“God-god of death?” I stammered staring back from the handcuffed god and the rapidly healing Chance.

“That’s me,” he affirmed with a weirdly nice smile,I briefly wondered if gods ever got braces. “Pleasure to meet you Xander,” he said attempting to hold out one of his hands to me.

When I just stared at him like he’d grown an extra head he backed away, “Nothing personal dude, you just creep me out.” I said rubbing the back of my head awkwardly. Though creeping me out did not cover how I was feeling. I'd just watched someone get murdered by a god then saved by the god that was supposed to be the Grim Reaper but was weirdly normal looking. I thought Death would have a skull face, black cloak and a scythe. He was just a normal Mexcian looking guy in jeans and a T-shirt.

“Fair enough,” he said with an easy shrugg. "Most people do fear Death, I'm not offended.”

“True," I agreed looking back and forth between Death and Chance again. "Now how do you two know each other?”

“Come on Xander, do you really think this is the first time I’ve almost been killed?” she asked me dabbing blood off her face with her sleeve. When I didn’t answer she smiled smugly. “That’s what I thought; now come on it’s only a matter of time before Ares tells someone our location.”

“Don’t they already know?” I asked indicating the storm clouds rolling in feeling pretty stupid. Chance had been running from the gods longer than I had. She had to gotten killed by now, just how many times I wasn't sure, but she was lucky to be friends with Death. Holy gods how fucking messed up is that?

“No, the storm was rolling in long before we got here; it’s just part of the weather patterns Demeter forces on Zeus. Goddess of agriculture you know; the most extreme of hippies.”

I made a face at that line and pretended to gag. “I almost feel bad for him,” I said recalling my own run-ins with extreme eco-nuts. They were horrible, going on and on about how cows put so much carbon dixoide or something like it into the air and how they were doing their part to help by eating non-animal products. My response just pissed them off, I said I was doing my part by eating the cow. “Come on, let’s get out of the rain.” We took off jogging down the sidewalk staying near street lamps, the road and fences that cut us off from buildings; the territories of three gods if my memory was right. The light was Apollo, the fences and buildings were the blacksmith god who's name and I dont' remember and the road was Hermes. Not as many as I'd have wanted but it had to cloud their vision some.

“Hey Chance since we’ve got nothing better to do, can you tell me how you escaped?” I asked spitting hair out of my mouth tasting every gross thing that was clinging to it nowadays.  I’d never let it get this overgrown before. I was still getting used to it and the fact that I hadn't had a decent shower since Alexa's place. Unless the rainstorm I got caught in a few days back counted, but I was pretty sure the lack of soap made it invalid. 

“Listen closely because I’m only telling it once,” she warned me as I nodded, excited. I was finally going to learn something about her past. “I was fourteen when dad ratted me out and I was thrown into Hell.” She spat out the word 'dad' like it was a ball of snot and I shuddered grossed out by my own thought process.  “Go on,” I said wondering if maybe this was hard for her to talk about. Maybe she’d had a really great life to be taken away from like I did. I knew it was hard to talk about my past, remembering everything I had lost really hit me hard. 

She scowled, “Don’t interrupt me! Anyways, we haven’t known each other long but I’m pretty sure you’ve been smart enough to gather that I don’t take shit lying down. So on my first week there I got in trouble with a Fury.”

“ Understatement," I joked as I imagined Chance being put in an orange jumpsuit and told she was never going to get parole. " What’dya do to the Fury?” I asked both curious and horrifed. Those bitches were a new sort of dangerous. What could've possed Chance to try and take one on and then live?

“What did I say about interrupting?” she snapped, but then she relaxed and rolled her eyes, a smile on her face. “Aw fine, I guess I should’ve expected you’d ask questions. Well see, a kid in there with me was getting his ass kicked because he’d dropped his plate which I’m sure weighed more than him." She coughed a bit and started blushing. I titled my head sure I looked like a hound dog with my long hair. What was she so embarrssed about? Was the kid her brother? "It really didn't sit right with me..soo I um...Well I sort of freaked out, grabbed my fork, jumped on her back and stabbed her.”

“Nice!” I exclaimed putting my hand up for a high five. That girl deserved a cookie! Way to tell those nasty bitches we won't take it!  “That is awesome-! Wait, how could you have done that, I mean those shackles are heavy.” I exclaimed my admiration and amusement fading as I realized how hard that had to be with bronze shackles on your wrists.

