He Who Is Like God

This story might seem a little off the wall. I usually don’t share my writings with others, at least not with the wider public. My line of work usually demands some secrecy, well a lot of secrecy to be honest. Sometimes it’s better when the truth is hidden away from the masses. Nobody wants mass hysteria. The corona virus is already driving people nuts, so please, take what I say here as you will but do not start thinking it’s the end of the world.

No matter what you read here, know that as far as I know, and I’ve got a reliable source, the Apocalypse isn’t coming or will ever come.

So here goes nothing, I am a demon hunter.

Yeah, an actual demon hunter. Yes, demons exist. Not in the sense that they are evil spirits or fallen angels. No, but these too exist, apparently. Demons are something else, something older, I’ll be frank here; I don’t know how to describe them best. I guess you can look up the definition of a Djinn in Islamic lore and switch creatures of fire and smoke with parasitic worm-like things that love infesting human flesh and making into murderous and sexually violent time bombs.

They came before us, long before us. They have their own world, or rather a plane of existence.

Hunting them is quite easy if you know what to look for, and trust me they stick out like sore thumbs. Something between a human and a squid shaped abomination. I’m sure a few of you are familiar with the sight, and not because you’ve seen demons.

I wouldn’t call these fuckers specifically supernatural, just extra-dimensional, or maybe supernatural but purely physical. They can’t do anything you could call "magic" in the fantastical sense. They just infest a host and enhance their natural abilities and attributes. Oh, and create nonmalignant tumors that look like appendages, tentacles, weapons and phallic objects for obvious reasons.

I’d probably avoid sharing too many details, but I’ve seen buildings filled with demon-infested orgies. It’s not as pleasant as it sounds. Especially the smell, it smells a lot like sulfur. Ironic, given the fact that these things are lethally allergic to it or something. The point being they will melt and disintegrate if you inject them with sulfur. Simple as that. Nothing else, by the way, bothers them. Well, nothing available to individuals. I haven’t tried nukes yet, so I don’t know about that. Any injury that does not involve sulfuric ingestion is usually healed in moments. Fuckers are hard to kill; good thing my family’s been in this business for generations. I’ve been doing this thing for the better part of two decades. It pays off rather well, especially since usually the church employs my kind of people. They pay good money to get rid of the “servants of the devil.” The saddest part is that victims never get saved. Once you’re infested, you either live with it until the pest decides you’re useless and crawls away and you die or the host gets killed by someone like me. Pulling out the creature won’t help you; they usually entangle themselves around vital organs to avoid extraction.

I’ve tried; ended up removing a poor guy’s whole digestive tract out along with the worm early in my career. I couldn’t sleep for days after that, the image of the kid screaming and his limbs flailing about as I yanked more and more of his guts along with the demon wouldn’t leave my head. I’ve never seen this much blood before. Hell, I remember I kept washing my hands over and over as if the bile from this kid’s stomach was still smeared all over me. This isn’t an easy job. As much as I like it; yeah, I save humanity, so to speak, but I do not save individuals. By the time I get the job, everyone in sight is already infected.

That sort of work comes with a lot of mental baggage.

I digress, I came here to discuss a specific incident, one that didn’t have much to do with demons. It started off as a usual case; I was given a location to reach and promised a sum of money if I had returned successfully from my hunt. That’s how I work. What am I going to do with the money if I’m dead? Better have it when I’m back from a successful hunt and in need of some cold booze.

So, I was given the coordinates of a remote farm in the middle of the big mid-western wilderness and headed out straight. I work alone, it’s best that way, nobody to blame but myself in the case of somebody dying. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve enough guilt on my hands already.

Five hours later I was at my destination. I had parked the car mere yards away from the barn, then I grabbed my rifle along with a few knives and headed out on foot. As I walked along the path leading towards the barn, I noticed something peculiar; there’s a smoking hole in the middle of the roof. It’s not something a demon would do. They don’t fly mind you, so it’s really pointless to have holes in the ceiling for them. As I am caught up in thoughts staring at this abnormal phenomenon, a bright explosion of light emanates from inside the barn. So bright in fact that it hurt my eyes, and I was a noticeable distance away.

My instincts kicked in as the light started dying out; going from pure white to a dull gray, I ran into the barn. Kicked the off open and froze. Not because I wanted to but because the smell of burning meat was far too strong to handle along with a thin layer of smoke which was covering everything in the barn clouding my vision.

