An Arrangement was Made

Chapter 29: The Only Son

Lucifer was easily able to find Adam's room without Charlie's help. It was impossible to miss. The man child was having a tantrum, a loud one. No Adam tantrum was complete without screaming, cursing, the throwing of furniture, and several new holes in the wall.

Lucifer didn't bother knocking. Adam didn't deserve that right now. Lucifer could care less when he was destroying his own property, but this was Charlie's house. He opened the door and went right in.

"Adam-" He was met with a high speed dresser to the face. It smashed harmlessly in two halves when it collided with him. It didn't even knock off his hat. That made Adam even more angry.

"Really?" Lucifer closed the door.

"Get out." Adam snarled at him.

"We need to talk."

"No we don't. Get out."

"Stop destroying Charlie's hotel."

"It's my room!"

"It's her property. Stop destroying it."

"Fine. Get out." Adam folded his arms, a strong grimace on his face.

"We need to talk." Lucifer repeated. He sat on the edge of Adam's bed. "Have a seat." Adam sat on his window sill.

"What do you want, fairy boy?"

"I want you to divorce my daughter."

"Ha!" Adam laughed. "I'd love to. I could get my life back."

"I wasn't done yet." Adam raised an eyebrow and let him continue. "I want you to divorce my daughter and no more exterminations."

"Yeah right." Adam scoffed. "Who are you to tell me what to do?"

"Um, the King of Hell? Thought that was obvious."

"The King of a Heap of Garbage doesn't intimidate me." Adam had been working on that one for a while. He was really really bad at coming up with any kind of comeback on the spot, except for the lovely one he had earlier, but when he had some prep time he felt he could be clever. He'd been sitting on that one for a while.

The first few years after he became leader of exorcists, he'd gone to bed every night imagining different scenarios where he could finally put Lucifer in his place. He'd even written a few of those power fantasies down. Somewhere.

"Alright that's enough." Lucifer's frustration just kept on growing. If Adam wasn't careful, he might get the king to snap. The only reason why Lucifer wasn't already punching the man's lights out was because of Charlie. But he could be easily convinced towards other actions.

"Be honest with me. What do you have to gain from this? Why are you here?"

"Because Sera told me to." Adam's body responded.

"That's it? That's the only reason?" Adam nodded. "Are you still that blindly loyal to heaven even now? You just do whatever they say, even still? Even after all this time?"

"Yes." Did Lucifer not know? Honestly that made Adam feel better. Safer. The last thing he wanted was for any of his enemies to know. The last time someone knew...

"Fine. I can't make you. But I swear to you, if you lay a finger on my daughter or any of her friends, I will maim you beyond recognition. Do you understand me?"

"Is the big scary king of hell too baby to kill me?"

"Angels can't die. We both know that. If they could...I wouldn't be here right now."

-

Adam had been one of the most famous people in heaven before he left. Erasing his presence had been no easy task. Erasing his online presence alone had been a herculean feat. Privating his accounts had been the easy part, it was erasing everyone else's posts about him that had been the challenge. Every single video that had been made, every single photo taken, concert records, security footage. Then there was the issue of destroying videos, photos, and audio logs hidden away in private collections.

Then finally, when all of it had been wiped, then Sera could finally focus on wiping memories. Wiping memories was easier than the former event, but the stakes were higher. It was easy to accidentally take too much. That could have devastating consequences.

Sera started with the people that knew Adam best. His exorcists. The exorcists were...unique. Most had arrived in heaven as children. Some as young as babies. Every single one of them had such awful earthly lives, that everything before heaven had to be erased.

Adam had been so involved in all of their childhoods. Almost like a parent to most of them. Sera took a strand of a memory between her fingers. It was such a precious one. A six year old Lute had come to Adam scared of imaginary demons in her closet. He picked her up and set her in his own bed.

"You stay here, I'll go deal with it." He told her. He left her alone with the light on. Soon Lute heard a loud thumping noise and Adam returned shortly after with a smear of ketchup across his face.

"It's dead now." He stated. Lute blinked a few times. She ran up to him and hugged his leg. He picked her up and put her back in bed.

"I'm still scared." She told him.

"Well that's no good. Here." He handed her a tiny foam sword. "Just in case you find another one." She gave it a few test swings.

"Thank you." With the sword carefully hidden under her pillow, she felt safe enough to go back to sleep. Adam smooched her head and went back to bed himself. He left the door open a crack with the hallway light on for good measure just in case.

Sera snipped the string in two. The white thread stiffened into a strand of clear glass. She placed it into a small white box with the other memories she'd taken. There was very little of Lute's childhood that was salvageable. The case was similar with most of the other exorcists.

"Why?" She asked. "Why did you have to raise them yourself? That's what I made women to do. You could've just waited until they were adults! I wouldn't have to cut so much out if not for you."

So many treasured memories. So many happy memories. Every single one of them, innocent and pure. For a few hours that day, Sera got to experience what it was like to have a loving parent through the eyes of a few hundred little girls. It made her miss her own father.

She carefully packed each box of memories and taped them shut. The memories were then safely stored away in heaven's vaults. The memories were always stored. They were impossible to destroy. Sera had tried everything she could think of to destroy a memory, but nothing worked. Throwing them out was too dangerous. It would be too easy for the box to be found or fall open. If the memories were snapped in this state, they would return right to their owners and re-traumatize them all over again.

Sera put the memories of Adam in the second highest case. It felt right. She swiped two fingers against the marble. In an instant, Adam's name was engraved on it. Like a headstone. Sera pressed her forehead against the cool rock.

This must be what it's like for a human when a loved one dies. Sera wished she could've picked someone else. She wished her foolish daughter hadn't eaten the apple. She wished that Adam was as unlovable as Lilith had testified in court. She wished her father was still here so she didn't have to do any of this.

"Dear Lord, what am I doing?" This wasn't how anything was supposed to happen. The plan had always been to sacrifice an innocent soul for the good of the sinners, but it was never supposed to be Adam. The humans had been promised a Savior. The Bible and Book of Mormon alike had been written to foretell of his coming, his life, his death, and continued atonement on behalf of God's creations.

But such a man had never been born. Now they were just pretty stories locked away in the archives. The human souls set aside to write them never received the inspiration. There was no virgin birth, there was no star, the garden hadn't been prayed in, there was no torturous death, there was no rising 3 days later, there was no unblemished lamb. All because Sera had been too embarrassed to wake the Father when she had the chance.

"My son. I'm so sorry." She knelt, breaking down into tears she had been putting off for years. "My son. My son."

Sera briefly considered cutting Adam out of her own head. It would be so much easier if she forgot him too. She so badly wanted to forget him, but she couldn't. She had responsibilities. She was still responsible for him. The burden of knowing would have to fall on her shoulders, but if it meant that no one else would have to feel this pain. She could bear it.