MicroHorror

When the first Demon came the world knew darkness. The last battle against us Angels was fought with the demons driving us out. The world knew peace. The Demons lived and breathed building their monuments and writing of their deeds. We Angels tried to take back the world. Inevitably the Demons always beat us back. The world belonged to the Demons for countless forgotten ages. Then the apes came.

They first crawled out of the jungles. Then they wandered the plains. They brought down the same great beasts the Demons did. Then they stopped wandering and grew from the ground. Some Demons spoke fear about these new arrivals. The Demon King told them not to worry. They’d ruled this world for countless generations; their mastery of this world was unquestionable. The Demons’ confidence came from believing they were the only ones who could shape iron with fire.

Then one day the apes’ arrows came. They charged over the hill with the sun shining off their armor. The Demons ran for the safety of their black walls. After the Demons shut their gates the apes hurled great rocks to smash them open. When the apes charged in the Demons fought them long and hard. When the third day dawned the Demons started to go back from whence they came, leaving behind the world they’d called home for countless generations. From on high we Angels watched the apes burn all the Demon works to the ground.

While we watched the apes change the world one of the younger Angels asked to go and meet them. I as Elder Angel told him that any Angel that went down there would meet certain death. I told him that they weren’t in the grand plan. They were an accident, the result of a botched experiment. Capable of more cruelty, hatred and violence than even Demons could muster. I told the young Angel that the world we watch is now ruled by a group of soulless monstrosities. I showed him that even before the ashes of the Demons’ city had cooled the apes had already started killing each other. The last thing he asked was their name.

I told him Man.