flowers and thorns

- 2 -

»Not even as a toddler did you manage to get her out of the world.«
»It wasn't my fault. It's not like I haven't tried. I also don't know how she managed to escape every one of my strategies. This is almost impossible«. My father drives desperately through his short, stubble hair. It's not as if his reputation precedes him and scares you enough through every bone.
My mother, otherwise of such a sweet and beautiful nature, nods in agreement with him. »It's our biggest mistake.« She takes a seat at the table made of iron. My father was never a person who was into expensive gold or shiny silver. »And it is getting stronger and stronger.«
»Although I hate to agree with him, he was right. If only we knew..«, his head turns to me. He moves slowly, as his eyes sparkle with anger look at me, as if I were his greatest disappointment. And here I thought I was, hidden behind the wooden door to his study, well hidden. He spits out the words like poison. »..what her gift is.«
I'm shouting out of the dream. Heavy and totally sweaty, I reach for the disturbing peace, to whom I could not have been more grateful.
I've been here for years. I have learned to deal with my past, to come to terms with myself, to understand that it isn't my fault, and to prepare myself for the battle that may come sooner or later. But strangely enough, it's catching up with me now that I've been quiet for so long. Do the dreams mean something that they would come or that I didn't complete my processing healing as I would like it to be? I don't know, and it's torturing me. I'm sick of those salty traces on my cheeks that come more often when I wake up right now.
I'm sick of my own weakness.
»What's going on?« I ask after I take the call from Ruby, who freed me from my nightmare.

Hands on my hips, I look down at my friend on the couch. Her one-night stand does look concerned, at least a little, however he is clearly uncomfortable in his skin.
»What? Should I maybe tell the doctor that I slipped in the shower during good-morning-sex and sprained my ankle?«
I meticulously look at her swollen left foot, which doesn't even really fit in her sock anymore, let alone her shoe. Londoners and their shame. »Maybe you guys should suggest the hotel install non-slip shower mats sometime.« I look back and forth between the two, though only the stranger's cheeks turn a slight shade of red.
»You'd better hurry, I'm expecting company in a few minutes.«, he scratches the back of his neck in embarrassment. When he realizes what he just said, he quickly adds it's not what we're thinking about.
Rolling my eyes, I turn to Ruby again. »You heard the young man, hurry up now.« Still, I can't help grinning. Clumsy jobs like that are actually more mine.
»That was just the residual alcohol.«, she grumbles as she braces herself against the back of the couch and tries to hoist herself up. At least she managed to squeeze back into the dress she wore last night. Just as her gaze falls to her high heels, almost begging for mercy - from whomever, I understand people of faith only a fraction - there is a knock.
The annoyed sigh of the blonde pickup makes me grin even more. »Not a word about what happened, or I'll have it held against me for the rest of my life.« Slowly, he walks to the door as Ruby and I look at each other in confusion. He opens the door just a crack, but it doesn't take a second for someone to push it open, swinging and laughing.
Tyrone.
Today he wears a burgundy shirt with black jeans. It instantly reminds me of last night at the Rubins because of the outfit's colors, and how I left him out of nowhere. His eyes tell me he's in a flurry, but when they see me, his whole body stops moving. He looks me in mine and starts grinning provocatively at me. »Well, well, well, Miss Mysterious. So we'll see each other again after all.«
Now it's Blondie and Ruby looking back and forth between me and Tyrone in confusion. Unlike Blondie's eyes, however, Ruby's are about as big and round as the full moon. »Sorry, I really had to leave in a hurry. I. . . forgot to turn in an important project and when I looked at my watch, I realized I only had a few minutes left.«
»And then you don't come back and leave your number, or at least your name?«, he walks up to me and still has that provocative twinkle in his eyes.
I've already opened my mouth to reply when Ruby takes the floor and walks towards us. Not without limping, of course. »Hi, I'm Ruby. Apparently, you've already met my friend Ally. She didn't mention you at all.« As her gaze wanders reproachfully to me, I notice the smell of expensive perfume emanating from Tyrone. »Your acting skills are really impressive. I was especially blown away by your role as Lucian Froze. Excuse me for saying this so bluntly, but you are insane.«, she added, and I get a little pity for Blondie, whom she completely blanked on one.
The brown, light curls shake a little as Tyrone acknowledges her comments with a friendly, charming smile. »Thank you.« He turns to his buddy, who's kind of like a fifth wheel a little off to the side. »Tell me, aren't the girls usually out by time?« Challengingly, he looks to him.
He seems to have remembered Ruby's limp, because when he lowered his head again to take a look at it and registers how thick it is, he starts to laugh serenely. Once again his dimples are appearing. »You two have an interesting fetish.«
»That's not what it looks like.«
»And then what?«
»It was an accident in the shower this morning. «
»Ah, yes«, Tyrone's answer is a little inconspicuous. Then he turns back to us like he wants to say something, but I'm faster.
»We were just about to leave anyway. Not that we don't like to steal your precious time, but Ruby's in real pain.« To be honest, I haven't really cared how much time I steal from who. Either people will be content with me voluntarily or they won't. Unfortunately, Ruby's fangirllike behavior is getting uncomfortable. She's got to get out of that staring.
»Well, then of course we don't want to stop you.«, he answers and steps aside to let us go out.
Ruby already has her high heels and her bag in her hand, goes with a short goodbye to the door, when Tyrone reaches for my arm and pulls me to him. Right now, I have to suppress the impulse to hit him or to cover my body with a net of lightning. Some of the few abilities I possess naturally. I know exactly why I don't have boyfriend.
»Can I get your number this time, Ally?«, he whispered charmingly in my ear, his voice a little deeper than usual, putting a special sound on my name.
Played thoughtfully, I look at him from top to bottom as he removes the soft grip around my arm. »All good things are three, aren't they?« I return just as smarmy, then grin at him cheekily and also leave the hotel room without looking back again.

