Enigma of the Soul - Book 1 - Pieces (22 page)

“What the hell are you? You’re not of the djinn race. Djinns cannot heal themselves like that.”

Lucifer backs away from David.

“I thought that you knew what I was. I thought that I could count on you, Lucifer the Almighty, to tell me what the hell I am, but now I am back to square one, again.”

David watches his blood absorb into his skin as he feels fearless and invincible now.

Devan sits in his study knowing what he must do next but wonders how to accomplish it. Hundreds of thoughts race through his mind like a busy beehive.

“I must find out what I am up against. Only then I will know how to destroy it,” Devan talks to himself. He paces back and forth.

“I must test the waters and send out a welcoming party for the hybrid soul. But I cannot kill him too fast because then people will not have a hero to look up to that I can crush in the end.”

Stopping in mid step, Devan knows what to send after David. His indestructible little army that already welcomed many villages in the surrounding area to his stream of terror.

“I am starved after a little fight or workout like that. I think we really need to relax after what just happened.”

Lucifer snaps his fingers and David, Alfonzo, and he is all transported to the dining room.

Alfonzo goes straight to her usual seat next to the head of the table. Lucifer strolls up to the seat at the head of the table and slides right into his spot. Alfonzo pats on the chair right next to her to signal to David to sit next to her. David looks to the seat next to Alfonzo and then the seat next to Lucifer that is across from Alfonzo. With that look, David sits next to Alfonzo, and thanks both Lucifer and Alfonzo for inviting him to dinner.

“What are we having?” David takes a sip of water from his goblet.

“You know, there is a funny thing, David, that you are overlooking at this moment.”

“What are you talking about?” David asks as he peers at Alfonzo, who is trying not to laugh.

“There’s ice water in hell! And you’re drinking it right now!” Lucifer almost falls out of his chair from laughing too hard. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist myself. It was just too funny. It’s always just too funny.”

Lucifer picks up a tiny bell off of the table and says, “Ladies and gentlemen, dinner is served.”

As the bell rings, the kitchen staff comes running carrying plates, silverware, and pitchers of water for the three to eat.

A feast fit for a king is placed in front of David. The selection of food overwhelms David, but his eyes see a piece of fruit he recognizes. David reaches for the fruit that he saw earlier in the kitchen. Next, he reaches for a rack of lamb cooked to perfection. Alfonzo digs right in, finally herself in her own home. Lucifer smiles at David as he eats seasoned steak, savoring every bite.

David stops eating to ask Lucifer a question.

“How long have you been in this castle?”

“Well,” Lucifer says with this mouth full with food and then his clears his throat to continue, “Ever since the Great War that God tried to cover up with the great flood of the earth. You know about Noah with his great ark and all. That was so long ago. There was lots of stuff going on back then. Stuff that would make your head spin or just explode, which I have actually saw. A cool and interesting sight I tell you. You can see lots of things if you stay down here long enough.”

“Dad, tell David about the beginning. Tell him about the times before Noah and the great flood. Tell him about the time before time. Help him to understand. Help him to see the missing pieces of the great puzzle that you and I know of. Tell him please.”

“Okay, I will, but only because you are my shining star.”

Lucifer takes a drink before starting.

