I had been walking for hours. And, the deeper I went, the thicker the trees around me grew, intertwining within each other, creating a blanket of cover for all of their evil secrets. I did not know where I was going, nor did the tress offer any insight. I just knew that when the time came, I would be where I needed to be.
The clock struck midnight in the town miles behind me, and I could feel the thunder of the chime in my heart. I stopped.
The dead of the moonless night was overbearing. Predator and prey of land and sky seemed to have vanished, leaving only me to stand weak and vulnerable for the great Predator to come. As I listened to the crippling silence, I cleared my throat just to make sure I had not gone deaf. The scratchy grinding of my noisemaking was sucked away by the night, leaving me alone, once again.
Suddenly, with as noiseless an entrance as Death himself, He emerged from the shadows along a pathway of dusty gold and shimmering fear. I froze with anticipation and an eerie sense of unbridled joy.
He came towards me without hesitation. The wheels of his carriage and the hoofs of his horse I could see stirring up the ground beneath them, yet He seemed motionless, almost as if I were being pulled to him. He approached in silhouette of the darkness, the driver - dressed in black, sitting upon a black cushioned seat - and the ever so brilliant black stallion standing out in the cover of night like protruding objects under the sheets of a bed. I could see every detail of the driver’s coarse and deeply darkened hands. I could witness the heavy beating of the horse’s heart as his chest plummeted in and out. I could see the gleaming burn of hedonism in the driver’s eyes.
He was on me before I knew it.
Suddenly aware of my close proximity, I took a step back from the now stopped carriage. Behind it, the ground appeared untouched, and, once again, I wondered if the carriage had ever moved through the forest at all. I turned to look behind it but was interrupted by the clicking of the door to the carriage. With haste, I turned back to meet my visitor.
Slowly, the door swung open, and He stepped out.
The Devil was tall, with fine black hair and a well-groomed mustache. He stood firm, the heels of his shining black shoes squarely upon the ground. I could see every detail of his slick black cloak and how it danced around his muscular, dark neck. I could see the creases in his dark clothes where he had worn them before. I could smell the faint hint of sulfur that seduced the air with its subtle yet powerful aroma. But, most of all, above everything else, I could see his eyes. I could see his eyes and how they permeated the darkness and lit it up with an intensity equal to that of a bolt speared by Zeus. I could see the hate that ripped through his soul and tortured his immortal heart. I could see the dark seed of evil twinkling effortlessly with His desire to overcome and conquer, and I shuddered when I saw just how much He loved mankind’s pain.
“Good Evening.”
His voice was like the first breath of Time. His silence had been intimidating and curiously anxious, but, now, now that he had spoken, He was more. He was the ever so subtly penetrating tick of time that counted away the moments of life’s futility. He was the heartbeat of suicide that knocked at the underside of your soul, humming to the beat of the second hand, as you watched the clock in vain. He was the temptation to cut your heart in two just so you wouldn’t have to bear the next painful day and its terrible monotonous ticking. Just as Father Time forever condemned us to stare into the face and at the hands of our keeper, He and his voice were the subconscious perpetual threat to give in to the darkness and throw it all away.
I shuddered once more.
“Good evening,” I answered, in a weak and feeble tone. I cursed myself for bearing my fear so blatantly.
“Be calm, dear boy. No need to fret. I am Lucifer, after all.” He smiled a charismatic smile of wit and charm, and it occurred to me that Hell was probably full of women, fallen prey to the tumultuous desire for the beast that stood before me.
“Forgive me. I am... quite nervous.”
“Like anyone in your position should be. We have a deal to carry forth, do we not?” His voice was filled with rationale and reason, reeling a tone of strict business.
“Yes, we do.”
Lucifer turned and reached back into his carriage. With his hand extended, He took a step back.
When she stepped out of the carriage, my heart exploded. With tear streaked cheeks, my beautiful beloved rushed toward me. I embraced her like never before, trying to make up for the time we had lost and the time we would lose.
“Oh, my darling! You cannot fathom how much I have missed and longed for you.”
“My dear, my dear! Your absence kept me from enjoying even Heaven.” We embraced again, pulling each other tighter and tighter together. I could feel her heart against mine, and, with each beat, the hole in my own began to fill with the love it once carried so gracefully.
“I hate to break up this joyous occasion, but I believe I have terms to be met as well.”
I turned toward Lucifer, my beloved wrapping her arms around my waist.
