After Prosperity left the sushi place, Stu said goodbye to Chaos, which really didn’t go how he’d expected. She didn’t seem to get the concept of going home he thought. Shrugging it off he started walking home, glancing back at Chaos he saw her just standing there by the restaurants door not doing anything. Shrugging it off he figured she was a god, and probably safer than him walking home alone. He shouldn’t be worried about a god he just met. With that, he continued walking home.

  After a short walk he was at his small apartment. Unlocking the door and turning on the lights, he flopped onto the couch and turned the TV on. After no more than a half hour he found himself staring at the doorknob. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he would see the knob start turning at any moment. The feeling just maintained as he stared.

  Nothing happened, he continued watching it though. Finally, unable to take it anymore, the creeping feeling he had, made him get up and go to the door. Slowly unlocking the door he peaked out and to his surprise there was no one out there at all. Feeling a sense of relief he shut the door and turned the dead bolt. As it clicked in place a knock at the door stopped him cold. Slowly unlocking the door, now he wasn’t surprised, because it was of course Chaos. Stu asked, “What is it now Chaos?”

  Chaos looked embarrassed asking, “Um, well you see… I um, don’t really have a place… Um, to stay… You see.. I was so focused on finding you, I uh, kind of never did much of anything else except search for you… I’m not trying to intrude you see.. I just thought maybe since I am your God, well.. Maybe I could stay here with you, just until we die of course.. I don’t mean to cause you any more trouble.. I’m sorry…” She bowed apologetically.

  Rolling his eyes Stu leaned against the wall holding the door open. As she came in he said, “Way to stay positive Chaos.” Moving to close the door and looking around to make sure no other gods were lurking outside his door he peaked outside. He only saw the sweet old lady that lived in the apartment next to him. She was throwing her trash away and staring at him. He smiled and gave a small wave. Her expression said it all, a combination of shock and disapproval. Thinking about it he realized it was after 1AM and he was letting in a girl that looked like a high school girl. His smile and waving went from friendly to nervous and shameful. He decided to retreat inside before she asked any questions. This was getting to be too much… He locked the deadbolt, then turned to see what Chaos was doing. She stood there just inside the door wearing nothing but a bath towel, his towel to be specific. His heart rate skyrocketed, his first reaction was to yell, before he had a nosebleed, “What the fuck are you doing in my towel?!?”

  Chaos looked nervous saying, “I’m sorry! I didn’t know that was your towel, I won’t use it! I’m so sorry!” She began to pull the towel down and Stu had to physically stop her from getting completely nude in his living room. Holding the towel up himself he thought, thank God, that was close… Looking up both his hands firmly cupped her breasts through the towel as she stood there looking at him. Letting go and turning around as the towel fell to the ground he said, “Slow down please.. I just wanted to know why you were undressed, I didn’t care about you using my towel.

  She softly said, “I was hoping that it would be alright if I get a shower here.” Stu nodded not turning around to face her. She asked, “Are you sure it’s alright if I use your towel? “

  Stu said, “Yeah, it’s perfectly fine, as a matter of fact you can have it. Now it’s your tail. I mean towel!” His face was extremely red. He needed to get his thoughts off what just happened. He needed to stop thinking about her towel. Actually, that time he meant tail. He sighed deeply rubbing the bridge of his nose.

  He heard Chaos give a yip of excitement as she said thank you, grabbing the towel and running down the hallway to the bathroom. Stu shouted after her, Dear God, please shut the door!” His heart couldn’t take any more of this too innocent act. He looked up waiting to hear the door shut.

  Chaos peaked her head around the corner saying, “Aww, you’re dear to me also Stu…” She gave him an innocent smile. “Alright, for you I’ll shut the door.” Slipping away he heard the door close.

  Stu said, “Thank you for the small things.” Taking a deep breath, he thought about it. Why did he do the right thing and now he felt like he got punished..? Wait what happened here? Did he screw himself over on this deal? Shaking his head, he thought, that’s fucked up…

  He hadn’t moved an inch from where chaos had left him thirty minutes later. His mind was racing as she ventured into the living room. He was too nervous to look at her directly. She didn’t seem deterred though as she placed herself directly in front of him. Staring at the floor he could only see her petite feet, he couldn’t stop his eyes from wondering further upward. He saw her bare legs, smooth and curved. He swallowed the lump in his throat as he continued ever further up the curves of her thighs until he saw she was wearing one of his T-shirts. The thing looked like a dress on her. He wiped the sweat from his brow thinking that he could deal with this. This wasn’t so bad… Except that she looked amazing standing there with her wet hair a mess and staring up at him. In nothing but his shirt.. the sweat returned.

