It was a dark night. My friend Dray and I had been sent to investigate a haunted house.
“Hey, Deity,” Said Dray. We were at the entrance of the haunted house. I had my staff and he had his sword. We live in a magical world, filled with warriors, wizards, all kind of cool stuff. It’s called Victoria Island. It’s literally an island floating in space.
We went inside the house, my staff illuminating the room. It was an ominous environment. It looked too normal for a haunted house. The curtains were blue, lights were on, a dinner table was set, and it all just seems as if there was someone living in here. No one had been here since the previous owner got killed by a hideous beast.
We heard an ominous laugh. Then a loud weeping noise.
“Where did that come from? I thought no one has lived here ever since the incident,” said Dray. I pointed down the hallway. Dray gulped. We walked down the path leading to the noise. I signaled him to open the door. As he turned the doorknob, I got my staff ready. Nothing was there. It was just a normal bedroom.
The bed was made, the lights were on, TV was turned to a channel, wait. That’s not right. The last time someone was in this house was 1926. They didn’t have TV’s back then. Someone is in here.
We heard another groan. Dray screamed in horror.
“Relax,” I told him. “It’s just a sound.” He nodded his head. I looked towards a closet. That was the source of the sound. With my staff ready in hand, my free hand opened the door. A girl fell out. I caught her in my arms. She was alive and in immense pain. She looked oddly familiar.
“Who are you? Why are you in here?” I asked. She looked me in the eyes.
“You dared me too…” she coughed. I remember now. Brianna Fitzgerold. She hadn’t aged a bit. She was dared into staying in this house for a night. After that, we never saw her again.
“You have to leave,” she cried. “I can't control it much longer… it’s spreading throughout my body. I can feel it!”
I was about to ask her what she was talking about, until I saw with my own eyes the transformation. Her hair burst into flames, causing me to drop her. Her skin turned pale white and her eyes had no pupil. Her fingernails grew sharp and yellow, as did her teeth. She started growling.
I turned to tell Dray to run. He was already one step ahead of me. I sprinted after him, not wanting to get eaten by Brianna. I caught up to Dray.
“Thanks for waiting!” I said sarcastically.
“No problem!” he said.
As we ran out the door, the zombie disappeared, and we blacked out.
A few hours later, I wake up, finding ourselves in a barren landscape. There was nothing here, except for a mansion resembling the one we had just exited. I heard another moan. I got my staff ready to fight this monster. Then I see more. And when I say more, I mean thousands more. I couldn’t fight them all. I was only a cleric. I had no spells that could kill many at once. By the time I ran towards the mansion, Dray woke up.
He shook his fist at me while sprinting towards me. A man opened the mansion doors and used his gun to shoot each of the zombies one by one. They all dropped to the ground in a matter of minutes. We sighed.
Four people appeared from a doorway. Three women and a man. The boy had red spikey hair and a scar running down his face. The one of the girls had blond hair. The other had red hair, and the last one brunette.
“Are they okay?” asked the brunette one. She looked extremely worried. She was cute. She had brown eyes, tannish skin. Her eyes looked as bright as the stars and her smile made the sun seem dim.
“Probably,” said the red haired boy. “I’d be surprised if Leon didn’t save them.” The one who shot the zombies must be Leon.
“It was nothing,” said Leon. “Hey, what are your names?”
“I’m Deity and that’s Dray.” I said.
“Cool, I’m Leon, that’s Michelle, the blond one is Ali, and the red headed girl is Roxanne. The man is Chris. I found Michelle in a city completely overrun with zombies. Those were the creatures you saw outside. We barely got out alive. I found Roxanne in a burned down village. Ali was hiding from the zombies in her attic. Almost whacked me to death until she saw the other girls. I found Chris last. Greatest zombie fighter I know besides me. He was fending himself off in an amusement park, using his supreme knowledge of rollercoasters to his advantage.”
A few minutes after Leon told the story, they were all just staring at a window. Even Dray was staring wide eyed. I turned to see what the fuss was all about. Zombies. Millions of them coming this way. Lucky for us, they don’t run fast. Unlucky for us, we can't kill many of them.
“Guys, relax. Michael has given them specific orders not to hurt us. Remember?” Who’s Michael?
