Young Writers Society

Elias was trying to beat Kazimir in the race to the throne, but considering that Kazimir was a grown man who was much taller and bigger than Elias was, it wasn't much of a contest. Well, Elias would have totally won if Kazimir's leg didn't get healed up, so there was that.

By the time everyone arrived at the door, Hades opened the door and revealed... Hades?

Elias looked back and forth between the two. Hades next to him, and Hades on the throne... Was he getting bamboozled?

"Ooooh," Elias said after a pause, smiling. "So that's probably Lykos, right? Hah, using your brother's name as an alias. Smart."

He made a mental note to pass this trick along to Alistair and Alan someday.

Annabeth nearly bumped into Kaz when Hades opened the door.

"Sorry, what's going on?" she asked. She looked over Kaz's shoulder to see another Hades sitting on the throne. A bad feeling surged in her chest.

"Ooooh," Elias said after a pause, smiling. "So that's probably Lykos, right? Hah, using your brother's name as an alias. Smart."

"Elias, I don't think that's his brother," said Annabeth. She looked at the Hades they knew.

"Hades, what's going on?" she repeated. "Do you know him?"

Hades stared at the imposter sitting on the throne.

"I don't know him," Hades barely managed to get out. The imposter was smiling as he spoke. It was clear he was completely at ease right now - even when Hades very much wasn't. "I-I don't even have a twin. I just have Zeus and Poseidon, and none of us look alike."

He could hear Ares muttering the beginnings to a spell underneath his breath. Hades probably should have been getting some kind of weapon ready in case a fight broke out, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. The mist was growing stronger now on the edge of the room - he couldn't even see the walls.

All he could see were the others and the imposter sitting on the throne.

"I was wondering when you would arrive," the imposter said, in a deep, ominous voice that was at least an octave deeper than Hades's actual voice. He didn't move from his spot. "Even though this is your - our - palace, you're acting like you're a stranger."

Maggie inched back toward the door. The tension in the air like gunpowder awaiting a spark, waiting to blow her cover.

It was selfish, really, to be thinking of herself like this when people were clearly in more danger than she, but there was a very real possibility of this going very, very wrong. The Greek gods - the eldest brothers in particular - had never taken kindly to her...kind.

What an ugly way of putting it. 'Her kind'. Like she was some kind of creature, entirely inhuman from her very conception.

She shuddered. No. This wasn't the right train of thought. Focus.

The door. She had to get out of here before the fighting started.

Slowly, she took a step back, attempting to silently slip unnoticed back into the hall.

It took a moment for Kazimir to understand what was going on - not that he really did, in its entirety, but he understood enough. The man on the throne wasn't Lykos's brother. He was an impostor or an evil version of him that clearly only had bad intentions.

Kazimir inched closer to Lykos's side and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You want me to punch him for you?"

At first, it all felt silly and in good fun; Hades revealed them to a person who looked just like him, and at first instinct Elias figured they were two twin brothers having a reunion. But as the seconds ticked on, it became more and more obvious that they weren't related at all, and that the man was, in fact, him.

Elias's smile slowly disappeared into a frown. The room seemed to be thick with tension as the fog started piling in. He shuddered when the Impostor Hades talked in a sinister, ominous voice.

The situation felt vaguely familiar to Elias right now; was this deja vu? He wondered for a moment if this was what Hades felt when he stared at his unknown portrait of himself before seeing him face-to-face.

He turned to the real Hades, feeling strangely excited that Ares was mumbling some words that might result in some cool magic things, but also nervous because he had a feeling it wasn't healing magic.

"I'm not sure who that creepy guy is, but you're the real Hades," he said, giving him an awkward pat on the back.

Imposter Hades sent a shiver down Annabeth's spine. He sat on the throne, staring at them, smiling.

The tension built like the fog that had appeared, bubbling until it threatened to explode. Annabeth twirled a piece of her hair around her finger and grimaced when the imposter spoke.

Elias and Kaz offered their support, so Annabeth did the same.