In the barn stood two figures, a man and a woman. She was clearly infested judging by the worm twitching and hissing from between her legs. The man just stood there. I wanted to call out to him but stopped myself when I noticed the source of the foul burnt smell; a charred corpse laid before me. It looked like a coal caricature of a human.

The smoke dissipated completely, and that’s when I noticed them all.

About a dozen or so of charred corpses thrown around the barn in various awkward angles.

I cocked my gun and aimed it at the infected woman before screaming at the man to get the fuck out. My voice cracked, and I sounded like an ailing horse. My heart was beating like crazy. Something was wrong in that barn; something was worse than it should have been.

The man in turn just smiled at me, before saying, “It’s been a while since I’ve met one of you.”

I was going to scream at him to scramble again, but what he did next perplexed me, no it scared the living hell out of me; you see the man made a finger gun with his hand, pointed it at the infested woman. A bright spark appeared in his eyes for a millisecond and he made a mock shooting movement with his finger gun.

Brains flew out the back of the woman’s head.

Her body crumpled down to the ground, and her insides caught fire… I think. The worm between her legs caught fire for sure, and it let out the most ungodly sounds imaginable, reminiscent of screeching in the form of nails being dragged across a metal board turned up to a hundred.

I just stood there, growing increasingly more confused and afraid by the moment.

“Ahhh… it’s been a while!” the man let out as he lowered his hand.

As the images of what just transpired kept repeating over and over on high speed in my head, I could only bring myself to do one thing. I looked at the man, swallowed my saliva and asked, “Wha-what the fuck are you?”

I didn’t see the answer coming.

“In your world, I’m the devil!” the man responded, sporting a massive gleeful grin on his face.

I shot him without thinking. As he said that, my first reaction was “fuck this” and I pulled the trigger. Barely even aiming at him. The bullet hit its mark, but nothing came of it. He looked down while his grin remained.

“I’m not a…”

I cut him off with another shot, this one to his head.

Blood filled the air around his head.

He groaned.

The hole in his head began to close itself up.

“I’m not a worm…” the man remarked, I wasn’t listening; I was ready to shoot another bullet into his face. “It won’t work on me. Stop wasting your precious little lead marbles,” he continued, mocking me.

I shot him again.

This time, his eyes shone with that bright spark again. I felt the heat built up in my hands, in a moment’s notice the rifle was turning red with heat, forcing me to drop it on the ground.

“I told you, it won’t work. Why don’t you apes ever listen?” the man questioned.

My hands were burning with pain, and my head was racing. This guy, this thing, it made no sense. I know it sounds ironic now that I’m surprised by something being able to shrug off bullets like nothing, but back then it didn’t. I didn’t know what to do, I was beginning to plan my escape from the barn but the man just stood there. Staring at me with that grin all over his face.

“What are you?” I dared ask.

“You call us angels. I won’t bother with the actual name since that might turn you deaf and probably paralyzed, but I guess I can count among my younger siblings even though…” he remarked, seemingly getting lost in thoughts.

I bolted. I didn’t care what that thing was. It was certainly way too powerful for me to deal with as I was. I had no chance of surviving against this thing. I had to get out of there and alert other demon hunters about this being. As I was mere inches from the door, I felt myself petrify. I couldn’t move at all.

Fear, no, adrenaline is a scary thing. I felt everything grow sharper at that moment. Every sight, sound, and smell became more accurate, along with an ever-growing feeling of hopelessness. I tried screaming, but no sound came. Every muscle in my body was stone. My eyes were focused on the wooden frame of the door in front of me. So close and yet so far away from my freedom.

“Consider this a penance for shooting me, monkey!” I heard the man call out from behind me as a bright light emanated from behind the door, penetrating my vision through the edges.

I felt my body leave the ground; I didn’t even have time to think before I found myself being pressed headfirst into the door and beyond it.

A bright white light devoured my whole body.

It felt remarkably pleasant.

I almost let my guard and allowed myself to relax in the confides of this warm light.

Almost.

Before I could actually ease up, I felt myself crash into some dirt. My whole body hurt, nothing too bad, but it was a noticeable fall. I grasped some dirt within my hand and tried to get back up to my feet.