“Yeah,” Michelle said. “But what about Deity and Dray?” Leon froze. He started cussing under his breath, saying stuff about jackets or something. He grabbed another huge gun.
“I'm going to try and pick them off at the roof top. Maybe max we could kill are ten thousand with the distance they’re at. Anyone who wants to help, grab a sniper and follow me up. My bazooka only has three shells left so the more, the merrier.” Said Leon. I didn’t want to feel useless so I followed him up there. Dray did as well, but he grabbed a sniper.
“You're gonna use that stick to kill them?” asked Chris.
“You won’t believe what this ‘stick’ can do,” I bragged. I made as if I was going to shoot an arrow, then spoke a few words of magic. “Feerte ilbis moscasa!” I said. A bow and arrow made purely of holy energy took the place of my staff. I shot my infinite supply of arrows, the rest of the people surprised at my skill. By the time I had no more mana (the energy used for magic), over nine-thousand of the zombies had been killed. No assistance used.
“Well? Now you think this ‘stick’ is useless?” I exclaimed. Chris stared at me in awe. “You guys do know that the zombies are getting closer, right?”
They snapped back into reality. Gun shots filled the air and dead zombie bodies covered the ground. This went on for a couple of hours. I saw Leon cry after killing a couple hundred of zombies. It showed that he was guilty.
“Why are you crying?” I asked.
“Because even though those zombies are trying to kill us, they were still once regular humans. I hate killing. If the Jacket Corporation hadn’t made that virus, none of this would have ever happened.” Wait. What virus was he talking about? And what kind of name is Jacket Corporation? This all seemed very strange yet familiar.
“Okay, you gotta fill us in over here. Who the hell is Michael? And what’s the Jacket Corporation?” I asked. Leon sighed.
“The Jacket Corporation is the creator of these zombies. Years ago, they tried testing it on me. It was supposed to make me into a super human. You know, give me super speed, extreme accuracy, stuff like that. I went to the research facility to get the virus injected into me. Then a loud mouth spilled the beans. The virus had gone wrong a few months ago, kept secret to only the Jacket Corporation. It had turned people into flesh eating monsters.
“They still tried to test it on me. They call themselves the Jacket Corporation as a cover. People think that they’re mere business tycoons that make stylish jackets. Michael is the director and founder of the Jacket Corporation.
“He works in mysterious ways. Last time a visitor came, Michael poisoned his best friend. He gave him a choice. Either to kill the girl that he loved, or himself. If he killed the girl, then his friend would get the cure for the virus. If he killed himself, the girl would live but the friend would become a zombie. In both scenarios, Michael had a slight chance of being overthrown ending this whole mess.
“The boy chose to kill himself, sparing the girl yet letting his friend get turned into the zombie. Michael had disappeared by that time. The boy’s death was slow and painful. It was really sad actually. If the boy killed the girl he loved, the world might have been saved long ago. I would have done the same thing if I were in his position though.”
“Well, who was the girl?”
“Oh, it was Roxanne.” I looked over towards the her, finding that she was blushing. She had been listening to the whole story. Just then, this Michael dude had appeared behind us.
“All of you. Come with me.” He said. I could tell he was extremely evil just by his appearance. He had orange spikey hair. He wore sun glasses and an obsidian black trench coat with dress shoes. Leon aimed his pistol at Michael. He shot. Michael disappeared.
“Now Leon. You know fully well, that I have teleportation powers along with extremely good prediction skills. I could tell where and when you would shoot me a year ahead of time.” This guy was dangerous. He took us into a helicopter.
“Hey Michelle, I just want to tell you something in case he kills us all. Even though we’ve only known each other for a few hours, I really like you.” I said. I think she even blushed a little. Then I looked at everyone else’s faces. They were all blushing. So was I, but I think it wasn’t because of what I just said. We were directly over a volcano. The heat was unbearable.
“Well, this is where we get… I TOLD YOU AT THE EDGE OF THE VOLCANO, NOT DIRECTLY ON TOP OF IT!” yelled Michael. He regained his cool. “I apologize for that.” He stepped off of the helicopter onto the surface. We all did the same.
“Now… I have gathered you all today to celebrate a choice that can change the world.” Leon shook his head.
