The smoke cleared as Father Jacob took to his podium, clearing his throat to make his first words of the morning. He spoke to a full audience, it was a Sunday like any other, with some families and others filing in still, whispering "Excuse me's" and tiny hellos to neighbors peppered throughout the hall.

​

"Today, we are here to talk about what brings us all here. What makes us all equal in the eyes of our Lord. Not that we are here to praise him, to speak to him, to love him, to gain his sacred word. Those are all given endlessly, wherever we may seek His guidance. We are equal in the ways we are not Him, that we are all needed to be cleansed in his eyes before we are able to stand before him. If we are unable to be free of sin, how would we be able to withstand his judgement? How could we ever possibly bare to see his eyes squint in ire as he casts us aside?" Father Jacob began his sermon. The audience listened intently, locked into their chairs with his words.

​

"Original Sin, we call it. The flaming sword that kept us from Eden, its metal now melted down to forge the gates that keep us from the glorious heavens. Why are we still kept out, some of us may ask, when our Lord sacrificed his life between sinners?" Jacob continued, walking from end to end on his stage, his robes flowing as he pointed to the three crosses behind him.

​

"We have many verses to explain why we are born with this. I was told when I was younger, that it's like a baking pan with a dent, every batch comes with that same mark, that same proclivity that leads us to err, that makes us always need His word."

​

"Personally, I wouldn't mind a muffin from that batch, dent or not," He joked. His audience chuckled.

​

"But I don't necessarily think it's like that. We want to think it was the biting of the apple, but I think it's simpler."

​

"Much, much simpler." Jacob finished. The priest looked at his audience, his family. The confessional was beside him, but he decided it was about time to have one out in the public. A confessional for himself.

​

"Adam and Eve made their own choices, but He knew that we were marked for wrongdoing further than that. The apple wasn't the provider of knowledge of Good and Evil. It was a test to see if this batch was still tainted. They still were."

​

Jacob remembered it all like yesterday. In his age, it was. Candles beside him flickered, casting shadows of himself on the wall. He put his hand up to see its shadow, remembering his first mark in that cave thousands of years ago. He snapped his fingers, killing the lights and the shadows with them. Smoke circled him, the double doors locking.

​

"Adam and Eve made their own choices, but the moments God showed us his wrath were not for them. The plagues Moses had cast. Not for them. The evils that he allowed throughout the years. Not for them. The horrid acts that only leave us saying the simple sentence of 'Maybe it was God's plan,' as our only comfort. Not for them. He allowed all of this because our Original Sin is still yet to be cleansed."

​

Jacob remembered his first night in that cave, his shrine set up deep within. His eyes, bloodshot like split wires, staring at a lone child that began to stray from his herd. Away from the clay huts that were his only protection in this dark night.

"He knew the moment I made my own choice, that humanity wasn't meant to Be. We couldn't be left to our own devices."

​

The child only saw his eyes before he clubbed him unconscious, dragging the boy back to the cave.

​

"He did so much to reverse what I did to get where I'm at, today."

​

Jacob buried the kid in five holes.

​

"He flooded us once, but he couldn't drown me."

​

Jacob ate the rest.

​

"He riddled me with locusts, but they didn't like what they ate."

​

Jacob looked at his audience.

​

"He killed his own son as a compromise. To reverse someone so hateful with someone who could die for anyone."

​

Jacob smiled. He never hungered like that ever again since, holding it back so He couldn't find him easily again. So he could gather a crowd one day. So he could smile to his audience...

​

And enjoy his Last Supper.

The fire burned. It was the only thing warming our clan.

We found a cave deep and vast enough for us to take refugee from the world totally dominated in ice.

The fire burned ceaselessly. It was a gift from a god.

The cave had a small river flowing, warm by the heat of the earth, and filled with small creatures, creatures we ate for sustenance.

The fire burned bright. It was our beacon.

We were guided by it to find plants and mushrooms around the cave that keep us alive.

The fire burned bright. It flared brightly as we sacrificed our deads to it. It towered as it consumed the body.

And I could feel the soul rushing inside me everytime we do it.

