Luke goes to church...
Part 6
I spent the rest of the journey home absorbing what Luka had told me. The realisation that demons wared around me just beyond human perception was unsettling. Even more disturbing was the knowledge that angels and demons, along with much of the old folklore was true, or at least based on some twisted version of the truth. I now questioned the dark origin of our fairytales tales and even the nature of evil itself.
Reading my mind, Luka chimed in, "Evil is a human construction that has no real meaning. It's how humans like to label wanton acts of aggression or sexual deviancy, but from an evolutionary point of view, that's not a very good survival strategy."
"So you're not evil?" I asked.
"Not in the classical sense. I and others of my kind want to survive. That's the 'prime directive' -- the basis of all life on this planet. In order to survive, we have to find a host and over the course of evolution, we have become adapted to your species to such an extent that we cannot survive outside your mind. Initially, we were more like parasites making monsters of our hosts, which was the origin of the vampire and werewolf folklore, but we're now more like symbiotes where both species gain mutual benefit -- win-win."
"So those tales descended from you?"
"Not just me, but from my kind, yes. You see, in the beginning, we tended to overwhelm our host and take control, kick them out of the cockpit so to speak. With no human values to constrain us, we tended to do what we tend to do, which was fuck anything we could find. Other demons did as was their nature which led to the monsters I just spoke about, but that had the knock-on effect that we were nearly exterminated, or at least our hosts were executed which is pretty much the same thing as it meant we were banished to the nether realm for another hundred years. Clearly, that wasn't good for either party, so those of us with the inclination to change, changed and those that couldn't became weak and were eventually consumed by stronger demons. Natural selection dear, there's no getting away from it. After two thousand years, we pretty much blended into society. True, some of the badass demons still ran amok -- take Idi Armin and Joseph Stalin -- none of us are proud of them."
I thought about this on the way home. Luka had a point -- we all wanted to survive. There were plenty of parasites in nature, even some species of fungi that took over the brain of ants leading them to their death. What Luka was doing was not like that -- this was a fair arrangement.
"Anyway," she cut in, "Tomorrow we have work to do."
I asked what, but she would not be drawn on the subject other than hinting that there were other fish in the sea.
The next day at 6.30pm I set out. She led me down familiar lanes until I saw the spire of the local parish church. The evening service had just begun with a procession of worshippers milling around outside. Father Nicolas and Sister Anne-Marie took each one by the hand in greeting. They arrived in rank and file from the local villages, the majority grey-haired and stooped in righteous piety. When they were all gathered inside Anne Marie set the heavy oak doors to, whilst Father Nicolas took up his position in the pulpit.
The organ music stopped and silence descended on the church.
"We live in troubling times," the pastor announced. "War, famine, omicron, global warming." His voice echoed around the vaulted ceiling. "The Bible warns us of these times, sets out a clear path for the faithful so that we may yet be saved,... and we should not be anxious... we should not be fearful. Lift up your hearts for the meek will inherit the earth."
He spoke from the book of revelations and I found myself curiously enraptured by his words.
"Oh good grief," Luka chimed in, "haven't they not got past this yet? They were going on about this back when I was a little girl."
"A little girl?" I asked, incredulously, "I thought you were a demon?"
"A demon for the past two thousand years my lovely, give or take, but before that, a young girl. I know you see me as this sensuous sex goddess, but I was a little girl once. I grew up on the banks of the Euphrates back in the good old days. We had none of this internet nonsense of course and we were none the poorer for it too. Anyway, I digress. Back then we worshipped the Sun God rather than this sun of God, although one could argue they are one and the same thing. The local shaman, a right letch of a man if I should say, was forever rattling on about the end of the world. The end is nigh and all that holy shit. He was full of it. I guess though it's good business so I shouldn't knock it, but, you know, after two millennia, it gets a bit... stale."
"So how did you become a demon?" I asked.
"I'm sorry?" Luka chirped, "I didn't quite hear you."
"You're in my head, Luka.
You hear everything I say and think."
"Sorry, still can't hear you."
"Luka?"
