Imprisoned Gods

by G. Bailey

  I don't reply to her as we get to the street the club is on and see the glowing blue doors a few feet in front of us. Two burly, mean-looking bouncers stand guard, and the muffled sound of pulsing music can be heart coming out through the doors. There is no queue like I would have expected there to be on a Saturday night, and instead we can just walk up to the beefy, bald bouncers. They’re dressed in suits, and look like they could probably snap me in half like a toothpick if they wanted to - karma god or not. They both eye us strangely before exchanging a look with one other. Finally, one bouncer pushes the door open, holding it for us and nodding his head inside. I’m vaguely surprised he didn’t ask for an ID, and he seems more interested in Mads than in me.

  "The human is your responsibility in here. Understood?" the bouncer asks, and Mads laughs as I nod once at him in agreement. They somehow know I'm a karma goddess, and it makes me wonder what the hell is inside that would make me need to be responsible for Mads. I eye the bouncer warily as I hold Mads’s arm close as we walk through the door and up the long staircase on the other side. This was a bad idea, I can feel it. But one glance at Mads tells me she’s itching to get inside and check it out, and I would feel guilty dragging her away now that we’ve already been let inside.

  "I didn't get that bouncer’s joke about human, but he looked so scary I had to laugh," Mads tells me, and I'm thankful she thinks it was just a joke. I force myself to laugh with her, because the other option is running out the door while I drag her with me. I know I shouldn’t run away, but it’s usually a good option to keep myself out of trouble - which I’m beginning to suspect I’m walking right into.

  "You know some guys think they are funnier than they actually are," I reply, smiling tightly at her as she looks down at me. "Don't worry about it."

  "I'm not worried. It's already forgotten. Holy crap, look at this place," Mads gasps as we get to the top of the staircase, and we can see the crazy beautiful room we are in. The entire room sprawls out before us, with glass pillars holding the ceiling up. The crazy thing is the ceiling, the pillars and the floor are one large aquarium, filled with fish, sharks and stingrays. Even the bar in the middle of the room has a glass, fish-filled base. There are lights floating in the water with the fish, which make the room look both cosy and somehow bright at the same time. It’s the kind of place you would find all over rich girls’ Instagram feeds, the kind of place that might exist in a five-star Las Vegas hotel.

  And yet, it’s damn near empty. There are about five other people total in here, and all of them are sitting together on the stools at the bar. I can only see the backs of their heads, but my senses tell me that none of them are the guy whose name is written on my hand. I suppose I could always teleport myself to my target, but that would mean using magic in front of Mads, which is an absolute no-go. At least if I play my cards right, I can explain away whatever I do to the guy as an accident or a strange coincidence, but there’s no logical explanation for disappearing in a puff of green smoke. No, better to wait this out and get a good look around; maybe I’ll be lucky and overhear his name in conversation.

  As we walk to the bar, I see another larger group of men and women in the corner, wrapped up in each other like the start of an orgy. Needless to say, they don’t notice us, but I’m not too keen on staring, as much as I want to know if one of them is Neritous Cyncus. Clearing my throat and dropping my gaze, I give Mads’s arm a gentle tug, pulling her in the direction of the bar.

  "It's quiet," I point out as we get to the bar and slide onto some stools, the ones on the opposite side of the men. “It’s strange, I would’ve thought a place like this would be packed on a Saturday night.”

  “Maybe it’s new,” Mads comments, still busy ogling the decor around us. “Or expensive as shit.”

  “Jeez, I didn’t think of that,” I mutter. “I’m not made of money.” Granted, I could probably cover our tab if this place takes human currency, but if we run up a huge bill and they only accept the gold of the gods, then we might be in trouble.

  "They are cute," Mads whispers, looking over at the men on the opposite side of the bar. I turn in my seat and quickly run my eyes over them. They are young business types, all handsome in their own ways, but I'm so on edge in this place that I can't even focus on them long enough to determine if they’re my type.

  At that moment, the bartender comes around the corner, smiling when he sees us. He’s cute, too, I notice, with wavy brown hair and big blue eyes. He is Mads’s type, especially with how tall he is. Judging by the way she’s looking at him, I think she’s picked up on that, too.

