Chapter one hundred one

"I think I will have that whisky now."

Being kidnapped to another dimension was bad enough but when the super powerful being who kidnapped you tells you that he is Lucifer aka the devil aka one of the scariest people mentioned in the bible, that is when you know that your day has gone down the crapper.

The slightly older Asian gentle man in the god awful corteroid suit who I now knew was the prince of hell conjured a glass of amber liquid out of thin air and gave it to me.

I'm Russian so I knew a thing or two about liquor and drinking. I have downed many drinks in recent years although I was technically under the legal drinking age so when I drank the whole glass of whisky in one shot it wasn't because I was a novice but because I have had experience doing the same thing countless times before.

My confidence turned out to be misguided because apparently the devil drinks whisky that was a little bit stronger than the ones on earth. How strong? Well it lit my throat on fire going down and I felt like my stomach was burning as what I can only describe as rocket fuel sloshed around in it.

I coughed violently for a couple of seconds then said with a hoarse voice, "....smooth."

Lucifer just rolled his eyes , "That isn't how you should drink whisky, especially this whisky. This is one of the finest vintages I have in my collection, it was brewed by master brewers who were experts at their craft and has been aged to perfection for hundreds of years. This right here represents years of work and a very long term investment. You should savor the fruits of a hundred years of waiting not burn yourself with it by swigging it like a soda pop."

My voice was still hoarse so my response just came out as whizzing hisses.

"Did you burn your throat? Can't talk anymore? Good, then you should listen. What I am about to tell you very few people know so I would suggest you rest your throat as you learn one of the greatest secrets in existence, the origin of everything."

He slowly took a sip from his glass, "The different branches of different churches fight like wild dogs over each verse of the bible, each word is contested and analyzed , each line turned into a battlefield where 'theological experts' fight to win the hearts and minds of the masses. But even as they wage theological battle on many fronts there are some things that they all agree on. One of these things is Genesis 1:1, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Funny enough this particular verse is wrong, in the beginning God didn't create the heavens and the earth. In the beginning God created himself."

He stood up from his chair and started pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace, the fire behind him transforming the mundane and badly dressed man into a dark silhouette as he wove a tale that was older than time itself while I listened spellbound by his words,

"I want you to try something. Imagine nothing. You can imagine the absence of matter, that is easy. You can also imagine the absence of light, also not very challenging but can you imagine the absence of space? Can you imagine the absence of time? It is impossible, it is beyond anything that you can comprehend. I have seen the true void and it nearly destroyed me. Just a glance and I nearly fell apart, it broke something in me and it led to my downfall , but that comes later. Right now we are talking about the birth of God. God was born in a place where there was nothing, less than nothing. He created himself, simply came into existence for no reason at all, how you ask? Because he was a spark, like you Sophia. Sparks are anomalies, they just are. They aren't created, they aren't caused by anything, they can't even be predicted. And in the absolute void one of these anomalies occurred, the being that you call God. He must have found the absolute nothingness boring because he looked inside of himself and started having random thoughts. "

He paused again to take another sip before continuing, "That is the greatest secret, everything you see around you is but a dream in the mind of the creator. He created everything and as everything came to be he felt alone. He created things to entertain himself but they were nothing but toys that did what he told them to do so he decided to create beings he had no control over, he took pieces of himself and created souls. He created a paradise for the souls and happily watched as his children play in the garden of eden. That was when I was born, the second spark to ever come into existence. I was born in the garden of eden and grew up among the happy souls. For a while I was happy but then my own curiosity and foolhardiness made me ignore God's warning and I left the confines of eden to look at the void."

He stopped for a second, then drained his whole glass in one go and threw the glass into the fireplace making it shatter violently into little pieces," I was an idiot. I saw the void and it made me feel how insignificant I was. I was scared and that made me angry. I felt jealous of God who could exist in such a place. Instead of fixing my own shortcomings I lashed out, I taught the souls in Eden about things that God hadn't in a bid to make myself feel important but it just turned out to be another stupid mistake. Immediately after I taught them about greed, lust , envy, pride,gluttony, wrath and greed Eden turned from a paradise to a nightmare. The souls that I had loved and called family turned on each other and in the midst of the chaos all I could do was watch. Finally after seeing a dear friend get extinguished I attempted to undo what I had done but I didn't have the power to do so and I failed miserably. The attempt caused me to shatter into countless pieces. God returned from wherever he had been to find his paradise in ruins and me in pieces. Long story short he created the physical realms where he 'clothed' the souls in mortal bodies. He then gathered all my pieces and made the demons from them, a breed designed to consume the sin that a soul has accumulated during its mortal life span. I , as the largest piece left from the spark, retained my memory but I was the only a diminished shadow of what I had once been."

By the time he was finished with his story my throat had recovered somewhat but my voice was still hoarse when I said,"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you need to know that I am not your enemy. I am the ruler of hell but that doesn't make me evil , in fact I am more akin to a guardian of the physical realm. I protect the balance and I need your help to save everything in existence. I believe you know Marcus Fairweather? Well he has an estranged son called John Fairweather. In four days Marcus is going to be making a play for John."

"And you want me to save this John person?"

Lucifer sighed heavily and looked straight into my eyes.

"No, I want you to kill him."