Post by fellbelow on Jul 25, 2006 11:46:01 GMT -5
Here's the Prologue to this story. I just wrote it about a month ago in my Fiction Workshop class. Hope you guys can read it and enjoy.
I couldn't fit the warning in the title so here it is. Later parts of this story contain strong language. Sorry, it's just something I'm accustomed to and it flows when I write.
Also, the theme of this first section may bother some people, but please:
Keep in mind that this is fiction. These are not my beliefs on how things truly happened "in the beginning."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Breathe, Bleed, Begin”
Breathing.
In and out. Hold and release. Fill and deflate. In. Fill. Hold. Release. Out. Deflate.
Adam’s only function at the moment was to breathe. Empty veins were tunneled every which way throughout his body. Nerves ran their circuit from head to toe but carried no frequencies. His brain sat dormant in his head, no thoughts to give it function. Synapses lay lifeless just as his body.
Not dead. Without life. It wasn’t there and had never been. That part was coming.
At the moment, Adam’s only function was to breathe.
---------------
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That part can be skipped.
Initial creation had been the easy part. It was all planets and stars and space. That may seem like it would be complicated and time-consuming, but it took no real thought. Planets don’t have clashing personalities. God didn’t have to worry about giving a star the ability to deal with the anxiety of becoming a red giant and, eventually, exploding into nothing. Space didn’t need to have the thought capacity to contemplate its own massive existence. A nebula would never, ever, call a personal crusade and say its purpose was God’s will. Initial creation was all you go here, you go there, not too close, and don’t let your gases mix or the universe goes boom.
Easy.
In its simplicity, however, sat its problem. The universe, wondrous as it was, could not hail God’s glory. Nothing and no one was there to stand in awe of the amazing things God did. He did, after all, create an entire universe with no preexisting model, and as easy as it was for him, no one else could have done it. God was feeling unfulfilled.
He created angels, beings fashioned from light whose sole purpose was to worship God day and night. They were created from day one with all intentions of having no free will and no conscious thought. Bow. Pray. Worship. Exalt. This was all an angel would do. Day in. Day out.
He called forth His host of angels and asked that they would stand before Him. They came from all corners of Heaven. Distant, distinguished dots all clear and separate from one another flew in to take their places at the feet of God. As they came closer, the dots grew into more distinctive creatures and when they came even closer, all gathered before Him, they converged into a mass that moved as one being and bowed at His feet. This happened every day. Constant adoration and praise and love and exaltation and adulation and offering and service and it all came to a point. It got old.
God knew that the angels meant well, but He knew that because He had made them to mean well. They could feel no other way. They could not hate God, could not hold Him accountable for the things that went wrong in their lives because nothing went wrong in their lives. Their lives consisted of nothing but adoring Him every day. Thus, their praise was empty and God came to realize this.
The idea of Man was born from the angels’ empty adoration. Man would be everything the angels could not be. They could, and many would, hate God.
God smiled at the thought of mankind. The wars that would start in His name, the ones who would degrade His name in the streets and surround it with swears and curses, the ones who would ignore Him completely, and the ones who would knock on other men’s doors at six in the morning and ask, “Have you found God?” The tests and hard times that free will would face man with would result in their adoration being the most appreciable kind. Chosen.
Somewhere, an angel wept.
----------
The tunnel walls were dry and cracked from disuse. The tunnels had been formed for days now without purpose. They were beginning to shrink because of their lack of moisture and Adam’s body was suffering. His veins needed blood coursing through them soon or else he would become totally dehydrated and flake away in the wind.
Then it came like a hurricane flood. Over the surface of his body and into his skin it flowed and seeped. As it forced its way hurriedly down his veins they made a sound like a sigh of relief for their final saturation. The blood made its way to Adam’s head and his brain got its first taste of life and activity. Synapses fired orders through the nerves of his body for the first time and they all had one order.
At the moment, Adam’s only function was to wake up.
-------------
Lucifer was made with more care and devotion than the rest of the angels were. He had been the first off the line and God had put the most of Himself into him. The Morningstar. He was the first of his kind. The mold that all other angels were cast from was set by his standards and the rest of them were only cheap imitations. Lucifer knew this and it gave him a sense of pride, a feeling that no other angel could possibly comprehend. He stood on a plane completely his own above the other angels and nearly even with God Himself. Lucifer’s tie with God was greater than the rest of the angels’.
