The Ramblings Of a Devil

There I was sitting here thinking, "What could ever be as boring as an eternal mission?"

Well, and unfortunate poor spirit, aint I? This is just as impossible. You see, the reason I was sent up here on Earth was to reap as many souls as possible by whatever means necessary. I wasnt the only one given with this kind of purpose though. A lot of us are. You see, my master needs as much backup as he can recruit so when the time comes, he can be able to fight Him on equal footing. Well, I dont know about that. Nevertheless, there I was, unbelievably displaying obedience to Satan.

Before we were unleashed, the master had to properly sedate us first. It was at the graduating ceremony last month. He was our guest speaker. Oh, I could remeber how he talked at the ceremony!

"Good luck, my precious minions, for now you will be facing a world far better, far cooler and far more challenging, what with all the angels and saints wishing you ill wealth," he flashed his yellow, deformed teeth at us, "Yes. Yes. I also bid you welcome. Today marks the day of your devil hood, the day you graduate, and the day you accept all holy things that will come your way."

He droned on and on and on. He was ever the boring speaker but he had this grand gift of keeping us awake and silent. Something about his gloomy atmosphere kept us at the edge of our seats. Hell was already a terrifying place and Satan was an even more terrible company. We were afraid to letthat show on our faces so we had to keep it straight and hang on to his every word. But his next words sounded so significant that we couldnt avoid inching forward to listen.

"Before I release you from the Gates of Hell, I want you to remember one more important thing," he said with an air of terrror and grinned devilishly, sulfur fuming out of his mouth. Did I tell you he looked a lot like Mick Jagger? Well, he did. He donned this super rockstar attire that we couldnt help but admire his fashion sense.

"Evil acts are easy to instill when you don it with the guise of innocence and logic," he added with a lot of us clouded with great confusion.

We were all stumped about that. We really never understood what he meant.

So, a day after that, he unlocked our chains and cuffs and what a cool sensation it was! I was running and laughing like never before! No! It was time to apply all my knowledge that I had learned at the School for III ang Nightmarish Scenarios (SINS).

But even if I said that, I was up there, lazily lounging at a sofa on the rooftop someone from the apartments below had bothered to bring up. I really didnt get what Satan had told us. No. Not until I got to observe the senior devils and professionals at work. I wasnt sure if it really was their product but the signature was so clear.

I saw how humans mistreat each other badly, cursing, swearing, wishing ill luck. Yes, I even had the pleasure of observing fight of one mother and son. He was very angry because she had not given him an allownace for the day. She refused to give him because they were so poor. So, the son stormed into the street and on his way to school, threw the sandwich her mommy had cared to make for him. A street kid happened upon the miserable sandwich and seeing it as a blessing, ate it. What he didnt know was a plastic sheet, you know, a piece of plastic cellophane, was accidentally included in the little snack. He spat it out and accidentally spat on the face of a biker boy who lost balance and swerved straight to the center of the street and got hit by a minibus which, ironically, tried to avoid it and hit a tree head on. A lot of people died that day.

Is it a true story? What does it matter? You got the point. Even the smallest decisions could tumbledown the most unfavorable dominoes in the line.

There are also those big corporate decisions decided upon by big dudes in the PitOHell Industry. Yes, one of its goals is to make humans think that population control should be valued over the sanctity of life. Right now, its been decided whether to revive death penalty or not. Well, if they do, there would definitely be a celebration in my place. There are thousands of reasons why the penalty should be revived, each thought of to be very logical and simple. The three that I know of are the three most logical and simple reasons.

One: These people have sinned heavily. To invoke fear upon those who will attempt to do crime, these sinners must be punishable by death.

Two: The population is booming. If they dont kill the criminals, where on earth would the good guys put the bad guys?

And Three: The world is suffering from economic crisis. We really want to save as much rice, food, energy and money as possible. These people are consuming too much of our resources. Its time for a lay-off.

Funny, isnt it? They treat their fellow humans as if they cant think, cant understand, as if they are brainless, emotionless, or soulness, as if theyre not humans at all but mere beasts, menace to the society. How ironic that the only solution they come up with to get rid of these killers is by killing them, making killers as well. The only difference this makes between the murderer and the executioner is license and a salary.

There are so many unmentionables in the world, so many that dont neeed explaining, where the rich wage war and the poor die, where buildings and infrastructures are made for the sake of science but the human damage is still quite like it was before. Well, thats what we call 'occupational hazard.' Simple excuse.

And thats when my master's quote surfaced as clear as a glass to me. I finally understood it.

It is easy to reap weak souls when you hide your intentions behind beautiful benefits and insurances. Innocence, surely, is the best disguise. In the world of greed and power, nothing else could promise better harvest.