A Prayer for the Fallen

Lucifer clung to the edge of Heaven, the tips of his fingers raw and bloody, every muscle tensed as he hung over the edge of Damnation. He looked up, just as Michael threw Blasphemel down into the Pit. Lucifer tried to claw his way back up, but Hell's crushing gravity pulled at him, its punishing fire already singeing his bloodied wings. A booted foot came down on his fingers and he cried out. He looked up, and high above him was the glowering face of Gabriel.

"Our Lord will speak with you, demon, before you are thrown Down." Gabriel lifted his foot, and Lucifer slid further toward his doom, broken fingers scrambling for purchase.

A hand grabbed him, and lifted him up.

"I want you to know, Lucifer, I am very disappointed in you."

"And I you, Lord," Lucifer spat back. "You'll see the folly of your little thinking primate. In fact, I'll make certain you do!"

"I'm sure you will."

Lucifer raised an eyebrow. "Wait. What was that?"

"What was what?"

"You did a thing there. That thing you always do when you're up to something." He glared at his creator. "What are you up to, you old bastard?"

"Much as I would love to continue our usual repartee, as it has always been, if not enlightening, enjoyable I am afraid those days are over, Satan."

"What did you call me?" Lucifer slipped in God's grip. He could feel his legs contorting, his feet being crushed into hooves. Coarse hair and scales began to slice out through the skin of his twisted legs.

"I now and forever strip you of your angelic nature. As you are no longer among the holy, you may no longer bear a piece of the living universe as your name. I name you Satan, and you will dwell beneath the heels of men."

Satan's skin ruptured, hair and scales growing all over. Horns broke through the front of his skull and he grit his teeth, growling. "And I notice you had a Hell all ready and waiting for us!" He shouted his defiance as the last of his radiant beauty burned away, leaving a shriveled ugly creature. "I know how long they take to build! How long have you been working on THAT?!"

"Since the day I created you."

And then God opened his hand, letting his once most-beloved Fall.

Satan's screams echoed for millennia afterward, and the angels came to avoid Heaven's southern edge. But every thousand years, an angel would come. To stand at the edge and look into Hell's burning maw.

To offer up his grief, and a lonely prayer for the Fallen.