The Devil's Matchmaker

Dante

He snapped his fingers and we were warped once more. The sudden change of surroundings left me disoriented.

We were in a study, filled with various books, canisters, scrolls and various paraphernelia, organized in shelves. The hooded figure was seated in front of his desk.

"Be seated." He gestured at a wooden chair in front of his desk.

"Where's Caroline?" My eyes searched for her in every direction. "Where'd you take her?"

He seemed to be smiling underneath the darkness. He pointed to a mirror on the wall. At first there was nothing and then slowly, the image of Caroline in deep slumber. She was on a feather bed, covered with a large velvet blanket, her face illuminated by candlelight. "She's safe."

"From you?"

"She's nothing to me." He reminded me of an answering machine, his voice a mechanical response to my question.

"And she's everything to me." The conviction surprised me, her safety was the only thing that mattered. "Why'd you take us here?"

"Sit down and we'll have our palaver and perhaps you'll begin to understand." He pointed to the chair.

I sat down despite of the anxiety I felt for Caroline. I decided I had no other choice, resistance I figured would be futile and would bring nothing but prolong our stay here in purgatory.

"Who are you?" I couldn't hide the curiosity in my voice.

"Nil." He said simply and when he saw the confusion on my face, he explained further. "I am Nil, a creature from nothing, a purveyor and enabler of balance."

I pretended I understood his answer despite of it all not making any sense. "So the next question shouldn't surprise you. Which side are you on?"

"I do not take sides." He seemed surprised that I would even ask him.

"Bullshit. You tried to kill Caroline earlier." I couldn't get it out of my head. The image of the dark sphere hovering to kill.

He laughed with such mirth I thought he would go on until the end of the world. After a few moments, he stopped and I was thankful for it. It didn't have anything to do with the voice, it was the emotion behind it. He absolutely sounded joyful and that was enough to drive fear into me.

"Don't you see? I didn't do it because I wanted to kill your precious Caroline. I did it to see what you would do." He seemed to be on the verge of another laughing fit. "I just do things. There's no explanation or logic behind it. It's just random."

Then I remembered the explosion in the butterfly garden, and Mephisto staying to fight the creature that resembled Frankenstein's creation.

"Was it you who destroyed the garden?" The only thing that seemed to hold my psyche together was the possibility of an explanation.

"No, no, no. That wasn't me." He seemed to enjoy watching me lose my mind. "That was the work of others who think they keep the balance in the world."

"Balance?"

"The ultimate factor that holds reality intact. Without it, the fabric of reality would disappear and the world will shatter into a million little pieces." The shadows in the room seemed to grow darker. "What happened earlier was the work of a few who think that they are doing all of us a favor by striving for balance." His voice grew quiet. "It is a futile attempt, it is all past saving now."

"The world is in ruins."

That made him laugh. "It already was since the beginning of mankind. The introduction of your species to the world tipped the scales. But you're not a man anymore are you?" More laughter. "No, no. You are the product of the universe's attempt at rebuilding. DEATH IN THE FLESH!!!" He waved his hands passionately like a poet in the midst of reaching the climax of his art. "Our palaver must go on. Tell me what you intend to do, what lies in your unconscious mind. Have you even began to understand your role in the grand scheme of things?"

"I'm to kill God." Saying it out loud, made me think of how daunting and unreal it was.

He clapped like a child watching magic for the first time. "And is your resolve strong enough to make it come true? What are your reasons? Why must the one who created everything perish?"

"You talk of balance. You've seen our world. You've seen how mankind is. Human beings, the scourge of the world, a virus that swallows up everything, the only creature at odds with the harmony in nature." The words came easy, it seemed that a part of me have been waiting for some time now to express itself.

"And for this you blame God?"

"We are created in his own image, aren't we?" My voice had a strange quality in it, like it wasn't my own. "The truth has been laid out in front of us all along. "

Nil seemed to study me. I couldn't tell what he felt underneath the hood. We were silent for a while. "You've isolated yourself from everything else you've started to become numb to the world."

"It's better to live in isolation than in constant misery in the company of people that will never understand you." Old memories that never seemed to fade away kept appearing in my head.

"Before Caroline King, what were you? Before the devil, and before death, what were you Dante Caulfield?"

That made me smile. Not because of nostalgia but of painful remembrance. "What does this have to do with anything?"

"Everything. To understand somebody is to hear their story. Isn't that so?" His laughter was infectious.