“Death is nothing here when I am its adversary,” said the queen who now had a little white bulb sprouting from what was supposed to be her head.
I began to walk forward, carefully carrying my beating heart and watching every one of my steps so not to trip and fall and drop it all over again. It bothered me to think that I had already gotten it dirty.
“But then how can all those people out there die?”
“I give life to those who give it in return,” she said, “and I have only the strength anymore to sustain a select few. But to the one that comes to put an end to the Beginning, my strength is yours.”
I stared down at my heart and everything was silent. Not even the buzzing of hummingbird wings seemed audible, or my breathing, which was quite heavy and rapid despite my predicament.
“What do I do?” I said, breaking the quiet.
I went back towards the dais and ascended the golden steps toward the queen. I did only what made sense to do, and with my free hand, I began to dig. Hundreds of eyes were on me; the eyes of birds, deer, rabbits, squirrels, and every other living creature, all interested and intrigued, all watching the scene with the greatest curiosity. The old woman stood far away, wide-eyed and maybe even a little worried.
I dug until the depth of the hole passed my elbow. Carefully I lowered my heart down into the black soil. The queen moaned and began to move in a lithe swaying motion.
The queen began to grow higher. The soil in the pot rose and expanded until the pot burst and her roots grew longer, gripping the dais like giant fingers grabbing a handful of gold and marble only to crush it. The floor shook and vibrated. I crawled backward as far as I could go until the wall behind me forbade me to go any further. On my bottom and with my back pressed against the wall, I sat frozen and in awe.
The queen grew rapidly. Her plant-like body changed into the body of a tree with the shape of a woman, breasts and hips and a perfect little belly that was not too round, yet not too flat. Her arms were like a woman’s arms, but they grew longer and there were no hands or fingers, but branches and twigs. The queen seemed fused to her tree-like throne and the moment she touched it, it too began to move and grow, sprouting with vines and tiny red berries in bunches amid the fresh green leaves behind her. Her hair was also made of vines, which lengthened everywhere, gripping the walls and the floor and everything within more than twenty-feet of her throne. Where her legs would have been was one big, twisted root that extended out onto the floor and down the steps of the dais.
The queen stretched out her tree-limb arms and tipped back her head, letting out a noise of relief before settling back in her throne.
“A billion lifetimes it felt like,” she said looking at no one, “trapped as a seed until the first man came along and bled for me. But he wasn’t from the Outside.”
“What does that mean?” I asked. “What’s the difference?” My question was simple, earnest, and not at all disrespectful.
I went to my feet, but kept my distance. Only now, for a brief second did I realize there was a beating heart in my chest again. It beat madly even in my fingers and in my ears.
“A dead man cannot give me life,” she began, now looking right at me with beautiful human green eyes, “but he can give his blood to sustain me. It was one like you, from the Outside who has not yet died, but who is nearly dead, that can offer his seed and allow me to be as I once was in the Beginning. The way God made me.”
“Go back to the part about me being nearly dead, please.”
“Ahh, yes,” the queen said with a delicate grin, “I thought that might be the part of my introduction that interested you the most.”
“I’m uhh, sorry, it’s just that
—
”
The queen reached out her right limb across the dais and laid her ‘hand’ on my shoulder. “It is fine,” she said, “You were sent here because somewhere on the Outside something happened to you, something terrible.” She stopped and looked upward as if in thought. “Come closer.” She withdrew her limb and curled one twig toward her like a finger.
I did as I was told.
The queen breathed in deep, taking in my scent, her eyes closed softly. I noticed that her eyelashes were made of tiny blade-like white petals.
“You were burned in a fire,” she said, opening her eyes, “You’re still clinging to life on the Outside, but as badly as you must have been burned, I don’t expect you’ll make it, or even
want
to make it, considering.”
“You’re lying.”
“I am incapable,” she answered softly.
“No....”
“I am sorry, but it is true. He can only send those who have crossed that line between life and death, only you are one of few to make it this far.”
I fell to my knees. I looked out in front of me but saw nothing except a distorted memory of the day in the park with the Devil. I remembered seeing the coils of black smoke rising over the trees. I could easily recall the sound of the fire trucks and ambulances, and the smell of smoke from the distant burning building that I now realized was the apartment complex I lived in eight blocks away.
I looked up. “So then this is Hell?”
“Hell?” The queen seemed surprised. “Oh no, my friend. This is Creation, though not as it is supposed to be, thanks to Lilith, daughter of Eve and Lucifer.”
The fat old woman emerged. She kept quiet, but made herself known to the queen in case perhaps the queen was in need of her.
The queen went on:
“When people die, instead of going to Heaven or Hell, they come here to be...” she seemed in search of the appropriate word, “...to be recycled.”
I stiffened.
“I believe you call it ‘reincarnation’ on the Outside, though it is not exactly as glamorous as Outsiders make it out to be. You die, you come to Creation knowing nothing of the life or the place you left, and you stay here until you die here too and then your body, mind and soul are salvaged, harvested and remade. Or, you go straight to Lucifer’s Lair.”
