Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 161535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 538(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 161535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 538(@300wpm)
Lachesis puts a hand up. “Let me try again. I’m not trying to shame you. I’m offering you a bargain.”
The hysterical bubble in my throat eases. I blink away the tears threatening to spill. “A… bargain?”
“I figured you wouldn’t believe me without proof, so that’s why I showed up yesterday and did the whole ‘carnival’ thing.” She twirls her cigarette and takes another puff of it before leaning forward to address me. “Your brother David is dying. Lucky for you, I’m one of the goddesses of fate. That means I can pull a few strings—pun intended—and make sure he has a nice, fulfilling, cancer-free life. With one tweak, he’ll live to be a hundred. He’ll get his doctorate and switch to cancer research. After that, he’ll spend the rest of his life on cures that will save countless others. All you have to do is say yes to what I’m about to propose.”
Oh. “Yes.”
Her brown brow goes up. “You don’t even know what I’m going to ask yet.”
“It doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, I’ll do it.” Determination burns in my belly. I’ve been hoping that David would catch a break at some point—perhaps this is it.
She closes her eyes, an expression of pure bliss on her face. “God, that’s why you’re perfect for this job.”
“When do we get started?” I clasp my hands in my lap, no longer concerned with coffee spills or smoking customers. I truly believe her when she says she’s the goddess of fate. She knows things no one else could possibly know.
And she knows how to save David. Nothing else matters.
Lachesis stubs the last of her cigarette in the puddle of coffee and crosses her arms over her T-shirt. “While I admire the bravado, I feel obligated to tell you the details of the situation. Just go into this with an open mind, all right?”
I nod. It doesn’t matter what she says. If she really is the goddess of fate and can save David, then I want to do this, no matter the cost.
“I owe a favor to someone in another realm, so we’re doing an exchange of sorts.”
“Another ‘realm’?”
“Another world, a parallel one. All souls exist in a woven tapestry on this side, a spiderweb of threads on their side. We Fates have similar jobs, so we swap stories and share information from time to time. If they need something, we help, and vice versa. At this moment, those Fates need someone that can easily be pulled from this realm’s weave, because the right candidate doesn’t quite exist in their world. We’ve had success with a few others in the same situation recently, so I dug around in our tapestry, looking for someone that won’t be missed. Someone that has something to lose, and someone that has the right sort of cheerful determination for the shitty job I’m about to hand them.”
Someone that won’t be missed. Ouch. I’d argue that I’ll be missed by David, and by my coworkers that I’m continually picking up shifts for, but otherwise…well. We don’t have a big extended family, David and me. There are no lovers, and my friendships are all surface-level because I never have time to hang out. Anyone I was close with drifted away years ago and moved on to college and other things. Even so, it stings to think that I’m so easily ‘removable.’ “I see.”
“And frankly, your coping mechanisms make you ideal.”
That makes me pause. “Coping mechanisms?”
She takes out a new cigarette, lights it, then pulls a long drag on the new one before answering. “Your endless cheerfulness and can-do determination are trauma-induced. Don’t make me get all psychological on you. Those things are perfect for what we need, because you’re going to be more or less the one driving this scenario.”
I am? “I’m still saying yes, but what exactly is the job?”
“You’re going to have to babysit a god. And he’s not a nice god. In fact, he’s the god of disease.”
I recoil at that. The god of disease? The very thing that’s killing my brother?
“I know. Irony, right?” Lachesis’s smile is faint. “We didn’t plan it that way, but funny how things work out so well.”
“Why is there a god of disease at all?” I ask, indignant. “Why celebrate something like that?”
“It’s a catch-all term for everything, truly. Disease, decay, rot, contagions, sicknesses, epidemics, pandemics, plagues, illnesses…I could go on and on.”
“And I could ask again, why would you want to celebrate something like that? Why would you worship it?” There’s a hard edge in my tone. “Why wouldn’t you want to eradicate it instead?”
Lachesis studies me. “Big picture, honey. You have to think big picture.” When I shake my head again, she continues. “What happens when a tree decays in the forest? It makes way for new things. The rotten wood falls to the ground and nourishes the soil. You see it as an end, but the larger powers see it as renewal. Remember the black plague in the Dark Ages? It upended society and paved the way for the Renaissance. Change isn’t always bad. It’s just change.”