Satan was grinning wildly. Yes! Yes! G-d’s world was finally going to be destroyed. I beat
G-d! Satan was in a whirlwind of fury but he was happy, delighted even. Revenge finally!


Why don’t you be more like Job, Satan!??
Why don’t you be more like Abraham, Moses, Rebecca!!??


Because I’m not them! Satan thought, pacing around in the heat of h***, I’m different and I’m BETTER!

Those gullible human idiots! I twisted them like clay! I influenced their doom that they will soon bring on themselves! Stupid, stupid G-d. He thinks these humans can stand up to me! But I conned them! I created global warming! I created the pollution! Those cars I built for them and heaters and ovens they thought would help make their lives easier will actually be their end!

*
*
*

1,308 years later...

She was roaming in humid emptiness, it seemed. That’s why it’s called a desert, she thought, it’s deserted. There’s nothing. Just the scorching hot sun, a disc of bright orange beating down on her like the hands of hot coals twisting her neck, as she gasped to breathe. She hated the burning cloud of sand drifting through the air and stinging her eyes. Water, Water! she screamed in her head, hungrily; almost drooling saliva down her throat for that cool liquid to refresh her parched throat.

“Rebecca!” shouted a voice from up above.


Rebecca looked up to see a stunning golden chariot descending, with flames licking at its bottom and a tall man with a wiry, tangled beard that seemed to sparkle with a celestial light. One look at the man radiating that supernatural glow sent a shiver down Rebecca’s spine. So she ran, sprinting through the hot air, pumping out her remaining energy. The man was on the ground now, his hands upraised as flame raced from his palms. Rebecca’s adrenaline spiked. She ducked and waited and waited some more... But the blow of burning fire wasn’t aimed at her. Instead it was aimed at a bird that squawked and fell to the sandy ground, blackened and grilled.

The man stepped towards her. “I’m Elijah,” the man claimed.



“Elijah,” shivered Rebecca, “Go away. Please. You’re too powerful. With so much power comes greed for more. I’m leaving.”
“If so,” answered Elijah with a gleam in his eye, “Is G-d evil?”

“No, but who is like G-d? Only G-d could be so powerful and withstand that greed. Only G-d can do what he can do.”

“Rebecca,” said a booming voice, “I am the G-d of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and… Listen to this man.”

The meaty aroma of the bird Elijah had roasted wafted to Rebecca’s nose. Saliva dribbled down her chin. “Go ahead, eat it,” Elijah responded seeing her greedily eyeing the bird. She dug into the meat, peeling off the outer feathers and devouring it ravenously. It was a Humad bird she realized -the new type of bird that had evolved over the years to withstand heat and pollution.

Instantly Elijah’s eyes grew steady and serious, “Rebecca… Okay before I begin let me tell you I’m only speaking like I’m from out of the Old Testament because G-d’s an old guy who likes this kind of dialogue.” Rebecca stifled her laughter. “You may not believe me or trust me or have the tiniest faith in what I’m saying, but listen to me anyway, for there will be a time you will regret not listening. Trust in me like your father, for I am a close ancestor of yours as is King David. Listen and you will be happy you did…”
She listened.


*


*


*

Satan was slumped in the corner, nastily frowning, his head lying against the hot stone. You could see the gleam of knotted concentration and burning heat on his face. He had seen Rebecca, the so-called Messiah. How could he stop her? Use her power. Turn it over to his side. How?...
Satan stared up at the ceiling. Yes, YES, YES! He knew what he would need to do.
*


*


*

“Rebecca, do you know the City?” Elijah asked. Elijah didn’t wait for a reply. “You have to go there, because it’s the last city in the world and it’s dying. People all over are fighting and the air is burning with gasoline. It’s h*** on earth. Just go there and you’ll know what to do.”

Rebecca stared at him. “Um, okay.” This guy was a little meshuganah! Was he really Elijah the famous prophet? He just comes right up and tells me I have to go to that darn city! That’s where I was before and it wasn’t a good place!

Rebecca knew the city very well. After all, she had lived there for fifteen years, until her mother had killed her father for what she said were reasons she could never understand. She was afraid for her life, too, and fled out of the City into the desert, hoping there might—although it was rumored there was none—be a city out there. At least it was better than being killed by your own mother. But she felt guilty for running away. My dad always told me to face my problems not run away from them! She was just like her mother that way, betraying him. She couldn’t be like her mother, could she?

She wanted to be her father. He was the one who tried to fix the heavily polluting cars although he’d gotten in trouble for it! He said there used to be more cities and the only reason there was now only one was because of these cars and heaters and all heating up the world. He said the City used to be Antarctica, a very cold place. Now it was unfortunately burning hot and the only hope left for humanity.

