Heaven and Hell by Kenneth Zeigler

exactly how shall I deal with you? With so very many agonizing possibilities; what form shall your destiny take?”
    Serena glanced up momentarily. She searched for the right words, anything that might help her case, yet she could find none. Perhaps what was to happen was inevitable, perhaps nothing she said would make a difference.
    There was a sudden twinkle in the dark lord’s eyes. “Ah yes, of course, I know how I shall deal with you, Miss Farnsworth. Still, it is customary that I listen to the groveling and pleading of my guests before I pass sentence upon them. Do you have any last words, before judgment is passed upon you? Think carefully, for this opportunity shall never come your way again.”
    Serena felt ill to her stomach. There would be nothing she could do to lessen her sentence, she knew that now. She could cry, she could beg for mercy, but it wouldn’t help. The words that came out of her mouth surprised even her. “Sir, if you please, I would like very much to ask a question before these proceedings continue.”
    There was a twinkle in satan’s eye. Most people who knelt before him were too terrified to speak beyond a few groveling pleas for mercy, but not this one.
    “Ask what you will, I am listening.”
    “Thank you, sir,” Serena said in the most sincere tone she could muster. “I don’t understand why you are doing this. The same God that banished you to outer darkness did it to me as well. Why do you have to torture me? It seems like we have something in common.”
    Satan couldn’t help but laugh at that remark. It was a bold comment. He’d heard that line before, but rarely so eloquently spoken. “Do you really think that you can compare yourself to me in the same sentence?”
    Serena knew that she was on very thin ice. It was all too clear, that this being could make her eternity here far worse, if he was inclined to do so. She thought about the attributes that the Bible ascribed to satan. She did her best to appeal to those.
    “I wouldn’t be so bold as to compare myself to you, sir. I mean, I admire what you’ve accomplished. You’ve become the master of outer darkness, brought order to chaos. Surely, only a great leader could have done all of this. Why torture humanity? If we’re all outcasts, why can’t we work together to create a wonderful new world, one where you are the master—revered, honored, even loved by a grateful people?”
    Satan began to smile. He was so weary of listening to pleas for mercy, hearing about the problems and sorrows of these worthless humans, problems that he was about to greatly compound. But this one, on the threshold of her eternal torment, wanted to talk about him. He was impressed with this female. “You’re very perceptive, little one. When the Great God cast my minions and me into outer darkness, this place was a vast realm of nothingness, an empty void, but a void awaiting the hand of creativity to transform it into something greater. I became the god of this new realm, and I fashioned it into a form that served my needs.”
    The smile dissolved from satan’s face at the very thought of his arch nemesis. “God, the Creator was a tinkerer, nothing more. He played endless games with the universe. He was like a child with a grand creation that He had fabricated with His new set of building blocks. It was so intricate, so vast, so perfectly balanced. He wanted everyone to see it. Yet He was alone, there was no one else to appreciate the work of His hand. He desperately needed to be praised for his accomplishments. He needed to know that what He had done was good, that He was good.”
    Satan paused momentarily. Silence fell upon the audience chamber. Even the other beings there became still in his moment of contemplation. The dark prince looked upward for a moment. His eyes took on a distant stare. Serena’s nervousness grew. She wondered if she might have asked the wrong question.
    “He loves praise,” continued satan, looking once more