“Before everything was created before you, me, or anything else was a thought in God’s head, God floated in a lifeless void with nothing but himself to entertain himself. Then he created me. I was to help him create the universe and everything that you see before you today, and some of the stuff that you don’t see. I was his shadow, his clone, his doppelganger that could do just about everything that he could do, but God left out a couple of things just in case he had to destroy me. I enjoyed looking like him until the day I realized that he wanted to harm everyone that I hold dear to me. That was the day I started to change my appearance, and I have evolved into what you see before you. Lots of people have no idea that I helped him with the seven days of creation. I even helped him with the creation of the Angels and the Heavens. It was his idea to make the Angels not have free will at first. He added that later when he decided to come after my family. What I didn’t help him with was the creation of Hell or what you have also come to know as Eden. I had to take over Eden in order to survive because God decided to flood the world to cover up the Great War that has his blood and name written all over it. This war started because God wanted to rewrite his master plan. Everything and everyone were doing well in the time before the Great War. People were taking Angels and Djinns for husbands and wives. That action created a whole new race that not even I could foresee. Halflings, they were called. Half Angel or Djinn and half human; they would have some of the powers that the higher races would have, but not without some side effects. These side effects are what made them, unique. But God started to hate these new creations and decided to do away with them. I was the first to stand up to him. I pleaded with him, but he could not allow this new race to survive any longer. So I plotted against God. I wanted to overthrow him in the worst way. He was a friend that became my worst enemy. I never wanted to hurt anyone, but God had to be stopped. I organized an army against God, and we went to battle hoping to win and set things straight. But the turning point was my failure. I tried to create a weapon that could give me the lost pieces of the puzzle and even the playing field between God and me. In the end, I killed many humans, Angels, Djinns, and even Halflings in the process of creating this weapon. Even some of my generals were caught in the midst of all of this. They were my elite, my most trusted and loyal generals that dominated all who would challenge them. Each one had a different specialty, and each was unique. It was a dark day when I lost them.”

Lucifer takes another drink, “In the end, I lost… no… we lost… everything. Hell is my new home and home to everybody that rose against God.”

“Tell him where gold, silver, and platinum come from.” Alfonzo butts in.

“Gold is from all the dead Angels that died in the Great War. It is the blood they have shed fighting against my army and me. Silver is the Halflings’ blood, and platinum is Djinn’s blood. So many lives were lost, and God even used my weapon against us to win the war,” Lucifer goes silent for a couple of minutes.

“I never knew. I am sorry for all of your losses.” David pauses for a second being unsure if he should ask the next question, but something tells him he needs to, “Whatever happened to Alfonzo’s mother? Your wife.”

“She sided with God, but I think it was because she had a job to do, a job God assigned to her in order to pull us apart. She never had to do this job before when we were married. She just had to be a wife and a mother to our two children. One child I can never see again. I had to curse or bless Alfonzo because there was no way that I was going to let God take both of my children away from me. God and I have a love… hate relationship. Sometimes I still love him, but sometimes I still want to kill him. As for Alfonzo’s mother, she is doing well for herself, and I wish her the best with all my love.”

A silence fills the room as all three reflect on the happy times spent with loved ones. David and Lucifer are both almost done with their plates of food while Alfonzo is only hitting the halfway point. Lucifer
clears his throat.

“David, I have been around for a long time, and I have seen many things. I have seen towns turn into countries while other counties were beginning to crumble. I have seen great men rise to power only to become worse than some of my most favorite demons. When a person comes into power they have a choice of what to do with it. They can become greedy and corrupt with it. Harming everyone that they love to the point that they loose everything. A good hearted man does none of these things. A good hearted man does the complete opposite of this and succeeds in life helping to change the very heart of the world. The use of power is not to abuse it but to cherish it and use it to help others. Just because I am Lucifer and people have come to know me as Satan, the prince of darkness, does not mean that I am a bad man. I am a Djinn, I have free will just like every human on earth, and I choose to use it every day I am alive.”

Lucifer stops talking and goes back to eating the rest of his dinner.

Alfonzo smiles at David as she enjoys her food. David takes in all of what Lucifer has said and then thinks about all of the countries that have fallen to crime and corruption. Complete civilizations have fallen and disappeared in a blink of an eye. He thinks about the Mayan race and how it has always been a mystery about what happened to them so long ago. He also thinks about the Romans, the reign of Genghis Khan, and even the great Caesar. All of them had fallen in a blink of an eye.

“Are you referring to God and how he may or may not be a good hearted man? Or are you wishing that you personally had done something different in the past to be the good-hearted man that you talk so fondly about? My apologies for making you mad if I am butting my head into a place where it does not belong,” David wiggles his toes into shark-filled waters by asking these questions.

“No, you are not making me mad at all. It has been a long time since I have had such a wonderful and deep conversation with another person. It just brings good memories.”

