enough sigh seeing. Off to our first stop."

"Where are we going?"

"We are getting you new clothes. Or do you want go to the prison on that?"

I completly forgot. I was in a dress that was almost completly torned apart. I needed new clothes as soon as possible.

"From where?"

Edan put his hands to either side of his face and turned it towards a house on the other side of the wall painting. That house looked different from the rest. It was black and white, black being a text all around the house. Names. My heart hurted when I saw one of the names were Valentina's.

"I'm going to get you something to wear. Wait here with Sonia." Edan said, bossing me yet again.

"I- I- Look at me. How-" For the first time, I noticed there was people around me. An old couple walked past us, wearing only the color yellow. It was weird. They looked like they judged us, while my mom would judge them back in Ashphodea.

Edan wanted to argue with me but knew he couldn't leave me on the broad morning light. "Be quiet or I will banish you from Tartaros myself." The Edan took me by the hand and started dragging me towards the house.

That house was just as odd than everything else in Tartaros. There were color in every corner of the house. Floors were filled with clothes and different drawings. Small lights were hovering all around the ceiling, lighting our sneaking in.

Edan kneeled down to a one pile of clothes. I on the other hand... I started hearing a voice on the other side of the door next to me. The most silent I could, I walked towards the noise.

"Like it or not, he is still Sonia's father. We could figure out something." I regonized the voice immitely. Medusa. She was sitting on a couch next to Eurydale, her head on Eurydale's shoulder.

"I would like to hear any other idea. 10 hours from now the voting will end and you know ecactly what the verdict will be. After he will never help us with... you know who." Eurydale stood up.

"I know, I know. He is a complete asshole and I hate him so much but... this is so hard. We mourned for him. We praised him to his daughter. He was family."

Eurydale laughed and disappeared somewhere I couldn't see on my limited view. "He has neber really been a part of our family, even when he was... Before the explosion. Remember the stories Milo told? He was and probably still is a power hungry psychopath."

I know... I just... Have you thought about the fact that there are only six surviving people who fought in the first battle, seven if you include him? We are in our thirties."

Eurydale appeared next to Medusa, now more worried. "My sun, are you okay? What makes you think that?"

"You know why. Seeing Julie last week and now this... I feel like this is all just karma from something I still don't know, or a sign." My heart jumped when Medusa said Julie, Louis's nickname for my mom.

I was so ficated on the Gorgos, I didn't notice Edan who had walked next to me. After he tried to make me move by pointing at the door, he tried to push me, which resulted in us falling to the ground.

"Milo? Is that you?" We ran as fast as we could and didn't stop until we were back to Sonia. I wanted to curse. This was enough cardio for one day.

"How often do you go to the Gorgos?" Edan didn't answer me. He just threw me a green jumpsuit.

"Put this on. You look like a weird hooker."

"Where do I change clothes?"

"Sonia will keep you cover. ” Edan pushed Sonia forward. Sonia finally made a hand signal that I knew too. Despite the resistance, she stepped forward, turned her back towards me, and raised her hands to the t-position. It wasn’t until then that I noticed that the sleeves on her shirt were really wide. His sleeves covered me, at least somehow, that I was hiding from Edan.

I quickly tore out what was left of the dress and changed it to the piece of clothing Edan had given me. It was a very simple dark green pantsuit that was a little too big for me. I took the dress belt, which was pretty much only thing still wearable, and put it on me.

I walked out from behind Sonia. Edan smiled approvingly. "Better. Well, one more thing. ” Before I had time to resist, Edan walked behind my back and cut off most of my tangled hair with two clicks. "Now at least you don't look like a witch."

"What the- You can't- Where did you even get the scissors? ”

"Inside the town hall, of course." Edan looked at Sonia as if I had said something stupid.

I looked at them both in confusion. "How close are you to the Gorges?" Again, Edan didn't answer. He just waived at something to Sonia. I wanted to shout or hit Edan in the face. "You have to be even somehow close if you can just take anything and walk anywhere, like inside a prison."

“It’s not about the connections or relationships, it’s about these” Edan took a giant keychain from his pocket and threw it from one hand to the other. I rolled my eyes. Is this what I have to endure? Edan began to leap forward, grinning wide.

“Besides, we can’t stay here worrying about relationships or secrets. We have a meeting inside a prison. ”