Or at least it was when I started this post last night, right before I fell asleep.

After I’m done with the second Harborview Immortals book, I’m going to shift my focus for a good chunk of the rest of the year. One of the things I’m going to work on—that I’ve already started working on in bits and pieces—is a new story in my mostly unknown angelverse that I created a while back. But for this Throwback post, I wanted to share some of the old, in the form of a novel I wrote in 2007. It’s called Divine Will, and it’s about a young man named Will (of course) who is your normal seventeen-year-old kid… except for the whole being the son of Satan and destined to destroy the world thing he’s got going on. And he’s actually not okay with that. This excerpt is from the beginning of the story. Will is sitting in the school parking lot and thinking things over:

 

With both his eighteenth birthday and high school graduation fast approaching, Will often felt as if he would suffocate under the expectation of those around him who were eagerly waiting for him to embrace his birthright. Upon turning eighteen, he would inherit a large chunk of his late father’s massive estate, the first step in his rise to power as the son of Satan. He was expected to put away childish things—and his humanity—and settle into an identity of which he had absolutely no memory. Unlike Marko, he had no recollection of Hell, nor did he remember his true father.

He had once debated asking Marko to tell him something, anything, to enlighten him, but then he changed his mind. Although the day might come when he regained his memories on his own, he was in no hurry to rush things along faster than necessary. Will was scared of what would happen to him if his dark half took over. What would become of his heart, his feelings, his thoughts, and his wants? Would he stop loving the few people in his life who gave him so much happiness and joy? Would he even be able to feel love anymore?

And then there was Mikey, his lifelong best friend and co-conspirator in delinquency, the boy who knew every secret wish of Will’s heart and every single word he would ever utter before he opened his mouth. He was the only one who truly knew Will—as he was now—inside and out. How would he react to Will once his identity was laid bare to the entire planet?

Will had never been allowed to have a bible, or at least the Christian version of one. However, never one to bend completely to authority, he had one stashed away in his closet and read it from time to time, and he was forever fascinated by the differences between what it predicted and what he had been taught to believe about himself. Franklin had told him that his destiny was to liberate the planet, not destroy it. But what if the rumors were true? Would he cease being Will and instead become the monster that thousands of years of biblical verse foretold?

According to the good book (though Will wasn’t quite sure how good it really was what with all the rules and wrath and such), it all came down to free will. Choice. Did he genuinely have a choice to ignore his fate and deny the throne to which he was destined to ascend? Did he have the right to do whatever he wanted to do with his life? Could he? Or would all of his choices lead to the same inevitable and predestined conclusion? The other son had been given a choice; he chose to die. But had that truly been his choice or had he felt no other option but to succumb to the expectations of those around him, including his own Father?

Will raised his head and watched as students poured into the school. There was Mikey, standing by the entrance  and waving frantically at him, and Will instinctively smiled in return. Momentarily suspending all thoughts of his uncertain future and even of Marko—although the demon was never too far from his mind—he slowly climbed out of his car and trudged toward the building, dragging his backpack along the sidewalk. By the time he reached the doors and was greeted by his exuberant friend, his melancholy mood had dissolved and given way to an ill-conceived plot to skip first period. And as always, Mikey was more than happy to participate.

###