The beginning.

5:43 A.M, The morning of Oct. 20th.

 Zaphkiel's home lies on the southern side Nazareth, where a lot of the gang violence occurs. Despite all of the violence occurring outside of his home daily, he slept soundly in his bed, not even batting an eye to the gunshots that rang out every now and then.

Zaphkiel had just turned 18 a few weeks prior, so he was just about to graduate and have the freedom to move out of the horrific town.

Zaphkiel's alarm starts to blare as soon as it hits 5:45 A.M, and he immediately sits up and shuts it off. He stands up and stretches his arms and legs. He was not excited for today, his parents clearly despised him and thought of him as a disgrace to the bloodline, and were waiting for the moment he graduated so they could kick him out. So he slipped on his all black clothing and long coat, then brushed his teeth and his messy black bedhead hair. He grabbed his backpack, and walked downstairs. It was strange though, usually his parents would already be awake watching TV, but they were nowhere to be seen. He had a suspicious feeling about this, because they hadn't slept in for months. To make it even stranger, his sister wasn't even here, and she doesn't have a job or went to school. He passed the thought off as a coincidence and set off for school.

 He remembered that his brother, Indra, goes to the same school as him, so he could probably ask him what's going on when he sees him. Zaph pops some gum into his mouth on the way to school, and looks up at the sky. He notices something really weird, one half of the sky was completely lit up, while the other side was completely black, like outer space itself. He passed this off as another coincidence. "Man, this is a strange day so far." He thought to himself. 

Eventually, he arrives at his highschool. He walks into the main entrance straight to his first period. And so, he proceeds through all of his classes as normal. During lunch, he meets up with his brother in the empty science class in the quiet side of the school. When he walks into the room, he notices Indra focusing really hard while writing something, he had all types of strange science gadgets lying all over the big desk in the back. Zaph slowly walks up behind Indra, and stands behind him. All of a sudden, he swiftly places his palms on Indra's shoulders and scares the soul out of him, causing Indra to knock over some of the equipment and completely lose focus. "Hey! What the hell is your problem!?!" Indra furiously exclaims. Zaph backs up, "Sorry, I didn't think it'd scare you that bad. Should've seen your face, though." He tries to hold in his laughter so Indra doesn't get too angry. "This is why dad will never give you the Darklomus" The Darklomus was a mysterious katana his dad vowed to pass down to one of his children, it supposedly was forged on a different planet. "Hey, don't be so angry, I was just messing with you." Zaph says. "You're annoying." Indra mumbles as he picks up the equipment off the floor. "What're you researching, anyways?" Zaph questions. "Oh, you really wanna know? It might hurt that stupid head of yours." Indra scoffs, his entire demeanor changed to a jokingful mood as soon as Zaph mentioned research. "Yeah, sure, just tell me." Zaph says. "Well, I'm essentially studying the equation of shadow slave and time itself." Zaph looks confused, "How the hell are you researching something like that with measly school lab equipment..?" Zaph asks, clearly shocked. "My brain is twice the size of yours, that's how." He answers. "No seriously, how?" Zaph persistently questions him. "It's none of your business. Now, go, lunch is about to be over and you might be late to your next class." Indra says, as he picks up his pencil and gets back to writing. "Alright, I guess. Well, see you later, Indra." Zaph remembers why he came to ask Indra in the first place, "Hey, do you know where Mom, Dad, and Sheila are? They weren't home this morning." Zaph asks. Indra promptly shrugs, "I dunno, now get out of here." Zaph sighs and goes back to lunch. 

2:25 P.M

 The final bell rings, and all of the students rush out of the front entrance. Zaph waits a few minutes for the majority of the kids to exit the building so it's less of a struggle to get out the door. After about 5 minutes or so, he walks out the entrance and begins his walk back home. All of a sudden, his cell phone rings. He pulls it out of his pocket and sees that his mom is calling. He answers and puts the phone up to his ear. "Hey mom, what's up?" He greets her. "Son, don't take this personally. It's for your own good." She says in a strange tone. "Wha-?" The phone hangs up. Zaph was clearly confused and tried to dial his mom back, but she didn't answer back. "What the hell is going on today?" He thought to himself. Zaph continued to walk down the sidewalk leading to his house. But all of a sudden, a man jumped off the roof of a building above him and landed right in front of him. "WHAT THE HELL?!" Zaph leaps back in panic as the man stands up. "Hey, Zaph." The man casually says his name. "How do you know my name? And better question is why the hell did you just jump off a building?!" Zaph shouts in confusion. "Shut up, I'll dumb down a long story for you to help you understand." The man squats down and looks at Zaph in the eyes. "Your two lovely parents paid me a fine amount of money in order to kill you, to teach you a lesson, I guess. Which doesn't make much sense cause what lesson are you gonna learn if you're dead, oh well, I'll still get paid." Zaph's stomach turns as he hears this. "What? You got the wrong gu-" The man cuts him off. "Does it look like I care either way? Besides, I'm not an idiot. I know who my target is." The man swiftly pulls his arm back and socks Zaph in the face. Two of Zaph's teeth are sent flying from the sheer force of the punch. Zaph falls onto the floor, stunned. The man charges up a strong kick and kicks Zaph right in the abdomen while he's on the floor. Zaph lets out a scream. "Shut up! God, you can't take a single blow. How are you the son of two mercenaries?" He kicks him again in the side. The man picks up Zaph by the collar, and throws him up in the air. As Zaph falls back down to around the man's level, he punches Zaph right in the nose, instantly breaking it and sending Zaph flying right into the brick wall. "Sorry, kid." The man pulls out a pistol with a silencer on it. "OH. Wait. I probably shouldn't kill the kid in public like this." The man thinks. He lifts Zaph up over his shoulders and chucks him in the back of his car, he slams the trunk and gets in the driver's seat. "Well, hopefully no one saw that." He turns on the engine and starts to drive.