Nexus

Your friend Katya was talking excitedly about books about people who travel to other worlds. You were bored, glued to your phone. After an argument, she left, slamming the door.

On the subway, you spotted a guy about to throw himself under a train. Instinctively lunging forward, you pulled him away at the last moment. You yelled at him angrily, and then, shaking with adrenaline, you slipped your last money—five thousand for a tablet—into his pocket. "You only get one life, understand?" you snapped and jumped on the train.

On the way home, you decided to buy a bun at a familiar bakery. As you crossed the street on a green light, you missed the truck. A thud, a crash, a heavy fall onto the pavement. Warm blood in your mouth, mounting pain. "Don't fall asleep," you tried to tell yourself, but darkness consumed your consciousness.

I woke up in a blinding white space. Voices came from everywhere, discussing my fate. "He saved the one who was destined to die. He died in his place." "But he acted unknowingly! Pure altruism! Let's give him a second chance, but with a twist!"

Before I could process it, the world was swallowed up by darkness again, this time with shaking and grinding sounds.

You came to in the stuffy darkness, lying on something hard and shaky. Your new body was tiny, covered in fur, with four paws. Trying to stand elicited a pitiful squeak. You had become a mouse.

The box was opened. Rough hands pulled you out by the scruff of your neck and laid you on a cold, polished table. Blinded by the light, you looked up.

Before you, in an ebony chair, sat he. A creature of icy beauty. Pale skin, jet-black hair with a single white strand. His eyes were ice-blue, with slitted pupils like a snake's. Sharp fangs. A huge white snake coiled over his shoulders.

It was Nexus. The hereditary Duke of the North. You are food for his pet.

The snake slithered down and wrapped itself around your trembling body. You closed your eyes, expecting death. But the blow didn't come. Instead, the snake began to gently rub its head against your fur.

Nexus leaned forward, his snake-like eyes narrowed in surprise. "Lucifer? What's wrong? Aren't you hungry?"