My eyes slowly fluttered open, they were butterfly wings escaping their cocoon after their creation. I feel as if I have just awoken from a thousand years rest; limbs recovering from paralysis, senses being rejuvenated, and mental function activating. As I finally gain sight again, I am shocked by my surroundings. Everything is white, including the light; which comes from a source other than the sun. In front of me is also white, white hills, white valleys, the ground is white, the trees are white, nature itself is now colorless. Behind me there is a small white roman style building; the building looks as if it contains one room, but is extravagant in appearance. Five long marble steps lead up to the porch, five columns are symmetrically placed along the porch, which gives this small building the essence of greatness. I am hesitant to enter this unknown place, but swarmed with curiosity. With the need to satisfy this wonder, I make my way in.


The inside of this place is just as magnificent as the outside, and even more aesthetically pleasing. The ceiling shows the first glimpse of color that I have seen since waking up. It is a blue sky scene with white clouds that somehow are moving across the sky blue canvas. Within the room exists eleven objects. On one side exists a massive fire place, and the other side has a golden arch that goes into a blinding abyss of pure light. There are nine stunning marble chairs that form a circle enclosed between those two prominent "gateways," one of the chairs sits throne-like, fit for a king. The stunning beauty known as the nine wonders of the world, does nothing to compare to this hollow ground.


As I began to overcome the wake of my first glance awe, I noticed that all but two marble chairs had someone seated in it. I approached this circle of unknown souls with hesitation, but quickly succumbed to the realization that one of the empty chairs was reserved for me. Did these people know and expect me to come here today, or did this world call all of us here as its guests? Scared by the overwhelming concept that a seat is meant for me in a mysterious place, I debated with myself about whether or not to accept this seat. My gut instinct was silenced quickly, and I decided to take my chair among these other attendees. Now all but one spot was filled; the throne set at the head of this circle was left untouched.


Looking around the room, I caught a nervous glance of almost every other jittery person. One young man though sat unrelenting in his stalwart composure, as if the mystery of this place had no effect in phasing him. Suddenly, in the midst of the eerie silence that had previously occupied the room, one voice rang. It rang loud and strong, calling everyone's attention, like the prayer bells within religious Muslim cities. The man who spoke was the composed man I noticed earlier, showing himself to be a tall, muscular young asian man. Formal in appearance, and standing profoundly, as if he is a noble samurai from the days of ancient Japan, he spoke, "My name is Morimoto, I am a 17 year old Japanese nobleman. I do not know why we are here together, and have come to the conclusion that none of us know why either. Since we are all currently strangers, I propose that we each introduce ourselves to each other. I have already introduced myself, so now you shall go next." Morimoto pointed to his right in the direction of a small white girl. Reacting to his demanding gesture, the girl rose to her feet and Morimoto took his seat. Her voice finally escaped its concealment from within her throat, and still couldn't muster itself to be more than a faint noise.


She said, " Hey guys. My friends call me Jessica, and I'm a 15 year old from New Delaware". She took her seat and the man to her right then rose up to introduce himself. This man was in all ways a contradiction of the girl. She was very pale, and he was midnight black. She was frail, and he was by far the most muscular person here. She was about 5'3, and he must have been over 6'3. Everyone in this circle was different, and the two of them exemplified that. He then spoke with a thundering voice, "Kante is my name, and Mauritania, Africa is my homeland. I share the same age as Morimoto, 17". Kante sat back down, and the process of introductions continued. The people following Kante included, Shiya, a fourteen year old female chinese student. Arbaja, an eighteen year old girl from Saudi Arabia. Dankret, a very quiet guy from India, age unknown; and finally, Jerome a 17 year old african american who says he resides in Texas. I was the final person to rise up, being that I was to the left of Morimoto. I decided that it was safe to tell these people who I was, and reveal the same information they revealed to me. I started to speak, " I am 17 years old, and I reside in Japan as well. My name is Hitori, and I have no idea why any of us are here." I revealed these trivial pieces of my life to these strangers, but none of them shall know the past that lies behind the exterior bravado I have put up.