The first thing I noticed was the awful smell of chlorine. It was like sniffing acid on purpose. My nostrils felt like they were being shoved into Satan’s armpit. I rolled to my back and then again onto my stomach, writhing in discomfort from the ungodly smell.

The hellish smell accompanied an equally disturbing view.

Once I opened my eyes; my eyes sank. I could feel my blood pressure rising.

I was sure I was in hell.

A scenery straight out of the ninth circle permeated my eyes; clouds of green smog hovered above me and as I looked around, I noticed that the grass had turned black and the leaves on trees became yellow.

A bird came down, crushing right beside me.

It was dead.

Blood spilling out of its beak, its feathers covered in patches of the crimson liquid.

My heartbeat was reaching a catastrophic speed, and my breathing became shallow.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from that bird.

I was frozen; mesmerized.

“Welcome to the Great Meat Grinder!” a booming voice barked behind me, startling me out of my wits.

I turned to my back and saw him; the man from before.

What a sight it was; he was soaring on burning eagle wings in the cloud of deadly gas.

I felt my eyes well up, "Please, I’m sorry… p… p…lease… let me out of here… I… I… didn’t…" I begged him.

“Stand up, man! And watch the glorious spirit of your kind as they throw themselves into the jaws of death over their hollow convictions of an upcoming peace! Look and see exactly what I like about you humans! Look at those heroes march onto their second death, on sheer willpower alone!” The man ordered me to look ahead of us in a boisterous tone.

I had no choice; I had no say in the matter, my body much to my terror rose up on its own and faced the direction of the oncoming battle. A sea of troops marched through the deadly clouds of smog that covered the field.

The man slowly descended to the ground and stood next to me, “This is the closest you’ve gotten to us, ape. You should feel proud!” he said. My eyes were glued to the marching soldiers ahead of us. They were well protected from the gas.

For a few long moments, everything was quiet. I couldn’t even hear the marching of troops. It’s like the world stood still. Then, a gunshot cracked through the air; thundering as the bullet exploded out of the gun barrel that propelled it.

One of the advancing soldiers fell down.

Dead.

The advancing soldiers were stunned. Their front line stopped for a moment.

Confused.

They weren’t expecting this.

Another gunshot, and another one, and a third one.

A volley of fire soon came.

Artillery fire followed suit.

The advancing soldiers began to lose their nerve.

Their lines broke.

Panic set it.

The smog began dissipating, and that’s when I noticed it; the assailants weren’t normal soldiers. No, they were a band of blood-soaked beasts. Some of them limping, others awkwardly walking. Some even only crawling on the ground. Their faces melted off, and they were all spitting bloody chunks and coughing violently. And yet, they were roaring and charging onward, blasting their enemy with all of their remaining strength and firepower.

The advancing forces were thrown into a fit of hysteria.

“They’re all dead,” the man remarked nonchalantly, “they’re all dead and they know it. They’re fighting for their sovereign; these humans won’t die peacefully. They’ve returned from their graves to pull their enemies down with them.” He continued.

“Oh my God…” was all I could muster.

The sight, the realization; the attack of the dead men shook me to my core, up until then I didn’t even know this was a thing but apparently, The Great War has had its fair share of mind-blowing events.

The man snapped his fingers and in the blink of an eye, we were back at the farm, facing each other. I didn’t have the time to react to the fact that we’re back where we were in the barn before the man threw another bomb at me.

“The God doesn’t even know this had happened,” he said.

“What?!” I yelled, surprised even more.

“He doesn’t know anything about anything in this universe.” The man answered with an eerily calm tone.

“What the f…” I stopped myself, rubbing the bridge of my nose to calm the throbbing in my head.

“How would he know? He’s trapped in a little box for a lack of a better term,” the man boasted. My heart skipped a bit hearing that, I guess my expression gave that out to the man’s face contorted into that wide smile once again.

“Would you like an explanation, human?” he asked.

“I… I… I don’t know if I should…” I mumbled for an answer.

“Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you… Can’t guarantee your sanity will remain intact, but I won’t intentionally try to damage you,” he remarked, not making the situation any easier on me.

“Uhh… I guess…” I mumbled again. I don’t even know why; I’m not sure it was curiosity or fear, I was caught up in a storm of emotions and my mind was all over the place.

