‘The Things We Leave Our Daughters’ by Trudie Lewis
For the purposes of this record, only extracts of the total tome have been provided. The complete volume, including all others relating to this account, is held in the heavenly archives.
Preface
My name is Azazel and, as a witness to the first expulsion of angels from Heaven, I have observed and recorded the consequences of that rebellion for the divine archives.
The first rebellion was orchestrated by those collectively known as the Torments. This tome follows the account of Alio and her descendants, each deserving of their own chapter.
Alio was the exception among the Torments. Most died on impact with the Earth, their immortal bodies becoming mortal as they were cast from Elysium.
Those who survived were scattered. Some died of their injuries, they were the grateful ones. Others, consumed by regret and guilt, faded to dust, their mournful cries heard only in the wind. The few remaining survivors descended to the lower echelons, destined to slavery and grotesquery.
Alio, fuelled by rage and injustice, chose instead to remain on Earth and use God's most precious creations, people, to play God at her own game.
She acquired a man's seed and, when her first child was born, whispered:
Your life is my gift, and as such, we will never be alone.
Fury guarantees that we survive,
Determination ensures that we thrive,
And potency means we will procreate and propagate this place.
Your life is my gift, and as such, we will never be alone.
The child stared into her mother's burning eyes and gurgled without guile.
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Chapter 1: Luna (extract)
Alio's first child, Luna, grew hale and hearty. At fifteen life cycles she received her father's gift of moonblood. Though unnecessary for divine beings, it was essential for human births, and Alio rejoiced. Her plan was working.
Luna proved fecund. Her first child, Melinoe, was born soon after Luna turned sixteen.
She passed Alio's gift to Melinoe. Alio was delighted, believing her power would only grow with each generation. What she could not know was that Luna's resentment of her insistence on having a child had already altered the gift before it reached her daughter.
Luna bore fourteen more children before dying in childbirth at thirty-six.
Alio firmly steered the already pregnant fourteen-year-old, Melinoe to the next village so her gift would start to spread across the world.
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Chapters 2–9 omitted
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Chapter 10: Beatrix (extract)
Beatrix's callused fingers trouble her, not only because they ache, but because they have grown clumsy. Her weaving earns little, but with five daughters every coin matters.
She walks into the woods searching for healing herbs, talking and singing softly to herself. Suddenly she senses someone watching.
"If that's the Devil," she calls, "come out, let's have tea."
She hears nothing but silence and chuckles to herself, before spotting the herb she needs.
Four days later, men in black drag her from her bed. Hauled behind horses through mud and filth, she is brought before the villagers at the gallows.
"You are accused of convening with the Devil. Do you deny this?"
Her head is plunged beneath the water. When she can finally speak, she asks only: "Who is my accuser?"
Her eldest daughter, Thomasin, head down, steps forward.
"I heard you, Mother. I heard you talking to the Devil in the forest." Thomasin, and a few other villagers, make the sign of protection with her hands.
"I was jesting," Beatrix rasps, only spit and bile offering lubrication to her last words.
She is condemned.
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Chapter 11: Thomasin (extract)
The fear that drove Thomasin's accusation vanished the moment the flames reached her mother's smock.
Appalled and perplexed by her own action, then witnessing the terrible consequences of it. Thomasin carried that horror for the rest of her life.
She travelled far from the village and, though haunted by nightmares, resolved that her own five children would grow up less ignorant than she had.
Alio's gift, already distorted through the circumstances and decisions from Thomasin’s ancestors, changed again. This change being much more fundamental.
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Chapters 12–25 omitted
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Chapter 26: Sadie (extract)
Sadie could barely contain herself. The typewritten letter offered her a place to study Botany at Keele University. She jumped around the room with irrepressible delight.
Near the end of her course, another type-written letter arrived.
Curled into her pillow, she wept.
"I can't be pregnant. Oh God."
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Chapter 27 omitted
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Chapter 28: Olivia (extract)
Olivia holds her mother's hand in the hospital.
"I'm so proud of you, Liv," her mother whispers.
Fighting tears, Olivia cannot help but ask, "Are you sad I never had children?"
"No," her mother replies. "Did I ever tell you I didn't really want children?"
Olivia nods
"Your grandmother didn't either." But this, Olivia didn’t know.
"I thought children would stop me doing everything I wanted. I feared I'd resent them. But I never regretted having you. It makes me happy that you used everything your father and I gave you to build such an extraordinary life. You never needed a child to complete it."
"I didn't either," she says softly, squeezing Olivia’s hand. "But I'm glad I did. I love you."
A few days later, she dies without waking again.
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Epilogue
There is no Chapter 29.
Alio's story ended with Olivia, unfinished. Her fury was never unleashed upon God. Her need to procreate and run over her beloved Earth had faded into nothing.
Curious, I asked God what she thought. Was she disappointed by the lack of resolution? Had the demon failed, or had humanity?
"No," God replied.
"It's just not that serious."
Trudie Lewis wrote this story in response to the prompt “It’s not that serious“, as part of July’s Just Write! short story competition.
