Reluctant Demon by Linda Rios Brook

sky's perimeter, watching over this new creation, Satan would not be able to come near Adam to see what he was about. It would be his certain destruction.
    Bored with it all by now, Satan turned and trudged back toward his throne in the center of second heaven, and I tried to follow. Before he could get comfortable on his seat, the sound of a great rushing wind and a pillar of white fire appeared before him and split the darkness that had been his refuge. Satan grasped the arms of his throne and sat frozen in place.
    I jumped backwards and wrapped myself around my perch and held on for all I was worth. I knew what was happening and who was making it happen, although I could not look upon Him. Ruah Ha Kadosh had opened the heavens, and there before us stood God, the Ancient of Days. He was magnificent. His hair was like wool, His eyes flame, and He roared over the heavens, the earth, and everything that was or would be. All of us except Satan collapsed before His splendor, unable to move and hoping to die quickly rather than face His wrath. The wrath of Satan cannot be spoken in the same language used to describe the wrath of the Ancient of Days.
    "Where can I hide?" I cried before I got hold of myself and realized that there was nowhere to go to be out of His sight. Surely it would be over very soon. He would destroy us. I knew it.
    Still wrapped around my perch, I tucked my tail under, shut my eyes, and waited to die. And still I waited. (This new time thing must not be working properly Obviously it had stopped.) What was happening? Nothing.
    I chewed on my tail to relieve the stress. Still nothing.
    I opened one eye. Yes, I was still present. My tail would never look the same, but I was still alive, which meant that Satan and the others must still be alive too. I dared not try to open my other eye because I could feel that the glory of God was still somewhere about.
    Then the Ancient of Days spoke to Satan. "Do you see what I have made on Earth?" Satan did not respond.
    The voice of God continued, "I have created Adam to redeem and restore what you have attempted to destroy.
    They will reign with Us in the place that you coveted and lost by your rebellion."
    Why did God keep referring to Adam as "they"? I wanted to ask someone, but I decided then was not a good time to bring it up.
    Heaven and Earth hung suspended together as if in a fragile balance altogether, all at once and all at the same time. Physics would have to explain it; I could not. At first there was silence as Satan glared past God directly at Adam, who, in my opinion wasn't coming close to grasping the seriousness of this situation.
    Satan found his voice and managed to growl out what I thought was a very good question. "What is this man that you are mindful of him? What has he done either good or bad that You would make him ruler over Earth?"
    "This Earth is mine, and I will not give it up," he continued. "Will You steal it from me? W h y don't You just destroy me now in the presence of witnesses? Show Yourself for the tyrant God that You are."
    I did not expect God to answer at all, much less to answer as He did.
    "Adam will obey Me, and they will accomplish all that I have purposed. I will love them with an everlasting love. They will love Me and follow Me completely."
    Satan shot back, "They will not. If they have free will, they will not obey You. Will You leave the warring host to guard them so that their affection for You cannot be tested? That is no contest."
    I desperately hoped Satan would stop talking. I didn't know how much more God was willing to take from this rebel.
    "Is that what you call love?" he taunted God. "Let them freely choose between You and me. It will be as it was with the angels whom You despised because of their devotion to me. Adam will laugh at you. They will defy You. They will follow me. Unless you force them to obey, they will choose my ways over Yours. They will hand Earth back to me."
    From where I crouched in fear, I could