So he felt it when He betrayed them in thought.
Lucifer knew it before the rest of them could even consider the thought. God was tiring of them and He was steady at work on the idea of a new creation. He fought the feeling at first. There could be no way that God could tire of them. He had made them perfect for their function and they never failed it. They never slipped a day since their conception and they never would. They couldn’t.
Then he knew it. That was it. They were too perfect. He could see into every corner of God’s thought and he saw it all. God’s decreasing sense of purpose that he used to draw from their presence, His need for something new, something flawed. Lucifer saw it all and could not understand it. He could not understand why God would want such a rough and unkempt creature as his ultimate tool for worship. They would have the capacity for deceit and hate. No angel in existence could even fathom these ideas.
But he had. By sitting there and infiltrating God’s thoughts, he had not only fathomed deceit, but he had seen it played out before him. The tears that now stung his divine cheeks were tears of not just hate, but rage. God was replacing the angels without them even knowing it and he was the only the one that would be able to see it.
Lucifer felt himself being called then. From all corners of Heaven they came. Distant, distinguished dots all clear and separate from one another flew in to take their places at the feet of God. As they came closer, the dots grew into more distinctive creatures and when they came even closer, all gathered before Him, they converged into a mass that moved as one being and bowed at His feet. With a straggler.
Without a word being spoken they all knew what they were being asked. God needed the angels to do the one thing that none of them had ever been expected to do. He needed them to bleed. Not a lot from each individual, just a bit from here and a bit from there until He had enough to pump life into the first man’s now breathing but lifeless body. As they stepped one by one to God and he drained the tiniest amount from each, they never wondered how they bled when they had not been fashioned at creation to do so, and, naturally, they all gave of themselves without question. With one exception.
Lucifer. The Morningstar. The Beginning of the End. He took his place in front of God to give his blood and stared hard into what passed as His eyes. He felt his blood run cold. He wasn’t sure if the blood had always been there, but he felt it now as it chilled inside of him.
“This is not right,” he said as he beat his wings once and soared into the sky and away before God was able to pull blood from him.
There was no doubt in his mind that this action would have severe repercussions. His tie to God was still as strong as ever and he could see everything that He could see. This bond and its consequences had been no mistake. It was meant to happen from the Beginning. God had always known that some incident would arise and Lucifer would leave His side and turn his back on Heaven, but one thing He had not planned on was not having Lucifer’s blood involved His creation of man. Lucifer could see that God would name the first one Adam. He could see many things because of his emphatic connection to God’s omniscience. He could see the army he would raise against God and even their fall, but that would not stop him from rebelling. He could see that not having his blood in the creation of Adam would have severe consequences that God had not anticipated and it would disgust Him. Lucifer knew that one day he would cause man to fall so far as a whole that God would be forced to wipe them from the planet almost entirely. He saw the time line of man played out in front of him in one second and he knew the part he would play. The bad guy.
Lucifer smiled at the thought of mankind. His future was planned out in front of him and man was at the center of a war that would last eons and consume his every thought. He would make God’s struggle for man’s affection a living Hell.
This betrayal would never be forgotten, on either side.
------------------
Adam could feel his hands. Adam could feel.
His limbs ached with a sensation that no other man would ever feel again; the ache of feeling a fully developed, fully functioning limb move for the first time. He stretched his fingers one by one and heard every bone in his body pop as he moved around in the wet dirt. Mud. That was its name.
He knew that, somehow. Adam knew a lot of things. He knew that every piece of knowledge he held was there because God had wanted it to be. He could see the names of every animal that he would encounter in his journey through life. He could feel that his emotions could run the gambit from euphoria to dismal loneliness to fiery rage. He could see his shape and form and knew what he and other men would look like.
Adam smiled at the thought of mankind. Beautiful creatures they would be. He knew it. He could see it.
But Adam also felt a weight that he knew should not be there. Something was off about his make-up. The name “Eve” kept flashing in his mind and it was coupled with an image. An image that he could hear God telling him to love and cherish, but Adam could not see what God wanted him to.
Adam decided to open his eyes then.
What he saw cheered him a great deal. Standing before him was a figure that did not hold to the image of this “Eve,” but rather to a shape more like what he knew to be his own.