  "What can I get you lovely ladies? Perhaps an Irish karma charm?" he asks, giving me a once-over with his eyes and winking. I'm sure it's charming in his head, but all I can focus on is the fact that he knows what I am. Gods have the ability to sense each other - sort of a sixth sense, the way you can sometimes sense when someone is watching you, even when your back is turned. To me, the bartender feels human, which is perplexing… although I suppose he might just be one of the few humans who was able to handle the truth about magic and supernaturals. It’s truly perplexing - even with all my focus on him, I can’t sense anything strange about this guy.

  "Is that a cocktail?" Mads asks, oblivious to the implication. “Funny enough, my friend’s name is Karma!”

  "Yes, madam. It's a favourite of my boss, actually," he replies, still grinning - no doubt because he now knows Mads doesn't know what I am.

  "We will have two then," I reply before Mads can, and pull my card out of my handbag. He waves me off and steps back to grab some glasses.

  "The boss says it's on the house. Perks of the job, right?" He doesn’t give us a chance to respond before he disappears off to make our drinks. Shit, maybe we should be getting out of here before he tells Mads everything by accident. The last thing I need is her freaking out and me possibly losing my best friend on my birthday because she’s become scared of me.

  "The boss must be nice then," Mads says awkwardly, no doubt picking up on the strange mood I’m in. I can only nod as I run my eyes around the room and decide it’s about time I get my karma job out of the way so we can leave. I do not want to have to come back here, and this way, Mads can drink in peace for a second. I’ll just have to trust the bartender isn’t a giant dick; if he knows anything about the etiquette of living among gods, he should know that he can’t just go blabbing the truth to any random patron who walks into his bar.

  It’s decided. I will use the bathroom excuse, get my karma job done, and then tell Mads I saw a rat or something. We’ll get the hell out of here and go back to our usual place, ready to drink the night away and forget all about this strange, magical club. Yep, this sounds perfect and foolproof.

  "I'm going to find the bathroom while you wait for the drinks, alright?" I ask, and Mads nods as I get up and walk across the room towards the sign for the bathrooms. I pass the table of orgy couples and walk into a long corridor. There are doors at the end of the hallway with bathroom signs, and I square my shoulders before turning toward them. Act natural, I tell myself. You’re not in a human place, that’s for damn sure. As I walk down the corridor, I can feel my hand start to burn where the location dot is, and I spin around, looking for my charge just as a man steps into the dark corridor behind me. I can’t see all his features, just a built, muscular body and a tall frame. His hair looks red and messy, but his face is too hidden in the shadows to see. Whoever he is, he sends goose bumps all over my body, and some instinct in me tenses up. The corridor feels tenser, and not the good sort of sexual tension, either. No, this is the scary ass, insanity-provoking kind instead.

  "Hello?" I utter out, pulling my power so I can sense his fears and what I need to do here for him to get bad karma. I sense nothing other than water, an image of a still lake appearing in my mind for a split second, but I can’t tell what it is about water that this guy doesn’t like. All I know for sure is that it’s a fear of his - or at least a nuisance.

  Ther
e is something else, a prickling little itch at the edge of my consciousness. It feels like it’s just out of reach, and when I intensify my concentration, reaching out with my mind as I clench my hands into fists, it feels like a wall is slammed up. It’s like losing your train of thought, over and over again. At any rate, though, using water against this guy shouldn’t be much of a problem.

  The stranger doesn’t reply, just stands there still as a statue as he stares at me. It’s unnerving, and as the seconds tick by, I can feel myself getting more and more creeped out. Even after I take a couple steps forward, I still can't see his face, but I wouldn't be sensing his fear unless he were the man I was looking for. I pull my necklace out of my dress, feeling around my charms for something to break the glass above him and flood this corridor with water. That should be karma enough, and it's my birthday, so I'm not doing more right now. I pause on the bolt charm I got today, wondering if it's not a bolt at all but a crack. Well, no time like the present to find out.

  "I have been searching for you for a long time, Karma…" the man says, his voice low, gruff, and dangerous.

