“You want me to take someone’s life away?”
Just like they had done to me.
“You wouldn’t be taking a life. You’d be improving the world, Pandora.”
Guilt lay bitterly in my stomach as I considered the god’s offer.
How many more centuries of nothingness would I live? How long would they really keep me locked away within that box? Was my life worth less than the terrible people he just spoke of?
“How would I even know how to find these people?”
Why was I even considering it? I must truly have been a terrible soul. A mess right from the start.
“Don’t worry about finding them. You may be blind to it, but misery is drawn to you.”
A hum of mocking laughter shook through the air.
Another few seconds passed while I stood from my meager spot at the gods’ feet.
“And if I retrieve these miseries, you’ll set me free?”
Free? Was there even such a thing when gods as mischievous as demons loomed over my life?
There was a time I used to beg for freedom. The box was riddled with pain. The feel of it sank through my bones. It set into my mind and my heart until it was a numbing sensation that no longer held any meaning. But I remembered the early days well. I cried for years. I cried so much there were no tears, just tormenting sounds of my pain.
I liked to think I wasn’t that weak person any more, but I was still the same person, just without the tears.
“Bring us back three simple miseries, and we will release you.”
It had been thousands of years since I saw the world. Was this a trap to see if I’d become the very thing I was trying to retrieve?
“I’ll even send my personal guard to assist you while on Earth.”
The man at his side gave me a shifting, stern look. The shining helmet that framed his sharp features made him appear impossibly angrier.
This was definitely a trap. That guy looked like the biggest asshole I’d ever seen, and they wanted to send him with me to what would surely be a comedy for the gods to laugh at.
Hesitation skimmed through the air as the guard and I stared at each other, seemingly trying to gauge who would break first.
It wasn’t going to be me.
“I need an answer, Pandora. This kind offer will not happen again.” Zeus’ aggression boomed through the court.
This was my only chance. Could I really take three people’s lives to atone for my own?
“Yes.” My chin raised high. A look of confidence was all I clung to even as my stomach began to sink.
A cruel smile twisted the god’s lips, and I knew then that I had made a mistake.
The warm brick beneath my feet began to tremble. It shook so fiercely my knees gave out, hitting hard against the ground.
“Have a…safetrip, Pandora.” Zeus’ blazing eyes, glinting with wicked embers, were the last thing I saw before pain struck through my chest.
A single fearful breath was all I was given before he ripped away my existence.
I didn’t realize I would land in a worse hell than I had left.
Chapter Two
