Prosperity stood there towering over chaos and the wounded man. She looked extremely displeased with how things had gone. The gears were grinding away in her head as she decided her next course of action. The soured expression on her face didn’t fade as she said, “Fine, if you don’t want to serve me, then you are going to die anyway, that means the best thing to do is to put you out of your misery as soon as possible.” With a sudden movement too fast for the man to process, prosperity’s heel was hovering less than an inch from his face; stopped only by Chaos holding it back. Chaos had saved the man’s life from having his skull crushed.

  The man’s eyes grew large as he realized what had just happened and how close he’d just come to almost dying. Chaos yelled, “That’s enough, Prosperity! I said he doesn’t want to go with you!” She pushed prosperity’s foot back so hard she stumbled.

  Prosperity stood tall feeling the indignity of what had just occurred and suddenly broke out in a wide maniacal smile. She looked at Chaos saying, “Well Chaos, it looks like we finally found something you’re willing to fight for after all.”

  Chaos said, “I don’t want to fight!” Then she looked down at the man with a sad look in her eyes and she continued saying, “If you try to hurt this one though…” She looked back at Prosperity with a determined look and said, “I’ll do what I can to protect this one.” She rose to her feet as prosperity gave a furious glare.

  Prosperity immediately took a defensive posture saying, “Yeah bitch? Are you really sure that’s what you want to do? If it is, then I’m going to enjoy this..”

  The man watched as Chaos took a step towards Prosperity and they both disappeared in a cloud of wind and dust. Looking around the office all, he could see were loose papers blowing around. He didn’t see either of the girls or hear them. “What happened?” He asked confused. “Hello?” Only silence replied to the man. Grabbing the edge of the desk next to him he pulled himself up to a sitting position and listened again. Still silence remained. He pulled himself to his feet anticipating screaming out in pain from his injuries. No pain came though, even his breathing was far less labored. He pressed on the broken rib, and it was healed. As a matter of fact, other than a little stiffness he felt fine now. Looking around, he was still alone in the office. Confusion struck once more as he cried out asking, “What is happening?”

  A low rumble caught his ear, and the noise grew in volume. Looking up at the ceiling, some instinct in the man screamed at his body telling him to move or die. Jumping out of the way just as the ceiling opened a large hole. Chaos came crashing through, landing on her back in a pile of rubble. The man looked up through the hole in the ceiling to see clear sky. That was a real problem because there were six stories between his office and the roof. Running over to Chaos she muttered, “Run. Save yourself.”

  The man attempted to provide first aid, but the best surgeon in the world couldn’t do anything for such traumatic injuries. He could see a bunch of internal bleeding already. Prosperity spoke from behind the man saying, “So stupid, this is your last chance to join me or share your gods fate.”

  The man slowly stood up and turned to face prosperity and look her in the eyes. He asked, “Will you spare Chaos if I join you?”

  Prosperity laughed before saying, “Sorry Mr. Stupid. It doesn’t work that way. You already serve a god, remember? That is unless you kill your old god and pledge your loyalty to me…” She grinned figuring they were cornered.

  The truth was laid bare at that moment; the man had chosen his god and in order to leave her service, he’d have to kill her. All that, and prosperity stood there grinning in his face.

  Chaos lay there bleeding out on the floor looking at the man and said in a whisper, “It’s alright Stupid, just know I forgive you when it’s done.” She closed her eyes turning her head, so he didn’t have to see her face when he had to kill her. Prosperity still grinning at him.

  Prosperity jeered at the man saying, “You don’t even have to feel bad, she’s already forgiven you! she’s forgiven you, you get off scot-free with zero guilt and get to serve Prosperity! So why don’t you hurry this up, we have other shit to do after this.”

  The man asked, “How do I kill her?” He looked at Chaos in time to see her tears hitting the ground below her head.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Prosperity thought for a second before saying, “I’m not entirely sure. Why don’t you try cutting her heart out and see if that works?” She produced a small decorated dagger like the one Chaos had used earlier.

  A new voice interrupted the silence. A man yelled, “Freeze! Drop the knife or I will shoot!” Everyone looked at the doorway to see a beat cop standing there with his side arm drawn and fixed on Prosperity.

  Prosperity seemed overjoyed as she asked him, “What color is your essence?”

