The Outcast

Twenty years had passed since I slipped into the mortal realm and was reborn as a new person. My tortured past was behind me, but I still remembered every waking minute of it: being imprisoned in the lightless prison of heaven for aeons, I had lost all sense of self and time, but now on Earth, I could live under heaven’s radar until I found my way to another realm. Lucifer would have been the best person to turn to, but it was a risk I couldn’t take just yet.

One night, I was walking home after an outing with my best friend when three men cornered me on an empty street. They were armed, so I couldn’t hold back when one of them pulled out a gun. I tapped into a small portion of my powers to disarm the man but broke his arm in the process—all in a fraction of a second. Rage took over me. I struck the other two with my fists, sending them hurtling across the street. I fled the scene at once, seeing how I had overused my powers after suppressing them for so long.

I put the news on an hour later at home and sank into the sofa with panic setting in, seeing the footage on the screen. A passerby had recorded the incident and it had gone viral on the internet. While they still debated whether the footage was fake or not, I knew too well that if it reached the wrong gaze, I would have no choice but to find a way into a hidden realm sometime soon. I was lucky that the footage wasn’t clear; only my best friend, Elise, called at the time to see if it was me in that video. I didn’t tell her the truth.

A week passed, and conspiracy theories started to grow around that video. It seemed that some suspected I was an alien, while others assumed I was the result of a secret government experiment. I wouldn’t have minded being an extraterrestrial or a super soldier, but the brand I bore was far too different. It was something I resented, for I knew I did nothing wrong. Adam was a cruel and cunning man who didn’t deserve the respect he initially received; and even though he and Eve were later punished for their mistakes, their fates were far more lenient compared to what I endured.

It wasn’t long before people forgot about the incident altogether, but before I knew it, one of the conspiracy theorists had tracked me down to my house. He was certain that I was the woman in the video. I had no choice but to get the police involved, which then stirred the waters of the media once more. Journalists were at my doorstep, asking me if I truly had super powers. Soon, some of the townspeople started looking at me differently; their eyes were similar to those of heaven’s. I decided to move a few days later, but to my surprise, I found myself in the presence of an unlikely visitor. Lucifer himself appeared before me in my living room as I was gathering some of my belongings.

“You’ve captured quite the unwanted attention, old friend,” he said.

“I guess it was bound to happen at some point.”

“So, what’s your plan?”

“I was planning on skipping town and finding a new place to settle down for now.”

“I hear Gabriel has been dispatched to capture you. You don’t have much time, Lilith.”

I froze where I stood. I was not going to let them steal my freedom once more for being true to myself. I accepted Lucifer’s aid and escaped to one of the hidden realms he had created for outcasts like me.