She was going back to the city to be her FATHER!!!! Maybe Elijah was right. Maybe he really was the man he said he was.

She stood up and straightened the backpack on her shoulder and walked towards the City.

*


*


*

Rebecca turned. She sensed something in the air, a raging crash of cold evil. An intense pain throbbed then exploded like a volcano in her head.

She glanced upward. It was the chariot again rocketing down on her. But there was something different this time. Is it just me or is that menacing evil radiating from that chariot? Yeah right! Maybe I’m coming close to the City and that City can be pure evil with my murderer mom in it! She chuckled.

The chariot thudded to the ground. Elijah stepped out. “Change of plans kiddo. There is no hope left in the world. We’ll just have to destroy it and create it again.”

What????

“How can there possibly be NO hope left? Zero hope? Out of thousands of people living in the city there isn’t an ounce of hope in their hearts? Or is it just that there’s none in yours?”

“I’m Elijah. If you aren’t trusting me you’re not trusting G-d. C’mon!” screamed Elijah.

Satisfied by Elijah’s response, she continued her journey with Elijah this time. She liked it better following after him. After all, she’d been alone for so long she couldn’t take it anymore. She’d destroy the city. She trusted Elijah. She trusted G-d. Her feet felt heavy as she shoveled through the sand. Night fell and she watched the moon set its glint of sparkly dew over the hot night air and radiate it’s heavenly glow over her silhouetted figure. Then she heard the humming of engines and she knew she and Elijah had reached their destination: the City!



“Okay, kiddo hold up your hands like this.” Elijah held his palms upward.

“Why?” asked Rebecca simply.

“We are destroying the City.”

“Why?”

“Because the City is dead. It needs to start over. It needs a new beginning. It’s like an old building. Do you wait for it to crumble and then build a new stronger building or do you take a wrecking ball to it?”

Rebecca stared at him blankly.


“We... are.... DESTROYING the City!” Elijah fumed and lashed out, reaching for Rebecca’s hands and tugging them in place. Rebecca screamed. Would Elijah really do this to me? Make me do what he wants by force? Grab my hands and… Oy, his hands were steel. Literally steel! They were cold, biting into her hands, bending them to his will as she tried to fight back.

Unwillingly, flames sprouted like golden flowers from Rebecca’s hands. The flower-like embers were beautifully stunning, but not to Rebecca. I’ve already failed, she thought. The fire is going to destroy the City. Destroying the world’s last hope is that not a fail? Those beautiful flames were eating out her mind. She knew the flames were truly an ugly pile of dusty, black charcoal. They were really death, not beauty. She knew when their task was finished they’d melt back into charcoal and show their true self. But now…


“SATAN!!” fired a voice from above. Elijah released his grasp on Rebecca. He dropped down onto the ground and began to change. He molded. He twisted. In the end it was clear he was NOT Elijah. Glowing red eyes like coals collapsed into his sockets. His slimy hair fell back to his knees in soot-covered dreadlocks. His face was shadowed with dark menace.

“You human fool Rebecca. You’re not the Messiah. You’re like any other human being. Gullible. Helpless. You thought I was Elijah, that dumb turd. He failed. You failed. G-d failed. But I, I succeeded. Give up, human idiot, you need to give up,” declared the beastly monster.

Then Elijah, the real Elijah, was striding forward. “No, Satan, she didn’t fail. She thought you looked like me. But... she sensed your evil. She wanted to trust you because she thought you were me and she trusts me. She fought against your will in the end. She did exactly what I expected her to. You had a good disguise. But the world is still here. We still can save it.”

Rebecca was horrified. She thought Satan had been Elijah!!!! Oh, it was a good disguise. But she sensed evil the second time the chariot came to her. She shouldn’t have dismissed it. She should have listened. Now she was staring straight at Satan’s narrowed, snake-like eyes. Evil!!!

But even more, Rebecca was realizing what her destiny was. She was the Messiah.

Yeah, tell me about it?

What mishagash is this? She sighed. Okay, I guess I’ll try to “save the world.” What harm could that do?

“Well,” Satan cackled, “Why haven’t I thought of this before? I’ll simply kill the girl. She’s a human. She’ll die. I won’t. This is just too easy!”

With supernatural strength Satan, picked up a huge, purple-metallic car like it was a toy. She could see the muscles bulging in his mold -covered, scaly arms. Rebecca ran. She ran through crowded streets, zigzagging around confused citizens. But what was the point? Satan just launched the car at her. Pedestrians cowered on the ground like statues. Time froze. Images raced before Rebecca’s eyes. One was of her father, his neat, combed-down hair, his kind eyes and his warm, hairy arms, tucking her into bed when she was younger. She’d do this for her father may his memory be a blessing.