  The cop asked, “What?” The hand holding the gun was suddenly pinned to the doorframe with the dagger that Prosperity had been holding. He then let out a deep scream from the pain and frantically tried to pry it out of his hand. It wouldn’t budge though. His gun was out of his reach now and his blood was red.

  Prosperity walked toward the cop slowly saying, “Tisk-tisk, you’re not a blue blood, which means you don’t matter.” The cop was pinned but thinking fast he grabbed his radio pulling it up to call for backup. The man took the opportunity to run over to Chaos and try to help her while Prosperity was distracted.

  Chaos looked at the man telling him once again, “You have to get out of here while you can. I can’t stop Prosperity, run Stupid!”

  The cop cried out in immense pain. The man looked over and the cop was gone, and so was Prosperity. Only a blood spatter on the doorway remained. He looked back down at Chaos still severely injured on the floor and asked, “Are you really a god?”

  Chaos said, “I don’t know for sure if we’re gods, but we aren’t human.”

  The man said, “Good enough. I can’t move a human in your condition but I’m going to get you out of here now. You have my sincerest apologies ahead of time because this is going to hurt, bad… So, I’m sorry.” Roughly he scooped the girl up off the floor, she was much lighter than he’d expected. She cried out in pain at every movement having to grunt through it. He looked around making sure they were still alone, and once he was sure, he went for it. Running out of his office, down the hallway, straight into the elevator. Slamming the button repeatedly for the lobby, the doors shut. Only five floors to the bottom he thought. He held Chaos tightly as she whimpered from the pain.

  Chaos pressed her hand against his chest, looking down at her their gazes met. She said, “You won’t get far enough, fast enough while carrying me. Please, just save yourself.”

  The man said “Look, if it’s alright with you, I’m going to save your life today. Even if I die trying.”

  The injured girl didn’t seem like much of a god as she whimpered in his arms. She said, “You really live up to your name Stupid.”

  The man sighed heavily saying, “For the hundredth time my name isn’t…” stopping his sentence while thinking about the odd girl, she must not understand the name thing. After all, the two gods he’d met so far had pretty weird names. Sighing even deeper than before he said, “You know what? Why don’t you call me Stu from now on.”

  She smiled very weakly saying, “I like that name, it’s much nicer than Stupid.”

  The elevator doors opened, and Stu’s heart almost stopped beating all together. Prosperity smiled while asking, “Are you trying to run away with your old god? Are you stupid?”

  Chaos chimed in saying, “He shortened it to Stu.”

  Prosperity rolled her eyes at the comment and asked, “She’s that dense and you chose her? You really are stupid.”

  Stu sat Chaos down gently and adjusted her as best he could. She groaned from the movement. Standing up he faced prosperity, using himself as a barrier between the two girls. He felt determined to end this madness.

  Prosperity didn’t seem bothered by him at all. She obviously didn’t see Stu as a threat. Approaching him confidently she could see the sweat on his brow, his increased respiration, she could even see his increased cardiovascular system pulsating under his skin. In other words, she could see his fear, she was convinced that it wouldn’t take much more to break this terrified boy.

  Speaking gingerly to Stu, Prosperity said, “Do you even know what you agreed to by claiming Chaos as your god? Of course you don’t.. So, I’ll tell you. You have agreed that for the rest of your life or hers, you will stick by, love, speak the truth of, and commit the entirety of everything you are to the worship of Chaos. You could have done all of that for prosperity, but no… you chose Chaos, isn’t that insane? She can’t even offer you anything, not like I can!”

  Stu still stood in front of Chaos, protecting her, or at least he hoped he was. He really didn’t expect to be able to take a god in a fist fight, but he’d sure as hell try. Prosperity tried to push past Stu to get to Chaos, but he grabbed prosperity by the shoulder stopping her. He said, “You’re wrong.”

  Stepping back prosperity looked at Stu. Slightly curious she asked, “Oh yeah? Alright stupid, enlighten me.” She smirked at him defiantly.

  “She made me an offer you couldn’t ever top.” He said.

  Now she was intrigued, prosperity asked, “What could she offer you that I couldn’t compete with?”

  Smirking, Stu said, “Unlike you, she offered me a choice.”

  Prosperity looked dumbfounded by Stu’s reply. Contemplating what he said for a moment before saying, “That’s stupid, you’re stupid, I did give you a choice! Live in the service of Prosperity or die in the service of Chaos.” Her eyes were full of rage now; Stu was biding his time.