Chapter#5
2714 Words
Alecia’s POV
When we arrive back at the mansion, the gods from the Ministry of Discipline are there to greet me.
“Morning, Alecia. You look so cute today.”
“Thank you. Good morning, Dion.” I answer awkwardly.
I guess they haven’t seen me in anything other than my work uniform before. I blush and shift uncomfortably on their feet with all their eyes on me.
“Okay then, what’s my name?” Izra approaches me.
“Izra?”
“Good job. Good morning, Alecia. And Dion is right, you look great today!”
“Good morning, Izra. Thank you” I continue to blush from their compliments.
These two are awfully easy to talk to, even if they are in Discipline with Slade.
“Did Slade summon you again?” Izra asks.
“Yes.”
“I hope everything’s okay…” Dion says and looks down.
“What do you mean?” I ask, confused.
“Slade is NOT a morning person.” Izra chuckles.
“He’s usually so perfect and invincible. You’d never guess he had a weakness, right?” Dion says smiling.
That callous jerk has a weakness! This information could be useful.
“Go up those stairs. Slade’s room is the third door on the right.” Izra points. “You’d better hurry and wake him up. If not, you’ll be waiting for hours.”
“Hours? Not happening!” I shake my head.
I thank Altair, Izra and Dion and head to Slade’s room.
*knock knock*
“Um, Slade? It’s me, Alecia.”
“Mm-hm…”
The unfriendly voice I hear from the other side of the room makes me think he’s woken up on the wrong side of the bed. But good, at least he seems to be awake.
“I’m coming in.”
I open the door and walk into the room. When I do I almost bump into a shirtless Slade right in front of me.
“Eek!”
I make a squeak noise by accident when I dodge hitting him. I immediately take a few steps back, putting some distance between us.
“You keep me waiting and now you scream at me instead of saying hello? It’s too early in the morning for this s**t, woman.” He says, clearly annoyed.
He’s glaring at me with a scary expression fit for a Halloween mask. He suddenly starts walking closer to me, tousling his own hair. I can’t help my eyes from roaming. His body is ripped, and his black sweatpants sit just below his hips, showing off his s*x lines. It’s probably because he’s so tall, but when I saw him in clothes, I thought he was way more delicately slender. Now that I get a good look at him though, I can see that he’s actually got a tight, toned, masculine build. Wait, what am I doing?!
“Uh…” I try to avert my eyes. “Please, put a shirt on!”
“You’re looking at my body an awful lot… for someone who just yelled at me to put a shirt on. Quit staring.”
“I wasn’t staring! You should be more careful about wearing clothes in front of women! Seriously… I can’t keep this conversation going if you remain shirtless.” I quickly avert my eyes again.
As I do, I happen to notice something black on Slade’s shoulder. Is that a tattoo? Do gods get tattoos? I quietly look back at Slade’s shoulder after averting my gaze. There’s an ominous design drawn there. It looks like a magical mark of some sort.
“Um… what is that?” I shyly ask.
“Hm? Oh…” He hesitates. “This is the mark the King branded me with. It’s because of this pain in the ass that I can’t use my powers. And I won’t be able to return until this mark is gone…”
Suddenly, Slade sits down in a chair and scowls at me.
“If you can absolve me of my sin, I can return to the Heavens. I want to get the hell off this filthy lower plane as soon as possible.”
“Say what you want, but I can’t do anything to help with that.”
Once again, I’m anxious at the enormity of what he’s asking me to do.
“But… I can try.” I add.
I’ll do anything to make this end. So, I decide I’ll try anything I can anyway.
“Well, I’m not expecting anything out of you anymore.”
“Then why did you bring me here today?”
“Work.”
Oh, that. Figures.
“It’s awfully early in the morning for that.” I speak.
“Today’s job has to be done in person.”
“We’re not going to use the reflecting pool like we did yesterday…?”
“Pollutants from Earth screwed with the pool and clouded up the water. Izra and Hiero are fixing it now.”
“Oh. Who’s Hiero?” I ask, not recognizing the name.
“He’s a member of the Ministry of Prayers.”
“Ah…” I nod.
They were right about the need to be cautious when waking Slade. It looks like I can trust Izra and Dion at least.
