War of the Gods

Present Time

Maria shifted uncomfortably in her seat as her older brother, Shaun, gave her a once over. Even though she was only two years younger than him, at the age of twenty-one, he acted as the parent. Of course, he was the only authority figure she had in her life. Her father had left when she was five and her mother died of AIDs seven years ago. Her mother was only thirty-two; she had spent much of her teenage years whoring herself out on the streets. That's how she had met and supposedly fell in love with their father. Not that it mattered; she had never really seen much of either one as a child.

"You mean to tell me you flunked your English 101 test on PURPOSE?" he ground out through gritted teeth. He ran a hand through his shaggy white hair and shook his head in disappointment. "Why?" he sighed. He had a raging headache already, and it was only noon on a Saturday.

Maria rolled her chocolate eyes in agitation. "I told you; there's this guy named Anubis I'd like to get to know better. He spends a lot of time in the detention room, but I don't know why. Honestly, I'd never met him before. There are a few new faces this year, actually. At least, I THINK they're new; I just started attending school this year" she answered. She picked at her painted-black-fingernails, forcing herself to look him in his blood-red eyes. She truly loved her brother, but the fact that he was an Albino still startled her at times. That was the main reason their superstitious Greek grandmother wouldn't take them in; she claimed that Shaun must have a part of Hades himself hidden deep within his soul. Maria didn't believe a word of it but kept that part of her opinion to herself.

Shaun let out a deep breath and stood up from the ratty couch he had been seated on. "Why don't you talk to him, then? I highly doubt that you have" he grumbled. He walked into the kitchen and came out a second later with a McDonald's bag. He tossed it to Maria, who was barely able to catch it; she had never been very athletic, unlike her brother, who was captain of the varsity basketball team at Academia University.

Maria shifted uncomfortably in her leather bean-bag; it was duct-taped on the top, but a few foam beads still managed to escape. "I don't really like talking to people. There's this girl, Arti, that tried to strike up a conversation with me the other day; I almost had an aneurysm. Honestly, I believe I was built to work alone" she muttered. She forced herself to stand and open the bag; inside was a cherry pie, a large fry, and a McDouble cheeseburger. The smell of greasy fast food wafted out and assailed her senses, bringing her mouth to water. Her stomach growled, but she forced herself to pour a glass of milk first. Once that was done, she went over to their metal dining table. "You should eat, too" she stated, turning to her brother who had a far-away look in his eyes.

Shaun sighed and opened the fridge, pulling out a Boost and a cold McChicken. He slowly walked over to the table and sat in front of Maria, who gave him a small smile. He smiled back with a small chuckle as they both began to eat.

Soon enough they threw away their wrappers and moved back into the living room, turning their boxy television to the news. There were reports of strange weather phenomenon all around the world. A hurricane that reached Seattle; tornadoes in Alabama in the middle of winter. There were even locust attacks in Egypt, which hadn't happened in a long time. Even Las Vegas was hit with three feet of snow.

Maria tugged on a strand of her short blue hair and parted her black lips into a small 'o'. "Global warming sure is a bitch" she murmured, awe and fear at mother nature deep in her eyes. What was becoming of the world? Just yesterday, Vegas was in the nineties. Now it was below zero and buried in white powder. And not the kind they normally saw in their seedy alleys and the backs of fancy clubs.

Shaun nodded. "So. What should we do for today?" he asked, Two years ago, when Maria started to get into trouble at school, he had decided to implement Saturdays as a family night. Though it was just the two of them, they were all each other had and he felt that if they went back to the way a family was supposed to be, she would quiet down. And it worked. The last time she had gotten in trouble at school was eighteen months ago; she spent the last year and a half of high school repairing her grades and soon found herself with a full-ride scholarship to college.