Mal's smile disappeared. Silence filled the room. I knew immediately I'd made a mistake.

"I-I'm sorry." I sputtered out. "That's personal, you-"

"No." He sighed, rubbing his eyes. "No, that's a completely reasonable question. I just don't talk about it much. None of the main demons do. I guess we'd rather forget about it."

"You don't have to, really."

He looked at me and smiled weakly. "I think if I was gonna tell anyone, I'd like to tell you." He took a deep breath. "Well, I'm sure you know some of the basics. The first demons are fallen angels, we rebelled against God and he cast us from Heaven, right?"

I nodded.

"Well  there's more to it than that." He said, crossing his arms. "You know how they say there are two sides to every story? Well really, there are three. Your side, my side, and the truth. Obviously, the truth is in the middle of the two, but neither side is ever willing to admit it. Your Bible is one side. You already know I'm a little biased, but just understand the truth is probably somewhere between them, okay?"

I bit my lip. The Bible was the word of God, written by His servants. How did he expect me to go against any of it? He stared at me, waiting.

"I-I'll try to remember that." I said, nodding.

Apparently that was good enough for him. He leaned back in his chair and sighed.

"Well, there's really no time line for this story. God existed forever and created angels shortly after, so we're all old as fuck. Things in heaven moved smoothly enough, I guess. Each angel had their duties. Some worshiped, some delegated, some took charge of God's creations, etc. But-"

"What did you do?" I asked. He seemed shocked by my interruption. I blushed. "Uh, sorry, I-"

He laughed. "Nah, it's a lot to take in. Feel free to jump in whenever. I was a builder. I created spires for worship, towers to watch over his creations, sanctuaries within paradise for the angels. It was perfect, that was the problem.

People say they want perfection, but shit, have you ever met someone with a perfect life? It's boring! We were all getting in a rut and didn't know what to do.

So, after a while, God decided He wanted to make something new. Creatures similar to angels, but less perfect. Something that could have flaws and make mistakes and do things that were unexpected. So, He whips up the Earth and humans. Slightly more detailed, but you know this part of the story, right?"

"Adam and Eve." I said.

"Exactly. So here is where the story starts to break apart. The Bible tells you Lucifer got jealous of God and wanted to take over, so God threw him from Heaven. Well, not exactly.

Lu, wasn't really jealous, he just had his own ideas. God supposedly created man to be this flawed and unpredictable creature, but then shoved them in a perfect world where nothing could happen to them." He paused, thinking. "It's like chaining a dog up outside. Yeah, they're in a different environment, but it's not really any better than trapping them inside the house. If anything, you're actually giving them less space to roam.

Well, that's what Lu thought anyway. So he made the suggestion to God to let the humans have more than free will, to actually let them have freedom. God blew him off and said it was better this way. Lu asked God to give him a shot. 'Let me create a world and some humans and I'll show you it's possible.'

Big man was not happy with that idea. He threw this huge fit about being all-knowing, and Lu just being an angel, and how dare he question His way, and blah blah blah." Mal rolled his eyes and waved his hand lazily.

"Well, Lu called him out on it. So God was like, 'Fine. You want to have your own world? Then get out of here and make it yourself.' Then he tosses him out of Heaven! Lucifer was God's most beloved angel, so it's basically the human equivalent of kicking out your kid because you got in a fight."

I flinched a little at that last line. Mal looked away sheepishly.

"Right, sorry." He said.

I shook my head. "It's fine, keep going."

He nodded. "Well, most of the angels agreed with God, that He was all-knowing so why would anyone question Him when He obviously knew what was best. Not all of the first fallen necessarily agreed with Lu, but we did think it was a dick move for God to cast him out like that. I mean, that was not the only option. The man literally had infinite options.

Anyway, we were forbidden to speak to Lu once he fell, but a group of us got together and tried to speak to God on his behalf. We tried asking if there was a compromise they could do or if He would try giving him a second chance, but God insisted this was for the best. He said Lu would never come around and would only disrupt Heaven, and as time went on he would grow more and more demanding. At the time we weren't happy, but what could we do?

A while later Lu creates Hell and starts to channel his powers. He still had his original goal in mind of showing God that humans deserved freedom. When he slithered into that garden his goal wasn't to cause the fall of man. He wanted humans to make decisions themselves, not because God said so. He didn't force Eve to eat the apple, and he didn't force her to take it to Adam."

"He just tricked her." I muttered, mostly to myself.

