A town of puppets & a fallen god

It was a warm summer afternoon. I was about to doze off when I heard the sound of a distant crash. I looked at the time: 5 minutes until 3. I weighed my options and decided I could be back before 3, so I decided to go check it out. As I looked over, I saw a trail of clouds leading to the crash. I ran over; it took me about a minute to get there (2:56). I saw a young man draped in a torn-up cloak who sat up. He seemed dazed and confused. I offered my hand to help him up, which he accepted. Upon standing up, I noticed his toned, muscular body that many would describe as a good-looking body… too good. I tried not to focus on it.

"W-where am I?" the man asked.

"Uh- you are in Clive, a small town in Pennsylvania," I responded.

The man nodded before his eyes widened. "Oh no," he muttered under his breath.

"Um- are you okay?" I asked.

"Oh no, I'm fine." It had been 2 minutes (2:57).

"It's almost 3; I should probably go back to the town. You should come too."

"No! No, I can't," he responded.

"Why no-" Just as I was saying that, he fainted. I was able to carry him about halfway to the town when I realized I wouldn't be able to get him there in time. So, I laid him down and sprinted back to town. By the time I made it to my house, it was 3:01. My eyes widened in terror as I realized what was to happen. Refusing my fate, I tried to run out of the town but I couldn't. As I reached the tree I was lying at earlier, I couldn't leave. There was an invisible force stopping me. I froze in fear as I heard his voice.

"You disobeyed me. I give you peace and protection AND YOU BREAK MY ONE RULE."

"I'm sorry!" I exclaimed. "I was trying to help someone!"

"ANYONE OUTSIDE OF THE TOWN IS UNIMPORTANT. THE PEOPLE OF YOUR TOWN ARE THE ONLY PURE ONES. EVERYONE ELSE IS A SINNER."

I let out a sigh as I accepted my fate. Death. A being appeared in front of me holding a sword. Just as they swung it, the sound of metal clashing with metal filled the air. It was the man as he hit the being's sword out of its hands, landing 5 feet away. He grabbed my wrist and used his sword to cut through the barrier, creating a hole outlined in white light and pulled me out. He ran, dragging me behind him for 5 minutes before finally stopping. I jerked my hand back as he relaxed his grip on me.

"Are you okay?" he asked me.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I looked up at him. "How did you do that?"

"You know how that being is a god, right? Well, I used to be one of his servants."

"What!?" I nearly screamed.

"Yeah, I expected you to say something like that," he chuckled.

"W-what happened?"

"I- disagreed with his ways, so he cast me upon this land as a punishment." He looked over at my wrist, which I was rolling in a circular motion to relieve the pain. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"

"No, it's just sore. I'll be fine."

"Okay, well, we should probably start to set up a camp. Do you know how to start a fire?"

"I, uh-" I grabbed the lighter I kept in my pocket. "I got this."

"That will be perfect. We should find a small cave or something to stay in for a bit."

I looked around. "Well, I used to play around here when I was younger. There should be a cave around. I'll show you to it."

"Perfect." I led him to the cave as we gathered some leaves and sticks on our way there.

"Here we are," I said as we reached the cave.

"Hey, why do you even have a lighter?" he asked, and I showed him a pack of cigarettes I had on me.

"It's probably a bad idea for a, what, 15-year-old kid to be smoking." We both chuckled as we set the leaves and sticks down into a fire, and I lit it. We proceeded to talk for the next three hours.

"Oh wow, it's getting dark already?" I looked down at my phone. "Well, yeah, it's 8."

"Okay, well, we should probably try to sleep. We might need a lot of energy tomorrow." I nodded in agreement.

"Hey, um, how old even are you?" I asked.

"Around 15, same as you." I smiled.

"Nothing like two totally straight 15-year-old boys hanging out in a cave."

He smiled menacingly. "Who said straight?"

I whipped my head to look at him. "What?"

"Nothing, nothing. Hey, I never got your name."

"Oh, it's Magnus. What's yours?" I replied.

"I don't really have a name."

"How about Lucifer since you're kind of like a fallen angel?"

"Sounds good."