Chapter 14

"Are you Roger's daughter or something?" Mark asked sheepishly.

"Oh my, no. I'll explain everything when we're in the room. Don't want anyone to overhear us." Sarah turned around and bent over a little, while putting her index finger to her mouth. With a childish grin on her face, she whispered. "They might think we're crazy."

When Sarah bent over, Mark couldn't help but look down her shirt. He felt guilty about it afterward, but he just couldn't help himself. Yep, again, she wasn't wearing a bra. Why did he keep doing this to himself? He couldn't have Sarah even if he wanted to. His wife had just died, and Sarah was, well, she was Sarah. His best friend, Jen's best friend, Katie's best friend. Thinking like this would only hurt everyone, he had to stop but he just couldn't.

Mark continued to follow Sarah down the hall to the large double doors at the end. No matter how hard he tried, he could not stop watching her ass as she walked in her skin-tight, rain-soaked jeans, but finally they arrived. He felt relieved, and he wasn't sure if the relief came from the fact that he would finally get some answers or the fact that he might be able to quit looking at Sarah's stunning body.

When Sarah shut the door behind them, she turned to Mark. "Ok, explanation time," she said as she took off her soaked sweatshirt revealing a soaking wet, white tee-shirt underneath that was nearly see-through.

"Come on, Sarah," Mark pleaded. His relief turned to guilt again as he stared at Sarah's gorgeous body through the wet tee-shirt. Her body was absolutely perfect. He wanted to grab her and remove the rest of her soaked clothes then- Mark had to stop this, he couldn't have Sarah.

"Oh, right," Sarah said as she pulled the shirt over her head and walked toward what Mark assumed was her dresser. "I forgot your aversion to nudity."

"I don't have an aversion to nudity, but I'll find it really difficult to listen to you with your boobs staring me in the face," Mark said. He needed to act offended when all he really wanted to do was stare at her.

"Boobs-" Sarah laughed.

"What?" Mark asked.

"You could have called them breasts or tits. You sound like a little kid," Sarah giggled. She was having way too much fun teasing Mark.

"Fine, whatever, please just tell me what the hell is going on," Mark pleaded. He needed to quit talking about Sarah's body.

Sarah pulled on a, much too large, satin shirt. The shirt was maroon and looked like something she would wear to bed. Afterward, she proceeded to pull down her soaking wet jeans along with her bright pink, lacy panties.

"Damnit Sarah, that isn't much better," Mark said, turning around. "Just let me know when you are done changing so we can get on with this. Seriously, are all your panties pink?" He could not believe what had just come out of his mouth. He needed to act indifferent, but he had just admitted to looking at her underwear.

Sarah smiled because Mark was paying attention.

"No, mostly, but I have other colors as well," Sarah said as she slid on a pair of sweat pants that were also slightly too big. "What can I say? I like pink underwear."

"Anyway, what is the deal with your name? Are you related to Roger?" Mark tried to change the subject. He didn't want to think about Sarah that way, not right now, and talking about it made him think about it more and more. He also needed to calm down, he was getting far too aroused. His clothes were also soaking wet and skin-tight, Sarah would notice.

"No, and I suppose that is as good a place as any to start," Sarah said as she made her way to the king size bed.

The room was enormous, nearly fifty feet long and nearly as wide. There were no walls separating it into rooms, only furniture placed about the room to give the impression of sections. The king size bed was positioned directly in the middle of the room with one six inch step leading up to it.

"You can turn around. Please come sit. Why don't you bring a couple of glasses and some wine? This is gonna be-" Sarah couldn't quite find the right word to describe what she was about to explain, so she settled. "Complicated."

"From what I've seen so far, complicated doesn't scratch the surface," Mark replied as he diligently fetched two glasses and a bottle of wine. He handed one to Sarah, poured her a glass, then got his own before setting the bottle at Sarah's feet.

Mark positioned himself at the foot of the bed, far enough away from Sarah to avoid any temptations but near enough to hear her. Mark sighed almost too loudly as he sat down. They were going to talk about his situation now and not about Sarah's lovely body anymore.

"Well for starters," Sarah said as she sipped the wine. "Roger's name isn't Sandleton, he's my employee. Well, it wasn't Sandleton until I had him change it. His name is on everything I own, with me as the beneficiary."

"What if he decides to take off with your money one day?" Mark was honestly concerned that Sarah was putting her wealth at risk.

"Roger would never do that. I saved his wife a few years ago. He owes me, big time." Sarah smiled as she said this. She appreciated Mark's concern, it was sweet. He had no idea what was really going on.

"Anyway, I own everything that you think Roger owns. I pay him a decent salary to walk around and pretend to be an uptight, money-grubbing, billionaire. In reality, he is a really sweet guy. Kinda feel bad for him sometimes, but that is what I pay him for. Now on to the big one."

"Yes, what the hell am I?" Mark pleaded.

"Well, for this you will need to have a little faith. I know you're not a devout, religious man, but you do believe in God, right?" Sarah asked, just to make sure.

"Yes, I just hate organized religion," Mark replied, matter-of-factly.

"Ok, good, that makes this easier," Sarah sighed.

"A very long time ago, back when man was first placed on this earth by God. Adam had a wife named Lilith," Sarah started.

"Wait, what? Don't you mean Eve?" Mark asked innocently.

"No, I mean Lilith, Adam's first wife," Sarah scolded. "You see many of our modern, holy texts have been modified, mostly by accident but sometimes maliciously. Not a single one of them is one hundred percent correct. Most of them get parts right, if not a little skewed toward whatever religious organization translated them. If you had the time, you could piece it together by studying all the current religions, but I need you to understand this tonight. So, please bear with me and remember, I have never, and will never lie to you." Sarah then looked at Mark with longing in her eyes, but Mark looked away quickly. He nodded, so she went on.

"So Lilith was not content with a human husband. She preferred the company of the angel sent to look over them, Samael. God was furious. He cursed Lilith to die and bound Samael to earth for the rest of existence. Hence the first fallen angel. Samael was angry with his father, so he took some of his blood and gave it to Lilith. She drank the angel blood but not only was she cured of God's curse, she gained immortality. Meanwhile, God gave Adam a second wife, one from his own body, so that she would always be faithful to Adam, and they were happy. Most religious texts start there, they skip the part about Lilith."

"Samael, in an effort to prove to his father that humans were inferior, made a deal with The Beast and tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit. I'm sure you know the rest of this story, so I'll skip that part." Sarah was very passionate about this story, and Mark couldn't help but hang on every word she said.

"Wait, Lucifer is Satan, he tempted Eve," Mark stated.

"That is one of the biggest mistranslations there is. Satan is the word for betrayer, adversary in the ancient languages. It's not a title or a name. There have been many called Satan. Samael, my father, was the first." Sarah looked at Mark caringly, he was like a child learning about the world. What she wouldn't give to be so innocent again.

"Then who is the devil?" Mark asked.

"The devil, as you know him, is referred to in the bible as 'The Beast'. It doesn't have a name, just 'The Beast'. But I suppose this is who you would call the devil," Sarah explained.

"What is this beast?" Mark asked.

"The Beast? Well nobody really knows except for God, and God doesn't speak to humans anymore. Some believe it was part of God at one time, his evil emotions that he cast off and they somehow grew sentience. Some believe it was God's brother. Others believe that The Beast has existed as long as God has and constantly struggles for control. Me, I believe the last one. And this world is God's chance to beat The Beast once and for all." Sarah took a drink and gave Mark another chance to ask any questions, but this time, he had none, so Sarah continued.