The Fall - By Chana Keefer

CHAPTER Thirteen

Pain



Glory jumped back and looked around as if expecting something to appear and devour her but the scene around them had not changed. When she raised her stricken eyes to Lucifer she encountered his kind smile.

“Do not fear. You are not dead. In fact, with just one touch from the Morning Star, you are more breathtaking than ever.”

She looked down at her own body and gasped. Her simple garment of light had been transformed into a sparkling prism that scattered beams of multi-hued brilliance.

Fascinated, she held up a hand to study the colorful glow.

“Your Maker misled you because He does not want a thought in your head that does not come from Him.” Lucifer’s voice was quiet and soothing as he glided behind her and reached for her outstretched hand. “Look how our hands fit together.” Her small hand somehow rested perfectly in his.


Adam felt Earth’s tremor and, in panic, looked to the Holy One Whose eyes revealed pain but no surprise as a shower of green leaves began to fall from above, covering the ground with a bright emerald carpet.

“Is this because of Glory? Please, take me to her!”

“To help her, you must abide in me.”

“I cannot sit here and do nothing!”

The Holy One shuddered and his face betrayed a momentary spasm of pain. When he opened his clenched fists, each palm bore a bright, freshly torn wound. As Adam stared, horrified, the man’s entire being became blood-drenched and disfigured, covered in angry welts, rips, and filth. Adam recoiled from the grotesque sight as the man, through swollen, bleeding lips, whispered, “Go to Glory. But you are not the One who will save her.”

Beside the disfigured man, the lamb bleated and nuzzled the abused hand. Quivering with pain, the man opened his arms and the lamb climbed onto his lap where bright drops of blood began to stain its snowy wool.

With a start, Adam realized he was once more prostrate before a stone wall.


The girl’s eyes were wide as a strangled gasp caught in her throat. Lucifer was behind her, one hand gripping her hair so tightly she could not breathe while his other arm was around her waist, crushing her against his body.

He was hissing words, his breath scorching her ear. “You are mine. You will never be free of me. I own your past, present and future.”

The words continued but she could not hear them over her own screams as something terrible sliced into her soul.

Fire, ice, and pain.

She was flailing, every ounce of her strength straining to break Lucifer’s ever-tightening grip. His hands burned through skin, through bone and into her core, infiltrating and stripping her soul while his mantra pounded through her being.

“You are mine. You will never be free. You are mine. You will never be free.”

Then the pain blazed, consuming her from the inside out. Surely she was dying. Please, if death would stop the pain, let her die! “Adonai!” she screamed, and everything went dark.


The enemy forces doubled and then tripled, yet still they waited, sneering and taunting Rapha and the others who had answered his summons—a pitifully small, war-weary crew.

Rapha tried to focus on the battle around him but, now that the connection to Adam and the young woman’s thoughts had been reestablished, the clarity of their emotions—the sights, smells, even physical sensations—was so intense Rapha felt he was living this horrible scene through their eyes. When he tried to escape, to lessen the connection, it was relentless.

For the second time, Battue, one of his generals, was shaking his shoulder. “Fearsome creatures are erupting from the caves, sir,” his fellow angel’s words continued. But Battue’s voice was a distant shout across a storm-tossed sea of pain. “The walls are breached….” Battue continued his report, but Rapha was frozen by Glory’s horror.

“Aaaah!” Rapha fell to his knees, clutching his head as Lucifer’s intended torture, the relentless image of his triumph, ripped through Rapha’s soul.


Glory opened her eyes to find she was lying on the flat stones of the courtyard. Her body throbbed with pain and her nose was filled with a sickly sweet smell. She was shaking so hard her teeth chattered. She sat up, aching with every movement, realizing her face had been in a puddle of red, that most of her body was stained with it, and that something red was oozing from her, mixing with the liquid of the spilled goblet.

“I am dying,” she whispered.

Despair engulfed her and she collapsed into the cold, unyielding floor.

Cruel laughter echoed around her. “No my Glory. You are not dying. That is just one of Adonai’s many lies. You are honored above all creation.”

