by R. Twine
After a few minutes, a patrol car came and took me to the hospital. I was given the necessary medical help and then was taken to a police station to make a report. My granny, tear-stained, was already waiting for me there.
I did go to collège despite my doctor and my grandparents being against it. Astonished, my schoolmates were staring at the bruises and raw sores on my face. Elian’s eyes welled up with tears; she clearly felt great pity for me. Everybody was asking the same question. ‘What happened to your face, Miriam? Who messed up your face?’
Tony was staring at me, his eyes wide-open.
‘Who did this, Miriam? And why?’
‘I have no idea, Tony,’ I replied quietly.
‘You didn’t deserve it, Miriam,’ Tony said, biting his lip. His eyes were glistening with tears. It was all he said.
Totally bewildered, Madame Renault took off her glasses and started to scrutinize me with a short-sighted squint of her eyes. ‘Miriam, what does this mean? Who did this to you?’
‘I don’t know, but I hope the police will soon find out.’
I followed the headmaster into her study and told her everything.
Several days later a police inspector came to our collège. He brought some photographs and said the police already had a lead they were working on. Two suspects got into a car accident that very same night: they crashed into a lamp post; one of them was now in the intensive care unit, and the other one was under house arrest.
‘Miriam, will you be able to recognize by the photos the men who assaulted you?’ the inspector asked.
I peered into the pictures and nodded, ‘Yes, it’s them. But who are these people? And why did they attack me?’
‘I still have to find out,’ he said in reply, while going methodically through the list of the students. ‘One of the suspects is likely to be Ella Verbois’s brother. I have to check this information, and, if it proves right, it will mean it’s her brother who’s currently undergoing intensive therapy. When this character is discharged from the hospital, there will be some surprises in store for him.’
‘Is he suspected of committing some other offenses?’ asked the headmaster.
‘Yes, he is. Car theft, assault, and now – battery,’ said the inspector, standing up. ‘I’m going to pay his friend a visit.’
Ella was expelled from the collège; Gaitan and Ed were allowed to stay until the first admonition. Ella’s brother finally came round but was crippled for the rest of his life. His accomplice received a three-month suspended sentence. After the incident, order and discipline set in at the collège, at least seemingly.
‘I’m so glad they are leaving you alone!’ Tony said in a contented tone of voice.
‘So am I, Tony,’ I said with a smile.
Natalie, Elian and I were sitting cozily at my place, playing cards. I turned the TV on, and political problems came pouring into the room from the screen. There were incessant debates on almost all the TV channels concerning the crisis that plagued Europe; there were news stories covering wars taking thousands of people’s lives.
‘After seeing all this, I can only regret having a TV in my house. All that’s on is a lot of blood and a bunch shows meant to distract people from bitter reality; and it’s only going to get worse,’ I sighed.
‘I often ask myself – what does the future hold in store for us all?’ Natalie took up. ‘How will we be able to live on if most of our planet is already suffering from so many unsolvable problems? Natural resources are being irrevocably exhausted, and the situation is getting worse with every passing year… Everything tells us that it will be harder and harder for our planet to feed all its inhabitants. Every day people are dying of famine – just think – this is happening in the twenty-first century!’
‘Maybe it’s better not to think about bad things, but we still have to find the answer to the following question: how are we to live in this big world? What were human beings created for, after all? People have been trying to find answers to these questions for centuries, but they never find any answers; they just reach a dead end,’ I reasoned.
‘My parents discuss these topics every evening, but to no avail,’ said Elian, joining our talk. ‘Discussions like these lead to nowhere. We were granted life and the opportunity to build our future, but what do we see instead? We see that there’s no future at all and, unfortunately, there never will be.’
‘I’d like to show you one of my paintings I finished a few days ago; no one has seen it yet,’ I said. ‘Yes, I returned to painting. It’s the only chance I get to pour out my feelings. Let’s go to the studio.’
We went down to the basement. I led Natalie and Elian up to the picture standing in the corner, and stepped aside to be able to follow their reaction.
‘Who’s this?’ asked Elian who wasn’t privy to the details of the other side of my life.
‘This is Satanail,’ I said in response. ‘He’s the King of Darkness. He’s the owner of all the treasures of the Earth and all the benefits bestowed human beings.’
Looking at us from the painting was a man with a handsome face and bare torso. He was sitting on the throne carved out of a black stone boulder that rested on a pile of jewels mixed with human skulls. Sharp clever eyes were looking straight at you; he had very small and barely visible horns protruding from under his thick long hair; a meaningful smile froze on his lips. In one of his hands Satanail was holding a staff with a golden snake sitting on its tip with a crown on its head, while in the other one he was holding a hefty book that symbolized knowledge and secrets. A red cloth covered his thighs; Satanail’s gigantic legs were out of proportion compared to the other parts of his body. His feet rested upon human skulls and jewels which meant that everything on Earth belonged to him. I portrayed the King of Darkness the way I imagined his true character to be.
‘‘Someday I’ll be able to unveil my family collection to a wider circle of people,’’ I thought. I was hoping I would have such an opportunity.
