Beginning of the end

"Keith, can you get me the knife from the kitchen?"

"Yeah mom, where is it?"

"Search the fruit basket."

"Oh! got it, here mom."

"Thanks Keith. By the way, are you ready to go for your part time job?"

"Yeah, I'm going to leave for it now."

Ending my short conversation, I took out my bicycle and started paddling towards my new life.

My name is Keith Parker, I am a highschooler and I live with my parents. And this is going to be my first day at my part-time job.

I am excited, after all it's going to be my first step towards becoming independent. From now on whenever I need money, I won't have to ask my scum of a dad. And when I say scum, I really mean it because it feels like he doesn't even see me as his son at all. His behaviour towards my younger brother is just another story.

To him, Ryan is a precious gem. Obviously, it's true to me as well because his aura calms and nullifies every bad feeling. However, the thing that stabs me the most is the difference between the eyes my father cast between us. One of abundant happiness and one of utter disgust.

Unlike my father, my mother loves us impartially. I don't feel the gap between us at all, the gap I feel between me and my dad.

Long story short, I hated asking for money from him, so starting highschool I decided to get a part-time job.

I'm working at a convenience store, as a temporary staff member. The pay ain't high but it's enough for me.

"Hey Keith, you started working here?"

Oh! It's Racheal. She's a classmate of mine. She used to be a topper but now she barely gets to pass the exams, she won't even attend school regularly. I'm surprised to see her after a long time.

"Well yeah, the Store manager is someone I know that's why I choose to work here. What about you, are you buying something?"

"Yeah, I am here to buy a knife. How about you come to my house and taste my cooking?"

A knife, I wonder if she learned how to cook yet. Last time she made something in cooking class, it was a pandemic.

"Nah, I'm busy."

"Oh! Come on, it would be fun."

"Nah, I have to get home early."

"That's a shame. Here, this is the knife I'm buying."

"That would be 60 dollars."

"Here..thanks again. See ya later Keith."

"Yeah.. see you later."

Was she always this frank, the Racheal I remember was timid and silent, she's almost a different person now. I guess people can change in just a little time.

Oh! It's already time to leave. I changed my clothes and left for home.

The night is wonderful today, the cold breeze feels like an elixir talking away all my tiredness. Cycling on the empty road under the clean night sky with this kind of cool air just feels like heaven.

Irony is that, I'm returning to a place that feels like hell to me at night, my home. I like it when it's just me, mom and Rian but to me, my home becomes my hell when dad gets home from his job. He ignores me and I can feel the disgust in his eyes for me. There have been incidents when he beated me until he got satisfied, all because I made some kind of silly mistake. I hate him, but no matter how much I hate him, I can't do a thing because in the end he's my dad.

As always I quietly ate the dinner and returned to my room. It's the end of another day of struggle for me. And I will keep on walking this rocky road for my dream. I will work hard in order to join the army.

It's my 3rd day at my part-time job. But this day isn't the same as others. While I was busy arranging packets of tissue paper, a loud voice suddenly came out of nowhere, and I realised it's directly speaking to me in my head. But I noticed everyone reacted the same way I did. Does this mean everyone heard that too, the voice claiming to be God.

'No need to be surprised over this, I am the one you all call God after all. Over these 200000 years, I have been watching you all, struggling and working hard towards becoming what you are now.

Over all these years, your actions caused many changes and are still changing the world. You all are behind the extinction of many species. But that ain't all, you lowly creatures are now thinking you can conquer death now. Maybe life is now too easy for you all after all you don't fear death anymore.

You are even doubting the existence of me, the one who created you.

This should not go unpunished, but I am generous, so I will give you a chance. A chance to save your existence, A chance to participate in this game that we Gods are hosting for you.

But before that, after 3 days I will randomly erase half of the population of you humans from the face of this earth. This will be the proof that I am the real God, and then I will tell you the conditions for participating in this Game of ours.'

And then the voice suddenly stopped, but my body still is shaking from all the unnatural stuff that just happened. I looked at the other people, and I realised that it's the same for others as well, we all can't believe what just happened. I looked at the place I'm supposed to go next and saw a boy about my age standing there crying in front of the billing counter with his pants wet.

The store manager, Uncle Josh, suddenly came out of his office and asked us all to leave for home. I don't know what's going on but I'm not stupid enough to stay and work after all this.

On the way home, I saw all kinds of things happening that I just can't believe, I saw people crying, I saw huge lines in front of worshipping places. I even saw a person jump off a very high building taking his own life.

Somehow, I reached home and saw Rian crying in my mother's arms, dad was still not home. As Mom saw me, she jumped and hugged me.

"Thank God, you are safe Keith."

"Yeah mom, I am safe."

Suddenly we heard a loud bang onto the door, and mom suddenly pushed me behind her.

"You two stay here, I am going to check."

Even though she said that I still followed her, she picked a baseball bat and opened the door.

To our relief, the one on the other side was Dad, and for the first time in a while, I was happy to see him. He entered and asked mom if we all were safe.

Rian was behind me this whole time and as he saw dad, he ran to him and hugged him. Dad seems happy as well that he's okay.

He asked us to follow him to the living room and switch ON the T.V.

He switched to the news channel from the cartoon channel that Rain usually watches.

++BREAKING NEWS++

-After the unthinkable voice that rained upon us, it's negative impact is just getting worse. There's a rise in criminal activities by 30% across the whole country. But the government is trying to keep it all under control.

Not only that, the government claims that there is no need to panic as it was just a result of a scientific experiment on understanding the human brain and telekinesis.

It was just a prank by the scientists, it was their way of announcing that they finally mastered the mysteries of psychic powers.

Now let's move onto the next news..

A girl after killing her parents, sewed them together using a needle and she is missing..-

"See, there is nothing to worry about. It was just a prank."

Even though Dad just said that while smiling I can clearly see the sense of relief in his eyes. It is clear that he is totally shaken to the core by all this but he's trying to be brave in front of his family. You have my respect for this Dad.

After all this, we had dinner and this time not only me but everyone was silent.

After finishing the dinner, I returned to my room and checked my phone to further read something about today's incident, but there was a notification that the school is closing for the next 3 days and it's the same for my part-time job. Guess I will be spending 3 days at home then.

The next day, things were somewhat similar to yesterday but it seems like the government is making an effort trying to calm everyone and catch the criminals.

There was also news flying around that the government ordered the arrest of the scientists who were behind that announcement. I can only hope that it's really the case if not then god knows what he's planning.

On the second day, things calmed down. I can't imagine how much effort the government would have put into calming all of this down.this day went the same as yesterday as well.

But now it's the night of the 3rd day, things have calmed down but I can still see a faint uneasiness on the faces all around me. And I understand why, whether it's an announcement from God or a prank by scientists, both of these things are hard to believe. Us common people have just one wish and that is to live a happy life. And seeing all this only puts us only on the edge.

Next morning I woke up to screams, screams of my mother..