Gravity II

“Then let me show that I can beat you in your chosen field of measurement of success,” I challenged, truly allowing myself to get carried away by the flow of the conversation.

“Now you have gone too far,” growled Time, standing. In my arrogance I was completely indifferent to his wrath though the others looked uncomfortable. “I’m not having someone not even named by the humans yet challenge me. They have feared me since they first discovered that they age.”

“It isn’t you they fear, it’s death. You’re no death, you’re nothing better then death’s boogieman,” I mocked. Death was technically one of us but she was a grim, antisocial sort, no one was shocked when she had not shown up to our little meeting. It was never spoken but we were all a little uncomfortable around Death. Even back then, when I was young and stupid, I knew not to bother Death. I couldn’t have said what I thought she might do to me since I couldn’t die, but I knew she was a threat and kept away. If nothing else we could all choose our appearances and she was the only one who chose to look consistently old. We all had our favorite shapes but the rest of us liked being youthful. Not so with Death who continued to remind us of her nature by wearing the appearance of a withered crone.

“I’ll take your challenge then,” shouted Time, angrily. “Like Future said, humans are a good gage. I’d love to see someone who hasn’t even been named yet beat me when it comes to getting respect from humans.” I had to admit that he had a point, seeing as humans didn’t even seem to know I existed it was a stupid bet for me to make.

“It sounds boring, a sure win for me,” I said, trying to worm out of it.

“You are the one who proposed the bet to start with, you can’t back out now,” Justice told me. The others, all sitting around the fire, nodded in agreement and I found myself trapped.

“Fine, you’re on,” I blustered, and I popped away from the fire and back to my own kingdom. As much as I hate my tomblike castle it was a safe place where I didn’t have to face the others, who were starting to seem suddenly hostile towards me. I know that the excuse starts to sound old but I was young, and I didn’t understand how what I had said had brought this on me. Had you asked me what had happened I would have laid everything on the shoulders of my companions and thought that I was being honest and rational about it. Now that I am older I can see how I brought this on myself but at the time I was horribly angry with them. In my anger I decided that rather then backing out of the stupid bet I was going to win and show them all. And so a bad decision brought on another as is often the case. I was far too proud to back down now.

My first step was to observe the humans; I had never really cared about them before since they had nothing really to do with me. I mean I made them fall sometimes, mostly out of boredom. Or I brought down one of their buildings that should have been able to stand for centuries just because it was amusing to see them jump up and down and swear. The biggest problem, I decided that I would have, was to show these humans that I existed. If I didn’t I couldn’t move on to the next step which was getting them to respect me more then Time.

To be continued...

Gravity

It is easier for those of us who don't live forever, I do however and I just have to deal with it. People like the devil, I think her name is Linda these days, it's so hard to keep track, and the god, have it much easier then I do. Gravity is forever and therefore doesn't age and die like they do. My position is made even awkward since no one really understands why there should be a personification of gravity, and that includes me. I suspect most of the time that I am the Supreme Being's idea of a joke and the thought does not comfort me at all.

I was one of the first ones created, I am one of the old ones. I never have to change, I just sort of wander the earth and wonder if anything interesting will happen. Of course like all of us, I have my own kingdom, but mine is lonely and deep in the earth and I try to spend as little time there as possible. While the earths surface seems to change constantly and even as I go out for a walk another generation seems to disappear, that is actually what keeps me interested. If it stayed the same I think I would soon grow bored with it and go crazy.

I now know better then to get involved with the affairs of humans too much. If I meet an interesting one I might settle down for a while, but that never lasts long since a human lifespan is so fleeting compared to what I have already lived. At one time I chose to get involved though. Soon after humans were placed on this earth and they will still of interest to me. That was back before there was a devil and a god and it was just me and the other old ones.

It all started with a gathering of me and the other old ones, though back then we were still young and stupid and still got along with one another. Now we don't have any dealings with one another because when the old ones fight the world suffers, and we fight a lot these days. But as I said, this was back in the days when everything was young and we still gathered every few years to talk and show off. It was at such a meeting, deep in the primal woods of Germany, that I made the mistake of bragging a stupid boast.

“You are all talking about how powerful you are but I am stronger then all of you. Nothing is more powerful then the power of attraction, I could pull you all into the ground and there would be no way for you to defend yourselves against me,” I announced. “Particularly you, Time, these new human creatures might think of you as powerful but your powers are absolutely useless on any of us, and we're the ones you should be trying to get respect from.”

“You leave Time alone,” snapped Wind. She had a crush on Time and had, in a very obvious way, for the last couple of centuries.

“Or you'll do what? Blow me away?” I asked, laughing mockingly. “You forget that I can make myself far to heavy for your little breezes to bother me. Your powers are about as useless on me as Time's are.

“You are going to start causing problems,” said Growth.

“Let's face it,” I said ignoring her. “All of your powers only affect the lesser beings. My power is the only one that can affect all of you. Therefore I am the one that all of you should be looking up to. The only person more powerful then me is the Supreme Being.”

“These humans that have been around recently I think are the new bases of power. They are smart and the Supreme Being seems to favor them. Rather then looking at whether or not we affect one another we should be looking at how we affect them. Their favor can make us far more important then we are now,” said Future. “If you want respect then look to them for it.” Future was living up to his name and now I know this, but at the time this seemed like empty talk from yet another person that had no affect on me. Personifications have no future, I thought I knew that then but I didn't truly appreciate it. Now I really know it, personifications have no future.

To be continued...

Devil Linda X

“I want you to become a lawyer's office for defending the spirits that come here. The ones that you think are innocent of course, the ones who appeal, or the ones where there is some doubt. I will expect you and the demons that I assign under your charge, to bring evidence of their innocence. I am going to found another department that is going to be in charge of finding evidence of their guilt,” Linda announced. It was the fruit of her long hard thought.

“But it's just humans,” protested Dante. He obviously was torn between being honored with the trust she was giving him and the fact that he didn't like the job description.

“You are human as well, never forget your humanity,” Linda snapped at him. “We owe it to our fellow humans to be as fair as possible. We are the prisons and the judges, it is only right that we should be giving them a chance to protest. It is only natural that the innocent should be given a chance to prove it. Now I am going home and going to sleep,” Linda marched out of the room. Dante looked after her and after she was gone he smiled, she was finally starting to act like a leader, she was now the sort of person that he could follow.

“How was the sleepover?” asked Linda's father as Linda walked into the house.

