Heaven and Hell (38 page)

“Yet you still follow him.” Serena regretted the words almost the instant they parted her lips. Why would she say something as foolish as that? Surely, she had just rekindled his rage. She was amazed to find him unaffected by her comment.

“I don’t have much choice, do I?” he replied. There was no emotion in his voice whatsoever. “I am trapped, as are you. Here, there are two destinies—to be a part of his plan, or an object of his wrath. I do not wish to be an object of his wrath. This aspect of his being you understand all too well. However, I am not overjoyed to be a part of his plan either. That is the reason that I dwell here in solitude, as far out of his way as possible.”

“But his plan doesn’t make any sense,” objected Serena, her tone of voice betraying a growing agitation.

“Yes, you said that at your sentencing,” Abaddon said. “You said that demons and the humans damned to Hell should work together, to make the best of their lot. You are such a foolish idealist.”

“What’s wrong with that?” objected Serena, trying once more to get up. A sickening pain radiating from her shattered spine rewarded her efforts. She landed once more on her side.

“You ask too many questions,” retorted Abaddon. “Surely you realize that this coalition you speak of is not going to happen. So long as satan rules this realm, your kind will be subjugated, tortured, offered not so much as a moment’s peace.”

“Because of his hate for humanity?” asked Serena.

“In part,” said Abaddon, who leaned forward, as if to examine her more closely. “However, as I see it, there are other considerations.”

Serena was surprised when the demon grasped her dislocated arm, and swiftly thrust it back into its joint. She gasped in agony, yet she didn’t scream. Perhaps, so many months in the sea of fire had made her more accustomed to the touch of pain.

“There, that should help somewhat,” said Abaddon, still showing no sign of emotion.

“Thank you,” said Serena, struggling to conquer her pain. “What other considerations?”

The demon cocked his head to the side in a swift and unnatural manner. “I’m actually surprised you don’t know that. When I perused your mind, I saw it. You almost had it figured out at one point. Have your months in the sea of fire dulled your senses that much?”

Then it came to Serena. Yes, she had pondered that thought months ago. “Our ever growing numbers.”

“Exactly,” confirmed Abaddon. “There are only so many of us. Yes, we are powerful, but we are not all powerful, we have our limitations. It was not long after the creation of humankind that the first humans arrived in this place, condemned by God. I am confident in the belief that it was God’s intention to merely cast them out, to exile them from His presence, as he had satan and his minions, not to sentence them to eternal pain and torment. Such cruelty is not in the Father’s nature. Still, satan had other plans. Satan and his minions were in their glory. They tormented your kind unmercifully for their own pleasure and amusement. They tormented them out of their hatred for humanity and out of hatred of the Creator.

In the form of spirits, they traveled to your world, to deceive even more of you. Thanks in part to their efforts, your numbers in this place swelled. So many crafty and devious humans now dwell among us, and among them were the natural leaders, those that might inspire revolution. For this reason, humans must be kept in check by their bonds, the nature of their confinement, and most important of all, the constant agony they endure. This gives them little opportunity to think rationally, no less scheme of rebellion. Thus satan retained control of his realm.”

Serena was dumbfounded. She had been right all along.

“But, it’s a reckless game he is playing. Just how many of you can he and his minions control? It’s an interesting question, isn’t it? He wouldn’t admit it, no, not that megalomaniac, as you call him, but one way or another he will be our undoing. His kingdom will fall. Perhaps, one day, his interfering in the affairs of men will cross the line, and God Himself will move against him. Perhaps it shall be the very humans he tortures, who will rise up and topple him. I don’t know, but I for one look forward to that day, forward to the end of the torture and cruelty he has turned into an art during these many millennia.”

Wow! That comment caught the young woman by surprise. Time and time again, she had watched the demons swarming over humans whose only crime was trying to escape the source of their agony. Those demons seemed to perform their duty with such efficiency, such pleasure. It was nearly inconceivable that even one of them should have the slightest bit of sympathy.

