Chapter 1: Life's a Bitch

Just how much can life screw one person over. If you ask John Carlton, then it's a hell of a lot.

Not once in his 80 plus years has he ever had a lick of luck. When he was 6, his family died in a fire leaving his back with burn scar tissue from his nape all the way to his waist. When he was 10, and still in an orphanage, he was framed for the murder of another kid, leaving others to believe he'd become a psycho and had him thrown into a psych ward where he was beaten daily with the warden not caring one bit. When he was 30, he convinced everyone he'd gained his sanity and was thrown out on the streets. Despite him being able to land on his feet and got a lovely home at the age of 50, he chose to be anti-social out of fear of harm and scrutiny by others on his street.

Now at the age of 80 and returning home with a brown paper bag filled with a week's worth of food. John walked in and set his groceries on a table and hung up his brown coat and red plaid scarf with anticipation of cooking his 15-ounce steak he saved up 2 weeks for. But before he could pick the bag back up, an ominous tapping began to beheard from his living room.

He cautiously grabbed his umbrella for defense, although he knew it didn't offer much protection as it was the only thing big enough he could reach at the time.

Walking into the living room was an elderly old woman wearing a black trench coat with a glass of wine in one hand and a gun in the other. Her silver hair was distinctive as it had a hint of marine blue, which made him reminisce something a memory of someone, but he didn't know who.

"Hello there, John, you might not remember me, but I remember you," says the woman as she casually waves the gun to the chair that stood 2 and a half meters in front of her.

John dropped the umbrella and sat down with a calm demeanor. It didn't take him a minute to guess that he probably wasn't going to survive this encounter. Although one thing was racing through his mind, who was she and what did she want, so he asked with his soft and calming voice, "Who are you?"

She smiled and took off her sunglasses and looked John in the eyes and said, "Do you remember the orphanage you once lived in before becoming a murderer.?"

With this question, he knew that this was someone related to his case back then. But who was she as John thought hard? Was she the friend of the girl whose murder he was framed for? Without further ado, he just nodded a yes to her.

"Ok then, so I'm guessing you remember the girl too. Did you know she had a twin sister that was sent to another orphanage who was 6 at the time?" She asked while psychotically smiling while pointing the gun at John's heart.

John's eye went wide, and his jaw dropped a little in surprise. During his trial, there was never any indication she had a sister, or they kept her secret in fear for her life. Either way, was she here for revenge or answers? John sat there and shook his head no as he was fed up with the way his life has been so far. He just resigned himself to whatever fate had decided as there wasn't much he could now as he was 80 years old and could just barely wipe his own ass.

Shaken her head to show that she understood his gesture, she extends her arm, pointing the gun and says, "Ok, I heard you were a psycho, but looking through your stuff, I doubt that so tell me. Why'd you do what you did to my sister?"

Throughout his painful life, she was the first-ever to ask that question. A chance to explain his side of the story. A chance to finally claim his innocence. A chance to lift the weight that's been on his shoulder for so many years.

"I didn't kill her." John starts while noticing her grip on the trigger, getting tighter.

"It was the director of the orphanage. He played an excellent game of lies and deceit while he pimped us, no older than 6 years old, to whoever could pay the price." John said solemnly as if his words took him back to those painful times in the orphanage.

The woman's look of surprise showed while her finger loosened on the trigger. She thought back to the warm-hearted man she had met during the case and once again at her sister's funeral. She kept quiet for a while before coming to the conclusion that John had to be lying, no way that old director could have done such things.

"Lies that man kept you all fed and gave you all a place to stay. Just so you know, I don't tolerate lies." She says while sporting a look of pure hatred.

John looking her in those sky blue eyes, says, "I'm telling you th..."

'Bang'

Her gun fires, but she now wore a face of shock as she gripped the gun with all her might and pulled the trigger accidentally, hitting him in the heart.

John at first checked his chest where the bullet had pierced him. His brown hand was now covered in crimson blood that reflected the light over the woman's head. Within seconds he hit the floor as the pain and finally caught up to him. He clutched his chest while blood flowed from his chest and mouth.

The woman was in complete shock as she didn't mean to pull the trigger, but it was too late as she looked over him, confused as to how she felt. She noticed that John was pointing to a drawer that was home to another lamp without a light bulb.

She opened it to reveal there was nothing in it. Just empty space as was now in a hurry. She knew that the gunshot was gonna draw attention, and she needed to so she needed to find what John wanted her to see.

Within a couple of minutes, she found that the drawer had a secret compartment that held the key to a safety deposit box hidden. 'Why would he point me to this? What could he had been keeping hidden all these years?'

All these thoughts raced through her mind as she grabbed the key and stood watching John go limp. It was too late for her or anyone to save him, although she didn't have the intention of doing so anyway. Although she felt he didn't deserve any kind of departing words still said, "My name is Alexia Thomson, and we'll see each other in hell."

As she heard the sirens, she moved as fast as she could out the window she came in through and was gone within the darkness of the night.

