Gracie, ihatezeus

She/Her

Six Mississippi

About 10 years ago, Drew left CHB. Now, as a newlywed, she's back, but why?

Content Warnings- Swearing, mentions of intentional death, implied death

"When Drew Tanaka saw my, in her words, "imperfect eyes," and "gorgeous tan skin" with "those beautifully styled highlights", she'd prayed to God that I wasn't straight," I laughed, and everyone followed suit.

"Two months later, I kissed her, and I thought I'd fucked up our friendship. I don't think I've ever gotten out of an ice cream parlor faster. She followed me out and wiped my tears, then cupped her hands so they fit around my cheeks, and pulled me into another kiss. That was about six years ago. Now, she's married to that woman. So, to my lovely wife, Mrs. Drew Palent. I love you, mi amor, and will never stop loving you."

"To Drew," the chorus echoed and clinked their glasses together.

I smiled at our families as I sat down. My dad, my cousins, aunts, good friends, and uncles, but Drew's younger brother, Matt, and her father were the only ones she wanted to invite. She claimed she didn't have any other family important enough to invite that could come, and I went with it. She didn't talk about her family much unless it was her little brother, dad, and sometimes a cousin in France who'd taught her how to speak the language before moving there.

I looked over and saw my lovely wife and noticed her eyes were not very red, considering the amount she'd cried, whether she was sobbing into my shoulder, or just a small tear that was silent but gracefully traveled down her cheek, which had happened at least fifteen times in the past two hours.

Her dress made her look like a goddess. She'd chosen a breathtaking dress, which she didn't need to look outstanding, but she just happened to choose a dress that complimented her Japanese features. Floral, lacey designs sketched the top of her sleeveless dress, but the bottom was silk and flowed into a small and simple train.

"Can't help staring at me, can you, Mrs. Cherry Birsha Palent?" she teased me, her smile glittered pearly white, and her eyes ever so slightly closed when she smiled.

"I'm always staring at you," I muttered, then started to blush. "No, no, no, that's not what I meant, I mean I love you, but staring at you twenty-four/ seven is kinda creepy. You're just very gorgeous and I'm so glad I married you two hours ago."

She let out a small laugh, and said, "I got what you meant Cherry," then kissed me, a quiet, quick kiss.

"God you're so amazing, I'm also so glad I married you two hours ago."

"Me too, mi amor."

After the reception, we went home, in the hopes of getting sleep, though we had the whole day for that, it was nice to try. Drew was out cold. I was not. I don't know how she did it, but she did.

She hadn't even changed, which I soon realized was a problem, because it may have restricted her breathing.

So, gently and cautiously, I shook my wife, in the hopes I wouldn't have to wake her up the hard way.

"Drew," I whispered. "Drew, you need to wake up."

She didn't respond, as expected. I tried several times for the next few minutes before giving up. I needed to use Plan D.

I flicked the lights on, which were bright comparatively to like the small lamp we had, and Drew groaned.

"Drew, you need to wake up. You fell asleep with your dress on, and you need to take it off."

"I'm not a hot dog," my wife muttered in a haze. "I have legs! And arms!"

"Drew!" I said, loud enough for her to wake up.

"I'm awake!"

"Good. You're still in your wedding dress."

"Oh, that probably explains why it's hard to breathe right now. Can you help me unzipper this?"

I started to zip it down until it got stuck.

"Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck fuck," I mumbled.

"It's stuck isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Let me try."

She reached her arm back, and without struggling, unzipped the zipper.

"Wow, how'd you do that?"

"I guess I just have a knack for it," she shrugged.

She pulled the rest of the dress down to her ankles, then stepped out of it. She opened a drawer and grabbed a boysenberry-colored spaghetti strap tank top, as well as some black shorts.

She threw them on, then announced "I'm going to the bathroom, I'll be back in a second, and then we can go to bed."

She went into the bathroom as I sat down on the bed. The clear night was only dimly lit by the wondrous moon, which wasn't quite full but would be in a few days.

Then, a head appeared in the window. It looked like a huge chicken head, but that would be impossible. Chickens could never grow to that size.