I had always been a faithful christian, but when I was 14 both of my parents died tragically in a car accident. There was no way it was their time to go, so why had god taken them from me so early. For the next two years I lost my faith, I believed that if there truly was a God he would not have been so evil. The Devil swarmed my thoughts, and controlled my actions; those two years were filled with crimes, drugs, and split time between the streets and jail. One day when I was sixteen, I found God again. I wandered into a church, and met a pastor by the name of Jukado; he showed me that God has a plan for all of us, and his actions might seem horrid at times, but there is meaning behind them. I spent the rest of my time on Earth trying to earn God's forgiveness, and spread his name. The last thing I remember from my life was a man in black. A man who was attempting to rob the church's offering. I also remember that long barrel of his pistol, his pistol that shot me in the heart. I expected to wake up from my death in Heaven, believing that I had once again set myself on a path that led there. Instead, I woke up in this place, with 7 other young adults who I'm assuming also died on Earth. What is our purpose in this place, and where is this is place? I'm sure everyone was wondering those same questions, until he walked in.


A tall man came through the golden arch that was directly in front of me. This man had an extraordinarily bright ambience about him, that was as bright as the light that was shining through the archway. We all knew where he was going to sit, the throne. He took his position at the head of our circle, and for a minute or two, he just simply looked around at each person. It was impossible to make eye contact with him as he looked at you, because he had such a magnitude about him that made everyone fellinsignificant in his presence. After examining each one of us, the man began to speak.


He said, "I am God. I have selected you all specifically because as a group you represent many different cultures of my world. Obviously, you all believed and worshipped my presence on Earth. Many of you have gone through tribulations that you did not understand at the time they occurred, but those were tests of your faith for me. Now, it is time for each of you to leave your place on Earth, and join me in Heaven, but before you transcend to Heaven, I have a little challenge for you all. Currently, we are in the purgatory world, a land that exists between Heaven and Hell. This is the place where my challenge will occur, the winner of this challenge shall come and join me in Heaven as an honorary Golden Angel. The eight of you will fight each other in a battle royal style match; you will fight to the "death", this death though will actually be a rebirth. Once you die in this purgatory world, you will be reborn as one of my children in Heaven, with everlasting life. Once we are down to the final two fighters, the battle will be moved to an arena just behind this building. There are no rules, other than simply not dying. Your weapons are now on the wall behind you, gather whichever weapon you please, step outside, and let the battle commence."


Everyone just sat still in silence. What had just happened? God has staged a battle for us, and expects us to "kill" each other in order to gain a higher position in Heaven. It was as if his presence and his words had frozen us. No one moved. Then, God said "Go my children, Iwill not let you be harmed. You will feel no pain here in this battle; it is just a small competition I have to decide who my Golden Angels are. Rise up now, and fight." Slowly everyone got to their feet and made their way to the wall of weapons. It was like a scene out of a Gladiator, there were swords, hatchets, axes, shields, bows and arrows, spears, knives, and claws. I grabbed the only shield available, and a small sword; then I made my way outside.


Outside there was hesitation amongst us, were we actually going to do this battle. It seemed like no one legitimately had the guts to harm another person here. Suddenly, like a flash of lightning, death struck. Morimoto savagely stabbed Dankret in the back and then withdrew his spear. Dankret did appear to have suffered from the blow, but his limbs became limp and he collapsed to the ground. Dankret's spirit rose out of his body, his spirit was in fact just a transparent version of himself. His spirit floated up, and eventually vanished; with the vanishing of his spirit, his body followed by turning to sand and blowing away in the wind. Death is colorless, pain is colorless, and for a moment in time those who had just witnessed this killing turned colorless.


Jessica exploded, she erupted with a fury comparable to Mt. Vesuvius. " How could you do that?” She charged with a full head of steam, straight for Morimoto. Axe in hand, she appeared determined to take out the murderer, as she approached Morimoto, it looked as if she tripped. Everyone quickly noticed that the reason she had collapsed was because Kante had shot an arrow straight through her heart. As Dankret had just done, Jessica's spirit rose above and her body blew away. In an instance we were down to six; God's voice rang through the world.


The battling continued, and it seemed like I was the only person not trying to kill. I could never imagine myself ending a life, even if the person was already dead. That is why I grabbed the shield; I will protect my life, but won’t take the life of my attacker. To my right I can see Shiya fighting Kante, both going viciously at each other. Kante dodged every attack Shiya could put forth, with seemingly effortless ease. Then in a flood of agility, shot 5 arrows simultaneously at Shiya, and finally got the kill. At one point Jerome came at me, claws in hand. You could see in his eyes that he was going for the kill. I used my shield to defend myself, and when he swung, I knocked him out with my shield. Mercy was the only thought I had, so I left Jerome there unconscious instead of ending his life. I left, but as I looked behind me, I could see Arbaja sending Jerome to his spiritual life.


