CHAPTER 2

She sat in her dimly lit chambers and waited for her lackey to arrive. According to her, she was waiting entirely too long. She sat patiently nonetheless, with her feet on her rock table. Her cavernous abode with its faint red glow she had sculpted out of the mountains herself, far from the reach and jurisdiction of the Evil One. Here she was able to be, to dictate, and to control without any interference from Satan. She was not a servant of his, but in hell everything and everyone belong to him in one way or another. Lilith lived in a mountainous, desert range far from the cries of the billions of the guilty that inhabited hell. There were millions of these poor souls where she called home, but they were buried deep in the sands of the Ottocom Desert, being afflicted by whatever they deserved. She didn’t participate in dealing punishment to the guilty in hell like her demonic counterparts, but neither did she feel sorrow, only apathy, believing that it served anyone right for rejecting The One and consequently making this place their eternal home, like she once did. No, Lilith was above that.

She was astonishingly beautiful. She chose to take the appearance of a young woman, olive-skinned with dark hair that made her red eyes stand out, similar to how she was originally created in the Garden of Eden; it was her way of staying connected to the Creator. She was a strong, liberated spirit that conformed to no one’s will but her own. However in order to advance, even in this dimension, she knew she had to rub shoulders with the elite demons in this realm. So she set a series of events in motion, and her slave, Ornias, had an essential role to play.

Just when she thought she couldn’t wait any longer, a deep auburn portal opened before her. She hated portals in her private chambers because she never knew who would walk through them. Usually when a portal opened in her private chambers it meant trouble, and although it did not happen often, high-ranking demons, or even Satan himself, opened gates without announcing their arrival, which always made her uncomfortable.

This is why she requested of some, and demanded from those beneath her, that they walk through the mouth of her cave if they sought an audience. She stood and waited for the being that would step forth and when it did she was both angered and relieved.

“Ornias! Haven’t I told you to never portal jump into my chambers?” Lilith yelled and began hurling fireballs at him.

“Yes, mistress.” He cowered and dodged as best he could, “but I had no choice. Please believe me.”

“You are an imbecile and I should feed you to Shaziel.”

“NO, PLEASE, mistress, I beg of you no. I can explain . . .”

“I’m waiting,” Lilith said impatiently

“You’ll never believe what I’ve just been through.”

“Try me.” She hurled another fireball in his direction and nailed him.

He yelped with pain but continued as best he could. “Ahadiel has been hunting me down . . . and he finally caught me. . . . He was going to bring me before The One . . .”

“Go on.” She threw another fireball that intentionally missed.

“Well, he almost had me but I managed to escape. . . . I possessed a young man . . . and the angel did something that I didn’t think was possible. He too possessed the young man.”

“Get to the point.”

“Well, I got away because I jumped out and trapped him in the man.” He began laughing, marveling at his plan.

“You did what?” She began working a big ball of fire between her hands.

“I imprisoned the angel inside the man so I could escape.”

“The depths of your stupidity know no limits.” And she let the big ball of fire go and it burned him immensely.

“Mistress, my apologies but I fail to understand,” he said as he begged for his existence, writhing in pain on the floor.

“Clearly,” Lilith reprimanded. “You trapped an angel inside of a HUMAN!” She hit him with yet another fireball. “You imprisoned heavenly power inside a mere human? If he has a spiritual awakening, he will have power to cause serious problems, not only for us but the entire kingdom. And what’s worse . . . what if Satan finds out what you’ve done? He will see us both to the Sea of Fire.” She shuddered. “Find him and release him at once!”

“Mistress, I can’t. He is surely long gone by now, and even if I can find him, the moment the angel is set free, he will surely overpower me and arrest me. Either way, we have no choice but—”

“—to continue as planned,” Lilith finished his sentence. “You idiot. You had better hope that your little mistake doesn’t become a big one or you will have hell to pay.”

“Y-yes, mistress.”

“Did you at least find what you were looking for?”

“Mistress, I did. Her name is Andrea Lewis-Rose,” Ornias said with a wide smile.

John looked at The One and could hardly move, let alone speak, as he was gently tugged forward by the hulking angel that had accompanied him on this strange journey. A journey that led them into a beautiful, great white hall that had pillars that went up to the sky, which was deep space with a multitude of stars in the great expanse, with the occasional shooting star and super nova. John was beyond words as he divided his time between gazing at The One and space. He had never seen anything so beautiful, so amazing. Any doubts that this omnipotent and benevolent being had created the universe were erased when he saw The One face-to-face for the first time. Ahadiel approached The One with a sense of familiarity, as if he knew this being since his creation, and knelt down before him. John was too shocked to comprehend anything as he stood there looking at The One with wide-eyed amazement until his chain was yanked down and he fell on both knees before him. John looked up and could see him looking back with a smile. His hair and his beard were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were like a flame of fire; and his body like unto fine brass, as if it burned in a furnace; and his voice was loud and deep. He also wore a white robe with a golden lapel, and on it were the words “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” John looked up and smiled faintly, and he could hardly believe that He, the Creator, God, The One, was smiling back at him.

