Epineo

"This place is called Epineo, the people you see here, and myself included are the new generation of Epineo citizens. We have sworn an oath with Miss Doxa, she created this place for the powerless and the people who disagree with the capitol or with their home countries."

"By new generation, how long has Epineo been here exactly?" I asked Adelfo.

"I don't really know but my grandmother said, Miss Doxa has been always here. She saw her grow old, and turn younger, nobody really knows when Epineo came to be, but everyone thinks it doesn't matter as long as we live in peace and away from prying eyes."

Prying eyes? I can understand.

Every move you make at the capitol, the government may deem you suspicious even as simple as not supporting the 'local' agriculture, which they freaking monopolize.

As I walked around Epineo, I discovered a lot of interesting things. We were underneath the earth, and the skies and the sun above are mirrored from the real ones up top. The entrance to here is like a teleport type power, so not anyone can come and go as they please. I thought it was just a small town-ish kind place, but there were tall buildings, rivers, and vast farms. Epineo stretches out as the eye can see, and I couldn't believe it that this place hasn't been discovered by the outside world.

"The people who leave, leave their memories behind. Its to protect the Epineans from being exposed, we have technology there that the outside doesn't have, even Harold Mavaldo doesn't know this place exists."

I asked Adelfo about what happens if people decide to leave, I guess leaving behind their memories is the best thing to do but it kinda pains me since this place was their hometown, the place where they grew, the place that nourished them, nurtured them. For whatever reason they had to leave, I'm sure it was hard for them to lose something so important.

The reason why Epineo hasn't been discovered, is because the island doesn't exist. It only appears for Epineans, and for people who genuinely want to leave the outside world. That's another reason why the people who left Epineo can never come back even if they managed to remember parts of their past memories.

Listening to Adelfo talking about my Grandma felt bizarre, the woman she describes is nothing like the person I know. Though, he spoke with sincerity. Like he was talking about a hero who saved thousands of people from a slave driven world.

I asked Grandma if I could call her Doxa, I felt uncomfortable calling her Grandma when she's not old, even though technically she's still my Grandma, I only see a stranger.

I went to bed while focusing on the thoughts about Doxa, I wanted to see what really happened in the past. If I could see who she was destined with, or who she's destined to be with.

She told me about how we were a direct link to Regina Dunamis, it was because of her. Doxa is Regina's older sister. She has lived thousands of life times, running around with different names, watching her friends and lovers die.

"It has left my heart scarred for all eternity, Persie. I created Epineo so that, I had a place I could call my own. All my friends, the people I loved, my family… They left me, and I didn't have anyone else, the world forgot about the Primordial Ancestry, I had nowhere to go. Epineo is my home and the people here are my family. On the bright side of being immortal, the knowledge I accumulated throughout the years has helped me build everything from scratch, I didn't do this all by myself though, the first people who lived here, the first generation of Epineans were the real heroes. Without them, all these you see wouldn't be here."

"Did you have other children, Doxa? Is Mom like you? Is she immortal too?"

"No, she's not immortal and she's the only daughter I have. This immortality I have is a punishment given upon me by the gods, I never should've let Regina inherit the Head position, because of me the Diavolia Family raged war towards the Dunamis, even with the bond she shared with the Diavolia daughter, blood is thicker than water, Regina killed her and that ended the war. That was the day the asteroid came."

I fell asleep, and a dream like vision came.

Doxa was back at the library she worked at, she was probably at Mom's age.

"Miss Doxa, the tunnel has been connected to your house." A man came over and whispered to Doxa's ear.

"Thank you, honey. I really appreciate it." She answered.

"I really don't see why you have to make a tunnel, your house is just a few blocks away."

Doxa turned to the man, "Takeo--"

Whoa! That's grandpa! He looks so freaking handsome!

"Takeo, I have always wanted to sneak into the library alone at night. Now, I can thanks to you."

Ew, Grandma was flirting with Grandpa. She obviously has a crush on him.

"I can just make your house bigger, and make a library."

"That's a good idea! You can live there too and be my husband?" She laughed.

Ew again, is this how a millennia old person flirts?

Tears started to flow from my eyes, Grandma felt at peace for the first time.

She thought of having a family, settling down, passing her knowledge to her kids, and her grand kids.

A scene appeared in her mind, she was remembering something.

"Are you sure that will stop my--"

My mind suddenly went blank, I felt like I was being sucked in a black hole. There was a force pulling me towards something.

I opened my eyes, I had a feeling where I was.

I was back at the base in Hades' body.

…

HADES!!! ITS ME! CAN YOU HEAR ME! I screamed.

He couldn't.

Hades was training again with Charles, they were hiking at the mountain near the base.

"Aidoneus, I know this is a stupid question. But have you ever thought of running away and just move somewhere far from here? Move to another country or just hide somewhere so you won't face the capitol like this?"

(TRIGGER WARNING, talks about su*c*de, scroll down to continue)

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

"I have even thought of killing myself, Charles. That's the severity of how I hate violence. I'd rather die than put harm to anyone. More so now that I think 'the one who puts judgement', what Persie said back at the coming of age ceremony, was me. I'm an offensive type for a reason, the gods wanted Persie to have ways to attack and I have that responsibility to protect her. Since the world is against us, I have to protect Persie, but war is usually fought with violence, it is inevitable for people to die, sometimes I see my hands drenched with blood, sometimes I see Persie dead in front of me, I see the person I love dead in front of me."

"I'm proud of you, Aidoneus. You are strong, probably even stronger than Persephone."

I saw what Hades meant by him seeing me and that girl, dead.

I was sprawled on the concrete road, lifeless. Shot to the head, my eyes were still wide open.

The girl he liked looked the same as me, but she was shot at the back.

Hades sat while holding us both in his hands, he was shouting and crying. Fire exploded out of his mouth, and the ground began to shake.

They went back to the base, but they were surprised when the other soldiers were on guard formation around the whole area.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?" Charles screamed.

"The government has requested, Hades Athanasios to come out of the premises." One soldier answered.

Charles turned to me, he looked frazzled.

"We have to calm down, the Military doesn't have to resist the government. We'll just create misunderstandings, and that will cost us in the future."

Charles didn't want the soldiers to get involved.

"But Charles, they want me." Hades spoke.

"Its fine, they wont come in unless the President himself is here. I'll just have to go meet them."

..

Charles went to the entrance to meet the government people.

There were people from the Blue House guards, and the Capitol Police.

Hades stayed behind, and watched the people on the other side of the fence.

The other soldiers were on edge, "Aidoneus, what do you think's gonna happen? I've been a soldier half of my life and this has never happened before."

An older soldier overheard, "Kid, I'm near my retirement age and I've never experienced something like this."

I could overhear the others saying, "The government has never taken us seriously, what's happening?"

I could sense what Hades was thinking, I had a bad feeling.

HADES! NO! DON'T DO IT!

He started walking towards the entrance of the base.

His mind filled with thoughts of the girl, me being dead somewhere, and the innocent soldiers.

He wants to surrender himself to the government.