1 Chapter 1 : The begining

Electra gently raised her head, her face marked by the trace of her forearms. This class, which took place every Monday in the early afternoon, always put her to sleep. But she wasn't the only one who found it boring, because in the 100-seat amphitheatre, there were only about 20 people.

She looked out of the window to see the moon, the head full of dreams. The satellite was close to the sun for several days, shining with a brightness that didn't fade, no matter what time of day or night. And the most strange thing was its visibility, from everywhere on Earth, there was no place where the star and the crescent could not be seen side by side side by side. Like a misshapen puzzle, the explanation surrounding the fake sky remained unresolved. According to current mankind knowledge, such a phenomenon was simply inexplicable.

Since its appearance, some self appointed experts in everything squatted on television studios one after the other. They kept debating and proposing hypotheses. But the sad reality was that no one was actually able to find a decent explication. Some would have killed for an answer. But not a single theory managed to cach the attention of the scientific community. The whole world was in the dark, confused by the lack of understanding of this mystery. But there was one thing that a small part of the population agreed on, it was a sign of the end of the world.

Electra didn't believe it, what defied reason had always slipped over her without reaching hers. She had never really been interested in God, and had always gently mocked her friends who believed in astrology. Her father had always told her that her only weapons in life had to be her logic and empathy, that praying would not help her. That's why she only worshipped herself.

She looked at her watch, there were thirty minutes left before the end of the class. The teacher, who seemed to realise that the time was running out, began to speed up the pace, monotonously. Electra let her mind wander, she had one last class after this one, but she would meet some friends there. They were planning to go for a drink not far from here afterwards, perhaps at the great mosque of Paris. But she quickly stopped thinking when she noticed that there was complete silence in the room.

- Can you hear me?

It was strange, these words didn't seem to come from anyone, she had heard them inside her skull. She noticed that the other students as well as the teacher seemed disturbed, as if they had also heard this sentence.

- Oh! Can you hear me?

Embarrassed giggles were heard, some of them started talking to themselves, or saying that they were going crazy, that there was a voice in their heads.

- It doesn't matter. Close your eyes, it'll start soon.

Electra scanned the room, some were already closing their eyes, but most seemed baffled. She hesitated to let herself be dictated to by an unknown voice.

- Close your eyes, it's starting.

She noticed that most people had now closed them.

- You might lose your eyesight. Please Electra !

Electra closed her eyes, surprised that the voice knew her name, and thinking she had nothing to lose. A second passed, then another. She could barely think of opening them when a bright white light shone into the room. It was so intense she has to put her hands in front of her eyelids trying to protect herself, but the light was too strong and the pain unbearable. She felt like if someone wanted to start a fire in her eyes, and for the first time of her life, she experienced the true sensation to be burn. She couldn't cry, her eyes were dry, but she could scream and she did it, like everyone else in the room. The pain they felt made no sens, because their brains weren't prepared to bear It. It came from nowhere, so they couldn't spare to be lost. None of them knew then, that for a moment, the Earth had become all white.

The phenomenon ended as abruptly as it appeared. She belched violently as she tried to come to her senses. Her traumatized eyes still refused to open. But she kept trying, because she new somehow this light hasn't damaged her eyes. When she finally managed to look at something, she saw them.

Next to each of the amphitheatre's occupants was an angel. Males or females, they were all of rare beauty, dressed in white, with diaphanous wings on their backs. They all had a halo that floated about ten centimeters above their heads. No one made a moove, everybody seemed chooked, this situation couldn't be logicaly grasped. Once her surprise was over, as much as it can be, Electra began to analyze them. The one in front of her, carelessly sitting on her desk with his legs crossed, addressed her with a smile.

- You did well to close your eyes. You should soon start to feel better.

She ignored him, because in a way, she couldn't afford to believe what she saw. Her brain tryed to stay logical, to keep her cool head. She breathed slowly, closed her eyes, then open them again. But the angels didn't flew away.