“I hardly got any sleep at all. We spent all night watching movies,” Linda lied, trying to stay awake. “I'm so tired, I think I am going to go to bed and sleep for a while. Can you wake me up for dinner?”

“Not a problem,” Linda's father told her affectionately. “You go and get some sleep honey.”

“Oh yeah,” Linda said turning back around to face her father. “Can you get me some information on schools with law departments and sign me up from the GED?”

“What?” asked her father, shocked. Both he and his wife had tried to be accepting about what their daughter had decided to do with her life but neither had been happy about it. His wife had been even less happy about it then he had, but they had both gotten to the point where they were resigned to her choices. Now she seemed to be speaking completely out of character.

“I want to be a lawyer. I decided last night,” Linda explained. “It seems like a good career, I like justice.” What she added mentally was that she had no intention of using the law degree in practice. Well not in the human world. If she was going to move over to a justice based hell however, and sit judgment on a court, then she wanted to know something about justice. Of course she wasn't going to follow earth law to a letter but she was going to take any ideas she could.

“I think you will do very well,” her father said quickly. If his daughter was willing to go to college and look to the future he would do anything she wanted him to. With a smile of satisfaction Linda went upstairs to go to bed. A job well done after a long day.

Devil Linda IX

“I want to be able to see people’s pasts like you do. You are the one who grants us our power am I right?” Linda asked timidly. She had just sort of assumed that it was until now but now doubt was starting to fill her. If she was wrong and was asking for something it couldn’t do she wondered what its reaction would be. Would it punish her for asking the impossible.

“To what use would you put this power if you had it. You are human no matter what position I have placed you. There are some powers better not in the hands of humans.” Linda relaxed a little more. It wasn’t angry with her, it wasn’t willing to just hand power over to her, but it wasn’t angry and that was a great relief.

“I want to be just; I know that isn’t part of being the devil but it is something that I want more then anything else. I am fine with being part of a punishment system, but I only want to be punishing people who deserve it. I have no way to do that; I hear you are able to read people’s pasts, so I beg you for that ability, so that I can do my job in a better way.”

“I am not all powerful, I have powers but I can only get so many away, and every time I do I am no longer able to use them myself. The power that you ask for is one that I want to keep myself. It is extremely valuable to me. Do you know why I chose humans for your post and for god’s?”

“Because humans change and so must heaven and hell,” recited Linda, from her lessons from Dante.

“That is a part of it but it isn’t all of it. There is also your adaptability. I could have created a separate species, one that evolved with humans and had all of the powers that you have now. But there was a problem with that; humans are the most adaptable creatures on this earth. Any problems you are faced with you find a solution. That is what I am counting on. I trust that I will not have to give up any more of my power to you because you will find a way to live without it.” The light began to fade and Linda realized that she had one last question.

“Why have you never appeared to me before? And Dante said he had never seen you before.”

“Because you are the only one, besides two devils a long, long time ago who called me while I was within hearing. I can see everything that happens but my ears do not go as far as my eyes.” And with that the shining light was gone forever and everything was back to normal. Linda picked up her phone and called her mother.

“Mom, I am going to be sleeping over at a friend’s house. Yeah, that’s right, don’t expect me for dinner.” Then she sat down and had a good long think.

When Dante came in to work the next day he found Linda still sitting at her desk, staring at the wall. That had never happened before, not in the whole time that she had been the devil. The old man that he had worked under before had never worked all night either; he had gone to bed fairly early in fact.

“You aren’t going to be my second in command anymore Dante,” was the first thing out of Linda’s lips. He looked at her in horror so she continued. “You are too smart to be my second in command. You deserve something that puts your leadership to use. From now on you are the leader of the new department I am forming; it’s going to need someone with experience and brains.”

“I am honored but what kind of department is it?”

To be continued...

Devil Linda VIII

“I want to meet it,” Linda said. “I want to be just and if it hasn’t given the tools to be fair then it should expect me to look to it for help.” She was a little scared, after all, she was asking to meet the Supreme Being, but not knowing who her boss really was bothered her even more. It was true that she was the master of her own realm but she had still always had the feeling that she was being watched somehow and she would like to meet the watcher.

“Impossible,” said Dante bluntly. “I have never seen it once; I don’t think it pays any attention to us. I think it set us up so that it didn’t have to pay attention.” Linda sighed; she suspected that what Dante said was true. He had been around longer then she had and he was one of the more sensible people from the former administration. She respected his opinion, if he said that it couldn’t be done then she was willing to take his word for it.

The paper work had been building up since Linda had had some vacation time that had made it impossible for her to leave her parent’s house. The people in hell were used to this, it had been much worse when she had been in middle school, back then she had had to plead after school activities. So they just piled the paperwork on her desk for her to get around to when she had time. She had intentionally told her mother that she had a friend’s house to go to after work so she was able to stay late to take a chunk out of it. She sent all of the demons away though, hell never slept but they could leave her in peace for a while. She didn’t concentrate well with all of the others around her.

Linda was at her desk, head bowed over a junior demon’s report of the condition of the lower pit, when she got the feeling even more then usual that something was watching her. It had happened on several other occasions but in the past she had just always written it off as being in her head. This time, with the Supreme Being on her mind she decided not to.

“Come out and talk to me if you’re going to stare at me,” she ordered, looking up from the report. There was a blinding flash of light and the next thing Linda knew she was laying on the floor. There was an instinct, far deeper then her brain, which told her that she was not to stand up but she did manage to look up. She could see nothing but a bright white glow forever.

“You called me?” said a voice. It wasn’t male or female, angry or kind, it was neutral in all forms but if anything that scared Linda even more then any other voice she had ever heard. This was her god she realized, her equivalent, her judge and she had called it and was depending on its good graces for her continued survival.

“I realize I am going to be asking a lot,” Linda stuttered. She wanted to call it sir but she wasn’t sure if it was male so she didn’t dare in case it got offended.

“I grant no promises to give you what you ask for,” said the voice. “But I will listen so stop shaking.”

To be continued...

Devil Linda VII

The first thing that Linda discovered that she knew was that the detective’s main suspect for the murder was Mathias. However he had no proof and therefore had not actually reported to his superiors his suspicions. She looked deeper and discovered the motivation for his suspicions and wrote them off. He was mostly thinking how easy it would be to assign the guilt of the murder to a man who was a suspect and already dead in a car accident. The detective wasn’t a man who concerned himself with justice, he was thinking about the fact that there would be no interrogation or tedious court if the blame could be put on a dead man’s shoulders. The only fact that the detective actually had against Mathias was what Linda already knew, Mathias and the old lady had had no love lost between them.