“Rise,” The One said.

Ahadiel rose to his feet gingerly, but John was still in too much awe to even hear the word, and then The One spoke again in a soft, gentle voice that seemed to make everything instantly better.

“Rise, John, give me a hug.”

John rose to his feet and greeted the man who died on a cross for his sins and rose from the grave in three days so that he may one day meet him and call heaven his home. He rose and hugged the Supreme Being and spoke his name.

“Jesus . . . ,” John said. “Am I dead?”

Jesus laughed aloud with genuine laughter. Each of the Father’s children always had a different reaction to him when they met, but Jesus’ favorite reaction was when he encountered the living who thought they had died.

“No, you are not dead, but you are really here.”

“Here? Is this place heaven?”

“A part of it, yes. This isn’t where the saints come once they have passed from earth and are ready to enter their reward. But this is heaven.”

“Am I not allowed? Am I being rejected?”

“No, no of course not, child, you are here because you are not ready for heaven. You still have much work left to do on earth before you can come home.”

“Where is the Father?” John asked.

“He and I are one. You cannot see Him. My Father is far too holy to be seen by any man—you would be destroyed instantly. Man is too sinful to see My Father’s face and live, so that is why I address you. But always know that anyone who has seen me has seen the Father also because—”

“You and the Father are one.” John answered, trying his best to understand.

“Exactly, John,” Jesus assured him.

“My Lord,” Ahadiel interjected. “We have a small problem.” And he raised his arms to reveal the manacles that he and John shared.

“Yes, I see. I suppose you’d like to be free.”

“Yes, my Lord, so that I may finish pursuing Ornias and bring him into custody. I almost had him and—”

Jesus raised his hands before Ahadiel could continue his statement. “Ahadiel, relax.” He examined the manacles and saw how disgusting and dirty they were. The One could see the blood around their wrists and the barbs that caused them. He took the chains in his hands and when he touched them, the cuffs became gold and comfortable to wear. Gold from the cuffs to the chains that connected them. Ahadiel looked stunned and confused.

“My Lord?” Ahadiel questioned. “You, you did not remove them . . . why?”

“Yeah, I thought you said he was going to free us,” John added.

“I will, just not yet. Walk with me,” said The One.

As the two beings began walking with The One, they went from the great, white hall. Within a few steps they went through a misty fog and ended up walking on an ocean. John immediately panicked and began sinking. Ahadiel tried to pick him up, but The One held up his hand to test John’s faith. The One never spoke to John, and John never asked for help. He simply remembered the story of old Peter, and amidst his drowning he looked to The One and instantly found solid footing on the calm waters. Jesus smiled when he saw his faith and knew he was ready for the task that was about to be placed on his shoulders.

“My return is near. . . . I do not know when, only the Father knows, but it is very near. I have watched the earth suffer under the curse of man, and it is crying out to me from the dust to the seas, from the heavens to the animals. Even my people who are called by my name are beginning to awaken, anxiously awaiting for me to return, to set them in their own land and set up the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. I have heard their prayers and I will answer them soon. However, the demons have sensed that their time is coming, and they are beginning to manifest themselves in physical form like the days when I once graced the earth’s soil. Some have possessed, others are showing mankind their true natures. Some people have taken to working for them, others have begun worshiping them.

The wrath and reign of the Beast and the False Prophet are coming upon an earth that is ripe for their harvesting. I would rather that many more would turn to the truth first so that when I crack the skies, more of the beloved children would meet me in the air. You can help me. Fight for me! Face these demons head on! Loosen their footholds around the world so that my creation will have a spiritual awakening and turn to me. Will you help me?”

Ahadiel was the first to bow low and respond with a resounding yes; John was a bit more tentative. He said nothing; he just stood there and looked upon The One.

Jesus continued, “John, I know that you are afraid because you feel inadequate, you feel that you will fail, you feel you are unworthy of me to use you, but I will equip you with everything you need if you just say yes. Don’t be afraid because you don’t understand—Nicodemus didn’t. Don’t be afraid because you are young—Timothy was. And don’t be afraid because of your short stature, or that you are the least in your own family, or even if you struggle with lusts of the flesh; David struggled with all of those and I still used him greatly. . . . What do you say?”

“Yes,” John whispered with tears in his eyes.

