Everyone had either left or went to bed hours earlier. He’d sat up all night waiting for the sun, there was something soothing about it today. He watched the edges peak over the hill tops in the distance, the balcony on the house was something else. Stu thought about it and had no idea what he could do to control power that he didn’t know how to use. A voice behind him asked, “Do you want to be alone?”

  Without looking back Stu said, “Not really, I’m just enjoying the sunrise. Want to hang out?”

  Prosperity came out on the balcony standing with him. “I’m sorry about st night, I just had a lot of emotions after the fight, a lot of new emotions.”

  Stu kept watching the sun coming up and he said, “You don’t have to apologize to me ever again. No matter what, we’re good from here out.” He put his arm around her and she hugged him tightly

  She said, “I know you’re my master, and I know that Chaos is your master, but I wanted..” She was unsure whether to ask or not. Softly she asked, “Do you love Chaos?”

  Still staring at the skyline, he said, “Yes, very much.”

  He felt her grip lessen as she said, “Oh, because she’s your god or… because you’re in love with her? I’m sorry it’s not my pce to ask.” She pulled away as Stu didn’t let go. She stopped, unwilling to pull away from his embrace.

  He said, “I’m going to be honest with you, Chaos holds a special pce in my heart of course, she’s my God. If I’m in love with her, then I’m in love with you. I’m sorry if that sounds selfish, but you all…” He sighed correcting himself. “We all aren’t like humans; this is a very different life. I love all the gods of the house of Chaos.” Pcing his hand over her eyepatch he held it there, she put her hand over his.

  His arms now wrapped around her from behind, she hugged his arms tightly asking, “Are you ever going to tell Chaos?”

  He grinned sadly saying, “We’ll see.”

  She turned kissing him on the cheek and saying, “Well you should, she deserves to hear you say it.” Sliding out of his arms heading for the door she said, “When you’re ready, we have a lot of work to do today. So, get moving as soon as possible.”

  He sighed heavily; there was always work to do.. “All I need is four hours with those gods naked.. Hell, I’m not greedy just four hours with one God..”

  Chaos said, “Your thinking about what now?”

  Stu quickly replied, “Nothing.”

  Chaos said, “Don’t worry I can do four hours. If you need one God for that long I’m here for you. What is it? Do you want to talk about something?”

  His wide-eyed stare and hopefulness were dashed as he hung his head asking, “Are you fucking with me?”

  She asked, “Why do you always say that to me?” Stu stared at her trying to get a read on her, but as usual he was completely unable to. “Are you ready to get to work?”

  Shrugging off the disbelief he said, “Just a little longer.”

  Chaos said, “Alright. I was talking to Prosperity the other day, and I told her about training. We tried to figure out what happened with you in the bathroom, and we think…” Stu turned and decided it was time to get started suddenly. She yelled behind him, “Seriously, I don’t understand.”

  Stu kept walking not saying a word as he made his way to the main room, if he died this week at least his shameful deeds would go with him. He felt better at least knowing that much. He figured that kind of thinking made any outcome look like a win-win situation. He grinned at his dark humor. Getting into the living room, the others were waiting, and Chaos showed up soon after. The girls stared at him this morning like they all were waiting for him to say something, they all waited patiently. He asked, “Is there a reason everyone is staring at me?”

  Chaos started to say something when Miracle burst out with, “We are scared you are going to die tomorrow!”

  The other girls looked at her like she’d said something she wasn’t supposed to. Prosperity spoke saying, “We agreed not to tell him we were scared, doesn’t that put more pressure on him?”

  Miracle shyly said, “I know.. it’s just.. Look, I’m scared.. I know I’m supposed to be on my own team and not actually part of the group. I-I have lost all interest in fighting anymore, the only thing that seems to be important to me is the house of Chaos.. I’m not just interested in Stu, I love all of you, like we were always a family. Losing any of you would be too much, and if someone dies here.. I just want everyone to know what you mean to me before I lose the opportunity to tell you.” The house went silent with the weight of what she said.

  Chaos softly said, “We should get started today, there’s a lot of work to do. We won’t lose anyone here, no matter how difficult things get, I have faith in all members of the house of Chaos.” She took Miracle’s hand reassuringly.

  Stu pulled the bag of blue gods out of his pocket. Looking at them, he sighed, even if they killed him what would be the difference at this point? This would be a hail Mary moment, putting all his trust in Broth wasn’t easy, the same guy that used to pick on him in school. A drug addicted chemist, and he wanted them to take drugs to win the fight.. Broth was probably insane, looking at the girls he shrugged, he must be insane as well.. Prosperity’s hand wrapped around the bag in his hand, as he looked up she slowly took the bag from him with a gentle smile.

