Act 1: Groundskeeper: Chapter 6

I woke up to the annoying beeping of the alarm I had set last night. I begrudgingly sat up, rubbing my eyes and yawning. I grabbed the tablet by my bedside and turned off my alarm. It was 0600. I had given myself an hour to get ready and be at Lucifer’s office. I looked over to Wren’s bed to see her curled up in a ball sleeping peacefully. I’d give her around 30 more minutes to sleep as I got dressed. After I was ready and dressed, I walked over to Wren and gently shook her to wake her up.

“Hey Wren,” I whispered. “It’s time to wake up, you’ve got to get ready.”

Her eyes opened immediately with full focus and she sat straight up. “Okay.” She said fully alert.

“Cheesus, Wren, you scared me.” I said with a hand on my chest as I tried to regulate my breathing after that unintentional jumpscare. The way she went from sleeping to wide away was unnerving and frightened me a little.

“Huh?” She cocked her head to the side and looked at me with a confused expression, just like a puppy would.

“Nothing, you just startled me, that’s all” I said, managing a smile.

“I’m sorry.” She said looking down at her feet, ashamed.

“No, don’t apologize, you didn’t do anything wrong!”

All she did was nod.

She took about 15 minutes to get dressed and ready and in that time I microwaved both of us some bacon, grabbed some mini powdered donuts, and made myself a cup of coffee. (Three packets of sweetener and a hell of a lot of creamer. *Sound of high five.*) It was then a 10 minute elevator ride to Lucifer’s office, which we rode in silence while eating. When the elevator doors eventually opened, I was surprised to find that instead of the office waiting room from yesterday, it was a tall giant open grey tiled room. I looked at the floor and room number to make sure we were in the right place, and indeed we were. We were on floor 666 and room 666. In the middle of the room on the floor sat four boys in a semi-circle shape. They were chatting but stopped and turned to look at us when we stepped into the room. Almost all of their attention seemed to be focused on Wren. Some kind of emotion flashed across all of their faces but I wasn’t sure what emotion it was. All four of them had the same A.O.A, Age of Appearance, as me, about 18-19 years old. That meant the Wren was the youngest, A.O.A wise at least. I first had a freckle dotted face, short straight blonde hair, and murky blue eyes. The second was on the taller side with shoulder length curly ginger hair and soft brown eyes. The third was on the shorter side with short messy black hair and piercing green eyes. And the fourth had a bleached blonde buzz cut with calculating grey eyes and circular wire frame glasses. They all wore the same base uniforms as me and Wren, but altered to fit them. Wren and I walked over as they continued to stare at us, seemingly noticing me for the first time. We sat down, completing the circle of people. Wren sat next to me and pressed into me, shaking nervously. She was treating me like her older sister and I was more than happy to play the part. All six of us sat there for a few awkward silent seconds before a loud beep sounded and echoed throughout the empty room, signaling that it was now 0700. In an instant, Lucifer was standing in the center of the circle. (The fact that there was no blinding flash of light confirmed the fact that the light from the last time she teleported was just for dramatic effect.)

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“Now, I’m sure some of you have already met each other, but before we do official introductions, we’re going to do a fun activity.” She grinned mischievously and I felt a lump of nervousness form in my throat. This was not going to be good. For some reason, the blonde guy seemed entertained by all of this and smirked.

“Last time Gardener Gois and I were together, he took me to a planet called Earth, and we went to see a movie. The movie was based on a book, that’s not important, but it gave me a great idea and a way to test everyone’s combat capabilities. I’m calling it the Lucy Games!”

My brow furrowed in confusion but before I could ask any questions or do anything at all, Lucifer snapped her fingers and the whole world shifted.