Our fall from Grace happened when the Earth was just another smoldering piece of rock in the universe. As part of the punishment for the unforgivable sin we had committed, it became our prison.We wandered adrift, disembodied, from one corner of the Earth to the next as we watched in fury as it was transformed into a lush paradise and Man was given dominion over it. We demons, as we became to be known by men, made it our sole mission to destroy these lesser beings by any means necessary. 

    For millennia, I followed this course--destroying, killing, and plaguing without discrimination. I possessed human after human and relished as their respective lives wasted into nothingness. I never once thought to stray from this course until I met her.

    I possessed Priscilla, briefly, when she was twenty-two. Up until that point she had nothing--no family, no job, and no money. By the time our paths crossed, she was destitute and, in my opinion, primed for the grave.

    On the night we met, I happened to be at the same house party she had been invited to by some friends. I spotted her sitting alone on a couch looking young, frightened, and yet, remarkably beautiful--one of the loveliest creatures I had seen in my many years on Earth. I watched from a distance as a young man came up to her and offered her a drink--she hesitated for a moment. It was only a slight hesitation, but it was just long enough for me to enter her body. Through my influence, that was the first of many drinks she consumed that night.

    As the party ended, I urged Priscilla to drive home. We ignored the pleas of her friends to let them call a cab--I even pushed a few out of the way. In the end, they didn’t care enough to deal with her belligerence, so they let us leave.

    I pulled the car onto the freeway already twenty miles past the speed limit. I enjoyed the thrill as cars zipped by us going in the opposite direction. I chose a car at random and decided to cross lanes into its path. I was about to yank the steering wheel to the left when I caught a glimpse of Priscilla’s drowsy face in the rearview mirror. There was something in the way she looked that undid me. I was thunderstruck by the love that I suddenly felt for her. And even though I had destroyed countless lives, I couldn’t destroy hers.

    I drove Priscilla home. When we got there, I rolled down the windows slightly and left her there dozing in the driver’s seat. I waited silently in the shadows across the street until she woke up and went inside. When the light went on in her apartment, I left to find less enchanting prey--there was a man a block away who was thinking about shooting his boss, and I wanted the chance to convince him it was a good idea.