[ WP ] Satan prevents a suicide .

It was all over. I finally got away from them. All of them. No more parents telling me who I am, and who I could be. No more friends telling me that it was all going to work out in the end. Finally, I would have peace. Just a moments courage to end a wasted lifetime of trying to be good, doing everything everyone expected of me. They all expect so much. I keep telling them I'm not... I've never been that strong. I have no money. I have no wife. I have nothing to show for all these years in this place. But it's all over now. I place my toes at the edge of the rock, looking at the last sunrise I am ever likely to see. It's beautiful here. Beautiful and tragic. I wish... I wish that I could have enjoyed it. But I will end my story the way I choose. 
 
 `` Just what is it that you think you're doing out here?'' I've never felt cold in a sound before, but there is no better way to describe the voice. I turn to my left. Just a man. But he is not just a man. It was like all the cruelty in the world was vested in him. He was n't scary, per se. He looked like you or I. He had dark hair, his eyes green and deep, the kind of eyes you could drown in, if you were n't careful. He was n't clean shaven, but no one really cared about that these days. His clothes were dark, worn. The skin crinkled just at the corner of his eyes and his mouth, the wrinkles of a person who smiles perhaps a little too often. But here he was. Beside me, soundless, staring, green eyes thoughtful. And I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, from the feeling forming in the pit of my stomach, from the way my skin was crawling, I knew exactly who was sitting beside me. 
 
 `` I know who you are, `` I stammered, stupidly. A soft chuckle escaped him. `` Well that saves us the boring custom of introduction, I suppose, `` he mused. `` I suppose then you're wondering what I'm doing here? You're thinking,'Is this what it's like to die?','Does he come to collect on every soul?','Am I somehow... special?'''. He sighs, turns those eyes on me, and I can feel him, looking straight down into me. There is no fault that is hidden from him. `` The answer to all this is simply no. I do n't come to collect souls. Even those that are particularly tantalizing. No, this is n't what it's like to die. Death is pain.'' He paused. `` Your species is n't ethereal, full of light, and love the way mine is. Grace is not something you have attained in all your years of evolution, stumbling around stupid on this planet, no. You go out the way you came in. Screaming. Confused. And then all is blackness once more. Your beauty I think, extends only to your frailty. Your belief that you can make a difference in something that is so much larger than yourselves. And more so than that, that you can each do it individually. Without each other, or God, or faith, or even love. And one by one, you pitch yourselves headfirst into the face of destiny and are surprised when she consumes you, forgets you. So no, my dear boy. You are not special. Another you waits in the folds of time to carry a torch that you left burning. You will not be remembered.'' His eyes turn back to gaze over the sunrise burning across the stones and plants scattered across the valley beneath us. 
 
 I mull his words over. Each barb of truth stinging more than the last. After the last of his poison finally sinks in, I exhale. `` So then if all you say is true... why are you here?'' He looks at me, his grin stretching ear to ear. `` You're just like your father, you know that?'' My father? What is that supposed to mean? `` Oh do n't look so shocked. Of course I know your father. I know everyone. As I was saying, you're just like him. Have to know it all. Figure everything out. And like him, you're not easily fooled. So I'll get straight to the point. I empathize with you.'' 
 `` Empathy, `` I snort, `` from you? That's rich.'' 
 
 `` You think I do n't have feelings too? Ahhh, that's right. I am the bad guys' bad guy. But, I can love. DID love. And like you, I was merely a pawn in a scheme much larger than myself. But, I have my own scheme. And as much as I like to do things my way, it turns out, I need your help.'' 
 
 `` My help?'' I look at him quizzically. `` I ca n't help anyone.'' 
 `` Oh but you can. See, I can see my will done with or without you. But with you? Now that... that would be the cosmic joke of all time. See, I need you to do what it is that you were born to do. So that I will have exactly what I need. Such a small thing, really.'' 
 
 `` A small thing. Indeed.'' I look at him disgusted. `` If you know so much, then you know what they will do to me if I go back there.'' `` Yes,'' he breathes. `` I know.'' 
 
 `` Then why? ``, I say. 
 
 `` Because I can promise you that if you do this for me. I will punish everyone of them. All of them. For everything you endure, I can punish them.'' 
 
 Punish them. All of them he says. Suddenly, I realize that I want this more than death. More than anything, I want them all to pay. Can he really give me this? 
 
 `` And to do this...'', I begin. 
 
 `` Yes,'' he says, `` you must be crucified.'' 
 
 `` And what will I tell them I was doing out here all this time?'' 
 
 `` Tell them I offered you the world if you would only worship me. Tell them you resisted. Tell them not even the Devil could sway your faith. You must remain the hero, after all.'' 
 
 `` And you're sure you can win. You can really beat him?'' 
 
 `` Oh yes,'' he grins, `` Like you, they will see him for the sadist he is. They will shun you sacrifice, they will rape his image with greed and immorality, and they will make his perfect gift worthless. And that, my friend, will be the crowning touch.'' 
 
 I look at him. I feel vindicated, like I have some say in my own fate finally. A divine gift from the unlikeliest of sources. `` Get thee behind me Satan, `` I grin. `` We have work to do.'' 
 

