Brookes stood back up and wiped the blood from his face. He stared at the blood covering his hand.
Hmm.
The bartender picked up the phone.
“Don’t,” Brookes said. The bartender hung up.
Brookes pulled out his phone. The police would get in his way. He swiped through his contacts and stopped on Barbara’s number.
They all had to do what they needed to, to survive.
Barbara sat on her bed, rocking back and forth. Her phone was next to her. She was rubbing her arms. Her itch was coming back. Kevan needed to hurry back. Her phone rang.
August still sat in the hospital lobby. He didn’t know how long it’d been. Hours? Days? How long were they going to make him wait? He wasn’t going to leave until he saw her. He was tired of hospital food and his ass hurt. The sun was creeping down through the windows. It was bullshit that they wouldn’t let him see Sara.
A nurse walked up to him. “She’s asking for you,” she said.
August walked with her. The nurse led him to a room. With the window in the door, he could see inside the room. There Sara sat. Without a mark on her. She was looking out of the window. The orange light from the sun painted her skin radiant.
August slowly walked in.
“Sara?”
She turned to him and smiled. “August?”
He ran to her and hugged her.
“I … I thought I lost you.”
“No … I’m fine.”
August let go of his hug and looked over her. His hands caressed her face.
“There’s not a mark on you. It must’ve been a miracle.”
Sara looked back out of the window. Something was on her mind.
“What is it?”
“I …” She hesitated. She grabbed his hand and held it. “Maybe the gods aren’t all as bad as they seem.”
“What? You must have hit your head or something.”
“No. I didn’t hit anything. I just want to go home.”
“We can’t. It burned down.”
“No, August. Our real home. Sotira.”
“But we can’t go back. We’re criminals!”
“I don’t care anymore. I just want to go home. Can you do that for me, August?”
August stared into her eyes. There was a softness in them, a heat in them he hadn’t seen in a very long time. A purpose. He couldn’t say no to her.
He hugged her.
“Let’s go home.”
As the sun was setting, Kevan returned to his mother’s house and walked into her bedroom. She wasn’t there.
“Mom!” he yelled. No answer. He walked into the kitchen and called her cell from the home phone.
Someone picked up.
“Hello, Kevan,” the voice was Brookes.
“Why in the hell do you have my mother’s cell?”
“Well, let her answer that for you.”
In the background, he could hear muffled cries.
Brookes said, “Oh sorry, just a second.” Kevan heard a thump and a shriek. “She doesn’t want to talk right now.”
“What in the hell have you done with her!!” Kevan yelled.
“I had some men capture her for me, so we can have some little one-on-one time.”
“You’ve kidnapped her over some bar shit?”
“No, no. This is so much more than that. But I have a surprise in store for you because of that incident. Come back the way you came. I’m in the alleyway behind the bar. You have thirty minutes.”
Brookes hung up. How was he able to get her so quickly? Kevan stared at the phone.
Fuck.
It was night. Brookes stood in the middle of an alley, checking his watch. Barbara sat next to him on her knees, with a gag in her mouth and ropes tied around her.
Brookes checked his watch. “It’s a ten minute drive and your son is almost late. Maybe I overestimated how much he cared for you.”
As if it was nothing more than a small rock, a bullet bounced off his face. Brookes bent over and picked up the bullet that had bounced off him. A rifle round. It was smashed.
“You know, that won’t work,” Brookes yelled. Nobody answered back. He must have been on one of the rooftops.
Brookes spun around but couldn’t find him. Another bullet bounced off his back.
“Seriously, stop. It’s getting pitiful.” Another one bounced off his head.
“I will say that you are a nice shot. But I’m one of the Touched. By the mother Queen herself. Do you know what a Touched is?”
Nobody answered him.
“A Touched is a human, like me, who has been touched by the grace of the gods.”
Brookes spun as he talked. He had a guess of where Kevan was, based on the trajectory of the bullets, but he liked to entertain himself from time to time with his grandeur.
“Only by a man’s bare fist can I be hurt, not by any human-made weapon. Which is why I was surprised when you gave my face a nice big scar.” Brookes pointed to his face. His gash was bandaged. It wouldn’t go away. There were loopholes with this rule, which is why he had glass embedded in his face as well. He wasn’t sure why that was as it was human-made but he was going to need to pick the fragments out. Plus he was sure that Kevan didn’t notice that fact.
“Now I have something else to make Queen angry about.”
There was silence. At least, he wasn’t trying to shoot him again. The bullets didn’t hurt him but he still felt a sting.
“I’m not angry about what you did to my face. In fact, it was actually my fault. I am the one who gave you a hope that you could help your mother. I was supposed to use her as leverage for your cooperation. But sometimes, there has to be a change in the plans.”
There was still no answer. Time to escalate this.
“I was given orders to give your family a lesson. So, the first step in that lesson is to kill your mother.”
Brookes pulled out a pistol and pointed it at Barbara’s head.
“Wait!” Kevan ran into the alleyway, with his hands held up high and his rifle on his back. “Please! Don’t hurt her. Hurt me instead!”