I was still trying to digest her explanation a sentence or two back. I needed to sit down, but felt it neither appropriate nor convenient. My head was spinning and I saw annoying spots in front of my eyes.
“That’s why everyone around here buys and sells body parts,” I said aloud to myself, realizing.
I jerked my head to look at her, my hands trembling. “Wait…I was made from the parts of dead people from the past?”
The queen nodded once, slowly. “Yes, and I suppose you want me to tell you what kind of people you were made from?”
“Well, I hadn’t gotten that far yet,” I said, “but yeah, it’d be nice to know...I think.”
She smiled and a bluebird landed in her hair. “I’m sorry, but I cannot tell you what I do not know.”
I was actually relieved.
“Then please, tell me what you
do
know,” I pleaded, in the form of a simple and innocent suggestion.
The queen looked toward the old woman below the dais and the old woman waddled off and quickly came back with a wooden chair. She walked up the steps of the dais, over the roots and placed the chair on the stage near me, gesturing for me to take the seat. Absently, I did with hardly any hesitation and the old woman waddled back to her spot near a tree not too far away.
“Creation, before the Fall of Man, was a place where death and suffering could not touch any human soul. But Lucifer, the antagonist of God, told his Fallen kin that he would influence the destruction of God’s Eden to prove his influence was greater even in a world that had never experienced, nor understood worldly acts or emotions.
“In sum, Lucifer was dreadfully bored and decided to sashay by and kick over God’s sand castle,” she added, smiling soft and regretfully.
“I get it,” I said, “but what does Lilith have to do with all of this? I know there’s more to her role than just being the daughter of Eve and Lucifer and someone who wants you dead pretty bad.”
“And you are right,” answered the queen. “I shall tell you the role of Lilith.”
The queen’s hair, made of vines and leaves, began to move behind her, growing and snaking to wrap around a few surrounding trees. It didn’t seem to be for any particular reason, though it may have been for her comfort. Once her hair relaxed and became still again, the many birds and butterflies that the movement had stirred landed in her hair and went back about their business.
“The Bitch of Creation,” the queen said with unbecoming contempt that surprised me for a brief moment, “even more slippery than Lucifer himself. You know they say sometimes the offspring turn out worse than the parent.”
“What did she do?”
The queen paused, smiled softly and then said with regret, “She betrayed her father, Lucifer, used his power against him and banished him from Creation which he ruled since The Fall of Man.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
“Where there are two evils,” the queen answered, “one is always worse than the other.”
She leaned away from the back of her throne, sitting upright and gently placing her limbs into her lap. She looked so peaceful sitting there with soft, doting green eyes and a kind air about her that suggested not only was she incapable of deceit, but also incapable of doing harm of any kind.
In a way like Mother Earth
, I thought as I admired her.
I crossed one leg over the other and finally relaxed.
“How did it happen?” I said, “How could anyone get the best of Lucifer? That goes against everything I was taught...not that I don’t believe you, of course.”
“Of course,” she smiled. “Eden was once the place where all things lived and grew and prospered; where life began. But the moment that Adam and Eve ate the Forbidden Fruit, the world of Eden fell to darkness. And because of The Fall, that darkness spread throughout, taking everything under it and so God then abandoned Eden and went on to make a new world, a place called Heaven.
“Lucifer, seeing that Eden still had great potential, took it over. Under his control and in agreement with God, Eden became the afterlife, where all souls go to wait until the Day of Judgment and from there will either ascend into Heaven, or descend into Hell to spend all of eternity. For a time, there was no such thing as reincarnation, but when God saw that man was too flawed, He shut off the Well of New Life and refused the creation of any more.”
I frowned. “That’s harsh,” I said and then let the queen continue.
“Yes,” she agreed, “but an understandable decision.”
I nodded once slowly.
“Milady,” the queen stopped and looked over at the old woman, “please do get our long-awaited guest a nice cup of hot tea.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” She bowed and waddled off through the trees.
The queen turned to me again. “It was Lilith’s idea to take old souls and recycle them. Without new life, Earth, Lucifer’s very playground, was on the brink of extinction. Women were barren, or could not carry any child to term. Men were strangely infertile and there was nothing to balance life and death.”
I added, “And eventually what was left of humans would have died out.”
The queen smiled softly in answer. “Lucifer never had the power to create new life, but he did have the power to manipulate existing life, and as a reward to Lilith for discovering the idea that helped repopulate Lucifer’s playground, he made Lilith his Right Hand and bestowed upon her some of his power.”
“Bad move, I take it?”
“A very bad move,” she answered solemnly, her fused root legs shifting and drudging across the dais floor. “Lilith, more hungry for power than Lucifer himself, plotted against him for many lifetimes. Not only was she Lucifer’s daughter and his Right Hand, but she became his queen, even bearing his children, all thirteen of them.”