Linda was the most interested in knowledge that the detective had on the subject of Mathias’s life. What hell had on each spirit was only what the watching demons could catch and while the watching demons were very good, they never caught everything. For instance they had not caught whoever had killed the old woman, it would have been a lot easier if they had, nor had they caught a lot of Mathias’s childhood.

It was for reasons like that that crimes went unpunished sometimes at first, but the person never actually escaped forever. There was someone higher then both god and the devil and from what Linda understood that person never missed any crime. The explanation from Dante had been vague and confusing but from what Linda understood that person wasn’t a human like the rest of them and therefore could simply reach inside someone and know everything that person had ever done. That was the thing that assigned the reincarnation, the day that Linda had heard of it she had sworn her best behavior, she knew that one day she too would have to go through its hands.

Mathias had no known relatives alive, something that Linda hadn’t realized actually ever happened. He was truly alone in the world, he had bounced between foster families until he had come of age, not getting attached to any one family and he had finally found himself without a home at the age of eighteen, and with no prospects. It had been an advertisement for a handyman and person to do general yard work in a news paper that had brought him to the old woman. That was interesting but had no actual connection to the case Linda decided.

What the police knew about the old woman was almost exactly what hell knew. There was nothing there. She had been married, had kids, had her husband die, had her children leave home, all but one who had kept on as a sort of live in maid, and then had been murdered. No actual reason had even been found for why anyone would like to kill her, nothing had been stolen, no one had made death threats, it was truly confusing.

The next day Linda went to work again in a less then happy frame of mind. She got through a lot of her work just like every day but it was obvious, even to the usually carefully unobservant Dante that there was something else on her mind. He finally commented on it and she threw down her pen and faced him.

“I’m still bothered by Mathias’s case,” Linda admitted.

“You could still give him a harsher sentence,” Dante suggested.

“I didn’t mean that, that’s what you were bothered by in his case. I’m bothered by the fact that we didn’t know if he had killed the old woman or not. We should know these things.”

“Some things just have to be left to the higher being. It is what gives us this task but it doesn’t expect us to manage everything, it is happily forgiving.”

To be continued...

Devil Linda VI

It occurred to Linda that going around asking about a murder might not be very tactful and might even be considered down right suspicious since it had never been solved in the human world and she was obviously not a policeman. She could shape shift of course but for that she would need a human template and she would also need the knowledge that went with it. If she could find the officer who was in charge of the old woman’s death that would be easy because then she could get all of the information from him. All it took was putting her hand on his hand and she would be able to become him and know everything that he knew. Of course she would only have that information while she was him but she could write down everything that mattered before turning back into herself. That would be the easy way except that she didn’t actually know how to find the officer in question.

Linda suddenly realized that she was still thinking like a normal teenager, she wasn’t doing problem solving with the abilities that she had. She had taken into account her ability to shape shift but she had ignored that if she was never going to be seen again in all likelihood in this part of the world then there was no point for her to worry about what people thought of her at the moment. If worst came to worst she would just send Dante up with a team of demon’s to wipe some memories, it took a lot of power and he would complain about it but her orders were law. She turned and headed to the police station.

“Can I help you with anything?” asked the police woman at the desk when Linda walked in.

“I have some information on the murder Margaret Thatcher that I thought I should share,” Linda said, though she still felt a bit nervous.

“This isn’t a prank or anything is it?” asked the police woman, looking Linda up and down doubtfully. “You do realize that our tip system is very serious.”

“I wouldn’t come to the police if I didn’t really know something,” Linda said in an indignant voice.

“Have a seat and the detective in charge will be with you shortly,” said the policewoman, picking up the phone and dialing an extension.

The detective, when Linda met him, seemed nice enough, but very over worked. Still he cleared a place at his desk, got out a notepad and told her to have a seat and talk to her. She felt a little bad about doing what she was about to but still, justice had to be done she assured herself. She had to know more about the murder.

“My name is Martha,” said Linda, holding out her hand for the detective to shake. It did the trick, she was in contact with him and she was now him herself. She pushed a bit of her power through their hand connection and felt him lose consciousness, he would be out for a while and when he woke up he would remember having had a normal conversation with her, finding out that she was just looking for attention, lecturing her about responsibility, threaten to call her parents, and then letting her flee the police station looking scared out of her mind. That would give her time to sort through all of her new thoughts. She pulled his notebook near her, she would need to write all of this stuff down to bring with her.

To be continued...

Devil Linda V

“Dante, is this old woman part of hell? Can she be brought in for questioning?” Linda asked, turning to where her second in command was standing at attention.

“She has already passed on,” Dante said, with more curtness then usual. It was obvious that he thought that Linda was spending far more effort on this case then it was worth.

“So we can’t check what he says against what she says? In that case I am closing this case,” Dante looked relieved and Mathias looked scared. “We really can’t prove this one either way with no information so I’m just going to pretend that this never happened. I can’t call you innocent with no proof of innocence but since there wasn’t really an appeal I’m not going to raise your sentence.”

“Wait,” Mathias said, struggling against the demons who led him out of the throne room. “This isn’t fair, investigate, find out the truth, I’m innocent I tell you.”

“You were far too nice to him,” Dante said, once they were alone and the door was closed. If he ever did decide to chide her it was always when they were alone, to make sure that he wasn’t undermining her authority. “If this gets around we are going to be swamped with appeals from people who think they might get lucky too.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t do it often, I don’t know what came over me,” Linda admitted. She knew as much as anyone that there was no place for humanity in a devil. No one would complain if she was unjust to the spirits under her control, or was needlessly cruel, but being fair and kind had no place in her business life.

The rest of the day Linda got on with her life as normal, well as normal as her life ever got. Still the whole day she had the case from that morning floating around in the back of her brain. She even kept Mathias’s file sitting on her desk even though she had declared it closed. He was facing a very long sentence, as she had already told him, she couldn’t imagine what it would be like if he wasn’t actually guilty.

Since she could only work in her office during the hours her double was working in the fast food place Linda was able to stop working around five in the evening and got home. She got the report from her double about what had happened at work so she could say what work had been like if her parents asked. Just because she was no longer at work though didn’t mean that her job was done. Once dinner was over she was able to run up to her room with the files that she had brought to look at from hell in preparation for the next day. There was another file that she had brought though, one that Dante didn’t know she had brought. She sat there and flipped through Mathias’s file once again. He just didn’t seem like the sort to kill an old woman the more that she read; though she knew that wasn’t proof anything. She suddenly came to a decision and stood up from her desk again.

