The Forbidden Fruit

by S. K Munt

  ‘You can’t do this!’ Satan cried. ‘You can’t hurt him! It is me you really want to punish, so I’ll leave! Let him stay, and I will leave!’

  God’s hand dropped limply and suddenly, he heard soft flutters in the wind behind him over the crackle and pop of the burning branch. He turned and saw that three of his Soul Mates had arrived- the last three unaccounted for, and they looked as weary and heartsick as he felt.

  ‘We heard your threat father,’ Rabia said sadly, closing her stained and ragged wings. ‘And it is with heavy hearts that we come to plead with you to retract it.’

  ‘We understand your anguish,’ Tariel said, and he had only the cartilage of his feathers left. ‘But we’ve come to make ours plain, and appeal on behalf of the surviving humans as well father! Let us stay, please? Let us love them, and heal this earth as best we can and in your name!’

  ‘We have bested her most devoted followers!’ Selafiel informed him, his eyes bright lavender with excitement. ‘So if you best Satan, now, there is no need for you to finish off the earth! The world could go on under only the influence of the divine!’

  But God’s heart sank- he could not fight or defeat Satan- she’d already proved that by intercepting his thunderbolt. He was running out of time, and energy! If he didn’t leave soon, heaven would suffer his loss and the entire universe would be hers!

  ‘You have people too?’ Miguel asked his counterparts, bringing his family around the branch.

  ‘Dozens,’ Tariel said. ‘On the other side of this continent.’

  ‘Hundreds in the southern hemisphere,’ Rabia said, with a proud smile. ‘And they are worth saving- as is the earth that they cling to!’

  ‘See!?’ Satan cried, her wings flapping hard enough to blow the smoke from the burning branch toward the cliff face behind her. ‘Maybe you can ignore Miguel’s pleas and mine- but all of your most righteous Soul Mates too?’

  ‘They do not know what they are asking for!’ God turned back to Satan and spread his wings between himself and his Soul Mates, afraid that she would try and corrupt them too. ‘But I know what you want, and you will not have it! I cannot leave this earth turning as a toy for you to play with, and I will not leave Miguel unattended so that you may exact vengeance upon him! Do you think I’ve forgotten that you once hated him enough to poison his child?’

  ‘I do not hate him more for forgetting me, than I hate myself for killing Heaven!’ Satan exclaimed. ‘And I will hate myself more if he loses everything for me again! You have no reason to trust me, I know, and I admit that only minutes ago, I wanted nothing more than to hurt him. But… the feathers… the feathers around his neck…’ she slumped to her knees and wept. ‘They are mine, aren’t they Miguel?’

  Miguel looked down at his feathered necklace, and then nodded sombrely. ‘Yes,’ he whispered. ‘I have not taken them off in over a millennia.’

  ‘It is you then,’ she pressed her forehead to her hands on the grass, her tiny, perfect figure shaking. ‘You are the reason why I never faded away. You kept me close to your perfect heart and…’

  Every one turned to look at Miguel, and saw that his eyes were wet and his expression forlorn. ‘I’ve been waiting…’ he said, in a choked voice. ‘I’ve been waiting for the chance to make it right. To tell you that I loved you, but you never came, or called to me. You were too busy destroying to…’ he looked back at Gabriella and smiled sadly, pulling her under his arm. ‘But someone needed me the way you once did, so I have been trying to win her heart for God’s instead, and she has stolen mine.’

  ‘And now it’s too late,’ Satan agreed, her voice sounding strangled as she nodded slowly. To the ground she whispered: ‘It’s too late for me to ever know love again.’

  God looked from his brightest angel to his most fallen, and understood; Miguel had loved Satan more than him and Heaven all of this time. God wanted to feel broken by this and yet… he felt only moved. In fact, he felt empowered by it.

  Then Satan sniffled and raised one bloody-smeared hand to God’s gaze without looking up. ‘I will leave, God. I will leave him here to find happiness with his new love. At least one of us should know how it feels... even if we’ll never know it together.’

