Percy

I feel the ground under my feet again and blink to clear my vision. Castiel stands in front of me and keeps hold of my hand until I'm steady. I straighten up and look around. It's…beautiful. I've never seen colors so vibrant. The air I'm breathing is so crisp and clean I never want to go back to New York, which I never thought I'd think. The Soil is so soft beneath my feet it's like I'm walking on butter that isn't slick. The trees and bushes are lush and green. The sky is so blue, and there are no clouds anywhere. I look around more, and see the mouth of four different rivers that have the clearest and bluest water I've ever seen. The fruits all around me are all different colors: Red, yellow, purple, orange; More vibrant than anything I've ever seen.

"What is this place, Castiel?" I ask in awe.

"Eden." He says.

"Okay…what's Eden? When's Eden?"

"The Garden of Eden was a piece of Paradise God created when he created the world."

"Paradise is right." I say. "What are we doing here?"

"God placed the first man and woman in Eden. Their names are Adam and Eve."

"Okay, them I've heard of."

"Most have. They were placed in the Garden with no rules except for one. They're not supposed to eat from the fruit of one specific tree."

"Okay, why?"

"Does it matter? The Lord spoke the world into existence, gave them life, placed them in Paradise. It shouldn't matter why he told them, just that he did. But, to answer your question, It's so they'd have a choice. Free Will is meaningless without choice. He wanted them to choose to listen to him. Come this way." He says and we start walking. "For the record, you're not actually here. You're just being allowed to feel and see the beauty so you'll have a better understanding. But for this, you're just watching a moment in time. I don't recommend eating anything, by the way. Any food you eat after will taste like dust in your mouth by comparison." He tells me.

"No eating. Got it." I say, but my mouth still waters as I walk past all the amazing looking food. And I'm not a guy who normally looks forward to eating my vegetables.

"Tell me, Percy." Castiel says as we walk. "If you could settle here with Annabeth, would you? You'd be free to have a family, raise children away from any danger. And Live eternally. Not Immortally. Eternally. Never having to worry about making mistakes or living with guilt or hardship. Also, animals can talk. Would you like to?"

"Yes." I answer immediately. I'd stay here forever if I could. It's more beautiful than even Calypso's Island.

"What if I told you that you could eat of every single plant and tree here, just not from one specific tree?"

"Absolutely." I answer, then wonder why he's asking. I sigh. "I smell a lesson."

"That was the deal offered to Adam and Eve. They could live here eternally. They'd have each other. They'd be able to raise children in this paradise. They'd be able to walk with God himself and have a relationship with him. All they had to do was refrain from eating from one tree in the Garden. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil."

"Why would God not want them to have knowledge of good and evil?" I ask.

"He wanted them to trust him. He's provided for them so far, why would he stop?" He says. "Look. There." He points, and I blush seeing a naked woman and man in front of a tree that has an incredibly large snake curled around it.

"This is the most delicious fruit in all the garden." The snake says. The woman lets go of her husband's hand and looks at it longingly.

"To make it clear, That's Adam and Eve." Castiel tells me.

"Yeah, yeah. Got it." I answer.

"It does look good." Eve admits.

"There's plenty of delicious fruits elsewhere." The man says.

"Quiet, Adam." Eve says longingly.

"Why don't you take a bite?" The snake suggests. The woman shakes her head and steps back. "Did God really say 'You must not eat from any tree in the Garden?'"

"No, he said we may eat from any tree in the garden, but not the tree in the middle of the garden, and we must not touch it, or we would die." Eve explains.

"Even standing here isn't such a good idea." Adam says and takes his wife's hand. "Let's go, Eve."

"Wait, Adam."

"You will not certainly die." The serpent hisses. "God simply doesn't want you to be wise like he is. For he knows when you taste of this delicious fruit, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like him, able to discern good and evil."

"It does look good…" Eve trails up, pulling her hand away from Adam and reaching up to stroke the fruit.

"Eve!"

"Adam, it's fine. Nothing's happened."

"That's right." The serpent coos to her. I get the itch to uncap Riptide and slice that snake's head off, but no pockets, completely mortal, no Riptide.

"I can see where this is going." I say. Castiel nods grimly. Eve plucks an apple down.

"Drop the Apple, Eve. Remember what God told us!" Adam tells her.

"I'm just smelling it." She says and brings it up to her nose. She breathes in deeply and sighs. "It's more fragrant than any other in the garden." Eve says, still holding the apple close to her face.

