Jack walked along the crowed sidewalk of the metropolis he called home. Vaguely aware of the thousands of people walking hastily beside him to get to their destinations. They probably had entire life plans about the expensive apartments they wanted to buy, what education to strive for or how they could earn money enough to support their families..
Jack didn't care about such things anymore. At the age of 49 he had experienced enough. At least that was his reasoning. As an orphan he grew up in multiple foster homes. Others like him was lucky and got picked by wealthy and kind people, to live a life with a strong foundation, education and future. But fate was cruel to Jack, or so he thought. He had been in and out of foster homes all these year until one day he turned 18 and was kicked out for good.
He often wondered why no one ever wanted to keep him. He was always polite and helped where he could. Maybe it was due to Jack being a slow learner or maybe just because he wasn't pretty. At all.
He had common black hair and a bone-slim build. At least when he was young. As he got older his hairline receded and his body became a floppy mess of excessive fat. Even his teeth had begun to rot here and there, a few of them was already gone for good. His facial features was even worse. Very unsymmetrical and even his sparse beard didn't grow properly and some spots even had holes barren of any beard at all, making him look extremely homeless, so he always kept a clean shave. The kind of visual that people didn't look twice at, except the rare occasion full of pity.
There was only one bright thing is his life. He had worked hard at a corporate ladder, from a cleaning guy who worked late at night to an assistants managers assistant. The managers assistant had noticed him when he was cleaning her office one night and randomly had solved a puzzle on her disk, thinking no more of it. Yet she had made him her assistant, asking him about solutions for this and that. She had modified a lot of her work with his ideas before turning it over to the manager.
Jack didn't care that she stole his ideas and presented it as her own and became a high-ranking assistant within the firm. She was kind to him and gave him bountiful bonuses each time. Enough for Jack to get confident enough to seek out a wife.
However he knew that due to his own looks he couldn't expect anything near a model type of woman. He had been at countless speed-dating events and finally met a woman who agreed to meet him again. She was visually just as unlucky as Jack but was very kind to him so she eventually became his wife. Jacks life was simple, and he enjoyed coming home to a cooked meal every day.
But one day when he had turned 30 their lives changed. She was pregnant. And soon after gave birth to the most beautiful girl the world had ever seen! As his daughter grew up , none who saw her could ever believe that such a couple had given life to such a beautiful girl. She was the embodiment of symmetry and streamlined features, a mind so sharp she could rival any and all who encountered her.
At the age of 16 she had the worlds eyes in many fields. Model agencies wanted to contract her, Commerce centers, corporations, scientists even military officer training screamed for her to enlist.
But it all came to an abrupt end at that same age, as a group of very jealous girls had pushed her into the street where an incoming truck had ended her life.
Jacks life deteriorated at that point. His wife couldn't look him in the eyes any more. The pain to obvious and had divorced him. He himself didn't want to be reminded as well and had agreed just like that.
Then came his heart issues. Pain had begun to appear in his chest and sometimes so intense that he would pass out. As such he could no longer work and in the end eventually became homeless, finding a place to sleep wherever he could.
The doctor had informed him many times that his heart condition would eventually claim his life, and as he reminisced all of this the time finally came.
A sharp pain tore through his chest and spread to his entire body and he collapsed then and there on the street, while the busy people around him tried to ignore the collapsed homeless man, like a river parts around a stone.
His heart stopped.
'So this is finally it then..' Jack thought while lying dead on the street.
'It's alright, I knew it was a matter of time. But how come nothing happens? What is this place? It feels just like I'm in my bed about to sleep. The only thing that's different is that I can normally still feel my own body and breathing. But this time I am completely disconnected.'
Jack kept wondering how long it would take to finally loose the last ability he had left in this all-enclosing darkness, his thoughts.
But to the contrary of what he thought he suddenly sensed a tingling emotion in his fingertips.
'So i'm not dead after all? Now I can even move my toes!'
Jack slowly opened his eyes and regained full control of his body, even if he was trembling and was sweating all over.
'That was a close one, I guess the doctor was right and I will die like this for real some day soon.'
Then he began to walk, still deeply thinking about his close encounter with certain fate. It wasn't until he had taken twenty steps and stopped at a crosswalk, when he suddenly became aware of his surroundings.
Another kind of sharp grasp had taken hold of his heart. Complete and utter surprise. A surprise that bordered the dark and scary side. It made him freeze in place and hold his breath, while the shock circulated his system.
Every noise had disappeared from the street, the city, the country and the whole world. A silence so deep it almost exploded in his ears as he realized he was alone. Not a soul in sight. No flying bird, no alley cats, no insects and no people!
He was completely alone in the world.
'The fuck is this! Straight out of a horror movie!'
Jack got goosebumps and tried to rationalize what was happening.
'Maybe I am truly dead and didn't cross-over to wherever the religious people thinks you'll go?'
'Maybe I am still in my bed and this is just a dream?'
Jack had hundreds of thoughts before he settled down.
'Well what would normal people do in such a situation?'
Jack looked around the streets. The cars had simply stopped moving on the spot. The doors to apartment blocks, restaurants and more still unlocked, some even open entirely. He could go and eat and sleep wherever he wanted.
'I guess any normal person would shout out loud to see if there is anyone else besides themselves..'
Jack wondered and thought it was worth a try. It was the fastest way to find out if there was anyone else around in this endless silence.
"HALLO! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?"
Jack yelled as high as he could and immediately the hairs stood up on his arms, a chill ran through him as the silence had been disturbed and he felt he had broken some unspoken law.
"This is impossible." A voice right next to Jack suddenly sounded.
"Aauuuaargh!!!"
Jacked jolted back and almost had a second life-ending heart-attack as he heard the silence broken right next to him.
He instantly turned his head to the right and saw… nothing.. Only a small cloud of mist seemed to float before him.
"Who is there?" Jack nervously asked as his eyes darted up and down the street.
"Interesting…"
The voice came again. And this time Jack realized the voice originated from inside that mist right next to him.
'What is going on? Either I truly am dead or I have turned insane. There is no way a mist could ever be speaking…'
Jack took a step back and kept his eyes directly at the mist. He was no longer scared as a sudden calm seemed to rush through him. He just wanted to finally understand where this strange plot would finally lead him.
The mist moved up, down and all around Jack, seemingly trying to inspect every micro fiber of his being. And all the while the mist moved around him, more and more small clouds of mist in different shapes and colors appeared all around him.
"Truly unexpected.." The mist spoke again, and a chorus of agreement arose from the other mist clouds.
Jack, suddenly feeling calm and strangely rooted finally wanted to know what was happening.
"Who are you? Or what are you? What's going on right now??" Jack blurted out.
"He. He. He. He."
The cloud stopped inspecting him and went still right in front of him.
"We are the gods of the universe. We have reached our threshold of curiosity as we have experience everything, created everything and lived in everything possible countless times over. We are about to go into slumber."
The mist stopped speaking as a wave of agreement went through the other clouds of mist.
Jack was surprised. A god? Gods plural? No way..