She pulled herself out of the sticky, red goo once again as his voice continued.

“You will bear my offspring, the most magnificent beings that ever have been or will be.”

Glory looked up to the cliffs and trees to the fantastical creatures gazing on her with unblinking eyes. She stood on trembling limbs and moved toward the flowing water with a dazed expression, her teeth still chattering as she tried unsuccessfully to untangle her matted hair.

As Lucifer cackled and cursed Adonai, Glory stumbled into the water and, with trembling hands, began to bathe.

Behind her, a flock of squawking birds descended from the huge, overhanging tree and began pecking at the red-stained stones.


The path was well lit and strewn with blossoms that drifted down from overhanging branches, but Adam could have found her by scent alone. The air was laden with her essence as if the sweetest core of her existence was calling out to him on the breeze.

When he entered the vast chamber he stopped, confounded by the serene scene before him. The girl lounged on a low couch while a magnificent being piled lush fruit onto a gleaming platter. He turned to greet the newcomer with delight. “Ah! Adam! At last we meet. I, as you have guessed, am Lucifer.”

But Adam could only look at Glory who stared back at him with wounded eyes. “What happened?” Adam demanded, but Glory just looked down so he directed the inquiry to Lucifer.

Lucifer’s eyes gleamed as his gaze caressed the young woman. “I have simply opened her eyes—to who she is, who she can be, what Adonai has been hiding from both of you.”

Adam strode to place himself between them. “You lie! Adonai hides nothing from us!”

Mocking laughter echoed around him. “He makes you the caretaker of this entire world, keeps you in a gilded cage, cut off from the depraved state outside your walls, yet you would say He hides nothing!” Again Lucifer chortled with arrogance while Adam’s face flushed with anger and his shoulders slumped under the weight of Lucifer’s mockery.

In desperation Adam turned to Glory. “Come with me. Leave this place.” He reached for the girl’s hand but the colorful light enshrouding her was a fortress he could not penetrate. To add to his frustration, she did not reach back. Glory just sat there, imploring him to stop as tears ran down her cheeks. Again and again he beat against the barrier but all he accomplished was bloodied knuckles.

“Ahem, if I might be allowed to interject. That’s not going to work.” Lucifer’s cheerful voice said. “Glory is now my mate. She belongs to a different realm… mine.”

“No! She is of my flesh and bone! She belongs with me!” Adam turned and rushed at Lucifer but his attempts once again proved futile.

Lucifer chuckled as he manipulated Adam’s destructive thoughts. The boy’s panicked mind was especially vulnerable. He would enjoy one more mental stab before progressing to the next phase of his plan.

When Adam peered at the girl through tear-stained eyes, he beheld Lucifer’s mirage. Glory stretched, languid, exposing a tantalizing glimpse of her body through the colorful mist as she directed a private smile toward—Lucifer. The apparent betrayal stoked an inferno of jealous rage. Suddenly, all the anger he had directed toward Adonai and Lucifer was focused with piercing accuracy toward her.

Glory blinked with shock. “Adam?”

Lucifer sighed with satisfaction. Toying with his victims before devouring them was one of his greatest pleasures—second only to relishing Adonai’s heartbreak in those moments.

Adam turned his back on the girl and stood to face the enemy. “Exactly what gift did you give her?”

“I gave Glory what you could not, what Adonai and that pious tutor would not give her. Look around. My way is to lift creation out of the mundane, to teach the earthbound to fly, to make the weak strong. With you, she would bear offspring fit only to grovel through dirt all their days. Adonai would make her a slave, a lowly servant barred from the heavens; but I bridged that gap. Just look at her. Have you ever seen anything more lovely?”

“She… mated with you?” Adam’s voice was a strangled whisper and all color drained from his face.

“Adam! Please! I didn’t mean to. There was this enormous s… serpent and I st… stumbled over it and, and it told me….”

Adam sneered. “Where is this enormous serpent?” His eyes took in Lucifer’s magnificent form. “I see the serpent that convinced you. I doubt any talking was necessary.”

