The man was leaning against his Bentley, maniacally laughing. He stopped himself and looked at me.

“All of that for his parents.” The cult leader said. Liz stood up and pointed towards the man.

“Fuck off you old bastard. We can offer you half of the money.”

“Well then, negotiation is not possible, I assume. Perhaps I should kill off your parents.” He put his hand up and two hooded men came out of his car with my parents. They were tied up and looked beaten up. One of the men grabbed a gun and aimed it at my dad’s head. He pulled the trigger. A loud bang was heard. I pulled out my handgun and shot the man that killed my father. The other man shot at my mother and then tried to hide. Mike got him with the rifle. I shot the priest in the knee. Mainly because I was a bad shooter and I missed.

Mike was about to kill him when I stopped him.

“I’ve got a better idea.” I tied him up with the rope he had tied up my parents and, with the help of Mike and Liz, carried him to the tracks. We sat at the jeep and waited. Around an hour later, another train was approaching. I walked over to the tied up man. I got right on top of him.

“Your first mistake was fucking with me. Your second mistake was fucking with my family. Your final mistake will be that you didn’t kill me.” The man mumbled as I got out of the train’s way. The train was coming closer and closer. As the train came closer, the tape with which we had gagged the man came loose.

“You will regret this! I AM THE ONE TRUE PRIEST. I AM GO…”

His words were cut short by his untimely demise. I took a bundle of money and threw it onto the rails.

“Compensation.”

We got in the jeep. It was a long, silent ride home…

“See ya, Jake. Talk to you soon” Mike said as he took off. I began walking towards my house. When I entered my house the eerie silence kept me on edge. I couldn’t forget the image of my parents dying. I couldn’t sleep at all. The empty house, the usual sound of the T.V. no longer there. JJ’s usual meows were nowhere to be heard. He must’ve been caught up in this whole thing. Poor thing. The house was a mess because of the kidnapping. I walked over to the couch. I lied there motionless for over five hours. Just thinking. I didn’t get a wink of sleep. I decided to go to school.

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It was a Thursday. I got to school on time and everyone greeted me normally. Nobody knew about the past two weeks other than Liz and Mike. The girl I had saved came to me and asked for my contact information. Her name was Ellie. Tom came over to greet me and to say I’ve got a message in some weird cipher. I took it and put it in my pocket. Mark also came over to greet me. Howard just gave me a full bag of chips. He had called it a ‘new, revolutionary, filled-to-the-brim chips’. The guy was imaginative, I’ve got to give him that. I spend the whole day doing normal stuff. In the breaks, I would get to translating the message. It was obviously from God. It took me a long time to translate it, not because it was long, but because I was tired.

When I got home, I did some homework, watched some T.V. and after all that, I translated the message.

“Come meet me this week. Along with Mike and Liz. I expect all three of you to be there. – God”

I called up Mike and he said he had received the same message. We agreed where to meet and then he hung up so he could phone Liz. To be honest I was expecting this. We killed 3 people and they killed 3 others if we count my cat. Of course, God wouldn’t be happy but what happened next was something nobody could’ve predicted.

I arrived at the meeting place. Liz and Mike were already there. We greeted each other and walked in through the emergency exit. We placed our hands on the altar simultaneously. We all fainted. When we came back to the man himself was standing in front of us. He looked at Michael.

“Michael Klein. You have failed 3 times. You will be banished.” God said with a furious look on his eyes.

“Failed!? I didn’t fuck up as badly as last time.” Mike started pleading.

“No comments. You will suffer the consequences.” God looked at me. He lifted his hand and I felt ill. I began falling. I felt the life escape me and my soul no longer wanting to stay in this meek body. The last thing I remember was the plead of Mike. Liz looked at me. She grinned. I looked back at her and still felt a slight familiarity between me and her.

I fell to the ground. The last thing I thought was that I deserved that. I had a mission, yet all I did was steal money. I didn’t save anyone. I didn’t help anyone. I was a failure all throughout. I wasn’t what I was hyped up to be. I was a nobody. Why did I even get reborn? Why didn’t I choose the fantasy world? I could’ve gotten a good life. A better life and yet I chose this stupid reality.

These thoughts filled my head. I began losing consciousness. I felt like death was close, but a voice called out to me. A voice so meek and so brittle that it could heal my imaginary wounds. It was soothing. It was my ray of hope in this darkness. It was none other than the one I met all those years ago.