For too many years, he had wandered without a home, always missing his brother, his love. Forever moving on because the earth refused to accept his body and God refused to let him die. Cain sat on the weathered park bench, watching other humans with jealousy, one emotion he had never learned to reign in and control.

Taking a drag of his cigarette, which he prayed would give him lung cancer and knew was perfectly safe for him to smoke, he pondered just how many people in this new modern world wished for immortality. It seemed everyone wanted to live forever. Hospitals fought to keep vegetables alive, living corpses that would wait years to taste the wonders of heaven because they were so afraid of the other side. Like Shakespeare had once wrote, "Lord, what fools these mortals be." Back in the 16th century, when Cain had first seen that play, he'd been the only one in the audience to applaud that line. The others didn't quite understand.

"I talked to the guy in charge, Cain." A man joined him on the bench, refusing to meet his eyes and instead overlooking the rocky waters of the ocean and the children who played along the shore. He wore a long trenchcoat that looked out of place on this warm summer night. His wings would have looked more out of place. "He's still not buying your story."

Cain took a deep breath and let it go, before speaking in a low voice. "I didn't kill my brother." He paused as memories from the dawn of time came back to him. "I loved him. More than anything."

"God doesn't believe you."

"Fuck God!" Cain vehemently spit out, chucking the end of his lighted butt onto the sands. "God's the one who cursed me to walk the earth forever. God's the one who took vengeance on me for something I played no part in all so he could feel better about Abel's death. God's the one who--"

"Hey, man," The angel threw his arms in the air in mock surrender. The sudden movement hiked up his trenchcoat a few inches, revealing the ends of his feathery wings. "I'm just the messenger. Don't shoot the messenger."

"Sorry, Gabe. Nevermind." Cain lowered his head, wishing he had a beer. This kind of news needed to be commiserated with something that would get him drunk or high. It wasn't Gabriel's fault, this Cain knew. They'd been doing this dance for thousands of years. God wouldn't speak to him anymore, Cain had been cast out to live without his love. Instead, they spoke through Gabriel, the archangel and messenger of God.

Each time he explained his side of the story to the angel, Cain hoped that God would understand and somehow see the light. Then there was the let down when Gabriel said he hadn't listened. Trying to get an almighty deity who thinks they know everything to see a different point of view seemed an impossible task.

"Tell me again how it happened," Gabriel suggested. Cain figured he was only doing this to humor him and make him feel a little better. Still, it was working. "Tell me everything you remember about that day."

"It was so long ago," Cain frowned. It was amazing how one day could change an entire lifetime. With a heavy heart, he began, "I loved my brother, more than life, more than death.. more than anything I've ever known. We shared out lives, our crops.. our beds."

Gabriel grimaced and shifted uncomfortably, "I still think that's kind of--"

"Well, back in that day a person really didn't have much of a choice, you know?" Cain shrugged. "It was either Abel or one of my parents." The incest of his past never really bothered him that much because they were more than brothers, they were soulmates. "Anyway, the story of God not approving of my sacrifice was only half right. I did get angered over that, but it was only because I thought I would lose Abel to God. I didn't want my brother to care about anyone or anything more than me."

"And that's when you said you made the deal with Lucifer?"

Cain nodded. "I was young. I was stupid. The devil offered me more power than I'd ever known. Enough power to woo Abel back to me. All I had to do was let him possess my body, live in me for one day. Just one day.. I couldn't understand what that one day would cost me." He closed his eyes, images of blood and a broken corpse coupled with the feeling of being controlled to do unimaginably horrible things to his lover. "The devil showed his power to my brother, by killing him. While he was in my body."

"You do know that 'the devil made me do it' is the oldest excuse in the book, right?" Gabriel sounded unconvinced, though he kept coming back time and again to try to save Cain from this fate. He was the only one in thousands of years who had ever tried to help, so Cain couldn't get angry at his seeming disbelief. "And even if God did see it your way, he still doesn't look kindly on those who make deals with the devil."

"At least I'd be blamed for something I did instead of hated for something I would never do." Cain thought over his own history and the history of those around him. "It must run in the family. My mother did the same thing, made deals with Lucifer in order to get what she thought she wanted."

"Yeah, your family's gonna have to stop doing that." Gabriel offered him a bit of misplaced humor but then added, "I'll talk to him again. See if I can make him change his mind."

"Thanks, Gabe," Cain stood and with a heavy heart, began wandering down the beach. Always wandering, the lonely traveler in a life he had grown tired of living. Somehow he knew Lucifer was watching all of this and laughing. Maybe when Cain finally died, he'd be sent to hell. He certainly had a lot to talk over with the demon angel down there.

-End-