text: "Ummm sure?" Wilson didn't really like the idea of going out into the city where death awaited around every corner, but she was so forceful about asking him to go.
  
  "Bye Laszlo," she called over her shoulder as she turned on her heel and marched out of the apartment. He didn't respond.
  
  Wilson started, "Laszlo..." he trailed off. Moments later, his best friend had him wrapped in a hug.
  
  Laszlo looked at him, "don't die, okay? I know you think I'm selfish for staying here, but... I'd be worthless out there anyway. I'll hold down the fort until you get back. I promise not to worry too much so just, just don't die."
  
  "Hey, I'll promise if you do. Promise me you won't die."
  
  Laszlo replied, "I promise."
  
  "Then so do I." With that, Wilson walked out of his studio and followed his sister down three flights of stairs and out of the building.
  
  They exited through the main door and as soon as he took a step outside, Wilson was aware of the smell. The overwhelming stench of blood nearly brought him to his knees. "What is this? Why...?"
  
  Mariah seemed unfazed. "Come on." She grabbed his arm and practically dragged him forward.
  
  All around them were bodies in various horrific conditions. Some were alive and moaning for help, most weren't. Wilson suddenly felt his ankle being grasped. Looking down, he saw a woman lying on her stomach with her arm outstretched, grabbing his ankle.
  
  "Please...please help me," she begged.
  
  Mariah turned around to see why Wilson stopped. "Let go of him." she ordered.
  
  "Please! Please!" she was crying.
  
  "I'm sorry," Mariah almost whispered, then pried the woman's hand off her brother.
  
  Wilson interrupted, "wait, we need to help her. Look at her, she's still alive, she's savable!"
  
  "Look at the knife in her back. She's losing blood quickly and won't survive much longer without being bandaged up. If we stop to bandage her up, we'll be killed by whatever is out there. Come on, let's go."
  
  "Wait!" Wilson stood his ground, then kneeled in front of the dying woman. "What killed all these people here? What's going on?"
  
  The woman stared at him, desperation lost from her eyes. Almost as if she had accepted her fate. "We killed each other. It was as if murderous rage was inserted into us and we just...I-I-I had to kill. It was uncontrollable. I killed three, four of my neighbors. Then, as if nothing had happened, I was back to my normal self. I think...I think we all felt like I did. We had to fight, to kill."
  
  Mariah pulled Wilson back up to his feet, "the longer we stay here and talk, the more likely we are to die. Besides, how can we believe anything she says? We're the reason she's going to die, remember? Come on, let's go."
  
  Wilson followed without another complaint. Corpses lay haplessly everywhere. They walked silently for blocks, the only sound coming from dying people moaning for help. Then, another sound seemed to surface. It sounded like screaming.
  
  "What's that?" asked Wilson.
  
  "Probably zombies or something."
  
  "Zombies?! Wait, that woman said people were being filled with murderous urges. Maybe what we're hearing is a war."
  
  "Bah, wars don't exist!"
  
  "Don't you mean zombies don't exist? Wars happen all the time."
  
  "Oh, shut up!"
  
  They walked on, listening to the sounds of violence.
  
  "I don't think going towards the screaming is a good idea." said Wilson.
  
  Mariah kept walking, "this is the way to the castle. I don't want to take a detour. Besides, it would be good to see what we're dealing with."
  
  Wilson wanted to argue, but figured staying quiet and following would make him least likely to be left behind. The siblings walked silently for a while, ever nearing the strange yelling sounds. Then they saw it. Standing on corpses, cars, and even each other, a group of hundreds of people stood around something, cheering loudly.
  
  Wilson spoke, "what the hell is this?"
  
  "Maybe we should ask them."
  
  "Or we could just keep going and not risk involving ourselves in whatever this is."
  
  "We need to figure out what's going on if we're going to stop all this. This cheering crowd probably has some sort of answer."
  
  Mariah shrugged, then walked up to the circled crowd and pushed her way through, directly followed by a reluctant Wilson. Surprisingly, the crowd didn't seem to care much. In fact, it seemed they barely noticed being pushed out of the way. Once they were up front, the reason the crowd was cheering suddenly became clear. All these people formed a large circle and inside the circle were three people.
  
  One was a little girl, no older than eight. She looked around with fear in her eyes as she looked around. The man standing next to her looked to be in his early 40's and clutched the girl by the hand. The third person was a woman, if you could call her that. She had black wings, black curly hair, and a long black dress.
  
  "Let's get started, shall we?" She yelled to the crowd, who cheered even harder.
  
  The woman walked over to the little girl, "here we have Ashley, who loves her dad," then she walked over to the man, "and this is John, who loves his little girl, Ashley, more than anything in the whole world."
  
  Ashley and John stood clutching each other, fear imbedded in their body language.
  
  The winged woman continued, "I wonder what would happen if I sprinkled just a little bit of discord!" The woman then placed a hand on one of the shoulders of Ashley and John, then stepped away, excitement in her eyes. The crowd cheered then, as if her touch had raised something inside them, the father and daughter stood up and stared each other down. Without warning, John leaped towards Ashley and grabbed her neck with both hands.
  
  Wilson watched on in horror as the little girl's throat was crushed. Then he looked away and plugged his ears. But it wasn't enough, the sounds of gore as the man ripped up his daughter's body rampaged Wilson's ears. Mariah stood still as a rod, unable to tear her eyes away. Ashley's body was a mushy lump of flesh and blood when the winged woman snapped her finger and John immediately stopped.
  