Abaddon shook his head, as he rose and walked across the small room and leaned with one hand upon the far wall. Again there was a silence, a silence that Serena felt it best not to interrupt. It was over a minute before Abaddon turned toward his guest. His eyes were tired and sad. Any trace of anger had long since evaporated. “How satan rules his minions, I will never understand. Over the course of a hundred centuries, he has gained their absolute obedience. They are mindless followers; they obey him without question. So, you see, he has deceived his own people, as well as yours.”

“But not you,” observed Serena, who had finally managed to rise to a sitting position with her back to the rock wall.

“No, not me,” confirmed Abaddon. “I am not as they. I am not blinded by his bold rhetoric, by his threats, or his little bag of tricks. I see him for what he is, a liar, he who beguiled a third of all of the angels in Heaven to follow him to their own destruction.” Abaddon shook his head. “Raising up arms against God Himself. Now that is stupidity.”

Serena did her best to word her next question as carefully as possible. “How are you different from the other demons?”

“Demon?” objected Abaddon. “I prefer the term fallen angel, if you don’t mind.”

“Fallen angel, then,” Serena said. “Why are you able to see through satan’s deception, while the others don’t? There is a kindness deep within you, I can sense it. I don’t see it in the others.”

“A kindness?” replied Abaddon, smiling slightly. “After what I just did to you, you still say that you can sense kindness within me?”

Serena nodded. She wasn’t just trying to placate this titan. The aura of evil that she sensed around all of the others was conspicuously absent in Abaddon. She prayed that it wasn’t simply wishful thinking.

“Thank you,” he finally said.

Serena didn’t reply; she was still awaiting the answer to her original question.

“Yes, child, I am different. I didn’t side with satan in the battle in Heaven. In fact, I fought against him in that day. I fought at the side of Michael. However, I do not feel disposed to speak of those times right now.”

Serena was still confused. “But how did you end up here?”

Abaddon shook his head. “Woman, you do not listen very well, do you? I do not wish to discuss such matters at this time.” Abaddon hesitated for a moment. He seemed deep in thought. “I will tell you this; I am not the only one of my kind here. There are others similar to myself, and there is no love lost between any of us and satan. Still, we are but a few against satan’s multitude. We all exist together here in a sort of uneasy truce. We are the uninvited guests, loose cannons, as your people might say. Satan doesn’t trust me or my kind, and we don’t trust him. Let us leave it at that.”

“So that’s why you thought I might be sent here by satan,” Serena asked while trying her best to rise to her feet.

Abaddon took Serena’s hand and led her to a squared off boulder upon which she might more comfortably sit. Again there was a brief pause. “But tell me, child, your world was so full of the handiwork of the Creator, so full of His greatness. Surely, it must have been overwhelming. Knowing God, why did you refuse to honor Him?”

That question cut right to Serena’s heart. From where she stood, or sat, right now, her life on Earth seemed so futile, so foolish and irresponsible. But it hadn’t at the time. “I really didn’t believe in God.”

Abaddon raised an eyebrow in dull surprise. “Surely, you didn’t think that the universe around you was some sort of cosmic coincidence.”

“I don’t know what I thought,” admitted Serena.

Abaddon leaned against the rock wall and crossed his arms. “I suppose it doesn’t matter now. The past is the past, for both of us.”

Again, a long moment of silence passed between them. “So, what do we do now?” asked Serena.

“What can we do?” posed Abaddon. “We both have our destinies, and yours is in the sea of fire.” Again there was silence, as Abaddon’s eyes acquired a momentary blank stare. “Strange that satan should have sentenced you to the sea of fire. He usually reserves the sea for far more despicable individuals than you. I wonder what he was thinking. You seem a gentile creature, misguided, perhaps, but hardly evil, hardly deserving of such a fate as this. What did he see that I do not? The sea is the worst fate in all of Hell. It generates the greatest amount of pain, by keeping your body essentially intact. It is the eternal dwelling place of so many of the fiends of your history, great and small. Such ignoble personages as Nero, the one they called Jack the Ripper, Adolph Hitler, and Osama bin Laden. But why did he sentence you here? This is what I don’t understand.”

