"It's mesmerizing, isn't it?"
Lucifer sat alone in a section of vast white space in Heaven. Or at least, he thought he was alone. But the voice behind him shattered the moment of peaceful silence, pulling him from the depths of his thoughts.
He glanced beside him as his brother sat down. Michael looked on in awe, his gaze fixed straight ahead at their Father's newest creation before them.
Earth.
It was the middle of the third day since the project had begun. An abundance of green was growing on the land, the first stitch of life appearing. Lucifer had been sitting there since it started, watching every moment with conflicting feelings.
"Yes," he said. "It's certainly something."
"I wonder why He's making it," Michael said. "Do you have any idea?"
They knew what it was from the beginning, but why had evaded them. Blessed with knowledge, but so far robbed of insight. Lucifer had been trying to riddle it out on his own since it started. He was the closest to their Father, the only one ever granted time alone with Him, but even he had little more than a guess.
He'd been made to leave the throne room when it all started, as if it were supposed to be a surprise. He had a few theories, the current overwhelming him with thoughts of love.
"I think it's paradise," Lucifer said quietly. "A home for His children."
"Home," Michael repeated. "I like the sound of that."
The first sprinkling of color started to appear, what Lucifer seemed to instinctively know as flowers. Although angels weren't all-knowing, they possessed an innate knowledge thanks to their connection to their Father. Lucifer watched with morbid fascination as the plants bloomed, dotting the landscape.
Beautiful.
His lips slowly turned up into a smile. "Me, too."
Michael sat beside him in silence for a long while, watching the landscape shift as another day dawned. Surrounding the Earth, the sun and the moon formed, stars appearing in the sky, seasons created right before their eyes. It was amazing, full of their Father's love.
A true gift.
Lucifer couldn't wait until it was finished. He looked forward to calling it home.
Day four breezed by, dawning day five.
Waves crashed against the land on earth, the water now teeming with life. Lucifer stared in wonder. Thousands upon thousands of different creatures had popped up before his eyes, each one unique and mesmerizing. His Father's ingenuity was beyond anything Lucifer imagined. There were ones with the ability to create, others that could fly; from a massive gentle giant in the ocean to the tiniest speck of a creature in the sky.
Lucifer's chest was so full of love he felt like he would burst if he felt anymore.
The day came and went, the creativity not stopping. Creatures appeared on land, animals of all kind, just as elaborate and breathtaking. He sat in awe, his brother silently by his side, as time wore on and the world began to flourish.
How much more could their Father bless them with?
It was during the sixth day, in a glorious garden, when another creature formed, molded out of the earth. Unlike the four-legged animals, and the ones with scales, and gills, and fins, this creature looked eerily like him.
Lucifer watched in shock as the first human came to life.
For the first time in days, his Father's voice could be heard.
Welcome, my child.
The voice was strong and mighty, not spoken out loud, but heard in the mind. Lucifer thought God was speaking to him, one of the few who were blessed enough to hear His voice, when the man on earth responded. "Thank you, Father."
Confusion ran through Lucifer.
He could only gape as the human carried on a conversation with God. Adam was his name, and he was tasked with naming all of the other living creatures, a job he took on happily. Cattle, and cats; Fish, and fowl. The naming went on for most of the day, until they ran out of nameless creatures and Adam was alone.
Lucifer could hear his Father again then, hear his musing about how His new child needed a companion. Adam went to sleep, and from him spawned a second human, a woman named Eve.
A wife for Adam.
"Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it," He told them. "And have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."
A sensation Lucifer never encountered before twisted inside of him. He felt as if he were tied in knots, pulled in different directions, like part of him might break. There's no way he really heard what he thought he just heard. He had to have misinterpreted. There had to be a mistake.
There was no way their Father just gave earth to this human.
"Home," Michael said. "For His children."
Lucifer glanced at his brother. Michael was smiling, still watching it all with awe. He looked genuinely elated about everything that was happening, while Lucifer felt anything but.
This paradise was supposed to be for them.
Wasn't it?
The afternoon air was warm, the sun shining brightly in the sky, not a single cloud to be seen anywhere. The blue went on for as far as Serah could see, crisp and clear. The color reminded her of a set of eyes that frequented her dreams, a set of eyes that watched when she was awake, haunting her.
They were eyes that held countless secrets, eyes that told a thousand stories, but none of which Serah could understand. They spoke to her, implored her, but she couldn't hear what they had to say. It was a whisper of a memory; he was an apparition, there one second and gone the next, fading into thin air like he were made of dust, and the tiniest breath would blow him away. She wasn't even sure if he actually existed, but he was real to her.
If only she could think of his name.
It hung on the tip of her tongue, swallowed back again and again.
She wondered if she were crazy… if she were legitimately full-blown, call-the-doctors insane. She still knew nothing of the person she had been, nothing of where she'd come from or where she was supposed to be.
The only thing she knew was him.
But then again, she didn't even really know him, considering she didn't know his name, or if he were more than a figment of her imagination.
