Vampire Greek: The Burning King

“Guess what? He’s still alive, and I managed to help him drink the water.” said Roman, who was wet and freezing cold after he re emerged from the water.

“Interesting. How did you do it?”

Roman revealed his busted lip. “A drop of my blood.”

“Crafty. A level of ingenuity I would not have expected from you.”

“Instead of insulting me you could be leading me to the next person.” Roman retorted.

“The next person is a group of people actually. They are the Danaides, daughters of Danaus.”

“It shouldn’t be hard to convince a few more people.”

“There’s forty nine of them.”

“How?!”

“It doesn’t matter.” said Janus, laughing at Roman’s expression. He waved his hand and another tunnel opened up behind Roman.

“Time is ticking. Go meet them.”

Roman turned and started to go through the tunnel. As he walked through the temperature changed and got warmer and the light at the end of the tunnel was brighter than he would have expected. it opened up into a wide cavern filled with women in dirty robes. All of them carried big bronze jugs of water from a pond to a huge bronze tub with cracks on the sides. Roman watched as one by one they poured water into the tub, only to have the water slowly leak out the sides. A couple of the women noticed him, but continued their routine as if he wasn’t there.

“Excuse me, uh, hi. My name is Roman.” He waited for a greeting but no one responded, so he walked up to one of them and offered to carry the jug.

“Thank you, but there’s no point. The tub will never fill.”

“But you are cursed to continue to try, aren’t you?”

She nodded and continued to carry the jug to the tub. Roman followed her, causing a few of her sisters to look at him curiously.

“If you don’t mind me asking, what is your name?”

“Anaxibia. That’s Agave, Pirene, Clite-”

“Okay, okay, I’m not going to remember all of your names.” He smiled as he waved for her to stop.”

She smiled as she emptied the jug into the tub.

“If the tub didn’t leak and you guys filled it up, what would happen?”

“We would bathe in it to cleanse our sins and presumably would be free to leave this place. We’d finally make it Asphodel.”

“What sins did you all commit to put you here?”

“Why do you care? Why are you here?” Another woman walked up to him and asked.

“I am on a mission. I’m gaining support from the prisoners of Tartarus to help me defeat Zeus.”

“Impossible.” the woman replied. “And how could we help you?’

“Your support. Your faith in me could help me beat Zeus, or something like that. Look, I didn’t come up with this plan.”

“I can tell.” she replied before walking off with her jug.

“She’s kinda mean.” Roman told Anaxibia.

“A lot of us are.” she told him as she watched her sister walk away. “If you were forced to do this forever you would also be bitter.”

“What did you all do?”

“We listened to our father.” Anaxibia replied sadly. “We were arranged to marry the fifty sons of our father’s brother, Aegyptus, but our father did not want us to go through with it. Most of us also despised the idea. We ran away but we couldn’t hide for long. Eventually they found us in Argos and our father told us to kill them all on our wedding night. The only one that refused is Hypermnestra, that’s why she’s not her with us.”

“Fifty daughters and fifty sons… wow. That’s crazy.”

“You’re not uneased by the murders?” she asked, surprised.

“No. Killing is normal for someone like me. But fifty children? Now, in the modern times, most families don’t have more than four.”

“How many children do you have?”

“Me? Zero. I don’t even know if I’m ready for that sort of thing. y main focus has been getting back at Zeus. That’s why I came for your help.” Roman felt something weird on the inside of his mouth and pulled his bottom lip down. The wound from the bite had healed but the blood had dried and blackened inside his mouth, practically forming a scab over the wound like someone would normally see on an arm or a leg.

“It’ll be hard to convince all of us without proof. How do you even intend on fighting a god?”

“The same way I killed one last time. By drinking their blood and becoming more powerful.” he replied, smiling. She stared at him blankly, frowning.

‘If I were still a vampire, you’d see my fangs right now. I’ll become a vampire again once I escape here though.”

“So, you become a vampire, fight Zeus and somehow win. How does that help us?”

“I’ll bargain with Hades to set all of the prisoners I visited free. But I have another idea right now that could help you.” Roman picked up a sharp rock and dragged it against his left arm without hesitating. Anaxibia gasped in shock and the others all turned to watch. He scooped up some of his blood and smeared it on some of the leaks. It quickly hardened and the women looked at Roman expectantly.

“Try it now.” Roman was breathing heavily, he had to mentally remind himself he had felt worse pain before. The women all poured their jugs into the tub and watched as the water slowly began to leak out, but not from the leak that Roman had sealed.

“It works!” Anaxibia cried. “It works!”

Roman’s arm had already healed and blackened, but they would need a lot more blood.

“Okay, we just need to do that a few more times-”

“Allow me.” said the woman that snapped on him earlier. She held his arm down and sliced way deeper than Roman had before. He shouted out in pain as she raised his arm over a jug and let the blood spill into it.

“Go easier on him Pirene.” Anaxibia pleaded.

“Hush. If this works… gods please let this work.” Pirene waited until the blood slowly stopped flowing from his arm and went back to the tub, slowly pouring the blood on a cloth and rubbing the cracks. The others waited for her signal and when she was done, they poured water in the tub together. They waited in silence until the ripples stopped, then hugged each other and cried, overjoyed.

“Finally!” one of them cried. “Screw the gods!”

“Whoa. Yall switch up quick.” Roman replied. Anaxibia laughed as she wrapped his arm.

“Thank you. You definitely have our faith, or support or whatever you needed to fight Zeus. Now get out.”

“Huh?” Roman answered, confused. “Why?”

“We’re about to take baths you idiot You can't be in here. Unless you're a pervert trying to spy on women like a creep.”

“I'm not like that, I swear. I'm leaving now. I hope I see you all later, in a better place than here.”

Anaxibia hugged him. “If you succeed, you will.”