The Celestial Chess Piece: Reborn for the Apocalypse

Chapter 3

The paramedics wheeled Caleb through the hotel lobby on a stretcher with Ryan walking right beside him. Caleb kept his eyes shut and his body limp, selling the performance like his life depended on it. In a way, it did.

Behind them, through the banquet hall doors, the show was just getting started.

Brielle Slade stood on the stage in her white gown, staring at the empty doorway where her groom was supposed to walk through. Sweat glistened on her forehead as two hundred pairs of eyes watched her slowly realize that Caleb was not coming.

"Where is he?" Brielle's mother hissed at one of the hotel staff. "Go upstairs and drag him down right now."

"Ma'am, the paramedics already took him out." The young man's voice was polite but firm. "He was unconscious."

A murmur rippled through the crowd. Guests leaned toward each other, whispering behind champagne glasses and cloth napkins.

At one of the front tables, a man in a gray suit shook his head and turned to his colleague.

"This whole engagement was a joke from the start. Everyone in this room knows that Lane Industries only survived because of Caleb. He built that company from nothing while Brielle sat in her office shopping online all day."

"Honestly, I feel sorry for him." The woman beside him crossed her arms. "He's the sharpest businessman in Westbrook, and he wasted three years propping up a woman who couldn't close a deal if her life depended on it."

Brielle's face was turning red under the stage lights. She could hear every word. The banquet hall was not that big, and these people were not trying to be quiet.

That was when Diana Weston stood up.

She walked right up to the front of the room with the kind of confidence that only came from knowing nobody in the building could touch you. She stopped directly in front of Brielle and looked up at her on that stage.

"Can I have everyone's attention?" Diana's voice carried across the hall without effort. "I have an announcement on behalf of Caleb Lane."

Brielle's jaw tightened.

"Diana, sit down. This has nothing to do with you."

"Actually, it does." Diana smiled, but there was nothing friendly about it. "Caleb asked me to tell you, and everyone else in this room, that the engagement is officially canceled. Done. Over. He's not marrying you, Brielle. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever."

The silence in the room was so thick you could have cut it with a knife.

"You can't do that." Brielle's voice cracked slightly. "He didn't authorize you to speak for him."

"He absolutely did." Diana pulled out her phone and held it up. "Got the text from my brother right here. Want me to read it out loud? Because I will. Happily."

Brielle's mother rushed toward Diana, her face twisted with fury.

"Young lady, you have no right to come into our event and make a scene like this."

"Your event?" Diana let out a short laugh. "Lady, who do you think paid for all of this? The flowers, the food, the venue? Caleb did. He always does. Your family hasn't paid for anything in years."

A few guests near the back actually laughed out loud. Brielle's mother looked like she had been slapped.

"Now, if you'll excuse me." Diana slipped her phone back into her pocket and turned to face the crowd. "I'd suggest everyone head home. The party's over, and the bride isn't worth sticking around for."

She walked toward the exit without looking back.

One by one, the guests stood up and followed her. First the business associates. Then the society families. Then the couples who had only come for the free champagne.

Within five minutes, the banquet hall was nearly empty.

Brielle climbed down from the stage, her face a mask of barely controlled rage. Her parents rushed to her side, but not out of concern for her.

"The food." Her mother turned to the nearest waiter with a frantic expression. "Don't throw anything away. Box up everything. The filet mignon, the shrimp cocktail, all of it. We're not letting forty thousand dollars worth of catering go to waste."

"Mom, did you hear what just happened?" Brielle stared at her. "My engagement just fell apart in front of the entire city."

"I heard." Her mother did not stop directing the wait staff. "And it's his fault, not yours. That ungrateful man never appreciated what this family gave him."

"Your mother is right." Brielle's father placed both hands on his daughter's shoulders and looked her dead in the eyes. "Men like Caleb are easy to control if you know how to play them. You let him run the business, make the decisions, keep his own money. You gave him too much freedom, and this is what happens."

"What exactly are you suggesting?" Brielle's voice was low.

"I'm suggesting that you go to his apartment first thing tomorrow morning." Her father's grip tightened. "You use everything you have. Tears, guilt, whatever it takes. Remind him that he owes this family. If sweet talk doesn't work, threaten to take his company apart through the courts. A man who doesn't know his place needs to be trapped."

"Your father controlled me the same way." Her mother's tone was casual, like she was sharing a recipe. "It works. Trust me."

Something dark and ugly twisted in Brielle's gut. Not guilt. Not concern. Just pure, bitter rage at the fact that Caleb had dared to embarrass her like this.

"I don't need him." Brielle pulled free from her father's hands. "I built Slade Enterprises just as much as he did. I'll run it without him and I'll make it bigger than he ever could."

She stormed out of the banquet hall alone, leaving her parents to fight over leftover lobster tails.

The next morning, Caleb stood in front of the bathroom mirror in his apartment and almost did not recognize himself.

His skin was smooth. His eyes were clear. There were no scars, no sunburn, no dark circles carved deep from months of starvation and sleepless nights. The apocalypse had not touched this version of him yet.

Three months. He had three months to get ready.

As he reached for his toothbrush, a voice spoke inside his mind. Clear, mechanical, and completely unexpected.

"Soul binding complete. System 077, Apocalypse Trading System, successfully activated."

Caleb dropped the toothbrush into the sink.

"What the hell was that?"

"Greetings, Host. I am System 077, your designated Apocalypse Trading System. I have completed a full soul synchronization with you as of this moment."

Caleb gripped the edge of the sink and stared at his own reflection, waiting for his face to tell him he was losing his mind.

"You're the voice I heard right before I died."

"Correct. I attempted to initiate binding during the second year of the apocalyptic outbreak. However, your decision to self destruct resulted in both of us being destroyed simultaneously. We were reborn together, exactly three months prior to the disaster."

"So you're the reason I came back?" Caleb's heart beat faster.

"Negative. Your temporal displacement was triggered by the artifact currently hanging around your neck. I believe it is classified as a Celestial Chess Piece."

Caleb's hand went to the pendant at his throat. The white half pendant he had worn since he was twelve years old. The one his childhood sweetheart had given him before she disappeared.

The matching half. Black as night. Hanging from Ava Cross's neck.

"She had the other piece." Caleb's voice dropped to a whisper. "Ava had the other half this whole time."

"I am detecting a spatial anomaly within the pendant. There appears to be a hidden dimensional pocket contained inside it. I recommend attempting a blood recognition binding to unlock it."

"How do I do that?"

"A single drop of blood on the surface should be sufficient."

Caleb walked to his medicine cabinet and pulled out a blood glucose testing kit. He pressed the small needle to his fingertip and squeezed until a bright red bead formed. Then he held his finger over the pendant and let the blood fall.

For a second, nothing happened.

Then the pendant erupted in blinding white light.

The bathroom disappeared. The apartment disappeared. Everything disappeared.

Armed with his portable space and the trading system as his new golden fingers, Caleb was fully equipped to prepare for the coming apocalypse.