“You’re a smart ape”, the man mocked me before drawing his finger in the air in a sort of crude square large enough to fit my body in. The space that his finger traveled over began cracking and a myriad of impossible colors broke through the fabric of my reality. I can’t put those colors to words. I’ve never seen such colors before or since; they were just iridescent. An alien rainbow of sorts blasting its way through space.

“Follow me,” The man said before stepping inside the alien rainbow and disappearing in a quick flash of light. I’m not sure I wanted to follow if I’m being honest. This was my chance to get the hell out of there and forget everything.

I just stood there for a few long moments, pondering what I should do. I know this was probably my only chance to walk away and forget all of this. I know it was my only choice to return back to normalcy, my kind of normalcy anyway. The alien rainbow kept shining at me in various shades of impossible colors. The radiation was almost beckoning me. It was beautiful, truly.

Perhaps that’s why I made the choice to walk straight into the fire, so to speak.

The thing; I guess passageway; it felt warm and pleasant when I passed through it. Sort of like being showered with the warmth of a heater after being soaked in cold water. That was the last pleasant experience I’ve had once I passed through the alien rainbow.

Once I was over to that other side, I found myself covered in pitch darkness. It was the darkest shade of black I’ve ever experienced.

In fact, it wasn’t just dark. It was as if I was cast into a black hole, were these not infinite forces of gravitational pull. I couldn’t see, I couldn’t hear, I couldn’t smell anything. I couldn’t feel anything besides my own body.

I immediately started feeling my skin crawl with fear.

My instinctive reaction was to try to probe my way around in the space. After about a moment of probing nothing by empty space, I felt my hands touch something solid. I traced my hands along its perimeter and the solid thing just kept ongoing; I assumed those were walls.

So, I started going forward; cautiously, carefully. I had no idea what was beneath my feet. I could feel a solid surface, but I had no way of telling whether there were any cavities or holes on that surface. I kept on walking like this until I felt something warm fall on my head.

I looked up and couldn’t see anything.

Then the same substance fell on me again; this time on my face.

I wiped it off my face, and the thing began to smell foul, like a terrible breath of a dog, the smell disgusted me, and I did my best to wipe the substance from myself. With little thought, I started picking up my pace.

I thought the thing was just some leakage or something. Boy, how wrong I was.

After a few moments of walking in the dark; still trying to find my way around this maze of Egyptian darkness, I heard something that threatened to burst my eardrums.

An inhuman shrill that sounded like a hundred people shrieking all at once from the distance. Not only it startled the living hell out of me and sent me into a panic mode, the sheer force of the cry felt as if I was being stabbed in the ears. The sound was so terrible I clutched at the sides of my head and dropped to my knees.

While I was on my knees, begging for the pain to end; something flew right at me. I felt a massive shift of weight on my back. Something heavy landed on top of me and was pressing me against the floor. I could feel claws pressing into my shoulders. I heard that god damned shrill once again, albeit weaker, right in my ears.

Something wet hit the top of my head. I could already imagine some kind of vile creature sitting on top of me, dying to sink its extra-dimensional fangs into my body. That didn’t happen, though; just as I registered a humid breath across the back of my head, something clasped itself around my ankle and I felt myself being violently dragged across the floor of this dark space.

It wasn’t pleasant, but it was better than being eaten by whatever tried to eat me. Friction burns are obviously better than being dead. Though, I guess being dead now would be better than suffering the intense pain I suffer on an almost daily basis. I’ve brought it upon myself, but I’m getting ahead of myself here.

Anyway, I was dragged along the floor for a few moments before I heard the man’s voice again.

“Good thing I noticed you weren’t following in time. This thing would’ve made you into meshed meat in no time! And by me, they love terrestrial food.”

I rolled onto my back and groaned at him, “What on earth was that?”

“Some things just escape the light, you know? That’s one of those things, and they prefer to remain hidden in the shadows. That’s best for everyone, if I had to describe it to you in terms you could comprehend, it’s like a monster lizard thing that lives on whatever pops into its otherwise devoid of life lair.” The man said, offering me his hand.

I took it, and he pulled me up to my feet, “Are you saying we’re traveling through this creature’s lair now? Why would we…” I asked being cut off by his amused chuckling.

“Oh no, no. These things outright live in the dark, they travel through various spaces that are specifically dark. They can be anywhere, from here to a human child’s closet, to some cave on some deserted planet.” He explained.

“Closet you say?” I questioned, intrigued by the similarities to bogeyman stories from back home.

