Eden's fruits for humanity

"That's a bad idea", Joshua said as Adam lighted the candles on the floor.

"Oh, really? I couldn't tell."

"That's a bad idea", Joshua repeated. "We can't just...summon Satan."

"Yes, we can. And guess what I'm doing right now?"

"A mistake", Joshua mumbled.

Adam's parents left to the cinema. It's horror film night. The exorcist. It. The Omen.

All films subtly describing what is about to happen and Joshua knew. Just as Adam knew.

"Do you have a better idea?"

Silence.

"Exactly. Now, do you want to go out of the room or can I start?"

Adam knew that Joshua, no matter how scared he was, would never leave him alone during a summoning.

Joshua sat down next to Adam. His hands shacked. "Don't we need...you know virgin blood or something?"

He never took part of a demon summoning, especially not one where the king of them was summoned.

"No need for that. And besides, my blood was already used for rituals and yours wouldn't work either."

"You already summoned a demon?"

Adam shrugged, it almost sounded like a laugh. "They never answer their phones. It's easier that way."

A chill went down Joshua's back. He was raised really religiously. The very idea of summoning a demon (or any evil spirit, for that matter) gave him tummy aches.

Adam put his hand in the circle.

"Ego sum Antichristus, adversarius, destructor regum, Angelus abyssi, magna bestia, quae vocatur Draco, princeps mundi huius, pater mendacii, spawn satanae, Dominus tenebrarum, filius tuus."

The candles, that Adam carefully lighted to don't burn his house down (his parents would've killed him), went out.

The summoning circle began burning, but it didn't hurt either of them. It had began. He was listening.

"Obsecro te, Satana, rex inferorum, pater meus prior, adesto. Te rogo in domum meam."

The circle began getting burning hot. Adam and Joshua stood up. Joshua gave him his last 'that's a bad idea' look, but then it was too late.

Th earth beneath them split ('my parents are going to kill me', Adam thought) an of the ground came a man. Or at least a man-shaped being, because both Adam and Joshua knew that it was no man.

"Girls or parents?"

Adam nearly choked on his own spit.

"I'm sorry what?"

Satan even bothered to look away as he didn't cared, but they both knew enough about him that it was all just show.

"You know, teenagers of your age just want two things: Either a date or different parents. With one of these I can help you."

Adam exactly what he meant.

"Not interested, ex-father."

Satan snarled, his pupils turned into lines like the ones of goats (or snakes). There was hellfire in his eyes.

"Be careful with your tone or I'll drag you back home."

"You can't. You have as little power over me as over every other human."

The King of hell laughed. "'Every other human', you should hear yourself. You can do what you want. You can wish it as much as you want. You can even ask Him. But you'll stay my spawn until the end of eternity."

Adam didn't said a word. He would've been a miserable Antichrist if he didn't knew that, but it didn't made it easier hearing it from him.

Satan finally noticed that Adam wasn't alone.

"Oh hey, didn't I tried to kill you?"

"Multiple times, actually", Joshua said, sounding if he didn't cared who he was talking to. In reality, he fought the urge to run away.

"So what are you doing now? Because I won't join your little 'my supernatural parent sucks' club."

Adam took a deep breath. Now or never, he thought. He preferred never, but he couldn't always chose what he wanted.

"I want to make a deal."

Satan laughed. Probably the first time in a hundred years that he authentically laughed.

"What can you possibly want?"

He walked around, looking into the air, thinking.

"You could have power and materialistic things when you come with me. But you won't, so this falls away."

He looked at Adam's parents marriage photo. "You know I can't give you love. Nobody of your inner circle died. So what do you want, my son? Surprise me."

The words 'my son' felt like a burning on Adam's skin, but he ignored it.

"Stop planning the end of the world."

Satan didn't laughed. He didn't said anything for a long time and Adam asked himself, if that's the first time in a millennia that the devil was speechless.

"You already ruined the apocalypse five years ago."

"I know. I want you to stop planning the second one."

Silence again.

"Hypothetically", Satan said, stretching the word unnecessary. "what can I gain from this? You don't have a human soul."

Adam's heart pumped as loud as heavy metal. "I give you me."

Satan, even if he technically didn't needs any body functions, choked on his own spit.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I become the Antichrist again if you stop planning. So, it's like giving my soul just...more useful."

Adam didn't liked it. Joshua didn't liked it. Satan on the hand...

