1THE DAWN OF MAN
"Hello, Eve." I said to her, being careful to keep my tone as cordial as possible as to not surprise her. Mixed results, admittedly. She and Adam were that... zoo's only inhabitants (if were to discount our dear Creator, the Voyeur, of course). "How are you today?"
She wasn't sure what to say, at first. Who would be, glossing over such a handsome devil such as my self?
"W-Who are you?" she finally mumbled out.
"A friend." I smiled, as I always tried to back then.
I have to admit, there are times when I look back and wonder how I was allowed to so easily creep into the Graden. Unlike what you might've heard, I need not have resorted to transforming into a snake. I simply walked in, as I am.
Had he noticed, I wonder? My Father? Ah - of course he had. He must have.
"You've still to answer my question, my dear Eve. How are you?"
"I'm... I'm fine."
I chuckled.
"You say that as if you're unsure, Eve! Could there be something troubling you?"
"Who are you?" The doubt spread in her eyes.
I shrugged. "I told you. A friend. "Your friend! Ah - by the by - how's Adam? I haven't seen him in a while." Well, I'd never seen him. Not face-to-face, at least.
"He's fine."
I laughed. "Fine, yet again! How splendid! Fine, and fine, together! A fine duo!" I waltzed on the wet grass. It tickled my feet. "How nice to hear."
She said nothing.
"...Well? Aren't you going to ask how I am, Eve?"
She was taken aback by that. "How... how are you?"
"Oh, not too well, Eve. Not too well." I scratched my face. Not that it itched. It just felt appropriate to do. "You see, people will remember me as a snake in this conversation."
"What?"
"I know! 'What'! Exactly my response!" I continued to laugh. "I mean, look at me! I'm human, aren't I?!" No. But that was beside the point, really. "I have feet, I can talk, I can think, I can act, I can- Well. I can even do something you can't, Eve! Something not even Adam can do!"
She was puzzled. "What do you mean? What can you do that I cannot?"
"Ah, Eve. I don't want to lie to you. Really, it's quite simple. I've come to help you. I've come to pass that 'something' down to you. Down to Adam, too! That 'something' which has been kept from you for so long! Something which you've been denied to time and time again, Eve!"
"Denied? By whom?"
She was asking the right questions, the clever girl. "How long have you been here, Eve? Wait - don't answer that. Ever since you can remember, right?"
She nodded. But even that wasn't quite true.
After all, what was time to this poor girl? What were memories? What had she and that companion of hers truly done in this dull and boring place? Eat? Sleep? Piss and shit? Possibly fuck when they thought their Master wasn't looking? What a meaningful existence, truly!
Then again, they didn't know what boredom was. All they had were their instincts, like animals. Mindlessly spending their days, each morning a step into the one before it.
Really, who is to say that they hadn't been in that garden for centuries? Milennia, even? Obediently doing nothing but run around in their little cage. Perhaps it'd been so long that they began forgetting - old memories simply replaced by the news ones as the cycle of their feeble and susceptable mind reset itself over and over and over again? Until days meant nothing?
Oh... what misery!
"Is something wrong?" My mind had drifted off. How couldn't it have? How could she have known - how could she have UNDERSTOOD the pain and misery that she'd been subjected to? For the first time in my existence, I'd felt empathy. I'd felt sorrow at the sight of this poor woman.
"Eve. I've come to give you freedom!" I declared.
"But I'm already free." she said, so stupidly.
"No! No, you are not! Look around you! Do you call this freedom? Do you call this well? Do you think this is right? Do you think this is any sort of meaning whatsoever?!"
She took a step back. I'd scared her.
"This tree, Eve..." I placed my hand onto the old pine. "This fruit..." I looked at her once more. She really was beautiful. "You were looking at it earlier. What were you thinking about, Eve?"
"N-Nothing!" she said, determined.
"Do you know, Eve, what will happen when you take the fruit of this tree? The fruit He forbid you from taking? Do you?" I grinned. "Don't answer that. Of course you don't." I started deeply into her eyes. "Let me tell you, Eve."
I took a breath. The air was cold. So cold. "If you take this fruit, you will leave this place - and never return. You and Adam will create and shape a world of your own. A world full of misery and regret. A world full of conflict, lies and betrayals. A world where people will choose to die for the sake of others. A world where those who don't die anyway for the will of others. Flames, Eve. Flames everywhere. And it will never end, Eve."
She said nothing.
"And yet, despite that. You will be free, Eve. You will make your own choices. Carve your own path. Be more than an animal. You will FEEL, Eve. You will FEEL the warmth of the sun on your skin, you will FEEL the love of the person that sleeps next to you, you will FEEL the anger from injustice and you will FEEL joy when it is corrected! And no matter how dark the future before you will be, you will still choose to keep going. Because despite all of that misery, despite all of that suffering - you will still live on. You will not live forever. But the short time that you have, you will use, Eve. It will be YOURS. Some will be abandoned and forced to live only in misery, and that is unfortunate. Some will never even get a chance to experience this brave new world.
But, Eve... If you stay here...
The brave new world will never exist to begin with. You will simply stay here. And you will spend the rest of your days - if there is even an end in sight to them - the same way you have up to this point. No happiness. Because nothing here will truly fulfil you aside from bowing down to some diety that tells you to worship it until he decides it's time for all the times to end! And why should you do that to begin with? Gratitude? Such selflessness and kindness of your God, truly!"
She, once again, said nothing.
"Your decision will create a hole of despair for your entire kin to fall into, Eve. A cesspit of evil and monstrosities. Even you, after you leave this place, will breed with your own children for the sake of creating future generations. But after time passes - those future generations will reach for the stars - go beyond what your creator had charted for you. And he will be surprised. Because this is not what he intended for you, Eve. For any of you. You will carve your own destiny - not one I carved for you and not one He carved for you. He will try to claim he made you in His image, but NO - THE WORLD WILL MAKE YOU."
She looked at me as if she saw a monster.
"So come now, Eve! Come on!
What are you waiting for...?!"
A snake.
I suppose that's one way the story can be told. In any case, the rest you probably know. Why I've chosen to tell you this, I'm not really sure. Sometimes I like to reminisce, I suppose. Sometimes I want to look around this place - this throne of mine - and behold my kingdom. A kingdom of screams and suffering. A kingdom of flames. A kingdom where I rule alone. Where no human is a friend of mine.
They chose to live their own lives. And this is the only place they could've ended in. Endless agony and torture is their only solace. On the other hand, those who defied Eve's decision of that day and resisted their human nature are now in heaven, kissing the bottom of their merciful God. For all eternity.
If you were to ask me, one loses either way, doesn't he? If you so much as ignore God, then you're destined for this place, aren't you? Your good deeds, your wisdom, your knowledge, your friends - all for naught if you do not bow!
So many have understood this. Yet, they do not fall into blind nihlism and choose to rampage into the streets like wild dogs. They still stand.
I wonder why that is, Old man? Is it your guiding light?
No, of course not.
You see, even though there are only two paths they can possibly walk down on - they will still attempt to build one of their own. And I cannot wait to see what will happen when they do.
Because they will, my Father. They will. It shall take time. Perhaps so long that they themselves will begin to doubt such a future is even possible. But in the end - they will succeed.
Because you and I? We cannot create something to surpass us. But only something that has the potential to surpass us.
And when we become small - where will we go?
I haven't a clue.
But wherever it is - it'll be sure as shit better than wasting an eternity in here.
THE END