To Kill a God

Prologue - To The Library

Zips bounced around him, her arms swinging and her long red hair slapping against her shoulders as she hopped around.

Alphonse 'Al' Ardito would rather pour salt in his eyes than keep track of his little sister for an afternoon. But then his mother had told him to watch over her and keep the girl out of trouble. He would take the salt any day before crossing the boss.

"Zips, calm the hell down," he muttered, glaring at the still-bouncing bundle of hyperactive glee. "You're giving me a headache."

She slowed to a halt and grinned up at him, mischief gleaming in her brown eyes. "What's wrong, Al, can't keep up? Maybe you're getting too fat for me?" She reached out and patted his stomach where the small bump of a belly was almost visible under his shirt.

"Why you--" he began, pouncing at her.

Squealing in mock terror, she bolted off ahead. She kept to the wall-tended sidewalk of the road and waited for him at the intersection ahead, blowing raspberries and waving her middle fingers at him.

Alphonse shook his head and jogged to catch up.

Were this any other city, he might have worried for his not-so-lovable sister. She was cute, with the sort of figure that hinted at womanhood under her open jacket, and with long red curls of hair that reached past her shoulders. If she grew up to look anything like their mother, she was going to be a bombshell. Young woman like that should have been worried about being on the rougher streets like this, but then, she was an Ardito.

The homes and businesses in this corner of town were a little rough around the edges, and trap music was blasting from the speakers of a nearby car. Young men in baggy clothes lounged around the doors of some of the worse homes, not bothering to hide the firearms tucked into their pants.

Al looked at the nearest of these groups, and his eyes met an older man's, the person that was obviously in charge of his little gang. They nodded silently at each other.

No one would dare to mess with the Ardito heirs. It helped that both he and Zips were unabashedly armed too.

"Sophie, wait up," he said as his sister began walking off towards the right.

She paused and turned. "What?" She hated her real name with a passion. It was too normal, too un-Zips-like.

"I wanted to head over to the library, first," he said, flicking a thumb past his shoulder towards the direction of the building in question.

"Nerd," she mocked.

He snorted in response. "What's this, my adorable little sis', jealous because she's illiterate? Don't worry, Zips, I'll find a book for you too, something with plenty of pictures."

She glared at him. "As long as you don't pick none of that history crap you like so much,' she retorted. It was a little weak.

Truth was, both siblings were fond of reading. Their mother and the host of suitors that hung around her encouraged it. It kept them quiet, and the don said that a good book was like a whetstone for the mind.

The two veered off towards the centre of town, gently crossing from the rougher districts to where the homes were all cookie-cutter copies of one another, with manicured lawns and little picket fences. The Ardito family had less sway in these areas, but they were peaceful to begin with. Soon, they reached the old stone building that was the municipal library.

The edifice towered above them as they climbed its stone steps, Zip running ahead to slip into the shadowy depth of the library.

He let her. The place was safe as far as he knew, and Zips--for all her carelessness--was quite able to take care of herself.

Alphonse made his way to the back of the large ground-floor room, basking in the scent of new paper and the light from old incandescent bulbs. There he found the history section and began looking for something new to read. He loved books about real events, especially--he admitted to himself--books on the tactics and details of past wars. Napoleon was his current literary crush.

He pulled up the hood of his jacket to shade his face from the light and began reading one of the more interesting tomes.

Twenty or so minutes later, Zips joined him. "I'm bored," she lamented, stretching out the word. She looked at the heavy tome in his hand, filled with walls of text in fine print and a crude map of Eastern Europe. "Ew, now I'm even more bored!"

He grinned at her and snapped the book close not an inch from the tip of her nose. "Fine. Where to next?"

"Ice cream?" she asked, giving him a wide eyed stare.

He arched an eyebrow at her. "Oh, you have money?"

"Not quite," she said before hooking her arm with his and leaning into him with a half-hug. "But I have a loving older brother who's just looking to spoil his adorable little sis'."

He snorted and yanked his arm free. The movement brought him a little away from her. He stumbled back, a little dizzy. "Y-you wish," he said, ignoring the way the world lurched around him.

Something was up.

"We could always rob one of those ice-cream carts!" she said, making a gun with her finger. "Mom would be so proud; our first holdup!" She grinned, then her face went blank and she pressed a hand to her chest.

The world lurched again.

Little puffs of black smoke blew around them, then faded just as quickly as they had appeared. Alphonse reached around his back and pulled out his handgun. He put a thumb on the safety. "Did you feel that?" he asked.

Zips turned around, putting her back to his. "Yeah," she said, sounding distinctly worried.

"Let's get out of here," he called, his voice resonating across the silent library. Strange, he thought, how he sounded so calm.

They were wrapped in a bubble of white, filmy gauze.

The world began to shift, as though they were in the middle of a kaleidoscope spinning at a million miles an hour.

Books tumbled to the ground, the shelves shook.

Everything flashed white.

The world was gone.