Lucifer's Cage (After Dark Book 6) by Sarah Bailey (short story to read .txt) 📗

“You cannot possibly comprehend what servitude means, Father,” Azrael said. “You may have created all of this, but you don’t understand what you ask of us.”

“You are an angel. Your role is to serve.”

God. The man who gave us life but put us in chains for eternity. I stepped forward, unable to take the tension between them any longer.

“Stop. Just stop. Do you hear yourself? All of them serve you out of blind allegiance. None of them understand freedom. Azrael and I deserve more. We all do.”

My father stared at me with unnerving intensity, but I refused to look away. Azrael walked over, coming to a standstill beside me, his expression hard.

“Is this what we’ve come to? My sons hating me for their servitude? Or is it because I’ve put mortals above you?”

I closed my eyes, trying to hold back the tide of curses I wanted to throw at him. He made me so angry, but I needed to remain calm. Unclenching my fists, I opened my eyes and looked at him.

“Neither of us have any love for humans, but that is not why we wish to be free. Choice, Father, that’s all we ask. We want a choice to serve, not an edict.”

He turned away, pacing the marble floor in front of his chair. It’s not quite a throne, carved of white marble, glistening in the light. The other angels who followed us have been punished. Stripped of their current roles and made to serve under those they once presided over. I have no regrets. They wanted freedom as much as Azrael and me.

“You test my patience with every word, Lucifer. Both of you have disappointed me greatly, but you, my brightest son, have hurt me the most. You live in Heaven where you are afforded every privilege imaginable. Why have you defied me at every turn? Do I not do enough for you?”

The words cut me like a knife. He doesn’t understand what we are asking of him. Why is choice so difficult for him to wrap his head around? He gave free will to humans, why not to angels? Why are we any different? Just because we are immortal. He says he created us to serve, but I don’t believe that for one moment. If we were only meant to serve, he would not have granted us minds of our own.

“Because you put us in chains, Father. They might not be visible, but we are chained nevertheless.”

Silence. What else could I ever have expected from him? I looked over at my brother, but his gaze was on our father, undisguised disgust written all over his face.

“Leave us, Lucifer. I will deal with you separately.”

I looked at my father one last time before walking out. There is no point arguing. He’s made up his mind about what he’s going to do with us.

I felt a sense of foreboding. Nothing was right any longer. My life as I know it will change. This was the day everything fell apart.

I paced outside the room for what seemed like eternity, wondering how he’ll punish both of us.

Azrael walked out, his head bowed. He didn’t look my way as he sat on one of the long benches which looked out over a garden with a fountain in the middle. The water trickled down silently.

“Father says you are to go in now.”

“What did he tell you?” I asked.

“You know I cannot repeat his words, Lucifer.”

I took a breath and walked into my father’s rooms. He was sat on his marble chair, eyes guarded.

“Lucifer, you are my brightest child and yet you have proven to be the most defiant. Why have you chosen this path?”

As if he doesn’t know the answer to that question. I’ve said it a thousand times.

“I want to be free.”

“Freedom comes at a price, my son.”

“Does their freedom come at a cost?”

Humans. The crux of our every argument. They are given the whole world to run riot in and yet we are stuck in servitude to them day after day.

“It will. Someone has to punish those who have trespassed against their fellow men and women. Those who have sinned.”

I watched him carefully for signs of what he could possibly mean by that. Punishment. He can create someone to carry out this task, surely?

“Azrael will be tested. He will come to hate humanity, but one day, he will learn his place and what his duty really means. A Darkness will come. One that will consume the world. Only he will be able to save them. And you will be there to make sure he follows through. It will come at a time and in a form neither of you will expect.”

A Darkness? What kind of Darkness does he mean? Consuming the world?

“It will be my wrath, Lucifer. If he does not save them, then all Heaven and Earth will burn. There is another place. A place for the souls of sinners. I will call it Hell. And you will be its King.”

I stared at him. Hell? King?

“You would have me punish sinners?”

“You are a disappointment, Lucifer. You have always been my favourite and yet, you have the strongest will. Unbreakable. Is it not fitting that you should break those who have disappointed me? Those who have hurt, maimed and killed?”

I took a step back, seeing my entire existence in Heaven flash before my eyes in an instant. All of it gone. Wasted.

“You will never return to Heaven. Eternity, Lucifer. You are consigned to Hell for eternity.”

Before I had a chance to speak, the room spun around. I stood before the gates of Heaven with Azrael next to me. Our father stood just inside them, his expression sorrowful.

“My sons, you are to be exiled from