I took my last breath, surrounded by my church family and real. The air was so light as I drew it in that one last time. The sad smiles and few tears told me I would be missed by at least the church members who had been with me these last few months. I’d left them everything. The church that is. Not the vultures I’d called my children and their godless choices.
No. My riches would go to God, and to God I go for my riches in Heaven. Them I exhaled onto a warm sunny road, stretching from one horizon to the other. A crossroads. And from the south came a well dressed man, whistling as the wheat blew beside him.
As he approached me, he smiled. It was kind and warm. God, you really did make us in your image didn’t you? I thought, smiling back. I felt so young again. College, my life’s golden years, that was the body I had hoped to rise to glory in.
“Welllll…” came the long drawl of a South Carolina accent from the man. His eyes… they were the only thing unsettling I now seemed to notice. They were golden, yes, like how I thought God would look. But these were.. inhuman. “That starin is no way to greet an old friend.” That voice, there was a heat now and I suddenly noticed a joint lit and hanging slack from his lips.
“Old f-friend?” I’d done so much that God was friend, not judge or creator?
“Course!” Came the twang as a flask was handed my way. Southern Comfort, this had basically been a replacement for my blood for a while. It’d been liver failure in the end that took me. But this was Heaven, so I was cured and could drink what I wanted!
I smiled back thoroughly. “This certainly takes me back!” The man laughed, but this was not warm. He was laughing at a different joke only he knew. “Doesn’t it though?” He nodded, smoke bouncing in smoke rings above him. “Those were our prime days eh?” From his pocket he slipped an all too familiar silver powder box and mirror. I hadn’t seen it in 60 years. He snorted, then popped in a $100 bill, rolled and ready to the powder on the lid.
Those eyes settled back on me. I settled back on them. And they were malevolent for a moment. Snake eyes.
“Catchin on now, eh church man?” His accent was no longer the warm hospitable South, but the scorching heat of the Badlands. “You can dress yourself up however you like, sing different songs, even give all your money to that Sunday plate. But deep down, you knew who you were spose’ to meet today.”
I took another deep drink of the Southern Comfort, likely the last I’d ever have. I did it to steady the shaking. A deep breath helped more, now that we’re being honest. “I knew. I knew when I felt Mags take her last breath.”
He nodded. Slow. Agonizingly slow. He took a long drag and blew out a perfect pentagram. Then he smiled again. It felt warm again. “Wellll….”
The Devil was ready to take me to my end. But he really did feel like an old friend as he handed me the last bump before we walked. “You…” I paused “you aren’t as evil as the priests make you seem.”
He chuckled, it was a real one too. The Devil clapped me on the shoulder as we started down the road back South. “You’re funny church man. I’ll tell what real evil is though,” he drawled through a drag. “The people who need the Me to exist to just be decent to others.”
We walked to the end of the road in silence. Forever felt like an afternoon and longer than it was all in one. At the end was Mags. With a smile, a knife, the key to my eternal Hell. I knew she was in Heaven.