The Last God Enters Middle School

A fiction by Matt Petty

The last of the gods entered Meadowlook Middle-School as her soon-to-be killer approached. The god shut the double doors behind her and uttered a phrase whose understanding has been lost to time.

Those doors should hold for a few minutes. I hope it is long enough, she thought.

She clutched her side, as sharp pains rippled through her. She had been struck by the killer's weapon but she was not dead yet. The blow was not a killing one, espeically for a god of her age, and she had dealt with many such attacks in her countless years. This would not kill her, but the orchestrator of the gods demise was lurking just outside the metal and glass doors of the aging middle school waiting until the magical ward on the doors ended. As the remaining god alive, she had very little time to complete her mission before she was inevitably struck a death blow by the God Killer's dangerous weapon.

She reached into her pocket to reassure herself it was still there. If it had shattered, truly all hope was lost. She felt relief as she found the tiny sphere remained intact despite her previous encounter. She must pass the sphere onto the one worthy mortal who would bring retribution and redemption for those gods who had been lost, rising up to defeat this God Killer.

Why is this school so empty? Surely the students have arrived, it is nearly noon…

She peered into several classrooms to find them absent a single student. Most of the classrooms held a sole adult occupant and none held the student she sought. Something was off and the god knew it.

A thin, well-dressed man appeared from a nearby room. As was the case with most mortals, he could not see her, but the god must find out what is going on. The ancient god formed herself into the guise of a beautiful young blond woman and spoke aloud to the man.

"Greetings educator," the god said to the man.

"Oh, uh.. huh, what?" The man looked up to find himself staring at the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. The woman was practically glowing. Her golden hair perfectly framed the outline of her round face, her piercing green eyes looking him over. His mouth dropped and he immediately dropped the books and papers he was carrying. The man was quite literally stunned from beholding the beauty of the god.

Perhaps I chose a form a little too pleasing to mortal eyes, she thought.

"I seek a student who attends this place of learning," the god continued.

Snapping his mouth closed and beginning to pick up his dropped items, the man replied, "Ah yes, well, you see, that's a problem, as this is a teachers' workshop day."

The god only stared, the man's words meaning nothing to her.

The man cocked his head and looked up.

"That means the students are at home. The teachers, we use this day without them to catch up and plan for when they get back."

How could I make such a mortal mistake!

The god felt great despair. She had made a terrible and costly error. She had spent too much time away from the mortal realm and her clairvoyance had led her astray. If the student was not here, there would be no time to pass on the sphere. There was only one thing to do.

She would not give the God Killer the pleasure of taking her life. She reached into her pocket and then raised her clutched fist high as again she spoke the words of a language lost to time. Then with the echoing cacophany of the sheer power of the god's spell-words, she threw the tiny glass sphere to the ground. It shattered into thousands of pieces as blinding light was released, spilling out and flooding the hallways with amber and blue. And with that, she fell to the ground, the last god's immortality now quickly coming to an end.

"What is going on lady?" the man shouted.

With the last of her breath, the god began to speak the most important words she had ever uttered. But as her grip on this world slipped away, the old god struggled to find the right words in the language this man would understand.

"…mortal… beware the god-killer… for you must pass on… what you… have… to… to…"

The stunned man stared as the beauty in front of him began literally fading away.

"Morgan." came the last of a dying gods' final breath.

And the last god was dead.


Back Jacket

What happens when a group of eight middle school teachers and one janitor are, most assuredly without proper choice, gifted the infinite powers of all the gods?

Thankfully, these new gods have little idea they possess this great power and have even less idea how to use their powers, otherwise things might really get out of hand. Things are bad enough as it is.

Garrett Deckow is a first year middle-school science teacher and is one of those teachers imbued with the gods-power. All Garrett knows is what he was told by a dying goddess on the last teacher's workshop day. Garrett is supposed to "pass on" something to someone named "Morgan".

Several problems have presented themselves.

What exactly is he supposed to give this Morgan? The totally hot goddess lady that appeared to him shattered the little marble she had. Was that sphere what he was supposed to pass on? Garret thinks that strange goddess could have done a lot better with the "So You Are a God" instruction booklet she didn't leave him.

With some historical research, Garrett figures out to the only way to keep the God-Killer from picking off the new gods is to give his gods-power to Morgan. But which Morgan? He doesn't have ANY idea which Morgan, as there are currently no less than FOUR Morgans at Meadowlook Middle School: The straight-a, straight-laced Morgan Voeden? The truant, wreckless Morgan Hartmann? The sporty, foreign-exchange Morgan Macejkovic? And perhaps even the most confusing, the mascot of the school is named, yes - MORGAN the Meadowlook Maverick.

But when trying to pass on the gods-power, Garrett realizes he needs the rest of the new gods on board. It's not just his power that Morgan needs, but all the gods-power. How can Garrett get the rest of the heady, newly powered teachers to go along with the plan to give up the amazing powers they just received? And not to mention convince Berg Wisok, the god-janitor and Garrett's arch-nemesis, who foils Garrett at every turn even before he had infinite power.

And the biggest question of all: Once Morgan has the gods-power, can this pre-teen kid really save them all from the God-Killer?