"Hades, we're with you all the way," she said. "If you need help, we're right behind you."

The imposter on the throne just kept smiling at him.

Hades listened to what the others had to say. He tried to muster up the courage to make some darkness, but he was sure that he could never match what someone molded after the myths could do. If anything, he was the pale imitation of the man on the throne.

Ares stopped muttering the words to the spell.

"I'm here for you, too," he agreed. He put a hand on his other shoulder and gave it a tight squeeze. "I'm ready to kick his butt together. I know what you have to be thinking right now, but you're not alone. We can do this."

Hades took a deep breath. He didn't feel like he could.

The imposter on the throne scoffed.

"Why are you just standing there?" he asked, his voice just as eerie as before. "I thought you were the one in charge of the Underworld. This is your domain."

Hades finally managed to find his voice.

"But you're how they see me," he said. "I could never beat that."

The imposter crossed his arms and leaned back in the throne, darkness and bones appearing in front of the throne to make a macabre footstool that he rested his feet on. "Is that an excuse?"

Hades shook his head. "It's the truth. Why would I want to beat you, anyways? You're what the world wants. I'm just the cheap version."

"Hades, you're not-" Ares started to say, but the imposter easily spoke over him.

"Which one of us is real?"

Hades faltered.

He thought he knew the answer, but the way that the man on the throne was looking at him was making him suspect that he might not have been right. Glancing back at the others, Hades took another deep breath - this one more confident - and stepped towards the throne. It wasn't a brave walk. It was just one foot after the other.

But when he finally reached the throne and looked the man in the eye, the imposter got to his feet.

He gestured for Hades to sit down with a smile on his face - a warm smile that was exactly like the ones that Hades gave.

"Good choice," the imposter said as Hades hesitantly sat down. "King of the Underworld."

And then the imposter was gone, vanished into the mist like he had been nothing more than a mirage.

"King of the Underworld," Imposter Hades said after the real Hades sat down on the throne. The mist came rolling in the room, first billowing under their feet before enveloping their bodies. The Imposter Hades seemed to disappear, swallowing him up in the mist before the others.

Elias barely even had time to react before it was happening again. He readied himself to feel the cold shiver down his spine before getting sticky hot, but this time, it was different.

The mist felt... familiar?

There are some choices that you cannot make, a familiar voice once said to him. Do you believe in destiny?

As quickly as it enveloped them, the mist suddenly vanished, leaving Elias feeling confused and oddly lost. But one quick look around and the feelings washed away: he was back!

They had been transported to the classroom that Elias was all-too-familiar with. Usually it was full of his classmates, but right now, it was empty. Well, except for them. The five of them were seated at the back row of desks, and although Elias was sitting at his usual desk, it was odd seeing the others sitting where his friends usually sat. Then again, they were somehow wearing the school uniform, so it looked like they belonged.

Sort of. Kaz and Hades looked especially out of place, but no one here was judging, right?

"Hey!" Elias said excitedly, sitting up and causing his chair to squeak back. "This is my classroom!"

He was smiling from the thought of being able to show his new friends around, but it slowly faded away as he remembered where he just came from. "I mean, umm... Hades? You okay?"

Kazimir thought once the fake Hades had disappeared, that that would be the end of it. Or the end of something. But then the mist flooded the room again, and he went from wearing a draping toga to the adult version of a child's school uniform, and he didn't know how to feel.

He was wearing shorts, and ankle-length socks, and he looked ridiculous. His tattoos were covered this time by a long undershirt but he didn't know if that was better or worse. It just wasn't his look.

Apparently, there were at Elias's home now. Or, at his school.

He opened his mouth to say something but Elias brought attention to Hades, and Kazimir bit his tongue for once. Yeah. The kid was right. They needed to check on Hades. He'd seemed pretty shaken up.

He looked to Hades as well, awaiting the answer.

Annabeth didn't even have time to blink when the mist swooped over them, leaving them in nothingness for a second. When it disappeared, Annabeth found herself wearing a school uniform.