  For a moment, my mind races - how does he know my name? Who is he? What is he? Questions race through my mind, but I’m already pressing the bolt into my palm, watching out of the corner of my eye as it begins to glow a telltale bright green. Suddenly, overwhelming power slams into my body, and I stretch my hand out to the ceiling only for green lightning bolts to shoot out of my hand and smash into the glass. Water and fish pour out of the gap, mixing with the green lightning as the force of all three strikes the man at once. I scream as my hand burns, sending a searing pain through my wrist and up my arm. None of my other charms do this when I use them, and it’s enough to terrify me even as the whole ceiling comes down on top of us. The man cries out as the lightning-filled water smothers him. We’re lucky that whatever this magic is, it’s not normal electricity; otherwise, we all would have been electrocuted the second it hit the floor. It feels like forever that the water surges over the man, drowning his screams in bubbles and crashing waves, but I’m sure it is only a few seconds before he goes silent. His screams stop suddenly, like they’ve been cut off, and his body slumps to the floor, motionless.

  The power abruptly stops, and I fall to the wet floor, gasping from the pain in my hand as I lift it into the light. There are burns all over my hands. In spite of their inherent weakness, gods tend to heal from surface wounds faster than humans do, so it’s surprising to see that the burn marks aren’t receding like small injuries normally tend to. I don’t even know how long burns take to heal. A cut is a week…a burn this bad could be longer. My skin is burnt quite badly, though, that’s for sure, and I bite down on my lip as I close my hand.

  What the feck just happened?

  I pull myself to my feet as I hear people screaming, no doubt getting out of here as more water crashes down from the hole in the ceiling. My dress is ruined, and so are my shoes and bag… Shit. I really didn’t think this through, did I? But I can feel a new concern start to form in the pit of my stomach as I push my now sopping wet hair out of my face and stare at the man’s motionless form on the ground. No, I think, my eyes going wide as I take a tentative step towards him. No, no, no! It’s not possible! But even from this distance I can see that his chest isn’t moving.

  I walk over, trembling, adrenaline surging through me, and steel myself before looking down at the man…...the very dead man. Oh god, I think, my heart pounding in my chest like I just ran a marathon, I killed someone. What the hell have I done? My body starts to shake harder as I force myself to think, and I tilt my head to the side as I take a closer look at the man’s face. His eyes are closed, his skin is tanned, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he’s a god. His features are familiar somehow, though I can’t remember seeing a god with dark red curly hair before. There is something different about him...but I can't put my finger on what exactly it is.

  I reach down, grabbing his wrist and feeling for a pulse, even though I know deep down that I’m not going to find one. There is nothing, and his skin already feels like it’s starting to go cold. Oh god, I've really fucked up now. I have killed him. I didn't even know lightning was possible...it shouldn't be possible. I go to put his wrist down when I see a mark on the back of his hand. Everything slows as I turn his hand before letting it drop from my hands as the mark burns into my mind. I yelp, falling back in the water as the mark registers in my mind. The only creatures that have those kind of dragon marks. Higher gods. Holy shit, he is a higher god...and I somehow killed him. I turn around and throw up into the water, coughing up everything I've eaten today before shakily picking myself up off the floor.

  "Karma!" I hear Mads shouting my name just before she comes around the corner and sees me—and the dead higher god who is now floating in the water filling up the room. Oh my god, they will take her in as a witness or even blame her if they find her here with me. I can't have that happen. I shake my head and run to her as she stands shocked, looking at the dead body as water pours from the gaping hole in the ceiling. I’m well aware that fish are swimming around my legs, and thankfully the hole isn’t big enough to let the shark in here. I’m not going to stay long enough to test that theory though. I stare at my best friend, knowing that I’ve not only threatened my life tonight but hers. If anything happened to Mads because of me, I couldn’t forgive myself.

  "How did he die? Is he dead? Did you check his pulse?" Mads starts rambling out questions as I grab her arms. "We should call someone or help him! Karma, for god’s sake, talk to me!"

  "I'm sorry this is how you have to find out the truth, but we need to leave right now before someone comes for him and finds us," I try to explain, but she stares at me like I’m crazy. I use my one hand to skim through my charms on my necklace until I find the bird charm and carefully press it into my burnt palm, flinching from the pain.

