The Way, the Truth, and...(Complexity)

He drew from the fires that burned throughout the city and intensified them until they were bright blue. Everyone from the richest to the poorest stopped in awe of this feat. The Marked One, able to sense danger like an old sewer rat, leapt to his feet and attempted to flee, but to no avail. With a wave of his hand, Dunkleflemme spread the flames throughout Gomorrah until it became one big flame- engulfing everything. People screamed for only seconds before they could scream no longer, and within five minutes, all that could be heard was the roar of the fire.

There must be nothing left of the city, a voice seemed to say to Dunkleflemme.

Dunkleflemme looked out at the vast expanse of sand that surrounded the city, and began to lift it high into the sky. The sand was spun into a vortex, gaining momentum until finally...

...It was sent crashing into the burning city. The sand wore everything down until nothing, not even the Marked One's concubines were distinguishable from ordinary grains of sand. The flames were smothered and the city had been completely destroyed.

Another portal appeared.

Well done...

Dunkleflemme leapt through the portal and fell slowly down into the Gray Room. He stood up with a quiet smile on his face, happy with the job he did.

He looked down at Otiena, who was now marching towards him.

“What do you think?” he asked, content enough to want to try to be jovial with the she-demon, “I’d say that I-“

Otiena reared back and slapped him hard. Her hand tingled uncomfortably as she lowered back to her side.

“How dare you,” she said.

Dunkleflemme’s eyes intensified dangerously.

“How dare I what?”

“Toss me aside like rubbish while you decimate an entire city just to get one man.”

“Why would you care? These people mean nothing to you,” he said, his voice strained. He tried to calm the twitch in his left wing.

“This is true. They don’t matter to me at all- but what you have just done is excessive. You say that my actions are appalling? How many innocents have you just killed, you hypocrite?”

Dunkleflemme walked up to her, towering over her small frame. He looked into her vacuous eyes, wishing he could find some way to plug them up- permanently. They both appeared ready to tear at each others’ throats.

“None,” a calm voice interjected. It seemed so out of place amidst the thick tension in the room.

They looked at the sliding wall of the Gray Room as it slid open and revealed their Creator. The two demons moved apart and relaxed, but only slightly.

Lucifer smiled and shook his head at them both.

“Ah…youth,” he said, turning his gaze on Otiena, “He killed no innocents. That entire city was bad. He simply did as I asked him to.”

Otiena’s gaze dropped.

Why wasn’t I told? she wondered.

“I see,” she said.

“Don’t be angry, Otiena,” Lucifer said softly, “It is not meant that we know everything. You worked as separate units and each did your separate parts.”

He looked at Dunkleflemme.

“And if you continue to work separately, as you seem to intend, then you will only need to know your separate jobs…but I hope it doesn’t have to be that way.”

“So what do you want us to do?” Otiena asked, able to look at neither Lucifer nor Dunkleflemme in the eyes.

Lucifer touched her chin gently, guiding her face to look at his.

“I want you to train…as one.”

She looked at Dunkleflemme, and they both shuddered.

“I will do as you wish,” she said softly, bowing her head to look away from her Creator.

There was a pause as Dunkleflemme considered.

Why would I possibly need to work with her? What can she do that I can’t find a better substitute?

He thought of the Illusion that she projected of him as he fought, as well as her Invisibility Illusion. Both of those things seemed to be suited for him…

Perhaps she could be useful, he conceded to himself.

“As will I,” Dunkleflemme said, much more confidently.

“I’m glad to hear that,” Lucifer said, turning to leave, “Rest, relax, and we will resume training tomorrow.”

With that, Lucifer walked through the wall and disappeared.

Dunkleflemme looked at Otiena, who was staring at where Lucifer disappeared.

“I look forward to training with you,” he said, his tone very formal.

“I don’t,” she said, and walked through the wall.

Dunkleflemme sighed, waiting for the wall to slide open.

More trouble than she is worth… he thought.

He left.

