God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to always tell the difference.
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
It was, in a word, beautiful.
He had seen it all before. The mad crowds, the drunks, the celebrating and the laughter and the applause. The countdown to a brave new world. After years of watching and observing, he finally understood their fixation, their love, for the stroke of midnight that signaled both a beginning and an end. It wasn't for all the things it meant, but rather all the things it could mean. Change. Love. Redemption.
It was the teasing of the ideas and promises that titillated the most, because the delivery was always either underdone or left unaccounted for altogether. Somewhere in the back of their minds they knew that a new year simply meant more of the same, except everything would cost more and every birthday cake would have yet another candle; aside from that, few things could be promised. But still they celebrated, got drunk, and told themselves that things would be better, because things are supposed to get better, right?
He understood. They weren't stupid for it, they weren't even foolish. It was simply their nature, the same way that a fish knows that water is its home, people make their home in hope.
They were about to start the countdown, the excitement mounting across the country in Times' Square. It was playing on practically every TV in the casino. He turned his attention away from the monitors around which all his guests had gathered to watch, in excitement, the official unveiling of the New Year. No one seemed to notice he was gone. After lifetimes of playing invisible, he knew how to slip in and out without being seen or missed.
He was out on the veranda, letting the cold - some would say harsh - winter wind whip against his face. It felt good. Hand on his heart – and make no mistake, the “Devil” does have a heart – it felt good. He hadn't forgotten what physical pleasure was, at least not yet. Maybe after another thousand years.
The sound of their voices echoed out to his exterior sanctuary. The countdown would begin at any moment now, he suspected. His cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He rather disliked the vibrate function. There was something about a ringing phone that somehow made him feel more important. He opened the phone, said hello.
The voice on the other end of the line was hoarse and barely discernible, but there was never a second of doubt to him whose voice it was. He listened as she talked, and did he hear a few sobs in there as well?
“Huh,” he said, distracted as the people inside began the countdown. “Yeah, yeah. I'll be there." There was something she wasn't telling him. Clever Hera, always one step ahead of everyone. Or at least that's the way she saw things through those warped little eyes of hers. "Love you, hon." The line went dead. Apparently she wasn't feeling very loving tonight.
He quickly downed what was left of his champagne and tossed the glass off the balcony. He watched with a strange pleasure as the cup fell, shimmered briefly in the moonlight and faded away into the blackness.
Turning around, he took one last glance at the roomful of partygoers, counting down towards the dawn of the new day. In a sad little way, he envied them. Ignorance was bliss, after all. Take a good look at the man, see his pale skin stretched over the skull-like face, the curly red hair, the eyes blue as any cliche you can think of. This is Hades, Lord of the Underworld and Keeper of the Dead. He had come a long way from Hell to this casino in Las Vegas, high above the rocky, parched desert of Nevada, all in the quest of some small escape. He would go back, play Devil, and keep the clockwork of the Universe ticking nice and smooth but for now, for this tiny, tiny moment, he was one of them, looking forward to something he did not fully understand but craved and dreaded to know.
As the countdown reached zero, the tumult broke as the cries and shouts exploded across the casino and the world, and Hades – like a glimmer in the corner of your eye – was gone.
The sentence fluency really worked out well, and it was well written. As an uber-fan of Greek mythology I think you captured the idea of Hades in a new and pretty epic way. I really hope you continue writing past the prologue because I'd really like to read more!