“This is so goddamned annoying… I can’t believe I have to go all the way out there… just to punish some rotten to the core, piece of s**t human.”
“You swear a lot.”
“How else should I describe shitty humans?”
“Not like that…”
Muttering complaints to himself, Slade starts to get dressed finally. I turn away to give him some privacy. It’s not as if I haven’t seen a naked man before, but we barely know each other, and I don’t think we could even qualify as acquaintances at this point.
“Why don’t you snap your fingers and change? It seems like a lot less work.” I add, with my back to him.
“Well first, I’d have to touch you to do so, and second, using my powers burns up my energy down here.”
“Oh.” I answer quietly.
So, we’re going to punish someone again. I really hope I don’t have to see something like what happened yesterday in person.
“Time to go.”
Slade walks quickly out of the room. I want to follow, but my feet won’t move the way I want them to. Am I that worried about what I might see?
“Tch… What are you standing around for?”
“I’m not, it’s just…”
I lower my eyes and Slade walks to my side. He wraps a forceful arm around my waist. I swallow hard when his fingers brush my bare skin around my back. Then he lifts his hands like he’s going to stroke my hair, and I hear a snap in my ear. I feel faint for a moment. The next thing I know, we’re at our destination. We’re standing in the shadow of a tree in front of a sporting goods store.
Slade’s POV
The next day after my talk with Izra at the reflecting pool, I call the woman to the mansion for another job. It’s morning again… I hate mornings. Life would be so much easier if it were always nighttime… My hatred for mornings has grown even stronger since being exiled to Earth.
*knock knock*
“Um, Slade? It’s me, Alecia.”
“Mm-hm…” I reply, speaking only as much as I absolutely have to.
“I’m coming in.”
When I hear the door, I turn around to find that woman looking at me, her eyes wide. She squeals sharply.
“You keep me waiting and now you scream at me instead of saying hello? It’s too early in the morning for this s**t, woman.”
I was already in a bad mood. I really do not need to hear screaming right now. What is she getting so worked up about? I’m just shirtless. She turns bright red and flustered. She seems to be trying to avert her eyes, but she keeps stealing glances at me. Haha… the look on her face is priceless. I laugh at the comedy of her contradictory words and actions. This isn’t so bad. Maybe I’ll tease her a little. When I purposefully step closer to her, she goes even redder and closes her eyes.
“Please, put a shirt on!”
I grin. She reacted just as adorably as I had imagined she would.
“You’re looking at my body an awful lot… for someone who just yelled at me to put a shirt on. Quit staring.”
“I wasn’t staring! You should be more careful about wearing clothes in front of women! Seriously… I can’t keep this conversation going if you remain shirtless.”
Her tough words are betrayed by her embarrassed, flustered appearance. She makes for a not-unpleasant sight. I didn’t know a woman could blush this much over something as trivial as exposed skin… She’s embarrassed, but she also seems concerned with my reaction. I find the way she’s acting somehow pathetic and sweet. Is she acting this way because she’s a virgin? No way… she doesn’t normally give off virgin energy. And she doesn’t dress modestly enough to be a virgin. She’s wearing low rise black cargo pants and a grey graphic-tee with her mid-drift showing just a bit. I don’t mind the sight of her like this at all though. I was a little concerned about her after what happened yesterday… But if she’s energetic enough to yell at me like this, she must be ok. I hadn’t realized how worried I was about this stupid woman. I’m a bit shocked at myself. Later I find myself reaching out to touch more than just her hand as I wrap my arm around her little body, shocking myself even more as I delight in the feeling of her skin against mine.
Alecia’s POV
“What are we doing here? And by the way, we’re not actually hidden at all.”
We make for an odd pair. Me, a normal nearly twenty-two-year-old in normal clothes and him, a tall man in what looks like a costume. Pedestrians throw us disdainful looks as they pass by. This is so weird…
“Shut up. Don’t open your mouth. Don’t even breathe.”
“You can’t tell me not to breathe!”
“That’s him.”
Totally ignoring my words, Slade turns his eyes to a lone man. The suspicious man looks around nervously, both his hands in his pockets.
“What did that man do?”
“He stole a knife from this store. He has it in his pocket.”