Ugh, maybe I am insane.
Serah walked down the street, heading away from the motel one afternoon, wandering the same familiar neighborhoods she'd wandered every day since the accident. She greeted people warmly as she passed them, her eyes flickering to the windows of the shops as she strolled by, catching sight of the stranger's reflection in the glass with hers, always just a few steps behind.
She knew if she turned around, he wouldn't be there. Nobody would be.
She was strolling along when she came upon the community center, the door propped open to let the air flow in as voices spilled out into the street. Serah stalled in front of the building, surveying it for a moment. She felt a certain draw to the place that she couldn't explain, like she'd been here before.
Curious, she stepped inside. The place was lit up, filled with rows of flimsy metal chairs—maybe three-dozen, but less than half of them were used. Serah slid into the closest one by the door, going undetected. A man standing at the front spoke softly, words washing through Serah. She listened silently, hands folded on her lap.
Something about it all felt familiar to her.
Church.
She fucking went to church.
Did she realize she was going there? Luce didn't know. No matter how hard he tried to get a grasp on her, it stayed as foggy as if she were submerged underwater and trying to talk through it.
The human mind always was a mystery to him.
He stood in the middle of the street, in the exact same spot where he'd lost her, and glared at the community center, listening to the voice inside.
…Satan disguises himself as an angel of light…
…The devil sinneth from the beginning…
…Satan hath desired you…
Alway
s the bad, none of the good.
"There is no good."
Lucifer closed his eyes at those words, spoken from the sidewalk behind him. He'd sensed her essence in the area when he followed Serah here, but he'd hoped she was too preoccupied to bother him.
Hannah.
"Lying lips are abomination to the Lord," Lucifer said, an odd tingle of satisfaction deep inside of him. Oh, what irony… he was quoting scripture to rebuke someone who still had Grace.
"I don't lie," Hannah said, stepping out into the street behind him. "There is no good in Satan. He's the enemy, the lying snake, pure evil that needs eradicated. The name alone says so."
"I hear you, sister. Heard you last time, too. You're just wasting your fucking breath at this point."
He cut his eyes to the right when she paused beside him. Her gaze was trained on him, eyes narrowed suspiciously. He sensed no fear from her, and her anger was still present, but it wasn't as strong as before. No, it had given way to something tougher—grief. It was easy to be pissed, to throw blame, but it was a completely different game trying to come to terms with heartache.
Angels aren't meant to mourn their own kind.
"Why are you here, Hannah?" he asked skeptically. "Your kind doesn't think twice after we fall. You write us off like we never existed."
"We do," she agreed. "But something happened."
"What happened?"
She didn't answer that, but Lucifer saw it all in her mind as she purposely dropped her guard for him. It all played out, every moment of the short-lived apocalypse, every gritty detail Hannah had witnessed. And he saw the last memory like a movie, Hannah helping Serah escape the woods in Hellum Township.
"I'm nothing," Serah said. "I succumbed to the snake's temptation. I unleashed Satan."
"You were enchanted by Lucifer. He was an Archangel, Ser, the most glorious one ever created. I can't fault you for falling for him."
"I am," she whispered. "Literally."
A rush of black shadows whipped past, blanketing the land as far as the eyes could see. Serah gasped, struggling for air.
"Michael released the reapers," Hannah said. "It's only a matter of time before they track him down."
"Then what?" Serah asked.
"You know the prophecy—Satan will be destroyed once and for all."
Lucifer turned away from her. He didn't need—or want—to see anymore. But he grasped Hannah's issue, knew exactly what had changed everything: he was still here. "The prophecy didn't come true."
"Or it did," she said. "Either the prophecy was wrong, or you're not Satan."
"Which one is it?"
"I haven't decided," she admitted. "Serah believed you weren't him enough to fall for you."
Lucifer shook his head. "If I weren't him, she wouldn't have fallen."
As soon as he said it, it dawned on him that this conversation was the complete opposite of the last time he spoke to Hannah, where she'd called him Satan and he rejected the notion. Now she was conceding that maybe he wasn't evil after all, and he was still trying to prove her wrong.
Clearly, there was no winning.
Luce stared at the door of the community center in silence for a moment, listening as the preacher talked about resisting temptation. His thoughts drifted, his eyes on Serah sitting right inside the door, until a loud crack echoed through the street and a big gray mass abruptly blocked his view.
A Dominion.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me," he muttered, stepping to the side to see around the monotone angel. Those drab winged fuckers always annoyed him.
"Is, uh... is there a new task?" Hannah asked, nervousness straining her voice. Being caught anywhere with Luce clearly hadn't been a part of Hannah's plans.
"Yes," the Dominion said.
"What is it?" she asked. "What do I need to do?"
"Nothing," the Dominion said. "The task isn't for you, Virtue."
Lucifer cut his eyes at the Dominion, seeing he was staring at him. "You're kidding, right?"
"The Dominion do not joke."
