Ditching Greek | editing

32| Fair and Square

Fists were flying before I could even get the chance to make sense of the madness in front of me.

Clyde had Gideon pinned to the floor now, sailing punches into his face. I winched at the sound of bones breaking and glanced away. I didn't know what it was, but something had ignited this pint up anger. It was like a switch went off inside Clyde. He couldn't honestly be angry just cause Gideon decided to help me learn more about my own reincarnation, right? That was insane.

"Stop it!" Monica demanded with no effect on the boys. Neither of them responded to her request. She took one step toward them, but I blocked her path.

"No," I protested, "You don't want to get involved," I said. There was so much blind rage between the boys that I wasn't sure they'd stop if Monica got in the middle of this.

"We can't just stand here and watch," she boomed.

Almost as if on cue, Aaron's footsteps were heard descending down the stairway. "What the hell is going on?" He shouted, moving right for the Clyde and Gideon. He snapped his finger and a flame blossomed at the tip of his thumb. Bringing it up to his lips, he blew on it sent it flying to the boys. The flame had tapped the corner of Clyde's shirt, turning it ablaze. Gideon leaped away from him as Clyde cried out. He set his hand over the flame and it sizzled to a stop. All that was left of the fire was a blackened corner of Clyde's shirt and nothing more. His hand was unharmed, miraculously.

I nearly fainted at the sight, till I reminded myself that he could do anything the skies could. Moisture must've been released from his palm to stop the fire.

"What the fuck was that for?!" Clyde snarled, facing Aaron now.

"I'm sorry." Aaron raised his hands up. "I was just trying to get you two to stop."

"He was asking for it," Clyde said. "If anything, you should've done it to him."

Gideon spat on the wooden floor. A swirl of saliva mixed with blood left his mouth. "Don't act like the victim. You're the one who hit me first."

Clyde began to charge for him again, but Aaron jumped in before he could reach him. "Hey, if you want to fight. Great. Do it some place else though. Not here." The light in his eyes suddenly shifted. He dropped his hands and crossed his chest. "Better yet, why don't you stop fighting like humans and fight in a more... tradition way."

"Not happening," Monica snapped. "Are you serious? They'll get dangerously hurt."

"What? It makes good money." Aaron defended. "More money than a typical on the roof hockey match."

Clyde grinned. "I'm up for it if you are."

Monica gasped. "You're insane."

"Maybe I am," Clyde mused.

"What's he talking about?" I whispered to Gideon.

"If I'm not mistaken, he's talking about having a Dominick Dual." Gideon replied. "The only way I can explain it to you in a way you'd understand is compare it to what gladiators did but instead of swords we use our abilities. Only we wouldn't fight to the death."

"The modern version you don't fight to the death. But in the original, someone needed to die in order for there to be a winner," Monica noted. "nowadays whoever loses still gets to live, but they're stripped of their powers and shamed from their people. The gods would revoke your powers from wherever you came from and you'd be left a human."

My eyes darted to Clyde, who was still smiling like a maniac. "You'd do that? You'd go that far and risk stripping your powers?"

"I'd win without a doubt," he said too confidently, wiping his lower lip where a ribbon of blood had begun to stream down his chin. "I can create a hell of a lot more damage on him than he can do on me. The worse he can do in a fight is cause chaos, just like he did at the hockey game you went to."