“Hmm… No.” Barbara’s head burst open as Brookes fired.
“Noooo!”
Her brains splattered onto the ground and she fell limp. Kevan fired at Brookes as he laughed. The bullets did nothing.
Kevan ran and swung his rifle at Brookes. The rifle snapped in half over Brookes’ face.
Brookes’ fist rocketed into Kevan’s stomach and sent him hurling back and skidding across the ground. Kevan came to a stop about thirty feet away. He struggled to stand up.
He coughed up blood and fell back down. That punch nearly snapped him in half.
“I’m guessing you want to know why I just killed your mother.”
Brookes slowly walked toward him.
“Well, that was for the bar incident. It was my fault, I’m the one who riled you up, but I’m a vengeful asshole. So now she’s dead. But originally, I was going to use her as leverage for you to kill your brother.”
“Fuck you,” Kevan coughed.
Brookes laughed again.
“I would watch your tone. I’m guessing that you didn’t know that your wife just had a pair of twins.”
“What?”
“Yes, she’s my new tool. You have to see it from my perspective. Who’s a better hostage, an old hag who was going to OD anytime in the next week? Or a pair of newborns, innocent of this world’s terrors? One has more shock value and, relatively speaking, is a far better bartering tool.”
Kevan stared past Brookes to his mother. She was gone.
“I have people watching over her. If you try to step out of line, then who knows what they could do? They have a habit of going too far when I tell them to do something. I could tell them to rough up your wife and she could end up dead.”
“You monster!”
Brookes bent down.
“So, here’s what you’re going to do for me. Word is getting out about August killing a
member of Ifor and escaping the great justice of the gods. We can’t have that. Queen is a little more than pissed that he hasn’t been found yet.”
Kevan continued to stare at his mother’s remains. She did nothing to deserve that. Brookes’ hand gripped Kevan’s face and pulled up. To make sure he looked right into his eyes.
“August undermined the gods. He needs to be taken care of. Not by some divine intervention, not by God or the gods. But by another human being. And what’s best is his own brother. Now, you can’t tell me that won’t be a great propaganda story. I can see the headline now. ‘Brother killed own brother to provide justice for the gods and humanity.’ It’s going to be great.”
Brookes let go Kevan’s head and started to walk down the alleyway.
“If you do it, I won’t kill your wife and kids.”
And with that, he was gone.
Kevan dragged himself over to his mother’s body.
“No…” he cried. Her body was going cold. He placed his head on her and cried his pain away.
Mountains pierced the clouds around Queen. The vibrant blue sky sang to her, like it did every day. She sat on the golden edge of her castle, wearing a deep red robe, peering into the clouds. Behind her stood a small castle the color of gold. Not real gold, but made of clay of the same color. Greenery was embossed on the walls. Flowers of all colors grew out of pots in the windows and on the walkways.
Birds chirped around her.
The castle stood on the peak of a mountain top, high enough to forever be surrounded by the clouds. Other castles and homes of the gods littered the skyline. Also on mountain peaks.
Queen stared hard into the clouds, waiting. She hated waiting. With the eye of the world gone, it was harder to look down into the world. But she could still get a glimpse of the world below when someone died. She was the god of death; death was her domain. Her eyes continued to stare at the clouds.
She felt a ting. What she was waiting for was done.
A small opening parted in the clouds. A wavy water-like image reflected in the sun-light. An image of a small area on Earth.
There Kevan lay, crying over his mother. Good. The image changed to the charred remains of August’s apartments. Svante did well, too. Eight people died in that explosion, sadly not Sara. She wondered which god helped her. She shouldn’t have survived.
After Svante’s men planted a small explosive, Queen had someone bring in something with a lot more flash. The scene changed to a hospital, a place where people go to die. An easy place for Queen to look into. Sara sat in a bed speaking to August; they were going back to Sotira.
She laughed to herself. Everything was going better than expected.
A bang went off next to her. She jumped to her feet. The image disappeared in the clouds. Svante stood behind her.
“Oh, Svante, you startled me,” Queen said smoothing out her robes. “Why are you here? Don’t you have some peasants to help?”
“I know what you’ve been doing in my domain.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Queen said with indifference.
“You’ve been illegally pushing drugs into my cities, you’ve been publicly murdering my people. I could barely tolerate what you did in the shadows. But I can only sit by and watch you do so much. You’ve crossed the line.”
“It actually sounds like you care for those people.”
“If you or any of your people set another foot in my domain… it will be your last.”
Queen put her hands on her hips. “Is that a declaration, Svante? A threat?”
Svante laughed and stepped toward Queen. Queen moved back. Svante’s demeanor changed, he emitted a killer presence. “You must have forgotten why you were forced to name me the god of war, Queen.”
Svante stepped closer to her. The hairs on Queen’s arms stood up.
Blue sparks raced over Svante’s body. His hair stood on end. “I killed the last god of war with my own hands.”
Queen stared in his eyes. Flashes of sparks swirled in his eyes. He was serious. He was going to kill her. “And I’m going to do the same with you.”
Queen blinked.
Svante was gone. She turned around and he was behind her.