All the way to Ruby's home, I can listen to how unbelievably unfair it was not to tell her about Tyrone and above all how I would get the absurd idea of not giving him my number. When I reply that I am still not looking for a partner, silence reigns for a moment. The remaining ten minutes are somewhere between, »Oh my God, I slept with a friend of Tyrone Harmsworth's.« and »You'll never get a chance like that again.«
»Set ice on it when you're inside. If it doesn't get better, go to the doctor.«, I gave an order after she's got out and searched for the missing key in her pocket on the sidewalk. She doesn't even respond to it. »I can't believe you blew him off.«
Twisting my eyes, I start the engine. »I'll see you.«

Arriving at home, I first take a deep breath. If Ruby knew who she was friends with, what, she could relate. Unless she should fall away from her human beliefs and jump off a bridge, which would actually be a pretty predictable reaction.
She's right I probably won't get another chance like this. And it's better that way. To fall in love is to sacrifice yourself. It means being vulnerable to someone and it means allowing a weakness. Unfortunately for me, I have enough people who would take advantage of that weakness. I already realize that it seems unfair to Ruby I was asked for my number by someone like him in a gray hoodie, no makeup, and sweatpants. I think even a lot of girls in this world would see it that way.
But basically it's not my fault, I didn't even go for it and I certainly didn't want it. After all, I didn't choose it. I didn't choose anything. If I had a choice, I'd rather be some poor girl living on the streets that no one wants anything to do with. Then I would have significantly less problems.
After making myself some breakfast, two sandwiches with cheese and jam and a coffee, I pull my laptop in front of me and continue my research on the men looking for me. Sighing, I realize that it really isn't easy being me.
Alaysia, the people who know of the place I come from title the planet Earth 15, daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. Fun fact in here, we don't have what humans think of as DNA. And it's terribly exhausting not to bleed here. Not that human weapons could hurt me in the slightest, but if I scratched, it becomes dangerous. I don't even want to know how scared people would be if they saw that I bleed golden and not red like them. But since I fortunately never get sick either, not even doctor finds out about it.
Annoyed at not even knowing the name of my adversary on this earth, I search for secret organizations that target the supernatural. You see, three weeks ago, I made a gross mistake when a drunk tried to grab me and I kind of. . . coked him. I didn't really want to keep my flash net from him and stupidly it was recorded on camera. So, you can just see my arm and the lightning net as the older man sinks to the ground - no, he didn't die from it, but he's not doing particularly well. Luckily the police dismiss it as a cable fire or something, there were plenty nearby, but someone got onto me and has been following me ever since. Stupidly, I don't know who, how many or how much they have.
I came to this earth to hide from the great ones. They can search a long time in this jumble of a universe until they find me. The fact that I can change my shape into anything I want doesn't make finding me easier.
Now I'm sure the question will come up as to why I'm wanted. Why so many people are after me, and not just people, why I ran away, and why I don't have just one gift like the other gods.
I can't give it all away, but this much: there is a prophecy that one day a child will be born to a deity who possesses a gift never seen before. It has the power to destroy planets, win any battle, and if it wanted to, push the gods off their thrones. No one gets the idea that such a thing would never be my intention, but prophecies are always somehow very one-sided.
However, this has made me the target of many people from my earth - including my parents. People from Earth 1 don't know about prophecy or anything like that, at least not many. They think they've discovered just about everything, but that the gods exist and have been banished to a parallel world after almost figuratively razing the first one to the ground - or the lunar soil? Made like Jupiter? Well, in any case, they were then banished and faith in them waned. So, actually they banished themselves, Zeus did it, but my dad always blames him, I apologize for that choice of words.
In any case, I guess the people down here are still excited about magic and on to me. Maybe the prophecy has also leaked out over the last five years to find me, I don't know.
Anyway, I guess I'm more or less a fugitive, having been fine here for so long, and I now have to watch my own head.
Oh, and the thing about the lightning - that's actually one of the two natural gifts that I have. After all, Zeus is my grandfather, and somehow everyone has a little something of their grandparents, don't they?