Prom Queen ｡ Michael Langdon

8 - PARADISE LOST

     Insomnia plagued Carrie Moore for the next few days. It embraced her mind, telling her that sleep was a foe that she didn't need, and one she could never win against. It wrapped around her limbs, making them heavy like metal chains, but restless like the wind that knocked against her window.

     The teenage girl knew why she couldn't sleep, couldn't stop from pressing her golden cross to her lips, just to feel the warmth that radiated off the metal like the body warmth that radiated off Michael's skin. And while she wanted to talk to him about that stunning reveal, whenever she closed her eyes she saw an inverted pentagram and she'd blink her eyes wide open again. 

     Michael worshipped the Devil. Michael Langdon was a Satanist. That golden-haired boy with the delicate blue eyes that darkened so quickly when a tempest of emotion tore through him, that boy that carried her backpack and always wanted to hold her hand just for that tiny human touch, was a Satanist, a cult member. The polar opposite to her. So, so different from her, or at least, so she believed. Her religious morality told her that they cannot be friends, but her heart told her otherwise. 

     She wanted to fix the crack in her heart, the confliction that put herself at war with herself. So, she turned towards the Bible for answers, thumbing through the thin pages—to her mother's delight, who thought her only daughter was being diligent with her Bible studies—for any and all references to the Devil. 

     She stared with Lucifer's fall in the book of Isaiah. How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to the heavens: I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Might Hight.' But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.

     And she ended with a verse from Corinthians: And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. And she still hadn't found her answer as to why Michael Langdon, her neighbour and friend, could worship the fallen and damned angel that was the embodiment everything wicked and wrong with the world and the human race. There was no one worse than the Devil, save for maybe the Antichrist, which as the Holy text states, is Satan in human flesh. All of this is paving the way for the Antichrist himself to appear and get rid of any pretence of religion. He will do away with God altogether. He will perform signs and wonders to prove to the world once and for all that mankind is self-sufficient.

     However, she didn't just stop with the Bible but turned to other literature. Carrie Moore was good at researching, good at studying, and it was something she enjoyed and often used it as a hobby. And her research into Lucifer and his story led her to John Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost. Engrossing herself with the poem actually doubled as homework, as she needed to present a poem in English class on Monday. Regardless, her eyes soaked up the words, savouring over them as her heart pounded loudly in her ears, louder than the warnings in her mind. If you took away Satan from the equation, Michael and Miriam only practised another religion, and Carrie didn't have a problem with people practising other religions.

     So, after a long weekend of no sleep and a battle against her mind and heart, Carrie decided that, maybe, it didn't matter that Michael Langdon worshipped the Devil. She tried always to never judge people and that included people that prayed to a fallen angel that defied his mighty Father and stormed heaven with an army of his brothers and sisters before falling to hell to make his kingdom.  

     Her heart was settled on Sunday night and sleep enveloped her with his gentle and soothing arms. But her dreams were far less gentle and soothing. She dreamed of horns and blood and fire burning the world to ash and smoke. Carrie didn't know it, but Michael Langdon across the street dreamt of the same thing that night too.