“It is good,” was Jesus’ response and He touched John on his forehead and a blue inscription appeared, imprinting him with a burning sensation. The mysterious letters burned a bright, fiery blue, and the flame started at his head and then began to consume his whole body. From his head to his torso, neck to his arms, legs to his feet until he and Ahadiel were both engulfed. The fire burned brightly and fused the human and the angel into one entity. When the fire was extinguished he was covered head to toe in a white, blue, and black body armor suit. His whole body was protected and the ancient blue inscription was engraved on his forehead and disappeared. The helmet protected his whole face, and his eyes glowed bright bluish white. Two angels approached from the skies carrying two objects on two very small clouds. They landed on the water next to The One. Jesus took the first object from the first angel and placed it on John’s left forearm. It was a blue light shield to protect him. When John activated it, he swung it around to try to get a feel for it. It wasn’t heavy, but he was assured that it would protect him from anything. When John deactivated the shield, Jesus took the second item and placed it in his hands. It was a handle without a blade attached to the end.

“What is it?” John asked.

“It’s a sword. Well, it’s just a handle,” Jesus answered.

“How do I turn it on?” John responded.

“By staying close to me. This sword is connected to my Father’s Holy Spirit, the source of all power here in heaven. You stay connected to me and it will be your most powerful weapon. The suit has no power by itself; it only serves as your protection from the elements and from injury that you would otherwise sustain without it. Ahadiel will help you harness your new supernatural abilities. Take care of him and he will take care of you. It is important for you to be what I’m calling you to be, that you two learn to coexist. You are my guardian angel on earth and I will give you a new name. From now on your name is Seraph,” Jesus said.

When Jesus said those words the sword powered up, and an erratic beam of orange fire shot out until it stabilized and extended about forty-two inches from the handle. The bright, burning, orange glow reverberated with energy, making it feel like the sword itself was alive. John could feel the warmth emanating from the weapon as he stared at it. The sword slowly began to cool and the double-edged blade made from blue-angel steel replaced the burning fire. The sword’s edges were extremely sharp and surrounded white-angel steel that had two words on either side written in the angelic tongue.

“What does it say?”

“‘Living,’ and on the other side, ‘Powerful.’ I have written the Name of my Father on your forehead. You have been sealed to do His will just as I do His will.”

The sword deactivated and when it did so, John placed it in his sheath on his right thigh, then the entire suit powered down.

“What do you want us to do now, Lord?” John questioned, not knowing if they should get started on a task right away or wait until they were issued a formal assignment. But Jesus didn’t answer his question; instead, he only asked that John close his eyes. John closed his eyes tightly and waited for something mysterious to happen. After he thought he had waited long enough, he opened his eyes and found himself lying in his bed. John looked around and could see that his alarm clock read 8:54 a.m.

The sun was shining in his eyes through the blinds in his studio apartment. He felt a little bit of soreness on his forehead. Jumping out of bed he ran into his bathroom and looked into the mirror, he could see the writing on his head but knew not how to read it. He only knew that it was the Name of his Father in Heaven, assuring him that whatever he dreamt actually happened. But before he could examine the mark that was emblazoned on his head further, he heard a knock at the door.

Camilla Adams stood on the other side of John’s door, banging loudly. She had a bad feeling about letting him walk home by himself as intoxicated as he was. She had sent him over twenty-seven text messages and called thirteen times, until she finally fell asleep at 4:00 a.m. She even called 911 to file a missing person’s report, but they told her she couldn’t file a claim unless he had been missing for twenty-four hours. So she decided she would try and get as much sleep as she could and check on John first thing in the morning.

She continued banging on the door until she heard a voice tell her that he was on his way. She breathed a sigh of relief and thanked God that John was okay.

When the door opened, it wasn’t who she expected. She saw a tall, very handsome young man with bulging muscles and indented abs under a white T-shirt that was obviously too small for him. She looked down at the young man’s sturdy athletic legs—his strong, robust thighs were covered by a pair of high school gym shorts that began ripping from the new body wearing them.

His suddenly handsome face sported a well-trimmed goatee and he had a buzz cut with a perfect hairline. Had she not been so attracted to the stranger, she would have screamed immediately. But then the man said, “Hey, Cammy, what are you doing here?” She screamed, simultaneously taking out the fresh pepper spray she kept in her purse, spraying the young man right in the eyes. John hollered, rubbed his eyes, and tried to remedy the burning sting. Camilla ran past him screaming to John that she was here to rescue him and telling him that he could come out now.

“JOHN! JOHN! WHERE ARE YOU?” Camilla yelled.

“Cammy, I’m over here,” John said.

“WHERE OVER HERE?” Camilla yelled again.

And then the strange man appeared before her, using his T-shirt to wipe his face. But Camilla didn’t recognize him and hadn’t seen him talking to calm her down.

“STAY AWAY, I KNOW KARATE AND OTHER DANGEROUS WORDS!!! JOHN, WHERE ARE YOU?” Camilla screamed and ran into the kitchen to get a knife.

“Cammy, I’m right here . . . put the knife down,” John said laughing.

