Stu lay sprawled across his shattered couch hardly getting any sleep. He spent the night waking up and removing splinters every time he rolled over on the uneven surface. When banging began at the front door his bloodshot eyes shot open. Whoever it was continued to beat on the door like it was the cops… “Oh shit…” Could it be the cops he wondered? He thought about the events of the day before.

  He rushed to the door to answer it, as soon as it began to open, he was bombarded with, “Good morning sleepy head! Time to rise and shine!” There stood Prosperity smiling, eyepatch and all.

  Prosperity pushed her way past Stu and was met by a fully dressed Chaos. she said, “You seem different today Prosperity…”

  Like usual, Stu looked around outside to confirm that Prosperity hadn’t been followed or anything. Looking around he met the gaze of his next-door neighbor lady, again; she shook her head at him in disapproval. He gave a shameful wave before closing the door. His neighbors were going to be talking about this weekend for a long time, he could already tell. Looking over at Prosperity he asked, “What is this, some sort of trick?”

  Prosperity looked at them saying, “Trick? No.. This is just me, this is just Prosperity. I thought we were all going to hang out today..?”

  Immediately Chaos said, “We are.. It’s just that your personality is much sunnier. We both expected some sort of resentment, especially considering the loss of your eye yesterday.”

  Silently sitting, absorbing Chaos’s precise observations before sighing heavily, and saying, “Damn Chaos, that was straight to the point.. Alright, if we have to talk about the elephant in the room first thing today, then we will. I guess this is a good time to go ahead and get this over with…” She closed her eye and continued, “I have no hard feelings, you w…” The last part was so soft and murmured that no one could hear her.

  Stu said, “I’m sorry but we couldn’t hear anything you said.”

  Keeping her eye closed she yelled, “You won yesterday, alright!?! After thinking about things last night and the fact that the cat had to save my life… Well without the judge’s intervention…” Her hand touched the eyepatch before she continued, “I’d be dead not injured. So, obviously you won Chaos.. So, no hard feelings about how things ended, alright?” Chaos ran to her and embraced her with a hug that prosperity was unable to return. Prompting Prosperity to ask, “What is this about? You do realize we’re still enemies right?”

  Chaos continued her hug saying, “I know but we don’t have to be. Thank you for your kind words today Prosperity.”

  Glancing towards Stu, Prosperity asked, “Is Chaos always so… Chaotic? Honestly I can’t get a read on her.” Still hugging Prosperity, Chaos began laughing.

  Stu’s head hurt, he couldn’t get a read on her either. Honestly, he couldn’t figure either of the girls out. His cellphone began ringing, rushing to his charger he looked at the number, it was his boss. Answering it the girls listened as he said, “Hello sir! No… No… Well, you see.. Oh, I understand. Yes, yes sir.. Oh, alright. Yeah, thanks for everything Jack.” He hung up the phone looking confused.

  Chaos asked, “Is everything alright?”

  Stu looked up at her nodding as he said, “Yeah, its actually better than alright. My boss just called me to make a settlement offer on the incident at work yesterday. They offered me a large payout not to take legal action after the quote, unquote steam system explosion. Suddenly I don’t have to worry about money anymore…” He looked questioningly at Prosperity and asked, “Did you? Was this somehow, your doing?”

  Prosperity laughed at the idea saying, “Why would I do anything that nice? Come on, this is me we’re talking about here.. I mean it would be stupid of me, if I helped a worshipper of another god…”

  Stu couldn’t help but doubt her words. Chaos asked Stu, “So, does this mean that you are mine full-time now?”

  Responding he said, “You will have to find a better way to phrase that, but I suppose so. At least until the tournament is over.”

  Squealing with joy and jumping on him with a big hug. Then stepping back Chaos said, “As my first command from your full-time God, I want you to go put some pants on!”

  Stu looked down at his boxers saying, “God.. damn it… No wonder my neighbor looked at me like that.” Before going to his room to get dressed. After putting on some fresh clothes he made his way back into the living room, He heard the girls talking amongst themselves.

  Prosperity asked Chaos, “Should we tell him or not?” Chaos shushed her as she noticed Stu.

  Stu asked, “Tell me what?”

  The girls both shared an unsure look before Chaos said, “There’s another God nearby. There’s a possibility we are the target, because if we can sense them than they can sense us.”

  Stu could feel his nose start running at the news, and grabbing a tissue he heard Prosperity say, “I guess that answers that question.”

  Stu looked at the tissue and it had turned blue. Looking up at the girls he asked, “What does this mean?”