“I’m going over to a friend’s house, I’ll have my cell phone with me,” she called around the doorframe to her parents where they were watching TV, before running out of the house. If she stopped to think she knew she would stop herself, this was being stupid, she wasn’t supposed to do things like this. You weren’t supposed to take interest in individual spirits. Nonetheless she dove into an alley and snapped her fingers, and she was instantly standing right outside the scene where the old lady was murdered.

To be continued...

Devil Linda IV

“Sent down here on a murder charge, never caught or convicted in the human world, it’s a long sentence you’re facing,” Linda told the man frankly. She always felt it was best to tell people upfront what kind of condition they were in. “By insisting on an appeal you are risking an even longer sentence if proven guilty. You can still back out and serve your original sentence now rather then continue with this.”

“I keep saying, I didn’t kill the old lady,” said Mathias. “I didn’t do it. Can’t you guys just tell if I have sinned or not? Especially with something this serious, can’t you just look at me and tell.”

“I wish it was that easy,” Linda said wistfully. She could remember a time when she was a kind when she had thought that the supernatural solved everything, that was of course before she had become a part of the supernatural herself and found out that it was just like everything else in life. It had things that it could do and things that it couldn’t. “We can see some things but not everything. And we can look at evidence; the evidence shows that one Margaret Thatcher, age seventy four at time of death, was killed in a violent manor. When her spirit was questioned she told us that you were the one who killed her.”

“She was lying then,” said Mathias, vehemently. “I never killed anyone. The old lady had it in for me.”

“The dead have no reason to lie, it’s all the same to them at that point,” Linda said, shrugging.

“You never met the old lady, she was crazy vindictive and she hated me. I worked for her for three years, I know. She had it in for me but she wouldn’t fire me because she couldn’t find someone else who could work for as cheap as I would and I couldn’t leave. There aren’t a lot of jobs open to people with no references, connections, experience or high school diploma.”

“What did you do for her while you were working?” Linda asked.

“I did odd jobs, stuff on her house, worked in the garden. She had plenty of money so she could afford the just under living wage that she paid me to break my back for her every day,” he sounded bitter and Linda didn’t blame him. She could see where getting paid almost nothing for doing a job that most people could have earned a fortune on would turn anyone bitter. His bitterness didn’t help his case any however.

“Did you ever get into actual fights?” Linda asked. She could see Mathias’s face contort as he tried to think of an answer and then it smoothed out again.

“Of course we fought. I told you she had it in for me. I shouldn’t have been surprised to find out that even after death she had found a way to try and mess up my life. We were always yelling at each other, and once or twice she even threw stuff at me, but I never hurt her back. No matter how angry she made me she was still an old lady and I don’t hurt old ladies,” there was a note of pride in Mathias’s voice that made him seem more honest in that statement then Linda would normally believe. She had been doing this job long enough to know that there were good liars in the world but she had never heard them lie with such conviction and pride before, which made her more inclined to believe him.

To be continued...

Devil Linda III

“What is he accused of having done that got him sent here?” Linda asked. She had felt bad at one time for what she basically viewed as torture of people for their crimes but it had been explained to her again and again how important they were and she was willing to judge trails fairly at this point. At one point she would have shown more mercy then justice but she had been told that things always come back to haunt you no matter what so they might as well punish the spirits before they went on to the next life where they would be punished instead. She had asked what about murderers who have been caught and are put into jail in the human world, did they get punished in hell as well. Dante had very patiently explained to her that their time spent in a human jail and being punished by humans was taken into account in hell, just like all things were taken into account in heaven. Nothing ever went unpunished or unrewarded, in either place. If the person was considered to have been punished enough for their crime then it was wiped off of the books and he would be allowed to start over. That conversation had comforted Linda a lot and made her a lot more comfortable about doing her job. No one else was going to do it after all, there could only be one devil.

Dante took the folder from the old woman and handed it to Linda to look over. She read the name Matthias Roscoe on the front, before opening it up. She had at one time felt uncomfortable reading in front of so many people, waiting for her to finish but she had grown used to it. It wasn’t like they could do anything without her and her judgment suffered if she didn’t read all of the details.

“Send him into the throne room in half an hour,” she told Dante without even looking up, she was already totally immersed in the man’s life.

The throne room of hell was decorated as you would expect of the devil’s throne room. It was yet another place where traditionalists had clearly had a lot of say in how things were going to be. The armrests on the throne had skulls on them and the room was in general red and black themed with bone decorations. Linda thought it was tasteless but she did have to admit that it was appropriate and therefore left it alone. The one addition she had made to the room was a chair for the condemned to sit while she was going over the case. It might have been considered disrespectful and she had to admit that it seemed a little silly to worry about the comfort of a damned soul but she had always believed in innocence unless proven guilty and if they were appealing they weren’t guilty for sure. She wouldn’t punish them unless they were proven guilty for sure.

The man sitting in the chair today was a young man of about twenty-three or twenty-four who was looking distinctly uncomfortable. He had obviously tried his best to look nice but that wasn’t easy with no comb, change of clothing, or shower. With the heat, outside of Linda’s temperature controlled offices, it was difficult to stay nice looking for long. Linda wondered absent mindedly how much of Mathias’s sweat was from the heat he had come from and how much of it was from the fact that he had a lot staked on the next few hours. Hell did not encourage appeals and therefore they didn’t happen very often, they were a gamble and if you were proven guilty after appealing your sentence went up. Linda had figured out early on that the only people who appealed were the truly innocent and the psychotic who though they could get away with anything.

“Stand up,” ordered the demon guard by Mathias’s side as Linda walked into the room. Mathias obediently stood and even managed a vague attempt at a bow, though Linda suspected that he had probably only ever seen one before in the movies.

To be continued...

Devil Linda II

Like herself the demons had originally been normal human’s who had been randomly chosen to be her minions. You had to keep things modern; you couldn’t have three hundred year old demons serving a thirteen year old devil, it just didn’t work. With people not being chosen for looks or anything of that sort Linda felt they had been lucky at least with appearances for her second in command demon who now popped into existence next to her. Even his name, Dante, was vaguely appropriate, though personality wise he was about average. He was tall, with long black hair and a toothy smile that would make small children run away crying. He also took his job very seriously which sometimes unnerved Linda a little but she was usually able to write that off as simple work ethic.

