The Universal Traveler

by Jason Monroe


Prologue

3rd person POV

A man wearing a black hoodie, grey cargo pants, glasses, and black vans was walking home with a wooden cart full of grocery bags. He had left the grocery store not too long ago and loaded everything into the cart, since he didn't know how to drive and was too afraid of accidentally hitting someone because of his ADHD to even try to learn. The man was very tall, about seven feet, and extremely skinny. His messy dark brown hair was too short to get in the way of his hazel brown eyes since he always cut it if he felt like it ever got too long in the front or back. He had a messy brown beard that connected with his hair and similarly messy mustache.

He reached his small manufactured home and unlocked the door, before walking inside with the cart. Once he finished putting everything away he walked into his office and started working on one of the many things that he did for money. At the time he was working on a book that he was hoping to get published. He wasn't certain that it would be a very good book, but he wanted to write it nonetheless.

He had published a short book before that was about the past of one of the characters that would appear in his newest book, though the newer one focused mainly on a different character.

Joseph's POV

“Ugh!” I groaned as I laid back in my chair. I was working on the cover art for the story first, because I already knew what I wanted it to look like and I wanted to cement the designs of the two main characters. I was making my characters a pair of twins that come from a universe where demons, angels, and magic exist. The big thing about them was that they were going to be the sons of Satan and an angel named Angelica, the daughter of God. I based their personalities and designs based on different parts of my own personality, so much so that I named one of the two twins after myself.

The first twin had the same dark brown hair as me, with the exception of it being neatly combed. His eyes were different to represent his angel half and his demon half. His right eye was a normal sky blue eye, but his left eye was blood red with the white of it being black. I hadn't thought about it when I first came up with the idea, but I soon realized that it was very similar to the eyes of a ghoul from Tokyo Ghoul. I kept it because I liked the idea and it was impossible for someone to copyright an eye design. The twin wore a white fedora with a black band, a white tuxedo with a black vest, white dress shoes, a gold heart shaped locket, and white gloves. The pose I drew him in had him smirking as he took off the glove of his left hand to reveal a robotic arm.

The other twin had dark brown hair that was exactly like mine and his eyes were the same as his brother's. He wore a pair of black combat pants, black combat boots, black fingerless gloves, an ivory heart shaped locket, and a black leather coat that he kept open, revealing his bare chest. He wasn't so muscular that it was too much, but he did have a six pack. He had this playful look on his face as he smiled and held a Remington 1100 tactical shotgun in his right hand and pointed it to the right.

After I finished the designs I got my computer set up with the first episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I hit play before laying down on my bed and wrapping myself up in my blanket.

After awhile of watching the show I started to feel vibrations but just shrugged it off until it got bigger and I fell off of my bed. I got up and was about to move when I heard something snap. I looked up at the shelf above my bed where I kept all of my stuff, including my weapons, just in time to see it break and for one of my daggers to fall and pin my foot to the floor.

“Son of a bitch!” I screamed before looking up and noticing that my knight's greatsword was hanging on one of the nails that had been holding up the shelf. Another quake sent me to my knees and caused the greatsword to come unhooked. All I could do was stare at the sword, not in fear but in acceptance as it fell on me slicing me in half as I said two words. “Fuck me.”