Now she was sure of something. Those things, that had appeared before their eyes had taken on everyone's ideal appearance, the object of their desires. Most of them were actually the opposite sex of the person they sticked with. Hers was a clever fusion of her ex and an actor, who she thought, has almost reached perfection. His hair was light chestnut, he was tall and muscular, looked bad shaved. The professor's one was of a more mature age. The few boys in the class and a gay girl were endowed with beautiful women.

- « It's going to start soon," he said, looking impatient.

But she continued to ignore him, on her guard. The others, amazed, had started talking to the newcomers. She picked up snippets of conversations, her fellows asked them lots of questions, but the answers were rather evasive.

- I'm your guardian angel, you know? You could make the effort to listen to me.

As the hubbub of the conversations grew louder, the teacher asked everyone to stay calm.

"Damn it," cried a boy who was supposed to be named Anthony. It's not just us, take a look at the social networks, it's happening all over the world.

She heard one of her classmates ask her angel what they wanted from them.

- You'll understand in a minute, as soon as we get to 8 billion, the game will begin.

Electra suddenly got up, jumped backwards, from desk to desk to win the exit.

There was no one in the corridor. She rushed down the stairs and went down the stairs four at a time.

She noticed that the angel was following her closely, floating in the air like a trail of dust. Her decomposing body did not return to its original structure until after she slowed down. Electra had stopped on the lower floor. She seemed to be desperately looking for something.

- Wait for me, I can't read you the rules if you're running around.

The thing that followed her could walk but not run, she preferred to change shape, as if she was too dignified for that.

- The countdown have started, in 10 seconds the game will start and I will read you the rules.

This time, she didn't ignore it, she was curious to know what all this was all about. She just regretted not having met anyone else, she wanted to check something. She stopped dead in her tracks and turned around, paying attention.

The angel let a few seconds pass before clapping his hands.

"Tada! The big game has started and you are now one of the eight billion participants, he said, spreading his arms wide, excited. I'm now going to tell you the first 5 rules before you can start having fun. Be careful, I won't repeat them to you.

The first rule serves to delimit the game and its participants. As you may have guessed, this game takes place on planet Earth, and as far as its participants are concerned... Let's say that a player is any human being, from birth to his last breath of life.

The second rule is there to explain to you what the game consists of and how to progress in it. It is simply a matter of the players eating as many hearts as possible. In the metaphorical sense of the word of course. To simplify, let's say you just have to kill humans or demons, I'll take care of the rest.

The third rule is, that to the strong, the weak will submit. It allows one player to pledge allegiance to another. But we're not interested in that right now.

Aren't you taking notes? As I told you, I can't repeat them to you afterwards.

As for the fourth rule, it determines how the game is won. There must be only one player left among men, his coronation will bring peace on Earth.

The last rule is a warning, and it's the most important, so you should listen carefully ! Never let your emotions devour you."

- What are you talking about ? It doesn't make any sense.

- You know what we say, You'll understand better when you'll start to play.

She turned around and kept running, she wanted to see with her own eyes if this phenomenon was really affecting everyone. But she almost fell when the ground began to shake under her feet. It was coming from the lower floor, Electra went there, starting running again.

- You're reckless ! I love that, the angel cried out, laughing.

She stormed downstairs. The lights flashed as if something was disrupting their usual operation. Most of the hallway doors were closed, there was little natural light coming in from outside. But it was enough to discern the horror that laid before her.

About ten meters away, a hideous monster was trapped between the two walls, the ceiling and the floor. One could only guess from its body an immense mouth that occupied almost the entire space. Between her two rows of teeth, each of which must have been the size of a human skull, there were hundreds of human hands. They were all the end of long, disjointed arms at least two meters long, waving chaotically. They were desperately trying to grasp something. Some of them managed to tear off part of a wooden bulletin board, and immediately slid it between them so that the organism would swallow it up. The hands continued to shake, and made a strange melee noise, but they moved more quietly.

- What the hell is this shit?

- It's a demon, Electra, smiled the angel. If you kill it, you'll get lots of hearts! But you can also run away, no one will blame you.

- How the fuck am I supposed to kill that ?