  God was confused by the sight of her bloody palm, and very confused by her spontaneous surrender. Needing to look into her face before he believed that she was even speaking such things aloud, he stepped forward and knelt before Satan, then lifted her face to his- and gasped, for scarlet rivulets were streaming down her ivory cheeks. ‘You weep blood,’ he whispered, entranced, but when he extended his fingers to touch one of her tears and see if he could heal it, she turned away and sobbed.

  ‘Humans speak of broken hearts,’ she croaked, ‘but only angels can know the true meaning of the term, for only angels hearts are without flaw to begin with, like yours was and still is.’ She touched one of her own tears and grimaced, then flicked it away. ‘I’ll leave,’ she repeated. ‘Clearly, I have no reason to stay, and nothing to hope for on earth now anyway- not even vengeance.’

  God stepped back. ‘Are you saying that you will surrender your love to me, to save him and this earth?’

  ‘No,’ Satan sniffled, pulling a brilliant solitaire off her ring finger. ‘I can’t pledge love that I do not have.’ She got to her feet. ‘But I can see him clearly all the same Lord and one thing is certain- not only has he strived to live up to your piousness, but he has surpassed you, because he will not abandon something or someone because they are flawed.’ She turned to Gabriella, and pressed the solitaire into the limp palm of her hand and closed her fingers around it. Gabriella stiffened, clearly frightened to encounter Satan for a second time and to now be touched by her, but she stared back at her lover’s former flame steadily, trying not to let her fear or envy toward the dark goddess show. ‘In this world, as it stands, a whore like yourself would never be given something so precious in the name of love, and is considered worthless when compared to a virgin or a martyr in the eyes of God, isn’t that right?’

  ‘Si,’ Gabriella said coldly.

  ‘That is due to religion, not my saying so!’ God proclaimed.

  ‘I know,’ Satan said, not looking away from Gabriella. ‘But although she has lived a tortured existence due to her status and years of abuse, I approached her many years ago and offered her everything she could want, and she turned me down, and found her own way into the light with a heart heavy with hate.’ She smiled tightly at the young mother. ‘For that, I respect you and give this, if you promise to hold your head high and his hand tightly in my wake- to be joined with him forever more, and to protect his son the way Heaven’s mother did not protect her.’

  ‘In your wake?’ God asked, hopeful, as Gabriella nodded stiffly.

  ‘I have already made that vow, dark angel,’ Gabriella said icily. ‘Without trinkets from you to motivate me to do so. But I will accept this for I’ve seen that your dark underlings have raped the earth of almost all the others, and something made of light belongs in the light.’ She smiled down at her son. ‘With him. Perhaps one day he can give it to his love.’

  ‘See?’ Satan turned back to God. ‘Even in this chaos, mortals can find something worth living for. Gabriella and Miguel should be the influence on others like them- not us, for they are unified in both sides of the human condition in a way that you and I can never be.’ She stepped closer to God. ‘And if you allow that, I will give up my life for the chance to see it play out.’ Her eyes shifted to the peaceful, glorious infant. ‘That, and for this child’s chance to grow old with a family who loves him- the chance that Heaven and Hell never had.’

  Behind him, Gabriel and Rabia gasped, but God was too paranoid to be shocked by such a selfless exclamation from an entity that had already admitted to being devoid of anything good on the inside. It had to be fraudulent, so he eyed her warily, wondering what true angle she was coming from. ‘When you say that you will give up your life…?’

  ‘I will use what energy I ha
ve to reverse what you have destroyed before your eyes. I cannot create an earth from scratch like this one, but I can heal much of it- and I know you cannot, not now.’ She gestured to the blackened and gnarled forest behind them, which was covered with sludgy snow, to the barren valley slowing down from beneath their feet. ‘I will fix what you have done, and it will exhaust me. And when I am almost completely drained, I will have no choice but to return to energy, and then I will have no choice but to wait in hell to be summoned back. And because this time, I will not be here to influence it directly, I will be as incapable of influencing the mortals after, as you have always been.’ She wiped the heels of her hands under her eyes. ‘It will be a clean slate for the humans, and an untouchable one for us. And if you would destroy the world before you let him be corrupted by me, then you would save the world for him to win back his love, wouldn’t you?’

  ‘I would,’ God said, surprising himself by actually agreeing.