“What . . . what are you talking about? John is short, scrawny, and wears glasses. You are far from either. Now where is he?”

“Cammy, yesterday was my birthday and I got drunk, did some dancing on tables, and you let me walk home by myself, remember?”

“Yeah, whatever. You could have been stalking him at the bar and followed him home. You could be some thug that beat him up and kidnapped him. Please just tell me what you’ve done with him . . . Please . . . he’s my best friend . . . ,” she cried.

John thought real hard about his next move. He clearly looked so different than what he used to look like that he couldn’t convince a woman who had been his best friend for twenty years otherwise. So John thought a moment and told her a story that only they would know.

“Do you remember the day we became best friends? I do. We were at Lake George in upstate New York. You were a spoiled little eight-year-old brat, and I followed you around because you were the only other kid there for me to hang out with at a Fourth of July barbeque.

“Anyway, I chased you to the end of the dock, and you stopped right before the edge. You said, ‘Na nana boo bee, you got the cooties!’”

He laughed at that last comment before he continued. At this point Camilla sat down in a chair and put the knife down to listen to the rest of John’s story. “When I turned to leave, I don’t know perhaps the dock was wet, I heard a splash and when I turned around, you were flailing around in the water. I called out for help, but no one could hear me over the music so I jumped in, caught you, and swam back to the docks with your arms around my neck . . . nearly choking me . . . but by the time we got back to the dock, everybody was there to pull you out.”

“I wasn’t a spoiled brat,” Camilla said.

John laughed hysterically at the comment and Camilla ran over to hug him.

“John . . . what happened to you?”

“That’s a long story . . . and I’ll tell you over breakfast,” John said.

Andrea Lewis-Rose was just getting off work at the Second National Bank in Wilsonton, Kansas, where she had worked as a teller for over twenty years. It wasn’t her dream job by any stretch of the imagination, but it was all she had. She longed for the glamorous life—expensive cars, big homes, lavish jewelry, and paradise getaways. When she was in high school, she wanted to become a model and an actress because she was very beautiful back then and could have been both.

A tall, leggy blond, with dazzling blue eyes, Andrea was the most beautiful girl in her county. This was confirmed by the blue ribbons she won twice at a state fair, and she was also homecoming queen her senior year. Her king was her boyfriend, senior and starting quarterback Kenneth Rose. She seemed to have the perfect life and opportunity to achieve her dreams, but things weren’t always what they seemed.

Kenneth had a really rocky home life, watching his father beat on his mother and feeling his wrath as well. Abuse was a natural way of life in the Rose home. Kenneth’s father was an alcoholic and tortured him until he got big enough to fight back. Kenneth often fought other kids at school and was very angry; the only one who could calm him down was Andrea. She was the one bright spot in his life, but that didn’t stop him from lashing out at her in screaming fits every now and then.

Andrea had hopes of going to New York or Los Angeles to pursue her dreams, but that was dependent on where Kenneth went to college. Wherever he went, she decided to follow so they could maintain their relationship. She loved him very much. Kenneth didn’t get accepted into any college because his grades were horrible.

Sensing he was going to lose her, he begged Andrea not to leave Kansas without him. They made a plan: Kenny would go to Wilsonton Community College and play for the football team there, work on getting a good GPA, and then transfer to a major university. That way they would stay together and she could still chase her dreams, but in the meantime she would work at the bank and go to college.

None of those plans came to pass. Kenny began partying and drinking at the local parties, skipping classes, and eventually was cut from the team. Andrea was slowly dragged down between having good, but mostly bad, times with Kenny and keeping up with her classes, until she unexpectedly found herself pregnant as a sophomore. Not coming from a family who believed in abortion, she decided to keep the baby.

Kenny didn’t want the baby but supported her decision to keep it, and proposed to her. With the support of her family, she accepted and they were married before she began to show. Slowly but surely she felt her dreams slipping away.

The more Kenneth drank, the worse their fights became and the more he became like his father. He even hit her a few times, but never hard enough to leave a visible mark. On one particular night, after a day of heavy drinking, Kenny and Andrea got into a violent fight about her frustrations. Angry because she was trapped in her small town, Andrea said very hurtful things to Kenny and in his rage he kicked her down a flight of stairs. Before Kenny realized what he had done, Andrea was unconscious at the bottom of the staircase in their home.

He called an ambulance and they rushed Andrea to the hospital, but it was too late. She lost the baby in her second trimester. When she was questioned by the police, she lied about the incident, claiming a dizzy spell had caused the fall.

She stayed with Kenny after he promised to never hurt her again, but he broke that promise over and over again, by continuing the verbal and physical abuse. In between the abuse they tried to have other children, but each pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. This cycle continued until Kenny got behind the wheel of his car after drinking at the bar and drove off a bridge.

