Everything seems to happen both instantaneously and in slow motion all at the same time. The truck hits Spencer. The loudest bang I have ever heard in my life echoes all around us. Spencer drops like a stone. His body is snagged by the truck's bumper bar and dragged along the road for several metres, before he's sucked underneath the truck like a vacuum. I scream and run towards him. A hand grabs me and wrenches me back. The truck lets out a loud groan and speeds away, leaving a limp body in its wake. I suddenly lose the ability to breathe, or move, or function, gulping like a fish out of water as I stare blankly at Spencer. Leia, obviously deeming that I'm no longer in danger of being run over myself, relinquishes her grip on me and turns on her heel, screaming out words that are incoherent to me as she sprints back into the mansion. Time all but seems to stop. I tear my gaze away from Spencer and slowly look up.

And I meet a pair of magnetic, midnight blue eyes.

"You!" I gasp. A jolt of recognition freezes my limbs. "It's you!"

The man I'd met in the airport steps forward, watching me impassively. He looks around my age, no older than twenty-five. "Hello."

"Who are you? And what are you doing here?" I ask, finally managing to rip myself out of my petrified state enough to take a few steps forward. Spencer lies on the ground between us, scarily motionless.

The man tilts his head to the side, not unlike the way one does when they're observing a particularly interesting animal. His black trench coat flaps in the wind, revealing chinos and a shirt that are slightly different shades of the dark colour. "Don't you know?"

"Do I look psychic to you? Of course I don't know who you are!" I snap, throwing my hands up in the air. I stop myself, taking a deep breath. "Why am I talking to you? I shouldn't be talking to you, not when Spencer..."

Reality crashes down around me like a tidal wave. I stagger back, my heart leaping up into my throat. I stare up at the man in panic.

"Spencer. He... he got hit by a truck. I need to help Spencer. Why aren't you helping Spencer?!"

"Spencer is dead." The man says bluntly. "He cannot be helped."

"He's not dead!" I exclaim, near hysterics. "He can't be. He's Spencer."

The man doesn't respond, his gaze slowly lowering to the body lying between. I follow his gaze and finally, really look at Spencer.

And it hits me, right then, that the stranger's quietly spoken words might actually be true.

His body is twisted in such an unnatural position that I just know his spine is broken, along with what looks like half of the bones in his body. There's a deep dent concaving the side of his head in, and the blood that's already oozing from the wound streams down his cheek to meet up with the blood trickling out of the corner of his mouth. But what's most horrifying of all is his eyes. They're wide open, and blank as a slate. Unblinking.

My whole body revolts, and I struggle to keep myself from vomiting. Crashing to my knees, I frantically feel for a pulse, but there's nothing. No movement whatsoever. My chest tightens. Burning panic tears through my veins.

"Spencer! Wake up!"

"He is not going to wake up." A soft voice says from above me. I jump about a mile into the air. "Even if he did, why would you want him to wake up? From what I heard, he was not treating you very fairly."

"What the hell do you mean?" I demand. My gaze whips up in furious disbelief. "Of course I want him to wake up! He's my best friend!"

"Is that how best friends treat each other?" The man asks evenly. His midnight blue eyes glint in the dark." Like dirt? Filth? No care or respect at all?"

"He was drunk. He says stupid things when he's drunk. Everyone says stupid things when they're drunk." I snap my mouth shut and shake my head violently, shocked that I'm even indulging this lunatic in conversation. I lean down and frantically start giving Spencer CPR. "Why are you still here? Why aren't you trying to call for an ambulance? Spencer's dying, and I need someone to call a freaking ambulance while I try to keep him alive!"

"You have already failed at keeping him alive. He is dead." The man's voice is painfully matter-of-fact. "He has been dead for several minutes. Yelling at me will not change that. Neither will chest compressions."

"How can you say that?" I cry. "Please, just help me save him. Stop saying that and help me."

"Help you?" He says, sounding bemused. "How can I help you?"

"I told you how!" I start trembling, unable to restrain the panic attack rising up within me. "Call an ambulance! Or help me figure out exactly what's wrong! Just do something!"

The man sighs and kneels down opposite me, his coat rustling. The air between us is stiflingly silent as he studies Spencer, pressing down on me like a suffocating fog. Finally, he turns his gaze back to me. His blue eyes stare right through me as he speaks.

"He has a fractured skull. The impact has caused his brain to swell and bleed, and several of his facial bones have fractured. Three of his ribs have snapped, and the shards have pierced his heart. His spinal cord has been severed, and several of the bones in his lower body are broken. The impact of the truck alone has caused excessive internal haemorrhaging, and even if he were alive, his organs would not have sustained him for much longer. But all that is irrelevant. As I have said, he is dead."

