Heaven and Hell (51 page)

“I understand,” Aaron said. “Let us speak no more of it. Yet heed my words, let there be no feelings of bitterness or resentment between you and the Father. For I tell you, the fault is not His.”

Chris nodded.

There was no fanfare in Aaron’s departure. He took a few steps away from the three men before spreading his powerful wings and bolting into the sky. A powerful swirling wind engulfed the men as the great angel’s wings propelled him upward. It took less than half a minute for him to vanish from sight.

“What now?” asked Chris, turning to Johann.

“We wait patiently.” There was anger and frustration in Johann’s voice. “This is something that you will, no doubt, have difficulty with. Why can’t you follow my instructions? Why can’t you control yourself? Why do you have to act so impulsively, so emotionally?”

“It’s my wife we’re talking about,” retorted Chris. “How do you expect me to act?”

“I expect for you to act in a manner that will benefit her cause.” Johann paused, allowing his anger and frustration to ebb. “Your unstable emotional state isn’t helping us; in fact, it is a hindrance. Chris, I want you to go home. Stay there for a few days. If I’m right, Aaron will come to you there. You and he can work out the details as to how to conduct your business. I am assuming that you will want to continue writing to Serena.”

Chris nodded.

“And so you should. In the meantime, I have other matters to attend to and would appreciate your respecting my privacy. You have what you wanted and more. I need time to contemplate and follow other avenues of interest. Do you understand?”

Again Chris nodded. Johann was trying to get rid of him. He supposed that he couldn’t blame the professor. He figured that he had been a thorn in his side during the last couple of days, especially after today’s outburst. He very much doubted that he would be very welcome in the Kepler household for a very long time.

David was unusually quiet as Chris prepared to open the gateway that would take him home. It seemed odd that this excitable young man should, for once, be at a loss for words. Chris figured that David had read the frustration in his mentor’s countenance and thought that any flippant comments at this time would be ill advised. The three parted company, allowing peace to return once more to the alpine valley.

T
HE ragtag man wept bitterly as satan stood to pronounce his sentence upon him. The man looked up at he who had sentenced him, his lips quivering. “Oh please, don’t hurt me. I’ll do anything, anything.”

There was a glimmer in satan’s eyes at those words. “Anything?”

The man was quick to respond. “Oh yes, anything you want.”

“Very well, then worship me, worship me as your only god.”

The man immediately fell on his face. “Oh god and master, I worship you, I love you. I’ll do anything you ask. You are my one and only god. I’ll live only for you!”

For over a minute the man raved on, heaping all kinds of praise on his new master. Satan watched him in amusement. “But for much of your life on Earth you had worshiped someone else other than me. When you were not worshiping money, you paid a sort of homage to another. What of him, how do I know that you will give your allegiance only to me?”

“I was wrong,” he replied, looking to his new lord and master. “I didn’t know.”

“So, will you renounce him?”

“Yes,” replied the man. “I renounce Allah, I renounce Mohammed, and all of his teachings. You are my only god. Please, you must believe me.”

There was a long pause. Satan took several steps forward, gazing intently at the pathetic human before him. “Very well, I believe you.”

The man once more fell on his face. “Oh thank you, lord, you won’t regret this, I promise. I’ll serve you with all of my strength.”

“I’m sure you will,” satan said, turning to two demonic guards standing at the man’s side. “Take him to the sea of fire where he may begin his eternal service to me. Be certain that you cast him into a particularly hot and turbulent region.”

“No!” screamed the man as he was swiftly led away and into the glowing portal, through which he could already see the fiery, tossing sea. He and his escorts passed quickly through, flying over the maelstrom and fading into the distance.

Satan turned from the portal. He paced back and forth across the floor of his audience hall like a caged lion. He was bored, in need of some different amusement. This encounter had made him mindful of something, something that needed closure.

The audience hall was unusually empty. Only a few dozen demons were in attendance to view the proceedings on this day. The prince of darkness turned to one of his advisors who stood at the edge of the platform.

“Moloch, I have need of a diversion. There is unfinished business that requires our attention.”

The slightest of smiles appeared on the arch demon’s face. “I am intrigued, my lord. What might that business be?”

“It has to do with a human wench I sentenced to the sea of fire some months ago, Serena Farnsworth.”

The demon’s smile broadened. “Yes, my lord, I remember her well. She provided us with considerable amusement. May I say, you were most clever in your dealings with her.”

“Yes, you may,” chuckled satan. “I wish to have her brought before me again. I wish to see if her experience in the sea of fire has softened her, made her more pliable. I wish to see her kneeling at my feet, worshiping me, begging for my favor.”

“Yes,” confirmed Moloch, “that would be most amusing. I will see that she is located and brought to you at once. It should not take long. The currents within the sea that have carried her are most predictable.”

Satan nodded as Moloch bowed and departed. He returned to his throne to continue with the business at hand. Yes, this would be the perfect diversion. He was confident that he would not be disappointed.

The days turned to weeks, and what might best be described as a routine settled into Serena’s life. She spent a lot of time in the green cavern, tending to the small garden and the plants and trees around it. She had become the caretaker of this world’s only remaining ecosystem. It was an awesome responsibility, and she gave it her full attention. She pruned trees and pulled weeds from the garden and transplanted them elsewhere. No, even the life of a weed was too precious to destroy.