The girl burst into heartrending sobs. “Please, Adam. Do not hate me. I never meant to hurt you.”

Lucifer watched them, licking his lips with anticipation. The girl’s powers of persuasion were formidable indeed, the desperate eyes, the lovely breasts heaving with sobs, the imploring reach of her hands toward the boy. Lucifer practiced the graceful hand gesture. He’d have to remember that. Well, his work was done. All he had to do was sit back and watch the girl’s performance. The boy didn’t have a chance.


Rapha wept even as they organized the defense. Much more than water and air was corrupted this day. The very seed of mankind was on the verge of ruin. For ages to come earth and light, mortal and immortal, would strive in their flesh. “Please, Adonai!” Rapha’s heart cried out, “Surely You can intervene! Or give me permission to storm the fortress—the boy’s flesh remains uncorrupted but he is caught in the snare. Please!”

But Adonai was silent. There were no words to answer Rapha’s plea—just grief. As evil beings flooded the garden, the angel strove to prepare his forces for attack, but a greater war raged in his heart. He knew Lucifer had allowed his connection to the humans’ thoughts and emotions in order to torment and goad him to intervene. He knew also that to allow emotions to dictate his actions was exactly what Lucifer desired, but his love for the young man and woman defied logic.

There was Michael! The Warring Angel’s presence gave Rapha hope. As enemy forces retreated, muttering, before Michael’s fierce countenance and his accompanying band of heaven’s most fearsome warriors, Rapha rushed to his side. “New orders, sir?”

The pained look of compassion in the chiseled face did not bode well. Michael placed a hand on Rapha’s shoulder, “We come to remove corruption from the garden.”

“But not to prevent it?” Rapha interjected, though the answer was evident in Michael’s face. “If the man and woman are evicted, I go with them.” The words burst from his heart but even as they left his tongue, he realized their implication.

Michael’s penetrating gaze held his. “You would bind yourself to their fate?” Astonishment was etched in the ancient eyes. “Adonai warned me that you might choose this path but I could not believe it. He told me, ‘a father would do no less for his children.’”

For one eternal instant the two angels regarded one another, then a hint of a smile lit Michael’s face. “This should make things interesting,” he murmured. “You do know the barrier is removed. To step through that entrance is to join their corruption.” Michael’s eyes searched his face. “Are you sure, brother?”

Words were unnecessary. In that brief moment Rapha and Michael shared their silent farewells amidst the myriad ties and memories they had experienced through the ages since their dawn.

Finally Michael said, “We will make the performance convincing.”

Rapha wanted to throw his arms around the formidable angel and weep with gratitude but he knew they were being watched. Subterfuge was not his specialty but he would do his best.

“I will not leave them!” Rapha wrenched his shoulder from Michael’s grasp. “There is no time to spare!”

He turned to step through the opening but Michael’s massive form barred the way.

“You would force obedience?” Rapha shouted, “That has never been Adonai’s way. Or are you in charge of heaven now?”

The hoots and catcalls of opposing forces underscored their playacting. Finally, Rapha, with a wink, wielded a flash of power he had never utilized against any but the fallen of their brethren and melted from Michael’s grasp only to reappear at the fortress’s entrance. He noted the grief, mingled with a gleam of respect in Michael’s eyes, which mirrored his own. As he turned away, the mighty warrior’s parting thought filled his mind.

Adonai’s heart is with you, brother.


“Go, Adam. I do not deserve you. Leave this place!”

Lucifer growled. Glory’s selfless plea was unexpected. Not to worry. One more moment’s manipulation would win him the world.

“Yes, Adam. Go. You still have more ribs. I am sure Adonai could easily whip up a new mate.” Lucifer’s silky voice encouraged him.

The girl shut her eyes as fresh tears spilled down. The thought of Adam mating with another was too much.

“I will not abandon you,” Adam whispered. Glory opened her eyes to find him kneeling before her as close as the shimmering light would allow.

“But you forget, son of Earth, she belongs with me now. She is my flesh and bone,” Lucifer taunted. “But there is still a way you can be with her, if you possess sufficient courage,” he ended with a shrug as if Adam’s choice mattered little.

