She awoke with a raw sense of dread
 A cold sweat soaked the sheets of her bed
 The sounds that night were not nighttime’s she knew
 A hint of smoke contradicted the dew 

 
 Shadows danced on the bedroom wall
 Where dancing shadows should not be at all
 The normal still off white of the paint
 Was lively with movement and firelight feint 

 
 She fumbled with billowing robe and nightclothes
 Tying her robe up tight as she rose
 Into a world of self doubt and fright
 She stumbled out into the cold of the night 

 
 She touched the back of the door to sense any heat
 Realised she’d no shoes put on her feet
 Sidestepped and slipped into a pair of sandals
 As her hand reached out for the frightful handle 

 
 When she dared to look through the gap in the door
 Using light flickering lively onto the floor
 From her half awake hazy sleep deprived daze
 She wondered if the place was already ablaze 

 
 Further she pushed open the portal
 Considered precious life and  all that was mortal
 Within her tiny flat B number 144
 She wondered if she could take the fear anymore 

 
 And she listened alert for other clues
 Thought about the price of paying her dues
 She heard the crackle and pop of combusting wood
 Her only thought now to get out if she could  

 
 She peered out into a reddish early morning gloom
 To an apparently deserted yet eerie lounge room
 But there at the side a large shape sat in a chair
 Exuding an oppressive weight of despair 

 
 The wood fire aglow had strangely been lit
 It certainly was not her who lit it
 A monstrous head turned to look into her face
 An inhuman form by nature disgraced  

 
 He had discreetly followed her around town for weeks
 In peripheral vision never seen when he seeks
 Creating acute nervousness from endless teases 
 A cat playing with a mouse its tormenting pleases 

 
 She knew instantly her time had come
 It was not to be as life had begun
 No comfort from her mother’s caress
 No strength to be found on father’s chest 

 
 Hades stood to meet her towering ominously above
 Leering and smug antithesis of love
 She resigned herself to the monster’s arms
 Wishing after horror would come blessed dead calm 

In this d’verse challenge https://dversepoets.com/2021/08/03/poetics-persephone/ Sarah asked us to take inspiration from the myth of the abduction of Persephone by Hades. I saw ancient (and not so ancient) patriarchal rituals and modern parallels as I read Sarah’s summation of the story.