“You’re late,” Dante commented though there was a studied lack of reproach in his voice. He also took his position as a subordinate seriously; actually he took almost everything seriously. Linda had once asked him if it didn’t bother him, the fact that he was thirty and had to answer to a seventeen year old. He had answered very stiffly that it was his job to answer to the devil and it didn’t matter who it was. She had heard that he had served under the last devil who had, by the time that Dante had become a demon around the age of thirteen, been a very old man who wore his underwear on his head. She supposed that the training he had gotten in that situation could carry him through being loyal to anyone.

“Sorry, mom was being nagging again,” Linda told him, and she snapped her fingers. Instantly they were her plush office in hell. It wasn’t empty however; her lieutenants had obviously been waiting for her. They sat at the conference table, from the youngest who was about ten, to the oldest in her eighties. They stood and bowed when they noticed that she had arrived and waited for her to sit at the head of the table, which she did. The bowing and court formality made Linda nervous and she had wanted to do away with it but she had been informed that no matter how modern they became in other things some traditions would remain.

“So what is on my list to do today?” Linda asked in a resigned voice. She knew all too well that it would keep her busy all day no matter what it was that they had thought up for her. Usually she had to plead off in the end on account of her family and dreaded the moment that she would move out and have to work down here full time rather then just a part time schedule based off of what was offered at the hamburger joint she was supposedly working at.

“There is a man who would like to appeal his placement here in hell. We aren’t sure how long the appeal will take so we’ll go from there,” said the old woman, looking down at her clipboard. She took care of Linda’s scheduling Most of the demons looked at themselves as being at odds with god but the old woman had made it very clear that she believed herself to be doing god’s work by punishing those who had sinned. Linda had once made the comment that she didn’t think that demon’s went to heaven and it had taken her a very long time to clear up the cold silence that had descended between her and her secretary afterwards.

To be continued...

Devil Linda

Humanity has the strange habit of thinking of thinking of the personifications of Death, Time, and things of that sort of immortal but this is incorrect. All things live and die and personifications are the same as any of the rest of us. Not just the personifications even, God and the Devil also live and die in a human lifespan, and heirs appear for both of them. This is a very good thing for the sake of humanity because humans change over time and it is nice to have our deity and personifications change as quickly as we do. Usually when such a creature dies a normal human, not necessarily one that exudes the qualities you would expect of their position, takes over for them.

It was simply by luck that that the current devil was a rather goth teenage girl, though her personality was far short from being demonic. Indeed she could only be called normal. It was generally understood that after she got older she would have to start living most of her time in the underworld but since she was still only seventeen she still lived with her parents and she only allowed the demons to bother her outside of the house. Telling her parents that she was the devil seemed like a bad idea. It did make talking about what her plans for the future were with her parents seem unrealistic and silly though.

“I still don't understand why you decided to drop out of high school Linda,” her mother started on the old and familiar rant. You are ruining your life this way, you can't get anywhere if you don't at least have a high school diploma and a college degree is much better.” Linda thought for a moment about the position of extreme power that she was guaranteed and almost laughed but she knew that would only offend her mother and that she would then get a further lecture on lack of respect.

Linda really liked her parents, which was the whole reason that she had insisted on staying in their house instead of instantly going to live in hell when she had inherited. There were very nice rooms reserved for the devil that she was passing up for her parent's little suburban home. After she moved out she had promised her demons that she would move into hell and only come up every once in a while to visit her parents and let them visit her. Of course that meant that she would have to lead a double life so her parents wouldn't worry but as far as she was concerned they were worth it. Hell had no shortage of money, the road to hell was almost famously paved with it, so it wouldn't be hard for her to buy a little house and pretend that she had a job.

“I have to go to work mom,” Linda interrupted her mother's rant but she kissed her mother on the cheek before heading out the door. She had told her parents she had gotten a job at the local hamburger joint and she even had a demon double working there in her place in case someone decided to check up on her.

To be continued...

Lif's Tale VI

“If all of you die, what happens to us that we survive?” Lifprasir asked. I could tell she had the same doubts I had. It seemed very unlikely all in all.

“There is a place where you will be safe,” Loki assured us.

“Then why aren't you all going to that safe place too?” I asked.

“We can't fight against fate, and our lives are worth the lives of our enemies. I am willing to die to kill Heimdal. He may not be Odin but I will leave Odin to my son. Fenrir is a better match for Odin, I will kill the enemies that I know I can kill and if I can take an enemy with me it is well worth it.” Loki was starting to get fired up again but I didn't really understand it. I have never been attracted to the idea of dying just because I don't like someone else.

“So how will we know where is this safe place to go if everyone else is going to die?” asked Lifprasir.

“You are sure to find it, because you have been seen finding it. If it would make you feel better however I will show you before we march into battle.” He could see the look of relief on Lifprasir's face, and I must admit on mine as well. Having comforted us, I was starting to suspect that Loki was a nice person, he walked off. I could see him taking the tiller of the ship and the ship started truly flying forward.

Almost instantly we were level with where the rainbow had broken off and I could see that it was a whole different world. I could see a tree up above us and I realized that what I had always called the sky was actually the broad, interlocked leaves, of the tree. We were so high up in the sky and all we were at was the roots. I could see the tree had three roots, one was right at our feet. It was huge and twisted like a staircase up to the sky. It dug into the earth of the land we had reached, it was beautiful but thinking about what was likely to happen there according to Loki made me shudder.

“There, climb up that root and you should be fine,” Loki shouted to us, pointing at the root that I had noticed. As he pointed the ship plowed into the ground and slowly tipped over. I was braced up against the edge of the ship so I wasn't hurt and neither was Lifprasir but we were both surprised and shaken. I instantly dragged Lifprasir to her feet though, behind us I could see the rushing hordes that Loki had brought with him from the depth of the earth. I doubted that they would stop to let us move. Pulling Lifprasir alone with me by her hand I was at the root of the tree in record time. We were already climbing by the time that everyone else was off of the ship.

I will never forget that day, as fire covered the earth and scorched the roots of the tree we sat in the branches and watched. We watched as the serpent and a man with a giant hammer battled and then both feel beside one another. We watched as Fenrir the wolf fought with another man and defeated him, only to then have a sword shoved through the top of his head and die. The earth was destroyed, the gods died like flies, I cried when I saw Loki fall. And then all was quiet and three gods still stood on the battle field unmoving. I motioned to Lisprasir and we climbed down out of the three cautiously.

“You are the humans, we will remake the world, and you will repopulate it,” said a fair haired god, who was the most beautiful thing man or object I had ever seen. It was an awkward subject, Lifprasir and I repopulating the earth though and I looked at her to see what her reaction would be, but she just smiled at me and I knew it would be alright.

