Devil May Care – They too are Children of God
Introduction
I was sitting in the corner of this relatively well-lit room, which was full of pathetic little souls that my father had sent down for therapy. It had just come to my attention that this was a yearly event, where all the bad souls, children of God, who had caused destruction to humanity come to learn the mistakes of their past and change themselves for the better.
My father was a powerful man, the most powerful of them all I guess, for he was the Almighty.
He was God.
And so, it was the result of his immense power that he used against me to come to this place in the land of doom, and sit between this bumbling band of baboons to share what, my feelings?
The Devil – Children of God
Yup, you guessed it right. I am the Devil. or so-called one of the children of God The bringer of life and death, he who holds the fate’s threats, the cursed king of the underworld.
With my arms folded on my chest and a nonchalant look on my face, I sat on this creaky chair, which lay in this poorly formed circle, while someone who called themselves “Lord Voldemort” shared his state of mind about how he is a changed wizard now and no longer has the same thirst for ultimate power anymore.
But I know the real truth, “Bull Crap.” There are just trying too hard to get in my father’s good books, so finally they can have some peace and meaning to the rest of their soulless lives.
The story began
After a snooze fest of an hour, the circle deformed as the children of God sitting around me started to disperse into the endless despairs of their goalless life, while I on the other hand, put on my jacket, took the rebel shades out of my pocket and went on a ferocious bike ride around the human world.
I could hear the church bells going around at a distance, which made me groan out in annoyance as I saw all those people gathered in one place to remember my dad. I didn’t want to admit it but, the sole reason that I was pissed off was not because they were worshipping my father, but maybe because no one cared enough to remember me.
Some was calling “ME”
“Oh, mighty Devil, I give you the carcass of this dead rat and complete my blood ritual as I call out to you.” My eyes beamed with joy as the prayers of a little girl made its way to my ears. She was calling out to me, the devil. I put on a tight grip around the accelerator of my rover and sped off into a thin mist of dust to reach my beloved acolyte.
As I reached nearer and nearer to where the voice of the silent prayer was coming from, the things around me become clearer and clearer. I landed my magical bike in the back yard of this old rustic house, which I realized later was an orphanage, and dismounted from it to reach the girl sitting near the foot of the steps with her head resting on her knees.
Here I come for the Children of God
“Yoo-hoo, little acolyte. A big bad devil’s out here.” I called out to her with a smirk on my face as I used my glove clad hand to push back the hair falling on my forehead. The brown-headed girl sitting in front of me raised her head and took a good look at me, before gasping in awe, for she couldn’t believe that she was in the presence of the Almighty Lucifer.
I noticed that the girl was around eighteen years of age and looked really weak and undernourished for someone of her youth. Her deep blue eyes, filled with the utmost purity, twinkled as a smile made its way across her chapped lips. “Are you really the devil?” she questioned, looking me up and down to confirm her doubts. “Of course,” I whispered. “You especially performed a…” I looked at the dead rat, lying in front of me and made a face of disgust, “What is that?”
She immediately got up from the stair and put her hands on her waist as she began explaining to me.
Children of God – needs you
“I wanted help from the almighty, so I performed a blood ritual to summon you. Although I didn’t think it would really work but here you are.” She clapped her hands gleefully and proceeded to dance around in happiness.
I scrunched my eyebrows and said with a pout, “Number 1, I was especially bored today and that’s why I am here, not because of the blood ritual or whatever you were performing.” The girl squinched her eyes and gave out a mocking cough, “It got you here, didn’t it?” and then she stuck out her tongue at me.
I was taken aback by her appalling behaviour and came dangerously close to her face, “I am the devil, how dare you disrespect me and Number 2, I am not the almighty, god is” The girl in the pretty white dress stopped her jumping around and started to mock me by copying my actions, “Number 1, I am not scared of anything, not even death now and Number 2, I needed you, not god because I want to be very evil just for one day.”
You are an Angel
“Hmmm, you are quite the little angel yourself, aren’t you?” I scoffed out in sarcasm. “Alrighty tell me, why do you want to be evil today and what is it that you desire from me.”