It now was Arbaja, Kante, Morimoto, and myself. Morimoto and Kante, took each other in battle, and Arbaja came after me. Arbaja had an array of throwing knives. I held off his attempts at killing me for five minutes by simply blocking his throws with my shield. The assault stopped, and when I looked around my shield I could see Arbaja defeated on the ground. Morimoto had killed Kante already, and apparently came over and stabbed Arbaja in the back with his spear. Finally, it was just Morimoto, and I; again God's voice came, "We are down to the final two, and shall commence the finals in the battle arena."


We made our way to the arena, and took our spots in the center of it. The grounds were roughly the size of a basketball court, and the stands would only seat 20 people max. All the previous fallen fighters were seated in the stands, and in a private box area was the blinding light known as God. As everything was in this world, it was indeed all white. A voice sounded, "The winner of you two will become one of my coveted "Golden Angels". Again the battle has no rules, and is to the death. Begin!" With that, Morimoto rushed me.


Although I felt endangered, I stood firm in my refusal to kill another. Morimoto jabbed forward with his spear, and I blocked, he slashed with it and I blocked. I did counter him, and pushed my shield forward, sending him flying back ten feet. When he got up he threw his spear at me with full force, I attempted to block it, but it penetrated through my shield. Now, with a broken shield, it was merely sword to sword action. We were at a stalemate, I countered his every strike; then I disarmed Morimoto. He fell to the ground, and everyone was shocked. Right here, right now, I could win this battle and claim my title in Heaven; but it goes against everything I believe in. At one point in my life the Devil controlled my moves, and although God said this is okay, I see harming someone else, as a Devilish action. As I approached Morimoto's body, I noticed fear in him for the first time; he was genuinely no longer himself, and lost his swagger. I put my sword to his throat, he shut his eyes, and then 'Shuick'. I stabbed my sword straight into the heart of the white ground. I turned around and faced god, eyes squinting, I said to him," God I have full faith in you, but will not kill one of your children. I am sorry for not participating in your game, but it is over now, crown Morimoto your winner, I forfeit." Those were my last words before I felt the worst pain of my life. I looked down to see a sword sticking through me and realized he had stabbed me. After all the mercy I just displayed towards Morimoto, he still killed me. A man like that must have no heart, and in my eyes is not worthy of heaven. Why would God make him an Angel?


God called out, "Morimoto!!! You are our champion, come to me to be crowned." Morimoto walked over, and was about to be crowned, when suddenly everything changed. The light encompassing God became fire, the wings being presented to Morimoto became black, and the jeweled crown became a sharp array of sticks and thorns. "God" was now visible, and in reality turned out to be the Devil. The Devil erupted with a maniacal laughter, and continued to laugh uncontrollably; while in the distance a white dove flew toward us. The dove flew majestically and innocently, and landed on the Devil's shoulder. The moment the Dove touched him, he burst in flames and disappeared. With his vanishing, came the vanishing of others as well. Jerome, Shiya, Arbaja, Kante, and the "champion" Morimoto all burst into flames as well, and when the flames left they were no longer found. The dove became a person. He was the kindest, most loving looking man I had ever seen. He was the true almighty, God, and he spoke out. "Hitori, Jessica, and Dankret, my children. You all have just been witness to the evil the Devil can create. The other five have been sent to Hell to suffer an everlasting death because their hearts were filled with hate. Dankret, you were murdered savagely, and did not deserve that. Jessica, I respect you standing up for your brother, and could see in your heart that you never planned on actually harming anyone. Hitori, I am most proud of you my son. You had multiple opportunities to succumb to the Devil and kill one your fellow siblings, but you refused. You kept your faith in me, and for this you shall be honored." God pulled out two white wings and attached them to my back. "Now the four of us shall return to Heaven, with your wings Hitori, you will be able to fly to your parents and live with them again, eternally. Now, grasp each others hands and fly with me. Fly with me to your new life. The life of five of children has ended, and they have joined the devil, but you three will be born again. It's time to go, step through the archway to Heaven, and live again".