Monday, December 19, 2011

The Salvation Shark, Chapter 65




Jesse
I hear a voice in my ear and I gasp. “Do it,” I say to Becki. “Do what he says, and remember what I told you.”

She looks at me, confused. “I... I can’t do it... I can’t kill you.”

“Do it!” I beg. “Please!”

Tears are welling in her eyes. “No,” she whimpers.

“You won’t?” Anton says thoughtfully. “Well, not much we can do about that, is there? You have free will and all.” His eyes narrow. “Little cunt,” he snarls and aims at her. Everyone is screaming, and he fires twice. Becki is running, and Eva is running, and Lazarus is turning back on me as the screen door slams.

I shake my head, looking at the ground in frustration. “It’s about me, Lucifer, me. It’s not about her, it’s not about her family.” I slump back in the chair and feel the tears running out of my eyes.”

“That’s where you’re so wrong, kid,” Lucifer says. “It’s about her, it’s about them. It’s about ever single human on the fucking planet. Ever since the game started, the Old Man has been trying to take what belongs to me...”

“Belongs to you?” I cry out. “He made them! I made them! Just like I made you, Lucifer, they belong to me just as much as you do.”

“I think not.” His smile fades. “All along, He has been seeking something to love Him." He seems to loom closer without moving. "He made the angels, and it was their job to serve and love Him.” He shakes his head. “I held the light over His fucking throne! That can only go so far. Once me and my ilk were gone, what did He do? He turned around and made humans with the same Free Will He punished me for using. He gave them the option to love Him. Did that work? Not a chance." I am sweating profusely and can't move. I don't know if that is because of him or me "The second they had an opportunity, they came running to me!” He throws his head back and laughs. For several seconds, he is silent, staring at me with those horrific, piercing eyes. “He has always been jealous of me,” Lucifer says at last. “He drilled that in again and again.” He sits down on the wicker chair again and crosses his legs. “Come on kid, play ball with me.”

“You want to bargain?”

“Always!” Lucifer purses his lips and kisses the air. “The Old Man doesn’t want the best for me, I need to look out for myself.”

“What is it you want?” I ask, wiping the tears from my eyes.

Lucifer stands and paces slowly. “I can give what Heaven wants,” he whispers.

“You?”

He savors my question. “They are going to keep sending you here, and I’m going to keep finding and killing you. This can go on for an eternity. The Old Man wants Earth wiped away. He has something new in mind, I assume. I have no intent of letting it happen. No Earth means quite a bit more than going back to Hell. I have more at stake in this than you.”

“What are you saying?”

“Are you a dullard boy?” he shouts, getting to his feet. “I like Earth. It has every comfort I can imagine. People like me.” He walks behind my chair and leans over the back, putting his hands on my shoulders. “There is one place in the Universe that is better than Earth though.”

“Heaven,” I whisper.

“I want to go home,” Lucifer says longingly.

“You were cast out for Eternity,” I say.

“He gave me a new job!” Lucifer cries. “A new job, and I served better than I ever served in Heaven. Shit, I liked my work! I think I have proved myself. Now I’m here asking your forgiveness. I’m sorry for my rebellion. I’ve suffered the consequences, and I think I’ve suffered long enough. I want to go home.”

“I can’t give you that, Lucifer.”

“You can! You can, and you will!”

“Are you ordering me around?”

“Yes, I am. I am, because I still have an Ace up my sleeve. I still have a monkey wrench to throw in the gears of the Divine Plan, and you can bet that I will.” He circles like a shark. The gun is still clutched tightly in his clawed hand, glinting in the moonlight. “We have options here, my Lord. The problem with You and Yours was that you had no sense of sport. For the Old Man, it was always ‘My way or the highway.’ You were all so unwilling to compromise. Now don’t tell me that the Old Man is too arrogant to admit when He’s been bested. Does He have such an ego that He can’t live with that? You can’t win them all, Son. Give me what I want, and the Plan goes just how He wants it. Bless me, forgive me, and I’ll go back home and watch from the clouds as you undo all that’s been wrought.” He smiles wickedly. “Unless you do it my way, we just sit and wait, with Earth getting more and more corrupt and polluted, for all eternity. That’s just fine with me. The question is, are you people willing to negotiate and compromise?”

I’m filled with a sudden surge of energy. “You’re right, Lucifer, you can’t win them all. You might kill me tonight, but I’ll be born again. Every time you kill me, I’ll be reborn, and one of those times, I’ll slip right past you.”

Lucifer looks at me listlessly. “Let’s be realistic. There are a good thirty years or so before you come to the full realization of yourself and your power. I have a host of demons to scour the Earth for you. I was lazy this time, I waited more than five years to even start. I won’t make that mistake a second time. The chances that you could actually get past me are so slim that they aren’t worth mentioning. Heaven doesn’t have that kind of power on Earth anymore.”

I shake my head. “I can’t send you home, Lucifer. You were banished and cannot return, just like the scriptures say.”

“The Scriptures don't say that," he says. "I'm barely mentioned in the Bible. I can't even tell you where some of those stories came from!" Gun still in hand, he waves me to him. "Come with me,” Lucifer says. “Come outside.” I go with him, and we stand on the front step.

The air is sharp in my lungs and on my skin. Enough snow has come down to cover the dead grass. Lucifer puts his arm around me like an older brother. Eva’s car is gone. “All this is mine, " Lucifer says. "I offer it to you.”

“Temptation, Lucifer?”

He throws his head back and laughs, clapping his hands before him. “Temptation? I think not. They tried to hide you from me so I couldn’t tempt you this time. That didn’t work, you fell for every temptation you possibly could. Drugs, sex, greed, you fell for all of it. I didn’t even have to be there. I don’t have to tempt you, boy, your flesh is already weak.” The Devil looks at the ground, taking in a deep breath to prepare himself. “I can see your past, see your sins. A week ago, had I offered you the world, you would have taken it. You’re just a man, and you aren’t strong against temptation." He puts his arm around me again. "What I have to offer is nothing more than the continuation of the Plan. We’re caught in a big loop here. I’m not about to let things progress.” He whispers venom in my ear. “A Devil has even a temptation for God.” He pulls back and says, “That’s my final offer, I won’t ask again.”

I look him over. He knows he has me and the whole Universe over the coals. The Plan must go on, the Will of God must be allowed, and not even Lucifer can be allowed to stand in its way. I look up into his pale blue eyes, and I can see the joy in those orbs as they register my defeat.

The blessing stops on my lips when a voice whispers in my ear. I see his return, the lost third of Heaven’s legions swarming at the gates. I see the faith of the angels and saints broken as the first sinner is allowed to return. I see Heaven burning. I see...

“No,” I whisper.

He takes the gun out of his coat and presses the muzzle against my chest. “No? Come on, kid, I’ve never given anyone so many chances to change their mind. I’m feeling generous on account of you being the Prime Mover, and my Creator and all.”

I see a victorious Lucifer approaching the Throne. “No,” I say again. As the first shot goes through my left lung, my whole body jerks. I saw Lucifer with all his pride, his envy, his greed, all of it vindicated.

“The Father,” he says. He puts the muzzle over my right lung.

I saw him standing before God.

He pulls the trigger again, and says, “The Son.”

I saw him attacking God, and the Lord, weakened by the reversal of Laws, powerless to stop it.

“And the Holy Spirit,” he says, firing a bullet into my heart.

As I crumble and lay dying, I know that the only way Heaven can ever come out victorious in this war is if it continues to end in a stalemate.

No comments:

Post a Comment