Sandman: Gods and Secrets / IAP 2004 Abel (Greg Lohman) / Character Sheet Abel “You scarcely exist. You're a dream of a ghost of a memory of someone who, one suspects, never existed in the first place. Your death will hardly be a real death. None of you are truly dead until Morpheus himself is dead, are you? And this will hardly be your first death will it?” –The Kindly Ones “You mustn't kill me, You don't love me. You d-don't even know me.” –Abel Cuh-Cuh-Cain luh-loves you, you know he muh-must. He wants what's best for you. He wants you to learn. And you don't, and you ma-ma-ma-ma-ake mistakes, and that's why he puh-punishes you. But he luh-loves you. You and Cain have been together al-al-al- nearly forever. He's your older brother, the first son of mankind. He had a twin sister, Aclima, and your twin sister was Jumella. God wan-wan-wanted you each to marry the other one's twin, but that dii-didn't quite wuh-work out. The whole time you w-were alive, you were just with your im-im- close family. Your mother, Eve, your Father, Adam, and your sib-sib-sib-sib brothers and sisters. One time a woman came to visit you and your siblings. She said her na-na-name was Lilith, and she was your father's first wife. She said Eve wasn't the fuh-fuh-first woman, that she'd been created to be equal to Adam, but she'd left because he couldn't accept her. She said God had created another wife, but Adam had rejected her because he saw her creation and couldn't stand to touch her. She said Eve has been created to be less than Adam. You didn't like her. She was sc-scary and strange and wanted you to be bad and go against your parents. Jumella didn't like her either. Cain and Aclima said they'd hu-hu-hurt you if you told your parents, and he pushed you around a bit to scare you. You dii-didn't say anything, because you didn't want to cau-cau-cause problems. It seemed to bring Cain and Aclima even closer together, with another secret of their own. You'd all always been cluh-closest with your own twins. You were always so happy with Jumella. You'd sneak food into bed, and play in the dirt, and in the grass, and you'd sing songs and run around and play make believe. Cuh-Cain and Ac-ca-clima didn't really like spending time playing with you and Jumella. They thought you were silly and simple and stuh-stuh-stuh-stupid. They talked about big things and got angry with you and mella. They were older and liked different things. But that was okay, you st-st-still loved them. Cain and Aclima had lots of suh-secret things. Secret words, and games, and a special place. You didn't get to play with their secret things, except one time Aclima took you to their secret hiding-hole. Sometimes Aclima would play with you when Cain was busy. She was nicer to you than Cuh-Cain. The secret place was just under the lip of the cliff near your home that none of you were suh-suh-supposed to go near. She told you not to tell anyone about the secret place, but you tuh-took Jumella there. It was scary. You were somewhere no one wanted you to go, not Mother and Father, not Cain or Aclima. Cain would probably have been really mad if he'd known. Lots of th-th-things made Cain angry. Cain didn't like a lot of the things Father said and did. Father said you all had to be good, and sarifice and pray to God, and someday he'd forgive you all and you'd all go live in the Garden again. Cain hated seeing the best of your food going up in flames. Cain said you'd never go back to the garden, that God had forsaken you. Well, he didn't say it to father, but he would say it behind his back to the other chuh-children. Father didn't like some of what Cain did, either. When you got older, Father taught you and Cain to hunt. You hated it, chasing things down to kill them. But Cain was good at it, and Father liked that. You took care of sheep. You liked your Sheep. Jumella would help you take care of the baby sheep. You just had to make sure the sheep were happy, and fed. It was calm and peaceful and you were happy. You'd take off their fur and Aclima would make it into nice things. Sometimes Father said you Abel 1 Not Transferable Sandman: Gods and Secrets / IAP 2004 Abel (Greg Lohman) / Character Sheet needed sheep for food. You couldn't bear to kill them, so Father usually did it. Cain didn't like that you didn't have the courage to kill them yourself, but Father was happy with you for raising sheep. Father didn't like what Cain did. Cain grew plants. Mother and the girls would gather plants, but that took a long time. Cain grew plants together, and he knew when they were good to eat and when they should grow more, and he knew how to make them come back every year. He knew how to make the water come from the river to where he was growing plants, so they wouldn't die when it didn't rain. Father hated it. He said it was against nature, it was changing the world God had given us, that it was against the will of God. He would have destroyed it, but Mother stopped him. Cain was very sad. He worked so hard, much harder than you did, but Father wasn't happy with what he did. When you got older, people started talking about marriage. You didn't really care. You were happy, and wanted things to stay happy, and together. You liked your work, and you loved your parents, and your sisters and your brother. And you knew they all loved you, they just had different ways of showing it. Aclima asked Father what was to be done. Father went into the woods to pray, and when he came back he said God wanted you to marry Aclima and Cain to marry Jumella. Aclima looked like she would cry. She ran to the bed and refused to leave it all day. Cain looked angry and confused. You were confused. You were happiest with Jumella, but God wanted you to marry Aclima, and you wanted to do what God wanted. Was it okay to not want to do what God wanted? What if you did what he wanted, but didn't really want to? These questions confused and bothered you. But Aclima was very beautiful, and smart, and she was nice to you sometimes. She'd laugh when Cain would beat you up, but you didn't really mind that much. Jumella would clean you up and take care of you, and that was really nice. Jumella was pretty too, and you loved her very much, but God wanted you to marry Aclima. He must have had a reason. And maybe if you were married, and you were very nice to her, she could be happy, and so could you. And you could all still stay together. And you could have your own children to play with. You could teach them songs, and swing them around, and let them play with little lambs, and listen to them laugh, and love them. Having children would be very nice. And you thought beign married to Aclima would be nice too, but you never told anyone. It would just make things worse. But whenever you tried to talk to Aclima, she would juh-just stuh-stare at you and then she's start cruh-cruh-crying. Were you really that buh-bad? Things got really bad then. No one was happy anymore. You missed your old life so much. Aclima started staying out in the fields with Cain all the time. She argued with Father all the time. Meals were terrible. You just wanted everyone to be happy. You understood why Cain and Aclima wanted to marry each other, because they were best friends. But Father couldn't just let them go against God's will. No one could find a good solution. Everything kept getting worse. You and Cain stopped talking. The house was so quiet, and full of tension. You spent a lot of time with your sheep. They were so simple, and happy. That was the only calm place left in your life. Even your relationship with Jumella was suffering. She was getting very upset. She said no one wanted her. You didn't know what to say. You just wanted to do what was right. She tried to make you say you'd rather marry her. She was angry. You don't like when people are angry at you. It makes you feel sick and scared and you stuh-stuh-st-stutter more. She was your buh-best friend, but you didn't want to go against God and you didn't know what to say and she got more angry and threw a pot of food on you.