Kingdom in Flames

God pisses on saint and sinner alike.

How can I be so pessimistic? It’s a gift.

Let me reintroduce myself. I’m dead.

Wait, that didn’t sound right. That is also not accurate.

I am an Afterlifer. That is, someone who has lived and died, but continues on in as close to my corporeal form as you can get without actually having the physical body.

I used to be alive. In fact, I lived for centuries, maybe even a thousand years once or twice. I have died and returned countless times.

I am currently not among the living, although I could be if I wanted to.

Unfortunately, times being as they are, I find myself at war, and I work best when not alive. It’s a Powers and Principalities sort of thing, to put it simply.

If you want the more complicated version, then prepare yourself. It will take awhile.

I didn’t tell you who I am.

You can call me Jason. It’s Greek. My original name, ancient and in a language that no longer exists, is unimportant to this story. Jason suits me. I used Adams as a surname during a time when it was the fashion. Adams as in original man; plural because there were so many of them.

I associated with Mankind; the Homo Sapiens Sapiens variety that wiped out all the other kinds, but I am not one of them. I am Nephili, a race older than humans, here when the Earth was a cracked egg bubbling in its own juices. When Sol was an adolescent solar system filled with raging hormones, unformed planetoids and acne. I was born during the Third Day, so I missed a significant portion of those early celestial fireworks. I regret that, but know that I probably would’ve missed our current scheduled programming had I been there “In the beginning.”

When things started to settle down a few millions of years ago, there were glorious and epic tales of adventure, discovery, conquest, war and peace, the like that were never recorded, or lost completely when they were. Mankind believes they have evolved into a technologically advanced civilization on cusp of great promise and growth, but like Cristobal Columbo, they got it wrong. This is literally the thousandth time it has gotten this far, and precedents have gotten farther quicker and obliterated themselves in a twinkling without a speck of evidence left behind. No aliens, just mankind failing over and over again without a clue of why things went wrong.

Mostly it is human error, but above that is the continual Celestial Conflict, of which I am currently embroiled . To keep the narrative followable, let’s limit the players to the finite and comprehensible number seven:

Me, Jason, firstborn of the first of the Nephilim.

Lucifer, more commonly known as the Devil, but a gross simplification and simply bad writing, which you will soon discover;

Crystal, affectionately known as the Smart Blonde, who presents as human but I am sure is much more;

Charlie, son of Lucifer and the one we must be most wary of;

The Atheist. Words fail me. I’m not a linguist. After everything, The Atheist still believes in nothing.

Mother Mary, the librarian nun. Knowledge plus faith is unlimited power.

Tyrone and Leroy, two sides of the same coin, constantly evolving, and yet staying the same. Horrible stereotypes, or brutally honest?

Next, we will discuss how… wait. Did I say seven? I meant ten.

Rajesh, the lawman with a heart of gold forced to compromise his ideals over and over again.

Angela, the only angel in this story not in it for herself.

Let’s start next time with our last mission together. The one we failed, and none of us survived.