“What?” Queen suddenly screamed and grabbed her right cheek. It had split it open. Blood rushed out of it. Svante was so fast she didn’t see him slash her. Fast as lightning.
“You … you’re going to pay for this!” Queen yelled. Svante approached her slowly and Queen fell back trying to scramble away.
“No. No, I’m not,” Svante said. He smiled.
“Stop at once!” a voice yelled from the sky.
Svante glanced up at the sky. “Shit, you got lucky, Queen.”
A man flew from the sky. Epic black wings extended from his back fifty feet out. His tailored blue suit had holes made just for them.
Queen stared up at Michael. Thank God.
The sparks disappeared from Svante’s eyes as Michael descended onto them.
“What is the meaning of this?” He landed between Svante and Queen.
“Nothing, we were just having a nice conversation,” Svante said. He tapped the wall with his hand and disappeared in a flash.
“Svante!” Michael yelled. But he was already gone.
Queen stood to her feet and brushed herself off. “Thanks for coming to the rescue, Michael.”
Michael gave her a questioning look. “Is that all you have to say for yourself? I’ve seen your actions on Earth. What are you doing to He’s people?”
“It must be hard watching over us all, being the only angel.”
“I’ve had a mind to allow him to kill you Queen.”
“But you won’t, will you? He made you to make sure we didn’t kill each other. That’s all you’re good for. A faithful watchdog.”
“I’ve executed far more powerful gods than you at the word of He, Queen. You will atone for your sins when He returns to us.”
“When that time comes, I’ll be ready. But until then, get the hell off my mountain.”
“You’re going down a dark road, Queen. I hope you find the light on the way.”
Michael flew off into the sky and disappeared into the blue.
Queen leaned against her castle walls. “Dammit!” Her fist hurled into the wall. It didn’t leave a mark. She didn’t have any true strength, not the strength Svante and Michael had. Only powers of another kind. Not enough to take either of them out.
Svante, that asshole. She’d kill him if she had the power to do so. Siding with humans. What kind of pitiful excuse for a god was he?
She had to remove her people from California. She couldn’t risk a fight she couldn’t win.
She stood up and ran her hand through her hair. She paused and looked at her hand. It was bloody from the cut on her face. She touched it.
“Ouch,” she muttered. She raised her hand over her face and the blood from the wound floated into a ball. She threw it over the edge of her castle. She tore a piece of her robe and held it over her cut.
She could clean up the blood, as she could command the power of it. But she couldn’t close the wound. Svante’s attack was too deep. She would need a bandage.
“My, how the mighty have fallen,” a man said.
Queen glanced to her right. There stood a man in a white button-up shirt, with a red tie and a white ball encasing his head, his tan neck sticking out of it. His hands never seemed to leave his pockets. The Omniscient Man.
“Why, if it isn’t the Omniscient Man,” Queen said with a sigh. The day was a lot more eventful than she thought it would be.
“It looks like that’ll scar.”
“Why the hell are you here?”
“Just passing by.”
“Leave.”
“No. I’m here to take back what’s mine.”
Queen rubbed her temple.
“I … I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“If you don’t, then you don’t mind if I would tak
e what I found.” The man turned to leave.
“Wait! We had a deal!”
“A deal you broke. He isn’t dead and the eye of the world is gone. But it does come with a plus, with you trying to rule over humanity.”
“That wasn’t my fault! And what do the humans have to do with you?”
“I’m a human of another kind. I don’t like how you parade over them. Like you’re so much better than them. When your God created you all. You keep playing games, Queen. You’ve wasted my time.”
He turned to leave.
“Wait!”
“I’m going to get what’s mine, then our relationship is over.”
“Stop!” Queen threw out her hands, blood erupted out of her cheek and formed into a spear and she hurled it at the man.
The spear stopped in mid-air.
“You grew some balls.” The man walked past the spear. Queen still held out her hands. She couldn’t move.
He walked to her and removed his right hand from his pocket.
“You see, the problem with you gods is that most of you have never experienced true pain. Maybe a small cut here or there but I believe true pain should be a part of someone’s natural upbringing.” His hand swirled through an infinity of colors, at an impossible speed.
He thrust his hand into her shoulder. She screamed out and fell to her knees.
His hand went right through her shoulder, as if there was nothing there. There was no open wound or blood, but it looked like his hand went into the color of the shoulder itself.
It felt like someone had stuck hot irons into her.
“How does it feel? To get torn apart from reality itself?” the Omniscient Man asked.
“Please, please, please,” she pled over and over. He released her and Queen collapsed.
“Please, please, please,” she whispered.
The man stepped back and put his hand back into his pocket. Her shoulder returned to normal. There was no scar, or proof that he’d done a thing.
“That’s how all those humans felt. The ones you tortured and killed. I’ll let you keep what I gave you, but don’t be surprised when your glass castle comes crashing down.”
Queen looked up at him. “What … what did you do?!”
The Omniscient Man smiled as a tear in reality itself opened up behind him. In the tear were trillions of sparking lights in the black. Twinkling in distant wonderment.
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