The chili dog was consumed so fast that Eros felt the need to praise the young man who had so easily defeated one of New York’s finest and messiest delicacies. Honestly, it was as if the boy hadn’t eaten that basket of cheese and bacon covered French fries just five minutes ago and that, in fact, he was one those starving orphans so often seen in commercials between takes of a Hallmark channel production.

“The thing is,” Eros did not have a chance to express his wonder, though. Rather, the boy was trying to express himself, with a mouth full of hot dog and chili.

“The thing is I don’t really like chili, unless it’s on hot dogs. Like... like...” the boy wiped his mouth with a napkin and rolled his free hand outward through the air as if he were willing his next words to come to him.

“Like people who don’t like broccoli unless it’s drowning in cheese. Gross either way you look at it.”

“Right… right, but about the Ha- …”

“Look, are you crazy, man? How long have we been friends?”

“A week.”

“And you’re telling me that for this entire week you’ve been secretly at work causing havoc in the world of love because you are, in fact, the God of Love.”

Eros’ mouth had been agape as Hayden Grosvenor summed up his very lifestyle in one fell swoop. His mouth snapped shut and he grinned a toothy grin.

“Longer than a week, I mean, during this week yes, before this week too of course.”

“And I,” Hayden sat back in his seat and scoffed. “I’m Hades, the Lord of the Underworld?”

“Right again.”

“Uh huh, well…Check please?”

It took almost half an hour to convince him but eventually, Eros managed to rope Hayden into a stroll near a city morgue. Even Eros, who was so utterly convinced of this boy being Hades, had his moment of doubt when Hayden’s hands began trembling madly the closer they got to the morgue. Hayden kept looking behind him, to his right, up to the sky, but never to the direct left where the morgue entrance was located.  He was most obviously scared out of his mind and of course it suddenly made sense to Eros why he would be frightened. It was better than his original plan, a lot less dangerous.

“And here I was going to try and make you raise the dead but you can see them just fine, can’t you?” Eros thought it was laughable and Hayden thought it worthy of throwing up over.

It wasn’t the first time Hayden had seen a dead person, but of course if he willed them away, the ghosts and spirits, they’d leave without hesitation. Even the worst ones who actually seemed to pose threats would up and vanish. He never told anyone the truth and avoided the most obvious places for the ghosts: cemeteries, funeral homes, hospitals, and old buildings. It was difficult in New York but he managed well enough until the week Amos Booker came waltzing in his life.

That week was the oddest he had ever experienced and he had no clue why it was this man, this Amos Booker, seemed so keen to befriend him. Secretly, Amos had seen the threads of a great “love to be” pouring from Hayden’s very being in a way that was extremely familiar.

In fact, he had seen the same aura about an Uncle of his years and years and years ago, and then that Uncle made a perfect mess of things by abducting his lover rather than courting her like any normal person. Granted, Aunt Demeter made that bit all kinds of difficult.

By the end of the week Amos had revealed himself to Hayden as the great God of Love: Eros and made the glorious claim that Hayden was Hades, Eros’ Uncle. It was absurd, completely mad, except… well except the fact was Hayden could see the dead, and could make them vanish with a single thought. After the morgue incident it became very clear that Hayden had been aware of this other soul in him but had done a magnificent job at suppressing it.

Weeks later it became more difficult, especially after having met Helios, Eos, and her son Boreas. It was the worst when he met Poseidon, for Hayden could not help knowing his brother at once, though the man he inhabited was much older than he and not someone he had ever seen before. Everything was messed up, but this was how it was, even if the gods couldn’t explain it.

“It’s like we’ve been banished, or put to sleep. Or…” said Melpomene.

“Or forgotten,” suggested Eros.

“Forgotten?” questioned Helios.

Eros took his shot of rumplemints and scrunched up his nose.

“Maybe, I don’t know. Yeah, Banished sounds more like it. Awfully convenient for all of us to have found each other, especially you two,” he nodded toward where Poseidon sat beside Hayden, enjoying some blue concoction with a tropical umbrella stuck out the top.

“But where is our great, and terrible, but oh so revered, leader? Our King? Your brother!”

“Your Uncle.”

“Hmph… point is, he isn’t here and most of us keep cropping up around town, odd don’t you think?”

The lot of them gathered there muttered their thoughts about this particular theory but said nothing otherwise. Silence overcame most of them and then, finally, Hayden stood up and began flipping through his wallet to find something to pay with. After finding nothing more than a dollar he sighed and pulled from his pocket a small pebble. He squeezed it tight in his hand and then laid it down on the dollar bill, the rock now a diamond as bright and clear as day. Poseidon eyed it and rolled his eyes.

“Show off.”

“Hey bro, don’t have a steady job; it beats busing tables to pay for things. I’m out; I’ll see you all later.”

The night was still young for New York City. Hayden passed several groups of people well dressed for a night on the town and every time a girl passed that reminded him of her, he would stop and watch her until she was out of sight.

He hated the feeling that pained him deep inside, that feeling of wanting, aching for one glimpse of his young Spring bride, though he feared he might meet her again one day and find things changed. She would have every right to deny him in this world, where she might be engaged, married, or even a wife with three kids.

Would he see her attached like that and have that urge to abduct her once more? He hoped he would be better behaved than that but all sorts of ancient emotions, behaviors, and abilities kept working their way up into his normal existence. It was as if the boy, Hayden, was starting to fade away, and the God Hades was taking over as the primary personality and there was nothing to be done about it.

He had hardly noticed her at first. Hayden was much to drawn into his own personal problems to be worried about anyone around him. Not to mention where he walked there were several buildings around him notable for being on Ghost tours, so he took to keeping his eyes down so as not to make any eye contact with spooks that just didn’t like being uprooted. With one shout of, “Go away, already!” they would leave, flit away into the night, and sometimes he felt guilty as if he had interrupted their plan for haunting.

As if, maybe, they were there to complete some task to rest in peace? But then, as the Lord of the Dead, was it not his place to tell them where they ought to go? This place was different; he had no underworld per say and so he felt at odds now and again when he banished spirits without knowing where they might end up.

When he did notice her it was only because she had said something, and he would’ve simply nodded and hurried on because he hated lingering in the dark but… but those <i>eyes</i> spoke to him volumes and he found himself rooted to where he stopped when he did look up.

“Oh,” he began, almost breathlessly. He squinted, wondering if he was just… insane or did it seem like she expected him to know her name? “Excuse me, actually, I wasn’t payin’ a lick of attention.”