It started on April 18, 2012. I was 18, and I had been hunting for my spare house key for a good ten minutes late at night. At last I unearthed a patch of soil and grass and found the sealed container I was looking for. I opened it and in it contained not only a spare key, but something additional which had found its way in--a bug. A big beautiful, gorgeous bug, with wings whose brilliance reminded me of diamonds; a beady head that glittered with serenity; and a body with thick, short fur like fine velvet. I stopped to think for a moment and observe it. It was a true beauty of nature, but how it had gotten there was beyond confusing. It made no sense!

I went over several preposterous explanations inside of my mind. Perhaps it had been there since the beginning of its life. This thought was soon dropped at the realization that the bug had no food supply, was cut off from the world because of the sealed container, lack of light, and the general nonsense of the idea. Perhaps it was placed there by someone who knew my mom wouldn't be home to open the door. That was preposterous as well; I was the one who hid the key, and who would go out of their way to find a gorgeous bug and shove it in my key container and then patch grass over it? Nobody. I thought for minutes on this, all the while the bug sat contently in its container, never trying to escape. I spoke to it, "Hello. Do you want to go somewhere?" and to no surprise, it responded with nothing but a slight flap of its perfect wings. I took him from the container and set him beside it.

A year passed, and my mother was late home again. I went to the backyard and opened the key container again. My eyes puffed up, and my heart stopped. My trusty eyes saw the same bug guarding the keys as it had done one year ago. Something was going on.

I sat with the bug for a hour this time. Then it hit me. The solution to this problem was hidden in a way that realistic logic could not explain. "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." The bug was sustaining life through something improbable. No food could be concealed in that airtight container and nobody would put a bug there and patch up the spot where you dig up the container. Then I thought about the improbable, and then I stopped thinking entirely. I suddenly hated the bug and how it gave me headaches and pushed me towards madness! "Where did you come from?" I screamed at the top of my lungs! My dad stepped out for a moment and looked around and said, "I swear something ain't right about that boy."

Angered, I took the bug in my grasp and pulled intensely on its wings, trying to pull it apart. It resisted. I pulled as hard as I could but like armor, the bug would not tear. His tissue was fundamentally different from normal tissue. This was invincibility. This was the secret nobody knew. This was my discovery.

Now that I had made the discovery, I had to really discover it. If this bug was invincible, I could find out how. I brought him and the container inside. Eventually, I tried to place him back in the container, but he escaped and flew downstairs in a hurry to get outside. I followed him out to the back yard where he landed in the hole where the key container was. "Maybe it wasn't the bug itself," I thought, "but the spot in the ground." I made my way to the hole and took him out of it. I laid down on my back with the back of my head in the hole. I took the spare key and brought it to my pupil. The cornea, which is on the eyeball is the most sensitive part on the human body. So much as a slight touch would send painful messages to the brain. I touched my eye with the key. Nothing. I felt nothing. Now I was invincible.

As I stood up I felt a sensation leaving me, taking the invincibility. I sat back down with my head on the grass and the sensation returned. I knew then that it was the location that mattered, that I had to be in that spot where the key holder was for the invincibility to take effect. The next day I gave up on it and decided it was a useless discovery since it was just a stationary beam. Yet I visited it again the next day. I thought to myself about how to move the beam at my will. I was thinking "maybe I could make a system of mirrors or something, something to transmit the beam from there to here," and then it just happened. I felt energy and then something fell from above and landed in my hand; two tiny white orbs. I placed one in the key holder and one in my pocket, walked a few feet away and felt no sensation leaving my body. I walked away further still, and touched my cornea. And that was it, I was invincible. The orbs were transmitting the beam from that useless spot right into my pocket.

That night I slept restlessly. When I awoke, I knew I was going to school with a different outlook on life. For some reason, I thought even invincible people had to go to school and learn. I was getting my clothes on and putting the sphere in my pocket when all of the sudden a Corvette materialized in the garage where my car was. I was just thinking about Corvettes.

The next moment, I awoke in a hospital. After I found my pants and my invincibility sphere, my parents came in and expressed a great deal of interest in where I got the Corvette and where my old car went. I spoke very little but managed to fumble my way through a few sentences and escape from the hospital. I thought hard about a jetpack. When it materialized sitting on my back, I flew away to Florida. I was stunned beyond imagination, just as someone in my situation would be. I didn't know if I wanted this kind of power, or if anyone could have it and use it wisely. I looked down at the ground and thought of the Corvette. Another supercar appeared in the sand, just like that. What would you do with that kind of power?

At night time, though, my power was severely diminished. It seemed that the power source was the sun, or that it was tied into time somehow. I couldn't make dense or heavy things during the night though I was still invincible. I decided I would entertain on the streets for fun during the day. I had never really been able to figure out how real magicians did those disappearing tricks, so I just thought about replacing an item from the audience with a golden dollar, and it just happened. I made a living this way, taking great lengths to avoid producing money from nothing. I had a laptop that was paper thin. I had Level 3 internet via my own personal network. I got on the news frequently as the best magician ever. I became the world's best chef. I made nanobots that cleaned my house. My phone service came free, and I was the happiest man on earth. In any case, I knew I had to keep a level head. I had to keep my power under my control. "With great power, comes great responsibility," said Richard Parker.