Lif's Tale V

“All chains and fetters will open at Ragnorak,” Fenrir said, with a laugh though not a very nice one. That explained why I was out of prison anyway, though from the look in Fenrir's eye and Loki's feeling of danger I doubted I was the only murderer who had been freed. “You should have seen father, I stretched and my nose scrapped the sky and my jaw scrapped the ground. It feels so good to be free again.”

“At least we can die fighting against our enemies instead of rotting for the rest of eternity,” Loki agreed, but there was a tinge of sadness in his voice again. Fenrir and the giant snake seemed to notice the same thing because they both nuzzled him for a moment before going to fly on either side of our ship.

“I can't believe this is happening,” said Lifprasir, the first thing I had heard her say that showed that she was aware anything abnormal was going on. “I knew a lot of people in that city,” she added, looking back. I looked back for the first time since I had seen the waves wash over the city. I was looking for skyscrapers and the skyline that I had known for most of my life. It took me a second to realize that nothing that I was looking for was there anymore. All that was left was rubble and what looked like, even from the distance, like floating bodies in the water. I felt sick and I could hear Lifprasir retching next to me. So she did have emotions, I thought to myself, disgusted with the fact that that thought had even occurred to me under the circumstances. Lifprasir started crying, very quietly, and I had no idea how to comfort her, I kind of wanted to cry myself at that moment after all. Loki looked over us and noticed Lifprasir sobbing and my face, and he headed over.

“Is something wrong?” he asked. It was a considerate question but his voice was hard. He was no longer the man thinking about his children.

“We're just shaken about what happened to the city. I grew up there,” I added. I was trying to remain collected in front of the scornful Loki but my voice was shaking a little and Lifprasir still hadn't stopped crying next to me.

“That's just the start,” Loki told me, his voice emotionless. “Very few of us will be alive after this day. The world will burn and heaven will fall by my hands and you are upset about one city,” now he was obviously scornful.

“I'm sorry I don't have the ability to not to get upset that the entire world is collapsing,” I snapped. “We're all going to die and you expect me to be calm about this. Death row would have been better, I would have lived longer then.”

“Who said you were going to die,” now I realized it wasn't exactly scorn that was in his voice, there was something else but I couldn't exactly tell what it was. “You two are going to be fine, just fine. You guys are lucky, you've been chosen, it's the rest of us who die.” Now I knew what was in his voice, it was jealousy. This great and powerful man, obviously far superior to me, a mere human, was looking at me with jealousy.

“When you say the rest of you,” said Lifprasir, still sniffling. “Are you saying that everyone on this ship is going to die other then us? All of you?”

“That's right, me, my sons, my daughter, my wife, all of us,” Loki sounded bitter. “The price that we pay to take down our enemies. But you two don't have to worry, you two will survive.”

“How are you so sure?” I asked. If the world was ending I didn't see why I should be spared, that seemed like the chances of winning a lottery that the entire world had a number in.

“I already told you, Odin, who I hate, told us all our fate many, many years ago. He gave up his eye to see the future, and the eye of the all-father can buy anything he wants it to buy. All of this has been told of a long time before.”

To be continued...

Lif's Tale IV

After the outburst of Loki, Lifprasir and I kept quiet. I could understand why he was angry if what he had told us was true, but I didn't want to risk his anger being directed at me. Loki seemed positive that Lifprasir and I were there because of fate and that fate was infallible but I didn't share his belief. Fate, I doubted, would protect me if Loki wanted to harm me.

When we got to the ocean I broke my silence with a swear word, not because of anything bad but simply out of awe. When Loki had said that there was a ship waiting for us I hadn't thought it would be a yacht or anything, our group was too large for that. What I had thought of was something like an aircraft carrier. What was waiting for us was completely outside of anything I could have imagined, it was a giant version of something in a painting of vikings. There was even a giant at the helm, not a large man, literally a giant, he made even the huge ship seem like it was a normal size. It was the material the ship was built out of however that truly caught my attention. It was the oddest thing I had ever seen.

“Is that made out of...” Lifprasir whispered, though not low enough for Loki not to hear her.

“Fingernails and toenails, that's right,” Loki sounded proud. “Thousands of years in the making. It was the completion of this ship that was the sign for all of us to gather and march against Asgard, that was agreed on many, many years ago. Or I should say it was decreed by Odin, who gave up his eye to see the future. We had thought that it would take much longer to complete, back in the times when people clipped their nails so they wouldn't die with them long, wanting to prolong the time before Ragnorak. In more recent times fashion has become to wear nails long and more people have been dying with lengthy nails, speeding up the building of the ship.”

I shuddered as I stepped onto the ship, I had no idea how it was that all of the nails were held together to make the ship seaworthy but that wasn't actually what bothered me. After all of the odd things that had happened that day I wasn't bothered by the hint of something slightly unnatural and probably magical. It was the thought that was stepping onto a floor built of centuries of dead people's nails that bothered me.

A wave rocked the ship almost as soon as we stepped on and a huge snake's head appeared over the side of the ship. Loki was almost instantly there, putting his head on the snake's head. Then the snake truly surged out of the water and I could see the waves covering the land, it was a typhoon I realized. The waves didn't harm our ship though, which simply gently rocked on it's moorings.

“My son,” Loki said gently and then turned and walked away, his wife by his side.

Once we were all on the ship the giant cast off and we started our sail. We only sailed a few feet on the ocean before I realized that we weren't rocking anymore and I pushed to the side of ship. Our ship was no longer on the ocean, it was very slowly rising into the air, most likely by whatever magic was holding it together. Lifprasir came to stand next to me and looked down.

“I had no idea this was what was what I was going to wake up to this morning,” she commented. I felt a sudden feeling of comradeship with her, I was starting to suspect that she was the only other living human on the ship with me. It made me more willing to open up to her.

“This morning I woke up on my way to death row,” I admitted to her. She showed the same lack of shock she had shown to anything else that day. I might have said more, or she might have responded but there was a shape that headed down towards us from the sky that grabbed our attention. Once it was closer I realized it was another wolf, as large as the one that had eaten the sun.

“Fenrir, you freed yourself,” Loki shouted up at the wolf that came to hang in the air next to us.

“Your imprisonment ended as well,” the wolf said, his voice almost a snarl but recognizable speech that entered the brain just like Loki's. “How long have we been imprisoned, Father?”

