The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Offering
by Kathleen McCluskey

   The forest had gone silent before I realized I was lost. I had been following the trail for hours, certain it would bring me back to the road but the trees had grown impossibly old around me. Their trunks were massive enough to hide a house behind them. There were no birds, no insects and no wind moving through the branches. Then, without warning the trees opened into a clearing and I found myself standing in front of a tree that could not have existed anywhere on Earth.

   Its branches twisted high above me, heavy with dark green leaves, yet there was only one piece of fruit among them. A single red apple hung from the lowest branch. Perfect and untouched. Its skin gleamed in a strange golden light that filled the clearing.

   Something knelt beneath it.

   At first I thought it was a man in ruined armor but then I saw the wings. They stretched from his back in two enormous broken masses, the white feathers long since grayed and rotted away in places, exposing the bones underneath. His armor was cracked and tarnished and his face was so old that it seemed less like a living creature and more like something carved from stone.

   When he raised his head, his eyes met mine. “You shouldn’t be here.”

   I looked behind me but the forest had already closed around the clearing. The angel followed my gaze and gave a tired smile. “It doesn’t matter. He always brings them here eventually.”

   “What is this place?” I said, turning back to him.

   “You know what it is.”

   I did. The thought came with such certainty that it frightened me. “Eden.” I said.

   The angel nodded. “What remains anyway.”

   He extended the apple towards me and I instinctively stepped backwards.

   “Take it.” There was no temptation in his voice. No promise of knowledge or power. If anything, he sounded afraid.

   “What happens if I do?”

   His hand trembled. “Don’t.”

   I stared at him. “You just told me to take it.”

   The angel’s eyes filled with something I could only describe as sorrow. “I am commanded to offer it.” He paused and looked me in the eyes. “That is not the same thing as wanting you to accept it.”

   The silence between us seemed to stretch beyond the clearing, beyond the forest, perhaps beyond even time itself.

   “It does not corrupt men. It reveals them. The serpent offered it to Eve.” He said. “She accepted it. She gave it to Adam and he accepted it as well. Cain accepted it before he killed Abel. Judas accepted it before he betrayed Christ. Every generation has produced somebody willing to accept what was being offered and every time I have stood there hoping that this time would be different. Accepting it is only the beginning of sin.”

   “Then why keep offering it?”

   “Because the Creator commanded it.”

   “You don’t understand, I’m not Cain, Judas or Hitler. I’m not going to hurt anyone.”

   The angel looked at me with such profound sadness that I almost stepped away. “That’s what they all believed.”

   I shrugged my shoulders. “Then let me prove you wrong.”

   “You cannot. I know every man that has stood where you are standing.”

   I looked at the apple one last time. I thought of Cain standing over his brother. I thought of Judas walking toward the men who waited for him. I thought of every man who had reached for the fruit believing that whatever darkness that lived inside others couldn’t possibly be inside of him.

   Slowly, I lowered my hand. “Then I refuse.”

   The angel stared at me. For a long time nothing happened. Then the ground beneath us began to shake and somewhere beyond the clearing came the sound of something ancient cracking apart. The apple dropped from the angel’s hand and struck the earth without bruising.

   The angel gasped. He stepped toward me, “You have released me.” He looked toward the tree. “And someone must remain.”

   The world seemed to tilt beneath my feet. “What are you saying?”

   He smiled sadly. “You refused the apple.” He placed his hand on my shoulder. “Only a soul worthy shall watch it.”

   Before I could answer the angel disappeared and the clearing fell eerily silent. The ancient tree remained, its branches reaching toward a sky I could no longer see beyond the canopy.

   The apple was waiting beneath it.  Perfect. Untouched. I understood then that the Creator had never needed anybody to guard the fruit from mankind. He only needed somebody to offer it.

   I had become the watcher.

Fiction © Copyright Kathleen McCluskey
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com 

More from Kathleen McCluskey:

The Long Fall: Book 1: The Inception of Horror

Lucifer always cunning and intelligent challenges father to a battle of wits. Being the angel of light he casts a judgemental eye upon mankind. He begins a war with his fellow archangels and God. Michael, along with his siblings defend their home and mankind from their deranged brother. Broad swords and hand to hand combat drench heaven in blood. The four apocalyptic steeds are released, each having their own destructive power. Betrayal and lust are at biblical levels. Understand the very creation of evil and the consequenses that transpire in the first of THE LONG FALL series.

Available on Amazon!