‘Why does he have such long legs?’ Elian asked, astonished.
‘This was meant to symbolize that it’s not only an ordinary man’s appearance that Satanail is capable of acquiring,’ I explained.
‘Miriam, I never would have thought that you would see the world from such an extraordinary angle. This mystical style of yours… it’s not like you,’ she said.
‘Yes, it is, Elian,’ Natalie retorted. ‘Miriam’s different from us in that she has her own point of view on everything that exists in this world and in the world of the hereafter.’
‘I borrowed this image from my Mom. It was her “Genius” that inspired me to paint this portrait, but I did my own remake of it in my own manner. When I was painting it, my hand moved with such exceptional ease that it seemed to me the King of Darkness himself was painting his own portrait. I know that people think he’s responsible for various dreadful events over the centuries, but without him human beings wouldn’t survive. Nor would they be able to reproduce. His existence on Earth was predestined by the Heavens themselves because it was the Heavens that sent a human being to his Earth! To his Earth, to his territory! Don’t you find it somewhat strange? Can it be that we ought to find out why evil exists, the evil that constantly opposes us? And it’s only then that we will be able to conquer it within us, and purify our souls.’
‘Aren’t you afraid, Miriam? You know, these kinds of things can be dangerous. These images may have begun haunting you after your parent’s death – what do you think? Because they say when somebody loses their parents, they are in danger of being plagued by various visions…’ Elian looked completely terrified.
‘I was still in my early childhood when I first confronted an unfamiliar world, Elian. But I also assume that the shock I went through somehow contributed to the opening of the invisible channel from which I can obtain these thoughts. There’s a little bit of the devil in every one of us. His role is difficult to explain but I know that it is as important as the role of the Forces of Light. I’m
pretty sure the prophets knew about it – if the devil had been a hindrance to Heaven they’d have gotten rid of him very long ago. Satanail must save the Earth from chaos or, the other way around – immerse it in chaos. Man is volatile and prone to change; our foremother, Eve, proved this to our Creator. Apart from temptation, man – later on – wanted to experience evil; Cain was an example. The Creator sent terrible rains upon Earth which killed every living being, leaving only a handful of humans and animals who were saved from complete extinction. He gave people the chance to start a new life on Earth, but made a mistake once again. Yet again man started to kill. And then The Heavenly Father decided to destroy the beings He had created, but angels, full of compassion for humans, talked him out of doing it. Human beings have been vicious and reckless during the entire period of their existence. They robbed others of what wasn’t theirs, thus provoking never-ending wars. Constant squabbles over who owns what have been going on for millennia. True, man became civilized, but the sea of blood doesn’t seem to be drying up; this vicious cycle seems endless…’
‘Yes, everything’s exactly how you described it,’ Elian agreed.
‘Mankind will either be annihilated in one fell swoop, or there’s going to be the remake of what happened many thousands of years ago,’ Nat predicted. ‘Torrential rains and other natural disasters will gradually kill all living beings. I wonder if there will be at least one couple left alive to start everything anew.’
‘I don’t know, and nobody does, really,’ I said. ‘But I’m sure big changes are just round the corner. In fact, these changes are already underway, and nothing can stop the inevitable. Our planet hovers in endless space. Nobody knows where the end or the beginning is; everything is volatile and on the move. The universe contains myriads of life forms, not all of them being earth-like. When we talk we think we’re alone but, in actuality, there are thousands of ears listening in and thousands of eyes watching us. And they are waiting for changes to come – just like we are.’
Chapter 15
My face was hidden behind the veil. I was in the dark space again. A big fire, burning in the middle, was surrounded by figures in black cloaks.
‘These are my demons, and every one of them has his own strictly defined function,’ Satanail said, appearing in front of me. ‘You’ll be able to see only some of them. They are here to present their progress reports… The people responsible for so much pain and filth on our planet are going to pay dearly for their wrongdoings… It is I who am the master of the Earth, not humanity. I was the first to descend upon it; it was the Creator Himself who allowed me to build my abode here. Man is only my guest, and when guests inflict so much damage to my house and do it a lot of harm, I get rid of them personally… It’s because of you that the Father pronounced a curse upon the Earth, not because of me! When he sent human beings down here, he punished not only them but me too!’ Satanail’s heavy look was nothing short of withering. Then he said, leaning over me and lowering his voice, ‘I’m beginning to regret having seduced Eve; she succumbed to seduction and gave me a son thus creating an unbreakable bond between us that goes on for centuries… Even I have no power to break it!’ he exclaimed suddenly. ‘The Father himself gave up protecting you. Is there any reason I should love mankind?’ Satanail’s eyes sparkled with anger. ‘If mankind perishes I’ll be able to rest for a while at last! It’s their own kind that human beings have to be afraid of! I hope you have already become aware of this, Miriam. When those two scoundrels attacked you, the Archangel sent a man to scare them off and thus saved your life. I, for my part, saw to it that those pitiable characters were properly punished.’
‘But why didn’t you forewarn me?’