The love in Adam’s eyes warmed Glory, announcing loud and clear she was worth fighting for, dying for if necessary. “What must I do?”

“It is really not such a horrible fate. You simply need some of my fire in you,” Lucifer tilted his head as if searching for the perfect phrase, “to restore compatibility. Does it seem to you to have done her any harm?”

Adam threw her an inquiring look.

Glory’s body was quivering and she clenched her jaws to still her chattering teeth. She reached toward Adam but the light surrounding him repelled her. For an instant he saw panic in her face and then she turned away again, breathing deeply, clasping her hands tightly together. “Why did I touch Lucifer? Because I wanted to fly, because I wanted to speed the fulfillment of my highest calling and destiny—our highest calling and destiny—to heal creation’s wounds.”

She looked up at Adam, sobbing. “But now I know, even if wings sprouted from my shoulders and I shot high into the sky, I would… ache… for you.”

Then she collapsed back onto the couch, her shoulders heaving as she wept.

“Please, Glory, I will be with you.” Adam reached toward her but the barrier flared once again. His fists dropped into his lap and his head fell forward in surrender.

Then Adam rose and turned toward Lucifer.

“Do not worry, dear boy.” Lucifer’s body wavered, flickered and refocused with voluptuous, alluring femininity. His next words flowed with Lilith’s caressing voice. “You will only scream with pleasure.”

Adam, startled but determined, took one hesitant step forward. The glow around Lilith expanded and then surrounded him. Adam’s body relaxed, his eyes closed, bliss etched across his features as he took a deep, shuddering breath. When he opened his eyes, Lilith was directly before him, a dazzling smile on her lips, and one graceful hand held out in invitation.

Slowly, Adam reached for Lilith’s fingers, deaf to the sound of Glory’s screams, “Adam! NOOO!”

Glory jumped up from the couch and threw herself against the dazzling barrier, tears streaming down her face. “Adam! Stop!”

Although Adam appeared deaf to her pleas, Lucifer/Lilith did not ignore the young woman. She turned toward Glory with a victorious smile as she took the dazed young man beneath her.

The ground thundered and shook. Enemy forces descended and the sky grew dark with swirling fumes that rained fire and ash. Now Rapha knew. He was too late. Nonetheless, he flew to them, melting through solid walls and casting aside opposing forces like leaves in the wind. All the while, Lucifer’s triumphant cackling echoed in his ears.


Adam was thrown to the ground covered with red, oozing welts, wounds from the woman’s claw-like nails. Finally Glory could get to him. She reached to push Adam’s hair from his bleeding face but he turned away, too ashamed to even look at her.

Lucifer stood and stretched, shrugging off the feminine persona as he licked his lips, tasting Adam’s blood that lingered there. A loud crash sounded behind him but he did not even turn to look as Rapha arrived, moaning as he took in the sordid scene. “Mmmm. Salty.” Lucifer said, “Makes me want something sweet… again. Care to join me, Rapha?”

Rapha knew it was useless, but his rage flashed forth, grinding uselessly against Lucifer who laughed, “You fool! All authority is mine now!”

Adam’s eyes appealed to the helpless tutor. His arms were pinned to his sides and he fell to the ground, paralyzed, facing the nightmare of Lucifer’s blood-smeared hands reaching for Glory.

“It is only fair you observe her performance as well, Adam. I do believe she could teach you a thing or two.”

Suddenly, the fallen angel stopped to wipe at the blood on his hands with a look of confused surprise. Again he pushed at the stains, but instead of disappearing they spread, creeping up his arms toward his neck, burning like trails of molten lava with an audible sizzling sound on his perfect skin, continuing their relentless journey over his body’s flawless landscape. Lucifer’s eyes widened as the fire marched toward his groin and he shrieked, doubling over as the flames engulfed his entire body.

When the light encasing Adam and Glory faded, Rapha sprang forward and grabbed the two humans. As they ran through the structure’s twisting corridors, Lucifer’s agonized screams faded behind them.