Chance grinned and blushed even redder to match her hair. “They weren’t part of the policy until after that incident. Sorry, they can’t have made your escape any easier.”

“That was because of you?!” I exclaimed punching her shoulder and laughing. "That made my escape a bitch!"

  “Yep,” she said rubbing at her wrists for some reason like she remembered the phantom weight of the limbs.“And the Fury I attacked decided the shackles didn’t punish me enough. She stripped the ones  I wore.”

“Stripped,” I repeated trying out the word and my face got screwed up with a confused look. “What’s that mean?”

  “It means,” said Chance, “that some of the metal was cut away so that it became rough. See,” she said peeling back to sleeve to show me her wrist. At first I didn’t see anything weird, but when lightening split the sky again and that light combined with the street lights and  I saw what she meant. A scar one inch across and two inches down wrapped around her wrist like a cuff. One on each wrist. My blood turned into fire and I swore next time I saw that Fury I was going to open a can of good old fashioned American whoop-ass. This was not okay, as not okay as turkey bacon, my hands curled into fists. "Don't go all planning revenge," she said like she was reading my thoughts. "I think once the gods are out of the way that is going to be way too easy. Wait til then okay?"

"I will," I said tightly, "promise. So what happened next?" I prompted elbowing her which earned me a smile.

Chance pulled her sleeves back down. “I had metal scrapping the skin off my wrists for two weeks. And when the second week was out I cut some excess fabric off my jumpsuit stuff them around my wrists and started plotting my escape.”

                When I didn’t interrupt she forged ahead. “See she-Aletco-quit worrying about me after the shackles. How could I cause trouble if I couldn’t use my hands? So I waited for my wrists to scab over and until I had full range of motion. Four weeks later that time came, I picked the lock on my shackles and cell with an old piece of wire. And I slipped out the door and over the wall.”

“And? What no runs-ins with the hellhounds? No vampire donkeys with assault rifles? Really don’t leave out the good stuff.” I joked knowing those were no the good stuff. They were a complete pain in the ass, I was not eager to meet those again.

“I was the first escapee Xander,” she reminded me. Jeez, you can stop it with that you know. We all know you escaped first no need to brag.  I thought as she continued on like she didn't notice my thoughts. “Those security additions were added after I escaped. After I climbed down the tree outside I ran towards my apartment grabbed some First Aid stuff, clothes, a butcher knife, a backpack-this one actually. Left a note for my mom and I’ve been on the run ever since.”

“Wow,” I said feeling very impressed by Chance. This girl was tough as nails. Even if she recruited me into this suicide mission to de-throne the gods. I was glad she was in it with me. “That’s sort of awesome.”

She smiled at me, a real, honest to gods smile that showed all her teeth and I then wondered if she'd had braces at one point, aside from the slight yellow color in her teeth they were straight. “Thanks," she said with a shrug, "but it sounds cooler than it is. Come on we can sleep in this alley tonight. We’re far enough away from the scene of the attack. And either way the cabbie’s gone by now, so I’m sure they’ll follow him thinking we caught him before Ares made it back.”

“False trail? Make them follow a mortal, and we were in the cab at one point so our scent should still be there. Mine for sure, I stink, and by the time they realize we aren't there we'll be gone."

“Yeah, I’m impressed that you knew that.” She said ducking down against a dumpster which smelled like fish. “Here, lean up against me. It’s going to be cold tonight. We can’t afford to get sick. We’ve got a lot of work coming our way tomorrow."

  “No shit, this trying to overthrow the gods stuff is not supposed to relaxing.” I said sitting down next to her and resting my head against her boney shoulder. “Sleep tight Chance.”

“Night Xander,” she yawned as her eyes closed. I shut mine too, today we’d been productive. We’d battled the god of war d came out alive with the help of some chick named Hestia and Death himself. We were going to see one more day to try and realize Chance’s crazy goal.

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How'd we like this chapter? Finally know how Chance escaped? (And how much harder it was for Xander =P) I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter! So please COMMENT and VOTE if you enjoyed it? Thanks! =)

Okay some news, because this is July is CampNaNo, my other stories are sorta on-hold (meaning they won't be updated every single week like usual) because I've decided I wanted to finsish this book here before August! I am so eager to share it with you al! =D