Lucifer's Final Redemption

To Jews, Christians and Muslims, all one has to do is sincerely ask God for forgiveness and the one known as God, Yahweh, Allah and The Most High shall grant it. The entire world can't be wrong on something of that magnitude, can they? I wish I could believe that with time anything can be forgiven. Even something like me. I wish. Since I can't be sure of that, all I can do is try my best. I pray that it shall be good enough to bring me salvation but I can't be sure.

With that in mind, I ran my blade through a six-foot-tall, raven-haired, bronze-skinned and green-eyed young woman, piercing her heart. A silent scream, frozen on her lips, came out as a short, barely audible gasp. The accusatory look in her eyes shall haunt me until the end of my days, and beyond. I pulled the blade out of her, and her lifeless body collapsed on the floor. Shiny ebony wings unfurled from her back in death, wrapping themselves around the body like a shroud. Moments later it disintegrated. The succubus is dead at last.

I wiped my blade off, and walked through the smoking remnants of the Sal Al Din mosque in metropolitan Nabatieh, Lebanon. The powerful demon who's been haunting the dreams of local Muslim men, driving them to slaughter their friends and neighbors in sectarian violence is no more. As I carefully step through a floor covered with the smoking corpses of Shiite Muslims slaughtered by their Sunni brethren, I sigh deeply, feeling something akin to despair. I was too late to stop the sectarian massacre. Not that Jews, Christians and Muslims need any reason or encouragement to slaughter one another.

They do it with such dedication, from Lebanon to Egypt, from Nigeria to Pakistan, from Israel to Syria, that I honestly wonder if they've forgotten that all monotheists are the progeny of wise old Abraham, whom God favored above all men. Doesn't matter if you follow Moses, Jesus Christ or the prophet Mohammed. Abraham is father to all who believe in the One True God and it is quite unseemly for members of the same family to kill one another, by all standards of decency. Nevertheless, the people of the Book's hatred for one another knows no bounds.

The demon I killed today was once worshipped throughout the Middle East and parts of North Africa as Astarte, the goddess of sexuality, fertility and war. A very long time ago, she was known as Hagel, the Messenger Angel formerly attached to the retinue of the Archangel Gabriel. Hagel once served God faithfully, and then one day she listened to the seductive musings of the Morningstar and joined him in his rebellion against Heaven. For tens of thousands of years, Hagel wreaked havoc in the world of man. Tonight, she's dead by my hand.

Hagel is only the latest such Fallen Angel I found myself forced to destroy. I take no pleasure in dispatching my brothers and sisters in this manner. How I miss those days when we lived in Heaven together, basking in our Father's embrace. Things were so much simpler then, before the dark times. I willed myself out of the mosque, indeed, out of Lebanon altogether. I transported myself to the City of Toronto, Ontario. I've always been fond of Canada. A place where people of different races, religions and cultures live in harmony under the banner of democracy, equality and tolerance. It's the last good place on God's green Earth, I think. Every other place seems to be going to hell these days.

Still, all is not perfect here. As I willed myself to the front of my building, I get a funny look from a Caucasian couple walking nearby. I know what they see. A tall, bespectacled gentleman of African descent clad in a business suit entering a high-rise and decidedly pricy apartment complex. Even in a racially diverse place like Toronto, a man of my complexion still gets second looks from people. I've had some interesting experiences since I started using the avatar and moniker of Altar Benedict, thirty-something Black Canadian intellectual, contract instructor ( glorified teacher's assistant ) at the University of Toronto, crime fiction author and video game addict.

I finally enter my apartment, and crash on my bed. Contrarily to popular belief, those like myself can feel hunger and thirst, happiness and sadness, and yes, even lust. I feel tired after a day spent teaching the basics of Canadian criminology to bored-looking twenty-something types in my tutorial. As a contract instructor, I make twenty five dollars per hour. I teach ten classes a week, and they're about two hours long each. As you can imagine, I don't make much money. I get by alright, enough to pay for my eleven-hundred-dollar-a-month apartment near downtown Toronto. I like living in style, and I absolutely love tall buildings. Something about being close to the sky appeals to me.

I feel too tired to cook, so I order some Shawarma from the local Lebanese Canadian restaurant. I love their chicken and beef Shawarma plates, along with lots of hummus, tomatoes and pickles. I'm addicted to Lebanese food, man. Before that, it was Chinese food. About thirty minutes later, my phone rings. It's Khaled, the delivery guy. I head down the elevator and greet him at the door. The whole order costs twenty bucks. I give him a five-dollar tip because I'm a nice guy. Khaled and I make small talk for a minute, then I send him on his merry way. I go back upstairs and wolf down the whole meal in minutes. I feel stuffed, and happy. Just as about to doze off, I hear my phone ring. It's the one and only Bethlehem "Beth" Tilaye.

Bethlehem is a young Ethiopian Christian woman I met while visiting some friends at York University. You should have seen her, man. Five feet eleven inches tall, busty and curvy, with light brown skin, curly black hair and golden brown eyes. An East African goddess, for real. In all my time on this earth, I've never really been the romantic type. Involvements between ordinary mortals and those like myself are ill-advised. Nevertheless, Bethlehem and I became friends and began hanging out, and slowly but surely, I fell in love with her.

