Gift of the Goddess

Chapter 5- We see a ghost

"Forgive this you greedy little pigs!" Zack roared.

He leaned back and chucked the bottle at the two men. As soon as it hit the ground, the bottle erupted into a glaring explosion! The crimson and white flames consumed the entire alley. The men's silhouettes flailed as the fire tried to consume them whole. I tried to get myself to move, but my entire body was frozen. All I could do was sit and watch.

Then something unexplainable happened. A figure of an angel appeared behind the man, stretching its wings out wide. The angel's wings curled around the two men protectively. Then, I blinked and they were gone. The weight that was holding me down immediately vanished when they did too.

"Zack did you s-"

"Yeah I did," Zack replied immediately.

I stared in shock as the fire rapidly began to die down, till there was nothing left. Leaving no sign behind that it had even happened.

"No, it can't be. The fire...it's...it's gone!" Zack croaked.

He darted back into the alley and started running his hands over the brick walls. I followed behind and looked around. As far as I could tell not a thing was out of place. No ash, no scorch marks, just some old dirty alley.

"It's cold," Zack muttered.

I wanted to believe I was hallucinating. But Zack's reaction said it all. We both definitely saw it.

My thoughts were interrupted as an intense stinging pain shot through my arm. The knife wound cut deeper than I thought. As I focused on the pain I could feel the blood flowing down my arm. I moved my hand over the wound and tried to add pressure. But it didn't help. I grunted and walked over to Zack. The pain reminded me.

"Hey, you alright?"

"Yeah, I just got a few bruises," he muttered, his eyes still glued to the walls.

He seemed lost, like he had seen a ghost or something. But then again we just might have.

......

"Woah, Woah dude, your cut looks pretty bad! Fix yourself first."

I ignored him and continued to patch him up.

"Don't worry about me; you know how I am."

Zack sighed and shook his head.

"My hero..."

After I finished with him, I started to fix myself up. Lucky for us we managed to get back to my place without incident. But that just added to my suspicions.

"So let's talk about what's been happening," I blurted out.

"What's there to talk about? I'm sure you know just as much as me," he shot back with agitation.

"Well, after what just happened, I don't think it's a coincidence anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"Think, who else suddenly vanished out of nowhere on us?"

"Every girl you come in contact with," he snickered.

"No, you idiot! The old man, remember?"

"Oooh right, the old geezer. I thought he just had the munchies."

"Even if he did, it doesn't add up. Unless he was Houdini."

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it. He just so happens to be in the same alleyway the gang just jumped us at? And vanished too? It was a dead-end area, and he vanished as soon as we turned our backs, with no trace. Did you ever stop to think about how random it was for him to have only two masks? And for them to be in perfect condition? He also seemed really poor and frail. I'm sure we would've seen him begging before."

"You have a point, I guess. But what does it mean?"

I sighed and leaned back on the couch.

"Zack, yesterday do you recall any odd voices?"

"Now that you mention it." He sat back and hummed in thought. "When I went home, I kept hearing these voices saying you will be our sorcerer." He mimicked the words like he was telling ghost stories around a campfire. "I thought it was the TV, or some druggy outside."

"I heard something really similar, they were calling me their knight."

"So Sir Stryder the knight? What a fitting title for you. But anyway, what's your verdict on all this?"

"Well, in every way I look at it, I think something wants to use us for something. The titles I can't figure out. Maybe it's something with our personalities? I don't know."

It was silent for a minute. My mind raced with ideas and possibilities. The knight and the sorcerer, but why? Why the fire. Why the masks? and why save the thugs? Then something else hit me.

"Zack, what the heck were you thinking!"

He jumped like a startled dog.

"What, what?" he spazzed.

"You brought a Molotov! We could have been killed if that went bad!"

"Well, you always told me to start thinking ahead, so I did," he said with a nervous laugh.

"Not like that!"

"Well, I thought since you're a ninja or whatever, you could handle it, but all I saw was you getting your ass kicked."

"Don't turn this around on me! And watch your language!"

"I thought you said you did martial arts for thirteen years; why the hell did you lose so bad."

"Shut the hell up. I'm rusty, okay! I can still kick your butt any day!"

"Ha! I got you to say hell," Zack snickered.

I didn't respond. I was going to kill him.