Of The Body part 4

“We are incapable of understanding time and eternity. How short is now? How long is forever? Maybe now is forever.”

Of The Body       part 4

The chill rose from the tiled floor, numbing his feet, hardening his nipples and goosebumping his skin.  How could he love these things?  They were weak, clumsy and too easily affected by the environment they were created for.  The room was dimly lit, yet he could make out the toilet, bunk bed, and a boy sitting on the far corner of the lower bunk, secured in shadow and darkness, statuesque.  “I will not change my decision.”
Nothing.
He stepped toward the unmoving boy, “If humans knew you as I do,” a chuckle from behind cut him off.  Turning to see the door ajar, feeling more than hearing, heavy footsteps fading down the hallway soon replaced by lighter, faster approaching footsteps.  They ceased,  the door opened.  Two boys about his size stepped into the room, followed by a larger one, all wore coveralls like his own.
“You’re new here,” the large boy spoke, “it’s time you met the club,” undoing his fly.
The others had separated, one to his left the other to his right, both easing in closer while the big kid talked.  Death marked their faces.  God had forsaken them, and now they were his.  “You toy with me,” Lucifer said low, full of venom, “as if my existence were some play to write.”
“What the hell are you,” started the big kid.  The silent boys reached out for Lucifer grabbing nothing.
“Exactly,” two quick steps forward, rigid fingers driven up and imbedded under the jaw clutching tongue, finished Lucifer.  The boy dropped, gurgling and bleeding.  A kick to the groin brought silence.  He turned to face the remaining three, “They think that this is Hell.  Humans create it for themselves to control their actions, and yet, here they are.”
Fear held them for a moment.  How had he done that?  Kung Fu?  Karate? They weren’t sure.  One thing that was for certain, he stood between them and the door.
“Nothing will control them.  Humans no longer need me.  They have each other.  Only you persist in pressing this pointless role upon me,” hissed Lucifer, looking past the two boys, into the shadows of the lower bunk.
Both rushed him.
He danced back, over their fallen comrade.
Both stumbled.
Only one of them reached him, arms outstretched, airborne and vulnerable.  Lucifer caught the boy’s head with two hands, thumbs holding eye sockets.  The momentum drove him back and down, butt first.  Screams erupted from the now sightless assailant.
Scrambling over and around, the other boy hurried towards the door.
“Humans have cast me your antithesis, as if I had choice.  They have more freedom,” grunted Lucifer as he pulled down the fleeing boy, clutching coveralls low on the leg.
Teeth hit tile.  The boy kicked to free himself, too late.
With legs wrapped around the waist, an arm over the shoulder, the other under the opposite arm, hands clenched to chest, Lucifer attached himself to the boy’s back.  He tore into the kid’s neck, gouging out chunks of flesh, finally biting through arteries and veins.  A warm spray of blood filled his mouth and covered his face.
“You sit there saying nothing, doing nothing,” Lucifer stood dripping from the chin, “toying with me.”
The last living assailant blindly thrashed about sounding his pain.  A muffled thump and pop, sternum yielding to knee, signaled silence.
“Would you have me beg? Ok, I kneel before you,” Lucifer from a cushioned knee with head bowed.
“Luc my friend, I’m beginning to think you’re not having any fun,” with a hand on Lucifer’s shoulder God motioned for him to rise.  The air swirled fiercely in no discernable direction.  The clouds at their feet threatened to engulf them, they remained aloft.
“You’re a sick bastard,” spit Lucifer standing.
“You perform willingly,” God pointed to Lucifer’s bloody hands.
“I should have submitted, that would have made you happy.”
“Freedom is not the issue.  I give you many.”
“When you want, who you want, and still I am weighed with blame.”
“He cannot be yours.”
“You break the rules and pull my strings.”
“I make the rules, but you do your own dance.”
“You do nothing, when I am forced to act.  Three fold is his sin, he is a fool, a foil for temptation, yet you deem him innocent.”
“Heh, heh,” chuckled God, “human moralities, human laws, human perception, have no place in my decisions.  I pick and choose as I see fit, it is my role.”
“Fuck you!  I quit.”
“C’mon old friend, what would you do for Eternity’s sake?  Besides it’s the only game in town.”
“I am not a toy, my existence is not some game, the rules are the strings, and I curse Eternity.  Time is on my side, you’ll see, the scales will be balanced.”
“I am the scale.”
“Bullshit.”
“Really.”
Lucifer paused, “I understand now.”  Another pause, “Then I would go back to my existence before the humans.”
God in his childlike form walked away.  He moved slowly, gingerly, choosing steps carefully like an old man, clouds dissipated at his approach.  Turning to face Lucifer, “That wasn’t even a moment, Time teases you with its memory.  He cannot be yours, his role is incomplete, besides you would not be quenched.”
“You would sacrifice all for him.  What about those he killed, what about those you killed for him?  What is his price?  Those dead say he is overvalued,” Lucifer now agitated.  “Quenched! Quenched!  Who is to be quenched?  I’m full, but have no out, what is the price for that?”
“He is the price,” God readied himself.
“What is his price?”
“These moments with you are priceless.”  Clouds rolled by, air sizzling with the speed of the attack.  God reached out, catching crushing the oncoming hand, bringing Lucifer to a halt, to his knees.  “Luc, you’re acting on emotion,” releasing the hand, “near surprising, dare I say, human-like.”
“Your insults mean nothing,” cradling his maimed hand. “They are diseased.  They are a disease and only you connect me to them.  Free me.”
“I cannot,” flatly.
“Let me go,” anguished Lucifer.
“It cannot be done,” God was gone.

©Ted Washington 2009