The name Jack was from my favorite story of Jack and the Beanstalk. Well at first, I wanted to go with the name Arthur from the story of king Arthur of Camelot, but I didn't really like the name, so I stuck with Jack.
"Well Jack, nice to meet ...".
Her voice was interrupted by the sound of thunder which echoed throughout the hallway and was immediately followed by silence. I turned my head towards the source of the sound and saw a man standing in front of me on a raised platform where all of us could see him. He wore a white linen chiton lined with gold pins and on his neck, he wore a large golden chain which held a large disk with the symbol of a lightning bolt which dangled at his chest while in terms of his footwear, he wore leather sandals which seemed to be of Greek origin. He was a handsome middle-aged man with a short scruffy white beard where white sparks could be seen traveling while repelling and joining each other with each passing second. While I was amazed by the appearance of this man, I was more amazed by what happened next. The man looked at us and with a smile on his face, he said:
"Welcome to the Hall of the Gods in the Tower of Chaos, I am Zeus, and I will be explaining to you the rules of the Tower as well as why you are here."
He then looked at us expectantly waiting for us to process what he had just said and I could not help but think .... WHAT... THE FUCK?! WAS THIS SOME KIND OF JOKE!.....
At this point I had thought that I would be in the afterlife, drinking soda while watching Netflix or something and yet here I was listening to this random dude tell us that we were in some FUCKING TOWER and his name was ZEUS! First of all, in all of my 18 years on Earth, I had never heard of an afterlife that was based on a Tower and I had heard of a lot of versions such as the heaven and hell of Christianity, Niflheim and Valhalla of Norse mythology and the underworld and Elysium of Greek mythology (I'm a bit of a fantasy nerd, sue me!),but never had I heard of a Tower and not certainly one of Chaos. The other unbelievable fact in this scenario was that this 30-year-old looking man was Zeus, first of all, I'm no expert on age and all.... But i assumed that Zeus would look old because well, he is a God who is probably 1.8 million years old and from my assumption, i assumed he was would be an old wrinkly looking dude with a walking stick and a long gray beard like the wizard Merlin in movies with the occasional rodent in his beard and yet a part of me felt that he was telling the truth and if that was the case then, SHIT! There goes all my logic.
As i watched "Zeus" in shock, a person among us, for obvious reasons, lost his marbles and shouted "I don't know what is going on but I've heard enough bullshit. First I'm summoned to some weird hall and now some random freak calls himself Zeus."
Before he could utter another word, a lightning bolt shot from Zeus's hand and struck the man, completely vaporizing him leaving behind a small crater in the ground and a small puff of smoke. Not even his ashes were left and at this moment, everyone was filled with terror as they realized that this man was the real deal, tacky as he was. Zeus rubbed his hands together in slow motion and then continued in a flat and almost cold tone.
"While i may be your informant at this time and place, i am still a god king and should be treated with respect!"
White electricity crackled around his body as he looked at us and I could tell that this man viewed us more like insects than people and even though he was trying to hide it, i could see an expression of anger on his face that gave me a sense of worry of my future. People around me suddenly knelt on the ground on one knee with their gazes turned towards the ground in order to show respect to the god as well as to appease him because as prideful as human beings were, none of that mattered in front of supreme power and Zeus was a being of such power who at the moment, seemed to have our lives dancing in his palm.
I also knelt as well, because i was not sure what would happen to me If I died again! I had already experienced death once and that had taken a lot of effort to undertake and honestly i just wasn't sure I had it in me to anger a cosmic being despite my desire to go to the afterlife. Zeus saw us kneeling in respect and i guess he was pleased with our act of respect because we heard the crackling of lightning stop.
"You may arise, i have decided to forgive you all because I understand that you are still adjusting to your current situation."
I stood up slowly and glanced at Zeus whom I saw smiling and that assured me that all was well however at this point, I was now on guard because the fact that Zeus had rapidly changed his emotions from happy to angry to happy again in a matter of a few seconds showed that he was clearly a man with extreme mood swings and I had made a mental note not to show any sign of disrespect towards him at the moment.
"As i was saying before i was rudely insulted, this is the hall of the gods which is located in the Tower of Chaos. The tower is a place where anything is possible. Literally. The basic structure of the tower is that it is comprised of different floors which harbor different eco-systems as well as organisms which you will come to discover later on. The purpose of the tower is to grant the wish of the person who reaches the top, no matter how grand the wish is."
A girl who looked a year or two older than me, in a blue jumper and large round glasses, raised her hand.
Zeus turned his attention towards her "Yes?"
The girl after a few seconds of gathering enough courage, asked "Has anyone ever had their wish granted?"
Zeus smirked at her question and answered "Yes there was a person who once had their wish granted"
"And who may that be?"
Zeus paused for a moment considering what to say and then scratched his head and replied "You will find out soon enough"
The girl seemed unsatisfied by the answer but simply replied with "Thank you"
Zeus continued..
"All of you have been chosen as participants whose main goal is to climb the tower and have their wish granted however like I said, the tower contains many multiple layers filled with different ecosystems and hence some of you may wish at some point to stop climbing and simply live your lives there due to various future factors but I'm sure most of you will most likely climb the tower no matter the cost"
He paused, placing his right index finger on his lips.
"Since I am a generous god I'll let you in on a little secret. On the fifth flour is…" Suddenly there was an earthquake that caused the participants to lose their balance falling to the ground as they cried out loudly. I had also fallen, crashing into Emily in the process who was just as dumbfounded as I was at our current situation. The earthquake, however, only lasted a few seconds before slowly dying down allowing everyone to regain their bearings.
"Umm…. could you get off me please?"