“Centuries, long enough for us to plot our revenge anyway. Your brother is here too,” Loki said, and the giant snake by our ship reared it's head it recognition.

To be continued...

Lif's Tale III

“Lifprasir?” asked Loki. The girl nodded calmly. I was impressed that she was so calm. I was pretty sure now that I was surrounded by dead men and I didn't think I would be very calm if addressed by a man at the head of a party of dead guys. Then I realized that I had been in her place only a couple of minutes before and I hadn't run either. There was something about Loki that made you trust him for just a moment and that moment was usually all he needed.

“Where are you going?” the girl asked. I realized that she wasn't really a girl at all, she was a woman about my age, it was her clothing that had made me think girl at first. She was dressed in what I had heard described as Lolita.

“We are going to the sea,” proclaimed Loki. I had wondered before if anyone else could hear his voice when he spoke to me but even though he was talking tot he woman I could hear him and I could only assume that was true when he spoke to me. “Join us, fate will happen either way and I have no reason to dislike you.”

So I found myself walking side by side with a woman I had never seen before and Loki. Loki was hard to describe. I still wasn't sure exactly what he was except for powerful and dangerous. He seemed to think he was important and should be known just by his name but I had never known his name before. He wasn't an big celebrity, or a politician, I would have heard of him them. He seemed to be associated with the fiery rainbow and the sun being eaten which would suggest that he was a God, but I had never heard of a Loki in the Bible.

“What will we do when we get to the sea?” asked Lifprasir. She was much more daring then I was about asking Loki questions.

“There will be a boat ready to take us across to the battle field and we will go to fight and kill Aesir. That will not be your business though. You two are not a part of the war though so you don't have to start looking for weapons. There is no glory to death in battle now anyway, Valhalla will be no more after this fight. We will make Asgard fall and there will no longer be a reward for those who die in battle. An unfair law I always thought in any case, and one they will regret. Odin thought to surround himself with the greatest of warriors by welcoming all who died in battle to Asgard but while we might not have the quality, I think we will beat them by number. How many more died of old age, sickness and accident who are now willing to fight with me for revenge of the injustice of being sent to Hel's realm. My poor, poor daughter.” For the first time ever I could see tenderness in Loki's eyes and he looked back at the woman I had seen before taking up the vanguard. He wasn't mocking or dangerous, he was parental.

“She's your daughter?” I asked, making sure I was right.

“My first. I have had many children and the Gods have done horrible things to most of them. And now she marches with me to battle,” Loki's voice was a little strained. Now a woman came from the side, I hadn't even noticed her before. She was almost transparent and had been silent up until now, hanging in the background like a ghost.

“Avenge my sons,” she said and it was the saddest voice I had ever heard. “I had to watch my son ripped apart by his own brother and his insides used to bind you to that stone. You know how I cried for them to be spared, they had done no harm, Loki. No blood price did I get from Odin, not even a sign of sorrow for my lose. Kill him Loki, I have protected you from the drips of poison for all of these years so you could avenge them. Kill Odin.” Her voice was nothing but a whisper, but the power behind her words couldn't be denied, nor could her anger. She fell back sobbing and Loki looked even more grim then he had before, he had been reminded of something.

“One of your son's killed his brother?” Lifprasir asked him.

“It wasn't his fault,” Loki roared, rounding on her and for the first time I saw her shrink with fear but then he instantly calmed. “Odin turned him into a wolf, and not one of the intelligent kind, a mere lowly beast who had no sense anymore for kin or friend. There he saw his brother standing bound and defenseless and being a beast he tore at him, seeing him as nothing but meat. It all happened just as Odin and the other God's planed. To punish me they bound me to a stone with my own son's intestines. For every crime I have committed they have made my family suffer and now they will pay.”

To be continued...

LIf's Tale II

There was a man at their head, tall and dark and proud looking. I couldn't have said what it was exactly about him that suggested that he was greater then the others around him, maybe it was the way that he carried himself. What ever sixth sense had suggested that he was greater then the others around him also told me that he was dangerous. I've known a lot of dangerous guys but never one that made the hairs on my arms stand up like this guy. It was even worse when I realized his eyes were right on me.

“Now what would your name be?” he asked me. He wasn't actually speaking in English, but it wasn't the language the other men around him were speaking either. It was speech that went straight to my head and I could understand every word that was said even though the words weren't any language I think have ever been spoken on earth.

“Richard Holmes,” I stammered.

“Not the man I thought,” said the man and even though his voice was in my head he sounded puzzled. I suddenly realized the mistake I had made out of habit, I had gotten so used to calling myself Richard Holmes that I said it automatically. This was not a man to be vain around, this was a man you should tell the truth to.

“I'm sorry, I accidentally told you my business name,” I admitted. Business name being the name I had went by for the last few years. I didn't want my family bothered by any of the people I associated with on day to day basis these days. “My real name is Lif,” I admitted. I could see the man's face clear.

“So your the man, I thought I recognized you. Nothing I do will change that, you can't change fate. You might as well come with us then.” I looked at the group and found myself very unwilling to go with them but even less willing to tell this dangerous man no. I joined by his side, thought I found that even though I was about his hight I was forced take two steps for every one of his.

“Can I ask your name, sir?” I asked, meekness itself.

“I am Loki, the trickster, enemy of the gods, thief of the apples,” Loki looked at me, expecting a reaction clearly, but I had no idea what kind of reaction.

“Enemy to the Gods, like the Devil?” I asked, filled with curiosity but also terrified that I was going to offend. To my relief he burst into laughter.

“Little did they think, Odin and the As that the day that I was no longer worshiped, so too would they be forgotten. How easy it must be for you humans to forget things that matter so much.” He probably saw the blank look in my eyes even thought I was trying to look smart and well informed and not like I had no clue what was going on. Then again since he was speaking in my head maybe he could read my mind, I never did know for sure. “This is the end of the world,” Loki explained, waving his hand at all the destruction we were passing through. I had hardly noticed it, I was so wrapped up in Loki's presence, he was like that, he made you forget that there was anyone but him present.

“I thought it was,” I said, and I was shocked how matter of fact my own voice sounded. Around me I could still hear the screams and the shouts of the citizens as our procession passed through, but they now seemed to belong to a whole different world. I realized that I was no longer a part of the world the other people were in, I had become a part of a procession as much as the other men with me. Now that I was looking closer it wasn't just men even, there were women as well, and in the distance I could see a very gaunt woman who was half flesh and half bone, towering above the back of our host. She had the same feel of Loki, in that there was something of authority around her, but she didn't have his feel of danger. I was so busy looking at the group behind us that I took a couple of steps forward after Loki had stopped. He was looking into the crowd of people who were shoving and trampling each other to get out of our way. All but one girl who looked boldly at us without moving or paying any attention to the people around her.

