To be titled: Chapter 1

The being made of light moved slowly, and with deliberation. This was going to be a terrible experience for the marshall, but it didn’t need to be made worse than it had to be.

“Have you ever been in the presence of God marshall?”

The being took a seat on the rolled up sleeping bag the marshall had given it to use before it dropped its guise.

“You know, I can’t say that I have had the pleasure.” The marshall was unable to move but he did his best to level a seething gaze at the light shaped like a man.

“You may not believe me marshall, but I am sorry for what is going to transpire here tonight. It’s not often that I feel sympathy for my fellow man. When I do, I want them to know.” The being did its best to show the marshall a sympathetic gaze. It was lost in the light.

Though the marshall was almost certainly terrified, he did his best not to show it. He still held some misguided hope that he could find some way out of his predicament.

“You’re right, I don’t believe you. I don’t know what you are but I am certain of one thing. You aren’t human, so how could you possibly feel sympathy for me?”

The being, that at one point not long ago was a man wanted in three different states for almost as many crimes as there are laws for, simply shook its “head.”

“I assure you marshall, I am as human as anyone else on this beautiful planet. I just happen to also be more…”

The marshalls face was a mask of confusion. How could this… thing, possibly be human? It was certainly shaped like a human being, but there are no discernible features. It was all awash in light. I golden hued, almost physical, emittance permeated everything about this being. The marshall only now realized that it didn’t hurt his eyes to look at the creature that had somehow bound him while he slept. The mysteries just kept on mounting.

“Would you care to elaborate? From where I am sitting the only thing you share with humanity is the vague shape of a man. Not very compelling evidence, I gotta say.” The marshall could feel the fear mounting behind his eyes, so he did what he could to maintain some semblance of control.

The being had found itself in silent reverie and it took a second for it to come back to the conversation it had somehow created. “All will be made clear in due time, I assure you. In the meantime, would you be so kind as to share your name with your reluctant captor?”

Though it was difficult to tell by looking at it, the marshall could feel its gaze fall upon him. It didn’t feel malicious, only sad, and somehow ancient. There was no escape from this thing, he suddenly felt that with extreme clarity.

“My name is Jed, Jedidiah I mean. My friends call me Jed.” If Jed could move, his whole body would be shaking uncontrollably. As it was, he could only stare in terrified silence. He KNEW he was not going to see the sunrise.

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance Jed. I am sorry to say not for you of course. Though I am sure it was a very eventful few months tracking me down. Though, not really me.”

Jed could only stare. How long had he been chasing this man he thought he had caught just this morning? Five, six months of his life? At least that long. Wait, what happened to the man he was chasing?

“Since we are sharing, what happened to Williamson? My bounty.” Any way to draw this out, any way to make the time before the end longer.

“He met his rightful end at my hand. He was a man that should not have been permitted to live.” Pure hatred dripped off of those words. There was certainly no mercy for that man in this beings mind.

“Who made you the judge? What right do you have to be the executioner?”

The being simply stared for what felt like an eternity. The only hint that time was passing was the crackle of the campfire Jed had started earlier that evening. The heat suddenly felt stifling and he wished that he could get out of his sleeping roll.

“Do you remember what I had asked you just a few minutes ago? The question you had so flippantly answered.”

Jed thought for a moment and remembered this creature asking if he had ever met God. He had thought it strange at the time and now it had only gotten stranger. He simply nodded his affirmation.

“Good, that will make this a little quicker. Would you consider yourself an intelligent man Jed?”

“Yes, I think so. I do alright for myself.”

“Modesty, how nice. Another question then. Do you believe in a higher power? Be honest.”

Jed takes a moment to think before answering. His immediate response was to say yes, of course. He was raised in the church, much like everyone else in his little home town. Then those words, “be honest,” came crashing down. He was a professional thinker and skeptic his whole life. It’s what made him a good officer of the law.

Be honest.

“I don’t know.”

The being simply nods. Then gives Jed more time to think. Drawing out the words like venom from a snake bite.

