Hi I'm Genesis

Lana Christine was the only girl in Halbridge Technical High that really stood out to me. I didn't preface this in the beginning, but this is a growing story so expect pain. Even now that I am writing this years later, I know that I have much more to learn.

Lana used to play her violin on top of the school roof. We weren't allowed on the roof, but Lana didn't care. So the school got its fame from the fiddler on the roof. That's how we met.

I had transferred from a high school in California, my dad was getting concerned about me hanging with the wrong crowd. To a parent, every kid hangs out with the wrong crowd. It wasn't gangs and guns. It was just a group of friends smoking weed and hitting on chicks. So when my dad got the opportunity to work in Halbridge, we moved.

I was smoking on the roof when she walked up to me, grabbed my cigarette, and stomped it out. I was upset, but she told me that she has a strict rule of no smoking when she's performing. I didn't care and was about to light another when she started playing. It was beautiful. Like all of nature was playing with her. The streets, cars, the wind, the earth.  I fell in love, like hard. I stopped smoking and started focusing on my studies. She hated smoking and hated stupid people even more, and I was going to prove to her I wasn't stupid.

This was when I started my copywriting career. Made some good money squeezing the seniors dry. I kept it a secret, and the good thing about Lana is that she didn't hang out with many students. They didn't like her; they thought she was some pompous princess. Fools, she was a goddess to me and I... I became her devil, but that is for another time.

I walked up to this stranger that looked like Lana but didn't talk like her.

"Afterlife," I said. "I'm dead, how'd I—"

Before the words could come out, a flash of my accident hit me, and the pain flew right through my body. I threw upright on the floor, but it wasn't your typical puke. It was that bile that comes from the stomach, you know when you've puke a bit more than you should. It stung.

"You done," Lana asked.

I nodded.

"Great, I guess this face doesn't bode well with you," she said, tapping her cheek and her face changed to an older man in a blink of an eye. "I think most people believe God is an old man, right? This should make you feel somewhat comfortable."

"You're God?"

"Sure," he said smiling. "You can call me Big G."

"No."

"G-dawg?"

"How about just God?"

"Ugh. It's gets complicated the further you go along. So using the term God becomes very vague so, just call me Genesis."

I took a deep breath and got back up to my feet. Genesis gestured to a chair across the table from him, and I took a seat.

"Any lingering regret?"

I looked up at him and nodded. "Of course, I have regret. I didn't get to taste of that fine ass neighbour of mine or her niece."

"I shouldn't judge, but she is in middle school."

"I would've waited."

Genesis's eyebrow arched up, giving me a look that he didn't believe me.

"I would've."

"Listen, James. I am not here to judge your sins. I've got a few piled up  myself."

"God has sins," I asked, but he ignored me.

"I going to give you an offer. You could choose, or you could walk on over to whatever lies in the afterlife," he said, pointing to a door that I hadn't noticed before. It was open but on the other side was black. It pulled at me, wanting me to go through. "Mysterious isn't, even I don't know what's on the other side."

"But you're God," I said. My eyes were still glued to the door. He let out a sigh and smacked his hand on the table; it caught my attention.

"I'm making a team, James. I want you on it, but right now you're not qualified to join. Personality-wise and skill."

"Oh, so then why me?"

"You're an experiment. I don't know if you are going to do well, and this is my first time actually contacting a member of the team in person."

Amateur.

"Yeah, I know, but you have to start somewhere.

Wait. Could you hear me? Like I said, I'm writing this years in advance.

"Pretty cool," he said. "Sounds like my little gamble worked."

"Who are you talking to," I asked.

"You."

"What's the deal?"

"I send you to another world. One like earth but different."

"Different like what?"

"Magic, dragons, very fantasy-like with a hint of horror maybe. I didn't do a lot of research into it. I'm usually on top when it comes to information but in the state that I am in. I'm limited. Anyway, I am going to reincarnate you, and you will be tasked on making your way back here."

"To earth?"

"No here," he said, pointing down into the table. He meant this room. "You get a second chance either way and a new beginning. A win-win for you and gamble for me."

"What if I don't come back?"

"That's the gamble."

I didn't have to think long, and most people wouldn't. A second chance to live, righting the wrongs, and possibly being something better than I was before, who wouldn't take it. A saint? Fuck saints.

"I agree. Fuck saints," Genesis said, tossing a cookie into his mouth.

"Okay, I'm in," I said, grabbing a cookie. It was an Oreo, and I thought that it was funny that God was eating earth pastries.

"I'll give you a boost per se; what kind of abilities would you like?"

"Like a superpower?"

"Yeah, the world you're going into has magic, and I don't want you to go in unprepared."

"Can I get an ability that makes me talented in everything?"

"No, sounds like a lot of penalties for something like that."

"What do you mean?"

"I am borrowing power from another god, so in order to balance their world and not bring suspicion to us.  We can't go overboard. If I gave you that ability, the god of that world might see this as an error and try to balance it by giving you, I don't know, an erectile dysfunction."

"I could find a way to heal that."

"Divine balance is very, very hard to cure. How about something in your life that you're good at?"

"I'm a copywriter."

"Mhmm, go on."

I sighed and leaned back in my chair. I knew what he was getting at. He's God, so he knows everything about me. He would obviously know about my business.

"Why didn't you just tell me to choose an ability that can copy other people's skills," I asked.

"I wanted you to feel like you had a choice," he said sternly. "You needed to know that I can't give everything you need. I can't pull you out of that world, and I can't save you. Most of all, I needed you to pick up on who the enemy might be."

"You were testing my comprehension."

"So, who's the enemy?"

"The god of that world," I said.

"That includes her heroes, your not the main character anymore, James."

"I never was."

"You're the villain. My villain."