As the Clock Struck Zero
Everyone had their own idea on how the world would end. Others expected robots. Most expected a giant snake to crawl out from the core and most- well, most expected trumpets, lights and a very angry God.
There were even a few that expected a giant fiery monster to emerge from the mountains and burn everything in sight. Honestly, death by blazing monster was by far my favorite version of "The End."
I wish I was there to see it, rather, I wish that was how it ended five hundred years ago. I wasn't around at the time, heck I wasn't even an idea back then, but regardless of my lack of existing the world did in fact end. The details behind it were shrouded in mystery, and some conspiracy, but the gist of it was this;
An angry God threatened to destroy the world and used the world's history against it.
The God brought forth Demons, heinous creatures that hungered from the taste of human flesh above all else. And for a time, my guess is about four or five weeks, Demons ran rampant across the world feeding on every which human they could get their hands on.
Man, woman child, it didn't matter to them as their digestive systems were universal. Anyone could fit in there. Back to tragedy, human went from the top of the food chain to being the best selling meal on someone else's menu and quiet frankly, it was demeaning.
Lucky I wasn't there though. I thought, flipping onto the next page.
Anywho, Demons; rampage- humanity; panics- tragedy; strikens- excitement? Ok, sorry, back on topic. Yes, humanity was ravaged for a solid two months before someone finally stepped up and decided to strike a deal with the Mad God. She offered her heart to him in return for strength, enough strength to fight the Demons.
The Mad God didn't give the woman strength, instead she gave him a vessel. One that could draw on the powers of the Mad God and through that child, the First Angel was born. No one knows that first Angel's name, just that it was key to turning the tide of the slaughter. And just like that, the slaughter turned into a full blown war between Angels and Demons with Angels fighting alongside humanity.
The First Angel and the First Lady, the woman that struck a deal with the Mad God, became partners fighting to protect humanity side by side.
When the war stabilized after decades of fighting, more and more Human-Angel pairs were formed to Catalyst Contracts, it was those same contracts that gave humanity a fighting chance against the Demons. At first there were around five or so, fast forward five hundred years and over 60% of the human population is made up entirely of Contractors, humans that were born with the ability to call on their respective Angels. Each human got one Angel and there was a whole criteria used to determine the strength of their Angel.
All those details were nice and everything, but I couldn't find the main detail I was looking for and I was almost halfway through the textbook. For a title that proudly proclaimed to be "History of the Rapture" it lacked any of the more important details the First Lady's name which was literally the only thing I was looking for, not the extra details.
"I'm so gonna fail this test." I whispered.
There was nothing I wanted more than to flip out right then and there, breaking tables, dishes and everything in-between. I wanted to scream- no, to write an entire song about breaking dishes.
"I won't learn anything new here…" I muttered.
I shut the book silently and made for the shelf I found it on, then swiftly put it back in it's place. With that, I made a swift exit out the library having learned nothing new to prepare me for my final exams. I checked my phone for other libraries I could check for the topics I wanted to study. Namely the history partaining to the events of the Rapture and the name of the First Lady. Why? Because it's the only clue our teacher gave us in terms of what was gonna be in the exam.
As to why they'd ask normal kids to know stuff about not so normal kids was well beyond me but I wanted to pass so I kept such questions to myself.
I checked my screen and the first thing that popped up was a message from a guy named Joe. Joe happened to be my uncle and he had the audacity to text me during my study time.
The gall. I checked his texts and the idea behind them were pretty much the same.
Cake is on it's way. Get home quick before Ria finishes it all.
"Cake?" I muttered.
Then it hit me, I turned fourteen like fifteen hours ago. I left home at the crack of dawn and didn't tell my uncle. He must've thought I was going out to give him some time to prepare the venue and an unwanted party. I say unwanted because I didn't want to spend my Saturday sitting in front of baked sugar while listening to a bunch of strangers singing me the oldest ringtone in the history of humanity.
"Well, Monday is still aways off." I said, convincing myself to head home. "We'll pick this up again tomorrow."