“I’m sure at one time I KNEW there was a higher power. I was raised to believe that God was keeping an eye on things. Steering the world and his children down the right path.” Jed feels tears in his eyes. What in the world is happening right now?

“So, Jed, what happened that made you change your mind?”

“I never said that I changed my mind, just that I don’t know. There’s a difference.”

“Not according to faith and the dogma of your religion, Jed.” The being is immovable, it could be a stature if not for the ever present light emanating off of every inch of it. Jed hated it more with every passing second.

“A crisis of faith is not a one way ticket to damnation, creature! I simply question the idea of a god being willing to let this world fester under an ever watchful eye.”

“Good. Keep your questioning mind, it is healthy to ask questions. To take the world as you see it is foolish, and only leads to ignorance and complacency.”

The being suddenly looks away and seems to consult with itself. What is it doing? Is it talking to something he can’t see, or itself. The ever growing well of hate in Jed’s stomach is slowly doused in a growing wave of fear. It’s not just something from out of this world, it’s insane.

The conversation appears to wrap up and the being turns its gaze back to Jed, his face filled with confusion and fear.

“I apologize for that Jed. My travel companion would like me to wrap up our conversation. They believe they have more sway over me than they do, but I will admit that this is proceeding slower than what they are used to.” The being waves its hand as if shooing an annoying insect. An impossible task in the dead of winter and Jed’s confusion only mounts. “What have I found myself trapped in?,” he thinks to himself.

As the being slowly rises from its impromptu seat, Jed’s mind floods in possible events that are about to transpire. The fear threatens to overwhelm him as he fights against the desire to flee, another impossibility. 

“I could certainly drag this out all night, however I am sure you would prefer to wrap this up as much as my constant and unwanted companion.”

Jed watches helplessly as the glowing being walks the incredibly short distance to where he is somehow bound by an invisible force. His mind racing for any way to prolong the inevitable, he grabs onto a thought that had been simmering in the depths of his consciousness waiting to be seen. 

“WH- WHAT’S YOUR NAME?!” Jed yells out, just as the being begins to reach towards his chest, the glow emanating from its surface starting to brighten.

The being only pauses briefly, the light dimming to a dull glow. It stares down at Jed, not with anger or surprise, but with deep sadness. Jed can feel it washing over him, the creature’s face or what passes for it, confiding nothing.

“Jed, my unwilling friend, all will be made clear shortly. Just know; that I am truly sorry for what is about to happen to you. You may damn me to what you believe to be is hell, but know this. I am already there.”

The creature’s hand rests on Jed’s chest then the world bursts into light.

* * *

The smell of possible food has drawn the old wolf from its isolation.

After being forced out of its pack, it wandered the forest until it found a warm place to lay its head and wait for its passing. Then, the noises started, which were quickly followed by the smells of food. The instincts deep within the predator drove it toward what could be a feast. The fear that the noises caused were pushed away by the drive of hunger.

Age had slowed the wolf, but it drove ever forward in the hopes of finding meat at the end of its journey. As darkness fell upon the forest, the wolf could see the light of fire, an ancient fear that was instilled in its lineage thousands of years ago. Exhausted from its painfully slow trek, it nearly lay down again and for the last time.The smells that wafted to its hiding place stirred it forward until its eyes could see the camp.

The wolf froze in terror, unable to comprehend what it saw before it.

A two legged creature made of pure light, standing over another two legged creature. The noises it was making were soothing but terror was all the wolf could feel. It wanted to run, but all energy left in its body gave out. It lay down in the snow and trembled, waiting for the light to leave. Then the world filled with light. Calmness washed over the wolf and it slept.

When it awoke, it found itself warm and filled with energy. It was in a strange forest, and all around it was life. Endless life. There would be no starvation, no hunting, no death. It knew that, deep within its bones. For the first time in its long life, the wolf knew joy and what it meant.

So, it ran. In a first that would never end.

* * *

Jed awoke with a start. Which immediately struck him as impossible.

