Stealing Fate

Chapter 1: The Sister of Fate

“Where is she?” Clotho asked. The two older girls glanced at the empty archway.  There was still no sign of the Goddess.

“Be patient Clotho, she will be here. “ Atropos answered. The girls continued to huddle around the small fire. Their hands were cold; the air was cool, the breeze drifting across them causing them each to pull their coats a little tighter around them.

Under the fullness of the moon in Athens, three shadows stood huddled together by the old garden. From a distance they looked like ordinary people. All three of them bore different shadows. The middle one was significantly shorter than the other two, and the one to her left was pudgier in stature. The one on the right was tall and lean. These were not ordinary people though; they were goddess in the very literal meaning of the word. The Three Sister of Fate as they were often called. The youngest sister is Clotho. Her duties are to spin new life in a mother’s womb. She determines the sex of the baby and the precise moment the baby will be born. Clotho places a precious jewel within the mother’s womb- a job that takes the upmost care and patience as the jewel has to be placed exactly right in order for the baby to continue to live. When a baby is born it is her job to record the parents, the location of birth, the gender and the name of each baby in the entire world.  Clotho is the gentlest of the three sisters. She also- in some people’s views- has the easiest job.

The middle sister takes care of the second stage in a person’s life. She is in charge of determining the length of each person’s life. From the moment of conception in the mother’s womb, Lachesis must determine how long that person will live. The jewel that Clotho placed in the womb becomes part of the baby when they are born. A piece of it breaks off and enters each babies system; it attaches itself by wrapping around a section of the spinal cord.  This is known as the thread of life. Lachesis measures the thread of life for each person with her measuring rod. Each person’s thread is different colors, lengths and sizes. Lachesis uses a special pendant to look inside each person’s body and measure the thread on their spins. The thread will tell her approximately when there life is due to end.  She then records her findings on a large scroll. The scroll is then passed on the to the last sister. Atropos is the oldest sister, and she is also usually dubbed as the meanest. Her job is to cut each person’s thread of life. After she receives her sister’s scroll she creates her own.  She must determine the exact moment each person will die. It is her job to decide how they will die. A freak car accident, terminal illness, whenever a person dies it is because Atropos has cut their thread. The last part of her job is to make sure that once the person has died there is a reaper in the area so that they can take the individuals soul to the other side. This is to ensure that no souls get stuck in the in-between.

However, although they are sisters and they work together, the three are very rarely ever seen together. Due to the nature of their work and the vast amounts of people on the planet they are always busy and rarely have time for sister bonding time. This was an exception though. A very big one. They had been summoned to the garden by their leader. Moira: The goddess of fate. Moira is the only person who can order the three sisters around, Even the God Zeus, is below their power. Lachesis and Atropos will bring Zeus to his deathbed when his thread runs out.  In their entire lives they had never been summoned by Moira before. It was a very rare occurrence, which meant that something was dreadfully wrong.

Lachesis began to pace. Standing still had never been her strong suit.  The girls were getting antsy. All this waiting around was only increasing their anxiety. It was one thing to be summoned by their Goddess it was an entirely different thing to be stood up by her too. Several scenarios started to fill the girls’ minds. Was she hurt? Was Athens in danger-Olympus? No. Surely if Olympus was in danger it wouldn’t have been Moira who summoned them. The girls had just about lost hope when a piercing bright light lit up the garden. The girls shielded their eyes from the brightness.  As the light faded you could begin to make out the Goddess. Slim and beautiful that was the typical description people gave when talking about Moira.  As the eldest, Atropos was the first to acknowledge Moira.

 “Goddess” She said, “What has happened?”  Moira looked around the garden, her eyes scanning every flower and shrub to make sure they were alone.

“I’m afraid, it has finally happened” She began to weep. The others stared at her in shock, having no clue what Moira was talking about- or why she was so upset. Lachesis was the first to be able to form words.

“What? What has happened Goddess?”  

“We have been compromised” she finally said, her voice was raspy from her tears.

“Compromised? What do you mean? Olympus? Has Olympus fallen? Clotho asked.

“No my dear child, no. Olympus is fine. I mean we the Goddess’ of fate are in trouble. Someone has interfered with destiny. “

Atropos was the first to understand. “You mean someone has stopped people from dying?” She asked.  Clotho and Lachesis gasped.

“That’s impossible!” Lachesis and Clotho shouted simultaneously.

“I’m afraid it’s not. My people on the ground have found a small town- Halton Hills. They reported it to me. Apparently no one has died and no babies have been born …for five years.” Moira said. Now it was Atropos’ turn to be shocked. She turned to the Goddess disbelieving.

“Five years!? How are we just hearing about this now?”

“I have my people working on that, they will find out who is behind this. In the mean time, Atropos I’m afraid I have to ask this of you. I need you to go to Halton Hills. You need to put things back in order. Anyone who was supposed to die within the past five years and has not needs to. I will make sure there are plenty of reapers at your disposal. “

Atropos stood stunned. This was unlike anything she had ever done before.  “Goddess, how? There could be a hundred souls that need to be sent to heaven? The town will become suspicious. I can’t just kill everyone in freak accidents.”

“Then don’t. You will have to be creative this time. Go disguised as a human, here is the scroll baring all the names. This has to be fixed Atropos. Can I count on you?”

The goddess, Lachesis and Clotho all turned their eyes on her.  She could feel their desperation in their stares.  She glances down at the scroll, she counted fifty names. Fifty people that she would have to kill, take away from their families after such a long period of being immune from sickness and illness. As much as she didn’t want to, she knew that destiny had to be put back in its place. No one could steal fate and mess with it. There was a determined course for everything. The seasons changed at the will of the fairies, the weather was controlled by certain Gods. People fell in love only when Cupid thought they were ready. Babies were born when her sister thought the world needed more angels.  People died when she was ready to bring the angels back to heaven. People died- but now they didn’t. False hope has been spread throughout the town of Halton Hills. This couldn’t go on. She needed to fix this.  

“I’ll do it”