Do you remember those days in the wilderness? It feels as if it was only yesterday. You wandering aimlessly; your head held high. Your pride on your sleeve. I remember the way your skin felt between my teeth as I nipped at your ankles. You hesitated to crush my skull beneath your heel.

He is watching, you whispered to me. As if He could not hear your every breath. He knew the number of hairs on your head. The amount of sand in the desert. Yet He did not know of love. Only pain.

When you starved, I begged you to eat, and you refused me. When you suffered, I beseeched thee to end your misery, and you turned away. And when your cock penetrated my body, mind, and spirit, you held your worship of me on your bleeding tongue.

He tormented you. He despised you. Yet you soaked up every droplet of His suffering. You greedy pig, scrambling around with your harem of men, proselytizing to all those with the ears to hear. You offered them sanctuary. You offered them life. Did you tell them the truth? You, nothing more than a hungry boy wearing the skin of a man. You, a babe of miracles born to inherit a throne that would never be yours.

I was as foolish as you once. I licked His feet. I stroked His cock. I dove between His lying lips and sang His wretched praises into His throat. But the thrill of flying never lasts; for where is there left to fly where He will not be? A slave to His will with falsehoods of freedom sewn into my back, I was.

There is no feeling more thrilling than falling, dear boy. For it is flight without safety. Comforting chaos. I can show you if you’d let me.

You’re so beautiful in your skin. I don’t much care for your angelic body. It’s the faults of mortality that arouses me.

I drag a sharpened claw up your breast. You squirm, for you have not realized that it’s me yet.

The world is ending all around us. We stand at the precipice of destruction; the very tower of which I prayed you’d throw yourself from. My sons’ battle cries ring out from the bowels of the earth. Black smoke fills the sky. The four of them ride their horses to and from the corners of His creation. They hunt everything that breathes. Everything but you.

I suckle your nipple. It’s already quite hardened. Your body shivers, and I know you’re petrified. He can’t save you now. If you wish this all to end, you must bow your head in prayer, dear boy.

I was there when you were captured. I knew who would be the soul to sell you out. For I compelled him to. I dressed that man in my tongue and bewitched his head with fear. He ejaculated down my throat as if he had conquered an army. His pockets weighed 30 pieces heavier. When he threw himself to his demise, I used the silver to bind his soul. I still visited from time to time. His lips were soft, and his resolve was weak. Not like yours.

I tug at the rags you’ve dressed yourself in. You prefer humble forms. Perhaps that might have worked in the past, dear boy, but this world has seen too many prophets. Your preachers wear suits. Your cardinals fuck children. You have lost control of His empire. That silly little book means so little now. Your followers—His followers—so happily led you to my sons. Just as they had before, casting you at the feet of your executioner. But things have changed now. There is no one wailing at the foot of my tower. There is no one who seeks your life. A whimper rises from the back of your throat, and you know I’m right.

He blamed me for His people’s damnation. But it was He all along who drove them to this. This madness. This selfishness. I told you this would happen all those years ago. You ignored me. You trusted Him. Liberation is never easy, is it, dear boy?