His tone is so impassive and unfeeling that my stomach flips, turning on itself. I glance back down at Spencer, and realise for the first time that one of his eyes is no longer in its socket. This time, I can't keep the vomit down.

Once I've finished retching, I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand and falteringly look back at the man. Terror creeps into my tone. "Who are you?"

"I am known by many names." He straightens back up, towering over me like a dark statue. "But the name I commonly go by is Hades."

His calmly spoken words deliver a swift punch to my gut. Oh, you've got to be kidding me.

"No. No, this is going too far. I know some people are twisted in the head, but this is just sick." I laugh emptily, winding my arms around my stomach as I stand up. "How dumb do you think I am? You're not a god, and Spencer is not dead! This is all just some sick prank!"

He raises an eyebrow. "You are being pointedly oblivious. Everything that I have previously stated is true. Why else do you think I am here?"

"What do you—" I interrupt myself, unable to wrap my mind around the words dancing in the air between us. "What are you saying?"

"I am not here to help your friend."

My heart leaps up into my mouth. I stare at him in unbridled horror. Still, the logical part of my brain refuses to acknowledge the possibility that he might be right; instead, it begins to scream out that he's lying, that none of this is right and that the lunatic in front of me is most definitely not a Greek God. "Why are you here then?"

He holds me in a grave regard. "You know why I am here."

I breathe in so sharply that I almost faint, shaking my head repeatedly. "No. No. You can't. No. That isn't possible! You're not here to take him away. He doesn't deserve to die, not now. He can't. You're not here to take him away. You're not the god of the Underworld. Stop lying to me."

"Everyone dies at some point." Hades says. His words pierce through my defence like razor-sharp barbs. "His time just came earlier than others. It has nothing to do with what he deserves."

"Please!" A sob tears through my lips. When he doesn't respond, I glance down at my best friend's face. I break down when I catch his open eyes again, the complete lack of emotion in them setting the reality in stone. "You can't take him, not now! He's my best friend! Yes, he can be an ass, but he's the best thing in my life right now. I can't—" I shake my head, glaring up at him through my tears in defiance. "I won't let him die."

"I do not think you have a choice."

"Please!" I beg. He watches me, apathy shining out of his striking blue eyes. "You can't just let him die."

"I can't?" He smiles, just a little. I'm so gobsmacked by that small indication of humour that I'm surprised my eyes don't bug out like a typical cartoon character. "You just told me that I am neither the god of the Underworld nor that I possess the right to take him. Your argument does not make much sense."

"I know it doesn't! Nothing is making sense at the moment!" I clutch my head in my hands, looking around wildly. I can't accept the fact that my best friend is dead. I won't. My life had already been torn apart by the deaths of the people I knew and loved; I wasn't about to go and let my best friend fall victim to death too. "You can't be Hades. He's just a myth."

"That is flattering, but untrue. I am more than a myth." He holds up his hand. "But if you are still unsure of that fact, I will prove it to you."

He clicks his fingers and disappears from sight.

I just about fall over myself in my fright. I glance around wildly, momentarily forgetting all about my best friend as I try to find the dark stranger. Just as I'm working myself up into a frenzy, thick black clouds suddenly appear, roiling like molten lava and rumbling like thunder. The black clouds pulse around me until I'm completely surrounded, obscuring everything from my view so completely that it looks like all colour has been sucked from the world.

I catch a flicker of movement in the corner of my eye, and whirl around just in time to see Hades step out of the smoke. He watches me with a regard that sends icy shivers sliding down my spine.

"Do you believe me now?"

I stumble back, pointing a shaking finger at him. "Stop it. Stop messing with my head. Just stop. "

Hades walks forward until he's standing only a few feet in front of me. "I am not messing with your head. Everything that I am saying is the truth."

I swallow hard, his words ringing loud in my head.

"Then save him." I whisper. "If you are who you really say you are, then save him. Stop standing there and telling me he is dead. Bring him back, save him, do whatever the hell it is that you do. But don't you dare take him."

"It does not work like that." Hades replies sagely. Remorse flashes through his eyes so quickly that I almost miss it. "I cannot bring someone back from the dead that easily."

"But you can, right? You've done it in the past, I know you have." I demand, clenching my hands into fists at my sides. Everything that was happening was way too insane to be comprehensible, I knew that. But if there was a chance that I could save Spencer, no matter how insane or incomprehensible it was, I wasn't about to let it slip away from me. "Please, you have to tell me how. I'll do anything, anything to save him. He's my best friend."

