Deal with the Devil

“How long has it been?” She asked. She was watching her mother from behind a tree, who stood in the rain, sobbing hysterically. She was clutching a pair of boxing gloves with all her strength.

“Thirteen days.” He replied.

She shuffled a little to get a better look.

“Careful, don’t let her see you.” He cautioned.

“Why are we here?” She asked, tightening her fist on the umbrella.

“Closure.”

“How is this going to bring me closure, all I want to do is go back to her.” She said, angry.

“I know.” He said.

She could see the pain in his eyes. “Lets go back. Please.” She pleaded.

The scene shifted. She was back in the brilliant white room she had started. Every object, piece of furniture, cloth, all of it, pristine white. It was so freaking clean that she wanted nothing more than to mess it up.

“Whenever you are ready.” He said.

“This room gives me the creeps, could we go somewhere else?”

The scene shifted. They were standing on the edge of a valley. Sun was about to set. Golden yellow light with a tinge of red had filled the sky. 

“Why didn’t you save me?” She asked, accusation in her tone.

“I chose to save someone else.” Answer came. His tone was filled with regret.

“So you are saying you could have saved me but you didn’t?” She asked, incredulous.

He sighed. “Yes and no.”

“What does that mean?”

“I am not allowed to interfere in the earthly matters. If I do that..

“How does that happen?” She scoffed, interrupting him. “Aren’t you god or something like that. Who could possibly have the power to stop you from doing anything you wanted to?”

He patiently listened to her questions. He owed her that, god or not. He was responsible for her untimely death.

“The universe.” He saw the obvious implication in her eyes. “No, I didn’t create the universe. As far as I am know It has always been here. It doesn’t matter if you are a drop of the ocean or the ocean itself, compared to the universe we are still pretty tiny.”

He waited a moment before continuing. “And so it might have been the universe who created me, not the other way around. I cant be sure. I was just there one day, and Kamerov, along with me. My counterpart. You could say he is the devil, kind of.”

“I thought Lucifer was the devil.” She blurted out.

“He is not. I did create religions but the state they are in today, well lets just say they went off track. Humans are creative and imaginative by nature, whenever they found themselves with gaps to fill they used their imagination. I should have predicted that.” God rued. “Creating you was a long process. I hid you from Kamerov, but he eventually found you. He watched at first, my experiments were entertaining to him, but then he wanted to destroy them, that’s his nature. He destroyed many of creations until I had had enough, until I created you. So we fought. We fought for a very long time. I defeated him, but I knew he would soon regain his strength and I would have to fight him again. So I struck a deal with him. In exchange for not killing my creations Every time I created a soul, I let him add his touch to the soul. But if he couldn’t interfere then neither could I. We agreed upon it. The universe witnessed it.”

“But you said you chose to save someone else. Wasn’t that interfering?” She asked.

“Yes.” God said. She could see the pain in his eyes, she could feel it. It was unimaginable. “Every once in a while it gets too much for me, and I cant help myself. But every time I do that, Kamerov gets equal right to interfere. He kills twice as many souls I save. You would think after thousands of years I would learn. That day, A school bus was about to crash into a valley. I was at my limit, barely resisting the urge to go save them. Kamerov knew. He made it seem like he nudged the bus closer to the edge, I thought he interfered. He hadn’t. I hadn’t felt it. But I was consumed with emotions, with guilt, without thinking I prevented the bus from falling off the edge. I saved thirty two lives. Only to realize, Kamerov had tricked me. He hadn’t been the one to interfere first, it was me. He had earned the right to interfere for equal measures. And each time, he could take at least twice as many lives as I could save.”

“I was one of them?” She asked, her voice almost a whisper.

“Yes.”

“If you hadn’t interfered I would have been alive, I would still be with my ma and pa and T?” She clenched her fists, tears streamed down her face.

“Yes.”

“How long? How long was I supposed to live?”

“I don’t know. I am sorry. I am so sorry.” His voice was heavy.