"Uhm, Drew," I frantically shrieked. "Why is there a giant chicken stalking us?"

"Excuse me?" she said, coming out of the bathroom. She froze, then said, "The car. Cherry, get in the car. We don't have much time."

"What?"

"Just go!"

She started running, and me not wanting to be watched by a chicken, I ran after her to catch up. We sprinted out the door, me grabbing the keys and locking up before hopping in the passenger side.

The car roared to life, and we started driving. To where I had zero idea.

"Where are we going?" I asked, still dazed.

"Long Island."

"That's an hour away!"

"Not if we take the backroads."

Sure enough, about thirty-five minutes later, the 'WELCOME TO LONG ISLAND WINE COUNTRY TOUR THE VINEYARDS' sign welcomed us to Long Island.

"We're here," I announced.

"Gee, thanks Captain Obvious, I didn't notice."

"You're well-"

"Shut up," Drew interrupted my sentence. She cut the Jeep's lights and repeated "Just shut up."

We continued to drive in silence until I hiccuped.

"Seriously?! Now?"

"It's not my," I hiccuped again. "Fault!"

"Hold your breath or something to try and stop them."

I did as I was told, to no success. Then I tried again, counting the seconds.

One Mississippi.

Two Mississippi.

Three Mississippi.

Four Mississippi.

Five Mississippi.

Six Mississippi.

Then, I opened my eyes. Three more seconds passed, then seven, then ten. I concluded my hiccups were gone. Drew put the lights back on. But the eerie silence and the endless road was intimidating. It seemed to be less imitating as we went further, but then I realized it was just because it was drowned out by the clopping of hooves that seemed to come from behind us. I looked in that direction.

"What in the holy fuck of Old Mac Donald is that!?" I exclaimed, my eyes widened and the car sped up.

"Of course, it's a hippalectryon." My wife's eyes had been using the mirror to look behind her like I was. She sounded pissed as if she knew what this Chicken Little hybrid was. Granted, I asked, but I didn't think she'd know.

"Last time they were a pain to defeat. Took me twenty minutes with two other experienced people, though there were like 10 as opposed to this singular hippalectryon."

"I don't care what kind of hippo it is, I just want to get out of here before it starts speeding up." Of course, at that specific moment, the chicken cordon bleu/ hippo/ horse thingy started running, as opposed to its weird walking jog thing. Sadly, it was not in the other direction.

"It's gaining on us," I said, panic growing in my voice.

"You can see it!?"

I nodded in confusion, even though I had literally pointed it out to her, I guess she was so shocked that it hadn't registered until now.

"It was the thing that was stalking us!"

At this point, Drew had slammed her foot on the gas, and was going 80 to avoid the galloping cock. It worked for a solid minute and a half, or at least, until we pulled into some random parking lot.

"C'mon! The hill! Up the hill! We'll be safe there!"

Dazed, I ran up the hill, following her, though it was hard to keep up. I didn't know she could run. So I chased her all the way to the top, then I crashed into the massive pine tree, which I hadn't noticed until that moment.

"Cherry!" Drew called out, running back for me.

But I was tumbling down the large hill, getting cuts and bruises everywhere. Those were going to hurt in the morning. Then, I smacked my head on something hard, which effectively stopped me from moving more down the hill, but it did not stop me from passing out.

I woke up to Drew saying, "Listen, Cherry! You have to listen!"

I sat up and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I took a moment to look at the room. Some sort of infirmary, like ones from those war movies, except nicer.

But that tone of voice. I'd never heard her use that tone of voice before. Urgent, but it felt as if I was going to do whatever she said, whether it was jumping off a roof or letting her win at a game. I didn't say anything.

One Mississippi.

Two Mississippi.

Three Mississippi.

Four Mississippi.

Five Mississippi.

Six Mississippi.

The seconds ticked by.

Then, she continued, "I'm a daughter of Aphrodite. Yes, the goddess of love, from Greek mythology. Only, it's not mythological. The Greek gods are alive." Then, she took my hand, squeezing it, ensuring her honesty.