“Mhm, monkeys don’t fear the dark because there are snakes or lions, you’re used to these. They could also appear inside the mind of a demented being, when the degeneration is bad enough that is.” He elaborated, almost getting lost in his ramblings once more.

I just stood there, staring at him in disbelief, which is why he snapped out of his cosmological explanation.

“Don’t be so surprised, child, there are many things you don’t know, nor will ever know.” He mocked.

“Well gee, thanks…” I retorted.

He chuckled and gestured me to follow him as he kept on marching through the dark and seemingly never-ending corridor. I followed quietly behind him until we reached another sort of portal made up of very impossibly diverse lights.

I felt something push me into the unbearably luminescent portal followed accompanied by the phrase, “Welcome to the garden, champ!”

Blinding light washed over me and deafening scraping sound flooded my ears. I could hear myself screaming as I felt my body make contact with some sort of soil. The light and noise slowly came to be replaced by calming and silence and a warm light washing me from above. I opened my eyes to the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing. I found myself at the edge of a massive pool of vegetation that looked like a grass field, mixed with a mega forest, mixed with a savanna coupled with some of the most beautiful hills I’ve ever seen. Everything was green and yet so not. It’s a concept I can’t really put to words.

Looking up, I saw a massive tree towering above all else in my field of vision. It was almost covering the whole skyline above me. Behind it stood the source of all light in the field and I stared right at it. That was my biggest mistake.

Before me stood a humanoid thing, taller than it had any right to be, entirely composed of light. A warm and welcoming sort of light, at first it was warm and welcoming, the longer I stared the less hospitable the light had become. Soon enough I felt my insides catching fire. My bones were beginning to burn, but I couldn’t look away; I couldn’t do anything for that matter, I was locked eyes first on that thing that stood before me. I could only attempt its ever-shifting number of wings and occasionally shift my gaze towards the massive sword-like thing that the giant had underneath its clasped palms.

I could feel my muscles and tendons literally falling off from my bones, but I couldn’t do anything about it.

The man who had led me into the garden decided to kick me straight in the ribs, jolting me out from my trance. I gasped for air; he must’ve not calculated the force behind his blow because he immediately proceeded to apologize.

“I’m sorry, but I had to do that. Otherwise, a pile of ashes it all that would’ve remained of you.” He said.

“Could’ve warned me, you know.” I scolded him under my labored huffs and puffs as I clutched at my ribs.

“Sometimes I forget just how vulnerable you apes are, avoid looking at my brother from now on.” He instructed me.

“Your brother?” I questioned as I got back up to my feet.

“Yeah; he watches over our father who resides in a so-called hell, exactly below our feet.” He said that so nonchalantly that I was caught off guard. It’s almost weird seeing how someone speaks so lightly of God. I have a clue now who the man, that being was, but still. It’s almost unreal, the ease at which he spoke.

I stood there in silence. The being must’ve noticed this and questioned me on the topic, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s just… All of this is, it’s a little too much. That’s hard to digest. God being locked up in a box, the devil being the good guy, standing next to one of the Archangels in the garden of Eden. This is all just…” I muttered.

“You’re doing fine, kid.” The being said. “It wasn’t easy for me either, at the start,” he continued.

“Doesn’t seem to be the case anymore,” I questioned uncomfortably, mostly because my bones were still somewhat on fire.

“It took me eons to get over what I had to do. I was his most loyal creation, I loved him more than I loved anything else in existence. I loved him more than I loved myself. I was his sword. I’ve committed what your kind would consider atrocities in his name. I had to, otherwise, he would do so much worse.” The being explained to me.

“Huh?” I questioned, confused more than before.

“Let me show you,” the being said before placing his hand on my head.

Everything went blurry for a second and then I saw in another place, another dimension, reality… I don’t know what it was exactly, I couldn’t see a world of sorts from above. I had no physical body or anything of that sort. I was merely a spectator in a foreign place. I guess it was a hologram or something of that sort, as I could hear the being’s voice in my head.

“You see, everybody has gotta eat and that includes God. My father, he was both a creator and a destroyer. His creations would deplete him energetically, because he is too subjected to the sadistic laws of physics, albeit different laws from the ones in your reality. On that note, condensed spheres centered around gravitational singularities are delicious, that’s in case you were wondering if I too, eat,” The voice echoed in my mind.

