Demonic Designs (To Absolve the Fallen)

by Babbitt, Aaron

  Alex had been paying more attention than Jeremiah gave him credit for. “Isn’t Patheus the name you said when you were talking to Matt?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Jeremiah affirmed. “It would seem as though he wishes to kill you and me. Ironic, isn’t it?”

  Alex only nodded dumbly.

  “Anyway,” Jeremiah continued, “I approached Lucifer with my own blade drawn. Lucifer and I had both spent a long time on Earth, and we were accustomed to fighting in these nearly-human bodies. He looked at me, smiled, and said, ‘Well, you must be my replacement.’ I had no reply. Keep in mind, I had never worked alongside Lucifer. He fell, and I was born. I didn’t know what to say to him; I only knew that I’d soon be in a very difficult predicament. His smile faded. ‘Oh, that’s how it is to be, hmm? Maybe if I kill you, He’ll take me back in your place.’ That time I had a response: ‘I doubt it.’ And our fight began.

  “He moved so fast, faster than most angels. He had lost much of his power, but I couldn’t avoid learning what the blade of that new sword felt like. It grazed my flesh a few times in that battle, and it felt like my very soul was being ripped by it. Though the battle did seem like it took ages, I finally gained the upper hand. He lunged, and I grabbed the hand that had the sword, and ran mine through him. He dropped his sword and stumbled backwards. I was so stunned that it took me a moment to realize that he had my sword with him. He pulled it out and roared.

  “I spun around quickly to assess what I had left. It wasn’t much. There were bodies of angels and demons lying around everywhere. The few of us there, who were still standing, were back to back, fighting off scores of demons. I looked back to Lucifer. He had his eyes closed, his hand clenched on my sword and his wounds seemed to be healing over. I began to wonder if I had the capacity to kill him.

  “Then, I heard the other angels arrive. You humans have described the sound as a trumpet, which isn’t altogether true, but an understandable mistake. When angels enter your dimension, en masse, a low hum sounds for miles. It’s almost as if reality exhales in discontent when rules are broken. And many beings moving from another dimension into this one constitutes as breaking a pretty major rule. Lucifer must have heard it, too. He ran and vanished into the nothingness from which he had summoned his minions. They, however, didn’t make it in time. Angels had swept through and slaughtered them before they could react.

  “The battle for Eden was over. We lost many very good angels, and Lucifer had lost a host of demons. Some had chosen to try their luck with the prophets. Their fates had been the same as the humans who had tried. The prophets were unscathed, but they were left without anyone to attend to, besides a small group of devoted followers. That day, they took those followers and left Eden, to never again return. They decided that they would tend to other parts of the world, where it was hoped Lucifer would not intervene. We watched them leave and returned to Heaven. Our mission was complete.”

  “Were you congratulated when you got back to Heaven?”

  “No,” Jeremiah laughed. “That isn’t the way things work there. We did what we did because we were told to do it. We didn’t need any kind of edification to keep slaving away. Patheus didn’t take the news that Heaven had known of the ambush lightly, though. It was soon after our return that he fell.”

  “I think I can understand,” Alex said, thoughtfully. “I would have problems with that, too.”

  Jeremiah grunted. “Have you forgotten that he’s trying to kill you? Save your sympathy.” He cracked his window and lit a cigarette.

  Deciding that Jeremiah was probably right, Alex asked, “So, is that it? Is that the story you wanted to tell me?”

  “Well, that’s not where my story ends, if that’s what you mean,” Jeremiah replied.

  “How did you fall?”

  Jeremiah smiled. “I was getting there. A long time passed, and Lucifer hadn’t caused any disturbances in a while. We knew he was still out there, and we were confident that he was planning something else. But he could elude even the watchful eyes of the host. The prophets had all but disappeared. Eden had been forsaken. And Lucifer’s influence all over the world looked to be waning.