Serena did not have an answer. How could she be compared with the likes of Hitler or bin Laden? Perhaps, it was the way in which she had conducted herself before satan. Perhaps, she had brought this fate upon herself. Maybe she should have kept her big mouth shut.

“Nonetheless, a power greater than you or I has decreed our destiny,” continued Abaddon. “It is He who placed you in satan’s hands. It matters not whether we agree with that power or His judgments. Our opinions are irrelevant. You and I both are damned, cut off from God for all eternity by our own sins against Him. We both feel the pain of that separation. We cannot escape our destinies, child; we must face them for all eternity. It is by our own hands that they have been created. We sowed the seeds of our own destruction.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Serena said. “I’m the one who feels the burning agony of that horrible sea day after day, not you. I’m sure that you suffer in your own way. You speak of the pain of being separated from God. Well, I feel it too, believe me. But I feel far more than just that.”

Abaddon heaved a deep sigh. “I will not argue that point with you.”

“It wasn’t God’s decision that I spend eternity in that horrible sea, that was satan’s idea. If you toss me back in there, you’re doing satan a favor, you’re serving him.”

Abaddon shook his head in disapproval, but said nothing.

But you’re still going to throw me back into the sea of fire, aren’t you?”

“What choice do I have?” continued Abaddon. “However, I have a plan. There is a place, a place at the very tip of the island, from there, you could be thrown back into the sea of fire and swept swiftly away. You would not be dashed against the cliff or sliced to pieces by any rocks below. Better still, I could carry you out over the sea myself, swooping down to give you a shorter and gentler fall. It would be the most merciful way. I hope that meets with your approval.”

Serena was horrified by Abaddon’s proposal. “Merciful!” she exclaimed, her sudden boldness surprising even herself. “Throwing me into that boiling black sea is merciful? If it was my total destruction, the ending of my very existence we were talking about, that might be merciful. But it isn’t, is it? I’ll go on living and feeling and suffering for all eternity. You get rid of me and I go on suffering. I don’t need that kind of mercy.”

Serena’s voice faded away to be replaced by complete silence. Abaddon stared at her incredulously. The silence held sway over that cavern room for what appeared to Serena to be a very long time. Slowly, ever so slowly, a smile began to materialize upon the dark being’s countenance. There was nothing evil or malicious about the smile, if any words could describe it, they were stunned amusement. Then he chuckled.

“I take it that was a no,” replied Abaddon, who now laughed openly.

Serena looked at the fallen angel with amazement. Never had she considered the sight of one of these beings in such mirth.

Finally the laughter died down. Abaddon took Serena gently by the wrist and drew her to her feet. She was surprised that she was able to stand.

“Come child.” His voice was calm but insistent, and considering his strength, Serena had no choice but to follow wherever he would lead.

A chill shot up Serena’s still mending spine as Abaddon led her back out through the tunnel, into the outside world. A moment later they stepped onto the ledge at the mouth of the cave. The hot breeze and the odor of sulfur once again assaulted her senses. The rocks beneath her bare feet had a wet gritty feel, no doubt a result of the flood of acid that had recently inundated them. Fortunately, the acid itself had either been absorbed or neutralized, thus saving the soles of her feet from further harm.

For a moment Abaddon paused, allowing Serena to take in the terrible vista. The sea of fire swelled and ebbed far below, pounding the rocks with its terrible fury. Serena looked down. She had not realized just how far she had climbed. It must have been nearly 100 feet. To have accomplished such a feat was nothing short of a miracle. She now understood Abaddon’s amazement. She herself could hardly believe that she had managed such a climb. The details of the ascent were a blur to her now, an exercise in agony that her mind had managed to cloud from her as a self-defense mechanism.