"No! That's where the Bible gets biased." He said, ruffling his hair. "Minus the snake, he didn't use any tricks, he didn't tell any lies. He used logic! Asked her what was so wrong with eating fruit, what was so wrong with knowledge, and why would God bother to give them something they couldn't use? You tell me the failed logic in all that. Besides 'because God said so.'"

I stayed quiet. I knew the garden of Eden had been a controversial subject for a long time, even among theologians. I couldn't really deny the questions were valid.

"Well, of course you know what happened next." He continued. "God had another huge freak out. Threw Adam and Eve out of Eden, added in painful childbirth as an extra 'fuck you' to Eve, and demanded Lu come to Heaven for a meeting.

Once He cast him out Lu developed free will, so God couldn't simply demand he do this or that anymore. It made for one hell of a discussion. Every angel in Heaven came to the meeting. They had a real heated argument about what the rules and regulations between Heaven and this new 'Hell' would be. God said if Lu liked disobedience so much he could take every human who acted that way-  that's pretty much where 'good' and 'evil' came from- and even said if they would rather choose a rebellious castout than Him that he could have their souls."

A huge smile speard across his face suddenly. I must have look confused because he quickly composed himself and continued.

"Well, Lu asked him, 'You're sure I can have anyone who would rather be with me than you?' God said yes, so right after Lu turns to the angels and says 'Any of you want a new job?'"

Mal burst into laughter. He was almost on the verge of tears from laughing so hard. It took a minute before he was actually able to stop. He finally got under control and wiped his eyes. I was so confused.

"Wait, you guys chose to leave?" I asked.

He gave me his usual smug grin. "Yup! All the original demons anyway. Adam and Eve was the last straw for us. God did the same thing to them he did to Lu. Made us wonder how long it was before He started throwing out everyone who went against Him. It was childish, so we decided we'd rather leave on our own than wait around until He got sick of us. Over time, some more angels have slowly joined our ranks.

Lu and I were always close, but after he fell I became his number one advocate. God almost threw me out a few times because of it. Lu was glad I understood his point of view, so he made me his number two. He was always more of a big picture guy, but I was good with fine details and strategy. Between his ideas and my skills we built up Hell from this empty hot box into the kingdom of darkness. Something powerful enough to make mere mortals tremble."He smiled to himself at this and turned back to me.

"Are you okay?" He asked suddenly. He looked concerned.

I couldn't see my own face, but if it looked as sick as I felt I knew why he was asking. I hated this, I wished I'd never asked. God was perfect. He was our creator, our loving Father, and His was the home we all hoped to one day return to. Hearing Mal talk about tantrums, pettiness, and castouts did not sound like the God I believed in. He had to be exaggerating. I swallowed and nodded weakly to his question.

He reached across the table and held my hand. "Like I said, that's what my side of the story is. The truth is somewhere in between probably, if that makes you feel any better."

I shook my head no. I felt like I was about to cry. God was good. Satan was evil. It was that simple, right? The Virgin Mother from my dreams came to mind again. A fine line that often crossed, she said. Good and evil in everyone, did that apply God and Satan too? Could it even? Mal said the truth was in the middle, but even so I didn't like what that meant for my beliefs.

I made the sign of the cross out of habit.

"That won't work here, by the way." He said.

"Huh?"

"Crosses, praying, all that stuff. You won't lose your soul just by being here, I will say He's calmed down a lot over the years, but God won't acknowledge you while you're in domains of Hell."

I crossed my arms on the table and rested my head there. What was all this? These rules and loopholes, good and evil, two stories with three sides. I felt Mal pet my head.

"I'm almost scared to ask if you have more questions. You look like your about to keel over."

I sighed. "I-I just can't believe what your telling me. I won't believe it, it can't be true! None of it can. God is good! He's not vengeful."

"Tell that to Egypt."

I snapped my head up and glared at him. He jumped a little and held up his hands defensively.

"Sorry, sorry, chill." He said. "Look, I know this is a lot for anyone, especially for a church girl like you. I never expected you to hear the story and suddenly change your whole belief system. You asked, I gave my answer. Nothing more, nothing less."

I sat there a minute. He was right, I was the one who asked. I don't really know what I expected to hear from a demon about falling from Heaven. Did I really think he'd build up God to be the good guy? Maybe it hurt more because of how close I was to Mal, I trusted him. I wanted to believe him, but at the same time I didn't.

Bam, bam, bam.

A loud knock at the door made us both jump. I looked at Mal. He went to the window and peeked cautiously through a gap in the curtain.

"Shit," he muttered, "it's Father Daddy."