  His focus was stolen instantly with the TV saying, “Today we have further updates on the Broad Street tragedy that killed so many today.” He rushed over to the TV, what did they discover he wondered fearing the worst. “Today an eleven-story office building suffered tragedy after multiple explosions were reported. A flood of 911 calls came in from the public just after 4PM today prompting the city to send SWAT and Bomb disposal to the scene. Reports of injured or dying civilians came in shortly before their arrival to the scene. They entered the building as soon as they arrived, where a catastrophic steam explosion occurred in the lobby of the building killing a large number of first responders. The explosion was said to be due to the improper upkeep of the heating system in the building, and an over-pressurized steam valve that had rusted closed. The death toll currently sits at 32. The mayor has voiced his opinion on the tragedy saying he would personally be authoring new legislation to bring the steam heating system up to standard. Meanwhile detectives had very little to say about…”

  Stu sank into the couch at the news he just saw, he clicked the remote turning the TV off. “They did it. They actually covered it up. Unreal..” He seemed to be in a state of shock but he really just couldn’t believe this. All those people murdered today and the world would just think it was an unfortunate accident.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Chaos watched Stu react to the TV, the look on his face as he stared at the black screen made her want to comfort him. She could tell he was hurting, but the human always gets loud and jumpy around her whenever she tried to help. Her job as a God was to provide for her worshippers, so she took a deep breath preparing herself. Running over to the couch and slamming into it full force, coming to a stop next to him. She hit the couch much harder than she’d meant. He looked at her without yelling at her, she was almost as uneasy herself as he looked and kept staring at her. She crawled across the couch to close the distance while saying, “Why don’t you let me help you relax tonight?”

  Stu shrank back against the wooden couch arm; he thought this part was done for the night. He managed to stutter out, “C-Chaos? T-this is, um, inappropriate…” His heart was beating so fast, it felt like he would die.

  Chaos’s look changed to curiosity, asking, “Why is it inappropriate?”

  Stu was sweating now looking at her as he said, “B-because you’re so young…”

  Chaos looked upset saying, “I’m older than you and every other human on this planet… Besides, that doesn’t make any sense.. What does age have to do with rubbing your shoulders? Is that a law here or something?”

  Stu wasn’t sweating anymore, as a matter of fact he just felt like a dumbass. That was all a good point, he really needed to get his mind out of the gutter. Come on Stu, do better, he told himself. Wait, did he just call himself Stu? This was getting out of hand.

  Chaos looked sad backing away from him, it was clear he hurt her feelings. She said, “I’m sorry I always ruin everything.”

  Now Stu felt like a real dick. He looked at her reluctantly saying, “Fine… you can massage my shoulders…” He turned facing away from her. He felt her movements as she crept closer to him. He felt her hands gently find his shoulders; they were icy feeling as they moved across his back. Looking at her hand on his shoulder it was small and frail looking but had a grace that was unique to only Chaos.

  Chaos pulled him closer to her and wrapping her arms around him from behind saying, “I haven’t had a chance to tell you thank you, or that I’m sorry. You saved me today, and I really appreciate it. I believed I was finally going to die today.”

  He couldn’t see her face from his position, but he could feel her trembling on his back. The sadness in her voice was heavy and her hold on him grew tighter as he said, “It’s fine Chaos, after all I’m your worshipper, right? Isn’t that kind of my job?” He gave a small nervous laugh.

  Chaos’s trembling turned to soft crying. She didn’t loosen her grip or let go of Stu as she said, “That’s why I’m so sorry.. You chose to worship me without knowing that I have no intention of trying to win let alone live.”

  Stu asked, “What does that mean? You will just let them kill you? Why?”

  Continuing to hold him and softly sobbing on his back she said, “Yes, I am. That’s why I’m so very sorry… There are lots of things I don’t know, but I do know that chaos cannot be what rules humanity.” At this point her sobbing was no longer soft, she was in full blown remorse. She yelled, “I’m so sorry Stu! I can’t apologize to you enough!” she buried her face deeply in his back. He could feel the wet tears falling from Chaos’s face on his skin.