That tradition came from that first date when I promised her if we ever broke up, she wouldn't lose her job at the shop. I'd squeezed her hand then like she squeezed my hand now.

"This place is one of the two camps for people like me. I'm a halfblood, half mortal, half daughter of a Greek goddess. This place is Camp Half Blood. We train, learn to survive not only the mortal world, but the world of the gods. This camp is the reason you're still alive. You almost died before I could kill the hippalectryon. The chicken horse thingy. Whatever"

"Why did you never tell me? You know I didn't care. I still don't."

"Because, well, this place brings me back to when I was a teenager, and I wasn't the nicest teenager, trust me on that. I only cared about gossip, boys, breaking people up, to name a few things. I wanted to be normal. I wanted to feel normal. Usually, being rude isn't a part of that, but I wanted to ignore my feelings. The feelings of liking other girls and accepting myself. So, once I accepted myself, I left. I didn't want everyone to see the fake me I'd put on for years anymore and I wasn't sure if people were going to believe I changed, so I left. Moved to a smaller city in New York, and became a florist. I met you, turned my life around yada yada. It made me realize that sometimes, all you need is a second chance."

"And you couldn't get that here?"

"Exactly."

I understood Drew. I was raised in a household with two dads after my mom died, so I didn't think being gay was something to hide. People in our small town didn't necessarily care either, so we had no problems.

"You know, I can imagine you as a teenager," I mentioned.

"Chiron has a photo from when I was sixteen when I made the fastest time for the climbing wall when I saw someone at the top ruined their makeup. Stupid, I know, but also kind of cool. I'm not on the climbing wall in the photo, I'm blowing bubble gum, because, well, I don't know, actually. I guess I thought it was cool."

She led me up to the second floor, and into a room with a computer that looked like it was from the 1980's, and a bunch of photos of some people I recognized, like celebrities, though most I didn't. Then I spotted it. My wife was a teenager, with an orange t-shirt, half off the shoulder, with a black tank top underneath. Her hair was on point, perfectly curled. She wore the same heart locket she wore now, with a few bracelets on her wrists.

"Hello, ladies. Glad to see you're feeling better!"

"Hey horse dude, what's up?" I asked.

This horse dude was not to be confused with the chicken cordon bleu/ giant chicken/ galloping cock/ Chicken Little hybrid/ hippo/ horse thingy. He was definitely not the same, these were two separate species. First off, he was shorter, only by about a foot, and he was also half man, vs the monster that chased us, which was half chicken.

"Excuse my wife, she doesn't get mythology."

"Wife? Well, congratulations Drew and ...?"

"Cherry Palent. Cherry, like the fruit. Palent, like patient, but you replace the ti with l," I recited with ease. At this point, it had been common for me to recite my name like this because no one could wrap their head around the fact that my first name was Cherry.

I saw the look in his eye, and it was the same stupid look that everyone else gave me when I recited my name like that.

"You're judging me over the name Cherry? Really? Some dumbasses named their children stupid shit, like Cyanide and Shelly but with a $ in the place of the s, and don't even get me started on Sunday, especially if the kid isn't even born on Sunday. Imagine naming your kid Sunday when they were born on a Tuesday. There have also been names like Darth. Darth as in Darth Vader, though it's from the 1920's, you get what I mean."

He made a 'tsk, tsk' sound, as if my speech about names was ridiculous, which it wasn't. After a few seconds of silence, he evidently decided that this was not worth an argument, or getting off on the wrong foot. The wrong hoof for, in his case. "Well it's dinner time, if you'd like to go down to the pavilion ladies, I'm sure you remember where it is, Drew."

"YES PLEASE!" I was so glad to be offered food, if there was one thing I might have loved more than cherry blossoms and my wife, it was food. "I'm so fucking hungry right now!"

"Cherry, take a deep breath," Drew put her hand on my shoulder, which she did to convey that I needed to take it down a notch. "This is a summer camp for children. No one says shit and fuck, because there are little kids."

"Oh, whoops."

"That's okay," she smiled at me. "I'll show you where the pavilion is."