Thirty-eight-year-old Andrea was a sad woman who never realized her potential and hated herself because of it. She looked for any bright spots in her dark world, but found none. Eventually, depression set in. Anxiety attacks and insomnia became a daily and nightly routine. She didn’t feel beautiful anymore, even though she was still quite an attractive woman in her late thirties. She still had a nice figure and lovely hair with a small touch of gray, but her eyes that once sparkled told a different story. They told a story of a sad woman who never achieved her dreams, never bore children, and who had attempted suicide on more than one occasion.

Once she was rushed to the hospital by her father who found her on the floor with her prescription pills spilled next to her. Another time her neighbor baked a homemade pie for Andrea’s birthday and found her on her living room floor with her wrists slit. And yet another time, her best friend Sally stopped her from driving home from the bar after getting way too drunk.

This was all Kenny’s fault for trapping her in this small town, for keeping her from her goals, for beating her, and for taking away her chance to be a mother.

After much counseling, however, she gained a little bit of peace in her life and even went to church a few times, mostly on the holidays. She hadn’t committed to Jesus, nor did she feel she was ready to, but at least she stopped drinking so much. She took her pills responsibly, and the urge to commit suicide began to fade. She decided to try to make the most of the life she had and went home from her job every day just happy to be alive.

In the murky, faintly lit cave that served both as protection and home for Ornias and herself, Lilith began devising a plan to attain a better position of power in hell. She sat on her small throne made from the bones of angels and demons from wars past. She learned from war that demon and angel spirit beings could be blasted to mere particles, and although they would eventually be made whole again, that process could take years or even decades until the spirit fully recovered from “death.”

No angel or demon truly dies but whenever they fight, limbs may be lost and need to be regrown with proper rest; Lilith took the limbs of her fallen adversaries whether they were human, angel, or even demon and added their bones to her throne. She spoke to Ornias from this throne while he played in the dirt like a child.

“I hate it here. I hate having to submit to demons who are beneath me in every way. I am superior or at the very least equal to all of Satan’s generals. Yet I am confined to this cave, an outcast, accosted at every opportunity. Shown no respect when I could kill or outwit them all in combat and strategy. But that isn’t even what I want. I do not wish to command an army or torture the guilty. All I want is to own my own territory and live in peace, be seen as equal. If only Satan had the weakness of men this would be so much easier. But he doesn’t trust me . . . no one does. If I’m ever going to realize my full potential in this desolate place then I need to make a gesture to Satan that says we are on the same team,” Lilith thought aloud.

“Mistress, are you talking to me?” Ornias asked.

Lilith threw a skull and hit Ornias in the head. “Who else could I be speaking to, moron?”

“My apologies, mistress,” Ornias whimpered. “Do you have an idea of how to go about it?”

“No, but I thought you had a plan. Don’t you? Otherwise, what was the sense of you finding some human wench?” Lilith pondered.

“Yes, of course, mistress. My plan is to give him something he doesn’t yet have,” Ornias said.

“What do you mean?” Lilith questioned.

“Well . . . no, I’m sorry — it’s stupid of me to even think it.”

“Ornias, if you do not speak up I will singe you with a fireball till you begin to smell your insides burning,” she said as her hands began to glow a bright orange.

“Yes, mistress, my apologies. It’s just, well, do you remember before the Great Rebellion and the Fall?” Ornias asked her.

“No, I do not. Has it escaped your memory that I was a human woman once?”

“Yes,” he smiled slightly. “Sometimes it does. Well, before the Fall, Satan was once an angel named Lucifer. He had the grandest position in all of heaven. Even greater than archangels Michael and Gabriel. Well, there came a day when The One left his heavenly throne to create the universe. The Father and Son left Lucifer in charge of the heavens until they returned. The One had only been gone for six days and returned by the seventh day to rest. However, they returned to civil unrest. Many angels, me included, did not understand and were upset that The One had abandoned us for so long.”

“Seven days isn’t a long time,” Lilith interjected.

Ornias continued. “To you it isn’t, but to us our whole lives were dedicated to pleasing and worshiping The One. Anyway, by the time The One came back Lucifer had moved his throne into the throne room, and they were very angry to see what he had done. This was not when Lucifer was banished from heaven.

“In the days following, Lucifer was overcome by pride unlike any he displayed before. He was always a bit prideful because of his title and position, but this new display was extreme—even for him. He wanted to be like the Most High God. I remember that day like it was yesterday because it forever changed who we were as spirits. I foolishly supported the idea that Lucifer should keep his seat in the throne room because of the wonderful job he did running heaven in the absence of The One.

“As you know, the Great Rebellion and the subsequent Fall led us here. A place without the spirit of The One. Here Lucifer became Satan, and here he still desires to be like God.”

“That’s a great story. What does that have to do with me getting a better position in hell?” Lilith asked.