“I..hate you.” She said weakly between sobs. God didn’t say anything. Gentle, cold wind brushed her skin. Her skin! She couldn’t feel it in that cursed white room, on earth she could. He had explained while on earth, we have to follow the rules of the earth.

Neither of them said anything for a long time. Golden yellow light was gone, red had taken over.

“Could you show me the children you saved?” She asked, sniffling.

The scene shifted, they were back in the white room. The room now, felt somehow comforting. The wall opposite to her vanished. A bunch of window frames appeared. She could see children playing with their friends, crying for stuff they wanted, sleeping peacefully without a worry while their parents looked over them with all the love in the world in their eyes.

“They would have died if you hadn’t saved them.” She said. God didn’t reply. “How many souls lives did the devil take?”

“Twice as many. At least that’s what he thinks.” God said with a hint of a smile.

The scene shifted. This time God didn’t accompany her to the earth. She was in a park may be. It was dark. she could only see what the dim lamplight allowed.

“Hi there.” A voice said.

She started. She turned around to see a boy her own age, smirking at her.

“Sorry. didn’t mean to startle you.” He said. “Actually I did.” He added.

“Very funny.” She said.

“My name’s Ravi, and you are?”

“Orange.” She replied.

“Huh. I like it. Walk with me Orange.” He didn’t wait to see if she followed or not.

Orange hurried after him.

“You see, devil thought he could outsmart god by forcing him to add his touch to the souls or tricking god into interfering first. What he doesn’t know is that God had been interfering all this time, however he could. The universe and the devil can only tell if GOD broke the agreement, not us mortals. So whenever it is devils turn to interfere, the universe turns a blind eye. Presumably thinking everything is going by the book, may be.”

“Isn’t universe everywhere? How could it not see?” Orange asked.

“Honestly I don’t know, it was bit of a risk and god took it, he sent a soul to the earth at the exact same time the devil was reveling in taking a life. Like myself. I don’t have the devils touch.” He said chirpily. It was infectious, he had a thick accent, he took time to pronounce each word properly.

“So what do you do exactly?” Orange asked, curious.

“We help out, we interfere. As much as we can. There are thousands of us. God can talk to us directly, and the devil or universe doesn’t notice it.” He paused before adding, “I know, you were one of the lives taken by the devil. That’s why you are here. But trust me God is trying his best.”

“He isn’t perfect is he?” Orange asked.

“No. Far from it. In fact, he may be even worse than us.” Ravi smirked, again.

Orange couldn’t help but smile back.

“Its time, one piece of advice, when its time, no matter what, refuse!” He said. That was the only thing he said with some solemnity. Before she could ask what did he mean by that the scene shifted. She was back in the white room. God was watching a small white dot in the distance.

“I am ready.” Orange said.

“Are you certain?” God asked.

“As certain as I can be.” She said.

The scene shifted.

Orange’s father entered the room. “How are my angels doing this fine day? There is Tess, lets see what she is doing? Ah, she is painting. And there is Orange, my favorite daughter.” He teased, looking sideways at Tess.

“Mom!” Tess said, hurt. She looked toward mom hoping she would get at least one vote.

“I am sorry honey, you are growing too fast, its getting harder to keep loving you.” Orange giggled at that. She was eight at the time. Tess was twelve.

“You guys are pure evil. What did I ever do to you?” Tess said, poker faced.

“You asked us to be your friends, this is us being your friends.” Mom said mocking.

Orange ran to Tess and hugged her. “You are my favorite sister.”

“Awww..” Her father said.

“My cupcake.” Mom said, kissing Orange on the cheeks.

“Right. More points to Orange. I am outta here, I think I am gonna go live at Freddy’s.” Tess said and picked up her backpack.

“Come here you drama queen.” Her dad pulled her close and hugged all of them tight. He was a big guy, he could do that. Orange couldn’t stop giggling. “And just who the hell is Freddy.”

