The Untouchable God of War

Gabriel stood alone inside the abandoned house, the wall had cracked open like a wound that never healed, and the floorboard groaned under his boot with every step he took. Water dripped from the broken roof above him, falling in cold drops that echoed through the empty rooms like a clock counting down years he could never get back.

His eyes moved slowly around the room. Every crack, every stain on the wall pulled a memory from the deepest part of his mind, memories he had buried under Fifteen years of blood and war. He reached into his coat and pulled out the only photograph he still had, the edges were worn soft from years of his thumb rubbing over it in the dark.

He stared at it. His mother, holding his five year old brother against her chest, himself, ten years old, standing beside her, smiling like nothing in the world could ever touch them.

His father had left before Gabriel could even remember his face, Some said he was dead, some said he ran off and built a new life somewhere far away with a new family. His mother never spoke about it, instead she simply became both parents, both the shield and the sword for her two sons, working herself thin so they never felt the weight of what they had lost.

That night came back to him sharp and merciless, like it always did.

"Mom, I got the package," he had said, setting the box down on the kitchen table.

Then the scream.

He remembered running, his ten year old legs moving faster than they ever had, and finding his mother on her knees in the living room, men standing over her. His brother came sprinting toward him terrified.

"Mom, what's going on?"

"Take your brother, Run. Don't look for me, Go." Her voice cracked, tears sliding down her face even as she forced the words out, forced them out like a command because she knew if she broke, they would break too.

Gabriel scooped his baby brother into trembling arms, his heart slammed against his ribs so hard it hurt.

He ran, Behind him, heavy boots pounded the floor, chasing.

Gunshots cracked from inside the house.

Outside, rain poured down in sheets, Gabriel spotted a police car and ran toward it, screaming, his voice echoed with terror.

"Please! Please help us! They're coming! They have my mom! Save us!"

The officers exchanged a look, before rolling down the window.

"Calm down. Where are your parents? Who's after you?"

"They're going to kill us! Please, help my brother and I Help us!"

One of them stepped out and pulled the boys into the back seat, driving them to what looked like a quiet road. Gabriel held his brother tight against his chest, whispering into his small ear.

"Mom will come find us, we're safe now. I promise."

But something felt wrong, one officer stepped out of the car, phone pressed to his ear, eyes locked on them through the windshield the entire time. The other officer watched them through the rearview mirror, his stare cold like he was looking at cargo, not children.

Gabriel reached for the door handle but it was locked.

He pulled with everything he had, and it didn't move.

"You're not going anywhere, we're sending you back."

Panic exploded in Gabriel's chest, the people he thought would save them were the ones selling them back to the enemy.

A van pulled up, rough hands dragged them both out. Gabriel fought, kicked, screamed, but his mind stayed locked on one thing only, his brother, being pulled away into the same van.

He watched the officers take an envelope from one of the men, watched them smirk like this was just another job.

"Boss said kill them, same way we killed their mother."

"Mom is dead?" The words fell out of Gabriel's mouth in a broken whisper, and he couldn't help but sob bitterly.

The van rumbled down the road, and gabriel begging, pleading with men who felt nothing.

Then it stopped.

Gunshots outside, A heavy thud against the ground.

In that one second of chaos, Gabriel grabbed his brother and ran into the forest, branches tearing at his skin, his lungs burning, footsteps thundering behind him.

He found a truck at the dirt road and placed his baby brother inside, hands shaking so hard he could barely make them work.

"I'm sorry, this is the only way to keep you safe. I'll find you when this is over. I promise."

The truck rolled away into the dark, carrying the only family he had left, and Gabriel dropped behind a tree, chest heaving, tears burning down his face.

Something gripped him from behind, he felt it was all over for him, as his heart pounded in fear, he shut his eyes, waiting for the end.

It never came.

He opened his eyes and found the man who had grabbed him lying dead on the ground beside him, and standing over the body, a masked figure who said nothing, only pulled Gabriel up by the collar and disappeared with him into the night.

That man trained him, broke him down and rebuilt him from nothing. Taught him how to survive in a world that had already decided he should be dead, When world was filled with war, that man sent him straight into it.

Fifteen years passed.

Gabriel learned hunger, pain, discipline, and silence. He learned how to kill without blinking and how to bury grief so deep it stopped showing on his face. He climbed through the ranks with a kind of hunger that scared even his commanders, until the entire army stopped calling him by his name and started calling him something else.

The God of War!

Now he stood in the same house, Fifteen years later, the same broken walls around him, the same rain falling through the same shattered roof.

"I'm sorry, Mom," he said quietly, his voice rough, "I couldn't save you that night. I couldn't protect my brother either, but I will find him. I will bring him home, and we will build everything we planned together."

He pressed the photograph against his chest. "I promise you, whoever did this will kneel in front of me and beg for a mercy I will never give."

Just then, tires screeched outside. Car doors slammed, Boots hit the ground, and men's voices spilled into the ruined house.

"Remember what the boss said, the evidence might still be somewhere in this house, nd the gold pendant, find it."

"We've searched this whole place a hundred times. There's nothing here, maybe it's time we tell the boss to forget it."

"Are you insane? You want to tell the boss we failed Again?"

"This place stinks like a graveyard."

"We don't have all day, move, Or I'll blow your skull." The leader's commanded.

"You sure none of her sons got away that night? I remember you saying one of them might have survived."

The leader's jaw tightened, his eyes narrowing into something ugly. "None of her brats survived. I watched them die myself. And even if, by some miracle, one of them is still breathing somewhere, he wouldn't dare step foot near this house. Because if he does, I'll cut his heart out of his chest and drink his blood in front of him, so he understands exactly who he's dealing with."

The men laughed cruelly, the sound bouncing off broken walls.

"Now stop wasting time, find whatever the boss wants."

They scattered into different rooms, tearing through furniture, smashing what was left of a home that had once held a family.

A shadow moved at the top of the staircase.

Gabriel stepped down slowly like a man who had already decided how this would end.

"Who's that?"

"Some homeless bum probably."

"Hey! What are you doing here? Who gave you permission to sleep in this house?" One of them barked, stepping closer, chest puffed out with false courage. "Get out, Now. We've got real business here, and you don't want to be part of it."

Gabriel said nothing. He let his eyes drift slowly over the man, head to boots, reading him the way he once read enemy soldiers before a kill.

"Maybe we should just kill him," another one laughed. "Let his ghost keep the old lady's ghost company."

The leader stepped forward, reeking of cheap alcohol, grinning with rotten satisfaction.

"Let me tell you something, boy, since you clearly don't know where you're standing. This house used to belong to a woman, beautiful woman. I had her before I killed her. She begged for her life." He laughed, low and filthy. "And after I was done, I put a bullet through her."

Gabriel jaw tightened, his glared at the man as those words he had okay spilled kept replaying in his head.

His hand moved before his mind caught up to it. The slap landed so hard across the leader's face that the man's body left the ground entirely, crashing into the wall behind him and sliding down with blood spilling from his mouth.

The room froze. Every man stood frozen mid breath, eyes wide, staring at their leader crumpled against the wall, groaning through broken teeth.

"Wh... what have you done?"