"No shit." They'd been created without a sense of humor. All work and no play does a boring ass angel make. "But you must be mistaken, because I'm not one of your drones that you can order around. You don't get to tell me what to do, not then, and certainly not now."
The Dominion glared at him. Lucifer heard the bitterness in his mind, words he'd never verbalize. The arrogance of Archangels is astounding, but the fallen miscreant takes it to another level.
Lucifer smirked at that, amused, and shook his head as he turned away from the angel. "Run along and tell Daddy I'm not interested in whatever worthless assignment He's trying to shove on me."
That clearly wasn't the answer the Dominion wanted, but instead of pressing the matter, the angel nodded in acknowledgment and apparated away.
"The Dominion's tasks aren't negotiable," Hannah said. "It's God's will."
"So?" Lucifer said. "It's been His will for me to be in Hell for six thousand years, but that didn't stop me from finding a way to escape."
A way that stole Hannah's friend from her as a consequence. Lucifer heard those words, spoken silently. He stared straight ahead as church services came to an end, the few parishioners filtering out. Serah lingered in her seat for a moment before getting up and walking out, strolling down the street without ever actually participating.
Lucifer stared at her until she disappeared from sight. He could still hear her heartbeat after that, pounding steadily.
He said nothing to Hannah, no goodbye, no words of well-wishing. They weren't friends. One thing connected them, and that thing knew nothing of either of them anymore. He strolled to the community center and stepped inside, his footsteps methodic.
What do you know? I didn't catch on fire.
The preacher still stood at the front, absently flipping through his worn bible, taking notes.
Lucifer paused right in front of him, their faces mere inches apart. He was skimming through Genesis, his next sermon to focus on the beginning of time, the rise of man and the fall of Satan.
It would be easy, so very easy, to just flip the switch and become visible, literally terrifying the life from the man. But what was the point? Another human dead, gone from the world, but there were seven billion more just like him out there.
Last time Lucifer stood on Earth, there were only two.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Over and over.
Again and again.
It was Lucifer's first time on Earth. He stood deep in the Garden of Eden, shielded from weak human eyes, surveying the one called Adam.
For creatures that looked much like him on the surface, Adam seemed inherently inferior. He wasn't even advanced enough to sense an angel in front of him. Why did he deserve such a gift like paradise?
The thumping came from Adam's chest, strong and steady. Most other living creatures on earth had the same rhythmic sound echoing from them, but Adam's was louder. It was his life force. Where Lucifer was filled with Grace, the warm glow of radiant energy, burning as bright as the stars now viewed above, Adam was filled with something else.
Blood.
Lucifer had seen it, had watched as the man accidentally pricked his finger on a thorn and spilled a drop of red onto the earth. It caused the man pain, something as harmless as a beautiful bush of roses injuring him.
How fragile.
How weak.
The thumping in his chest had grown louder, harder, more frenzied when it happened, like something in his chest was tied to the pain.
"It's called a heart."
Lucifer turned away from Adam at the sound of his Father's voice, finding Him there in the garden. He'd heard his thoughts. He'd been watching.
"The sound you hear is his heart beating," He continued, stepping closer. "Its what keeps Adam alive."
"How long will he live?"
"Forever."
Forever.
Inferior yet bless
ed with the same eternal life as Lucifer.
"I wouldn't call humans inferior," He said. "Just different. They have weaknesses you don't possess, but they also have gifts. They can't sense you, but they can sense things that you can't."
"Like what?"
His Father motioned toward the rose bush, the same one that Adam had injured himself with. "Smell this."
"What?"
"Place your nose to the flower."
Lucifer did as he was told, but nothing happened.
"You can't smell it," He explained. "Everything around you has a fragrance. You can see these things—these flowers, these trees—but Adam experiences them. He breathes them in, he tastes them, lives them. He's one with Earth; you're one with Heaven. You're different creatures, Lucifer."
Lucifer turned back to Adam, observing him as he interacted with Eve. Both were filled to the brim with love—love for each other, love for their Father. "What's their purpose?"
"To exist, and to love, and to worship," He said. "They're my children."
Lucifer hesitated. "And what's my purpose?"
"You know yours."
To see their Father's will through, to serve Him, and obey Him. "Does that will include these humans? Does serving you mean serving… them?"
Lucifer didn't have to wait for Him to respond. He knew the truth. But it still nearly knocked him over when the answer resounded around him. "Yes."
Lucifer stared at the humans. Just moments ago he'd viewed them as inferior, but now he felt differently. If anything, it was clear to him now that he was the subordinate here.
"That's not it at all, my son," He interjected.
"Son," Lucifer said quietly. "Am I your son?"
"Of course you are."
"It doesn't seem that way." He shook his head, turning away from Adam to glance at his Father. "Not anymore."
Serah's heart was racing fast, battering her ribcage like a jackhammer. Luce heard it the moment he apparated in the parking lot outside the motel. It was coming from a room on the far end of the second floor. He tensed, straining his senses, trying to make sense of her excitement, but it was a puzzle that wouldn't come together without seeing the picture.
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