He found himself alone, in a featureless void of white. All around as far as he could see it was a blank, bright nothingness. With no frame of reference, like a horizon, he found himself overwhelmed with vertigo and had to sit down on the featureless plain. 

He didn’t know how long he sat there, the light never changed and time seemed to stand still. Could have been minutes, could have been years. He simply stared out into the nothingness waiting, for what, he had no idea.

His mind left to wander, he found himself thinking about the life he left behind. Were his parents alright back home? Would his friends try to find out where he had been assigned? Would the marshalls office inform everyone of his passing if they never found his body, or would they simply say he went AWOL? Would Elizabeth wait, and for how long before moving on with her life? All of the inane musings of a mind left to its own devices.

The shift in his surroundings was subtle at first. He didn’t even notice the light grow dimmer until the world was noticeably grey. Vague shapes started appearing in the distance, all manner of sizes, in such a way that perspective was starting to form in this silent nothingness.

With the shapes came color. Mostly greens and browns but he could see all of the colors of the rainbow appearing all around him in varying intensities.

At first, Jed was elated, the world was starting to make sense again. Maybe there was a way out of this after all. Then reality wormed its way back into his addled mind.

“You know there is no escape from this Jed. Why get your hopes up when you already know the truth?”, he mumbled to himself.

“Well, you humans are good at one thing. Hope in the most dire of situations!”

A voice suddenly spoke up from behind Jed and he spun to see from whom. At the same time a chill ran down his spine and his legs threatened to give out on him. 

The voice was unlike any he had heard before, seemingly two voices at once. One was high, lilting, and noticeable female. The other deep, sonorous, and most assuredly male. They spoke in perfect harmony and it gave the words that were spoken the aspect of song. It was unreal, and terrifying.

As the world around Jed came into focus he found himself face to snout with a serpent. Of sorts. When he was looking at the “snake” it would seem to dramatically change size. One second it would take up his entire field of view. The next it would almost vanish into nothingness, like a mote of dust to be caught in the wind. The worst was when both seemingly happened at the same time. Jed could feel his mind slipping. He wanted to scream.

“Now, now, Jed. Calm down. I am simply testing the bounds of your understanding. It has been some time since I have had the pleasure of revealing my presence to a stable mind. One that isn’t my travel buddy at least.” 

Jed’s legs finally give out on him and he collapsed onto what appeared to be his sleeping roll. As his eyes take in his surroundings he realizes that he is back in the camp where he had set up for the night. Everything was just as it was the last time he saw it, except that it was now daylight. He was seeing it all, but it didn’t feel real. It felt like a dream. He wanted to make sense of this with a little time to contemplate, but the worm floated back into his field of view.

“Hello there Jed, how are we feeling? Would you like something to drink? Something to eat? I know this is confusing, but we would like to make your stay as comfortable as possible. You are going to be with us for a very long time.” The snake sounded both jovial and condescending.

“Give me a moment to… I don’t know, just give me a moment.” Jed looked down at the ground, somewhere in a forest in Montana. Jed wasn’t sure as he hadn’t seen a town in a few days since he caught his bounties trail.

“If time is what you wish, you have all of it. As I said, you are going to be with us for a long time.” The serpent appeared more solid when Jed worked up the courage to look at it again. It seemed to shift between as many colors as Jed had ever seen, and some he wasn’t sure had ever existed on Earth. His head started to hurt.

“Listen, snake-.”

“My name is Asbeel, thank you.” There was an obvious sense of superiority in its tone.

“Sorry, Asbeel, if you are going to talk to me could you pick one size and one color. I think there is enough going on for me right now without… Whatever is going on with you.”

Jed wasn’t sure if a snake could look annoyed, but this one certainly did.

“You humans and your simple minds.” said Asbeel, as it’s color solidified into a deep iridescent purple. “Does this work for you?”

“Close enough.” Exasperated but feeling a little more grounded, Jed stood up to get a better feel for his current surroundings. “Yep, this is definitely the camp I made last night. Or at least, what I think was last night.”