We headed down the stairs and through the doors, to the most wondrous sight I'd ever seen. There was a rock wall, which also sprayed lava at the two people who seemed to be racing. There was also a stadium of sorts, but the ones that are at parks, as well as some cabins, (I use the term cabins loosely, they seemed more like small, two-story houses) each a different color, ranging from a dark but vibrant red to a golden. But I wasn't judging, I liked the mismatchifacation.

Finally, Drew led me to the dining hall, where about 300 campers sat at various tables, all wearing orange t-shirts that read 'Camp Half-Blood' and on the back, there were either names of Greek gods, what I'm assuming were last names, or no name at all.

Drew led me to a table with a sign that read "FOR GUESTS AND RACHEL!" in a fancy orange font.

"Hello," Drew said to the individual with frizzy red hair who I was assuming was Rachel.

"Drew Tanaka, welcome back." I could now see the woman's face. Her eyes were jade green, and her smile was forced.

"Rachel Dare, It's my pleasure to be back. And, it's Palent now." Her tone was genuine, considering the red-haired lion had not been so kind.

"Cherry Palent. Cherry, like the fruit. Palent, like patient, but you replace the ti with l," I introduced myself, putting out my hand for her to shake.

Instead of shaking my hand, Rachel went rigid, and green smoke poured from her mouth as she recited (in a very old woman's raspy voice),

"Heal the death flower

Return what belongs to her

Or nothing good comes"

"NOOOOOOO!" the campers groaned, two of them dragging the red lion woman with very bad breath away.

"What? Why is everybody so upset? It's just some gibberish!" Everyone looked at me like I was nuts, even the kids who were snogging each other only a moment before, took the time to look at me like I was crazy before they went back to making out.

"A) Rachel just issued me a prophecy and B) It is in the worst form of poetry. A haiku." She shuddered as if it gave her the Hebe geebez.

"A QUEST!" A random guy who looked drunk announced. "For Miss Templates and Grapefruit!"

"Woah, woah, woah! Her last name isn't Templates, it's Palent, we're married. Second, that's not even close to my name!"

"I don't care, Pineapple! Go talk to Chiron!"

"It's Cherry!" I yelled back, as Drew took my hand and started to walk with me to the blue house, obviously trying to get me out of arguing with a random, smelly, old dude.

"Okay, Guava!"

"Whatever," I yelled back as we walked into the house.

Chiron was waiting for us as we opened the doors.

"I heard the haiku."

"We know," Drew muttered. "You know everything."

Chiron didn't seem to notice.

"Your quest will begin immediately. Rest up tonight, there's a spare bedroom upstairs, second door to your left. Tomorrow, you will have help to open the tunnel in New York."

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"The underworld," Drew responded.

"Why?"

"The death flower, that's obviously referring to Persephone in some way, and it seems as though she needs help." She looked at Chiron, "I've been having dreams again, and they've all taken place in the underworld. I've seen a flower, and ruins of an old castle. I didn't know what they meant, until now. And I like Persephone, so I want to help her. Maybe she can give me some beauty tips, wouldn't be the first time."

"So we're going to help a goddess and receive beauty tips in return?"

"That's," Drew paused for a moment. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"Cool! Let's head upstairs!" I took my wife's wrist and basically dragged her up the stairs.

After another uneventful sleep, Drew and I headed to Central Park, where surprisingly, few people were gathered. Just a mom and her kid, playing volleyball, which was a little odd, but I shrugged it off.

"Hey dudes!" a calm voice called.

A short man, about 5'4, was running over to us. He had a rainbow tie-dye shirt that read 'Save the World with Good Vibes'. His pants, well, didn't look like pants, in fact, it looked like he had taken a brown sheep, shaved off all of its wool, and glued it on his bare legs.

"You need some groovy music?" he asked, pulling out a set of pipes.

"What are you?"

The third supposed farm animal that I'd run into in the last 48 hours bleated. "I'm a satyr! Half man, half goat, hundred percent chill vibes! Do you need this tunnel opened?"

