The Devil's Reincarnation

When I was a child, I had a friend. A companion I did everything with. We played games. We swam in rivers. We climbed mountains. At the time, our imagination was our brush and the world was our canvas.

Then it happened. One day, my friend was gone. Thoughout my life, I kept seeing him again and again. In small pieces of fabric blowing in the wind. In reflections on the water. In laughter caught by branches in the forest.

Eventually, I too was gone. Even so, I found small glimpses of my friend while wandering the afterlife. All the mountains. All the rivers. Everything reminded me of him.

One day, while walking in the emptiness of the underworld, I saw something odd: a red trident poking through a sandbank. At first, I avoided it and kept walking, but somehow, no matter what direction I went, I found myself back in the desert, staring at it. It called me. I had no choice but to pick it up.

When I did so, I felt a certain calmness. A peace. A meaning. A purpose. I felt like I could express myself in a way that I hadn't since I was a child.

For the next several millenia, I acted as an escort to souls in the underworld and guided them towards peace. Towards reincarnation. I would watch as ghosts embraced one another in a flash of light, vanishing into the body of a newborn baby on Earth. For a time, I lived vicariously through the souls of those I helped. When they found joy, so did I.

But then I saw something. The soul of my friend. To be honest, I barely recognized him, as he had become a husk of the person he used to be while wandering for so long. I tried to escort him, as I had so many others.

Eventually, I found myself in the desert, at the same sandbank I was at so many years before. I sat down with my friend and just talked. For hours, I talked. He didn't respond. So we sat in silence for an eternity more. Just the two of us.

It was then that I realized what I must do. I took a deep breath and put down my pitchfork, losing the sense of power I once had. I then turned to my friend and embraced him.

There was a flash of light. Then everything was black.

Prompt: Well, it’s finally happened: Satan quit. Even he has his limits.