After I said that I started my walk back home, taking in the dusk light falling over my home town of Astral City. The streets were bustling with cars roaring each other into speeding up. On the sidewalk, there was every other person you could imagine. Couples walking together, parents walking with their kids, boys chuckling their worries away. It was peaceful for the most part, and there wasn't a Demon Alert in sight. I cut through the streets, tall buildings, and mostly faceless crowds as I made my way back to my apartment complex.
It was 15h35 in the evening so I had about thirty something or so hours to conduct my studying to prepare for Monday's exam. I reached the complex during my zone out and took the elevator to my floor. Life was easier that way.
I stood at the doorway of apartment 4B, my home for the past thirte- well, fourteen years since fifteen hours ago. Or do I turn fourteen on the midnight of my birthday? Maybe I age at the exact time I was born? Like, the day is about celebrating when I was born but I age a year on the exact second I was born or something like that.
I pondered such ideas as I turned the doorknob only to be met with shredded coloured paper and a lot of cheering.
"""SURPRISE!!""" several voices cheered. Ok, three voices cheered. I just stood there and let the paper slap on my face.
What did I do to deserve this? Oh, right. I was born on this day.
[Estimated Time Remaining: Eight Hours, Six Minutes]
"Congratulations, Timmy." A blonde woman coddled me deep into her valley of secrets.
Her chest. She stuffed my face into her chest. Meanwhile, another girl with pink hair, horns and long ears tried pulling me out of said valley. I was against this act of course but I didn't dare say that out loud.
"Miss Jean," she groaned. "You're suffocating him…"
"Nonsense dear," Jean giggled. "Timothy has never said no to my hugs. Isn't that right, Timmy?"
"Mhm, fyou're abhso-tittly right!"
You're abso-tittly, ahem, I mean absolutely.
She was absolutely right.
Ria kept struggling until Joe finally cut in to. He practically pried me off of Miss Jean.
"You okay kiddo?" he flashed a smile at me.
"Oh, I'm fantastic."
"You sure? You don't feel off at all or anything like that?"
He was being overly concerned for a little boob suffocation. I thought all guys wanted to die by boobies, including him. Nah, he was probably being a good uncle.
"I'm okay."
"Great. I didn't want you damaging the merchandise." He said this with a dead straight face.
His hands weren't so straight however. See, they were making his way around Jean's chest and she was staring daggers at him as she conducted this….act of blasphemy. Jean swung at his gut and rocked whatever he had for lunch out his mouth. It seemed he wasn't being a concerned uncle, just a jealous one.
After Joe cleaned his appalling mess, the party went on with me, him, Jean and Ria. I wondered why there weren't more people, not because I was lonely or lacked friends, but because I was genuinely curious. Ria told me that apparently, Uncle Joe wanted to keep the guest list to a minimum. He said a boy's fourteenth birthday is special. It's where he truly discovers himself and what his hand was truly meant for.
"He said that about my hand?"
"Mhm," Ria nodded with a mouthful of cake. "He said your hand will always be there when everyone leaves you."
"Okay….."
I ignored that cryptic bit of advice and went back to enjoying the party. The adults, Jean and Joe, got dead drunk leaving the kids, myself and Ria, to our own devices.
Well, I was more kid than Ria since she's an Angel. It was hard to tell how old she truly is and I didn't dare ask her. All I knew is that she's been there ever since I was a kid. She was legit that way.
[Estimated Time Remaining; Six Hours, Fifty Nine Minutes]
The party went…..well, it went that's for sure, but I found myself tuckered out near the end of it. Jean was knocked out on my uncle's couch. My uncle was knocked out on the floor right next to her. It didn't take a detective to figure out what happened there. Meanwhile, Ria was knocked out on my bed, and I wasn't quite as sleazy as my uncle so I made no attempts to join her. Instead I spent my time cleaning up the mess made by the people that were celebrating me. It took about three hours to get the whole apartment cleaned up and by God I was exhausted by the time it was over.
So tired in fact, I crashed right there on the couch.
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[Five Hundred Year Countdown Complete.
[Welcome Adjutant]