"Uh, yeah, thanks," Drew plastered on a fake smile.

His music was dreadful. That's the only word I could think of, but in his defense, when you try to play Mozart on the pipes, that's expected. But at least the awful music opened the tunnel.

He just seemed like a cool satyr, and I exclaimed, "I like you, can you come with us?"

"No dudes, I'm no good underground."

"Dam, okay."

"Welp, have fun humans! Peace out!"

He ran into a bush, and disappeared, leaving both me and Drew exceedingly confused.

"Let's head to the underworld," I said. "It can't be that bad, can it?"

It was that bad. Drew and I walked through a dark tunnel for hours, stumbling over rocks and cracks in the unstable ground. My back was aching, and my feet were in excruciating pain.

Once we saw Hades' palace, I expected it to be, more majestic, to say the least. It seemed to look more like the mineral hornblende, but the palace looked like a generic storybook castle you'd find in something like Cinderella, except it had a gray-toned color palette. So yeah, kind of a letdown.

"I know a secret way into the palace! Follow me," Drew announced as she ushered me to the back of the palace.

We entered through a small garden gate, the only white thing I had spotted while in the underworld.

"Persephone's garden?" I asked, as we entered a mystical garden, that looked better than the castle by far. Shimmering purple fruit hung from a bush that was about 10 feet tall. What seemed to be apples were dangling from the tallest trees I'd ever seen. The cherry blossoms that had bloomed were gorgeous. Gorgeous is not a strong enough word, they were one of the most perfect things I'd ever seen.

"C'mon!" she hollered, as she opened the door of obsidian that I was convinced hadn't been there before.

As we walked the halls of the palace, I couldn't help but admire the architecture, and the color scheme, which was the same as the outside, but inside, it appeared to be breathtaking. Pillars lined every hall, as well as statues of Persephone and what seemed to be her lover.

"Welcome ladies, I've been expecting you," exclaimed an astounding voice as we entered a huge room, with thrones made of flowers and bone.

The person had long, straight, brunette hair and green eyes that could light up a room, as well as a pretty, knee-length, white dress that was decorated with, you'll never guess, flowers. This lady really loved her flowers.

"Persephone," Drew said, as she bowed and signaled me to follow suit. "Hello my mistress, it is wonderful to see you again."

"Same to you, Mrs. Palent, and Cherry, welcome."

I said something really genius, like "Uhhhh, yeah, thanks."

"Why have you summoned us here?"

"Oh darlings, that's quite obvious, my most sacred weapon needs to be taken from the old castle to here, as well as needing to test out a new beauty product for me."

"Why isn't your "sacred weapon" already here if it's so sacred?" I asked because I thought it was frankly stupid.

Drew gave me a look of worry and concern as if to convey "Don't fuck this up."

"Well, because not many deities know about it, and it is also able to cause great harm if put into the wrong hands. So, I'd like to keep this on the down low, and I can trust you two. As long as my plan goes according to suit, you'll retrieve the flower with ease."

"How so?" Drew questioned.

"With my new product, of course!" She snapped, and seemingly, a perfume bottle appeared out of thin air. It wasn't fancy, and it didn't look expensive, so I didn't think she was going to shower us in some disgusting smelling Gucci perfume.

"This is Monster Be Gone! I developed the recipe myself! Basically, it should be what it says it is. It keeps monsters away, or it should, at least. If it does keep monsters away, I'm not sure for how long, so you need to get in and out of the castle."

"So we're going to your abandoned castle, which is going to take us like, an hour to get there, to test a demigod product?"

"Yes," the queen of flowers answered, in a soothing voice

"I'm down, count me in!" I started to walk to the entrance, but Drew stopped me.

"First off, we don't even know where the castle is, second off, we need to apply the Monster Be Gone! It should make our journey easier."

"Okay, then where is it?"

"I'll tell you, just let me apply the Monster Be Gone! First-"

We followed Persephone's instructions to a tee. Well, actually, I didn't remember them, but Drew seemed to lead us in the right direction. It wasn't very exciting, as Persephone was protecting us with her new product, 'Monster Be Gone!' which seemed to be working. Our plan felt almost too easy, other than my feet continuing to hurt and my hands getting scared up after falling once.

