The Augur

Nothing in Rome can be done without an augury. A magistrate is elected, a law is made, a marriage is arranged; the augur reads the signs in the heavens - the flight of birds, or the roar of thunder. It is, in many ways, a formality; but sometimes the gods seem to speak more directly, and a man's sanity could easily be threatened.It was the summer of '72 and Jason Helsing was born into a world that was supposed to embrace him, but only left him alone on this big planet to figure things out on his own. After his birth Jason was whisked off to foster home after foster home without knowing what it was like to be brought up in a happy home. Jason had been teased all through his school years about how slow he was, and couldn't keep up with the other classmates on any subject he took. Jason didn't have nice clothes like other students had. All he wanted was to be accepted, but all he got was heartaches. As the years peeled away, and Jason became more resentful towards his classmates, and his foster parents, the anger that was bottled up inside was about to explode, and the classmates that tormented him all those years were about to have their innocence destroyed by the hands of someone that just wanted to be loved, but instead got his heart crushed.One night when Jason was lying in his bed trying to get a good night’s sleep he started having flashbacks when one of his foster father's was choking his wife, but didn't kill her. When Jason entered their room he asked what was going on and his foster father said, "Come in boy and watch a real man in action." All Jason wanted to do was run and hide, but his foster father grabbed him by the arm, and told him to place his hands around her neck, and squeeze. Jason was scared, but knew if he didn't do what his foster father told him to do, he would be beaten.So as her tears poured out from her sad frightened eyes, Jason turned his head, and squeezed, and squeezed. Then his foster father said, "Don't be scared it's only a game, turn and look at her."She removed Jason's hands from her neck and laughed. Jason said, "I don't find that very funny."His foster father slapped him in the back of the head and said, "Why don't you go play?"Jason ran out of the room confused at what just happened.