"It is. And it tastes even better. I'd know, I've eaten from it myself. And did I die? No." The snake tells her. With a gasp she opens her mouth and takes a bite.

"Eve!" Adam yells, turning her to face him. She smiles, seeming in a trance.

"I'm okay, Adam. Here, Take some!" She says excitedly. "Oh, it really is better than anything else I've ever tasted before!" Adam backs away.

"You've broken the Lord's command."

"He lied to us. He said we would die. But I'm still right here, Adam." She says and takes a step closer to him. "Everything is perfect. It truly is better than every other fruit in the garden. Try some! Just a bite. God will never know." She says.

Even as little as I know about Christianity, I know that God is supposed to be omnipotent. But I can see Adam's resolve weakening even from here.

"I think I can guess how this ends." I say. Castiel sighs.

"Unfortunately, yes." He says right as Adam takes the apple out of his wife's hand and bites into it after only a second's hesitation. I swear I see the snake smiling from here.

"Who's the snake?" I ask.

"The Devil." Castiel says with distaste.

"Ha ha. But who?"

"I meant that quite literally. That is the form Lucifer, the fallen angel you'd know best as Satan, has chosen to inhabit to deceive them."

"Why would God even allow him into the Garden?"

"Same answer as before, Percy. What is free will without choice?" He answers. I look back at Adam and Eve. The serpent is gone, it must have left. What I really didn't like about that serpent is it had legs. That was weird. I'd be glad it was gone if that didn't mean I no longer knew where it was. But Castiel promised I wouldn't get hurt on this journey.

Adam and Eve just look at each other with almost drunk bliss on their faces. After another second though, the bliss turns to confusion, and then shock.

"What have we done?" Eve says.

"What we were never supposed to do!" Adam exclaims.

"What will happen to us now?" Eve cries. Then her eyes wined. "Adam, You're not covered. Neither am I!"

"Are they just now noticing that?" I ask Castiel.

"Yes. They've never felt shame before. They don't know how to process it."

"Here!" Eve says, running over to a fig tree. "I'll take these leaves and some vines and we can cover ourselves with them." She tells him. Adam rushes over to help her, and a few minutes later, they're both clothed with fig leaves. Somewhere behind me, I hear someone walking.

"God's come down!" Adam says to Eve in a quiet, panicked voice.

"What do we do?" She asks frantically.

"Hide!" He says, and they jump into some bushes. I frown.

"They're not serious, right? There's no way they're serious."

"They are." Castiel tells me. A man walks to the tree. He's a man, but he's wearing…I'm not sure what he's wearing. He's wearing brightness.

"Is that God? He looks just like a regular guy who got ahold of Apollo's wardrobe."

"That's God's human form. Clothes haven't been invented. He's covered by only part of his glory. If he showed all of it you'd go blind."

"Okay. Partial glory or whatever. Got it." I tell him. I look back at God. A peace I've never known fills me in his presence. He looks around at everything with a loving smile on his face, proud and joyful of his creation. But I can tell there's a sadness in his smile too. He already knows what Adam and Eve did. And I can see he's hurt by it. He feels the betrayal. I can see the love in his face too. It's like what my mother's face looks like whenever I did something stupid and she had to punish me, even though she really didn't want to. Most of the time I got let off easy. I get the feeling Adam and Eve won't be.

"Where are you, Adam?" God calls out. Silence for a moment, then Adam and Eve come out of the bushes and Adam responds.

"I heard you walking in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked."

"Who told you you were naked?" God questions, sadness evident in his voice. "Have you eaten of the tree I've forbidden you to eat?"

" The woman you put with me! She gave me some of the fruit, and I ate it." Adam says quickly.

"What is it you have done?" God Addresses Eve.

"The serpent deceived me, and I ate!" She cries and points to another tree, where the Satan's curled up at the base of the trunk. He's hiding too. God turns to the serpent.

"Cursed are you able all livestock and wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life!" He says, and immediately the snake's legs disappear. "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers; He will crush your head and you will strike his heel." He says, then turns back to Eve. "I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; With painful labor you will give birth to your children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." God then turns to Adam. "Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you not to eat from, Cursed is the ground because of you! Through painful toil you will eat food from it All the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground. Since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return!" He declares. Even from here, I see the grief on God's face. He's silent a moment with his eyes closed, like he's deliberating something in his head. "Because you now know the knowledge of good and evil, you cannot stay here and eat from the tree of life or you would live forever. You are banished from the garden." As soon as the words are out of his mouth, I'm blinded by white light again and when it fades I'm back on the beach with Castiel.