  Prosperity said, “It means you have a nosebleed, and we’ve been targeted. It also means that the god targeting you has already found a worshipper as well. They’ve targeted us and your blood is warning you.”

  Confused Stu said, “But we’re suspended from the tournament..”

  Chaos said, “Then they must not know, or they just don’t care.”

  Stu asked, “How far are they? Do we have time to do anything?”

  The girls both shook their heads, and Chaos said, “It’s a new energy, and without knowing exactly who it is, we can’t judge exact locations. Only after we meet a source of energy can we judge where they are when we sense them. Until then we just know they are nearby.”

  Prosperity grabbed her purse and retrieved her dagger. Hiking her skirt up slightly she began fastening the sheath to her thigh. Stu watched her gently tying the straps to her leg, he found himself staring as Prosperity showed off her assets. She’d almost finished when she said, “You blinded me with a dagger yesterday and now you are stealing a peak up my skirt.” She made immediate eye contact with Stu.

  He stammered and stuttered before saying, “Uh, it’s... Um, uh… Shit! I mean.. uh… Damnit, I’m sorry…” his face was cherry red.

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  She gave a sneaky smile saying, When I saw you sniveling and bawling your eyes out on the elevator floor, I believed it, coming from a human like you.. But I’ll admit it, it takes balls to check out someone that tried to kill you and vice versa.”

  Stu was dumbfounded saying, “Uh, thanks? I think, maybe?”

  Only Chaos slapping him in the back brought his attention back. She gave him a stern look before speaking to Prosperity, “Quit trying to influence my worshipper, you aren’t stealing him from me!” She now glared at Prosperity.

  Slyly Prosperity said, “Don’t worry Chaos, I don’t want to steal him from you.”

  Chaos relaxed a little saying, “Alright, that’s better.”

  Prosperity followed up with, “I might just want to borrow him. You know for a night or two.”

  Completely out of instinct Stu yelled, “Inappropriate! Your too young!”

  Both girls yelled at Stu in sync, “We’re older than you and every other human on this planet!”

  Stu took a step back saying, “Oh, yeah… I forget when I look at you.” then he realized what he was saying, “Wait that’s beside the point!”

  Resuming her sly smile Prosperity said, “Whatever, I caught you looking at me, remember? I just said, eh, maybe…”

  Chaos was red with anger and staring lasers at Prosperity. “Can you stop flirting with my worshipper please? After that let’s get out of here before anyone else shows up! Sitting around is going to get us killed…”

  Stu grabbed his keys and said, “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s get out of here already.” He was ready to get out of here too, you know, before he dug his grave any deeper. They took off from the apartment funneling out one at a time with Stu bringing up the rear. As he looked around outside his neighbor was sitting outside with one of her girlfriends, they both covered their mouths in shock. Whispering between each other, they were obviously gossiping about him. He waved and they both ignored him. Stu sighed, he must be better than television if they were watching his place to see what happens next. Staring over at the deceptively young-looking girls, he thought, they’re older than the two old ladies gossiping about what they thought he did in his apartment. What a fucked-up situation this was, is what he thought as he smirked.

  The girls and Stu made their way to Market Street, it was almost the same as a mall, only outdoors. They had an entire street full of stores and vendors for the whole block. The girls wanted to spend the day having fun and Stu figured that this was the place to do it, the massive amount of people here should provide some sort of camouflage for them. When they got within sight of the market, both the girls got immediately excited and began yelling.

  Chaos was the first with, “This is amazing! Look at all the stores!”

  Followed by Prosperity yelling, “Screw the stores, look at all of the food!”

  Both of the girls grabbed an arm dragging Stu toward the large crowd of people. As Stu was being pulled at full speed into the sea of people he forgot for a moment about all the death and fear that had been driving the last 24 hours. He smiled as the girls barely acknowledged him, instead having fun.

  There was a lot to do while they were there. Eating, shopping, and dragging Stu around. He’d genuinely found himself enjoying the day. This was nice, he thought, it is less like hanging out with Gods and more like hanging out with friends.