The car was streaking towards her. She raised her arms to block it, as if that was going to help. Suddenly, sparks exploded from the car. Fire ripped open the door. Flames blasted out the windows and burned the car, smoky-black and powdery. Elijah winked. It was Elijah. He saved her. Thank G-d.

The fire crackled and popped, as it flashed away from her, to Satan. The hissing, chartreuse flames slithered up Satan’s shoulder.

Rebecca stared at Satan, crying out in anguish and screaming bloody murder as the flames ate at his flesh. His wail echoed into the City as curious citizens glanced and walked by. Rebecca could see three kids quarreling about what they thought happened to him. Then the feud turned into a fight and they began biting at each other like wild animals, teeth sinking into scared skin. Rebecca’s attention shifted to Satan. She heard his shrieks of hot anger spiraled down into a dark abyss of nightmares.

Rebecca instinctively put her palms out, a spray of refreshing water shot from her hands. She could feel it, cool and relaxing almost like it was on the tip of her tongue. She could feel it, soothing over her scaly, dry hands. The fire rose up into steam and disappeared. Rebecca gasped and stared at her hands in front of her face. Still normal. Loose skin stretched over flesh, bone and whatnot as far as I can tell.

“Are you okay?” she asked Satan instinctively although obviously he wasn’t.

“Everything’s wrong. You are the Messiah. It’s true. Obviously you’ll save the world. I’ll go back in H*** once again. It’s over for me. The world is all about humans now!”

“Satan, why do you hate us? Why do you want to destroy our world?”

Satan’s lips quivered with rage, “Why? Why? Why? Do you care?”

“Yes, I do,” answered Rebecca patiently.

“About me? About someone who might just cut your head off or force arsenic down your throat?”

“ She saved you from the fire. What more proof do you need? Tell us why.” prompted Elijah.

“I hated the idea of creating humans. It was a bad idea all along!” Satan spat, “I don’t need a world with mortal dimwits. But it seems like YOU actually care about me... and you’re a human!”

Then Rebecca did something unexpected. She ran up to Satan and embraced him, hugging his cool, pale skin. Satan isn’t so bad. He just needs a second chance. He needs someone to love him. He doesn’t want to be all alone. Finally Satan calmed down. All that pent up anger deflated like a balloon, “G-d, He made you in the image of Himself and He loved me so much now it seems He doesn’t care a ^%&*+#! I’m jealous. I want to be like humans.”

“Do you know how much humans admire Angels? Do you know how much they look at them in awe? Do you know how much you can do that humans could never touch? Satan, you’re amazing. We would love you, Satan, if you weren’t so- you know…” Her sentence was left hanging.

Elijah continued, “ Who you are isn’t about who you are when you were born. It’s more about you. People care about what you do, not what you are. They care about what you’re doing currently. It’s about now. The past has passed us. Now is now. You can change. G-d is merciful.”

Satan sighed. Wheels spun in his head, weighing his options. He thought about the loving, caressing hug Rebecca gave him. He wanted more of it. It was greed. But of a different kind. A kind he had never felt before.

“Yes. I will change,” Satan responded. “You’re right. It will be hard but I’ll try. I just didn’t really understand love and care. I thought: why do I need that? I can survive by myself. But it isn’t about that. Of course I can live by myself. But I can’t enjoy living. I can’t really live. I’d have nothing to live for. That hug felt… wonderful, like someone was holding my back, like I mattered to someone. Someone didn’t always say I had to be like someone else. Someone didn’t think I was evil. It doesn’t matter if I’m not human. I can do whatever they can. I’m an Angel. You definitely are the Messiah to be able to change a devil’s heart with just your mouth.” Satan’s tongue slithered along his lips, “One thing: Your mom didn’t kill your father. Or at least she didn’t want to. I made her do it.”

Rebecca stared in frozen horror. Murderer! You killed my father! Rebecca without thinking was raised her fists, ready to slam him, punch the lights out of him. No!! Don’t do it! Don’t start the war all over again, she screamed in her head.

Then Rebecca saw the building on fire. The inferno cascaded over scorched, black bricks and leaped over the roof, lighting it up with a golden nightmare of flames. It was from the flames Satan forced her to release earlier.

Satan saw the building being eaten up by flames and his evil boiled up from under. He cackled and roared and brought up his hands, ready to blast the building apart.

“No!!” screamed Elijah and Rebecca in unison. Satan remembered his vow to repent. He steadied himself and released a shooting splash of cool water. The inferno died away, revealing a blackened building and behind the misty smoke, a rainbow; Satan’s promise to never attempt to do what he did again.
THE END!!