Designs of Destiny (with Bonus Content)

First Bonus Chapter

A few years back...

They say long walks are good for the soul.

They certainly were for me—not just for the soul but for my overall being. They took me out of the house and far away from a reality I constantly craved to escape. Some days, those walks would eventually take me back to the gnawing silence long after my father's drunken rant had faded into the night. Occasionally, the alcohol wouldn't quite take him down. Instead, it would wake the monster and God save whoever was within his reach.

Since home was not much more to me than just a box of wood and vinyl siding, it didn't make much of a difference when I sought shelter somewhere else for the night. Yes, the world out there was a dangerous place but so was home with a father who had no conscious thought that he was that—a father. I'd learned to take my chances.

And tonight, I was taking a chance at a little sleepover at Embers.

No, it wouldn't get any five-star rating from anyone who stayed there but they offered the advantage of lacking the usual policies. No one asked questions, no one called your parents or child services. I tried to avoid staying at homeless shelters because there were a lot of other people out there who needed it more than I did. I would often stay with Aimee, the nurse who used to work at my high school and became some kind of older-sister figure to me. She'd offered me a place to stay several times in the past, and even though I wasn't big on receiving charity, I took it. It was as much for my sanity as it was for my physical well-being. Aimee had an little girl named Rose and the evenings I'd spent with them making dinner or just sitting in front of the TV were some of the best in my life. But she took Rose out of town to visit her parents for the weekend and I had no choice.

Dad almost got me in the face with a boot. He'd been a little unhappy with me lately after I showed reluctance about his grand plans for me after high school graduation. To quickly summarize, I had grand plans of my own and they were nothing like his and lately, it'd become just another thing for us to argue about. His mood worsened tonight when I picked up the boot and threw it back at him, catching him on the shoulder.

I'm all for respecting your elders but age plays no role between an attacker and a victim. The numbers don't define them—just the part they play in the nasty dance of assault.

So here I was except—hmmm. Where is here?

The building I was looking at looked nothing like Embers. It had been about six to eight months since I last stayed in it but I couldn't have possibly forgotten where it was.

This was definitely where it used to stand.

But something else stood in place of it now—St. Martin House.

The shape of the new building looked similar to the old one but it somehow looked bigger and higher. It could be the fresh paint or the abundant amount of light spilling out from new windows. For a second, I thought it had been converted into some kind of office facility for a charity group or something like that but the six people who were lined up outside confirmed my suspicion. Winter definitely brought in a larger number of people seeking somewhere warm to stay in. As the weather got nicer, less people wandered in but today was a rare, cold and wet spring day and these folks waiting outside were definitely hoping for a free cot or lumpy mattress and maybe some food.

"What happened to the old place?" I asked the woman at the end of line as I took my spot behind her. "It used to be Embers."

The woman was around her mid-forties with scraggly hair, pock marks and  clothes that smelled a little too 'lived in'. She smiled at me, flashing chipped teeth. "Yeah, used to be. They cleaned it up pretty nice a few months 'go and gave it a new name and everythin'. 'Tis like the Four Seasons for you and me, ya know?"