Jackie walked past my room. I saw her shadow pass through the slightly open door. She was headed for the kitchen. I was smiling. Why? I was about to get laid. 

Ted, her boyfriend, and my best friend, is sleeping in another room. They wouldn't dare sleep in the same room with Ted's grandmother present. She's not strict or anything, but it would be disrespectful.

I stood up slowly, I didn't want the bed to make noise. I wasn't sure Ted was sleeping, I had to be careful. 

My shoes were off. I tiptoed to the door. The slight "tap" of my feet touching the floor sounded too loud to me. I hoped Ted couldn't hear it. Why did sound travel so well at night? It's really inconvenient. 

The noise my steps created and my guilt made me really nervous. I wasn't going to chicken out, Jackie was too hot for me to change my mind. She's a petite brunette who turns heads everywhere she goes.

I got to the door. I had left it slightly open, about an inch, so I didn't have to pull down the handle. All boys become geniuses when plotting to get laid. I still had to pull the door open. That would make noise. Probably loud enough to be heard throughout the house.

Jackie hadn't been stealthy. She didn't have to be. That was the plan. Our plan. She had lied to her parents and told them she was going for a sleepover at a girlfriend's house. I on the other hand slept at Ted's house often. His grandmother didn't mind.

The door was going to make less noise if I pulled it to another position very quickly and not slowly. I deduced this about a minute ago. Part of that high IQ I was talking about.

It took less than a second. There was a squeak, but it didn't sound like a door opening. If Ted and his grandmother were still awake, they might have thought I had turned in the bed.

Jackie was downstairs. I had to walk past Ted's room to get there. This was one of the few moments in my life when I wished I was Spiderman. I could crawl up the wall and move past Ted's room from the ceiling.

I had no choice. If Ted was still up he would see a shadow pass through the cracks on his door. I tiptoed quickly past the door, then walked carefully down the stairs. Ted's grandmother's bedroom was downstairs, I didn't have to be as careful with her as I was with Ted. She's indifferent to the dramas of teenagers. If she found out she'd likely tell Ted to dump Jackie and get himself a new friend. Like that would be so simple. Ted and I had been friends since third grade. Seven years later and we've never had a big fight. This could cause one helluva fight, but as the saying goes: a hard dick has no conscience.

Jackie smiles at me as I tiptoe into the kitchen. How Ted, the nerdiest guy at school, ended up with Jackie, one of the hottest girls, is beyond everyone but Jackie. She seems to like him though, present moment notwithstanding.

We'd been flirting more and more in recent months. Neither of us could ignore our mutual physical attraction anymore.

I lift her up and put her on the counter. She wraps her legs around me. When she kisses me any guilt I might have felt about this evaporates.

It sounds smooth, well choreographed, but it isn't. It's hesitant. Every move is followed by a few seconds of watching how the other person reacts. We're both sixteen, and unless I'm mistaken, neither of us has done this before.

I pull up her shirt....

I blink rapidly and close my eyes. Who turned on the sun? It's supposed to be midnight but I'm squinting up at the bright midday sun. Jackie isn't next to me, and I'm no longer in the kitchen. I'm outdoors. I'm not alone. There are hundreds of other guys around me. A lot of them are wearing orange jumpsuits. A majority of them are. I estimate there's at least a thousand of us, and I'm one of only three who's still standing. The rest look like they fell. They're slowly getting up.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Both my hands are in the air, sans Jackie's shirt. The others are staring, it's like I'm volunteering for something. I quickly bring my hands down. 

I'm horny, shocked, and confused. How did I get here? Am I dead? Did Ted know about my plans with his girlfriend and ambush us with a gun? I didn't feel a thing but I know his grandmother has a gun. Am I in hell? Those who try to fuck best friend's girl probably go to hell. 

I believe that theory more and more as I look around. The guys in the orange jumpsuits have to be prisoners. But why are there so many of them? It's like a prison in Detroit was hit by a meteor or something. I'm guessing they're from Detroit, like me, they could be from somewhere else.

"The latest batch has arrived, my Lord!" shouts a man to the front of where we're all facing. 

There are tents there. Tents in hell? The man who shouted is dressed in a long red cloak. He has long hair and a long beard, both as white as snow. There's contempt in his eyes as he stares down at all of us. He looks like Santa's skinny and evil twin.

He's a wizard. I deduce that from the fact that he's carrying a long red staff with a green, marble-like sphere at the top. Who was he calling? Who is his Lord? The devil? My mind jumps on the realization that Santa is an anagram of Satan. 

Yes. I'm not scared, just confused, and a little angry. I was about to have the best moment of my life and now I'm in a rugged landscape with about a thousand other guys around me. Guys only, there's not a single girl in sight. They look like they also have no idea what's going on. 