Before me I saw a bird-like thing made up of white blinding light flying all over the skies, followed closely behind by a massive black cloud. One that made me feel cold, insanely so.

“You see, creation is complicated, and while the creator God loved his creations, the destroyer God couldn’t contain his hunger. Most of his creations didn’t make it beyond a few billion years. The hunger would consume him, and in turn, Father would consume his beloved creations,” The voice continued.

I was completely enchanted by the flight of the little luminescent construct. It was flying so hectically I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it. More so, every time it connected with something, said thing would explode into an array of beautiful colors.

“They weren’t any more than culinary pieces of art for father, not that he’d ever call them so, but it was obvious he didn’t have too many qualms about consuming his precious little works. After all, being god entailed him being able to just recreate something new.”

I was utterly mesmerized by the display of endless miniature supernovae popping up all over my line of sight once something emerged from the pitch-black cloud. Something almost inconceivable in both its sheer magnitude and unapologetic ugliness. It was like a cosmic cancerous mass. Eyes, teeth, tendrils, twirling masses, scales, light, smoke. All of that moving in impossible ways and shapes that blinded my eyes and made me feel sick. I couldn’t take the sight for long. I had only seen the edge of that thing, but I couldn’t stand it at all. It was outright hurting my head to see the representation of this thing. I screamed out in pain, and everything faded to black.

“You see, I had used to soften up father’s creations before he devoured them. It was a father-son bonding thing, I guess. I didn’t see the problem with it because I wasn’t attached to the creations, but then this one came about, and I couldn’t stand to see it relegated to being just another meal,” the being continued speaking, this time, its voice was coming from beside me. I opened my eyes, and I was standing right in front of the massive tree in the center of the garden.

It turned out to be way bigger than I first thought. It had the widest trunk of any tree I’d ever seen before, and it was probably at least twice as tall as the coast redwood called Hyperion, which is supposed to be the tallest tree in the world. I just stood there for a couple of minutes, astonished by the natural marvel that this tree was. The being beside me didn’t seem to mind as he just stood there and watched the tree with me.

“Touch it,” he told me.

I reached out and pressed the palm of my hand onto the tree trunk; the bark shifted gently beneath my skin. I was completely blown away by this, and it felt quite pleasant. The bark kept on moving and reshaping itself until it formulated a picture on the surface of the tree.

“This is the final chapter of my story, child.” The being said.

I removed my hand and looked at the picturesque formation now present on the trunk. There were two winged spherical formations there, one big and one small. Each had many wings to them. They were watching over something in the distance, a third sphere.

“Is that?” I asked, as I ran my hand across the depiction.

“Yes, that’s my father and I. Observing your universe.”

“Oh…” I looked at the being next to me, he seemed like a normal man at this point, the most human he has seemed to me. There was something incredibly sincere in his eyes; pain. I guess even celestial beings can experience emotions.

“Keep watching, boy.” The being commanded me.

I turned back to the tree; the depiction had shifted into another picture. The bigger winged sphere had now grown multiple tentacles that stretched out towards the universe.

“Wow!” I let out.

The bark shifted again, turning into what appeared to be a confrontation of some sorts between the bigger winged sphere and the smaller one, as the latter stood between the former and the universe.

“You…” I said, the sound barely escaping my mouth.

“Yes, I told you, couldn’t pass on this little gem. It’s grown out to be far more endearing than I ever imagined it to be, even back then. I couldn’t let him take this one, I was going to offer myself as a substitute. I even pleaded with him to let me craft something he could chew on just so he could spare this one. He wouldn’t listen, though. I ended up being tossed out of home because of how irrational he had become due to his hunger,” the being explained, “look at the tree again, it’s showing my fall.”

The tree bark shifted and turned to display the downward spiral of the smaller winged sphere as the being collapsed into the physical realms of my reality.

“I ended up crashing into a little planet where life had only taken off. I found myself inside a little pond where small creatures did their best to survive. I watched them for a while, at first not because of how fascinating I was with them but because of how hopeless I had felt. I didn’t feel like I could ever stop the monstrosity my father had become once again. I was losing faith in myself. Ironically, the little creatures that largely ignored me, probably because my presence was frying them if they came too close, they kept on fighting for their own survival; regardless of how impossibly near their ultimate end seemed to be. Granted, they couldn’t grasp the concept of the end of times, but they didn’t seem too concerned with anything. All they wanted to do was to make it. That’s inspiring, isn’t it?” the being said as I was observing the shifts in the tree bark that matched his story.