“Hi, I’m Lucifer.”
At the moment, Adam’s only function was to begin living.
I couldn't fit the warning in the title so here it is. Later parts of this story contain strong language. Sorry, it's just something I'm accustomed to and it flows when I write.
Also, the theme of this first section may bother some people, but please:
Keep in mind that this is fiction. These are not my beliefs on how things truly happened "in the beginning."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Breathe, Bleed, Begin”
Breathing.
In and out. Hold and release. Fill and deflate. In. Fill. Hold. Release. Out. Deflate.
Adam’s only function at the moment was to breathe. Empty veins were tunneled every which way throughout his body. Nerves ran their circuit from head to toe but carried no frequencies. His brain sat dormant in his head, no thoughts to give it function. Synapses lay lifeless just as his body.
Not dead. Without life. It wasn’t there and had never been. That part was coming.
At the moment, Adam’s only function was to breathe.
---------------
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That part can be skipped.
Initial creation had been the easy part. It was all planets and stars and space. That may seem like it would be complicated and time-consuming, but it took no real thought. Planets don’t have clashing personalities. God didn’t have to worry about giving a star the ability to deal with the anxiety of becoming a red giant and, eventually, exploding into nothing. Space didn’t need to have the thought capacity to contemplate its own massive existence. A nebula would never, ever, call a personal crusade and say its purpose was God’s will. Initial creation was all you go here, you go there, not too close, and don’t let your gases mix or the universe goes boom.
Easy.
In its simplicity, however, sat its problem. The universe, wondrous as it was, could not hail God’s glory. Nothing and no one was there to stand in awe of the amazing things God did. He did, after all, create an entire universe with no preexisting model, and as easy as it was for him, no one else could have done it. God was feeling unfulfilled.
He created angels, beings fashioned from light whose sole purpose was to worship God day and night. They were created from day one with all intentions of having no free will and no conscious thought. Bow. Pray. Worship. Exalt. This was all an angel would do. Day in. Day out.
He called forth His host of angels and asked that they would stand before Him. They came from all corners of Heaven. Distant, distinguished dots all clear and separate from one another flew in to take their places at the feet of God. As they came closer, the dots grew into more distinctive creatures and when they came even closer, all gathered before Him, they converged into a mass that moved as one being and bowed at His feet. This happened every day. Constant adoration and praise and love and exaltation and adulation and offering and service and it all came to a point. It got old.
God knew that the angels meant well, but He knew that because He had made them to mean well. They could feel no other way. They could not hate God, could not hold Him accountable for the things that went wrong in their lives because nothing went wrong in their lives. Their lives consisted of nothing but adoring Him every day. Thus, their praise was empty and God came to realize this.
The idea of Man was born from the angels’ empty adoration. Man would be everything the angels could not be. They could, and many would, hate God.
God smiled at the thought of mankind. The wars that would start in His name, the ones who would degrade His name in the streets and surround it with swears and curses, the ones who would ignore Him completely, and the ones who would knock on other men’s doors at six in the morning and ask, “Have you found God?” The tests and hard times that free will would face man with would result in their adoration being the most appreciable kind. Chosen.
Somewhere, an angel wept.
----------
The tunnel walls were dry and cracked from disuse. The tunnels had been formed for days now without purpose. They were beginning to shrink because of their lack of moisture and Adam’s body was suffering. His veins needed blood coursing through them soon or else he would become totally dehydrated and flake away in the wind.
Then it came like a hurricane flood. Over the surface of his body and into his skin it flowed and seeped. As it forced its way hurriedly down his veins they made a sound like a sigh of relief for their final saturation. The blood made its way to Adam’s head and his brain got its first taste of life and activity. Synapses fired orders through the nerves of his body for the first time and they all had one order.
At the moment, Adam’s only function was to wake up.
-------------
Lucifer was made with more care and devotion than the rest of the angels were. He had been the first off the line and God had put the most of Himself into him. The Morningstar. He was the first of his kind. The mold that all other angels were cast from was set by his standards and the rest of them were only cheap imitations. Lucifer knew this and it gave him a sense of pride, a feeling that no other angel could possibly comprehend. He stood on a plane completely his own above the other angels and nearly even with God Himself. Lucifer’s tie with God was greater than the rest of the angels’.