  "What are you talking about? I think we need to get out of here, and then when the shock of seeing a dead person wears off, we can talk about what happened. I’ve heard shock can do crazy things to people," Mads mumbles on, trying to pull her hand from mine as I whisper to the charm.

  "Bird, fly me home, to the place where I am safe and I feel I belong. Bird, bird, take me home. To Madison Grey's apartment. To her home." I hear Mads’s frightened scream as we disappear in a swirl of green dust, reappearing right in the middle of her apartment. She looks around her apartment as I drop the charm, and then to me with wide eyes before her eyes roll to the back of her head and she passes out. I just about catch her before she slams onto the floor, and I groan when I hear my high heel crack as we fall to the floor together. I pull Mads’s head onto my lap, hot tears streaming down my cheeks as I know she won’t forgive me for this. No one will. In one stupid second, I’ve ruined my entire life. What the hell have I done?

  My family is going to kill me—if the higher gods don't get to me first, that is.

  9

  I tuck Mads into her bed after dragging her across the apartment before sitting on the edge and dropping my head into my hands. The burn on my hand sends another bolt of pain up my arm, and I can’t remember the last time I’ve been hurt this badly. I had almost forgotten what it felt like. Glancing over at Mads, I feel another pang of guilt at having dragged her into all this… whatever this even is. I don’t know whether it was the shock of seeing what happened, being slammed with a tidal wave of frigid water, or the fact that magical transportation can sometimes be a shock to human systems the first few times it happens, but she passed out more or less the moment we arrived at my place. Normally I would bring her back to her place and then leave her to sleep off the night of partying, but I don’t feel comfortable leaving a human alone at home when there could be supernatural forces after the both of us. If I have to spend the night on the couch tonight, then so be it - at least she won’t be alone.

  I glance down at my burnt hand, at the swollen red mark that snakes up my palm. How did this even happen? I think. This all fe
els like a bad dream, like I’m going to wake up at any moment, and I’m not sure if the severity of the situation has really sunk in just yet.

  I killed a higher god. I'm sure I read somewhere that higher gods can't be killed, so surely this is impossible. Maybe I just saw the mark wrong, or he was a god who happened to have a tattoo just like the higher gods have. Right, I think, latching desperately onto the idea. That has to be it. I mean, is it that inconceivable that he had a tattoo like that done, just so others would mistake him for a higher god? There are privileges that they have access to, and a crafty lower god could easily finagle it so they could manipulate the rest of us. It feels farfetched, but it’s the only possibility that makes sense, and I cling to it desperately in spite of how unusual it would be. Take it easy, I tell myself, clawing my hands through my still damp hair as I try to calm my breathing. Stop freaking out. This has to all just be a misunderstanding, or a mistake, or…

  I lift my head up just as Peyton appears in the room, leaving green dust in a circle all around him. He drops the rucksack he has in his hands and runs to me, pulling me into a tight hug. “Karma,” he says, squeezing me almost tightly enough to take the wind out of me, “thank the gods you’re okay.”

  I laugh dryly, but there’s not much humor to it. “You’re starting to sound like Mum.”

  “Damn right, I am,” he says, letting me go but keeping his hands on my shoulders so he can search my eyes. I knew it wouldn’t be long until everyone caught wind of what I did - this kind of an incident wouldn’t go unnoticed for long, even if there hadn’t been other supernaturals in the bar, so it was only a matter of time before my family would hear about it. Still, this is quicker than even I thought. Some part of me hoped deep down that I would have some time to escape, to get clear of this thing before it could reach the people I love. For a brief moment I feel a false sense of security now that Peyton is here with me, but it lasts only for a second. I’m not safe anymore. "What the fuck happened?” he demands, eyes wide as he lets go of my shoulders almost reluctantly. “The gods of justice showed up on our doorstep a few minutes ago. They started asking us all these questions about where you might be, and then they searched the house.” He shook his head disbelievingly, keeping his eyes locked with mine, a mixture of confusion, fear, and frustration flashing across his face. “They said you killed a higher god.”