Otiena sighed as she crossed out of the Gray Room. Perhaps…but no. It was impossible. She would never be able to work with him. He was too…serious? That wasn’t quite it, though he was too serious…he was too…arrogant? No more than she, but in a different way-surely. Why didn’t she like him? Weren’t they supposed to be counterparts? Two halves to a whole? It seemed to her that they were more like the poles of magnetized metal. They are an inseparable end result of a greater magnet, but still diametrically opposed. North and south. A means to the entire magnet’s end. She didn’t mind that so much, it simply seemed cruel that north and south must remain…

Inseparable…Otiena thought dejectedly.

She decided to take her mind off of recent events. She took to the skies to find a poor lost soul to entertain her until tomorrow. She found one. A young girl, only thirteen or so, but this girl had sinned in such a way that was, apparently, unredeemable to her God. She had given up her chastity to someone before the union was consummated before one of her holy men. She had loved, he did not. They were discovered, but only she was stoned. He had claimed that she bewitched him, tricked him. Now she was here, bearing the blame of both of them.

Otiena considered this for a moment. There was, in fact, a one God. This was simply something that Otiena knew to be true. This one God had created her Creator- Lucifer. She wasn’t sure if he had been created for this or some other purpose. There were so many things about her Creator that he would not let her see. Like the destruction of Gomorrah…

Otiena clenched her fists. She looked down at the little girl.

Susanna…

The girl looked up.

“Yes?”

Otiena landed on the ground, and began to form an image of the man that had betrayed the little girl. Tears welled up in the girl’s eyes. The image flickered, or perhaps Otiena merely felt herself faltering. The girl didn’t seem to notice. Another image formed- it was another female. The man’s wife. At least, for Otiena’s purpose it was. It didn’t matter, really. The girl that the man now kissed in the Illusion was not this girl, Susanna, and never would be. The girl fell to her knees, now sobbing freely. The Illusions embraced each other, drew close…

The Illusion dissipated like a thick fog that is exposed to a rising sun.

Otiena stepped within a few inches of the girl, kneeled, and brought Susanna’s face close to hers.

“This is what your love has earned you…nothing. Your God never loved you…so he sent you to us,” she both thought and said to the girl.

Otiena leaned in, almost kissing the girl on her young, red lips. She pulled back from the girl.

There is no love here, either. Or anywhere else. Love is a fallacy, and you, my pretty fool, fell for it. Feel ashamed.

“No,” Susanna said, strong despite her tears, “There is love. I have felt it.”

“And your unborn child felt the effects of this ‘love’ that you claim to have felt. Did you know? Of course you did…”

Susanna looked away from this she-demon, Otiena.

“What do you want?”

Otiena stood up and smiled perniciously at this little girl.

“Absolutely nothing,” she said, and allowed her invisibility Illusion to consume her as she floated as far away from the girl as possible. She was not entertaining in the least.

Otiena flew across the dismal landscapes of Hell, trying to outrun her thoughts. What place was this that would punish love? What about those that stoned her? What about the man that betrayed her? This girl was not like the Marked One, or any of the other Damned that she had come across. She was…

“Guilty. Just like the rest of them,” she said aloud, trying to convince herself.

Of what? She wondered.

“Adultery.”

The man committed adultery.

“Blasphemy.”

She was angry. She had been betrayed.

“By her God?”

Otiena stopped in mid air.

“Yes…and her love…and her people…but her God, especially. Where was the mercy that she had been taught He could possess? She could make no sacrifice to appease him, according to the rules of her people. She was killed in accordance to His law…but where, then, is her lover? Why does he still live? Why can he offer a burnt offering and then be permitted to live and even participate in killing this girl? What kind of God would be so wrongly biased…and what is the basis for this bias? Does my Creator serve this…tyrant? Or is he opposed? I must know…I cannot serve this God.”

“There is so much that I don’t understand...but I must know. Who are we punishing, when the day is over?”

Otiena sat down on the dry, red ground and looked up into the gray sky.

This place is so ugly…