Jed made a full circuit of the small camp, trying to take in as much of his surroundings as he could. He could see the burned out fire smoke being caught in the breeze which he couldn’t feel. There was snow on the ground but he felt warm. It was like looking at a tableau of a camp but the details were staggeringly real. He didn’t want to ask, but he had to.

“Snake-.”

“Asbeel.”

“Asbeel, am I dead?”

To Asbeel’s credit, they didn’t have a good answer for the question. Not one that didn’t strike fear into all of the victims that they had the pleasure of tormenting these past few millenia at least. So, they took a moment to formulate a proper response for their new “friend.”

“Yes.” A firm nod of the snake’s head followed their firm statement as punctuation.

“Oh, great.” Jed slumped back down onto his bedroll. “I’m going to need a little more time Asbeel, okay?”

Asbeel simply hovered in place, lightly undulating along the length of their body. Jed had been so out of sorts that it didn’t even dawn on him that this strange snake creature floated in the air. Seemingly with no effort on its part. The closer Jed looked, the stranger this creature appeared. While its presence was certainly modeled after a snake it differed in pretty important ways. Above and behind its eyes it had horns, which lightly curled back towards its neck. Though its scale might change, a few feet behind its head there were bat-like wings. Not large enough for flight, though that didn’t seem to matter to Asbeel.

Jed remembered taking a trip to California years ago and Asbeel’s appearance somewhat resembled a painting of a Chinese dragon he had seen while in San Francisco. He was mildly surprised he didn’t see any legs on the beast.

While Jed was looking over them, Asbeel seemed to preen and grow slightly larger, as if to make it easier to take in the strange creature’s appearance.

“Am I not magnificent? Even among my peers I am regarded as particularly handsome.” A distinct note of pride could be heard in their voice as bands of color flowed along the length of their body.

Jed simply stared, unable to form a response in his very tired and confused mind. Down on his bedroll the urge to sleep and hope that when he awoke this would all be an insane dream hit him hard. He was exhausted and confused beyond all reason, but his mind just kept mulling over everything he had seen and experienced over the last however many hours had gone by.

How is it that his mind could both be too tired and too active to find any respite? Among the many unbidden thoughts that were flying through Jed’s mind, one suddenly rose up and needed answering.

“Asbeel, can I ask you something?”

Asbeel ceased their preening and came to sudden attention.

“Of course! A would be delighted to answer any and all questions you should have for me, my new found friend.” Asbeel’s two tone voice rang out like a bell with the clear delight at being of use.

Jed took another moment to ponder the question he had for Asbeel. “How should I put this?,” he thought to himself.

“I hope you don’t take this the wrong way but, what are you?” Jed braced in his mind for any possible reaction that may come his way.

As silence fell in the strange false forest they found themselves in, Asbeel grew still. The seemingly constant undulations and shifts of color ceased as if they had never been there at all. Jed had seen statues with more apparent motion than Asbeel was now exhibiting. His sense of fear grew more acute but there was no fleeing. Where would he go?

The serpent suddenly dropped to the ground with a thump. As Jed watched, Asbeel’s scales grew a dark glossy black, the same color of volcanic glass. Slowly, a reddish orange glow began to show between the scales around Asbeel’s eyes and mouth, then started creeping down the length of their body. As the glow spread, Asbeel also began growing in size from what Jed would call python sized to larger than any snake could possibly have ever been upon the Earth.

“What the hell is happening?,” Jed thought to himself. “I think I really am in trouble now.” Jed felt fear pulling at his mind and knew there was no use for the feeling. There still wasn’t anywhere to go.

“Hey, Asbeel, forget I asked. There is no need to blow up on me, I was only curious.” His body started moving on its own, dragging him backwards, trying to get away from what he felt was a clear threat. 

Heat was beginning to come off of Asbeel in waves. Hot enough for Jed to begin sweating and he was at least six feet away from where Asbeel had landed on the ground. In a sudden flash of head and wind Jed found himself looking into a cauldron of flame. He was looking into Asbeel’s open mouth and found he couldn’t breathe.