“Thank you so much! You have no idea how much she means to me. I don’t know how much longer I could have gone on without her.”
Lucifer laughed out loud. “Not long.”
I laughed half-heartedly, my smile slendering.
“Not long?” I asked, inquisitively.
“I was to receive you in my Home within the week or so.”
“Home...? What do you mean, Home?” I asked. The joy in my heart had diminished, and, now, there was only this foreboding feeling of future doom.
Lucifer eyed me awkwardly, with a little grin of pleasure on his tight red lips. “You were destined to slice open the very thread of your life within the next week. Then, however, you decided to take matters into your own hands. Thus, I am here.”
“So,” I began, shocked by the idea of me taking my own life, “I was to commit suicide… and be judged to Hell for my actions?”
“Yes, dear boy. But instead, you said hell all to God, and created your own destiny. Quite honestly, I am impressed with you. Not to mention, thanks to you, I have won three fold in a situation where I would just have had the upper hand.”
“How do you mean?” I queried, still baffled by the Devil’s remarks.
“Well, firstly, I obtained your soul, which I was to receive any how. But, now, I have also had the pleasure of stealing your lovely beloved right out from under the Almighty Benevolent and his Glorious nose, as well as acquire your precious love’s soul.”
“But why will you get her soul?” I asked, incredulous.
“Because she has openly defied God’s will. She left her seat in Heaven just so she can come back to Earth to be with her love. She has turned her back on God, just as you have by requesting me to steal her, and, fail not to remember, you sold your soul as well.”
“But… but… that isn’t right. This should show how strong are love is. It has no bearing on our devotion to God.”
“I,” Lucifer laughed, “do not see much devotion in selling your soul to the devil or skipping out of Heaven with Him.”
“But that is all wr-“
“Regardless of right or wrong, dear boy, you have painted the picture. Now, you are to look at it.”
Lucifer turned and stepped into his carriage.
Confused by the Devil’s sudden departure, I asked, “What about my soul, then?”
“What about it?”
“Are you not going to take it?” A glimmer of hope began creeping into my heart.
Lucifer laughed. “I already have.” He shut the door and gently tapped the side of the carriage. The driver drew the reins and whipped them across the black stallion’s back. The carriage jolted to a start, penetrating the night with its essence of sheer black.
I watched the carriage momentarily. All of this had led to no avail, I thought. My actions had been countered so as my efforts were as damning as my deeds. The evening had not ended as I had wished. Yet, I had my beloved, whom I would have and forever hold until our fateful days came to pass. As I turned to look at her, though, my heart froze. When I saw her, I felt nothing. I did not feel that overwhelming love that had engulfed me when she first stepped out of the carriage. I did not feel that bursting fountain of joy that had sprayed from my heart before. I felt nothing, and, as I looked up to avoid her wondrous gaze, Lucifer’s dazzling black carriage came rushing by.
The Devil let out a wail that made the trees draw in a breath of trepidation and fear. I followed the racing carriage with my soulless eyes and watched it race by. In the small, square back window, I could see myself sitting there next to the Devil, staring back at my beloved and I. From the carriage, I mouthed “I love you,” as the Devil’s black existence disappeared into the carnage of nature before Him.
I watched in horror as my soul was carried off without me, and the whole situation struck me with belligerent force. I had given up my soul in order to buy back my beloved, whom God had ripped away from me. Such a sacrifice, though, entitled more than I was aware of. Giving up my soul meant giving up my ability to love, to feel, to embrace. I was like a dead child in a playground, unable to feel his mother’s hands against his back as she pushed him on the swing or laugh with his friends as he tumbled from the slide onto the ground. Without my soul, I could never love my dear like I did in the past or like I so violently wanted to just then.
And, the more I thought, the more I realized that, when I saw myself mouth “I love you” as I was being hauled away by the Devil and his devious ways, I was not talking to my body, but, rather, my beloved. Now, I would never be able to tell her those words and actually mean them. Now, I was nothing but flesh and bone catering to the impulse of heathens.
My beloved embraced me, tears falling from her eyes. “What are we to do now?”
“I don’t know.”
And I honestly didn’t. What had begun as our greatest expression of love had turned into a tragedy of phenomenal proportions. We had been forever fooled by cupid and the wicked desires he thrusted upon our hearts, to the point of damning our souls just for the touch of one another. It was all failed now, and, as these terrible thoughts scurried across my brain and the hot tears of my beloved’s mourning soaked through my shirt, I looked up at the sky… and felt nothing.
