Everyone is the Hero in Their Own Story

My people are depressed. I walk through my kingdom and am met with sunken eyes and sorrowful frowns. There is no light where we reside. The resources here are few and far between and the quality of life, if you can call it that, is abysmal at best. My brother “gifted” me this place and allows me to rule over all of the beings that dwell here. He sits upon his throne in the sky surrounded by abundance. My siblings rule land, sea and love while I sit in squalor below them. I continue to ruminate, as I always do, while I trudge through my halls. The dark stone around me lit only by the few torches on the walls glistening under the constant dampness. 

For years I have planned and contemplated and worked to make my kingdom more than what it was when I took over. I found a wife I thought could bring a matronly warmth to the palace but she was unhappy and spent half the year above. I adopted a dog and allowed him to roam about the palace to bring joy to my people. He was a bit more aggressive than I had anticipated. I’ve worked to find allies and create partnerships across the land but no one really wants to help us. Me and my people are out of sight, out of mind. That’s why this meeting is so important. Pushing open the door to the chamber I school my features into a mask of calm indifference. The Fates had already arrived and were seated at the small circular table in the center of the room. I watch them squabble over the singular eye they share among the three of them. It swivels in my direction and all three heads turn to me. Each of their faces is heavily lined and they all look similar but different. It’s as if their features are continuously moving from one to the next. 

“Ladies, I’m so sorry that I’m -”

“Late” they all croon in unison at me. “We knew you would be,” the Fate on the left says as her spindly fingers grasp the eye, popping it into her singular eye socket, “We know everything.” She continues.

“Past,” the middle fate smacks her in the back of the head and the eye falls into her hand. 

“Present,” she says just after putting the eye in her socket and the third sister grabs it unceremoniously and puts it in her own skull. 

“And future!” she exclaims in an almost childlike glee. It’s hard enough to follow the three of their ramblings without them trading their vision capabilities. 

I shake my head and quip my most dashing smile at them, “Well I asked you here today to get some answers on that future you know all about.”

“We know,” they say again in unison. 

Frustration burns at my temples, if they know everything why not just answer the question they know I plan to ask without putting me through this misery. 

“Well my brother has this new bouncing bundle of joy,”

“We know.” 

“I KNOW, you know,” the rage continues to simmer just beneath my skin. I push a hand through my hair and saunter closer to my war table. It's been beautifully crafted to outline the different landscapes that cover this world with figurines strewn across the many locations to detail who and what resides in these places. I conjure a new piece directly on the highest point of the map, Mount Olympus. A cradle. I pick it up, toying with it in my hands I pose the question, “So let me just ask, is this kid going to mess up my hostile takeover bid or what? What do you think?” keeping my voice as casual as I can. Cool indifference. 

I can feel them muttering behind me, surely discussing the pros and cons of telling me what they see. I swiftly turn towards them, radiating that serene smile again. 

“Ladies, please, I’m doing this for people like us. Those of us relegated here, below, while my brother sits above, looking down on all that we are.” I stop my sentence suddenly and act appalled. 

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I just hadn’t gotten a good look at you all before. Why, you all look marvelous. Did you do something different with your hair?” One of the Fates starts to twirl the small tuft of hair below her left ear and it immediately snaps off of her head. They all grin broadly at me, scraggly teeth jutting in every which direction, none of them having over seven in their mouths. The one still holding her clump of hair turns to her sisters and says, “Aw what could it hurt?” pulling the eye from her socket and opening her palm. 

The eye lifts as if on a phantom wind off her hand and begins projecting images as they speak in tandem once again. 

“In eighteen years precisely \ The planets will align ever so nicely,”

I cringe internally, verse, of course. They continue to croak the prophecy as the image changes from a starry sky to a motley crew of treacherous creatures.

“The time to act will be at hand \ Unleash the Titans your monstrous band”

My eyes follow the images as warmth spreads across my chest. I see my brother crumbling beneath the power.

“Then once proud Zeus will finally fall \ And you Hades, will rule all” 

I can’t help myself as I punch a fist into the air, “Yeah! Hades rules!” Flames engulfing my arms and licking my fingers as the joy of the image overtakes me.

“But a word of caution to this tale \ Should Hercules fight, you will fail” 

My fires immediately recede as my heart plummets to my stomach. A silhouette of a golden man on a winged horse takes over the imagery of the eye before it begins to swirl. The image melts away and the Fates melt away with it. 

My heart thunders at the prophecy. I have worked so hard for myself and for those who dwell in the Underworld. I have schemed and plotted and planned and will continue to for the next eighteen years in anticipation of the stars aligning for me. And this child, this son to my horrid brother, will be my downfall. If he fights he will keep Zeus in power and will rule alongside him in the same manner for eternity. I can’t stomach it, what is the life of one child compared to the millions that reside here with me? What kind of person will he be? That Hercules.