  That thought shook him on the inside, glancing at Prosperity who was standing in line to pay for her and Chaos’s stuff. She looked happy even with the eyepatch, just hanging out with Chaos. Was she a friend or was she his enemy? He thought about it while watching her, he just said she was like a friend in his head. This could be a deadly mistake. Yesterday he was trying to kill her, and now…

  Prosperity looked at him while he scowled and stared at her. Closing her one good eye she smiled wide and waved at him in a very bubbly manor. He smirked involuntarily and gave a small wave. By this point Chaos noticed them looking at each other; she slapped Prosperity on the shoulder, and they both turned focusing on their position in line. Stu sat on a bench near the edge of the street thinking about what he was going to do after today. Could he still kill her? Should he? Maybe he should just kill her while she didn’t expect it.. His breath caught in his chest as he realized what he was thinking about doing, could he murder her? She murdered with no issues, but could he do the same? He wiped the blood from his nose looking at it. Blue blood… His mind came back to the real world; he looked up at the girls now paying for their things. Why was his nose bleeding again?

  Rushing over to the girls he looked at them and firmly said, “We should go, now…” People in line behind the girls looked at him like he was a perve. He didn’t care about their opinions right now though. He displayed his palm with blue on it. The girls looked at each other, and both walked with Stu towards the exit.

  Prosperity stopped and said, “Theres something wrong, I didn’t sense anything coming.”

  Chaos also stopped, looking at Stu she said, “She’s right, I can’t sense anything either. Are you sure that you got a nosebleed?”

  Stu’s nose began bleeding heavily as Prosperity handed him a handkerchief from her purse. She said, “Looks like he’s right, but it concerns me that neither of us can sense anything.”

  A loud “Eh-hem.” Got their attention, looking down it was Tom. He said, “I’ve got news to deliver.”

  Stu asked, “Are we going to battle?”

  Tom said, “That’s right! You have a sanctioned fight!”

  Prosperity said, “That can’t be, we’re suspended!”

  Tom replied saying, “And you are still suspended Prosperity! This is about Chaos and her worshipper. That’s all, you two have had your suspension lifted temporarily and pending the results of this fight, you may have your suspension removed completely.”

  Chaos softly said, “Oh, okay..”

  Prosperity was visibly upset asking, “Why do they get to fight, and I don’t? this isn’t fair! What if they need my h…” She stopped short on her own thought.

  Tom asked, “What were you going to say?”

  Stu looked more surprised than Tom as he said, “Yeah, I’d like to hear the rest of that sentence too. Probably more than Chaos does..”

  Prosperity looked behind her at Chaos, who had her hands clasped in front of her in joy. She looked like a kid that was about to meet Santa Clause for the first time, absolutely about to explode with joy. Prosperity said, “It was a slip of the tongue that’s all. It’s just unfair that I can’t fight yet.”

  Tom looked back at Stu saying, “You have a fight coming, I suggest you get ready.” He turned starting to walk away, stopping he looked back saying, “Good luck Chaos, and Prosperity remember I’m watching.” He disappeared into the crowd of people.

  Prosperity was annoyed saying, “What does that even mean?”

  Stu looked at Chaos who was suddenly withdrawn, he remembered how much she was worried about fighting. She would need his help for sure. Glancing at Prosperity, he saw her staring at the ground intensely. She said, “I know who it is now.” Looking at Chaos, she said, “It’s Silence! She’s coming this way.. Chaos you need to snap out of it and do what you have to, or she will destroy you!” Running over she wrapped her arms around Chaos giving her a big hug.

  Chaos said, “I don’t want to fight though..”

  Prosperity let go, looking at Stu, she walked over to him saying, “Well stupid I guess we get to see if the first time was luck or if you are as good as your blood thinks you are.” She hugged him out of nowhere. He was caught off guard by it, not hugging her back but she squeezed tighter. She whispered, “Take it.”

  Stu asked, “Why?”

  She said, “To protect your God blue blood. Why else?”

  He took the dagger she tucked in her hand when she hugged him. She let go, looking at him. He slid the dagger in his pocket and asked, “Really, why?” He looked at her questioningly.

  She smiled sadly, and with tears falling from her good eye. “Because, if I can’t beat you and you can’t beat Silence, then what chance do I have?” Normally that would make sense to him coming from her, but this time he couldn’t imagine that would make Prosperity show emotion like this. She wiped the tears away from her eye saying, “If you guys are still alive tonight, I don’t suppose, you’d mind hanging out some more?” Stu gave a slow and unsure nod. With that Prosperity wandered into the crowd alone.

  Chaos came over to stand by Stu saying, “What do you think we should do?”

  Stu stood there looking at the crowd around them slowly starting to thin out. He knew the area very well, and he’d never seen the street become empty on a Sunday afternoon. The people just began leaving, and only the God and her worshipper remained standing in an empty street. Trash blew in the wind, the sun beat down, and there was silence.