Once we reached the castle, which felt like it took 20 minutes, I gasped and said, "Now this is a castle."

It was exactly how I had imagined Hades' current palace to look like, the exterior looking like a crystal with circular-shaped windows, as well as balconies.

We creaked open the front door, which was surprisingly not locked. For a place that held a super secret, all powerful weapon, it wasn't very secure.

"The immortal flower! I recognize it from my dream!"

Drew ran up to grab it, fascinated and in a daze, as I followed her. She was about to grab it, when I heard a "cocka-doodle-doo" from the other end of the grand hall. I guess the 'Monster Be Gone!' had worn off.

"Oh great, more hippos!" I muttered to myself. "Drew, grab the flower, and tie the rope to the pillar! Then we'll climb down to safety."

She did as I told her to, as the scary chickens started dashing in our direction. Once the rope was tied, she insisted I go first, and since we didn't have time to argue, I grudgingly obliged.

We'd made it halfway down to the ground when I realized we were almost at the end of the rope.

'"Shit! Stop Drew! Stop moving down!"

"What is it!?"

"The rope's too short!"

I had been gripping the rope tightly but was now starting to slip. I had one hand latched onto the rope. Then my wife took my hand, and I now only had her hand in mine, like any other day. Then, I was able to grab onto the rope and get a better grip.

"Okay listen, you're going to swing using all your might, then hop onto that other balcony, a little more inwards than the others, do you see it?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, aim for that, you'll be able to make it. Then run, and don't look back."

"What?"

"Run and don't look back. You remember the way out?"

"Of course I do. On 3, we swing."

"I can't. It won't hold us both."

As if to prove my point, a part of the rope snapped, leaving the two remaining parts of the intertwined rope, holding the weight of 2 adult women.

My grip around her wrist started to slacken. I let it.

"No, no, no, no, no," she started to sob, realizing what I was doing. Grabbing me tighter, her instantaneous tears had already started dripping on me. "You can't die. I can't die. We can't die."

I smiled at my wife, "You're right, you can't die. I can't do that to you. I'm so sorry Drew."

One Mississippi.

"You don't either!" Drew pleaded with me. "You don't deserve to die!"

"I've done bad things."

Two Mississippi.

"You've done bad things, but everyone has Cherry."

"Murder isn't okay though."

Three Mississippi.

"Listen, your mom was abusive, and she tried to kill you. It was self-defense!"

"Yeah, but it's still not okay."

Four Mississippi.

"She was going to kill you at one point or another! You had to!"

"I didn't though."

Five Mississippi.

"I love you, Cherry. That won't make me stop loving you," she sobbed.

"I've never stopped loving you."

Six Mississippi.

"Then don't forget me."

She put the flower in my hand, and let go of the rope, as I put on fake tears for a show, though no one seemed to be watching.

"Thanks, Drew," I smiled to myself, as my wife fell into a river of screaming souls, tears

still streaking my face, but they were already starting to evaporate in the heat of the underworld. "It's time for a new age."

"That it is," my mother rose from the darkness on her chariot, her wavy, dark hair blowing behind her. "Thank you, Six Mississippi."

"You don't have to call me by my full name, Nyx."

"Oh but I do, since I am in your debt, my daughter," she spoke softly as she tried to take the weapon more powerful than a thousand of Zeus' lighting bolts from my hand, but I smacked it away.

"You want it, don't you?"

She nodded enthusiastically, like a kindergartener who'd been asked if they wanted candy.

"Oh boo hoo bitch, you can't get it. IT'S MINE! Next time, you pretend to be in love with an insufferable, unloveable, horrendously ugly, opossum fucker for ten wasted years of your life. Now," I snapped at my new servant of night. "Take me to the upper world. It is time for an endless night. After 12 years of plotting and executing the perfect plan, the Age of Dark has begun."

I pranced into the chariot with the rat, and we rode off into the dark, to kill anything and everything that got in my way.