She wasn't a fan of how short the shorts were, but it was okay. She looked at the others, and she couldn't help giggling at how silly Kazimir looked in that overgrown outfit.

They were in Elias's classroom. While Kaz and Elias checked on Hades, Annabeth explored the room.

Maggie blinked in disorientation. The first thing they noticed was the shorts. Knee-length - praise the fates - but still stiff, uncomfortable. Unif-

Their eyes went wide.

A uniform.

It took all the effort they could gather not to growl in annoyance. A uniform. What kind of-

Everyone else was wearing them, too. Split by gender, separated, seemingly, on how much leg they were showing. Maggie was in the middle. Not in pants, and not in a skirt short enough to show off the entire thigh. It was...familiarly disturbing.

Maggie stood and looked around the classroom. It was unremarkable.

Ares was gone. His clothes felt strange. He was in a room he had never said anything like before. And his head was still reeling from everything that had just transpired in the throne room - the imposter, their conversation, and the mist that had started rolling in after he took the throne.

Hades blinked.

It took a moment for Elias's question to register. When it did, he wasn't really sure how he was supposed to reply. He felt like he was almost okay, but not entirely there.

After a moment of hesitation, he let out a quiet sigh.

"I...I think so," he said. He glanced around the room again, trying to get a grasp on where they were now. "I think my self-doubt just became a person...but was trying to help me accept myself."

...He was going to need to ask Hecate how that could even work - once he actually saw her again.

He looked back at Elias. "You said this was your class...room?"

"Yeah!" Elias said excitedly after a pause of introspection of connecting the dots between Real Hades and Imposter Hades. Hades looked like he had never seen a classroom before, which was odd because, uhh, he seemed like an educated fella. Still, having to explain this made Elias internally sigh because... of all the places that the mist could have taken him, why did it have to be this super boring classroom? Even Elias didn't enjoy being here on a daily basis...

He dug around his desk to fish for random things that he might have stored forever ago that he forgot about, but alas, there were only notebooks he never bothered to write anything in. Plus something crusty... old food? He should probably throw that away. "You know, a classroom. A room with a teacher teaching you and other people things? Like math and history and other stuff."

Although Elias couldn't see it, the room was flashing between two realities.

It was subtle at first; a quick flash of a dark room appeared, but could be easily explained away by a blink, or a piece of dust, or perhaps an eyelash. But it then appeared again, and again, and again, each time lasting longer and longer, but it was hard to decipher what they could be seeing due to the lighting differences.

"This is actually a really boring place and I have no idea where everyone is, but since we're here, why don't I show you other places? Let's see, where can we go..."

Elias's voice seem to fade away like smoke in the wind, until finally, the dark room came into permanent view.

The four of them were in the same classroom, but it wasn't exactly the same: it was dark, empty, cold, and quiet. Desks were messily pushed all over the place, and some were even knocked over. It was eerily quiet, even with only the four in the room.

Suddenly a whirring mechanical sound turned on and a picture appeared at the front of the room. It appeared to be a projection of some sort, but the picture was three-dimensional and would have looked real if it wasn't for the pixelated quality, occasional lag, and static.

1.

It was Elias and what can be inferred to be his friend. At least, it highly resembled Elias; it was hard to tell with the picture being so fuzzy.

"Alistair, it's fine," Elias said with a voice a little higher-pitched than normal. Perhaps he was a little younger at this time. "I won't get hurt, you know that."

"I don't know," his friend, Alistair, said. "This is a lot higher than what you practiced."

"You're acting too much like Alan right now," Elias jeered playfully, elbowing him. "Watch. It'll be okay. You'll see!"

He suddenly jumped, but the projection didn't make it clear where he jumped to or where he was at; he simply vanished under the floor.

Alistair hurriedly looked over the edge of where he jumped. "Elias?" he called, panic laced in his voice. There was an uncomfortable sound of bone hitting ground before Alistair screamed his name again, but the projection seemed to blur and skip in fast-motion to the next scene.

2.