  Prosperity said, “We talked it over in great detail. You and chaos will try to get in sync with your friend’s enhancers.”

  Annoyed Stu said, “Friend may be a strong word, more like acquaintance than a friend..”

  Prosperity handed him a capsule, then went to give one to Chaos. “Chaos go sit with Stu, you two need to be next to each other.”

  Stu and Chaos sat next to each other awkwardly, it was weird being forced next to each other, instead of being forced apart. The other girls sat watching them expectantly, impatiently waiting for them to take the drugs. Stu raised his pill in the air saying, “Bottoms up!” Swallowing it.

  Prosperity stared hard at Stu asking, “Bottoms up, huh?”

  Stu gave her an unamused look saying, “I know you drink, don’t tell me you don’t know what it means..” An image fshed through his mind involuntarily; he saw his hand glowing at the battle. He stopped talking grabbing his head, the imagery was intense like a fshback. He saw the eyes.. His eyes? They weren’t his eyes; one was shining brightly with green fmes and the other was completely devoid of light.. It suddenly felt like an iron rod shot through his skull sending him crashing backwards in his seat, crying out in pain. Gritting his teeth he grunted through the pain for what seemed like an eternity before the pain vanished as quickly as it had come on.

  He said, “I’m alright guys. I’m sorry if I worried you.” Opening his eyes, he looked around seeing that he wasn’t in his house any longer. “Alright then.. Maybe I’m not as okay as I thought I was..” He was lying on the floor of an office, actually.. This was his old office building; he recognized it after spending years here. A two-year high school apprenticeship had led him to a career here afterwards. Shaking his head as he looked at the grey walls and sterile cubicles. “What a waste of four years.. I should have never excepted this boring life..”

  Making his way around the building he didn’t see anyone. Was this happening because of the drugs he took or something else? Moving up to his office cubicle he was surprised that it was empty as well. “I really thought I was going to run into myself or something.. Well, I guess I can’t be right about everything.. Said a cat I once knew..” He kept moving, looking around.

  After searching the entire building finding nothing he decided to leave and see if there was anything he should do elsewhere. Walking down the stairwell to the lobby and talking to himself out loud, he said, “So, if this is self-discovery based, I’ll see myself, if this is about some grand pn then I suspect a glowing orb or.. Perhaps cats.. Yeah, it would be cats for sure, they always go for the simple solution…” He continued muttering to himself in an attempt to figure out what this trip was supposed to be about.

  After about 15 minutes of walking down the steps he came to a slow stop. Looking back up the stairwell, he didn’t see anything but the stairs. He said, “Hmm.. This stairwell wasn’t this big before, 5 minutes tops to make it to the lobby.. “This bullshit.. Of course it would be this..”

  Marrow said, “It’s not bullshit.”

  Stu turned pointing at him yelling, “Cat! Called it!.. So, tell me..” Stu made air quotes saying his name, “Marrow. What is this? A stairway to heaven gimmick, analogy, metaphor? Work with me here, what’s the deal?”

  Marrow squinted at him, “Really? How do you do that?”

  Confused Stu asked, “What?”

  Marrow stared asking, “Is your superpower anti-illusion or super metaphor sight, or are you just autistic?”

  Stu looked unsure, “Uh, could it be a superpower?”

  Marrow sighed saying, “Never mind, that answer pretty much told me what I wanted to know.. This is the stairway to enlightenment…”

  Shrugging Stu said, “Right, keep going to the part on how I get out.”

  Annoyed the cat said, “Get to the top instead of getting to the bottom dumbass. Erm.. Sorry, I must have got a hairball caught in my throat.. At the top enlightenment will show you what to do to conquer your problems and bring peace to your life.”

  Raising an eyebrow he said, “Uh-huh.. So.. What’s at the bottom?”

  Still very annoyed the cat said, “Normally I’d give some long-winded speech about the way life operates in the bance of light and dark but for you I’ll just cut to the chase; Death, destruction, loss, grief, ultimately it leads to insanity.. You would do well to heed my warning..”

  Stu yelled, “Thanks ghost Marrow!” As he started running down the steps three at a time.

  Marrow yelled, “What are you doing idiot?”

  Stu stopped, looking up at him and said, “You just described my whole life, I’m going to find Chaos. Thanks.” He started running down the stairs as fast as he could. Ther was no way that description wasn’t perfect for Chaos, and that’s what he was supposed to do here. Maybe, all the backwards talking from the animals prepared him, or.. He stopped on a stairwell looking over the edge, and it went on into bckness. Or maybe he was autistic? “I should look into that if I live past this week.” Taking a deep breath, he jumped over the edge, falling into the darkness.