“Everything, mistress. Satan still desires to be like The One—the Father and the Son, but what is the one thing he doesn’t have?”

“A son . . .” Lilith exclaimed.

“Exactly, mistress. This is why I went searching for women on earth. I think that we can give him a son, and he will gladly promote you and make you master over many.”

“And you thought of all this by yourself?” Lilith said. Surprised that a demon that she held in such little regard had come up with such a brilliant plan.

“Yes, mistress,” he said shyly. “This is where Andrea Lewis-Rose comes in. She has never borne a child and would welcome any opportunity to have one. The hard part is convincing Satan to impregnate her.”

“You had me and then you lost me.” Lilith shook her head. “He would never be with a human. He despises them. Why do you think he commands his minions to torture them so gruesomely? No, that would never work . . . however . . . you could be the one to do it.”

“Anything for you miss—wait . . . What?” said a shocked Ornias.

“Yes, you. You should be the one to bring forth this son for him. I can present it as a gift and I will be welcomed and considered the same as any of the other demons in hell,” Lilith said confidently. “Tell me about this Andrea Lewis-Rose.”

“Mistress, I don’t want to do this.”

“You do not have a choice in the matter.”

“But—”

“YOU DO NOT HAVE A CHOICE! . . . Now tell me about this woman.”

“. . . Very well then . . . you already know her name. She is thirty-eight earth years old; she had tried for many years to have a baby with her husband but was unsuccessful.” He sighed.

“Is she still married now?” Lilith asked.

“No, mistress, her husband is dead.”

“Really? Was he saved or is he guilty?”

“Guilty. His name is Kenneth Rose.”

“Then we must find him and give him a reprieve from his torments, he could be . . . useful.” And a sly grin came over Lilith’s face. “You must go to the hall of records and find him in the chronicles. He will tell us the best way to seduce this Andrea.”

“Mistress, it is not so easy. There is protocol and clearance that I must obtain. Other demons will ask me why I need the chronicles, and they know that you are my master; if my answers don’t satisfy them, then they will bring me before generals and maybe before the Evil One himself. It will not be good if I am caught.”

“Well then you best not be caught,” Lilith commanded. “Now go find his chronicles and bring its knowledge to me.”

Once the command left her lips, Ornias was compelled to obey and opened a dark red, vapid portal and stepped inside. Walking out in mere moments, he walked from the portal and appeared at the gates to the city of Sheol. The first city built in hell since the fall, it also served as the capital. When Satan was first cast into outer darkness, hell was the only planet in the dimension orbiting a dull orange sun very closely.

When hell was first created, it was mostly mountain ranges and desert with few rivers and one gigantic ocean made of boiling, slick black oil—no life existed inside of it, no life could because it consumed and fed on any living thing that fell into it. Engulfing the unfortunate being that fell into its calamity, reproducing and multiplying around it in order to completely devour its prey, it was almost as if the Sea of Fire was alive. That is how it acquired the name the Sea of Fire. This planet was the home of Satan and all of the angels that followed him, and they began to shape the planet to better suit their needs as demons.

Yet that wasn’t the first transformation to hell. During a cataclysmic event on earth called the flood, humans poured into outer darkness in the tens of millions. The demons even called this incident the flood because of the flood of human souls that occupied the city of Sheol. This occurrence marked a turning point for Satan as a sadistic oppressor. He decided to turn hell into his torturous playground, assessing how a human lived his or her life on earth and doling out punishment to fit the crimes they committed.

They were always evil, horrible, and worse than anything any human mind could conceive. The demonic holy city Sheol became a place where human souls passed through to be judged and given their eternal punishment. This is when the humans became known as the guilty. Sheol held no human prisoners other than new arrivals waiting to be sentenced, but it held a hall of records, living quarters for demons, and Satan’s palace.

The hall of records was located just a few blocks from Satan’s palace, which was naturally in the center of Sheol. As Ornias made his way through the city and toward the hall, he saw many demons, male and female, some that were about their business and others that were just trying to exist in a world outside the love of The One. Some greeted him with evil looks, while others ignored him completely.

Upon his arrival, he did not have trouble gaining entry. Any demon had access to the hall of records. It was the section that was dedicated to humans that required clearance. Although there were no guards watching the entrance into that area, lieutenants, captains, and generals frequented this sector to keep tabs on their human prisoners. Here they acquired information on current prisoners and new arrivals, so it was quite busy.

Ornias focused his mind on locating Kenneth Rose’s chronicles in the hall of records. As he concentrated on finding it, he realized that the book was on the third floor, the eleventh column, in the twenty-seventh row of the human souls sector, and he instantly gated to the location of Ken’s book. Luckily there were no demons in the vicinity and when he finally found the correct Kenneth Rose chronicle, he grabbed the black book and opened it. From the outside, Ornias appeared to be reading a book, however from Ornias’s point of view he had just entered Kenneth Rose’s life.

