Prologue Four: The Rules

Everything hurt.

My arms stung whenever I moved them, my legs burned with each stretch, and sitting up seemed next to impossible. So I chose to lay in the dirt, looking at the grey mounds before me.

“Lexi, you okay?” Anthony asked.

I would have answered, but my jaw was clamped shut and I was too scared to move it.

Tom knelt next to me. “She’s in shock.”

“Double the shock, double the fun,” another voice said.

“I will eat you," Poppy said.

The voice squealed. “I'm just lightening the mood.”

I pushed my head back into the dirt, looking behind. It felt like the skin around my neck might snap. But I wanted to see the new person.

A little red imp with a halo floated nearby. It had a small body, no bigger than a human head, with black paws and two batwings that flapped lazily on its back.

Behind the imp a white tiled floor led to two empty thrones. The first throne was white with golden rims and a statue of an angel on either side. The second throne was red with black stone snakes covering the exterior.

“You're an imp."

“Barcavus,” the creature said. “A trustworthy imp.”

I pushed up off the dirt. “Don’t imps work for the bad guys?”

“Not when there’s an imp-portant job to do.” The imp broke out in fits of giggles and drifted toward the thrones. “Come along now, don’t make me imp-patient.”

I leaned forward and whistled through my teeth at the pain. Both Anthony and Tom helped me to the tiled area. Poppy had a worried look on her face.

“Maybe you should sit down?”

I shook my head. “It’s okay, I've had worse.”

I really hadn't.

The imp chuckled. “Don’t worry, you won’t need to stand for long. You have a choice to make.”

"You're actually kind of cute," Poppy said.

Anthony grinned. I tried not to, but did, and paid the price. Pain lanced across the side of my face. It stung and went numb.

"I'm actually very dangerous when I want to be," the imp said.

"Suuuuure," Poppy said.

"The decision . . ." I said before the imp retorted.

"Uh, yes, a decision. First, you should know the story." The imp spun in the air and snapped its fingers.

The world we were in disappeared, replaced with a beautiful place sunlit and filled with fluffy white clouds.

"Once upon a time Heaven and Hell existed."

Angels drifted through the air, wearing armour and glowing white swords that stretched far past their bodies. Each angel had wings much larger than their swords, and they flew between the spires of a great castle.

The image changed to a red land with many dilapidated buildings and black spires. There were apartment buildings and cemeteries covered the lands like garden plots.

Creatures that looked human-like flew about with black feathered wings in completely black armour. They fought with red swords, but it wasn't clear what they were fighting for. Their armour bubbled and dripped into the air like mottled ink. Each drop sizzled and evaporated before us.

There were creatures down below, too. Some of them were humans that lived in small villages, others were demons with red skin and horns. The very unlucky ones were neither human or demon. They carried crude weapons and traveled in packs.

This world looked like a mixture of time sequences. They ranged from the medieval to as recent as the modern day with computers and guns. But the overriding power seemed to be a type of magic that kept the places sustained and worked as a current of life.

People did not need to work to harvest goods. And instead, had all the time they needed to plot against each other and kill.

"That place looks terrible," I said.

The imp grinned. "It might surprise you that the people in Hell were happier than those in Heaven."

The group shared a look. We weren't sure how much to believe.

"One day, God sent an angel to spy on Hell, in order to understand humans better. The Angel was a child no older than nine or ten.”

We watched as God promised him one favour in order for his services. The child's eyes lit up at the offer and he promised to bring back lots of information about Hell.

"The child angel, Isma, traveled to Hell and snuck through the castles, villages, complexes, seeking knowledge."

We watched the Angel fly from place to place, village to building to castle. He watched the violence, the murdering, the drugs, the hate, the sex, and at the same time the love between those who had banded together. He learned that people can only care when they have a reason to.

In Heaven, everything was too easy, too nice, and people quickly became bored when they were given what they wanted. It was one of the flaws of human nature --a flaw which God had not accounted for.

True free will was the by-product of hard work. If you were to drop a man on an island by himself with whatever he wanted, he would soon get bored and return to society. A purpose gave humans reason to live. Heaven made purpose worthless when nothing, not even the unimaginable, was out of reach.

Isma flew back to God and told him. "The answer is a purpose, my lord."

God mulled over this for many years. Eventually, he decided Isma was right. "One favour, as promised."

"Anything?" Isma asked.

"Anything," God said.

"Give Heaven a purpose," Isma said.

"A way to make heaven better?"

Isma shook his head. "Too easy, my lord."

God mulled over the idea for many years until eventually, he came to a conclusion. "I will let the humans find a God amongst themselves."

