Midnight Moon (Vampire for Hire #13)(11)

More words appeared on my pad of paper: "What if I told you we are all God?"

"I would say that's some New Age gobbledygook."

"Then I'll just say this, and leave it: there is a very good chance I am God."

"That's it?"

"It's the best answer for you, now. After all, only crazy people talk to God, right?"

"Er, right."

"So let's just leave it that I could be God."

"Or you could be the devil."

"The devil exists within God, Sam. As do you."

"So the devil is God."

"You said it, not me."

"Are you playing with me?"

"I'm softening a difficult concept."

"That the devil is also God?"

"Yes, Sam."

"Most people believe the devil is a fallen angel."

"In such cases, they would be right."

"Because what they believe is true for them?"

"In essence, yes."

"The devil told me he came into existence because he was summoned into life, to fulfill a need."

"That would be closer to the truth."

"Does the devil tempt man?"

"The devil seeks to continue his existence."

"So, he needs to tempt man, he needs to promote evil. And he needs people to believe in him and hell."

"A complicated existence, to be sure."

"A group of people can really summon an entity into existence?"

"A group, yes. And sometimes just one."

I blinked at the words on my page, realizing I had been speaking and writing in a sort of trance. I couldn't figure out that last bunch of words and let them go.

"He seems particularly powerful," I said.

"He has as much power as he is given."

That made sense, but I circled back to one of the original statements. The neat thing about automatic writing was that I could just go back and read through the dialogue. "You said you were softening a difficult subject. The subject was that the devil was you."

"Yes, Sam."

"Is this because all things come from you?"

"Indeed, Sam."

"All people, all life, all heavenly beings-"

"I prefer to say all nonphysical beings."

"Nonphysical-and everything else in the Universe-"

"Multiverse," my hand wrote, effectively cutting me off. "There are far more universes than this, Sam."



       
         
       
        

"All of this and more are from you?"

"Funny you should say 'more.'"

"Was that the wrong word?"

"It was very much the correct word. I am ever evolving, Sam, as are you. As is everyone, including the devil, including your universe itself. You could say that the very purpose of life is to expand into places not yet known or believed or conceived."

"But aren't you, you know..."

I tried to wrap my brain around the concept, and paused. My hand waited patiently. I tried again, "But don't you know everything? Don't you already know what you will expand into?"

"A common misconception."

"So God doesn't know the future?"

"God is aware of potentials. God is delighted when God is surprised."

"Who the hell can surprise God?"

"The surprise is in the potentials, Sam. And when one potentiality opens, hundreds, if not thousands more spread from that. And they continue spreading as each life is lived, as each decision is made, and as each and every person grows into his own. Everything expands, Sam. It is the point of existence."

"You said that. And darkness helps the expansion?"

"Even darkness expands, or what is perceived as darkness."

"And it all expands within you?"

"That is safe to say, yes."

"This is weird."

"Tell me about it."

I laughed and reread the words on the page before me. So many questions. Finally, I settled on, "So you sort of oversee everything?"

"Not quite, Sam. I immerse myself into everything."

"But don't you, you know, have a say in what's going on in your playground, so to speak?"

"My greatest joy, Sam, comes from watching the expansion of life, without interference."

"Well, I think you might want to step in and sort some of this crap out."

"What crap, Sam?"

"Life. The creeps out there. The evil bastards hurting other people. The dark masters who control and kill and destroy."

There was a pause. I'd gotten myself a little worked up. I was suddenly sure I wasn't talking to God. How could God not take a more active role in the lives of people, mortal or otherwise?