Gods of All Nations

Chapter One

The bell came as a deafening screech for the the half asleep students, who had a minute previously been enduring the lecture on the Danish attacks on Britain in the nine to tenth century. It was incredible how their teacher could make a epic bloody battle into an excruciatingly boring lesson.

Jake started as the ringing woke him up, and looked around the classroom with groggy eyes and stifled a yawn as he swung his bag around his shoulder. He stood up, as did the rest of the class, with the usual deafening sound of metal on wood. He looked out the window, and gazed at the midsummer London sun, which, Jake knew, would not last for long. He was the last to leave the class, but instead of going towards the exit, where the masses of students were headed, he bounded up the stairs until he reached the roof. He pushed the door open and flinched at the sudden sunlight. The roof of the school was nothing special, just a slab of concrete where Jake often sat. In the past month, Jake has been coming back to the roof almost every day.

Anything to avoid going home. Anywhere to avoid that awful place which had so recently and suddenly become devoid of happiness and any sort of communication. It was once a place of status and pride, immaculately clean, filled with nothing but a happy, joyful atmosphere. It was the house of Emily and Harvey Antonios, who lived there with their son Jake Antonios, a boy who people normally glossed over. He had not inherited his fathers brains, nor his mothers good looks. He was, to be put bluntly, average. Everything from the top of his semi-spiked hair to his boots were average. But he was happy. Until his father went on his usual business trip.

Twice a year, every winter and summer solstice, Jakes father would leave for a day or so and come back. When Jake was younger, he would often ask his father what he would do on these trips, to which the response always was 'Daddy had to take care of some business.'
Jake had long abandoned asking his father where he went, as it was about as useful as interrogating a parrot. However, on one of these routine trips, Jakes' father never returned.

There were search parties upon search parties, but after three weeks, Jakes' mother had lost hope. She was hysterical, sobbing and screaming until her throat would no longer allow her to do so. Jake sighed and shook his head, as if trying to clear it of bad thoughts. He sat there until the sun faded into the horizon and droplets of rain began to fall. With a groan, Jake stood up and swung his bag around his shoulder. As he made his way down the stairs and towards the exit of the school, he heard the distant wail of a siren. It was nothing new to Jake. Living in a big city often meant that there was rarely any peace and quiet. As he walked the path he took every day, too and from school, the rain suddenly started pounding down, and lightning slashed across the heavens as the police siren shrieked louder than ever. Jack shivered, feeling as though he was naked in the seemingly unending onslaught of the violent mixture of water and ice. He grimaced, excepting to be hit by the bombardment of hail, but it never came.

Confused, Jake continued on the path to his house, but he could hardly see a meter in front of him in this brutal weather.
Then, an abrupt flash of red and blue.
The howl of a police siren.
Jake flinched at the sudden change of atmosphere, but he had arrived. As had the police, carrying a body into a large car.
'Mum?' Jake thought, but he quickly pushed that thought out of his mind. The deceased was taller than Jakes mother, and had short hair, much like his. In fact, Jake thought, they must have been a student at his school, as they wore the uniform that Jake was wearing at that very moment. A crowd had gathered around the police car, and Jake was ready to push through them to see who it was when an elderly man walked threw him and craned his neck, in an obvious attempt to see the person who had died. What the hell was going on? Then, as the police finally succeeded in putting the body into the car, he saw the face of the dead person. He saw his own face. At first, he thought it was a trick of the light, but then he saw it again and saw that it was definitely him. He felt sick.

'ITS ME!' He wanted to roar, but he couldn't. 'I'M RIGHT HERE, I'M NOT DEAD' he wanted to scream. He wanted to stop the police cars, jump in front of them, have them explain. He looked around frantically, trying to find some means of finding answers, then he spotted his mother.
His poor, poor mother who had lost everything, who was screaming and shouting and pounding her fists into her face as police men struggled to subdue her. Suddenly, everything went quite. Everything was still happening, the entire world collapsing before his eyes, but it was silent. The police cars, with their red and blue lights, no longer had the deafening screams of the siren. His mother, still punching and heaving, no longer emitted that heart breaking wail, that almost animalistic screech of a person who had lost everything. The shouts of the police officers were now gone. It was as if someone has pressed a mute button on the entire world. Jake was not thinking anymore. His eyes had gone blurry, he was no longer attempting to roar his need for answers to the entire world, no longer wanting to comfort his mother. He felt nothing. It was as if someone had taken his soul and left him as just a shell without any memories or emotions. Then, Jakes vision started to blacken, and he felt his legs fall, as though the entire foundation of the world itself was falling apart.

And then, there was nothing.