Apex Predator

Prologue

Prologue

Lucifer

"It is coming along quite nicely, madam." I compliment. We are standing in God's—we call her Coelicola—creation room. The room is a plain, white-walled square one with no ceiling. A clean white, large square pillar is placed in the center of the room and that is where our new world is lying. A black-violet sky dotted with stars—among the first of our creations—lies in wait above us. It waits for what we are going to do next. I am helping her complete our new project. I am Coelicola's most trusted angel and I help her with all of her big projects. We are engineering a new world. I want it to be a perfect world.

The globe spins and freezes over a land mass we call North America. It zooms in until we can see each individual creature roaming the land. One of the more gifted creatures—we call them humans—is quarreling with another over a deer's skin. Lurking in thick foliage painted around them is a creature with extremely sharp teeth and a golden coat dotted with dark gold spots; they had named it cheetah. The cheetah is crouched low in the vegetation and is preparing to pounce on the humans.

"We have to keep them safe!" I cry. I reach out towards our creation but Coelicola stops me.

"We must let things carry out naturally," she says. "They must learn to survive on their own. Do not intervene."

"But our humans," I protest. "They'll be killed. We must keep them unharmed."

"Do not intervene." She repeats.

"Yes ma'am." I sigh. I exit the creation room by flapping my enormous silver-feathered wings. I lift myself into the air and soon find myself exposed to the warm breezes just above the walls of the room. As I soar towards my home, I craft a plan. I would sneak into the creation room while Coelicola slept. I would tamper with the new universe and change it so that it would be my desired utopia. Yes, it is a wonderful plan.

I pace in my home for a few hours and wait until I notice Coelicola leaving the creation room. I wait for another half hour to be sure that she is not returning and then creep out into the night. Heaven looks like a peaceful, old-fashioned French village. It is quiet and dimly lit by floating orbs of light suspended in a line along the white-stone streets.

I fly over the walls of the creation room and land next to the pillar. There, the world is turning slowly. The globe reverts its rotation and zooms in on an area in the land mass called Africa. Creatures with smooth, golden coats, glowing eyes, and sharp teeth—lions—are closing in on the dark-skinned humans that are sleeping in their village. There are at least fifteen of the lions surrounding the village. There are children and elders in the village that would not survive an attack from wild cats. I touch my finger to one of the lions and swipe it around the village, connecting all of the lions with an invisible thread. I tie a theoretical knot and lift all of the lions off of the ground at once. They growl, roar, and claw at me—invisible to them and any other creature in the universe--angrily. I move them miles into the savannah where they cannot harm any of my precious humans.

"What are you doing?" Coelicola screams! I whip around. She is standing behind me, her skin glowing as it usually did. Her long, silky black hair blows around her face as the walls of the creation room sink into the ground. She blinks her dark-fawnlike eyes and tears of betrayal wet the dark skin of her thin face. She bears much resemblance to the first humans—the native Indians—we had created. She is the most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on. It pains my heart to see her so hurt but I must have my utopia.

"I—," I stutter. "I just couldn't stand the thought of them dying. We worked so hard to create them."

"This world is based on balance. Creatures are preyed on by stronger creatures. That is just how it is going to work. If you can't grasp such a concept then I am afraid I will be forced to take you off of this project." She warns.