“So, he’s a shoplifter? And you can tell that just by looking at him?”
“Who do you think I am?”
I guess that’s another one of his powers as a god…
“In that case, why don’t we just warn him before he does something bad? All we have to do is stop him, right?”
Slade doesn’t answer me right away.
“He’s going to start randomly attacking pedestrians.” He says way too calmly.
“What?! We have to do something!”
“What should we do then?” He asks, annoyed.
“Um…”
“What would you do if you found someone who was about to commit a crime?”
“I would do whatever I had to in order to stop him! I couldn’t just pretend like I didn’t see him!”
“Tch… You are so freaking irritating…” He says and rubs his temples dramatically.
Slade’s comment totally shuts me down. The man takes the knife out of his pocket and walks forward, sneaking up on a middle-aged man.
“I’m not the one who’s wrong… The world is wrong. I’m not wrong… There’s no such thing as god.”
I hear the man talk to himself.
“Slade!” I get his attention by tugging on his arm.
“Tch… The world is rotten. Always has been and always will be.” Slade mutters and pulls me by the arm.
He snaps his fingers just like he did yesterday.
“Aaah!”
The instant he snaps, the man takes a dramatic fall. He cuts himself with his own knife when he falls. He’s shocked at the sight of his blood.
“Aaaaaah! Blood! My blood…!”
“Slade! You didn’t have to hurt him! If you had just taken the knife, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything bad.”
After this and everything I saw yesterday, I can’t bear to watch anymore. I cling desperately to Slade, hiding my face in his jacket.
“Are you giving a god orders? Now’s your chance. Take a good look. He’s still not planning on stopping.”
“Huh?”
Looking more confident, the man picks up the knife and starts swinging it around. A young woman pushing a stroller walks up next to him.
“Watch out! Run!” I immediately scream and jump out in front of the woman with the stroller.
“Aaahh! A knife! That man has a knife!” The woman screams.
Her scream surprises the man but, shaken as he is, he keeps striding toward us, swinging the knife.
“Who the hell told you to jump out there like that?! Run!” Slade yells at me.
When I screamed, the woman spotted the man. She instantly picks up her baby and runs. Now it’s just me in front of the man with the knife.
“My life is ruined and it’s all your fault!”
The erratic, screaming man heads towards me, brandishing his knife. If I don’t get out of here right now… I could die. I know what I need to do, but I can’t make my legs move.
“You’re the one who’s wrong! This is all your fault!”
I don’t want to die! It’s like everything is happening in slow motion. But the frenzied man with the knife isn’t stopping. He slashes down at me.
“Stop!”
I summon up all my courage and decide to try and fight back.
“Don’t fight him! You’re just going to get yourself hurt!” I hear Slade’s voice yell out.
Just then, I feel something warm wrap around my whole body.
“Slade?”
He snaps his fingers the second he touches me. I hear a thud and the man is moved a few yards away from us. I hear Slade exhale deeply.
“You saved me… again.” I whisper.
I quickly turn around and see the man fall to the ground with a crash. It looks like he lost his balance when we suddenly disappeared from in front of him.
“Somebody! Somebody come, quick! Help!”
When the woman’s voice reaches the ears of passersby in shops and across the street, people come running.
“That man came out of nowhere and attacked me!”
“He dropped the knife! Get him!”
“Call the police!”
A few passing men jump on the man at once to restrain him, easily subduing him.
“This way, officer!”
Police officers are there in an instant and the man is arrested.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen…” I mumble. “Thank goodness…”
“Don’t ever do anything like that again.” He says sharply.
Overwhelmed with relief, I go weak in the knees and collapse to the ground. I must have been terrified; my whole body is shaking.
“You hurt?” Slade asks me.
“I’m okay. I’m sorry for acting without thinking.”
Perhaps because he sees how I’m shaking, Slade-for once, doesn’t get angry at me.
“What happened just now was all my fault. I’m sorry.”
“What?” Slade
Is this really happening? Is Slade really apologizing to me?
“That’s not true, I jumped in front of that man all on my own.”
“If you understand how dangerous that was, don’t ever do anything like that again.”
“Okay…”
I bow my head in shame.
- Writer