The whole world became pitch black, and he could see a small cell reacting to metaphysical changes. It began multiplying by twos, then fours, then eights, then sixteens, and Ornias realized he was looking at Kenneth’s conception. He quickly fast-forwarded and stopped at Kenneth meeting Andrea Lewis in the fourth grade.

In the middle of an elementary school cafeteria he watched as a friendly and innocent Andrea Lewis shared her lunch with a bruised Kenneth Rose. He skipped ahead a few more years and stopped at a place where a 17-year-old Kenneth Rose finally had the courage and strength to fight his abusive father, sending him to the hospital, nearly beating him to death, and earning his first run-in with the law. He skipped past Ken’s college years and even the Lewis-Rose wedding.

He did, however, stop at the point when Andrea was pregnant and Kenneth kicked her down the stairs. He watched Kenneth become an alcoholic, and he finally arrived at the day Kenny died by driving off the bridge. He saw Ken drown in the river below and then saw his soul swim to the top and grab onto the snowy river bank.

He watched as four demons appeared in an electric, deep purple vortex and dragged Kenny, kicking and screaming, into the great white judgment hall in heaven. Ornias saw Kenneth watch in horror as the angel was unable to find his name in the Book of Life. He saw Kenneth plead for his soul yelling, “There MUST be some mistake,” and saw him being dragged by the four demons that escorted him into the great hall. He skipped ahead to see Kenny brought before Satan himself; he saw Kenny’s fear as he gazed upon the devil and was sentenced. This is what he was looking for, the sentencing.

“Kenneth Rose, I’ve been waiting for you,” Satan said.

“Where the hell am I? Who the hell are you?” Kenneth cried, his voice full of fear.

“Where? Why, you are in hell of course. Your home for the foreseeable . . . eternity.” Satan laughed. “And if you are in hell then I must be . . . ?” Satan asked.

“No, no, nooo you can’t be,” Kenneth cried.

“Oh, come now, who am I?” Satan asked again.

“The devil?” Kenny whispered.

“Close, the devil is what I am, who I am is Satan. And your new lord,” Satan gladly corrected the prisoner. “Anzu, you did a marvelous job bringing yet another soul into the fold. Please enlighten me about Kenneth Rose’s crimes.”

“Who is he?” Kenneth looked on in confusion.

The demon greeted Kenneth with a backhand to the face for speaking when he wasn’t being spoken to.

“I am Anzu,” said a tall, menacing, and extremely aggressive demon with the face of a raven and the body of a man, with big black feathery wings. He was a particularly evil and powerful demon. “I was assigned to you upon your conception to keep you away from the love of The One and to tempt you into all types of wickedness and I succeeded. With your help, I was able to defeat the many angels that were assigned to you on a daily basis. You made my job easy and I thank you.” And then turning to address Satan he continued. “My lord, Kenneth Rose is guilty of fornication, adultery, and idol worship, but his major crimes are drunkenness, the physical and verbal abuse of his wife, Andrea Lewis-Rose, and the murder of his unborn child when he kicked his wife down a flight of stairs.”

Satan was thrilled because he had so many punishments in mind for Kenneth. “There are so many crimes here. I truthfully don’t know which one to pick.” He laughed aloud and said, “Truthfully, that is something you don’t see every day. Should I have you sent to our forest where my demons spend hours building their strength by hacking away at human trees? Or perhaps I should send you into the Lake of Fire. Although I would like to, I pride myself on judging fairly, and you do not deserve that. I reserve that for the truly wicked or if I get lucky enough to judge one that has fallen away from the truth. No, you should not be sent there.

“Ah, yes, I have it. I will send you to the Ottocom Desert. I send most humans who are guilty of abuse to this place. Since you have beaten and abused your wife in the privacy of your own home, there you shall suffer in the privacy of your own coffin. You will be locked in a coffin lined with spikes on the interior. For company you will be abused by our chemaworm, named chema from our tongue meaning wrath. These worms originate from this planet, not unlike your leeches but way more deadly. Razor-sharp teeth that secrete a toxin that paralyzes their victims and also causes an intense burn once injected into the bloodstream. They live beneath the dirt of the entire surface of this planet and you will never see a more venomous creature.”

Kenneth Rose wept bitterly, he cried so profusely that he could barely put words together to form a coherent sentence.

“How . . . can . . . I . . . survive . . . that?” Kenneth asked as he continued to cry uncontrollably.

“What? What did he say? Did anybody catch that?” Satan asked the horde of demons that laughed at the suffering soul.

“I think he wants to know how he’s going to survive,” Anzu spoke up.

