I visit Sisyphus, relishing in him push that damn boulder up the hill. "Hello, my king," I smirk. 

He refuses to acknowledge me. He continues on his task. "Going to ignore me?"

He shakes his head and heaves.

"King Sisyphus. The man who evaded Death. Not once, but twice." I clap slowly and approach him. I watch him stumble a bit and the gargantuan rock falls down. I burst out into random spurts of laughter.

"You're a son of a bitch, do you know that?" the king spits, venom dripping from his words. I shrug and nod. "But even bitches take care of their young.

"You. You and Hypnos. Just...if gods could die, you would spare a lot of people some pain."

"Quite the opposite, actually. You recall, when you chained me up. I spent some time off, and people suffered. Imagine the worst possible disease and never being granted the mercy of Death," I offer.

"Oh, I would have no clue of never being granted the mercy of peace and quiet. Now, if you don't mind," Sisyphus grunts, "I would like to get back to my work." I shake my head. 

"I bet if everyone was robbed of me for a while, they'd be begging for me to come back and relieve them all." Sisyphus shakes his head. "I am important."

I can see Sisyphus smirk a bit. "You think you're fooling me, but you are not." Sisyphus snorts a bit. "You think you're so clever, you fallen king?"

"Cleverer than you."

I flap my broad wings and abandon the king. He moans as the boulder falls again.

So I took some time off. To prove Sisyphus wrong. And no one got Delivered to Hades.

And for about a year, humankind suffered immensely.

So Zeus punished me. He forced me to Deliver the souls to his damned brother. So I worked.

And I worked. 

And I kept Delivering. 

Until n o o n e w a s l e f t

"Why?" Poppy demands.

b e c a u s e I a m i m p o r t a n t 

And when humankind began to dwindle, the gods lost their own faith. They lost their faith in me. Zeus taunted me. Hermes fired me. Nyx scolded me.

So I took Hypnos,

and I convinced him that everything was dying,

and we put them to sleep.

and as i put Humanity to everlasting rest,

i began to cry out:

"No, no, no no no nononono!

"THIS ISN'T HOW THIS IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN,

I AM IMPORTANT,

I AM SUPPOSED TO DELIVER"

but i ran out of souls to bring,

and i visited the King who damned me to hubris

and

he

l a u g h e d