  He sat there absorbing the moment for better or worse while he let Chaos sob for a bit. He wanted to help her so badly, but he didn’t know how to help a god. All he could do is be human, that would have to be enough he decided. Taking a deep breath, he asked, “Chaos I’d like to ask you a serious question, besides not winning the tournament, what do you want?”

  After a minute of silence Chaos stopped crying but left herself wrapped around Stu. She said, “What I want? I’m a god, I just do what I have to do, and that’s all I ever do. Nobody has ever asked me that before…” Thinking about it another minute she raised her lips to his ear and whispered, “I think what I want is to retire from being a God.” No sooner had she said those words than she blushed following it up with, “Please don’t laugh at me or make fun of that.. Like I said no one ever asked and that was the first thing that came to mind.. I just never considered what it was that I wanted before, that’s all…”

  Stu could clearly feel her defensiveness kicking in. Reaching over his shoulder and taking her hand in his and holding it, slowly he turned to face her. Looking deep into her eyes he said, “Then when we win, lets retire. What do you say?”

  Chaos stuttered saying, “I-I’m not sure I can… they never said that was an option before. That was never a choice as far as I know.” She was avoiding eye contact with Stu and still shedding tears.

  Slyly smiling at her Stu asked, “Did they say you couldn’t retire?”

  Chaos sighed shaking her head and saying, “Like I said before, no one has ever said anything about retirement…” Stu saw the gears in her head come to a grinding halt as the sadness gave way to something else, she looked into his eyes with a look of hope asking, “Wait, if no one said I couldn’t, does that mean… Does that mean I could actually… Could I actually do it? Stu, could I retire?!?”

  Her shimmering tear-ridden eyes were now full of hope as she sat in front of him. She was radiating as he looked into her eyes thinking to himself that Chaos is actually more human than he thought a god would be. Sure, maybe a little na?ve but he probably seemed similar in her view. He smiled at her and suddenly hugging her firmly saying, “So, is it alright with my God if we try to win now?” He thought to himself as he spoke, I don’t know what I’ve gotten into, but somehow this feels like the right thing to do.

  Chaos returned the hug at this point. They sat on the couch embracing, as a weird sound broke the silence. Sounding like cracking wood, or something similar. Without further warning all four legs on the couch broke, sending the couch to the floor, and throwing Stu on top of Chaos. She stared up at Stu silent and unmoving. Stu immediately jumped up and turning away he was blushing uncontrollably. Chaos yelled, “I’m sorry Stu! I didn’t mean to upset you again! I’m sorry!” She was still lying there on the broken couch apologizing.

  Without looking back so she couldn’t see his embarrassment, he said, “I’m not upset.. I just fell on top of you.. You are not wearing anything but my shirt.. If.. Well.. I-I just…” Stopping for a second and taking a deep breath, he said, “I’m sorry, I’m rambling now.”

  Chaos softly said, “No, I should apologize to you. I broke your couch, I didn’t mean to.. I’m sorry…”

  Stu just said, “Right… The couch.. Yeah… How exactly did you break the couch again? I carried you all day and you couldn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds, so how did you manage to break it?”

  A sly smile crept across Chaos’s face as she explained, “When a God is truly believed in by someone who worships them then we sort of get a power up. Anyway, I sort of was distracted and lost control of my power a little. In a way you could think of accidently breaking your couch as a compliment.” By the time she finished speaking Stu noticed her face was redder than his.

  Stu said, “Alright, I think it’s time you tell me exactly what the power of chaos is..”

  She laughed nervously saying, “I’m sorry but I can’t really remember. I think that it must be part of the tournament. I’ve been trying to figure that out for a very long time, and I don’t have any more information than when I first woke up.” Ending the sentence with a big yawn.

  Stu looked at the clock, it was just after 4AM. Twelve hours he thought, twelve hours since my entire world changed and Chaos had taken over his life. Smirking as he looked at her still thinking, I guess it could be worse, at least chaos was pretty. He gave a big yawn as well, saying, “Fair enough, you can take my bed tonight and I’ll take the…” he looked at the shattered couch. “I’ll take the floor bed I guess…”