  ‘Then don’t destroy it! Let him have it, and then let us both retire to rest. If he is as good and pious as you believe he is, and as in control of his selfish traits as I believe- then love will come to you and I will fade. But if he is corrupt and selfish and loses sight of the meaning of life despite being so like your image- I will be revived enough to take Corporeal form again, and the earth will be mine for the taking first. If it comes to that, I imagine we will fight again- if you have not lost interest in it- but that should not happen this day,’ she motioned back to the people. ‘Not when you still have something left fighting for.’

  God thought this over. He would still sooner end earth then see it in Satan’s hands, but then again, she had made a fair point. Miguel was good and had already learned from the worst mistakes a man could make- he was like God in every way. And if God rested enough, he wouldn’t have to worry about surrendering the earth to Satan, because he could just return eventually to destroy it and rip it from her clutches anyway. So what did he have to lose, but time, which he had in spades?

  Actually you have one thing to lose, and you cannot leave this world until you have secured that!

  God turned to Miguel. ‘Would you take responsibility for the new world, for the love of your family, Miguel?’

  Miguel looked a little dazed, but he nodded. ‘I would.’

  ‘Would you be a fair leader who served your people before yourself?’ he went on. ‘Would you live as I did, and love and go out of your way to prevent the same disastrous histories from repeating?’

  Miguel’s eyes flashed with concern. ‘I... I would try.’

  ‘Would you stop people taking vows in my name, only to break hearts and inspire hate from such holy matrimony after? Would you protect the weak, and corral the strong so that they do not overwhelm the others? Would you see that children are raised in complete families, and that everyone is accepted for their skin colour? That hard work is equal to value to scheming? That murder is not punished with murder? That varying tales of my life and my love are not twisted against me?’ God stepped closer to him. ‘Will you strive to win every heart in the world for me with your actions, my son, and cast out only those who serve her purpose intentionally?’

  ‘I…’ Miguel was pale when glanced back at his followers, and his indecision was clear.

  ‘Would you wear the earth’s crown?’ God asked. ‘Instead of Heaven’s halo?’

  Silence fell, and Miguel looked at him, confused. ‘What?’

  ‘If I leave you four here, then I will not send any more angels down as I did before to watch over the earth.’ God said. ‘I will lose my eyes and ears and that perplexes me, but if I lose any of your hearts to her, I will surrender your divine power to her and that I cannot abide.’ God cupped his hands and a brilliant, warm light shone from within them. When the light faded, in its place was a golden crown. He held it out to Miguel. ‘If you take this to wear on Earth as their King and leader, you agree to surrender your wings to me in death from the moment you put it on, as an unbreakable promise to me,’ God said, and he saw Satan inhale sharply. He wanted to smile to know that he had blocked one of her schemes, but his depression over never seeing Miguel’s brilliant wings in Heaven again was too thick for a smile to penetrate through. Even as he held the crown out, he silently begged Miguel to refuse it.

  ‘But without my feathers… I won’t be able to return after, will I?’ Miguel asked, looked vexed. ‘Not alive?’

  ‘No,’ God said sadly. ‘You say you are willing to refuse Heaven for this life, and so I will hold you to that forever. I cannot risk your strength ending up in Satan’s clutches, so if you stay, you will serve your people until every last feather falls out. And when they are gone, you will be mortal, and die as one. Your soul will return to me if you love me still, but your power will return to me as it fades from you to keep it safe with your daughter’s spirit.’ He sighed. ‘You will be Soul Mate no more.’

  Miguel stared at the crown, and the other angels moved closer.

  ‘Does this apply to all of us, lord?’ Tariel asked.

  ‘No,’ God said, staring hard at Miguel. ‘Only him. The rest of you may return as you see fit if your feathers heal adequately to do so, or you can choose to stay and use the reserves of your strength to help him in his image.’ He stepped closer to Miguel. ‘But there will be no divine intervention this time- only free will. When your last feather has fallen out, your mortal life begins to end, and your spirit will go where your love resides.’

  ‘This is too much of a sacrifice to ask him to make,’ Satan said, her voice shaky. ‘Can’t I just promise not to covet his wings? I have made this offer to benefit him, not to attempt to overpower you, and I will not even be here to try!’

