William H. Hallahan - (3 page)

Later, Michael returned with his exhausted but victorious troops
and he passed by the shattered Timothy.

"If I were Lucifer," Michael said to Timothy, "I
would have cause for cursing you for all eternity."
 
 

They fell. Into an unknown world, a black void with only the
rushing air in their ears, tumbling, turning, shouting with terror
and hearing the cries of the others. Some feared that they would fall
like this forever.

Entire legions of once-bright angels fell for seven days and seven
nights. Then suddenly, they struck firm ground and were immediately
hit by other angels who fell on top of them. They crashed on a broken
terrain covered with gritty mud and wetness. Foul, sulfurous smoke
roiled about them and a dead red glow emanated from some of the
rocks. Nearby was a lake of fire.

None moved. They were in agony and barely conscious.
 
 

The Lord summoned Michael and Abdiel to His sanctum. They sat at
the conference table and the Lord was possessed by wrath. But He
spoke very little.

Abdiel lay back in his chair, hands clasped before him, a leg
thrust straight out. "Punishment," he said. "There
must be punishment."

"Forgiveness," Michael said. "Wounds must be
healed. Their punishment already has been terrible."

"Tell me," Abdiel demanded, "what punishment for
Lucifer can equal what he did?"

"For Lucifer has suffered the greatest self-punishment of
all. Defeat."

Abdiel slowly thumped the table with his fist in cadence with his
words. "Lucifer must be made to pay. He must be made to kneel
before the heavenly throne and apologize and beg facedown for
forgiveness. The Lord must stand upon Lucifer's neck!"

Michael looked at the Lord. "Turn the other cheek, Lord."

"Ha!" cried Abdiel.

"Lucifer is a proud angel," Michael said. "He felt
justified in his act. He was demoted." Michael fixed his eyes on
the Lord. "He felt disgraced. With no explanation. He was
unfairly treated."

The Lord sat bemused. He didn't answer Michael's accusations. He
kept a thoughtful hand over His mouth as He turned His gaze to
Abdiel.

"Punish him," Abdiel demanded. "If You do not
punish him, then the others who remained loyal will feel slighted.
Loyalty will be set at naught in heaven. Other rebellions will
follow. This must never happen again."

"If You punish Lucifer, it
will
happen again,"
Michael insisted. "There will be warfare for eternity. We will
never know peace again. Love will grow sickly and languish. Sad times
will prevail."

The Lord made no answer.

"What about Timothy and his forces?" Michael demanded.
"If we punish Lucifer, then Timothy's forces may join Lucifer's.
We won't fool him a second time. Together Lucifer and Timothy can
overwhelm us. We can't afford vengeance."

The Lord stirred Himself and looked with burning eyes at Michael.
"Leave Timothy to me," He said.

"This was not of our doing," Abdiel insisted. He pointed
a blunt unbending finger at Michael. "Ask Lucifer if he
forgives! Ask him if he will return here and live in obedience. Ask
him!"
 
 

In the end Abdiel's arguments prevailed. He was sent to hell to
deal with Lucifer. And Abdiel found Lucifer and his forces still
writhing in great pain from their fall. They were shadowy figures in
the half-light that came from the glowing rocks, and the fitful
flames of the burning lake. They were black and mired from the muck
they lay in.

Abdiel's legions searched among the falling with glowing torches,
pulling them apart, kicking them to wakefulness, searching for
Lucifer. They found him sitting on a rock, staring at the ground,
almost catatonic in his self-absorption. They led him to Abdiel.

"I am to tell you, Lucifer," Abdiel said, "that you
must abnegate yourself before the Lord. Your crimes must be examined
in open court before all the loyal angels. You must kiss His feet and
beg forgiveness and suffer Him to stand on your neck. Then you will
be readmitted to heaven but you will be shunned by the others. And
these--" Abdiel swept his hand over the entire lot of the
fallen. "These will be readmitted in a newer category of angel,
serving the wishes of those angels who remained loyal, fetching and
running errands."

Gradually, Lucifer gathered himself. "I am Lucifer," he
said to Abdiel. "There is no one else like me in all of heaven.
Had that Timothy behaved like a soldier on a field of battle, I would
be dictating the terms now, not you. It was not my desire to rebel.
But I was disgraced before the others, cast aside--poor payment for
my service and loyalty. Now, I will not kneel. I will not beg. I will
not submit to the Lord's standing on my neck. And I will not live in
heaven a pariah, shunned by the others."