Lucifer stops to think for a second.

“The answers to your questions are that I want you to decide for yourself then wait and see how everything plays out.”

Lucifer leans back in his chair and takes a drink of his cool water.

Alfonzo is finishing up as David is left to wonder what the answers are. One thing that Lucifer and Alfonzo still have left to answer is where does the cool water
come from.

“I know what you are going to ask by the look on your face. You’re wondering where does all this cool water come from?” Alfonzo gets up from the table, “Follow me if you are dying to know.”

David rises and glances over at Lucifer to see if he is following Alfonzo's lead. Lucifer smiles and follows Alfonzo, right behind David. Lucifer knows where and what they are about to see. He has seen it thousands of times, and it never gets old.

Alfonzo dances up to a pair of double doors that as old as time itself. She pauses for a second to think back on all of the great times that her and her father shared. But the times are changing with what has been happening in the last couple of years. These memories are but a dying candle. She puts on a smile for David.

“What is behind these doors is a mystery to many people, Djinns, and even Angels. This room was forgotten long ago by many, but was not forgotten by my father because this is where he and God would go to have their private talks with one another. Behind these doors is the beginning of all creation on earth, and this is why it has been forgotten.”

“Sweetie, would you just open up the door, and let him be wowed by the room itself?”

Alfonzo smiles and opens both doors at the same time to reveal a larger than life room.

It is an indoor garden with massive statues in each of the corners. Each one of the statues is an elemental titan. It holds a globe over its head, which contains one of the four basic elements… fire, wind, water, and earth. Two spouts on each globe pour into two separate pools, allowing the elements to mix together. Four pools, each pool is located and stretches between the titans. The corners of an X start from the corners of the room and connect to a platform in the shape of an O with the center open to the lower pool. The platform is raised six feet above the floor of the entranceway. Steps float in the air to lead people to the platform. Located in the middle of the O is a tree with different colored and shaped leaves similar to a multiple of trees that blanket the earth. He sees strange fruit hanging from the mysterious tree. The fruit is the sized of a peach and the color of a granny smith apple. David reaches out his hand to take one, but quickly pulls it back. Alfonzo smiles and giggles a little bit.

“Its okay,” Alfonzo plucks one off the tree and holds it out to David. “You can take one. This fruit tastes like no other fruit known to humans.”

David takes the fruit from Alfonzo and bites into it. A surge of lightning races through his veins as David chews the mystery fruit. His pupils dilate fully as a sense of enlightenment rains over him like a flash thunderstorm hitting a desert. Thoughts of the creation of the earth and the beginning of time and space, creation of humanity, the Garden of Eden, and the first marriage between Lucifer and Elijah. The feeling starts to wear off as David swallows the fruit.

“I’m sorry that the feeling does not last longer. It was the best that I could do with what I had.”

Lucifer looks over at the tree.

“You see, this is not the Tree of Knowledge or the Tree of Life. It is a mix of both. I had seeds from both I tried to grow, but I could not. Even though we stand in the birth place of the trees.”

“You see the pools that line the outer walls of this room? These pools feed into the center pool that holds the new tree. Alfonzo took one of each of the seeds and put them in the same hole. She watched over them for years and talked to them every day for the longest time. Then one day she came running into my throne room, screaming that there was a leaf sprouting out of the pool. It took another thousand years to grow the tree to this size. We now call this the Tree of Love because that is what Alfonzo gave it to grow. It has a little bit of both knowledge and life within it, but it is not enough to make you a god overnight, just enough for upkeep.”

“So what happened to the other two trees?”

“God took them up to Heaven after the Great War. A couple of apples dropped off of the Tree of Knowledge, and a couple of peach dropped
off the Tree of Life. That is where we got the seeds,” Alfonzo says after as she takes a bite from a piece of fruit and chews it.

Lucifer picks himself a fruit, “I like to call this fruit a papple, the fruit of the damned.”

“Who are the titans that hold up the globes that feed the pools?”