To be continued...

Lif's Tale

Sitting in jail, without the money to pay bond, waiting on a murder charge, isn't a lot of fun. I had no doubt of my conviction, when my trial came, after all I had pleaded guilty, because I was. There was no point in denying the fact that I had killed the man. Even though I was in such a position, uncomfortable though it was, I did not leave my cell immediately when the door sprang open. A lot of the other inmates went running out right away, heading for the door that had also become unlocked but I didn't trust it. Things like that didn't just happen, it seemed far too likely that it was a trap.

It was a full fifteen minutes before I finally decided to chance leaving my cell and advance into the hall. I expected to hear the guards somewhere but there didn't seem to be anyone left in the building. I crept through the abandoned prison, past the windows where normally an officer would be sitting, waiting for a jail break, but he wasn't there. I held my breath through the whole building, and didn't relax even as I walked into the prison yard.

As soon as I got outside I could see why it was that no one cared if one or two murders got free. That was the least of anyone's worries at the moment. Up in the sky I could see a huge wolf, I had never seen anything like it. The other prisoners, the ones who had escaped right away, were staring up at the sky without moving, side by side with the police and guards who were making no objections to them being there. As I watched the wolf bent and snatched up the sun in its mouth. In one big gulp, it swallowed it and the world was plunged into darkness. Around me I could hear the mix of reactions around me, some people swore, some prayed, some sank to the ground, I looked to the gate, which was open just like every other door in the jail. Pretty soon someone was going to take control and herd all the prisoners back into the jail I was sure, and I had no interest in being herded. I was pretty sure that if a wolf was eating the sun it was the end of the world and I didn't want to spend the last day of the earth in a jail.

If it seems like I was pretty calm about the fact that the world was probably over and we were probably all going to die, that's simply because I was. I had had the death penalty to look forward to after my trial, I had gotten used to the idea I was going to die. Now I was going to die a little sooner then I had expected but I had made the decision I was going to make the most of it. While everyone was still looking up at the sky I calmly walked through the gate to the jail.

The panic on the street was if anything worse then what was in the jail. I could see some people were looting, some people were sobbing uncontrollably, there was even someone who seemingly had killed herself. I was just wondering where I should go when the ground started to shake. Living on the coast like we do earthquakes aren't exactly new but this was worse then any earthquake I had ever felt. And then the earth collapsed under my feet.

I could hear screaming all around me but I couldn't see anything. And then I realized that I wasn't laying in a pit like I had thought, the shapes under my back were steps and I could hear what sounded like an army coming up them. I opened my eyes and groggily stood up. Looking up at the distant sky I could see the sky was no longer pitch black, it now had a rainbow in fiery colors stretching across it. Even as I watched though shapes seemed to be marching across the top of the rainbow and as they walked the rainbow seemed to crack and crumble behind them.

The stomping footsteps behind me were now almost on top of me and I decided that I didn't want to meet what ever it was that was coming out of the ground in a dark tunnel. I ran up the steps and reached the surface with the sound of footsteps ringing in my ears. I had thought that it sounded like an army and I had been right. The legions came forth, in old and rusted armor, and antique weapons . They were shouting things but I could understand nothing that they said, it was an language that I had never heard before.

To be continued...

Ego II

I tied to comfort myself by telling myself that the coach was just as hard on all of the other players but I knew that wasn't really completely true. He harsh, and he told everyone that he expected better of them, but he also had words of praise for people who he thought deserved it and he had never once praised me. It was time to admit that I was lacking and the whole team knew it by now.

I started going to the gym more often then I had before. Back when I had been in high school I had gone maybe once a week outside of what the couch told us to, just so I could say that I did. So that I could act like I was making an effort. I had done it mostly because I liked having people talk about what a hard worker I was. Now I was going far more often then that and doing it because I wanted that praise again. My goal was no longer for everyone to praise me, I was only interested in one person praising me, my coach. His opinion started to be all that mattered.

It was a good thing during that summer practice that I didn't have a roommate because I would have driven them insane. Even after the gym was closed for the night I started doing push-ups in my room and I begged money from my parents for dumbbells. I would go for long runs, even when I was exhausted from practice. By the time that classes were actually going to start I was in the best shape I had ever been in. That did show in how the coach talked to me, he still wasn't happy with my catching accuracy but he had stopped telling me that I was too slow.

I didn't get my debut in our first practice match, I sat on the bench waiting but the coach never told me to play. It was the assistant coach who called me aside after the game while everyone else was heading into the post game meeting. A couple of people on the team who I had become friends with gave me a pat on the back as they walked past me. Having any coach asking to talk to you personally was considered to be a bad sign. You could be almost sure that you were going to get yelled at. I braced myself to find out what I had done this time and walked into the office.

“Sit down. You've been having some trouble haven't you?” asked the assistant coach and I nodded sheepishly as I sat. “I'll get right to the point, you aren't a receiver anymore.” I stared at the man in shock, trying to figure out what this meant. Were they saying that they didn't want me on the team anymore?

“Yes, sir,” I chanced.

“Don't look like I just told you we were going to shoot you,” the assistant coach complained, “it makes me feel bad. Are you really so set on being a receiver? You aren't good at it you know.” I was starting to hate the bluntness of coaches.

“I have realized that sir, but it's what I always was. I've been a receiver since middle school, I guess I thought I was good before coming here.”

“Always having been something doesn't make it a perfect match. Both the coach and I have agreed that you will make a much better running back then a receiver. Your catches continue to be only average but your speed has become faster then either of us could have imagined when you showed up. I realize that changing your position completely will be hard for you but both the coach and I agree that it is for the best. We are giving you the choice in the end though. You can keep being a receiver and unless you improve a lot I can almost promise you that you will never get off of the bench. On the other hand you can become our running back and you'll get out on the field every game I can almost promise you, at least if you keep up with the amount of growth you have shown us so far.”

I didn't get out on the field until the home coming game that year. Getting used to my new position. It wasn't easy, having spent my whole life in one position learning a whole new set of things made it seem like I was learning a whole new game. But since I had been sitting on the bench the whole time there had been a strange rumor going around that the coach was saving me as a special weapon for a real game. As I stepped out in a game for the first time in my college career the stands erupted in people shouting my name. A vision of fame.