Project XXYZZ: Prologue

Project XXYZZ
John Barber

Prologue: The New Universe

An Angel sat at the foot of the universe, naked and alone.
He had only one wing, for the other had been severed, and from its cold, lifeless stump, blood dripped slowly, and white ghosts of bone rested, exposed.
The Angel sat, and looked for a while. Then, seeing that the universe was no more, he took up his sword, and words came from his mouth:
"I shall slay the demon who laid this world to waste."

In the waning minutes of our universe, there existed a boy, maybe about twelve years old. He had blond curly hair, and pale skin. His friends called him Jake, but sometimes, in the pretend games he played with himself, he was an Angel.
Jake sat up. He was in bed, for a moment, and then he was not, for he ceased to exist. He had no eyes any more, or ears, and yet, he could sense something--a tiny tear in the universe, and from it came a sound like air from a baloon. It grew louder, until it was the very voice of thunder and the roar of mountains.
Then, it was gone. Everything was gone. There was no color; no light. No darkness, either. Everything was just nonexistence, all crammed into a space that was a fraction of a trillionth of a zillionth of the smallest spec you could imagine.
And that was nothing.
Jake's head swam at the curiosity. He wanted to pinch himself (to wake himself up) only he found that he had no arms. He tried to run away, but his legs did not exist any more. He tried to think, but...
"Hello."
Existence. Suddenly, "Hello" was the only thing in existence, and for Jake, now a nameless, shapeless anti-matter, it was a guiding light in the darkness. Suddenly, he would have been able to speak (if he could move his mouth) and walk (if his legs weren't locked in place).
Of course, he still had thought. "Um... hello?"
"My name is Lucifer."
"Who are you?"
"I am anti-life."
Jake hesitated. "My name's Jake."
"You are dead, Jake."
This had not come as a shock to the boy. As many thought rushed through his head in a twinkling of an eye, he vaugely recalled wondering if he was dead. "Is this all there is."
The answer was emplanted in Jake's mind. "No."
"Then do I get my life back?"
Hesitation. Silence. The words ebbed away, until it was all dark, again. "Under one condition."
"Um..."
"You will live in my universe."
Jake did not hesitate. "I will."

Somewhere across the infinity, a new world was being born. In this world, there was a girl. She wandered the tides of magma and molten rock until her feet had long since burnt away, and she had burnt until she was only a soul, or a ghost.
Her name was Eve.
"Hello."
The little girl did not see the being before her. As a mortal, she could not. However, she opened her mouth to speak, dry, parched words: the first words she had ever spoken. "Who are you?"
"You may call me God."
Eve blinked. "You are not God. You are a devil."
"I will give you all you ever wanted, my child."
She looked up. "Speak" she said, and the words were scarcely as new as a babe's first breath, when the being responded.
"I give you a universe, to own, and to control, if you rule under me."
And Eve did not hesitate. "I do."