One Way Ticket

"Child's single to downtown, please."

Stepping on the bus I quickly made my way to a free seat, ticket in hand. Technically I should buy an adult ticket now that I'm sixteen, but if everyone thinks I'm a kid because of my height, then I'm going to benefit from that whenever I can.

I glanced at the window, my face reflecting off it. I had messy, white hair that fell down to my neck and bright amber eyes, on a sharp, angular face. I was attractive, or at least I thought I was, but I'd never had a girlfriend.

'Definitely because of my height and not because I have a sucky personality.'

Looking out the windows, the town rolled into view.

Right now, I lived in a large town in the south of England. It had a high school outside, a few supermarkets and a swimming pool. I watched the old brick houses pass by as the town hall came into view, black smoke rising from the top.

'Wait, black smoke?'

I sat up, staring at the town hall which bring in an inferno of orange fire.

'What the hell!'

I heard shouts in the bus as the driver slammed the breaks, traffic having built up along the road in front of the blazing town hall. I vaguely heard the sounds of sirens in the distance, though they were masked by the ear-piercing barks coming from the town hall.

Bang!

A giant black dog crashed through the front door of the town hall with a mindnumbing bark that petrified everyone on the bus. At first glance, it looked like a giant pit bull, but on closer inspection, the monster was not so natural. It had three heads - three fucking heads! - with glowing red eyes and a serpentine tail which ended in an arrow-shaped tip.

Behind it, other demonic creatures poured out of the hotel, different types of dogs with glowing red eyes and small - even shorter than me - red-skinned men with horns, bat-like wings and an arrow-tipped tail.

One of them looked towards the bus, filled full of shocked people, raised its clawed hand towards the sky, and summoned a ball of orange flame.

It dropped its hand, and the ball of flame started floating towards the bus at a leisurely pace, taunting the helpless humans.

'Fuck!' I thought, 'that thing'll turn the bus into an oven!'

I jumped up from my seat, eyes darting around the bus until I found what I was looking for. A small red hammer, or whatever fancy name it might have, used to smash open bus windows in an emergency.

I ran over to the hammer, roughly pulling it off and turning towards a window. Not wanting to be cooked alive, I swung the hammer towards the window, a hole in reality, being torn open before me as I did so.

"What the fuck?"

...

I was floating in an endless abyss of nothing, but pure darkness. I couldn't even see my own hands. As I swung the hammer, the space in front of me had cracked like glass, revealing this abyss. The cracks had quickly spread and swallowed me whole.

'Did I do that?' I asked myself, mostly to break the eery silence around me.

[Are you mentally ill? Of course, you didn't do that.]

'Again, what the fuck?'

The words had appeared in my vision in plain white letters, insulting me like some sort of drug-induced hallucination.

'Fuck, am I going crazy?'

[Calibrating.]

'There it is again! Wait, is that a good thing or a bad thing?'

[Congratulations humanity, my creator has chosen to bless you with the chance to survive the upcoming demon invasion, using my help. I am the system and I will be your personal guide, support, saviour and many other things during this invasion.

Since you are so woefully unprepared for this invasion I have decided to take pity on you. By harnessing some conveniently placed chaos energy, I will send you to an alternate dimension where you can undertake a tutorial.

I will also be performing some maintenance for the next week and will not be active.

Good luck :) ]

'For the last time, what the fuck?'

...

"Ow!"

I jumped up, rubbing my ass.

'Wow what an asshole, couldn't just kidnap me and dump me here, has to drop me from five feet up.

Speaking of that, where the hell am I?'

I looked around, quickly scanning my surroundings.

"Shit!"

I was in a cave, a tunnel to be precise, five metres wide and three metres high. The only light source was one of those medieval stick torches, where they took a stick and dipped one end into melted fat before lighting it. The torch was stuck in a holder attached to the wall.

'At least there's some sort of civilisation around here,' I thought trying to keep my hopes.

It was then that I felt the burning pain of a sharp object rip through the back of my neck and come out through my throat. Looking down a saw a bloody arrowhead sticking out of my throat.

I tried to scream but only a pained gurgle came out, blood quickly flooding my mouth. I collapsed to the floor, pain overriding my self-control.

I gasped for air but got none, blood pouring from the wound in my throat.

I shut my eyes, accepting death.