The smile from the girl’s face vanished off in seconds as she turned her face to the other direction to conceal what she was truly feeling. I could sense sadness enveloping her, but why? “The world hasn’t been kind to me, God hasn’t been kind to me.” She let out as she sucked in deep breaths to control her distressed self.
Conversation happens
I nodded my head in agreement and headed down to sit on the steps. With my face in my palms, I spoke with a distraught tone, “Yeah well, he hasn’t been kind to me either. Just today only, he sent me down to this pathetic little human world for some therapy, saying that the events of today are going to set me straight.” I laughed a little. “But how is one therapy going to bring back that has been lost in my life since forever,” I paused and looked up to see that the beautiful blue orbs of the girl were staring right into my grey ones.
“What’s been lost?” she asked quietly.
“Peace,” After a long pause of nothing but silence, that send me spiralling down in an obscene memory of my past, the girl from beside me cleared her throat. “So, about my wishes?” she asked coyly and the smirk on my face was returned. “Look at you, going down right to business.” I rolled my eyes and took her hands in mine.
Time for wishes
“Here’s what I am going to do Elizabeth,” I was speaking when suddenly she pulled her hand from between mine and raised her eyes in shock, “How do you know my name?” she questioned. I decided not to answer her. She should know, that I am, after all, an almighty being and so I know everything. “That’s not all I know. I also know that you want three wishes from me, don’t you?” her eyes became even wider as she bit her lips in shock and scratched the back of her head.
Elizabeth then shook her head from side to side, to regain her confidence and spoke up. “yes, I want three wishes.” I was feeling a bit cocky now as I popped my lips in victory and turned my ears to listen to her.
“Number 1, I need you to come with me to rob a bank and gets lots and lots of money.” So greedy, I thought to myself.
She continued speaking then, “Number 2, I want to beat up a man, who is an enemy of mine.” So violent, I thought
“And finally, Number 3, I want courage so I can ridicule my best friend Robert, or my used to be best friend Robert.”
Devil is happy
So very evil, I laughed in my mind. “It’s going to be a fun day then.
One by one I completed most of her wishes. I flew to the bank in a second and got back in a blink of an eye, with a large pile of crisp money in my hands. Then I went to find the man she had told me about. He lives in a large mansion and has dozen of bodyguards around him, but the small fights that they put up were no match to me. I beat the hell out of that man, broke his limbs or two and then left immediately to reach Elizabeth.
I found her exactly where I had left her a few hours ago. She was sitting on the stairs, again with her face buried in her arms. I went to put a hand on her head and gave it a slight rub. She lifted her face to look at me and I was overcome with emotional pain when I saw her condition. She had been crying, like a lot.
Devil Confused
“Hey, what’s the problem? You should be happy that I am helping you out, and without asking anything in return.” I crossed my arms on my chest and gave a sly smile as I sat down next to her. As soon as I did, she put her head on my shoulder and sucked in a deep breath.
Time for the fulfilment of other wishes
“So, we have got your money and the man you told me about, is thoroughly beaten up, now there is just one thing left to do,” I said with a sense of accomplishment in my voice.
Elizabeth closed her eyes as more tears started flowing out of her eyes, “Don’t worry Mr Devil, I took care of it. Robert just left and I gave him an earful alright.” I just don’t get it, if ridiculing this Robert human, hurts her so much then why is she doing this.
An unexpected thing happen
My thoughts were suddenly broken, when the head lying on my shoulder suddenly raised and her whole body started to tremble fervidly. The pupils in her eyes started to dilate as she soon began losing consciousness. I soon heard some shouting voices from inside and looked around me to see what was going on. “Mrs Obama, Lizzie is having the fit again.” A little kid shouted to call their matron.
I decided it is best if I leave from here and only watch the rest of it from the outskirts. A group of kids including the matron came around Lizzie and tries to shake her awake. I was getting furious and unstable, as I did not understand what is going on. Soon, the ambulance came rushing in and Lizzie was taken to the hospital.
