Gell Is Writing: The End (Of The World)-- The Bad Guy

This post is my first, and hopefully not last, entry for Absolute Write’s blog chain. The theme for this month, as you may have guessed, is The End Of The World. Just in time for Dec 21, 2012. ;)

The Bad Guy

Celeste didn't have any tears anymore. She was all dried out. She looked at the markings on the ceiling directly above her—a demon’s trap.

Her butt cheeks were numb from sitting on the cold stone floor of the cellar and her arms were aching from being tied around a pole behind her. But she didn't want to fight. She didn't want to be free. Not anymore.

She simply wanted it to be over.

The door opened and in came the Devil, with a bottle of wine. His suit was new, she noticed. He probably got it for this special day.

“Cheers, Celeste,” he greeted as he walked towards the table on the far end of the room. “I trust you have been comfortable?”

His voice always brought her comfort. For centuries, his voice was the one thing she could always depend on. Until now.

Now, all his voice meant was death.

“Are you here to gloat, Marcus?” she said, with all the strength she could muster. “You leave me here for days, all tied up as you set your plan in motion. I suppose you want me to congratulate you?”

Marcus looked at the clock hanging on the west wall. It was an hour before midnight.

“Come on, Celeste. I had to lock you up in here. You would have tried to stop me.”

He drank his wine like it was just an ordinary day.

“And I would have succeeded!”

“No, my dearest one, you wouldn't have. I would only have been forced to kill you. Better to be locked up than dead, love.” He turned to face Celeste and smiled.

Celeste looked at him with burning eyes. The hatred she felt for him was something she never thought she was capable of feeling.

“What does it matter? I’ll be dead in an hour anyway! The humans are our life source, Marcus! As long as they do evil, we live. How can they do evil if they’re all dead!” Her voice, though weak, was made stronger by the echoes of the cellar.

Marcus’ smile was wiped of his face. He turned his back on her and drank straight from his bottle.

“What? You can't handle the truth? You are ending this world and you’re taking me down with it! You’re taking you down with it… I—I just don’t understand.”

“Never you mind, sister. This is how it has to be. In less than an hour, we shall all… cease to exist.”

Celeste looked at him with questioning eyes.

“Then why are you… hurting?”

“I’m not hurting, stupid girl.”

“Oh my… Marcus? You’re hurting. We have been together for an eternity and I've only heard your voice like that once. And that was when… when you realized your role.”

Marcus turned around and threw the bottle in her direction. It crashed on the wall behind her. Celeste flinched. Her brother’s temper was one she had to deal with for centuries but she never quite got used to it.

“I am not hurting, you understand,” he said, his voice shaking with anger. “I am not capable of hurt.”

But as he said this, Celeste knew even he didn't believe it.

“What is it, brother? Tell me. I mean, the world’s going to end and we’re all going to die. What difference would it make? Just tell me.”

Marcus was breathing heavily. He walked to a shelf and got a new bottle. He opened it and drank almost half without taking a breath. Then he wiped the sweat on his forehead and tried to calm himself down.

“You want to know? Fine.”

Marcus pulled a chair and positioned it directly in front of Celeste, careful not to sit below the trap.

“I don’t want to end the world,” he said, his elbows leaning on his legs and his face buried in his right hand, the wine bottle in his left. He sat like that for a moment. When he pulled up his face, Celeste could see that tears were threatening to fall from his eyes. “I don’t.”

“B-but… I don’t understand. Then why do it? Why have you spent every single day of your existence making this world evil, preparing the humans for this day? And not telling me, or anyone about it. Why have you made them so evil that they would want to kill each other until no one survives?”

Marcus blinked and the tears did fall. He didn't seem to notice.

“Don’t you see? I didn't prepare them to do anything, Celeste,” he said with a strained voice. “I haven’t made them evil. I didn't have to. They did this… all this, on their own. All I did was stand by and make sure that they were doing evil, being evil. But I did not… make them evil.”

“Marcus… In less than an hour every powerful country on Earth will launch hundreds of bombs… in all directions. In less than an hour, the Earth itself may crumble and all that would be left are debris, of buildings and structures and trees… and people. You made them want to do that.”

“You don’t understand, sister. You are merely a demon. I… I am the Devil. I am the bad guy. I am the target for their hatred and I am the target for their blame. They cheat on their wives, I tempted them. They go crazy with vices, I tempted them. They kill someone, I tempted them." He paused and drank.

“But I did none of those.” He looked at her with pained eyes, shaking his head. “I did none of those. And none of... this. It was all them. The evil is inside them, Celeste. All of them. It always had been. Like you and all demons. The difference was demons knew it. Demons admitted it. They, however, were given the choice to be good. And they believe they are.”

“But they aren't?” Celeste asked, starting to understand.

“Oh, they are, in the beginning. But at some point, they all embrace their dark side. And they never, not once, not a single human being, needed any help from me.”

He stood up and finished his bottle. His back was turned to her again but Celeste can see he was shaking, crying.

“And that’s why the world is ending, Celeste,” he continued. “Because they want it to. And, as always, I am here… To fulfill my role.

"For the last time, I am here… to take the blame.”

There you go! My take on the end of the world. As I am writing this, it is Dec. 21, 2012 at 12:39 AM, my time. The world hasn't ended yet, but let's wait and see ;).

If the end of the world has been cancelled, or postponed, or whatnot, please check out the links below for other AW participants' entries for this blog chain.

Thanks!