Abdiel nodded at his lieutenant. Lucifer was seized and chained
hand and foot. The reviving angels raised a murmur. Lucifer was
pinioned, arms outstretched to a dank wall. And the murmuring grew to
an outcry.

"Are you going to whip him?" Beelzebub demanded.

"We are going to whip him," Abdiel answered.

"You cannot. You must not!" Beelzebub cried. "If
you do, it will be warfare forever!"

Abdiel did not answer Beelzebub. Instead he nodded again at his
lieutenant. Lucifer's white gown was ripped from his back and two
angels were set to scourge him.

"There will be no turning back if you do this, Abdiel,"
Beelzebub said. "The breach will never be mended, the wounds
never healed."

Abdiel nodded a third time at his lieutenant and the whipping
began. With the first blow Lucifer turned his face and looked at
Abdiel, and his angry eyes never left the other's face throughout the
whipping. With each sigh of the whip through the air, with each
terrible stroke across Lucifer's back, his fallen legions cried out.

"Abdiel!" Beelzebub called. "If we had defeated
you, we would not have done this to you."

Many of the fallen were now on their feet and by torchlight they
stood in great agitation, crying out with each stroke. Abdiel
watched, his arms crossed, his chin thrust out. And all through the
whipping, Lucifer never took his eyes off Abdiel.

"You can never undo what you have done here," Beelzebub
said when the whipping stopped.

"I am not finished," Abdiel said. "I will give you
more to remember."

Now Lucifer was led away from the wall, still in chains, to the
edge of the burning lake. He was seized by four of Abdiel's troops.
When it was clear what they meant to do to Lucifer a great cry went
up. A furious scuffle began in the darkness and Abdiel's troops found
themself fighting off Lucifer's angels. But the great Fall had taken
away their strength and they were not organized. Quickly they were
put down and Abdiel nodded once more.

With a great swing the four angels threw Lucifer into the burning
lake. The pain was beyond anything he had ever imagined. Molten fire
seared the welts and cuts on his back, penetrated to the very marrow,
and he rose with a roar of agony to the surface of the lake, spinning
and writhing, maddened by the pain. At his cries his troops cried out
with dismay.

"Take him out!" they called out to Abdiel. But Abdiel
stood high upon his rock and watched Lucifer and ignored their pleas.

Lucifer's violent thrashing in the lake of fire slowed at last and
he became quiet. Only his head showed above the surface, licked by
the flames and occasionally obliterated by the smoke.

"Timothy!" Lucifer shouted. "Timothy! What have you
done?"

Then he became still. He endured the unendurable in silence, his
eyes fixed solely on Abdiel.
 
 

Abdiel kept Lucifer in the lake of fire for fourteen days. Then at
last he ordered Lucifer removed. But whereas an angel was thrown into
the lake, a ravening beast came out.

He was charred and blackened and filthy with mud and dirt and from
this burnt hulk stared two insane green eyes.

Lucifer stood facing Abdiel. "You threw Lucifer into the
fire," he said to Abdiel "And you pulled out Satan."

"Adversary," Abdiel said. "We do not fear you at
all. You will remain here in darkness and gloom forever. Without
hope. You will be an eternal lesson for all others who might consider
trying your ways."

Abdiel ordered Lucifer chained to the wall, hand and foot.

"Behold your great leader," Abdiel said to the fallen.
"God help the one of you who cuts him free. He is to remain with
you here. You are all castaways from heaven. Forever."

And as Abdiel and his forces were leaving, the Lord threw one more
lightning bolt. It struck Lucifer on the thigh and ran down his left
leg, scarring it indelibly.

Over the entrance to the great gloomy chamber, Abdiel had
inscribed, ABANDON ALL HOPE, ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE.

In despair the fallen angels settled to the ground and many wept.
Hell was a terrible pit. It was the domain of Chaos, where the
flickering light turned everyone and everything into shadows. No
living light ever touched there. No vegetation grew anywhere. The air
was rank, stinking, smoke-filled. Fire issued from the rocks.