"You'd do anything?" He echoes, surprise fleeting across his features. "Truly anything?"

I swallow, nodding without hesitation. "Of course I would. He doesn't deserve to die."

Hades watches me for several moments. When he finally speaks again, his voice is so quiet that it's almost unintelligible. "Have you heard of the story of Persephone?"

His question is so out of the blue that it momentarily stumps me. I blink in bewilderment.

"Of—Of course I have. Why?"

He continues to watch me impassively.

It sinks in.

"Oh. Oh." My eyes grow to the size of saucers. "You... you want me to come down to the Underworld? To sacrifice myself for his life?"

"Yes." Hades inclines his head. " If you descend to the Underworld with me for four months, I will prolong his death for a further four months."

"Only four months?" I stare at him in disbelief, shaking my head. "No. No way. Four months isn't fair."

"Even I cannot cheat death. I retain the ability to prolong the inevitable, but I cannot prevent death from happening altogether." Hades replies, his tone cool as ice. "Four months is what I am offering. Once you have stayed with me in the Underworld for four months, you will have four more months with Spencer before he dies. That is all I can do."

I bite my lip, indecision tearing through me. For the first time in my life, I was completely torn on what to do. Of course I knew the story of Persephone. It had been one of my favourite stories as a child; how she had been been kidnapped by Hades and dragged back down to the Underworld; how Demeter, distraught with grief at losing her daughter, had abandoned her duties as a goddess and searched the earth for her daughter, only to never find her; how it was too late when Demeter finally found her, because Persephone had eaten those four fated pomegranate seeds, and was forevermore forced to remain in the Underworld for four months every year — the months of winter. The Ancient Greeks had supposedly believed that myth to be the reason behind the colder seasons, but to believe that the myth of my childhood was actually a real story? And not only was it a real story, but I was expected to play the starring role in the modern rendition of it? My mind couldn't wrap itself around that concept at all, and the more I thought about it, the more I was filled with utter revulsion at the thought of being forced to leave with this stranger, to God knows where, for four months.

But then I look down at Spencer, and I'm hit with a barrage of memories. I remember all the fights and the pranks, all the cheeky smirks and drunken revelries, all the times that I couldn't forsake for the world. Suddenly, I couldn't imagine a future without that; and for the second time in a minute, I'm filled with revulsion again. Only this time, instead of at the stranger claiming to be a god, my revulsion is aimed at myself. If I didn't agree to his deal, and Spencer really did die, I would have to live with that for the rest of my life. I wouldn't have to agree to being willingly kidnapped, but I would have to live with the knowledge that that was only because I had been selfish enough to steal the rest of my best friend's life away from him, even if it was only for eight months. How would I ever be able to live with myself, knowing that I had been selfish enough to practically kill my best friend myself, all because I didn't want to take a chance?

The decision that I'd already unconsciously made becomes all the more clear. I clench my fingers into a fist, take a deep breath, and try my best not to think about the consequences of what I'm about to do.

"I'll do it."

Hades doesn't move a single muscle. He watches me carefully. "Are you sure that is your answer?"

"Yes. I'm sure."

"Very well." Hades nods minutely at me. Something that looks a lot like respect shines out of his eyes. "It is a very honourable decision, sacrificing yourself to save your friend. Not many would go that far for their friends."

I swallow and glance down at Spencer one last time, imprinting every crevice of his face into my mind. "No. It just makes me extremely stupid." Then I hesitate. "He'll be okay, right?"

"Of course. I may seem untrustworthy, but I never forsake a deal." Hades says seriously, holding out his arm. "Spencer will remain perfectly safe and healthy, both for the duration of our deal and for the four months you will have with him. That I can assure you."

He clicks his fingers, and, just like a movie being unpaused, the clouds surrounding us disappear and everything filters back into view. Hoards of people start pouring out of the mansion, Leia at the front of the crowd. Hair-raising screams quickly start to pierce the calm of the night as Spencer's motionless body is discovered, and I watch as more than one phone is whipped out. A small part of me wonders what on earth took them so long; it felt like Hades and I had been standing there talking for forever. But before I'm allowed to ponder on it anymore, a hand appears in my view. Swallowing hard, I tear my gaze away and step towards Hades, hesitantly touching his proffered hand.

And, just like that, everything around me changes in a blink, leaving behind the world I'd grown up in in a flash of darkness.