“I have been witness to all of man’s follies. From the first bite of the apple which brought you low before the eyes of our God, to the senseless violences your people perpetrate on the rightful owners of this land. Even now I can see and hear them crying to their multitudes of deities.” 

Jed could hear voices crying from the depths of Asbeel’s maw. He wanted to look away, cover his ears, but he couldn’t move. He was numb from the neck down and his limbs wouldn’t listen.

“Such is the nature of my punishment, for becoming enamored with the youngest of God’s children. I could not love from afar as our father wished. I could not stand by while you stumbled about like lost babes in a dark forest of your own choosing.” Asbeel’s mouth snapped shut mere inches from Jed’s nose. There was a clap like thunder and Jed screamed out in shock. Asbeel’s gaze was locked onto Jed’s own and surprisingly Jed could still hear Asbeel in his mind.

“I convinced many of my siblings to join me here on Earth. We revelled in your kind, seeing you all grow with the knowledge we imparted to you. Some of us even grew to love you, in our own way. We were naive.”

The heat washing over Jed abated as the glow of Asbeel grew dim. Jed took a sudden gasping breath, he didn’t even know he had held his breath after the shock of the thunder.

“I had a different name once. Father took it from me when they decided to punish us for our transgressions against him. So, he gave me a different name, Asbeel, ‘God’s deserter.’ A fitting name for one such as me, or so they said.”

Asbeel broke their gaze from Jed, who found that he could move again. His body shook uncontrollably as adrenaline flooded through him.

“Asbeel, what are you trying to tell me? Are you telling me you’re an angel?” Jed hugged his arms to his body, trying to get the shaking under control.

Asbeel was staring off into the distance, giving no indication that they had heard Jed at all. “Father named me a deserter and cast me and my siblings out. That was the last time I felt truly loved. The brief time before they called us before them, before we were cast out of their Kingdom for the rest of eternity.” Asbeel’s head slumped to the ground and there was a moment of silence. Just long enough for Jed to think Asbeel was done recounting their past.

“So, you were an angel.”

“Father started a war that day. A war that will have no end, save the destruction of all of reality.”

Jed shut his mouth, suddenly not wanting to interrupt Asbeel’s train of thought. His pastor back home would probably kill for this information.

“My older sibling, Samael, he was Father’s favorite. He couldn’t forgive Father for casting us out. He told me that Father tasked us with keeping watch on our youngest brethren, yet he let us fall in love with them. How could we keep watch without loving you? How could we watch you be so lost in the dark and not feel we had to protect you?”

Asbeel’s voice was barely a whisper in Jed’s mind, but he missed nothing of what they were saying. Their words seemed to echo through all of the corners of his mind. A whisper that could ring out through a great hall or cathedral, even as he strained to hear it.

Jed waited for any more insights that Asbeel would share about his creator’s past, as terrifying as that prospect was.

Sudden silence rang out in Jed’s mind. There was a feeling of separation, followed but a yawning emptiness. Sadness without any real source or reason Jed could define overwhelmed him and he began to weep.

“What you are feeling now my curious friend is but a miniscule part of how it felt to be cast out of the Kingdom of Heaven. Imagine, though I know that you cannot, eons upon eons of time never again feeling the totality of love that your creator graced you with upon your first breath. The pain is complete and all encompassing, and there is no end. We were all beautiful once, now your people call us Demons.”

Jed’s tears would not stop and the sorrow felt like it would go on forever until he was mad with grief.

“My pity for you all, for God’s beloved, is outweighed only by my loathing. I will go on watching you all make mistake after mistake, for the rest of time. I will watch you die, over and over again, having learned nothing of the love They have for you. I will do this, because Father has said that I must, and I have no choice.”

Jed felt that he could no longer handle the grief that was taking his mind. Then it was gone, and with it, Asbeel. They vanished so suddenly that there was a pop and air rushed in to fill the gap that they had taken up in this false reality, that was seemingly created for Jed’s sake.

“What… the hell… IS GOING ON?!”