God of Misfortune

Prologue Part 2

The dust settled over the dilapidated room, leaving more disaster in the wake of the tremoring earth that still shook every few hours, the aftershocks rattling the old stone building that had all but fallen in on itself. The ground outside had been scarred with a deep crack, the sounds in Ambree's ear being reduced to nothing but the distant whirring of fire engines and screams of agony from the outside. 

Inside, though, where she lay with one arm trapped underneath fallen bricks, there was silence. The dust had settled, not interrupted by the screams of life that were ringing from the outside, her world quiet and as settled as the dust all around her. She could hear screams outside, of crying, and of distant hope, the voices so far from her that she felt nothing but an uncontrollable anger welling within her. She could not move, the shock of what was happening startling her into silence as she breathed in gently, stirring the dust as she thought to where she was. 

Home, her apartment block where she lived with her Mother and Father, her dog Zeus and somebody else. Somebody far more important, though her mind failed to remember a name. Letting out a gentle whimper, she turned her head, a dizziness washing through her as she tasted something warm and coppery in her mouth, mixed thickly with dust that made her splutter and cough, her eyes capturing another person lying nearby. Their face was crushed in by bricks and stone, revealing red and blackened blood and parts that she wished not to see as she felt the sick rise in her throat, rolling toward the pile of bricks that trapped her. 

She had no doubt who it was, it was evident from the outfit and from the distinctive family tattoo on the right arm, resting along the inside crease of the elbow, her Father. A sob welled in her throat, barely able to escape over the stinging sickness she felt. She knew there was no use trying to call out to him, trying to wake him up, the Goddess of Death had taken him away, this much she was aware of. Her family had always believed in the Order of Gods and believed that their family were promised to the God of Misfortune, that was what the stupid tattoo on her Father's arm and on her own arm had meant.  It looked like a rising sun, in golden pinpricked hues with a geometric shape. The first child of each generation had to have it and thus marked out their loyalty to the Gods. She thought it to be nothing more than old fanatics of some aged cult, thus the tattoo which she bore had little relevance to her. 

That was until she saw it on his forearm, twinkling under the amber hues of the setting sun for just a moment before it faded out of existence as if it had never been there. She felt sick well in her throat again as she looked at him, turning on her side once more as her eyes caught hold of something else, the somebody she had forgotten. 

Her little sister, 15 and beautiful, with rivers of dark hair that her Father, too had laid out across the floor next to her, a beam of metal trapping her fragile body. Ambree could see the gentle rising and falling of her sibling's chest as she breathed, though she herself struggled with memories of the intelligent girl filled her heart. With a whimper, she tried desperately to move her arm once again, feeling an anger within her that would not stop as she glanced back to her Father, glowering at the now empty forearm. 

  "What use is there of praying to the God of Life or Mercy when the only God who holds onto me is the God of Misfortune. So I'm asking you to save that little girl and my life, in turn, is yours to have, I promise."  She cried out desperately again, trying to move the arm as she caught a glint of her own golden tattoo, seeming to shine brightly despite the dark confines of the brick cell that trapped it. There was a desperation in her heart as she thought to the God that she promised herself too. If there was one thing that she felt, that her soul called out to at this moment, it was the absolute truth of the God. She had no care or thought of any other God, only him.

  "God of Misfortune, you bastard, you have had a hold on my life for years, so if you don't help me out soon I will make your life a damn misery,"   She growled, feeling a sting in her arm along the tattoo as she free herself with an uncontrollable strength that she did not know she possessed, stumbling over to her younger sister with an angered sob. Her thoughts were too dominated by thoughts of her little sister to understand the impossible was happening. Her hands, still shaking, pulled the beam from her sister, watching as the girl turned on her side, spluttering a cough as she rolled into her sister's arms with a loud sob. She was not aware of the glowing on her arm, nor of the God that watched her silently from above. Neither life was meant to survive, yet here she was, with her promise to him as her only protection. 

She cradled her sister softly, the name only just coming from her lips now. 

"I'm so glad that you're alive Tessa, please hold on a little longer," Ambree hummed down at her, watching as her sibling's blood dripped gently onto the floor. Her power was something that could only be given by the Gods as she flung Tessa over her shoulder as if she were a handbag despite the tear in her arm below the tattoo and the gash in her head that otherwise would have killed her.  Moving with unimaginable strength, she took Tessa from the building which began to tremor and shake with another aftershock. Moving through the doorway all sounds suddenly became real to her, having forced her way through the threshold of life. In her mind, she thanked her dear God for her one chance and moved swiftly into the throngs of life with only a dim and broken hope for her own future.