• Published 6th Oct 2017
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Never the Final Word (Vol. 2) - FanOfMostEverything



The continuation of an open anthology of continuations of other authors' stories.

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Brumby_Run's Bolder than Death (Estee's "Go Into The Underworld To Save The One You Love...")

Author's Note:

[Drama][Mythology]

This is a continuation of Estee's "Go Into The Underworld To Save The One You Love...", part of World's Shortest Crossovers: The Anthology Series of Doom. (501 of 2,998 words at time of publishing, [Dark][Comedy][Anthology][Crossover])

WORLD'S SHORTEST SPOILER: Maud goes into the Greek underworld to save the boulder from Sisyphus.

On his rounds of the underworld, Hades found Sisyphus sitting midway up the mountain. He traveled down, and stood before his charge.

“Have you completed your task?”

“No, a small horse came to free the boulder.”

“How?”

“She came to push it out of Tartarus”

“You know the horse was female?”

“She wore a toga, in a feminine style.”

“And she freed you from the boulder?”

“No. I was nothing to her. An impediment, an obstruction. She freed the boulder from me.”

“You never once cursed the stone. You invoked the name of every god, and mortal, in new and inventive ways. But you never once called out against the rock?”

“There seemed to be no point,” Sisyphus said, “in cursing a fellow prisoner. Less so, now it is gone with its little pony companion.”

“And yet, you remain.”

“The task is not complete.”

Sisyphus pulled a pebble from the ground, and held it up. He examined it, before casually tossing it over his shoulder. He went back to feeling the ground.

“We slid and fell so many times. I felt each chip, each gouge on its surface. Are the fragments not part of the whole?”

He pulled another pebble from the ground, looked at it, and smiled. He stood, and carried it to the summit. He carefully laid it down on the highest point. He turned, but stopped in thought. He reached back down, and picked up the fragment again. Without crossing the summit himself, he reached out and dropped the pebble as far on the leeward side that he could. Satisfied, he made his way back down to continue his search.

“Do you intend to scour the entire mountain,” Hades asked, “for flints and stone-chips?”

“Would you permit me to leave if I didn’t?”

“It will take you an eternity.”

“No, it will take a very long time. I’ve got an eternity in which to do it...”

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