The Devil’s Brew

“Coffee!” my brain screamed, “I need coffee.” Generally, I don’t do Starbucks, but I couldn’t find a 7-11 or any other coffee shop nearby, so I told myself that it would have to do.

“Yes, nothing fancy – straight black, the largest you got,” I told the barista before she asked my name.

Since it was a simple order, it took no time to prepare. Once in hand, I started for the front door with the idea of sitting in my truck and enjoying a caffeine rush, but then I saw the over-stuffed couch and it looked far more comfortable than a bucket seat.

As I sat down and leaned back, a woman entered the shop; a woman with long, wavy red hair, alabaster skin, blue eyes, light makeup and sky-blue stiletto heels. I heard her order a ‘Cinnamon Cloud Macchiato,’ whatever the hell that is.

She sauntered over to the couch and looking at the other end, asked, “Is this seat taken?”

“No, ma’am,” I answered, “help yourself.”

I couldn’t help noticing her perfectly shaped body in her form fitted Azure-colored dress, as she removed her calf-length coat.

A silence filled the space between us. It came with the strange knowledge that these coffee shops are supposed to be very popular, however, aside from a staff of three, she and I were the only two customers in the place.

“Been traveling long?” she asked without looking up from her coffee.

A little take aback, I was slow to answer, “About 20 hours.”

“Are you heading any place in particular?”

“No. Simply driving from one place to the next.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to do that. I have kids at home.”

“Really? How many?”

“Eight at the moment. Hopefully nine by this afternoon.”

“Wow?”

“Yes, and all adopted.”

“Good on you! Not enough good folks are willing to adopt children it seems these days.”

“I know, right, especially the older ones?”

This was followed by a short silence, which she finally broke, with “Lilith Grigori, Christian,” as she stuck out her hand.

As I started to reach, “Wait! How in the hell do you know my…?”

“Relax, silly. It’s written on your cup,” she said, adding from out of the blue, “so what are you looking for as you travel?”

“Nothing,” I answered to her odd question, wondering if this was her way of coming on to me.

“Be honest, now – a man doesn’t wander aimlessly for no reason.”

“Well, I do.”

She looked at me, then nodded at my jacket pocket and the small note book that poked out of it, “You’re a writer, you look for stories, you explore and want to know, don’t you?”

“Never thought of it like that — so I guess — yes.”

“Humble. I like that in a man.”

I smiled, not understanding the context of her compliment.

“Want to hear a wild story?”

“Sure,” I answered, taking a gulp of my quickly cooling coffee.

“I work for the Devil,” she said as she watched for my reaction.

“Nut job,” I thought, as I answered aloud, “You do? Why would anyone want to work for him?”

“Who said he was a he?”

“What?”

“She’s a she.”

It was time for me to go and Lilith sensed it, “What — does this scare you?”

“Not what — you — you’re scaring me,” I responded, “I don’t know you, but you’re coming off as bat-shit crazy.”

“Bat-shit, I’ve always wondered who in the fuck it was that decided bat-shit is the craziest,” she laughed, adding, “So you don’t want to hear my story?”

Taking a deep breath, I answered, “Only if you promise to stay on your end of the couch.”

“Okay – but I don’t bite – I promise,” she chuckled.

She sipped her coffee and stated, “I was created for Adam, but I didn’t want marry him or have his babies. In fact, being new to the world at the time, I didn’t want children at all. And because of this, I was called disobedient and my womb cursed.”

“I’ve heard all this before.”

“Well, they got it wrong, I never slept with the archangel Samael,” she announced, as a touch of anger flared in her eyes, “In fact, I’ve never been penetrated by an penis. Anyway, Luci took me in after I was kicked out of Eden and we got married. Over time, we realized that we wanted children and since Luci and I couldn’t have a child of our own, we decided to adopt the unwanted ones.”

“So, what do you do with these unwanted children, turn them into your little evil minions?” I played along.

“Do I look like that sort of person to you, Christian?” she retorted.

“I’ve seen evil and it’s usually unrecognizable,” I returned, feeling perturbed at the way she insisted on saying my name.

“We’re not talking the same thing,” she said.

“Then, explain – because bad is bad to me.”

“First off, Luci has always followed her Father’s rules and secondly, she doesn’t create sin, man’s free will does that. And while her Father issues the grace, she gets stuck carrying out the sentence and she does it all in the hope that He’ll love her again, like He once did.”

“So what’s does this have to do with the two of you adopting children.”

“You see, sinning is more generic than the Bible says. There’s a lot of specific sins in that book, but really, sin is just an act carried out with malicious or selfish intent.”

“A rather simplified definition — but I get what you’re trying to say. However, I’m still not understanding where adopting children comes in.”

“It’s simple really, they work for me. I use them to lure pedophiles.”

“Okay – fuck this,” I said sternly, “You’re taking this shit way too far for…”

“But,” she cooed in a sad little voice, “I haven’t gotten to the best part and it’s not as sick as you think.”

She waited for me to sit back down.

“I run a little site on the dark web and when a pedophile purchases one of my children, I send them to where ever and they kill the buyer — the pedophile.”

“Wrong, wrong, wrong,” I protested, “That’s not how God operates. You can’t break His laws. You can’t earn God’s grace. Besides that’s not acting with love!

“I know, but I get to have children, Luci gets to feel like she’s pleasing her Father by ridding the world of pedophiles and we make a lot of money to donate to political campaigns and local charities.”

“Still wrong. And what happens to the kid’s when they’re too old for pedophiles, I suppose you turn them out as prostitutes?”

“You really don’t think very much of me, do you, Christian? I’m really not that heartless,” Lilith smiled as she looked at the three barista’s as they lined the counter.

Each smiled and waved. It was than that I realized I’d found the portals to Hell.