“No… NO!” he realized what Michael was trying to do. Leon tried tackling Michael off of the volcano, but to his astonishment, missed. In the short time that Leon recovered from his reckless tackle, Michael teleported behind Dray and stabbed him with a syringe.
“The boy now has become infected with the virus. In around five minutes, he will become fully transformed into a zombie. You, Deity, have the choice to save him. You must either kill Michelle, the one you love, or you must kill yourself. If you kill Michelle, I will give you the cure. However, if you kill yourself, your friend will become a zombie and try to eat your friends. Choose wisely. We only have three minutes left.” Michael laughed wickedly.
I started to spill tears. Who should I save? Dray or Michelle? It wasn’t a tough decision. But the only problem is that if I kill myself, the others might not be able to kill Dray. He already has super strength and Leon and the others don’t have guns. So by killing myself, I could somehow indirectly kill Leon, Chris, Ali, Roxanne, and most importantly Michelle. However, if I kill Michelle, I get the cure for the virus and all of the other people live.
Just as I was about to jump into the volcano, Michael spoke up.
“Did I mention that with you alive, the world has a twenty percent higher chance of surviving? Right now it is at forty percent of possible salvation. Think of what might happen if you live and the girl dies!” he squealed, excited at the further conflict that he raised. I thought for a moment. My final choice was made.
“Good-bye Michelle.” I was crying. I brought my staff up and pointed it towards her. She started crying as well. I used up the last of my mana to transfer my magical powers to her. “The world now has a sixty percent chance of salvation. Sorry Dray. I hope you understand.” As everyone realized what I was going to do, Michelle stopped crying and Dray started.
“Don’t do this bro! I’m far beyond saving, but if you can kill Michael, you and Michelle can both live!” he cried. I smiled at him.
“You were always the optimist. Good-bye, Dray.” And with that, I jumped off the edge of the volcano into the magma.
I felt excruciating pain. Why wasn’t I dead yet? I started to focus on things most important to me to ease the pain. Michelle. Dray. My staff. All of those brought strange memories that didn’t belong in my head. Me having immense power. Me married. These memories didn’t make sense. Who was I? How did I somehow know Michael? A series of white light flashed in my eyes. Next thing I know, I had the immense power that I remembered. I knew my location. We were on the petty planet Earth.
I was flying in the air, my body the shape of a metallic dragon.
“Michael Flannigan, you have devastated the balance of the Earth. Prepare to meet your fate!” I struck at him with a fraction of my might. He teleported away to the other side of the volcano. His eyes were wide with excitement.
“Yes, this is the one I have been waiting for! Polaris! You have finally returned!”
Why was he calling me Polaris? My name was… what was my name again? I don’t… that’s right. My name is Polaris. The god of fate. I could easily decide how Michael died. I could easily cure Dray before it was too late. Leon, Chris, Michelle, Ali, and Roxanne looked at me in awe. I set on the more important things. I turned to Dray and charged up a beam. He smiled sadly, thinking that I would kill him. Well he was dead wrong. The beam is meant to cure him of this virus. I fired it at him. He floated for a few seconds, then dropped to the ground unconscious.
“It is all right, mortals. Dray is now cured of the virus. Now as for Michael…”
I stared at Michael, deciding how he would die. Then I got an idea.
“Michael, since you betrayed the world, the world will now betray you. You will now feel the pain of being killed by the people you command.” My eyes glowed blue. Michael floated and was teleported to the nearest mass of zombies possible, and this time they will not obey him.
I could hear screams in the distance.
“Cover your eyes, mortals, unless you would like to die.” I made sure that Michael was dead and that all of their eyes were closed. Then I emit a flash of white light, killing all zombies. I covered the group in my wings and was about to teleport them back to the mansion. This would be the last time I see them again, so I wanted to make them remember me.
I conjured a card in Michelle’s pants pocket. I teleported them all into the mansion using the last of my powers. My transformation reverted back, not allowing me to fly. I smiled at the little memories I have of this adventure, and fell into the magma, meeting my own fate. Michelle would meet hers by seeing the card I gave her. That used up the last of my mana. It was filled with pictures from an alternate timeline where I used up only a little power from the transformation and lived. How she would live her life without me not known even to me.