As John laid there limp unable to move, he felt cold, but he embraced it. Death seemed better than living another second in this dark and twisted world that most people believed to be daisies and sunshine. He truly hated his life, better yet, he hated everyone. Every last person who never saw the good in him. Every last person who harmed him and made him out to be a monster. As the bright light came closer, he wished he could be given a chance to make this world a hell worse than how he felt on the inside for most of his life.

"A dark and hateful soul you truly are." A man said as John's vision became clear again.

John was now on a tile floor that was in a vast circle. He looked around as he could see the stars racing around him as if the room was rotating. But that thought was crushed as he looked over the edge of the tile floor and saw a that the stars were revolving around the platform he was on.

"We're up here, human," A giant woman in what looked like a toga with shifting worlds on it said, looking down.

John looked up at her as she was taller than anything he'd ever seen. John thought she'd at least had to be over 3 kilometers tall. Next to her was a man the same height as her with skin that shifted and changed with purple mist stood silent.

Below them were seven individuals who were around the same height as John, but they were floating just a few inches off the ground while wearing different colored robes.

The giant woman bent over, revealing her sad eyes to John and said, "I did not believe that not one creature in all the worlds we govern could live through their entire lives without a shred of happiness or joy. But instead, you lived through a life of pain, misery, anger, and depression."

John knew she was talking about him. He knew she was talking about the hellish life he endured only to be shot down by the sister of a girl he never killed. The mention of his life only angered him more than the fact that he could tell was dead but not in heaven, better yet what he thought was better, just a void of darkness where he could finally be by himself and find some kind of peace.

"We have monitored you and how you never had a fair chance at life. So we have pulled your soul here to offer you a proposition," The giant woman said, raising back up while making a mystical pose as if to show something off.

"As you have lived an unfair life at the hands of humanity, who throughout thousands of years of their existence, have not learned to cull their unacceptable actions from their civilizations. Even when we sent floods and shook the earth beneath them, they continue to fail to meet our expectations,"

She says while creating an illusionary screen with a shift edge the glowed blue. The screen showed everything from humanities world wars, to their street crime, to even a glimpse of the disgusting things the director of the orphanage did to the children where John first stayed.

John felt his anger that he had pushed to the back of his head, resurface at the sight of the director.

"What's your proposition, lady?" John said, skipping over the question of where he was or what the hell these people or things were. He already knew they had to be gods at this point because what else could they be.

The other gods remained still while the giant lady smiled happily. She raised her hand, and white glowing orb flew down to John end entered his black and red soul. All of a sudden, a screen appeared with different tabs such as status, inventory, skills/abilities, and finally, an evolution tab.

"We have chosen you to be our final and last god, The God of the Undead. Or if you want, you can call yourself the god of death, either one is fine." She said as John dark and red soul becomes caged by bone.

After a quick inspection, he can tell he's now taken the form of a skeleton with pure white bones. His dark and red smoke soul-form within the middle of his rib cage becomes invisible. Making him look like a normal skeleton.

He looks back up at the giant goddess and tries to speak, but without lungs and a voice box, he was just moving his lower jaw, making the goddess giggle.

"You don't necessarily have to move your mouth to speak child; just think it, and we will hear it." She says with a face of amusement.

With her words said, he thinks the question, "Ok, so what now?"

"Before you become a god of the undead, you have three quests you have to accomplish before claiming your godhood and receiving your responsibilities. The following are your quest: First, bring about the event of an apocalypse on the three worlds we govern. Second, either eradicate all life or destroy 99 percent so it'll be easy for us gods to restart the three worlds. And last but not least, evolve to the highest undead you can become as you'll only be able to receive your godhood once reaching your full evolution and stand as the most powerful among the three worlds." She said this as she showed his quest on his screen, which John was now gonna calling a menu because it sounded better.

That menu in front of you is your system, which we all have to make it easier to both remind us of things along with making it easier to use specific skills and abilities. Before we send you back to your world to wreak havoc upon humanity, you will receive a skill and or ability from each, me the goddess of creation and the god next to me, the god of destruction and the other lesser gods. The ones floating near you on the tile platform are lesser gods, which you will be apart of soon after completing your quest."

John looks at the 5 lesser gods from the left to right as they all floated silently, covering their faces with their hoods.

As the goddess of creation said her statement all of the gods and goddesses summoned orbs of light that they sent flying toward John. Each one of the lights flew through his ribs and were consumed by his soul that became visible just for that moment.

[Ping]

[Ping]

[Ping]

[Ping]

[Ping]

[Ping]

[Ping]

John's menu made seven consecutive notification sounds that he wanted to look at, but before he could check the creation goddess spoke and said, " There will be time to check your notifications later but for now it's time for you to be on your way. Good luck with your quest John and hopefully you find peace with what your about to do."

As she finishes speaking John is engulfed in a purple energy and is flung off the edge of the platform. While falling the platform and gods disappear and the stars stop spinning around John. John looks down and see earth as he falls through the atmosphere fast enough to burn the oxygen around him, but thanks to the purple energy around him he remains untouched.

While falling to what he could see was the U.S. he his mind shifted to Alexia as he hoped she found the proof that proved his innocence. As he wanted her to watch the innocent man she accused of murder turn this world into a living hell.