  “Looked being the operative word. We relaxed for several hundred years, thinking we’d won. Lucifer had bowed out, and we believed that it was only a matter of time before he’d do something foolish again; at which point we could eliminate his taint. Then, he would be locked away forever. Like so many other things, looks were deceiving. One remnant of his poison could be found in a school of thought that he’d left behind. We watched as a strong arm operation, consisting mostly of prophets, went from settlement to settlement, demanding the mortals pay homage to a pantheon of gods.

  “This pantheon was said to be greater than the God of Eden. We knew this ‘pantheon’ to be nothing more than demons masquerading as gods, and Lucifer was undoubtedly their leader. Actually, God has appeared to many cultures as a group of gods. Our singularity is not something that He possesses. As a being of infinite facets, it could easily be argued that He is infinite beings. Many times, angels were thought to be gods and even played the role. So, we were familiar with pantheons, but not this one.

  “Naturally, this was cause for alarm. It was clear what had happened as soon as we heard: Lucifer had taken our lead and trained his own prophets. More disconcerting, he did it without us knowing. Whether or not God had seen it, we couldn’t tell. It’s so hard to get anything out of Him. Apparently, Lucifer still maintained a lot of power if he could find a way to mask his whereabouts and actions. The belief that these gods sought to eliminate the influence of the God of Eden spread, and so did the violence of Lucifer’s followers. We believed that, as long as our prophets were out there, we wouldn’t be in any danger, showing how shortsighted we were back then and how little we knew of our foe.

  “The prophets working for Lucifer had people pretty shaken up. After about a thousand bloody years, they were established, and they had influence in many of the budding governments around the world.

  “Finally, God revealed His plan to us. He decided that we would protect a messenger that He intended to send back to the general area of Eden to teach the people there. Many of the cultures in that area were corrupt and tyrannical. Naturally, it would take a very strong prophet to survive in such a region. That person would later be named Abraham. After some amount of work, in which I was not involved, he became the father of a new order of people in the area—the Israelites.”

  Alex laughed. “You’re kidding. So, the Jews were right after all. My mother would throw a fit.”

  “First of all, I said Israelites, not Jews. Our covenant was with the lineage of Abraham, not a religion that had not even been formed yet. Secondly, Abraham was not the only prophet we were watching. Many people who have never stepped foot in Israel have also been right. But the Israelites became important because of their resilience. God had given us little to work with—so few compared to what we knew Lucifer controlled, but our people were strong. After we lost Eden, they became the only influence in that area that we had. It was slow-going, but eventually they came into their own. Generations would follow Abraham’s lead. There were good examples of faith, and, of course, we saw some bad ones. We didn’t get involved very often.

  “After years of growth, the poison seeped back in. Again, Lucifer surprised us; we had thought that if we diminished his influence in that region of the world, his message would soon sound to everyone like the trash that we saw it for. Human beings, however, were devoted to spreading hatred and strife anywhere they went. It seemed like their lust for destruction was being fueled by Lucifer’s own insanity. Instead of forgetting about him, it looked like Lucifer had been breeding this hate secretly, and humans were following him—without realizing it—toward ignorance and fear. You humans oversimplify things, slightly, when you say that he persuaded you to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He force-fed you filth, and you gobbled it up like starving children.”

  “Wa
s it just in the Middle East?” Alex asked.

  “No, it was all throughout the world. God summoned me. I had never beheld the ‘face’ of God before. When your prophets tell you that to look upon the face of God means death, you naturally assume that means you will die from the perfection inherent in the incarnation of your Creator. But, more realistically, you could not conceive of the essence of God unless you could see farther than three-dimensionally. So, literally, the only way one could ever look upon God would be to be in Heaven.”

  Alex nodded, “And, the only way for a human to get to Heaven is to be dead.”

  “Right. Though I don’t doubt that trying to rationalize the Beginning and the End would fry every synapse in your brain. It’s probably better that you can’t see Him. Up until that point, I had never seen Him. I had only received orders by a simple knowledge of what needed to be done. I went to Him immediately. When I entered His presence, I was in awe for what may have equated to hours. He told me nothing. He only waited for me to address Him.”