  ‘You may vanish from sight, but I don’t know where your minions are, or how many of them have lingered to corrupt in your absence so no, I will not gamble his soul on your word.’

  ‘You can see how many of my Soul Mates are left,’ Satan said sourly, ‘by counting the twelve new angels that you now have in Heaven, for they are certainly not here or in Hell!’

  ‘There was evil before there was hell,’ God said, still staring hard at Miguel and willing him to turn away from the crown. ‘And there will be dark Nephilim lingering in the wake of your fallen soldiers. Besides, your word is worth nothing to me Satan, so if you want his wish granted, keep your wicked opinions away from the terms, or I will rescind my offer completely!’

  ‘You can do it, Miguel,’ Amalie whispered, creeping close to gawk at the crown. ‘I have faith in you.’

  ‘You know where we went wrong,’ Rabia encouraged him. ‘We all do! You may wear the crown alone but we will help carry the load of responsibility and make sure that things are different this time.’

  ‘I think we should just leave,’ Tariel said sadly, though he couldn’t take his eyes off the golden, thorny crown either. ‘Heaven is lovely, and we could be happy there if we can let go of our earthly desires.’

  ‘How do we even know that she means what she says? We know that there are some dark Nephilim lingering- we feel their shadows, even in the night!’ Selafiel cried. ‘And what if she is tricking us? Perhaps she will only appear to vanish- but will linger as a ghost to torment us every way she can!’

  God had already anticipated such treachery, and the quick flash in Satan’s eye confirmed that that was exactly what she intended to do. She’d been regretful a few minutes ago, but she hadn’t given up on her love- she’d still had hopes of capturing Miguel’s soul and his wings and dragging him to hell with her. Well, maybe she’d get his spirit- the fact that he still wore her feathers proved that she had not lost her grip on him- but never his feathers! Never his power!

  ‘I don’t know…’ Miguel croaked, looking close to tears. ‘This will be so hard. I do not know if I am up it. I…’

  ‘I believe that you can do it,’ Gabriella whispered, putting her hand on Miguel’s back and smiling at him, and the light shone off her solitaire in a dazzling prism. ‘I believe that you could do any
thing, for love. And maybe you will not be their Soul Mate anymore, but you will always be mine, Miguel.’ She looked at him with desperate eyes. ‘That’s enough for you, isn’t it?’

  Miguel bit his lip and stared at the crown, but he still did not reach for it and God knew that he was remembering how easily he’d been overwhelmed by temptation in the past. Could the lacklustre and sharp-eyed young whore be enough for him? God doubted that, even though he wished it could be so.

  Say no, Miguel. Choose Heaven! Mortal desires will never eclipse heavenly ones!

  Satan sighed and shook her head, turning away from them. ‘If he is too scared to accept the responsibility, then perhaps Rabia will.’ She indicated to the healthiest of all of the lingering Soul Mates, whose eyes flashed with the thrill of the offered promise. ‘Perhaps with a female spirit guiding things, everything will flow more smoothly anyway-’

  ‘I am not scared! And Rabia is not up for this challenge the way I am!’ Miguel snapped, snatching the crown from God’s hands and putting it on his head. God went to cry out a warning that Miguel was being baited into making a rash decision with his pride, but it was too late. He watched in shock and horror as the first of Miguel’s remaining feathers fell from his wings. It was tiny and went unnoticed by everyone as they stepped forward to admire the crown on Miguel’s head- all but the little girl at her mother’s side. She bent and picked the feather up, studying it curiously, and God’s heart broke, for it had turned black as it fell.

  ‘That was a brave decision to make,’ Satan said, her voice oozing smugness. ‘Already, you are setting a wonderful example.’

  ‘You have your wish granted, Miguel and have saved the earth.’ God said gravely. ‘But keep in mind that you have been manipulated this day by your vanity, and if you continue to succumb to such things, not only will you strengthen her demonic heart, but you will fail all of the human race in a way that I never would have!’ God turned to Satan. ‘And you- don’t think that I haven’t seen how you’ve manipulated him with temptation, or deceive yourself into believing that I think you have done any of this for anyone but yourself!’