“A Demon’s Redemption”, a short story posted in sections…Section I

A DEMON’S REDEMPTION

By Chris Jones

© 2019, All Rights Reserved

PART I

“I wonder if God the Father would accept an apology…”

“What?!  You’re out of your mind, Silas!  What are you talking about?”

“Well, God accepts apologies from men…I thought that maybe He’d –”

“Stop.  Just stop.  For one thing, you’re terrible at being a demon, even though you speak with a British accent.  You’re good, you’re kind, you’re helpful, and you have, of all things, hope.  I’m now certain that you have faith as well.  Your performance reports get better and better every time we meet.  I’ve never given such glorious reviews to any demon!”

“Oh.  Well, thank you, Lucifer!”

“THAT’S NOTHING TO THANK ME FOR!  And stop thanking me.  It’s polite, and you know how much I despise that.  Why can’t you do more gnashing of teeth and scaring small children and possessions?!  Just try one possession.  Just one.  You’ll love it – it’s just a demon’s thing!  That’s your Progress Goal.”

“But here, you’ve said it under the ‘Digressions’ section.”

“I said ‘Progress Goal’ to make you understand.  What you can’t seem to grasp is that I want you to be the worst, nastiest, most terrifyingly cruel and beastial spirit you can possibly become!  Your fellow demons have been passing around the rumor that you want a body.  So go possess a meatsack and let’s see what you can do!  End of Performance Review!”

PART II

“Now there have to be some bodies here that I can possess without disturbing other souls.  The other demons always go for the living.  Deplorable act, that is.  Why disturb a good thing for another soul?  I mean, it is their body, after all.  Ah, here’s one.  Halfway good-looking.  Not mangled too badly.  Fresh.  Cold as Hell, though.  Okay, here goes…”  Silas entered the body and discovered he could not get it to move.  “What’s wrong with this thing?”  All of a sudden, Silas heard voices outside the morgue drawer that contained his body.  A latch on the door clicked and someone yanked the body on its metal slab out into the bright lights with a jolt.

“Rigor mortis,” the junior medical examiner commented to his much older counterpart.

“He’ll soften up soon,” the older doctor in the light blue scrubs and the white coat replied.  “It doesn’t matter right now.  Go ahead and open him up.”

Silas panicked.  Not sure what to do, Silas stayed put until he heard the whine of the bone saw.  Silas strained with all his might, and with a crack, the neck of the corpse broke free.  Silas raised the corpse’s head awkwardly and said, “No, please don’t!  There’s really no need for all this carnage!  The man holding the bone saw fainted on the spot and fell to the floor, limp, with a thud.  The senior doctor fled through the morgue doors screaming without regard for the well-being of his student lying in a crumpled heap on the freshly waxed and buffed white tile floor.

“Well, I guess Mr. Mortis isn’t the right body for me,” Silas muttered out loud to himself.  He exited the body carefully, as not to damage it further, and began searching for another body – one that was not quite so stiff.  He came upon a curiously overweight body that barely fit within the confines of its slender drawer, and decided to see how it felt to possess that one.  “Oh, much too squishy!” Silas screeched, repulsed, and left the body immediately.  The next corpse was too juicy, and the one after that was too deformed and broken…  “Ah, Mr. Doe,” Silas mused when he ran across a suitable body, reading the toe tag out loud before possessing it.

PART III

“Well, viruses aren’t ‘alive’, yet God created them and they don’t suffer eternal damnation.  I’ve been researching them, as a matter of fact, and they’re murderers.  At the very least, they make people – God’s children – very sick indeed!”

“Silas, they may not technically be ‘alive’ by human definition, but they are physical.  You’re not,” D’Metri told him matter-of-factly.  “You’ll never be physical – you can’t be, remember?  You chose Lucifer’s plan in the beginning instead of Christ’s, and you and third of the Host of Heaven were cast down with Lucifer.  You made a choice.  It’s too late.”

“What?  Too late?  I’m still a soul, you know,” Silas retorted, a bit hurt.

“Yes.  A damned soul, that’s what you are.  A damned one.”

“I made a bad decision.  One bad decision.  You don’t think an Almighty Loving God can forgive that?”

D’Metri sighed deeply.  “It’s the decision itself that you made, Silas.  And besides that, no unclean thing can stand in God’s presence.  You can’t even enter His Kingdom to ask His forgiveness!”

“But there has to be a way – some way…”

“Let it go, Silas.  Just be the nightmarish demon you were meant to be.  Let it all out.  It feels marvelous!”

Silas stood silent for a moment, then spoke.  “But…I don’t think I was meant to be a demon.”

“You rebelled with Lucifer and the rest of us.  Remember?  That little war in Heaven and all that?”

“Yes, I remember, D’Metri.  And I never fought a single angel.  I stood in the corner and watched, rather horrified at the whole thing.”

“You do remember being cast down with the rest of us here, don’t you?  You’re one of us, Silas – a demon, like it or not.  You’ve lost your First Estate with God.  That’s spiritual death.  There’s no currency that can get that back, Silas.  Souls don’t work like that.”

“That whole First Estate bit was a hard decision, though.  How was I supposed to know that Jesus Christ was going to go through with the Atonement?  And as far as spiritual currency goes, I’m sure there’s got to be some kind of payment God would accept,” Silas reasoned.

“No, my naïve brother, there isn’t.  Indeed, Jesus paid all there was to be paid.  And He did it for the souls of men, not us.  Just be doomed and enjoy it!  Try to be dastardly or something, Silas.  You dwell too much on these things.”

PART IV

“You yobbo!  What’d’ya think you’re doing?” the tall, skinny fellow in the Australian hat shouted.

“Well, it’s quite simple, really.  I just need to possess your body for a short time to try it out – I’ve never possessed anyone alive before.”  Silas was humble in his explanation of the situation, yet clear about what he needed from the Aussie cowboy, which was his permission.

“You’re a demon, right?”

“Yes,” Silas replied rather innocently.

“And you’re asking my permission to let you possess my body – is that right?”

“Yes!” Silas exclaimed enthusiastically, the hot sun beating down on the both of them.

“Haaa-ha!  You’re serious?!  No, you can’t possess me!”

“Well, um, why not?” Silas asked, genuinely confused.

TO BE CONTINUED…