"Okay okay", the King of hell said, shaking his hands and head. "I know it's none of my business and 'the customer's always right' thing but...why?"

"If I would know", Joshua mumbled. He hated it. Every single part of this Plan.

Adam ignored him. Both of them.

"Adam", his ex-father said, saying his human name for the first time ever. "why do you want to be a demon again?"

He laughed and sounded the first time ever as if he was really his dad and not the King of hell, the devil himself. "You went against the ineffable plan, just so you can be human. What happened? You surely don't miss hell."

Adam closed his eyes. He knew, that Satan wouldn't stopped until he got his answer.

"I'm sick of it."

"Of what? Being human, yeah that must suck. Eating, the thoughts, school, going to the toi-"

"That's not what I meant!"

Adam's face was red. He didn't even knew if he was angry or embarrassed.

Joshua took his hand and suddenly, the red dissappeared from his face.

"Being human is great", Adam said, carefully picking his words. "Eating..."

"Community", Joshua said.

"Laughing because you are truly happy."

"Music. Dancing. Art. Poetry. Films."

"And free will", Adam said. He knew what Joshua's plan was. Listing all beautiful, heartbreaking human things. "It's great deciding what you want to do."

And I will miss it, Adam thought.

Satan looked at him with genuine interest. "And why do you want to trade it?"

"I don't", he said quickly. "but you can't always do what you want."

Satan didn't said anything. He just pulled out a piece of paper and wrote the deal in their native language down.

"You are a interesting lad, Adversary Destroyer-"

"Adam. Adam Young."

Adam will give everything up. His freedom. His family. His humanity.

But his name? The one his parents, his real ones, the ones that raised him, gave him? Yeah, you can try to get it from his cold dead hands.

Satan didn't looked surprised or angry. Just disappointed.

"Alright, Adam Young...here we are. Should your...friend...leave the room?"

He said 'friend' as if he couldn't belive that his son befriended the enemy.

"No, Joshua should stay", Adam said. Realizing how he sounded (like who he sounded), he quickly backed up. "If you want to...you know...no pressure."

Joshua shook his head. "Just for the record, I still think it's a bad idea."

Adam laughed, maybe for the last time in a eternity. "Same. But I have to."

Satan gave him the paper. "You know, normally, I wouldn't tell you that, because I want your soul and everything but...you know that it won't stop the end of the world? It just forces me to not start it."

Adam Young, the human son of Deidre and Arthur Young, smiled. Sincerely. Because he was just a teenage boy. Just a human. But still, he knew things that the King of hell would never understand.

Adam started to write his birth name. It was a long one, more of a title than from a baby Antichrist.

"You know, I know you probably didn't realised it back then, but...giving Adam and Eve the apple was the right decision."

Satan made a surprised face. "I have to admit it, I don't understand you."

"Well, for you, it was probably just a act of rebellion", Adam, the new Prince of hell, the Antichrist said. "But it gave humanity the three most important things. The whole act, it defined humanity. It's probably the reason why I stopped Armageddon back then."

"Then enlighten me, my son. Tell me, what are the three things?"

Adam smiled devilish. It's probably genetically. "Sorry, father, but just other humans can understand it."

He shared a look with Joshua. Joshua finally understood.

They both smiled. It was a human smile.

( "You know, I realised something a while ago."

"What did you realised?"

"Maybe being kicked out of Eden was the only way we can be what we are."

Joshua blinked. "Yeah, of course. Wasn't that obvious?"

"What?"

"Do you really think humanity wasn't meant to eat from the fruit of wisdom? If that wasnt meant to be part The Plan, don't you think the tree would be placed on the moon or something?"

Adam thought. "You think it was part of The Plan?"

"I'm pretty sure. After all, it gave us everything to do great. To be great."

"And what would that be?"

Joshua smiled. "Well, when your father asked Eve about the tree it made us curious."

They watched the sky with childlike curiosity. Adam noticed stars he never saw before.

"Soooo....eating the fruit gave us free will?"

Joshua nodded. "But the story didn't stopped there. The most beautiful and heartwrenching human trait is also from Eve."

"Don't be so mysterious. Enlighten me, what is the third one?"

Joshua closed his eyes, a smile was on his lips. "Empathy. The desire to have a good world for the people you love. Some burn the world for the ones we love. But you and I? We burn ourselves for others."

Unknowing to Joshua, Adam decided to repeat history and embody the human traits even if he himself wasn't human.)