Satan continued, “Oh simple. When you stood before The One you were granted a glorious body and you didn’t even know it. These bodies are vastly superior to your body on earth. There, depending on the severity of your injury, it may take a few days to a few months for you to heal. You can also die from almost anything there. But in heaven and hell, you cannot die again. When you get hurt here you will heal within a matter of seconds or hours. On earth if you lose a limb, you will never get it back. However, here, Anzu . . .”

And a demon grabbed Ken’s arm and held it out as Anzu took out his axe and came down with such a devastating force that he cleanly severed Ken’s right forearm. Ken hollered in a way that he never had on earth. The scream seemed to come from deep within.

“Kenny, stop your screaming. It will grow back eventually. Take him away,” Satan said as Kenny fainted before the congregation of demons.

Ornias had the location of the damned soul but watched to see how the sentencing played out. He skipped ahead until he came to the Ottocom Desert. There he saw two demons chain Kenneth and kick him into his coffin. He watched as Ken yelled in pain, and he saw one of the demons pick up a jug and dump it on Kenneth. The worms spilled out and fell on Kenneth and quickly began eating him.

Ornias watched as Kenneth screamed in horror, and he even saw one of the chemaworms enter Kenneth’s mouth as he opened it to scream. The coffin was closed and the screams became more muffled, and then the coffin was lifted telekinetically by one of the demons and placed into a deep hole, where sand was shoveled onto the casket telekinetically.

The screams became muffled until they disappeared completely, either because Kenneth lost the ability to scream or perhaps he was too far down to be heard. Either way, Ornias had his location. He closed the book and put it back on the shelf where he found it. He was instantly brought out of Kenneth’s world and back in the hall of records where he had started his journey.

“What are you doing here?” asked a deep dark voice.

“Anzu . . . what are the chances of meeting you here?” Ornias said.

“What are you doing here, whelp?” Anzu asked again.

“Nothing. I was just looking around. What are you doing here?”

“Sometimes I like to check up on souls that I have imprisoned. . . . What business do you have with the Kenneth Rose chronicles?”

“Research, sir. I was just interested in what happens to a human soul once they enter our world. . . . I’ve never witnessed a sentencing before.”

“Really? Do you know what I think? Your mistress, Lilith, is forbidden in the city and she makes you do her dirty work.”

“No, sir,” Ornias answered, “I’m doing research for myself out of pure curiosity.”

“Do I look like a fool to you?” Anzu squawked.

“Well . . . ,” Ornias said.

Anzu grabbed the small demon by his cloak and lifted him into the air

“Take care how you answer,” Anzu seethed. “Your master, Lilith, is refused entrance into our city because she is a human-demon hybrid. What need does she have for a lost soul’s chronicles?”

“She is more committed to the kingdom of darkness than you think,” Ornias said trying to ease the growing tension. “Please, sir, if you are not arresting me, then may I leave to attend the rest of my business?”

Anzu thought while he still had Ornias in the air. He knew that if he brought Ornias before his ranking officers, they would consider him wasting their time. And even though his loyalty was without question, Anzu knew that his overzealous nature earned him a reputation as a troublemaker in the kingdom. Even though Lilith wasn’t regarded in great esteem, one couldn’t, and wouldn’t, bring an accusation against her without just cause. She was deceptive, intelligent, beautiful, and extremely dangerous.

Every spirit, demonic and angelic, knew of her throne of bones. They knew she collected the bones of those that tried to oppose her, and Anzu was unwilling to risk his being added to her collection. If he was going to accuse Ornias and Lilith of anything, he needed concrete evidence that they were up to something. So he threw Ornias down.

“I will be keeping a watchful eye on you and your mistress. If I find you two planning sedition, I will bring you before Satan myself,” Anzu threatened.

Ornias stood up, dusted himself off, and bowed before exiting the hall of records. As soon as he was outside of the city he gated out and appeared at the mouth of Lilith’s cave in the Ottocom Desert — where she sat admiring the view of the eerily beautiful red sand and mountain ranges as far as her captivating eyes could see. He bowed low and addressed her. She was eager to hear the news he brought.

“Mistress, I have good news and bad news,” Ornias began. “The good news is I have found Kenneth Rose, and I know exactly where he is.”

“Well, don’t just stand there tell me where he is,” Lilith demanded.

“He is here in the Ottocom Desert. Approximately seventy-eight miles south of our current location. Next to the Sea of Fire.”

“What are the odds that he’d be buried in my province?”

“It is good fortune, mistress,” Ornias said, “Every now and then luck is needed to accomplish anything.”

“Then what is the bad news?” Lilith asked.

“Anzu found me in the hall of records looking at Kenneth Rose’s chronicles. He was the demon assigned to Kenneth in his time on earth.”

“Anzu?” Lilith groaned. “He is one of the demons that I hate the most; his hatred for humans knows no limits. He still sees me as human, but nevertheless if Anzu gets in my way, I will add his bones to my throne.”