They vanished.

“I wasn’t.” Orange said.

God looked at her.

“His favorite. He was more in sync with T than me. I am not saying he didn’t love me, of course he did. But I think he loved T a fraction more than me.”

“Parents don’t have favorites.” God said. “As you said, he was in perfect sync with Tess. You are misunderstanding his enthusiasm of the interests they shared with the love he had for you.”

“Perhaps.” Orange admitted.

They went one by one through all her special memories.

“How do you feel?” God asked.

“Better than I did when I arrived.” Orange said.

“You are staring to disassociate from your body. The feelings and the memories have begun to fade away.”

Orange felt a stab of panic. “Could I please keep a few? At least one?” She asked.

“It will be like jamming your foot in a closing door. You wont have the memories but you will remember the love you, used to share. You will feel comforted whenever you smell jasmine. Your favorite still would be vanilla. Though I cant understand why?” God teased. That was the first time she had seen him smiling.For the first time she was actually seeing him, a handsome young man, may be in his early thirties. He was lean, muscular, he had unexpectedly kind eyes and a patchy beard. Like she has gained inexplicable clarity.

“What now?” She asked.

“Now is the difficult part. We are going see how your father and Tess are doing.”

The scene shifted. Orange stood outside the door. Her mom would be working. Tess was on vacation and her father must have an off day.

Tess was crying. “It hurts, dad. It hurts so much. Make it stop.” Tess said, clutching Orange’s bed.

“Hey! We will go through this together. You hear me? It hurts for a reason. Do you want to forget our Orange? No, right. So its gonna hurt. I am here for you, mom is here for you and you are here for us. Right? Right?”

“Yes.” Tess managed to say, in between crying. “Yes.”

“It’s gonna be okay sweety, its gonna be okay.” Her father said. He was trying his best not to cry, to be strong for Tess.

The scene shifted. Back in the white room.

Orange was taking it all in. She didn’t cry now. With the fading memories the bond between her and her family was loosening. She could still feel the sorrow though, but it was manageable. She knew, soon she would forget them completely.

She fell. And fell. And fell. She tried to scream but couldn’t. what was happening where was she. She hit water. She desperately swam her way up. Panic! This was how she had died. She frantically clawed her way upwards, she didn’t want to die again. Something solid touched her face, she pulled herself on top of it.

“Hey there.” A voice said. Derision dripping out of it. “I am Kamerov a.k.a devil. I Have a gift for you. Here.”

Her memories came back in a flood, crashing into her. Most notably the memories of her drowning.

“Did you not wonder why my brother brought you to visit your father and not your mother?” He chuckled. “Well, this is why.”

Orange’s mother was in a bathtub about to slit wrists.

“Mom!” Orange yelled. “Mom! NO!”

“You can save her. You can have her old life back. All you have to is accept my offer and step though here.”

A fiery circle appeared.

“you see my brother lied do you. He had been taking away your memories, you weren’t getting separated from your body no, that was his doing.”

Orange remembered Ravi’s warning.

“Do you accept?” Devil asked.

Gathering every ounce of will she had, she said no.

“What?” devil asked, confused.

“I said no.” orange repeated.

“You are gonna let your mother die? What kind of a human are you?” the devil shrieked.

“I SAID NO. GO AWAY.” Orange yelled.

The scene shifted.

“He is gone.” God said.

What was that? Asked orange.

That was the devil. You refused to let him add the touch of darkness to your soul.

“what?”

I agreed to let him add the touch onto the souls, but he also needs the permission of the souls to do so. And you refused it, this doesn’t happen very often.

“My mom. Please tell me she is alright.”

She is. The devil was playing with your emotions. She is in her office, working.

Orange breathed a sigh of relief. “ my memories, they are all back.”

“they will go away, when you want them to.”

And when that happens call me.

Orange nodded.

“I forgive you.” Orange said.

“Thank you, child.” God said.

God left and Orange waited.