“You really hate me, don’t you? I’m every fucking mistake you ever made all rolled into one.”
“That’s about the size of it.”
“Aelita murdered Uriel, my father.”
“Yes.”
“Did you tell her to?”
“Aelita and I aren’t really on what you’d call speaking terms these days.”
“Is my father stuck in Tartarus?”
“No.”
“Where is he?”
“He’s gone.”
“Where?”
“He’s just gone.”
“The other dead nephilim, are they gone, too?”
He raises one hand and drops it back in his lap.
I ask, “What’s in Tartarus?”
He doesn’t say anything for a while.
“I’d appreciate it if you’d put that cigarette out. It bothers my allergies.”
“You have allergies?”
“Only down here.”
I flick the cigarette over the side into the crazies’ bonfire below.
“What I don’t get is the disappearing act. You hate me. That’s a given. But if you were done with all us mortal slobs and moving on to 2.0, why didn’t you just kill us? Or didn’t you care enough to put us out of our misery? Is that who you are? One of those people who forgets their kid in the car on a hot day until it has a stroke?”
He doesn’t move or speak for a while. He just looks down into the street. A couple of raiders walk by, passing a bottle back and forth. Neshamah leans over the edge and spits, hitting one of the raiders on top of his head. He laughs.
“You broke my heart. Not you in particular. All humanity. And then there was the incident in Heaven with Lucifer and his juvenile delinquent friends. I had to throw a third of my children into the void. I think the ones that stayed, the quote ‘loyal ones,’ were just as bad if not worse. So puffed with their importance and self-righteousness. The funny thing is, I never really believed that Lucifer wanted my throne, but I think a few of the angels who stayed did. They saw my failure and felt entitled to it after they fought and won."leght and”
He shakes his head. Looks down while he bounces his heels off the building.
“Like any decent God, I willed myself into being. I created time, space, and matter and set out to construct a universe. When I was finished, nothing quite worked the way I wanted. The angels rebelled. The Kissi wreaked havoc. And all of you on earth, well, you were just you. Then one day I realized I wasn’t me anymore. I’d gone from one big me to five smaller ones. I never bothered trying to put myself back together. What was the point? Some of me wouldn’t want to do it and I didn’t want to fight with myself.”
“You know, I’m sure if you asked nicely, they could find a bed for you at the pretty hospital on the hill.”
“Watch your tone. I could turn the rest of you into an insect to match that arm.”
Just what I need. For this whole thing to turn even more Kafkaesque.
Adjust course.
“I’ve been wondering, who would build an asylum in Hell and who’d it be for?”