reincarnation :)
It was just another quite day and Hades really didn’t mind at all. He’d opened his bookshop a few hours before and while a few customers had meandered in an out over that time, it’d just been him by himself for the most part. Having come to the conclusion that most of his day would pass in this same way, Hades pulled out a well worn copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray and sat back with a cup of tea.
Hades had just made it to the first change in the painting when the bell chimed as the door to his shop was opened. The sudden noise scared him half to death, making him jump and spill his tea on himself. Silently, Hades cursed himself and the new comer as he set the book aside and sopped up the mess as best he could.
Hades gave up with a heavy sigh, at least it had only spilled on the knee of his jeans and not any higher. “Can I help you?” He called as he stood up so that he could see the person weaving between the shelves.
At the sound of his voice the woman made her way towards the counter, making Hades want to hide beneath it. Of course she was beautiful and of course he had to have a wet spot on his knee. If she noticed it she didn’t say anything though, which he figures was really kind of her because he knew she had. He’d felt her eyes on him in a way that made him tug on his sweater self consciously. “I’m just looking around, to pass the time,” She replied.
Biting at his lip, Hades nodded. “Right, well, you certainly came to the right place,” Someone kill him now, he was such an idiot. “Is there, you know, any type of genre that interests you best?”
The woman made a thoughtful face and Hades was ready to ask her if she was in any way actually related to Dorian Gray, but he wasn’t sure if she would understand that. He didn’t mean to be stereotypical or anything but he really didn’t get why a woman this beautiful would be in his bookshop of all places when she could be out passing the time with anyone.
“What do you have here that’s good?” She finally replied and Hades was almost insulted. Everything was good, obviously.
“Ah, well, I really recommend the the science fiction and related genres as those selection are the biggest at the moment. It’s um, over there,” He told her, motioning towards a large collection of shelves.
She eyes him again, a smile tugging at her lips as she did. “Come show me.
Well, he was screwed, and today had seemed like such a great day too.
Hades gave her a small nervous smile in return and moved out from behind the counter. She followed after him as he lead her over to the shelves. “These are it,”
The woman looked over the shelves, nodding as she did. “That is a lot. Which one do you recommend?”
That was like making him pick a favorite organ. Beautiful and cruel. Hades bit at his lip as he scanned the shelves and pulled out the first title that stuck out to him.
“This is 1984 by George Orwell, the classic distopian society novel. Basically what it is is the government is completely in control and very much a dictatorship though they do not quite treat it that way. The people are more or less constantly being brainwashed by daily propaganda and false information. The main character starts to question that though and discovers that there is a whole lot going wrong but everyone just refuses to notice. The writing in this is absolutely amazing, a quintessential Orwell piece and the…” Hades flushed and looked down. “I’m sorry for rambling,”
She laughed at that, making him blush deeper. “You really do get excited about books,”
Hades looked up at her at that, clearly confused. “What do you mean?”
“I go by here all the time and when you’re not reading you’re talking excitedly to someone, it’s really adorable, and I was wondering what it took to get you to do that,” She answered with a small shrug and Hades could have sworn that she was blushing too, just not as much as him.
Wait… had she just called him adorable? No one had ever called him adorable before. Hades tugged on the sleeves of his sweater nervously. “Oh, oh I see…”
She sighed at that. “I should introduce myself now, shouldn’t I? I’m Severine Lefebvre,” Severine held a hand out to him.
Hades reached out and shook her hand nervously. “It’s nice to meet you, Miss Lefebvre. I’m Hades Vasileas,”
“Please, just call me Severine,” She smiled as she pulled her hand away and Hades nodded. “I actually can’t stay today but, I will see you tomorrow alright, Hades,”
He nodded slowly and watched her smile and roll her eyes before moving away and leaving the store with a quite ringing sound.
What the hell was today?
