Hide and Seek

    "Come out now!" Hermes called, his voice echoing throughout the shadow colored halls, giggling echoed back. He sighed and tried hopelessly to track down the voice. He could focus in on one person from Olympus and know exactly where they are, than get there in the blink of an eye, yet he couldn't find one damned child in an old mansion. As he stalked down the crumbling halls, far less amused than he was when he started hours before, the sun peeked in on him through the broken walls, watching his every move. Ignoring the ever-nosy Apollo, he stopped and listened again. Nothing.

    "Serafine, I only want to help you. Please come out now" The giggling started again, coming from down the hall, and he raced towards it. "Sera-!" Hermes was cut off mid-sentence when his foot made contact with a doll instead of the floor, it squeaked under his winged sandal and he tumbled head first down the stairs. With each step he hit, he cursed fluently in different language, including a few dead ones.

Half way down the staircase the blackened wood fell apart beneath him and he fell, landing square on his godly head. Green sparks flew from his fallen Caduceus, turning the little wooden birds on the near-by clock into living creatures which flew eagerly out the hole where the door once was, and the tiny silver wings on his headband flapped rapidly, shedding minuscule feathers in discomfort.

    He stood and attempted to straighten himself out, but out of the corner of his eye he saw the slightest glimpse of a white ribbon heading down a corridor. He tore off after her,  stumbling over himself and calling her name. She would turn sharply down hallways and in and out of rooms, leaving the immortal to slam into walls and trip over overturned carpets. Eventually she added singing to the giggles; "Silly Hermes can't catch me. I won't go, I won't!"

    As he entered the kitchen, 5 pots of various sizes and two wooden spoons crash landed on his skull. As he ran past the bedroom he stepped on an piece of soap and slid the rest of the way down the hallway, until he fell and hit his jaw on the ground, scattering dust and ash in all directions. When he finally caught up with Serafine, she was in the drawing room, perched elegantly on the edge of what remained of a once intricate and plush chair, her short legs dangling over the edge. Panting, he leaned with his hands on he knees momentarily before looking up at the child.

    What was left of her hair hung in pale blonde clumps from her burnt scalp, half of her playful smile was nothing but jawbone and little white teeth surrounded by jagged skin, the rest of her was red and raw. She seemed happy and very much proud of herself for the tricks she played on Hermes, but it was clear she knew why he was there, he could tell by the way her skeletal fingers clutched to her little charred doll. Hermes knelt to the child, smiling sadly, "Please come with me, I promise your mommy and daddy are already there, so is baby Noah." Sera pursed her lips in pouty defiance. Her silence resonated throughout the abandoned shell that was once a home; a breeze blew in from a crack in the wall moving the ash around her feet, the message was clear to Hermes; "hurry up".

    Finally her white-glowing eyes dulled, the smile melted off her face in understanding. A few more painfully silence-filled seconds passed before she nodded grimly, a grin once again growing on her face. "On one condition!" she proclaimed, and Hermes nodded enthusiastically, "I get to ride on your shoulders" With a soft smile he lifted the child to his shoulders and stood.