Title: Stockholm Syndrome
Character(s): Persephone/Demeter/Hades
Pantheon: Greek
Rating: PG
Summary: Persephone comes to realize that she will not leave the underworld ... or at least, she will remain there for a portion of every year.



Love had driven her underground. Not figuratively. There was no, "I'm sure my husband is going to kill me! Please, help me!" No, love had literally driven her under the earth.

When she had first come to this place, she had been a prisoner. He had told her that when he had first seen her, he had thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. That was why he had fallen in love with her, why he had wanted her with him, and why he had brought her here.

In the beginning, she had hated him. She had wanted him dead, and trapped in the underworld, where he would never again be able to torment her ... provided that she would have been able to escape. But then, she had eaten food from the underworld, and she knew that she would never be able to leave. But she couldn't help herself, she had been so hungry.

Then, when her mother had come for her, she had been thrilled. Finally, she would be able to leave this place, and she would never have to look back. But then, he had reminded them of the pomegranate seeds that she had eaten. And because she had eaten them, she would not be allowed to leave. He smiled as he said that he didn’t make the rules, he only executed them when he had to.

She could feel herself start to panic. What if her mother wouldn't be able to get her free of him? She wouldn't be able to survive in the underworld; in the dark and the damp, without anything growing around her.

But then, it happened; she looked into his face. He must have been able to see just how excited she was by the prospect of being able to be in the open air again, and how distraught she was by the thought of having to stay, because when she looked at him, his face had fallen. He looked as though he were going to cry, which struck her as odd, from the god of the underworld. She had always thought that upper-level gods had always been a little less concerned with others, and a little more self-involved. But maybe she had been wrong about him. Maybe she had been wrong about all of them. It was true that she had never really spent much time with any of those who were part of the "power house" of the Olympian pantheon; spending much more time closer to the land, and the demi-gods who were in charge of nature and the animals who inhabited it.

In those moments, she had a sudden understanding of every prisoner of war, every kidnap victim who had sympathized with their captors, and decided to stay, even when freedom was within their grasp. It was crazy, she knew that, and a small part of her mind was screaming at her to just take her chance. But looking at him now, she knew that she would never be able to.

Somehow, in the process of her wanting to go home, being desperate to be free, she had somehow fallen in love with him. So, when she looked at him now, she didn't hate him. Instead, she pitied him. She looked at him and saw someone trapped by his duty, and who was desperate for someone else near him; someone to love and be loved by; to not be alone in the dark any longer.

And so, she stayed. Well ... she stayed for a time. She could not abandon either one of them now, and so, she split her time between them.