‘Sometimes things happen that even we are unable to predict. Human law exists for humans. Heaven has its own laws, and I have mine. I punished men because they deserved it. The Archangel saved you, and I acted as a judge. Please, take a seat Miriam,’ he said, pointing at the chair in the corner. ‘And keep in mind that you can neither ask anyone questions nor give answers to questions anyone may ask. Just sit and watch.’
Satanail approached the bigger of the fires – its black tongues started to twist ominously, looking spooky in the dark space. Suddenly I heard ill-boding sounds. Those present bowed low in front of the King of Darkness.
‘How do you do, Master,’ they greeted him humbly.
Satanail addressed every one of them, speaking in a firm and powerful voice. ‘Asmidil, the demon of corruption – show me what you’ve brought in to cheer me up.’
‘The King of Darkness! Take a look at what I’ve brought here and what I hope to gladden you with,’ said the demon subserviently, and began unrolling a big scroll.
Asmidil had an unpleasant appearance: his torso was similar to that of a man; he walked on two hoofed legs; his sparse teeth, big and uneven, and his bulging eyes and pinky snout gave his revolting mug a subservient expression. His sausage-like fingers were studded with rings, while his neck and chest were dripping with jewels…
‘My Master, insatiable lust for money and power, corruption and lechery engulf the ever increasing number of humans, making them face a lot of different problems and generating all sorts of diseases. My record already contains several hundreds of millions of human souls, and their number gets bigger with every passing day,’ he bragged contentedly. ‘The deeper humans are immersed in corruption, the better it is for us, isn’t it, my Master? Gradually they become our servants and join our ranks after leaving this world… It is with my “help” that more and more families break apart. It has become easy nowadays to nudge anyone to adultery without any apparent effort because people themselves create the situations that facilitate adultery. Mankind has become more vulnerable lately; hence it has become more prone to come under our influence.’
Asmidil threw the scroll into the fire – and new living proof rose from the flames in a billowing smoke: a sort of video footage everyone started to watch. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see anything from the place I was sitting in, but I was able to make out what it was all about.
‘You must go on hunting for strong personalities, for it is only strong personalities who are capable of herding up the maximum number of humans and bringing them to us,’ said Satanail.
‘My Master, we’ve got a lot of strong people, and their ranks grow with each passing day. Man does his best in doing harm to his neighbor,’ responded Asmidil. ‘Only those under the Archangel’s protection are out of my reach. These people are very hard to come by,’ he said with a sudden shudder.
‘The Archangel and I had had equal power while we were in Heaven; we were regarded as brothers until my expulsion. Our powers are equal. The attempts at seducing people who are Heaven’s chosen ones give these people an even greater might – the might they need to conquer their own demons! These people can become geniuses provided we give them some help! If they manage to overcome our influence inside them they’ll be able to become all-powerful! We need such people, too!’ Satanail exclaimed. ‘Go on as before, but this time you have to increase the recruitment rate! And don’t dare to divert from your mission!’ he shouted, and everything around us shook.
‘I understand, my Master,’ Asmidil backed away, raised his hands to the level of his head and, covering himself with his cloak, disappeared in the darkness.
‘And what have you brought me, Abidil?’ asked Satanail, turning to another demon, the demon of destruction.
‘O King of Darkness, Man himself triggers disasters by disrupting the Earth’s balance… A lot of souls have left this world recently – and many more are still to come,’ said the demon with a note of servility in his voice, clearly afraid to inflict upon himself the anger of his master.
‘Does this mean you apply no efforts at all?’ inquired Satanail, cocking his head. ‘Do you mean to tell me Earth will continue to be ruined by humans?’
Abidil was tall and slender, much taller than the others; he had a big elliptic head with humanlike eyes and mout
h.
‘Just have a look, my Master…’
Fire came gushing out of his mouth and merged with the bonfire, projecting an image onto the air.
‘I want you to destroy everything created with human hands! Shake the globe; let the fire out of its depths to engulf everything coming in its way. But be mindful of one thing: take care of the planet itself!’
‘Humans themselves are going to destroy everything they’ve created with their own hands, my Master!’ said Abidil and, covering himself with a cloak, merged into the darkness.
Satanail lingered for a while before approaching the third and final demon. He looked at the demon, paused for a while and then, without naming the creature in front of him, asked quietly ‘Good news?’
The third demon turned out to be a woman. She took off her hood, revealing her long and thick black hair, and handed him a golden case containing a papyrus scroll. Satanail thoroughly examined its contents, and a contented smile lit up his face. ‘I’m very happy. That’s just what I wanted. You’ve done a great job, Tilda.’
Satanail put the ring with a big ruby in it on the woman’s finger and whispered something in her ear. A blissful smile bloomed on her face; it was clear that she got what she’d been craving for. The woman stared at the scarlet ruby without taking her eyes off it and whispered, ‘You’ve come back to me at last, my precious one!’
‘I’m always true to my word. You’ve seen this for yourself on more than one occasion,’ Satanail said looking at the woman with tenderness. It was clear that they were intimate friends.
Who was she? How was she related to him? Was she a demon in human disguise? That I didn’t know.