  “What did He look like?”

  Jeremiah’s look changed to that of sadness. “I don’t remember. I lost the precious gift of the memory of my Maker when I fell, but I do remember what He told me when I regained composure. He told me that I would deliver a message to one who would soon save the world from Lucifer’s corruption. The message was unconditional love. I could feel every part of my being filling with compassion like I had never sensed before. I could feel God’s love for mankind. I could feel His love for His creations. I could even feel His love for the angels, but that was different somehow. He loved us, but He didn’t look after us like the Father He was to humans. Then, I felt His love for me, and it seemed like more than I could take. I collapsed again with the knowledge of my place in God’s heart. Finally, I felt God’s love for someone I couldn’t make out. This was the strongest of all the love I had felt so far. It was for His son.”

  “Jesus.... God sent you to talk to Christ?”

  “Yes,” Jeremiah verified as he flipped his turn signal. “I was going to train the Son of God in a mindset that seemed to be dead. I was told where to find him and when. Then, it all became clear to me. I knew that prophets foretold a person who would arrive to lead Israel to righteousness, but the revelations spoke of a warrior.

  “The prophecies indicated one who would conquer the areas surrounding Israel, but obviously Jesus was not that person. However, there were some parts of all the prophecies that were accurate. I think, at the time, I would have been more comfortable if he had been a warrior; that was really more of my area of expertise. But I didn’t delay. When I got to Earth, the child had just been born, and apparently the people in the area had already been visited by an angel. Gabriel heralded the message to the mother and some others, and you know how word spreads.”

  Jeremiah pulled the car into a truck stop, and he was getting ready to get out of the car. “I’ve got to get some gas. Feel free to go inside and get yourself something to eat or a soda or something. We’ve still got a couple hours ahead of us, and I don’t plan to stop again until we reach our destination.”

  Alex scowled when he noticed the gas station had an attached car wash.

  “Don’t worry,” Jeremiah said, laughing. “My car shouldn’t need to be cleaned for a while. And when it does, I’ll have a professional do it.”

  ***

  “Sir, I think I’ve spotted something.”

  Matt swiveled his chair from the window to the door where his guard was addressing him. The look on the man’s face was enough to make the prophet think there was something to his concern.

  “What?”

  The man shifted nervously, which still made the young prophet uncomfortable. These guys who worked for him were all ten to fifteen years older than he was. Matt was only the boss because Jeremiah had the money and the power to make it so. It was true that Matt could easily hold his own against any of the retired SEALs whom he had working security, but it amazed him that they rarely seemed to get too stuck on his age.

  The guard looked at the floor for a moment, and then he returned Matt’s gaze.

  “There are at least two white, four-door cars that have been circling the block for a half hour,” he explained, and quickly added, “sir.”

  Matt cocked one of his eyebrows. “Really? Have you told Liz about this, yet?”

  “No, sir. We thought it best to come to you first.”

  “Okay. I’ll tell her. The next time you see one of these cars go by, tail it. Anything else?” Matt pulled his .45 out from under his armpit and checked the clip.

  “No, sir,” the nervous man replied. “Well, except that Jiminez hasn’t checked back. He’s only five minutes overdue, but I thought you should know about it.”

  Matt looked up at him and shook his head in disbelief. “Lock down the area. You can try to find your man if you want, but I’ll bet he’s dead. Dismissed.”

  The man nodded and left the room. Matt had played this game long enough to know that the mercenaries were never late. Part of the reason it was so nice to have them around was because they were so reliable. And now, one of them was missing. Great. This whole situation was starting to stink.

