ACT IV, the Underworld
@Amorosity
— Scene 4 - Persephone, Hades ;
They look at each other a long while.
Persephone breathes harshly, and excitement burns her cheeks; he gazes at her as if
she was already lost.
Beyond the white walls, we hear the whisper of war; they scream,
they threaten, they’re coming.
HADES, toneless
I will have to let you go.
PERSEPHONE
I told you they would come for me.
He nods, he has a weary gesture.
HADES
Well, then, go. I don’t know what came over me.
Another silence between them. They can’t move.
She attempts a step, aborts.
HADES, inhaling sharply
Persephone.
The word feels like poetry and hangs between them for a second.
She looks at him and waits.
HADES, voice soft
Do not ask me to beg.
She is still, between him and the open door.
HADES
Tell them that you weren’t hungry, tell them you followed the
pomegranates seeds because they tasted like blood, like love.
A silence.
HADES
That you wanted to escape your body and the light because
darkness held you by the belly and by the heart.
A silence.
HADES, whispering now
Tell them you chose to come.
A silence.
A long silence.
Only the screams outside.
Persephone starts to walk, slowly. She reaches him and clings to
him. The wreathed head touches her dark shoulder, adjusts against her throat. There is, in this slight hand stroking his pale neck, in this kiss laid upon his temple, in these arms hooking her waist, in their embrace, all the appeasement of the world.
PERSEPHONE
I will tell them I came for me and stayed for you.