It all started on March 26th, 2012. At exactly 6:00 AM eastern time, every single person woke up as if electrocuted. Almost half the population just turned over and tried to go back to sleep... tried is the main word. Nobody could go back to sleep, so everybody slowly tumbled out of bed ready to start the day. I remember this day so well, and for a good reason, it was the start of an apocalypse.

When I awoke, I was in a state of shock that I was no longer sleeping. This was even weirder, as I am a sleep-as-long-as-possible type of guy. As I jumped out of bed, I slowly began my day.

Later that day... I was in school, in my social studies class. The teacher was droning on and on about economic distribution, and I looked around at the class. My first impression was that half the class was sleeping as normal, but when I looked closer, I saw that every single person was awake. A complete shock, as the amount of people sleeping usually equals about 2/3rds of the class. I turned to my best friend Dalton who had his head on his desk, which was pretty normal, but upon closer examination, he was awake! With this startling experience, I knew that something was wrong. So I promptly raised my hand and asked my teacher if I could go to the bathroom. He waved me out of the room, and I shot off like a bottle rocket. I slowed down as I approached the science room. As I glanced in the room, I had the same creepy and weird experience... everybody was awake and listening to the teacher... With that, I sprinted to the math class near the end of the hall. Just as I was peeking in the door, a huge blast of hot air blew me off my feet and across the hall. I was thrown as if I was punched by a huge fist of steel.

As I climbed unsteadily to my feet, I looked around at the school. It was in ruins. Desks were in the hallway, and papers were floating across the halls. The fire alarm started blaring and with that, kids around me started filing outside. As I slowly regained my sense of balance, I started the walk out of the school; while simultaneously trying to guess what could possibly be outside… a flying saucer, a radioactive bomb, and maybe if I was lucky it would be flying monkeys!

As I pushed open the door, I saw that unfortunately, it was none of the things that I had imagined, but rather it was simply a ball of fire. As I watched this intriguing ball of fire, I felt a weird sensation in my stomach, and with a gust of air, I found that I was floating in mid air! I was floating up in the sky, up towards space, and more importantly up towards the burning ball of fire. Soon, the ball of fire started molding into a familiar face… Jesus.

As I glided forward towards the big ball of fire, it started talking. “Hello!” The ball of fire paused for a second, and it started forming the rest of a human body. “I am your God Jesus, and this day will be known forever as Judgment Day. I call to all of my faithful disciples to arms to fight with me one of the most deadly enemies ever… Satan and his worshipers.” With a huge blast, and a faint smell of rotten eggs, a sword and shield engraved with a crucifix appeared in my hands. Soon afterwards, I was thrown forward as if shot by a cannon. Straight towards a towering red form that inspires fear around the world, Satan.

As I approached the world’s greatest protagonist, I started to slow down. Soon after I was approached from behind. I turned in fright fearing the worst. However, when I twisted around, I was met with exactly the Angel I wanted to see… St. Michael the archangel.

St. Michael quickly said to me, “Austin, I need your help to destroy Satan. Your job will consist of striking Satan in the back of the head with your sword while I distract him.”

“Uh-huh, sure…” I said, really hoping for my sake that he was joking.

St. Michael smiled and then whispered, “Good luck, and may God be with us.” With that he flapped his wings and started preparing for the fight.

“Wait!” I yelled as he started flying away.

“Yes?” St. Michael replied.

“Got any tips?” I asked hopefully, knowing that after a few thousand years of existence he might have a few tricks up his sleeves.

“Sure I do” said St. Michael as he maneuvered towards me. When he had reached me, he looked around, as if making sure that no one was listening. When he was certain that no one was looking at us, he whispered in my ear, “Use the pointy end of the sword,” and with that, he flew away.

I pinched myself to see if I was dreaming, but sadly I wasn’t. With a sigh, I flung myself towards what I thought for sure was certain death.

As I watched the magnificent battle between the two great forces, St. Michael and Satan, I waited for my chance. When Satan turned his back, I lunged at his head, and at that moment time seemed to slow down. However, Satan started to turn around when I began my lunge, and I couldn’t stop, try as I might. Within milliseconds, Satan’s sword was hurtling towards me. I parried with my sword, but barely, and I was thrown backwards with the force of the attack. Satan continued his ferocious assault, but by a miracle, I was dodging his sword blows, stopping his forceful kicks, and defending from his violent punches. He shoved his bright, blood red pitchfork at me, and I thought it was the end. However, I turned to the side, and with all my energy, I did a bicycle, kicking his pitchfork out of his hands. The instrument of death seemed to hang in the air before it came falling down. I leaned out to grab it at the same time of Satan. We locked eyes, and with that, time slowed down even further. I could see the sweat falling off of his face, the muscles clenching and unclenching as he struggled to flap his wings. I grunted with determination as I approached the final prize… the devil’s pitchfork. The milliseconds ticked off the clock as I reached out my hand. Then, with a surprised noise from Satan, he stopped moving. I wondered why, until I saw beating wings of an angel below him. I then reached out as far as I could go, and grabbed the pitchfork. With one fluid movement, I turned around and threw the pitchfork straight at Satan. It hit him straight in the heart, and he disintegrated before my eyes in a poof of smoke.

In heaven later that week, I looked at all the cities in the world beneath me. They all consisted of people who didn’t believe in God. And because they couldn’t sleep, everybody was tired; they had bloodshot eyes, weakened muscles, and hallucinations. I knew that the only reason I had survived, is because I believed in God.

It all ended on July 26th, 2012. At exactly 6:00 A.M everyone woke up, however, it was the last time everyone did, as they had lost the ability to sleep. On that day, the world ended, and I helped defeat the world’s greatest enemy, Satan. I remember that day, as it was the start of the apocalypse.