  All at once, he was back to himself. He looked down as his hands, stained with blood. Then he looked down at the little girl's body. She was an unrecognizable pile of gore. Bits of organs lay everywhere, accompanied by bone fragments. And the blood, oh the blood. It seemed to seep from every crevice of his existence. But somewhere inside him, despite how impossible it was to tell from looking, somehow he knew that was his daughter. He knew something else, too; he knew that he was the one who did this to her. That was what broke him. John's bloodcurdling screams of anguish echoed through to Wilson's very bones.
  
  The winged woman addressed the crowd, "how was that for a show!"
  
  The crowd booed, then pulled John away from Ashley, emptying the ring save the corpse and winged woman.
  
  "Yeah, I know, it was pretty boring! Close family relationships are fun to mess up, but it's so boring when the fighters are so uneven in strength!"
  
  She looked around, then spotted Mariah and Wilson. "Well I'll be, if it isn't a pair of siblings. You two are perfect! Both strong adults, even I can't tell who will win. Step on out into the ring!"
  
  Wilson shouted, "No!"
  
  Mariah asked, "how did you know we were siblings?"
  
  The winged woman laughed, "I fear I failed to introduce myself. My name is Eris and I'm the goddess of discord. I guess you could say I just know things. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance. Now please, step on into the ring."
  
  She stepped over the bloody lump of what was once Ashley and walked right over to Mariah, staring her straight in the eyes, "Step right up, don't be shy."
  
  "Goddess of discord? Please, things like that don't exist." Mariah's voice was unnaturally cold.
  
  "They don't? Why don't you come on into the ring and see how much we disagree, huh?"
  
  The crowd pushed Mariah into the ring, followed by Wilson. He looked around, horrified by all the excited faces, crying out for blood. He didn't know why the man was driven to kill his own daughter, but he did know he would never, could never, do such a thing.
  
  Then Eris yelled out, "let's start the show!" and walked towards him, placing a hand on his shoulder. He was suddenly filled with an inescapable rage that screamed at him to fight, fight, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!
  
  > fight Eris
  Wilson HAD to fight someone and he figured Eris was his best bet. She was the one who had forced him to feel this way, after all. He glanced over to Mariah, she had the same look of bloodlust in her eyes, the only difference was it looked like she was directing her will to fight onto him.
  
  "Let's get Eris!" he yelled to her.
  
  Mariah suddenly completely changed her mind about who to kill, "yeah!"
  
  The goddess laughed, "it's so easy for soldiers in battle to change sides."
  
  Mariah and Wilson lunged at Eris from either side. She laughed as they punched her, kicked her, and clawed her.
  
  "You really think you can kill, let alone hurt, a goddess? Ignorant fools!" She laughed heartily while the crowd jeered at Wilson and Mariah.
  
  The siblings kept going and going, attempting to land a blow that could harm Eris, but it was futile. In their rage and bloodlust, they could barely tell. All at once, the goddess stopped laughing.
  
  "This is boring, you two keep trying to fight me. It's impossible. Such an unbalance of power is so boring."
  
  Eris knocked them both onto their backs without an ounce of effort. She snapped her fingers, bringing them both back to their normal selves.
  
  "You dared to pick a fight with a goddess. I admire your courage, but it was dreadfully boring when you refused to give up. So I have only one question for you: would you like to die slowly or quickly?"
  
  > die quickly
  Wilson swallowed hard, accepting his fate. Something told him Eris would kill him no matter what he said or did. Arguing would just make his death worse, even he knew that. He was no masochist and wanted to die in the most painless way possible.
  
  "I want a quick death," Wilson said quietly.
  
  Eris smiled slightly, "I disagree. I think you'd be better suited for a slow death."
  
  The goddess stuck two fingers in her mouth and gave a loud whistle. Out of nowhere, appeared three women who looked horribly similar to her.
  
  Eris addressed Wilson, "I would like you to meet my daughters Achos, Ania, and Lupe. I think you'll all get very well aquatinted on your long, painful journey to death." She laughed as the Algea dragged him off to be tortured.
  
  She turned to Mariah, "I'm bored of pitting families against each other. Maybe I'll just go back to starting miniature wars on the streets."
  
  Eris clapped her hands together twice and suddenly all the people forming the fighting ring began fighting each other. Mariah looked on in horror as strangers beat each other to a pulp.
  
  Eris had a faint smile on her face as she watched. Mariah turned to her, "why?! Why are you doing this?! You're horrible! You're the scum of the Earth! The absolute worst creature to ever exist!"
  
  Eris made a face of pure ecstasy, "I never expected such a strong dislike. You hate me, don't you? Not an artificial hate like all these people," she gestured to the people killing each other, "but you, you hold true hatred for me. I've never felt more alive then right now! Here's the thing: I hate you, too. I can't stand people who don't like me, they're so disagreeable."
  
  Suddenly, Eris threw Mariah to the ground and pinned her down, holding her neck in her godly fist.
  
  Mariah struggled for a breath, "heh, you should've," she gasped for air, "joined the military."
  
  Eris smirked, "because I'm so strong?" Her grasp tightened.
  
  She gave a desperate heave, "n-no, because....you could make....the enemy....surrender....just....so they....don't have....to...deal......with some...one as...annoy...ing........as..............you."
  
  With that, the light in Mariah's eyes died and she was no more.