…..

"So. What do you think about the fall of humanity?" Castiel asks as he lays back on the sand and puts his hands behind his head.

"I don't know. I mean all she did was eat an apple."

"No. She disobeyed the Lord. She made a choice."

"Still. I'm all for the snake being cursed. I mean, I hate snakes anyways. But Adam and Eve?"

"Adam was right there the whole time. He could have led her away if he tried harder. He didn't protect his wife. And when she enticed him, he ate of the fruit himself."

"It's still just an apple." I say. Castiel opens his eyes and looks at me.

"Just an apple? It's what it represents, Percy. Before this moment in time, mankind was entirely innocent. Everything was pure bliss. Though having adult bodies, they were children in spirit, for they had never known hardship or pain, be that mental, emotional, spiritual, or physical. Eating of the fruit removed that. They were introduced to evil, and the suffering it brings. God wanted to protect them from that. He also wanted to protect them from death. Once they ate of the fruit, they may not have died instantaneously, but the ability for them to die entered the world. And spiritually, they died on the spot. It separated them from God."

"Still…"

"What did you gather from the curses?"

"That the snake would have to slither from now on…That women would have painful labor…and then men would have to farm for food. And mankind will die now. And they were banned from the garden, so they couldn't eat from the tree of life, so they couldn't live forever."

"Yes, but there's more than that. When man dies, he becomes dust. The snake will now eat dust. So the snake will eat death. It means God will defeat the Devil. More than that, it's symbolic of Lucifer being taken from his perch of the highest of angels and becoming the lowest of animals. Then the woman. It's not just physical pain in labor, although that's part of it. Because death has now entered the world, her children can now die. So If and When that happens, she'll have to bear the pain and grief of that. Also, the whole your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you."

"Yeah. I think I like that bit of the curse the least." I say, thinking about my mom and Gabe.

"It wasn't a curse so much as a natural consequence. Man and woman were supposed to be a team. Living in paradise together, each doing their job. Now, however, as I'm sure you've seen, women need men to protect them and to take care of them."

"I'm not so sure about that." I say, thinking of what an amazing warrior Annabeth is.

"Really? Let's say Annabeth was in a one on one sword fight with Luke, even before Kronos. Who'd win?"

"That's different."

"No, it's not. Even if Annabeth is still more equipped to take care of herself than most women, if someone stronger than her wants to hurt her and you're not there, they'll have a decent chance of doing so. Also, women have a week out of the month where they're weaker than they normally are. And what if they're pregnant? Makes it much harder to work or fight. Besides that, women typically take care of the kids in a relationship, right? Well if a man leaves, even if a woman is able to sustain herself, it makes it a whole lot harder to do so. And they want that partner there with them to help. The problem is that a lot of men don't want to hold up their end of the bargain. That's what makes it a curse."

"That's…That's harsh to say the least."

"Is it? Because you're also forgetting something pretty important."

"What's that?"

"This was when the first prophecy of the world being saved was issued."

"I didn't hear a prophecy."

"Yes you did. You just didn't recognize it because it didn't come out of Rachel with Rhyming couplets." He tells me. How does he know about Rachel? How much of my life does he know about?

"Well what was it, then?"

"The strife between the snake and the woman. I will put enmity between your offspring and hers. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel!"

"So?"

"So, that was the prophecy. The serpent will strike the heel of the woman's offspring, that being Jesus, and kill him. But Jesus will crush the head of the serpent, overcoming death and Hell. In doing so, he's giving the way to save mankind from death."

"Why not just let them eat from the tree of Life?"

"You're uniquely suited to understand that answer."

"I am?"

"Why did you turn down immortality? It wasn't just for Annabeth."

"Because I didn't want to peak my sophomore year of High School."

"Because you didn't want life as you know it to go on forever and ever."

"Well…yeah. I want it to get better."

"Right. As you've seen with the gods, You can't change when you're immortal like that. Death is a mercy. It gives you a way to change, and come back to God. He provided the way for you to do that through Jesus, and to be forgiven for any sin you might commit." He explains. I sigh.

"That sorta makes sense? I don't know."

"Well, think on that. We've got a lot more for you to see." He tells me and sticks out his hand. I clasp it, and like before, Everything goes white.