Occasionally, she even caught sight of what she thought might be a bird, flittering quickly among the tall grasses near the cavern walls, though Abaddon assured her that no such species had been saved. It became one of the wonderful mysteries of this strange new world.

In life, she had lovingly tended to the garden behind the rock house. She had grown many of her own herbs, tomatoes, carrots, onions, practically anything that would flourish in a garden in the Northwest. She’d learned a lot about horticulture—the garden had been a labor of love for her and Chris. No, she wouldn’t let her mind wander back there. She would try not to dwell on the past and what she had lost forever.

Living here with Abaddon offered so many blessings. Not dealing with the terrible pain of eternal torment from moment to moment was the most precious of them all. But in its absence, she had time to think, time to remember the past. Now she knew something of Abaddon’s torment, not a physical torment, but one of the mind. She did her best to escape it; immersing herself in her work in the garden, anything to keep her mind occupied.

When she was not tending the garden, she sat and talked with Abaddon, learning of his existence here, a cycle of never-ending boredom and regret—all that Hell had to offer its occupants. He spoke of the loss of Heaven, of the comings and goings of angels, and of his experiences with God. She could sit here for a human lifetime and not learn a tenth of what he had to teach.

He taught her the rudimentary aspects of his own language, the language spoken by all angels, either here or in Heaven. She even learned to read and write in this strange alien tongue. It was another distraction.

Abaddon took Serena on a tour of his island, yet he took no chances when she was out in the open. So she would more readily blend into the surroundings, he prepared a long hooded cloak and a pair of high boots of the darkest black. It rendered her virtually invisible from the air, where the minions of satan traveled on their appointed rounds. He took her down the mountain trail to see the acid swamps that simmered and bubbled on the low, pockmarked plains on the far side of the island. Here the aroma of sulfur was almost stifling.

He took her to the summit of the mountain that dominated this side of the small archipelago. It was not as steep as she might have imagined, rather taking the form of a gentle knoll, nearly level at its summit, becoming gradually steeper as one moved away. From here, over 500 feet above the heaving sea, Serena was presented with a grand vista of pain and desolation. The fiery black oil extended in all directions to the very horizon, uninterrupted by any other land.

It was cooler than she imagined, and the odor of sulfur was more subdued. Farther from the fires below, the bow of blue that stretched across the horizon seemed brighter, somehow closer.

“The wind blows perpetually here,” explained Abaddon, his cloak flapping at its insistence. “It blows always from the west, always from the land of sunlight into the realm of eternal night. I suppose that a seer of things climatic would have an explanation for such a phenomenon, but to me it holds no interest.”

Serena scanned the strange realm around her. Far to the east, amid the darkness, she could see the lightning of a powerful storm, a source of torment to those trapped within the cruel sea. It brought a terrible heaviness to her soul.

“Long ago, or so I am told, this was a land of gently rolling hills,” Abaddon said, stretching his hand out over the infernal vista, “In those days, there was still a day and night in this place. There wasn’t much life here even then, but it was not as you see it today. Where we now stand was the highest mountain in the region; that is why I chose it as my home.”

“But the sea of fire,” asked Serena. “Where did it come from?”

“From below. Satan and his minions went to a lot of effort to bring its foulness to the surface, to nurture it, to make it what it is today. You see, it was all part of the plan, all part of his reshaping of this now accursed world. When I first arrived, the shoreline of the then young sea of fire was still some miles away from these highlands. Over the years it slowly rose to its present height, spreading out like a plague over much of the globe, accommodating an ever-growing number of tormented inhabitants, and still it rises.”

“How fast?” asked Serena.

“It has slowed somewhat in recent centuries, as it has become so vast; but still it rises about a quarter of an inch a year. It continues to eat away at my shrinking oasis, assaulting it from all sides, pounding its flanks, inundating the lower regions during times of storms. One day it may destroy all that I have fought to preserve.” He looked out at the horizons. “I come here often to think and contemplate. I wonder if my human family is still out there, afloat upon this accursed sea. Were it not for my arrogance, they might not have tasted of this horrible realm at all.”

Serena looked into Abaddon’s eyes. “You can’t continue to torment yourself like this.”

“I can do no less,” he replied, only momentarily returning her gaze. “I am the cause of their grief. You said on that first day that I had no concept of the suffering of your people.”

“I didn’t understand then, I’m sorry.”

“But I do understand their suffering,” Abaddon said, looking at his comely protégé. “I had a brief taste of it when satan vented upon me his wrath. I spent days in that maelstrom before I managed to free myself. After that, I did my best to push the experience out of my mind. I never wanted to partake of it again. Therefore, I’ve turned my back upon what goes on here, afraid to arouse satan’s wrath again. I decided to hide, and here I found my hiding place, that is until now.”

“Until now?” asked Serena.

“Yes,” confirmed Abaddon. “I know what I told you on that first day. I told you that there may come a time when I have to abandon you, denounce you, rather than face satan’s wrath. I tell you now that I will never do that.”

Abaddon took Serena’s hand in his. “I have enjoyed your company, more than I can say. From this day forth, I will be your guardian angel. I will pledge myself to protect you from satan and his minions, and believe me when I tell you that I am a considerable adversary. One of his minions, even satan himself, would be ill advised to challenge the destroyer. It is my sincerest hope that you do not mind having a guardian angel the likes of me.”