Several hours had passed and it was the next day now. The doctors were still operating on Lizzie but it seemed that there was no progress in her health. All her friends from the orphanage have come to the hospital and waiting for the doctors to come out and give them the good news.
Time passed by and I became agitated. There was nothing I could do since there was nothing that I knew. All of a sudden, I was broken out of my misery when I turned around and saw father standing behind me. That’s right all you children of God it is the almighty God himself, standing in a normal city hospital with Bermuda shorts and loafers on his legs.
“Why….” I was about to speak when he gave me a soothing look and raised his hands.
“The girl you see there is Elizabeth Saltzed, she is an eighteen-year-old girl who was battling cancer all her life. And to add to her misery there were no parents to take care of her. Poor girl,” he spoke out in his usual calm pitch but a frown had started to form on my head.
“How could you do that to her?” I demanded as I stomped one of my feet in front of him. “No wonder she turned evil. She had no hope left from you.” “Or maybe she did it because she had hope left in me. After all, you are also a part of me son.” God said as he patted his hand on my back and gave me a nudge.
“Oh, so this was another one of your plans.” I gave out a loud petty life. “ I feel you made her indulge in those bad things just so you won’t feel bad about sending her down her destiny’s road.” I scoffed after finishing my rant.
Time to rethink
“I don’t think she turned bad at all; I think you should rethink your own steps with her.” And all of a sudden, things were not so unclear anymore. As God explained to him one by one about the real reason for her three wishes, he became more and more surprised by the moving thoughts of this simple-minded girl.
“Number 1, she asked you to get her money, not so she could use it for her own greed, but so she could make sure that the kids in the orphanage that she grew up in could live a prosperous life after she is gone,” God explained calmly to him.
“Number 2, she asked you to beat up a man, who had been kidnapping little girls from the orphanage so he could sell them in prostitution. She only wanted to protect the girls from a monster like him.”
“Number 3, and finally she asked to ridicule Robert, her best friend, so he would be angry at her and not miss her after she is gone. She didn’t want him to feel any pain after she has departed.”
Oh MY GOD!
My mind was in a state of frenzy now, when I heard how noble a little girl like her can be. For the first time in a long while, I felt so sad, that I felt like ripping a thousand souls from the vast gates of hell and tearing them limb by limb.
I did not have the heart to, but I had to see her one more time. Without anyone knowing I entered her room, which had an atmosphere of pin-drop silence and an air of utter despair. The little angel was sleeping peacefully on the bed with her eyes closed, it was as if she knew her time was near and she has to go into eternal rest now.
All too soon, I held her hand only to feel how cold, her pale skin was at the moment. I know I am not supposed to get attached to anything and I shouldn’t care about a human girl, whom I have just met, but this girl was different. The purity in her heart had me captured and at her beck and call.
My eyes closed in pain as I sensed her soul moving onto the next stage of her being and a sudden realization washed over me.
With my head turned to her for one final look, I took in a deep breath and said an enchantment. “You can’t bring back someone from the dead.” My father spoke in a low pitch as he came right behind me.
“I am the god of the underworld; I can do anything.” I riled up at him. “Not without the consequence of giving up your own immortal life.” I laughed lightly as a smile made its way on my face. “She will come back and live a long life, and as for me, I am finally at peace now, because for the first time I felt like I did something meaningful with my powers and knowing that I made this place even a little better makes me feel like I have lived a thousand days in one.” I gave a long pause and took a breath of relief.
“All this while, I have been doing nothing but waste my life and now I have done something so purposeful. So, I bid my goodbye to you father, because after having this day and meeting my little friend I can finally go and be at peace.”
I smiled for the final time and kissed Elizabeth on the forehead before exiting the hospital room and disappearing in the eternal light.
Nupur Tyagi – Our Storyteller
She is a winner of the story writing competition, held by Retorica in collaboration with the storyofsouls.com Her story was selected based on the fact that she has been able to understand the dark moments of life, expressed beautifully and with deep intensity. It is rare to find such stories where the life of both perspectives is talked about. Such thoughts coming from youth is the indication that life and its understanding has nothing to do with age.
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