The Fight

Tim's panic was so overwhelming that he failed to notice Nancy's silence, nor did he realize that the car had stopped moving. In face, he didn't even catch onto the fact that the truck didn't hit them. Not until he ran out of breath, at least.

He opened his eyes. Arms over his head, knees to his chest, Tim realized that, at least for the moment, he was going to live. The truck's grill, an inch or two from his window, would have brought his doom in less than a second, but the same supernatural forces that had toyed with him earlier were still at play.

There was a noise. Voices. Tim unbuckled himself and adjusted how he was sitting, then looked around. On the sidewalk nearby, the old woman and her two sisters were arguing. Too distant were they for him to hear what they were saying, but whatever it ws, it was heated. Arms were being thrown in the air, faces were red with anger. Not only that, but literal sparks were popping on the sidewalk all around them.

The truck was far too close for Tim to be able to open his door, so he reached over and pushed Nancy's door open, then awkwardly climbed over his date, much more difficult to do in a dress and heels than it would have been in jeans and a t-shirt, but he managed. Sure, he ended up on the ground with his dress over his head for a moment, panties exposed to the silent and unmoving world, but Tim had bigger things to worry about.

"I told you already," the old woman was saying, aiming her pinky fingers at her sisters as if they were weapons, which perhaps they were, "this mortal and I have an arrangement."

Gaunt Luck laughed, then batted the air in front of her, creating a hot blast of steam that Tim felt from where he was standing by the car, "Your pitiful arrangements have no hold on the power of fortune. Luck is an unbridled mare that will step where she pleases."

"Referring to ourselves in the third person? Is that what we are doing now?" the old woman said, then, in an snooty voice, "Her Ladyship Justice wishes to tell her sisters that they are bitches."

"How dare you!" the younger one, Destiny, shouted, looking like the embodiment of rage despite her young features and her garments being copies of Tim's sundress and heels, "You cannot deny fate! The story of this mortal was written before the foundations of the Earth were laid. This game that you play at is unbecoming, even for one as low as you, Justice."

"Cow," Justice spat.

"Pardon me," Tim said, stepping up to the women, close, but not within arm's length, not that the length of an arm would protect him from these three.

"Not now, kiddo," old lady Justice said, aiming her pinkies at her sister's faces.

"I won't pretend to understand what you three are up to..."

"And good that you recognize the limitations of one such as yourself," Destiny opened a fist, causing thunder in the sky and an icy cold wind to blast Tim and Justice, Tim's dress flying up around him like a Marilyn Monroe picture.

"...but I'm the one with the most to lose," Tim kept going, desperately trying to hold his dress down, "and Nancy."

"See?" Justice said, anger in her voice, "Just to spite me you'd take the girl's life too!"

"One mortal's life is of no concern."

"No concern?!" Justice yelled. She lowered her right pinky and aimed her middle finger at Nancy. A myriad of purple lines shot out from Tim's date into the sky. Images began to blossom from the lines. Pictures of children, of careers, of discoveries, of lives lived fully, "So many possibilities, so many branches. A girl like this could do anything, be anything. She hasn't been gorged upon by you soul-suckers, she is unfettered. You miserable hags won't be satisfied until everything is in rubble."

"Please don't hurt her. She hasn't done anything to deserve this," Tim said, pointing toward the truck, "And besides, I thought we had a deal!"

Justice smiled. The other sisters screamed.

"Oh, that's the magic word, isn't it?" Justice laughed. She stepped forward. Destiny and Luck stumbled backward.

"You think you can come into my house and take what's mine?" Justice said, stepping forward again, "I have a deal with this mortal. A fair deal. A just deal. Your clumsy attempt to pervert chance and kismet into an **** was bound to fail. You forget your places."

Destiny and Luck quickened their pace away from the old woman, fear in their eyes.

"You are my sisters," Justice continued, "born of the same womb, of the same day. That's the only reason I don't call down judgement on you. And my judgement would be bountiful."

Justice pointed her pinkies at the sisters again. This time the two froze in place and began to gasp for air. Their feet left the ground. Three feet up they were held suspended. The air around them was filled with the sound of static discharges. The hairs on Tim's arms began to stand on end.

"Now get lost," Justice said, "Before I change my mind."

She dropped her pinkies, and the women dropped to their knees. A strong metallic smell filled the air and they vanished, leaving Tim standing alone with Justice, near the car that held his doomed girlfriend.

"What now?" he asked.