Elias was in a hospital bed, but it was unclear what happened and if this was connected to what they just saw.

A girl who resembled Elias was sitting next to him, wearing what looked like nursing scrubs. "Oh Elias," she said sadly. "What happened? What did you do?"

The projection skipped forward for a few seconds until Elias was alone in the room. Suddenly the door opened and a tall, pale man stepped into the room. He had beady eyes and dark hair that matched the rest of his black clothes.

"Hello, Elias," the man said, staring down at him. "My name is Sohiro. I have been waiting for this day to come."

The projection glitched in static as it skipped to the next scene.

3.

"I don't want to train," Elias said. He sounded to be about the same age as he currently is. "I hate it."

"Everyone needs to train," Sohiro said.

"That's not true! My friends tell me about their training and it's not like this... And Evaline doesn't even train at all!"

Sohiro put his hand on his shoulder. "Everyone must train," he said again. "You must do your part."

Elias looked down solemnly. "I don't want to," he said softly. "It hurts."

Sohiro let go of his shoulder, disappointed. "That is too bad," he said as a knife lifted itself up in the air and plunged itself into Elias's chest.

Right when Elias was about to fall into his knees in shock, the projection skipped ahead again.

4.

Elias and his friend were sitting at the back desks of the room.

"Elias? Helloooo? You okay?"

Elias blinked before his face softened. "Yeah. Sorry, Mel." He placed his hand over hers. "I guess I spaced." He looked and sounded a little older than the present day. Perhaps the projection was showing events from the future.

Mel looked at him suspiciously. "You've been spacing a lot lately. Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine," he said with a half-smile. "Don't worry."

She took his hand out from under his. "I don't believe you," she said slowly. "Really. Is everything okay? You haven't been acting like yourself lately."

Elias reached out to place a curly strand of hair behind her ear. "Everything is fine. I'm fine. Really," he said, forcing another smile.

The projection lagged and then skipped ahead again.

5.

"How could you do this?" a girl cried out on her knees in hysteria.

This time, the images were jumpy and even lower quality. Their voices even sounded more garbled up.

"Evaline, I..." Elias said, but couldn't seem to find the words. He turned to see Mel and Alistair staring back at him, terrified. He took a step towards them, but they instinctively took a step back.

"Stay away from us!" Evaline screeched.

She yelled something else afterwards, but it was covered by static.

6.

The projection skipped forward again, but the images paused in some places and the sound was audible. However, it wasn't skipping conversation.

Instead, it showed blurs of red and sounds of screams.

This went on for at least ten seconds, with various screams and yells. Some were yelling obscenities. Some were begging. Many were cries for help. Men. Women. Some familiar voices. The elderly. Children.



And then the projector whirred to a stop, and the room went dark and quiet once again.

The moment the movie started, Kazimir's attention was fixated on it. Even though the quality was steadily decreasing, he was able to pick out Elias through the whole thing.

He was trying to understand it all.

The first scene almost reminded him of himself as a kid. He hadn't been afraid of anything back then. He would've joined Elias in jumping off the wall without anyone asking him to. But the crunch of bones made Kazimir grimace.

Sohiro became a recurring character with ominous intentions that were only proven to be terrible when Kazimir was the man plunge a knife into Elias's chest.

Kazimir felt anger stir in his gut, but he channeled it into his fists, clenching them tightly on top of the desk.

It was a movie. Sohiro wasn't here.

But then things changed, and all of a sudden, it seemed like... Elias was the one hurting people? People were scared of him?

Kazimir stared. Elias was just a kid.

Things didn't make sense as the screen went red and screams filled the room. How much of this was real? How much of this was fake? Was this a nightmare? Were these even real memories, or was this just meant to scare Elias?

He frowned deeply and tore his eyes away from the screen to look at Elias, only to realize that Elias wasn't there. Kazimir stood up suddenly, causing his chair to push back with a screech.

"What the h*ll -- where's Elias?"

He started scanning the classroom, and marched to the front of it, looking under desks.