The fire burned the hottest and brightest as I throw the last of us into it.

We were some 500 strong, man, woman, children. But that's it. The children bore no children. So as the last of the children aged hand passed, I was left alone.

"So what's all of this then?"

The fire laughed as I tossed the last of my kin into it.

"You asked for protection from cold and sustenance for your people. You forgot to ask for continuation of your people."

I was shocked, angered by the specification of the wish fulfillment.

Then I smiled as tear trickled down my cheeks.

"But they are now within me."

The fire burned, calmer. As if it was thinking.

"You have been a faithful servant. I can grant you one more wish!"

I stared at it.

"Are you really the master of the world?" "No. I am just a deceiver." "Why do the souls of my people flow into me then?" "I have plan for that."

At least he never lied.

I think and think and think.

"I have my wish now. I want to have children that are blessed and free from all the cold outside of this cave."

The fire burn brighter.

"Then step into me."

I stared at the fire.

"I will grant you your wish."

I had nothing to lose, so I step into the fire.

The fire then went brighter and brighter and hotter and hotter, engulfing me in it, burning me whole. Then it was gone and I was still alive.

"Now step outside. Find them. Make them worship you. Breed with them. Go forth and multiply!"

So I did. I walked in the cold with fire on my skin. I found them and gave them the warmth of the fire. I bred with their females. Then I walked, found others, gifted them fire, bred. So on for time untold.

Until the ice subsided and my children conquered the world, everywhere.

Then I found the real God, waiting for me in my sleep one day.

"when you wake up, around you will be warmth, grasses, water, trees, animals. That's my proof of my Godhood."

Then I woke up and it's true.

For the first time in a millenia, I was shivering. The fire inside me went cold.

Then he appeared in front of me.

"You have worshipped and used by the deceiver. For this you have your sin, and marked your children with this sin. Know the mark of this sin: the males will have wild urges and the females will have less freedom. Now walk south and never stop until I appeared again."

I obeyed and walked south for seven cycle of the moon.

When He appeared again I was on a grassy plain.

"This place will bear your curse, but it will also bear a gift for your children. Never again it will be bountiful with lives above it, but beneath it will bear the power of souls, souls that will be burned because of your sin. Now accept your a fate!"

I then felt a pain like no others, as God ripped the fire from inside of me, spread it wide across the world, ridding it of its life, turning it into a desert.

"This will be your place for the rest of time. No longer you can breed, and no longer you can talk to your children."

So here I am now. An existence in this vast desert. Exist, but no one can see me truly. I cannot talk to the children, but I can whisper things into them.

"Hear me, children, and be kind!"

What can I say? I've always been clever.

I mean, one time I picked the pocket of an Elder God. They noticed, they always do, but the slight of hand I pulled made them think some other schmuck was dumb enough to do it.

Last I heard he was still serving his punishment strapped to the ground with an eagle eating his newly regrown liver every day.

Then there was the time I got a king to serve his son up to the gods. His punishment ended up being stuck in a river that shrinks away when he goes to drink it surrounded by trees whose branches recoil when he tries to pick their fruit.

Let me tell you though, this last scheme was truly one for the ages though. I managed to get my sin for immortality forgiven. I mean, tricking the gods into making me immortal was bad enough, but tricking them into forgiving me was the pies de resistance.

How did I do this?

You see, a couple thousand years ago this guy named Jesus got himself crucified to forgive everyone's sins. There were some conditions here though, but small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.

You see, his followers came up with this concept of Original Sin. That is this sin that every human is born with due to the actions of the first humans on Earth. All they needed for this to be forgiven was to be baptized. That's pretty much it.

When I tell you that the gods were pissed when they found out about me using this, I mean they were pissed. One of them is still making the rest of the human race suffer for this.

Meanwhile I get stuffed into this tiny oil lamp. Sure I can come out sometimes, but staying out long term means getting someone to rub it.

Anyway, I can see I'm boring you so I'll let you get back to work. Could you get my neck a bit more? Ten thousand years cramped in a lamp will give you such a crick in the neck.

Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.

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