  Where was Jeremiah, anyway? Matt didn’t feel comfortable trying to protect this renovated warehouse by himself. He just wanted to get back to Vegas. He hadn’t been concerned before, when they had the element of secrecy. No one knew where they were; they didn’t arouse suspicion. They lived in a veritable fortress he and Jeremiah had designed. Hence, he didn’t have to worry about demon influence...until Jeremiah returned to give them orders, that is. In the last week, he and Liz had moved to five different locations to keep their whereabouts secret. But it seemed like the competition had finally caught up to them.

  “Shit,” Matt said to himself. He got up and walked briskly to Liz’s room. Once there, he knocked on the door

  “Yes,” he heard from inside between the rapid clicks of a keyboard.

  “We have a problem,” he replied shortly.

  In a second, the door was open, and she was looking out at him. “What problem?”

  He grabbed her by the arm. “They’ve found us. We have to go...now.”

  “But I’m working on something.”

  His eyes widened in exasperation. “Well, you aren’t anymore.”

  “But,” she stammered, “it’s not even saved.”

  “What good is it going to do you if you’re dead? Now, come on!”

  She knew better than to resist him in times like this. She’d only seen him this tense on two other occasions. In both instances they had very nearly lost their lives. And now, things had become desperate. This always seemed to happen right when she was in the middle of something important. She was creating the forum that Jeremiah told her to make, but it was only half completed. Matt was leading her by the arm, and, in his other hand, he had a gun.

  “Are we already under attack? Why didn’t I know?”

  “You do know. That’s what this is for,” Matt replied coolly. “Here,” he said as he released her arm, satisfied that she was going to follow. He pulled another gun from a holster on his right hip and handed it to her. “Now, your target practice is going to come in handy.”

  “How am I going to know who to shoot at? They’re all going to look the same.”

  Matt looked at her and shrugged. “Shoot at anyone who shoots at you. I gave you a description of Patheus. If he pops in, kill him—if he even can be killed by a gun.”

  ***

  Alex returned from the gas station with one hand full of candy, and the other held a soda. He plopped into the passenger’s seat, shut the door, twisted the cap off his soda (and checked to see if he’d won anything), and looked at the demon intently—as if expecting a show. Jeremiah smirked at the scene.

  “What?” Alex demanded. “They didn’t have a lot of choices.”

  “So did you get a chance to stretch your legs?”

  “Yeah. Keep going about Jesus.”
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br />   “Okay,” Jeremiah agreed, “but you know you aren’t getting a bathroom break until Amarillo.”

  “Right, right. I know,” Alex assured him.

  Jeremiah shrugged his shoulders. “Have you heard the story about Herod and his intent to kill all the male children around Christ’s birth?”

  Alex nodded and tore the paper off his candy bar.

  “That’s more than mere legend. Prophets, who knew something incredible was going to happen, came from all around to witness the birth. It wasn’t just three wise men. There were hundreds. It was no wonder that Herod found out that something was going to happen. I fought off more than one demon from among the ranks of Herod’s soldiers, too. Apparently, Lucifer also recognized the significance of this occasion.

  “Jesus had a hard go of it, even from the beginning. We had to relocate his family in order to protect them from men, but I never fully rid Jesus of demonic influence. There were too many, and I had no way of keeping track of them all. In fact, one demon lured me off once, and when I had returned, Jesus had been persuaded by another to go to temple. Jesus was young at the time, and he didn’t know how to discern the tricks of demons.

  “It seemed innocent enough; Jesus had no way of knowing how the Pharisees would react to the questions of a child. They were preparing to beat him then and there when I arrived. They never saw me, and I wiped from their minds the memory that Jesus had ever been there. It was then that I decided Jesus would have to go away for a while until he could learn how to harness his power. I took him away from Mary and Joseph. It was probably the most difficult thing I’d ever had to do to a human, but even that would change.

  “We left Jerusalem and went into the desert. There, I taught him to use his mind and heart simultaneously. I told him that he would have to match wits with the best. At the same time, he’d have to love them, though they would surely hate him. I taught him about God and the angels. I also told him about demons and their role in the universe.