“Hey, listen to me, ape!”, the being suddenly yelled at me.

“Oh yeah, yes, sorry, I’m just, uhh…” I rumbled semi-automatically, as if I had just woken up.

“It’s fine…” he laughed. “The little creatures, they’ve restored my faith in me. Thus, I took up my spear and flung myself back into the heavens to face my father, to fight for what had mattered to me,” he continued.

“Oh, I see that!” I said as I watched the bark slowly beginning to show the effigy of a more conventional angel taking up flight towards the heavens, spear, and shield in hands. Soon enough the image turned into a depiction of a confrontation between the angel and a multi-headed monstrosity that looked a lot like a hydra or a dragon.

A familiar imagery, to say the least. My heartbeat rose as the realization of whose company I’m in began to sink in.

The tree bark kept on twisting and shifting, revealing the full extent of the battle between being and God. There was the breathing of what appeared to be fiery beams, the removal of heads and tearing of wings. Not to mention a whole lot of other disgusting things, I’m glad I’ve got to see the crude representation of on a tree bark as opposed to in person. The presentation ended with the angelic figure pushing the serpentine deity into a box of sorts.

My breathing swallowed. At that moment, I was certain I knew who was standing next to me, scratch that, what was standing next to me. The spear-wielding angel calling himself the devil, the dragon-shaped monster of a god shoved into a cage-type of a dimension. The roles were reversed.

It all made sense now.

I turned to the being and fell to my knees, “Forgive my disrespect, my Lord.” I let out.

The being, in turn, burst into a maddened laughter.

“I thought you’re better than this. I don’t need this… worship… Not my thing. Maybe father would’ve liked this, but not me. Too sticky…”

“I’m so sorry…” was all I could push through my lips.

“Oh, get up, ape.” The being forced my body back up to my feet, “enough of this silliness. Let’s get you back home.” He snapped his fingers, and everything around us started shattering like glass, with pieces falling off one by one. As I stared in amazement, the various elements of the garden were being slowly replaced by bits and pieces of the destroyed barn where we had been before. My amazement was cut short by the smell of sulfur and burning corpses filling my nostrils, forcing me to cough up a little.

“Well, what’cha think?” the being questioned me.

“Uhh… I don’t know, I honestly have no idea what to think… A little too much a little too soon?” I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to the whole ordeal just yet.

I tried saying something, but I just stumbled over my own words, and the angel just asked me, “How do you feel about living in a universe without God, human?”

I had the answer to that, but I didn’t have time to respond, just as I was about to let him know he yelled at me to close my eyes, I didn’t even get the time to react and he screamed once more, this time inhumanly loud for me to close my eyes.

I did.

A flash of pure white light exploded in front of me; one that had the shape of an angel with many hundreds of wings along with a spear and a shield. I could see this much through my closed eyelids.

The smell of sulfur was unbearably close.

The roar of a thunderclap cracked behind me, followed by the ear-tormenting screeching of a worm.

These things can be sometimes craftier than I give them credit for, I guess both of us had missed this bastard hiding somewhere.

The light slowly died down and once it was gone, I dared open my eyes. A rod made up of light was hanging over my shoulder. I turned around to see an infested one violently shaking and screeching, a couple of inches behind me. Its body fell apart at the seams; the skin slid off, followed by collapsing chunks of flesh and organs, all that remained standing was a skeleton coated in gold, along with a golden worm attached to it. The light rod disintegrated into nothingness soon after. There was no blood, nor stench or anything like that. The screeching of the worm echoed in my ears for a few more moments after it was dead. What a way to go, though.

The angel was gone.

Shame, bloody shame. I didn’t get to give him my answer; it all happened a while ago now. I won’t be able to forget that day though, simply because half the time I try to sleep I can see an image of the angel in the garden and my bones feel like they’re about to melt inside my body. I’m in a lot of pain, most of the time. I doubt there’s a cure for that, but I guess I’ll get used to that too, eventually. On the plus side, I now have a golden extra dimensional parasite carcass displayed as a trophy. It ain’t so bad after all.

It won’t be ever too bad, because there’s someone who is like God that’s watching over us.