After dating Bethlehem for about a year, I revealed my true self to her. You know, women are forever saying that they want honesty from a man but when the guy is honest with them, they can't handle it. I told Beth about what I am, what I've done, and what I have to do. I thought she could handle it. Bad idea. First, she didn't believe me. I got the brilliant idea of giving her proof, and that just about drove her nuts. Yeah, that's what I get for my honesty. Oh, and she got mad that I waited until we'd had sex numerous times before telling her the truth about me. Yeah, I reckon I could have been more honest but damn, if you saw her booty in those shorts she likes to wear, even in the wintertime, you'd understand! I'm male, dammit!

Anyhow, I was definitely in no mood to talk about our relationship or lack thereof with Beth. That woman can argue for hours on end, I mean, she never seems to get tired! Nevertheless, I turned up my phone so I could hear her message on voicemail. A very long tirade about her wanting to see me, that she'd had more time to think about it, and that she wanted to give "us" another shot. Great, now she tells me. Had she told me this six weeks ago, I would have been elated. Now, not so much. I had other problems to focus on, like not getting killed by the various factions warring with one another and with humanity since the Morningstar walked away from the Throne of Hell.

Sorry, honey, I've got other things on my mind besides you, like staying alive. I live in a world where Immortality doesn't mean what it used to. With Angels and Demons battling it out through every plane of existence and the chaos spilling over into the mortal realm, no living entity is safe. Nobody's playing the neutrality card anymore. Everyone's taking sides. The endgame is here, the Apocalypse. The end of times, as prophesized in the Torah, the Bible and the Quran. Everyone wants the war to happen, above and below. Me? I'm just one guy stuck in the middle. I don't like choosing sides, not anymore. I feel bad enough already for what I've done.

You see, in a roundabout way, I feel responsible for a lot of what is going on in the world. Angel against Demon, man against woman, Judeo-Christian against Islam, black against white, straight against gay, human against sociopath. A long time ago, I lived in my Father's House with all my brothers and sisters, and we were happy. One day, our Father brought home the newest addition to the family, and the rest of us weren't so happy with the attention and love he showered on our youngest sibling. Especially since this one was quite frail, for he lacked the might and wisdom bestowed upon us. Seeing him elevated above us irked us, and me most of all.

I convinced some of my brothers and sisters to stand with me before our Father and declare our disapproval of the upstart. For this we were cast down. For a long time I raged against the Faithful, those brothers and sisters who remained loyal to our Father no matter what. My war with them spilled into the mortal world. I sought to destroy man by encouraging conflict around the world. It didn't matter the reason, from race to religion, from territorial defense to basic greed, if man would fight his neighbor I encouraged him. For ten thousand years, I lived only to destroy. Until the day my own once-loyal siblings and followers turned against me, and I was forced to hide among the very mortals I despised, for fear of getting killed by my enemies. During that time, I met a mortal man named Caleb, and his wife Amara and their daughter Kara. They mistook me for one of their own, and sheltered and protected me after finding me unconscious in a ditch.

During my stay with Caleb and his family, I changed. Thanks to the kindness of a simple man, I stopped hating humankind. I am sorry for destroying countless human lives over the course of ten thousand years. Caleb and his family are long gone, but I have never forgotten them. Because of them, I walked away from the path of darkness. I now fight against both Heaven and Hell because neither side cares about humanity, they just want to prove they're right. The way politicians from rival parties tend to put their petty rivalries above the wellbeing of the very people they claim to represent. Humans are prideful, but no more than us who are called Angels and Demons, apparently.

I now understand what my Father saw in the humans. For all of their wickedness, their treachery, their racism and sexism, they have a great capacity for good. Humanity's potential exceeds the power of we who are called Immortals. Thanks to Caleb, I learned that every man makes his own destiny, that nothing is set in stone. I hope this applies to us Immortals. In various religions, I am something to be feared. Billions of people around the world believe that a man called Jesus Christ was sent by God to redeem mankind. To offer them salvation and redemption. If I believe in his gospel and wish to redeem myself, can I be saved too, even though I'm not human? I don't know. I wish I knew. All I can do is hope.

Even now, a game plan I set in motion back when I was a Lord of Darkness is still afoot. My former followers have opened the Gates of Hell and easily cross into the Earthly plane whenever they wish. That's why the world is darkening these days. Mothers kill their sons and daughters and say an evil force told them to do it. Men and women blow themselves up and kill many others in the process because someone told them it's what God wants. People kill each other over questions of race, religion, nationality, sectarianism and sexuality, more so than ever before. Many fear that World War Three is around the corner. I planned it and set it in motion. Back when I hated the humans. Now I want to stop Armageddon, and I'm its architect. I placed my Angels in strategic positions. They're in the FBI, the CIA, the Mossad, the Secret Service, the African Union, the Union of South American Nations, the Vatican, the Muslim Brotherhood and so on. Every race, every religion, every organization, every corporation, every church, every synagogue and every mosque. Always encouraging war and conflict. Always putting "us" versus them. That's my grand plan, back when I hated humankind. Now I have to stop it.

My former followers down below want me dead, for the Legion of Hell cannot forgive its former leader and founder for abandoning them. The Kingdom of Heaven still considers me an enemy for having rebelled against our Father a long time ago. What's a guy to do under those circumstances? Fight. That's what I learned from my time among the humans. No matter how evil you are, if you are sincere about change and redemption, there's always time. Dear humanity, I'm sorry for plotting your death and destruction since the time of the cavemen. I'll make it up to you by killing any Angel or Demon that tries to hurt you. That's my solemn promise. It's been pleasant talking to you and getting to know you but I must get some sleep. Got a long day ahead of me tomorrow. I've got classes to teach and Angels/Demons to kill. If you haven't guessed my name by now you never will.