So he felt it when He betrayed them in thought.
Lucifer knew it before the rest of them could even consider the thought. God was tiring of them and He was steady at work on the idea of a new creation. He fought the feeling at first. There could be no way that God could tire of them. He had made them perfect for their function and they never failed it. They never slipped a day since their conception and they never would. They couldn’t.
Then he knew it. That was it. They were too perfect. He could see into every corner of God’s thought and he saw it all. God’s decreasing sense of purpose that he used to draw from their presence, His need for something new, something flawed. Lucifer saw it all and could not understand it. He could not understand why God would want such a rough and unkempt creature as his ultimate tool for worship. They would have the capacity for deceit and hate. No angel in existence could even fathom these ideas.
But he had. By sitting there and infiltrating God’s thoughts, he had not only fathomed deceit, but he had seen it played out before him. The tears that now stung his divine cheeks were tears of not just hate, but rage. God was replacing the angels without them even knowing it and he was the only the one that would be able to see it.
Lucifer felt himself being called then. From all corners of Heaven they came. Distant, distinguished dots all clear and separate from one another flew in to take their places at the feet of God. As they came closer, the dots grew into more distinctive creatures and when they came even closer, all gathered before Him, they converged into a mass that moved as one being and bowed at His feet. With a straggler.
Without a word being spoken they all knew what they were being asked. God needed the angels to do the one thing that none of them had ever been expected to do. He needed them to bleed. Not a lot from each individual, just a bit from here and a bit from there until He had enough to pump life into the first man’s now breathing but lifeless body. As they stepped one by one to God and he drained the tiniest amount from each, they never wondered how they bled when they had not been fashioned at creation to do so, and, naturally, they all gave of themselves without question. With one exception.
Lucifer. The Morningstar. The Beginning of the End. He took his place in front of God to give his blood and stared hard into what passed as His eyes. He felt his blood run cold. He wasn’t sure if the blood had always been there, but he felt it now as it chilled inside of him.
“This is not right,” he said as he beat his wings once and soared into the sky and away before God was able to pull blood from him.
There was no doubt in his mind that this action would have severe repercussions. His tie to God was still as strong as ever and he could see everything that He could see. This bond and its consequences had been no mistake. It was meant to happen from the Beginning. God had always known that some incident would arise and Lucifer would leave His side and turn his back on Heaven, but one thing He had not planned on was not having Lucifer’s blood involved His creation of man. Lucifer could see that God would name the first one Adam. He could see many things because of his emphatic connection to God’s omniscience. He could see the army he would raise against God and even their fall, but that would not stop him from rebelling. He could see that not having his blood in the creation of Adam would have severe consequences that God had not anticipated and it would disgust Him. Lucifer knew that one day he would cause man to fall so far as a whole that God would be forced to wipe them from the planet almost entirely. He saw the time line of man played out in front of him in one second and he knew the part he would play. The bad guy.
Lucifer smiled at the thought of mankind. His future was planned out in front of him and man was at the center of a war that would last eons and consume his every thought. He would make God’s struggle for man’s affection a living Hell.
This betrayal would never be forgotten, on either side.
------------------
Adam could feel his hands. Adam could feel.
His limbs ached with a sensation that no other man would ever feel again; the ache of feeling a fully developed, fully functioning limb move for the first time. He stretched his fingers one by one and heard every bone in his body pop as he moved around in the wet dirt. Mud. That was its name.
He knew that, somehow. Adam knew a lot of things. He knew that every piece of knowledge he held was there because God had wanted it to be. He could see the names of every animal that he would encounter in his journey through life. He could feel that his emotions could run the gambit from euphoria to dismal loneliness to fiery rage. He could see his shape and form and knew what he and other men would look like.
Adam smiled at the thought of mankind. Beautiful creatures they would be. He knew it. He could see it.
But Adam also felt a weight that he knew should not be there. Something was off about his make-up. The name “Eve” kept flashing in his mind and it was coupled with an image. An image that he could hear God telling him to love and cherish, but Adam could not see what God wanted him to.
Adam decided to open his eyes then.
What he saw cheered him a great deal. Standing before him was a figure that did not hold to the image of this “Eve,” but rather to a shape more like what he knew to be his own.
“Hi, I’m Lucifer.”
At the moment, Adam’s only function was to begin living.