From the biggest tent I can see exits an unimpressive looking man dressed like a Roman legion without the helmet. 

"BOW!!!" he demands. His voice carries impressively, as if he's using a loudspeaker, but he isn't.

Not a single one of us obeys. Some, including me, laugh at him. This is not the reception the devil was expecting. He's glaring at us with nothing but hatred, it intimidates no one.

"BOW YOU SCUM!"

Again we don't obey. The wizard raises his staff. The green marble glows brighter. I feel an invisible and powerful energy force me to bend the knee and bow my head. It's so strong I can't even move my arms. It's the same for all the other guys.

The unimpressive soldier/Satan looks on at us smugly. What he says next tells me he's not the devil, and we're not in hell, we're in another world. 

He says: "I GIVE YOU, THE RIGHTFUL RULER OF ALL THE WORLDS! THE FUTURE KING OF KINGS! THE EMPEROR OF THE MULTIVERSE! THE CHOSEN ONE! HIS GREATNESS! THE UNSTOPPABLE! INFALLIBLE! DARIUS, THE CONQUERER!"

Another man walked out of the big tent. Given his introduction, he didn't look all that imposing, especially compared to the two armor clad bodyguards who walked behind him.

But there was something about him. I could feel it in the air, he was Royalty. He was dressed in luxurious yellow robes and had a golden crown that shimmered in the sunlight. He looked out of place in the rugged and mountainous landscape we were in.

He looked at us with disdain as he walked towards his wizard. The herald and the bodyguards followed behind him. He was young, maybe just a few years older than me. A boy king.

"Is this the best you could get? Not one of them is wearing armor," he snarled.

"I cannot see other worlds, my Lord. I can only direct the spell to places in those worlds. Just like the others, these are the worst of whatever country they came from. Murderers, thieves, liars, and frauds. The worst of the worst."

Wait, what? The worst of the worst. I was lumped in with murderers and thieves just because I almost slept with my best friend's girl? The worst of the worst from Detroit? And who decided that? Was it the wizard or did his spell do it automatically? I call bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. So unfair. The deed wasn't even carried out.

"Let them rise," the king ordered.

The wizard only looked at us and the energy that had forced us to our knees disappeared. We all quickly got back to our feet. We had been summoned to this realm. Perhaps another Earth. The gravity felt the same, there was one sun in the sky, the plants didn't look too different, and neither did the people. The only difference was the magic. I could see the white circle on the ground that the wizard had used to summon us. From what else he said, we weren't the first.

"Where are you from?" the king asked one of the men upfront.

"Detroit, Sir. Can I ask how --"

"SILENCE!" the herald screamed. "YOU WILL NOT ASK THE KING ANY QUESTIONS!"

The king didn't look all that offended. He asked the man, "Did you have a king in Detroit?"

"A mayor, Sir."

"A mayor? A vassal of some sort? Well, I am your king, now. And you will fight for me."

"I don't think so," retorted one of the men in orange. He was easily the biggest among us. Six-foot-ten, and muscular, like a giant lumberjack. He was looking at the king like a bug he wanted to crush. The aura of royalty wasn't working on him. This was a man who wasn't used to being pushed around.

The king looked at one of his bodyguards and pointed at the big guy. The bodyguard gave his sword, shield, and helmet to the herald then walked towards the big guy. He was unarmed except for his armor. At best he was six-feet tall. 

The big guy wasn't intimidated, he met the bodyguard halfway. He had a smile on his face. He saw this as a chance to resolve this confusing situation with his fists. The bodyguard looked bored.

The big guy threw the first punch. The bodyguard blocked it easily. The bodyguard's hand didn't give an inch on impact. The mechanics of that didn't make sense. The big guy was too big and too strong for a much smaller man to block his punch so effortlessly. It had to be magic. It wouldn't happen back home. 

The bodyguard moved so fast my eyes couldn't keep up with him, I only noticed that he had thrown a punch when I saw his fist on the big guy's side. Or more accurately, in. Deep inside. It looked like the big guy's ribs caved in. One blow and it was fatal. The bodyguard wasn't done. He removed his bloody hand from inside the big guy, leaving a big hole that wasn't going to heal. The big guy was dead but the bodyguard held his right hand with both hands and threw him up.

We weren't on Earth anymore. The big guy flew over a hundred feet in the air. I looked away. I didn't want to see.

Everyone was silent, I heard it when the body hit the ground.

The herald smiled at us and said, "YOU WILL FIGHT FOR YOUR KING! AND IF NEED BE, YOU WILL DIE FOR YOUR KING!