In the Words (of Satan)

Chapter 1: Death, Thy Name is Bastard

Song: In the Words (of Satan) by The Arrows

Long story short, I died. Short story long, My name was Dana.

I was a 19 year-old college student majoring in archaeology. I was invited by my advisor to go on a dig with her team, and while it took a lot of convincing to get me to join (I was an anxiety-ridden nerd with mild cases of paranoia), I ultimately went.

It was fun; we flew out to the sight and began our excavation. A few days into the trip, we noticed that one of the caves at the site had evidence of early habitation and various remnants of old shards of pottery which stuck out in the dirt. My advisor thought that it was very likely we'd find more evidence further in the cave, but most of it was covered by rocks.

And so we decided to set a small explosion off and then remove the debris to continue our excavation. It was a reasonable idea when we thought about it...and then we actually did it, and guess who somehow got caught in the explosion? That's right, yours truly.

I can't remember the details, but I remember an explosion and then I was falling and everything just...went black.

It should have been the last time I opened my eyes, but it wasn't. The next time I did, it was all white. Everything, absolutely everything was white. Next to me I saw a baby, with its eyes closed, and sitting across from us was some amorphous blob.

At first I thought it was a blob. And then it came closer. And it grew shape and then it was as tall as I was.

"What are you?" I asked.

It grinned. "You mean you don't know who I am?"

I shook my head. "No. Should I?"

"I guess the universe?" I stared at it blankly. "Maybe you know me as...God?"

I raised an eyebrow at it and looked closely at the strange shading that gave it an outline. If I didn't know any better I'd say it looked like that was-

"Truth." We said it at the same time and it grinned wider. "See," it said, grinning widely, "you do know me!"

I shook my head, "But you're not supposed to be real."

Truth cackled long and raucous, making me cold and shiver. "I'm as real as it gets, buddy." Truth threw its arms out, "I'm the real deal. Maybe you're the one who's supposed to be fake. Maybe you're the one who isn't supposed to be here."

"Then, why am I here?"

"Oh, you won't be for long. Neither of you will." I turned to look at the little baby on the ground. As it started to wake up, it began crying louder and louder. "Why are you just staring at it? Why don't you pick it up?"

"I'm not very good with babies."

"Well, tough luck, I guess," said Truth as it watched me pick the crying thing off the floor. "But I guess you'll have to get over it soon anyway."

Confused, I asked what that meant and Truth being Truth just laughed and said, "Well, you see, sometimes I get bored, you know, being here...all by my lonesome. I need entertainment every once in a while. That's where you come in." Truth sat down on the floor and crossed its legs. "See, the two of you? Yeah, you're both dead. And, well, sometimes I think it's fun to switch souls around, so that's what I'm doing with you two."

"You're what?"

"It's not like I haven't done it before. Souls are reincarnated all the time," Truth shrugged. "Your soul used to be Freddie Mercury..." I raised my eyebrows, "Just kidding! Actually, that weird kid who lived down your street, what was his name? Larry? Barry?"

"Harry," I interjected.

"Right," Truth snapped its fingers, "Harry actually used to be Freddie Mercury. You on the other hand used to be some old crone named Esmerelda, and before that, you died a sad, little lonely man named Nicholas with no friends. Boo hoo." Truth drew a finger down from its eye to its chin and frowned in mockery. "So like I was saying, souls are reincarnated all the time, just in their own worlds though. You two lovelies," Truth stood up and pinched my cheek, "are the special ones today. Usually I don't do this because it usually turns out wrong, but I thought, 'hey, it's a Friday, let's do something new.'"

"So you're taking our souls and switching their places?" I asked.

"Ding ding ding! She got it!"

"In each other's bodies…?"

"Ah, no," explained Truth. "See, that's the fun part. Well, maybe not so fun. That little baby died a couple nights ago from colic, and your corpse was blown sky high so I don't think that's so smart. You two get to restart your lives! Just like everyone else does in every other world when they die! In those miserable bodies you all have! Gosh, being mortal must just suck sometimes, am I right?" Truth elbowed me in the stomach. I felt a pull and watched as what looked like particles of me starting floating away. "Ooh! Lookie! I think it's time for you both to go now! I do so hope you provide me with some good entertainment this time. Last time, one of them destroyed their entire planet and I had to start all over with them. It was a mess."

"Wait, but shouldn't this, I don't know, somehow violate the principles of equivalent exchange?" I asked hastily. "And doesn't this kind of count as human transmutation?"

"Well, you're both souls, so you're both equivalent. The two of you are just going to different worlds, that's all," Truth tapped its chin. "And as for human transmutation? Not really...I'm not binding you to anything and I'm not resurrecting you. You two will end up going to whatever body snatches you first. I'm just mixing up where you two are going for my own entertainment."

"You son of a bitch," I spat. "You can't just do that. You can't just play with people's lives like that."

"Uh, yes I can. I'm Truth. I can do anything. And since I'm just an immortal metaphysical being, I can't really be the son of anything."

"And why," I asked with frustration, "why did you even tell me this in the first place? Won't I remember?" I felt the tug on my soul.

Truth laughed at me, "No one can remember when they're reborn. Do you think you can actually remember living as Esmerelda or that sad, little man? Can you imagine the emotional and mental trauma that would cause? I'm not that cruel...but maybe just a smidge."

As the last pieces of me headed for my new home, I shouted, "Well, wherever you're sending me, you better make me an Earthbender!"

I could hear Truth's grating cachinnation, "We'll see, we'll see."

Oh, and by the way, I could remember all of it. "Not that cruel" my ass.

And that was just the beginning.

A/N:

Yo. I'm Jax from planet JUKEBOX. One day I had a thought and then I turned it into this fic.