At 18 years old, you shouldn't hate your family. You shouldn't feel a murderous rage towards them. Years upon years of insults, disagreements and unfairness. From them breaking my things that I bought for myself such as my camping tent that I slept in to get away from them to even my glasses. For a long time, I just wanted their approval, their love but I wouldn't get it.

I was a twin to Jeffery, my older, by a minute, twin brother. Jeffery had always been a little different from me. From breaking beds to getting transferred from multiple behavior schools at only 12, he was a hellion who thought the world was his and that everyone's else's business was his. But Jeffery was also the favorite of my mother, my father had died when I was 7. He could do anything he wanted and when I went to her for him to be punished, all she had to say about his actions was "he's only trying to get your attention." or "he's only doing this to provoke you, be the better person, ignore him." and thought that that was a good response for daily insults and breaking my things.

  My little brother, Matthew, was a little entitled brat who thought that whatever he did was no big deal. From hitting me and then getting angry, when i inevitably hit him back, or playing his music at full volume, when I was reading or sleeping. It was the little things which added up.

  Finally and worst of all was my mother, Katherine Carter, her maiden name, who thought that screams, insults and beatings was conducive to a good home environment. She always seemed to blame me whenever anything goes wrong. Whether it's her getting her money stolen, her phone falling in the toilet, when she was using it or her not being able to watch her favorite shows, I always seem to be the common denominator in her mind.

  I was stuck with them during the four years that I was in high school, a bad situation due to my skin color and small height of 5 feet, 5 inches to my now 6 foot, 3 inches. The combination of bullying at home and school meant that I had no peace or relief. I was constantly stressed, causing me to fail multiple classes and get held back by a year. I was now an 18-year old junior in high school instead of a senior.

 So it's no wonder that after the apocalypse happened, they were dead. Karma, I guess.

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July 16, 2020

6:30 pm

It was my birthday, I was officially 19 years old. I had decided that I would kill myself today. My family left 2 hours ago, they had went to the party that my mother had set up for Jeffery. It seemed to be symbolic that I would die on the same day that I first lived. I chose to leave my body in the living room, where my family could see, to let them know just how badly they screwed me up.

I walked into the living room, a knife in my hand. There I was, ready to plunge the "stainless steel" blade into my heart, when I heard someone clearing their throat behind me.

  I turned around slowly, fearing that it was them. I saw a ball of light in mid-air. I looked straight at it and was surprised that I could even look at considering it was a ball of light. My eyes widened when I realized a ball of light was mid-air. I stepped back in fear of what was happening.

"Hello James Barkydle, today is your lucky day." It said, once it saw me reacting to it. It's body(?) glowed brighter with each word it spoke.

  I spoke slowly, still fearful but less so, due to it not seeming to be harmful, "why is it my lucky day, mister or misses ball of light?"

  It responded with, "because today is the day where you get superpowers and beat back the dungeons that will appear today.", then a beam of light blasted out of it, onto the floor in front of me.

  I looked down, slightly scared of what was happening. The beam left behind a white paper. I picked up the paper and read it.

*              *              *              *            *            *

  It said "To whomever this paper may concern, below this writing is two boxes. In those two you should write the power that you want. The first box is for a physique power which will change your body. It will essentially change your race and while doing so give you unique powers. The second box is for a power which can be but isn't limited to : fire manipulation, water manipulation, light blasts, magic control, magi-tech knowledge, lightsaber creation, etc."

*              *              *              *            *            *

  I looked back at the ball of light and said in slight worry, "is there a catch or a reason that I'm getting superpowers?"

  "If you truly want to know, this is all due to the coming of the Dungeons. The Dungeons are a place that God Herself, made and then immediately sealed. He made the dungeon due to the need to contain the various mythical creatures that pervaded the Earth, due to the energy coming from the Earth's core."

  "A small amount of the monsters were actually sentient and capable of rational thought, they weren't the danger, they at least were capable of reason.The real danger was the rest, who only had their base nature to kill and destroy everything in their site, whether it was dangerous or not. They caused an unimaginable amount of deaths."

    "So, Using the sacrifice of the gods and goddesses of the various mythologies and His own angels, God was able to bend the Rules of the Universe and create the dungeon and reverse the effects that it caused on the land and it's people. She rewrote the memories of all of humanity so that no one would go looking for them, changing mythical creatures and Heroes to the realm of fiction. Doing what He did, bending a Rule caused a fatal backlash to Herself, He was extremely weak."

  "She could only make sure that the dungeons were kept sealed but at this point God was close to death from the backlash of even bending one of The Universe's rules."

  "God knew that His death would release the dungeons from their sealed state and cause destruction and death again, upon Her beloved creations, the humans that He made, so She decided that with the rest of His power, the power still keeping Her alive, He would create us, the Messengers. We are made to give the powers to our prospective candidates and act as a companion, guide in the Dungeons, to tell our Fighters helpful information in the Dungeons, and a tracker of the Dungeons."

  "The only 'catch' or reason for you to get this power is that you continue to survive and beat the Dungeons. So I ask you now, will you become a Dungeons fighter or not?"

  I looked back down at the paper and decided in favor of being a Dungeons fighter, leaving my baggage of familial drama in the past, embracing my new life. "So How do I fill out this form?", I asked eager to start my new life as a Dungeons fighter.