The angels slumped on the ground around Lucifer in the great
underworld Hall of Pandemonium. Nearby flowed the black dead River
Styx.

Lucifer watched them all collapsed with grief. "Never,"
Beelzebub said, "never to see the plains of Elysium, the fields
of flowers, the soft bright light of heaven. Never to hear the
purling of the streams, never to hear the heavenly choirs. Never to
smell the ambrosia. Never to taste the nectar. Never to feel our
hearts singing within us." And Beelzebub tore his hair and
poured ashes on his head. "Despair. No hope for evermore."

Satan cast his eyes about his fallen followers as they lay and
wept and tore their hair.

"What is this!" he cried out to them. "What manner
of creatures are you?"

They heard his words and they stood and gathered about him, gazing
with pain-filled eyes at his charred body and at the thick links that
bound him, a miserable creature, chained to the nethermost rock in
the entire universe. Miserable save for the eyes. They were two round
balls of green flame, burning like the lake that had ignited them.

"Hear me!" he bellowed. "Hear me well!" he
watched them gather still closer. "We have lost a battle, not a
war. Abdiel has left you a lifetime supply of despair. And you are
all supping it up. But I have better fare for you. I have a mighty
banquet that will fill your bellies all the days of eternity. I bring
you revenge! I bring you the joys of revenge. You will have your day
again. We will war on heaven. Without the treachery of Timothy. You
will conquer heaven. You will be victorious!"

They tried to take heart. They nodded at each other and essayed a
few grins.

But Beelzebub said, "What is your plan? How will we get out
of here? And where is your revenge?" And he gazed at the piteous
creature chained to the wall. And he sat down in renewed despair.
Then the others did the same, and sitting they held their heads in
their hands. And Satan stared out at his fallen legions collapsed in
despair. There was only one thing that would save them. His
unconquerable will. But he was unable to move, to plan, to act,
chained thus to the wall in the Stygian darkness. How could he
escape?
 
 

The Lord now created Eden. And in that paradise, populated with
all living creatures, in the water, in the air and on the ground, He
put Adam, making him from clay and breathing the holy spirit in him.
And Adam looked at Eden, at the Pishon River and its three other
branches that watered the Garden and at all the living creatures, and
he said:

"I want a companion."

And the Lord agreed and created Eve from Adam's rib.

Then He left them with one admonition. "Do not eat the fruit
from the tree of knowledge. If you do, you will know death."
 
 

Beelzebub went up to Satan, who stood in his chains. "He has
created man," he said. "And he has put him in a separate
paradise called Eden which is on the blue planet."

Satan nodded. "Call them all together. All the fallen."

And they came, wraithlike shadows, crawling in despair over the
stinking ground of Chaos to the great Hall of Pandemonium. And Satan
announced the creation of this new creature.

"Man lives," he said. "And he is the apple of the
Lord's eye. We will blacken that eye. It is the beginning of our new
war on heaven." Then he nodded at Beelzebub, who led into their
midst a hooded figure all in black astride a black stallion. And all
the fallen drew back from it in fright.

"Death," Satan said. "Our weapon against heaven.
The end of immortality. And the first victim will be man himself. I
say that soon these halls will be teeming with fallen mortals brought
here by Death for punishment." And Satan ordered the fallen to
prepare the chambers of hell as a place of pain, torment and torture
for sinning mankind. And the fallen soon created forges and weapons
and tools and prepared the chambers for man. And they formed
themselves into a Congress with committees and subcommittees and they
agreed to assume the hideous shapes of man's nightmares and they made
themselves ugly in the eyes of God and they cursed everything
beautiful and good and light-filled.

Satan now announced that he himself would go to Eden to seduce
man. But Beelzebub and the others looked on him with doubt for he was
weighted with heavy chains. Beelzebub in particular doubted that
Satan could seduce this new creature, man. In the Hall of Pandemonium
all the fallen in their hideous new countenances began to bicker and
quarrel and a great noise of confusion filled that place.

Satan swelled himself until he seemed to tower over all of his
followers. Then as the bickering died away and they all watched him
astonished, in a frenzy of rage he burst his chains. The exploding
links made a thundering sound that echoed throughout the cosmos. It
was audible even in heaven. Pandemonium was stunned. Satan was free.