Isma had wondered if he took the idea too far. "A-and what of the Angels?"

God stood from his throne and walked away. "You were once human too."

It was the last thing he ever said.

The vision ended, leaving us with a sudden emptiness. The realization that God had left under the premise that humans could only be happy with suffering, left a hollow space inside of me. I'd always thought Heaven would be the reward. Nothing would change until we completed the task that had been set.

Find a new God and a new Devil.

I had no words. Neither did the others. But looking around us we saw the evidence of the decision.

“And now, the battle is on to find someone worthy?” I asked.

The Imp nodded. “But there are a few rules.”

"Rules . . ." That brought back memories. My stepfather used to lay them down as if each one was a dare. I learned them, and then I broke them all.

One time he even banned me from going to school. I sat at the front of every class that day.

"There are always rules," Poppy said.

Tom and Anthony kept quiet.

"The first rule is that if you die, you will resurrect. But everything you own goes to the other side."

"The second is that in order to win, you must become a God."

"The third rule is that some players will go into the war with talents. These are skills that should not be shared with allies. You can add skills as you grow."

"The fourth rule is that everyone is an Angel and at the same time everyone is not."

"The fifth rule is that if you make deals, make sure it's with the Devil."

"The sixth rule is to kill everyone. It is in your best interest, not to break these rules."

Judging from the rules, the Devil never truly left. If you die you lose everything and all of it goes to the other side. Some players will be more skilled than others, but there are no hints as to what these skills mean. Also, everyone is an angel but isn't. That one could be a joke more than a rule. The final rule is to kill everyone and that the rules aren't meant to be broken.

If anything, the whole ordeal left me more confused --but curious.

"What exactly are we supposed to do?"

"Follow the rules," the imp said. "And, since three of you have sinned, and one of you is still a grey. The sinners will fight for the Devil and the lone wolf will join the fight for Heaven."

"Sinned?" I looked down at the white strip on my fingers.

“That’s correct,” the imp said. “But as you arrived in a group, you must accept the terms as a group. If you want to make your choice alone, you must run back and through the lightning tunnel again.”

The group turned to me. It wouldn’t be so difficult for them, but I could never run through the tunnel again with these injuries. My choice to accept was already set in stone.

“What if we don't want to become the Devil?" I asked.

"You choose not to, then you won't.”

“Is there a way to rid ourselves of sin,” I asked.

The Imp grinned. “Stick around until we find a new God.”

In short 'a very very very long time'.

“You know my answer,” I told the group. “I am no Devil. But I will fight to change Hell if I can.”

“Our chances are better in there than out here,” Tom said. “I accept.”

"I don't want to stay here," Poppy said.

Anthony dropped to his knees. “I can’t go in alone.”

“Whatever happens, we are still on the same side.”

He looked up at me. “But if we're enemies . . .”

“Then sin.”

Anthony’s eyes went wide. He balled his fist and swung for Tom. It thudded into Tom’s arm. But when he drew his fist back, it was still grey.

“A sin isn’t in the violence,” the imp said. “It’s in the intention.”

It was an easy lesson to comprehend but tough to carry out. In order to sin, you needed to want to harm the other person. You needed to fight to kill.

Anthony stared at Tom’s face, working up his anger. Tom looked back, bored. Anthony swung. The fist thudded into Tom’s cheek. It came away plain old grey.

Poppy sighed. “Like this.”

She walked over to Tom and punched him in the middle of the nose. Tom clutched his face, howling in pain. Her knuckles came away blazing white. I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows. The kid had been through some shit.

“Shit,” Anthony said. “I don’t want to harm anyone,”

“Then carry out the fight that we can’t. Do it from the good side.”

He gritted his teeth but then nodded.

“If I see any of you in there, it will be as a friend," Anthony said.

We all nodded in return.

He turned to the imp. “I accept,”

The Imp snapped his fingers. “Phew, you lot were getting all emotional for a second there. Good luck all of you!”

A red circle surrounded Poppy, Tom, and I. A white circle surrounded Anthony.

I felt hot, and then the heat turned to a burning sensation. Tom yelped first. His hands were on fire. The others started to burn shortly after, and then the fire started at the edge of my feet.

Tom screamed. I tried to fight the pain, but it came and it never stopped. Only Poppy stood, staring into the fire as it burned her hands. The image still sends shivers down my spine.

I tried to run. But there was no way to move past the red glow. Tom wilted away into a groaning pile of grey dust. Poppy went second. And then the pain that scoured my already burnt flesh made whatever consciousness I had left slip away.

The place known as heaven faded to black.