A few days later, I thought to myself, "I could change the world for the better." I completely blew my cover. I began flying across the world in Iron Man's super suit. I saw drought and famine in South Africa and replenished their water supply with my mind and gave them sustainable farms. I made the Pakistanis and Afghanis friends. I killed terrorists. I gave a kid ice cream. I did everything but nothing felt right. I had the power to do almost anything, but whenever I used it there was an emptiness to it all. It was like I knew that some day I would inevitably cave in and abuse the power. I scared myself every time I used it for a big feat like changing a desert into farmland. I scared myself when I murdered for the greater good. Doing anything that you want actually doesn't mean doing anything you want. I wanted to control my power, but that was the only thing my power wouldn't let me control. If I had to kill a man in order to save thousands of lives, I would do it. I had the equipment and the right morals. But why, I thought, is it so hard to come up with a cutoff number for the amount of people I would kill to save a thousand others? I probably would have killed two, maybe three, maybe fourteen, but nowhere could I say for certain that after a certain number I would not do it! Would I kill someone to save 10,000 bears? I have no idea! Some questions can not be answered, I figured. But I knew one question that could: What is so special about the sun?

The next moment I was no longer thinking of the philosophical question and was on another topic. I theorized that the beam that was supplying all of my power may actually come from the sun. To test my theory, I thought intensely on creating a special lens that would see the surface of the sun, but it would not come. Every time I tried, I heard a shrill, dark scream inside my head. Somehow it meant "stop," and I felt it, coming from outer space, and it felt like the world was crushing my skull. I was afraid, but I tried harder. I knew this was something someone in this universe didn't want me to know. I pushed on, keeping a clear mind and an image of what I wanted in my head. My sun lens came to be. I pointed at the sun with the lens and saw a dark mesh pattern circumnavigating the sun. Right then, I knew there was something on the sun. There was more to this beam than I imagined. As I came to see the light of this new discovery, the lens then disintegrated in my hands.

At this point, a voice came to be inside my head, who introduced himself as Sly. "At the beginning of every world is a sun and the sun beam prince. The Earth was but a round mass of base material for millions of cycles. It was made by the beam you have so expertly taken advantage of. The beam transforms matter to organized matter, one purpose of it is to create an environment for sustainable life. Like all of us, you now have the knowledge to create life. Please continue on your journey to the sun, and you can become one of us."

For two days, I worked on a spaceship in my backyard. Made of materials I didn't even know existed, the ship was destined to fly to the sun. The takeoff was beautiful. The engines were magical, to say the least. The ship was perfect.

I was taking a nap that night in the ship when Sly entered my mind again. He said, "Adam, as a human, you were created specifically not to understand the meaning of life. No human is capable of understanding the knowledge that we bear as of now. Your ability to fulfill concepts with words and careful abstractions is limited by your brain, a collage of inelegant layers of progression. What began as rudimentary brain and over the years has simply accumulated more layers of more elegant brain. When you shed your old brain, you will become one of us. Oh, and you might want to wake up."

I was not sure how long I slept. I was not sure how long my spaceship had been afloat. I was not sure where I was. Actually, I was in a room. I wasn't in the space ship!

"Blessed evening, Adam," a jolly man said. He sat with his legs crossed, with a big smile on. All his clothes were white. His chair was polished gold. His room was painted glowing white. The sun was not visible.

"Hello," I said.

"Adam, do you know where you are?"

"Where am I? Where is my spaceship?"

"Adam, you shalt not worry about that. This is my room."

The man pulled out a human head and put it on his desk. "This head represents a human life." He pulled out a gun. "This gun represents your ability to take a human life." Peter sat back and smirked. "Your choice is simple," he said, "If you pull the trigger on this man's head, you shall kill one person, but you shall receive the ultimate knowledge and understanding of the meaning of life. Alternatively, you may walk out that door and prevent a man's death, but you will not be taught the meaning of life, the very question you seek."

I could not believe this. This man was asking me the very question I pondered myself back on Earth. How can you put a price on someone's life? There was no right answer. I couldn't answer this question but I couldn't let pure nirvana out of my way just like that--it was just...one...life!

"It will only kill one person?" I said, coving my face in shame.

"Just one person. From Earth," he said.

I couldn't. I had morals! I knew It would devastate someone. Their life would go to nothing!

"Who will it be?" I asked.

"It could be anyone. Diseased, dying person, an old and decaying body. A cancer patient. A killer. A terrorist. It could even be a schoolchild," he replied.

"Will they feel anything?" I asked.

"Nothing, they'll be terminated without knowing it."

"Oh, god!" I screamed! This was the unanswerable question!

"NO!" I screamed, "I will not kill another being for myself!"

The man wiped the smirk off his face. He stood up and gave me a big hug. And with a great big smile he said, "I'm Saint Peter. Congratulations, Adam Sharkovsky, you're dead!" The room disintegrated and the golden gates of heaven shined brightly in my eyes.