My heart felt like lead inside my chest as I took a step forward.
“Hello?” I called out.
The smoke seemed to twist with life. It moved out of the way, seeming to caress whatever was stepping out.
My gaze moved up and breathing became difficult as I laid eyes on one of the most gorgeous men I’d ever seen.
He was tall, overwhelmingly so as I had to look up at him even with the distance between us. His skin was pale but flawless, a stark contrast with the pitch black suit he was dressed in.
My eyes roamed over his facial features, sharp and dangerous with just a hint of innocence. An intoxicating mixture with his long, light blue hair teasing just the tips of his shoulders. His nose was long, delicate even, perfectly balancing his lips, which were full and looked so… so…
Mocking?
His lips slid into an easy smirk and my eyes widened.
Holy shit. He saw me checking him out.
My face heated. More so when my eyes snapped up to his and I was lost in neverending brown.
The kind of brown that reminded me of autumn, right at its peak— crisp and cool. Brown everywhere as the world came to a halt, making the days feel like nothing was impossible. A warm kind of brown that felt so familiar.
“It’s been a while, little one. My, how you’ve grown.”
Those mesmerizing lips stroked each syllable in a way that shouldn’t be allowed of a man already so perfect.
I felt my own lips move. “Who are you?”
At least some part of me— the smart part— had control over the things coming out of my mouth.
“Didn’t your parents tell you about me?”
My voice sounded far away in my ears when I answered, “No.”
His head tilted to the side as his hands slipped into his pockets. “Tsk. What a shame.”
My eyes found their way down to his lips again.
“Do I know you?”
“Yes, I suppose we met once before.” Another smirk. “However, you were dead.”
Blue met brown.
I blinked as his words made a crack in the haze that had settled around my mind. I tried to think of all the times I could’ve suffered a near-death-experience, but none came up.
“What do you mean?”
Apparently he was leaning against something behind him because he pushed off and shrugged.
“Oh, you know,” he started. “We met that one time you were born dead and your parents made a deal with the devil to save your life.”
Something within my mind broke. I saw a quick flash of blue and I felt my heart flutter in my chest, just like in my dream. I shook my head to chase away the thought.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He sighed. “What’s so hard to understand? That you were born dead or that your parents made a deal with me?”
I pursed my lips. His face looked smug despite the apparent annoyance in the tilt of his mouth.
“You expect me to believe you’re the devil?” I couldn’t help it. I snorted. “And that I was somehow brought back from the dead?”
He shrugged.
“I don’t expect anything from you, dear,” he paused. “Well, no, that’s not exactly true. I expect you to deliver a message for me.”
I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow.
“What message? That the devil walks among us?” I snickered.
His eyes narrowed. “Laugh all you want. I’m simply telling you the truth.”
“Uh huh.”
“Don’t believe me? Fine.”
He took a hand out of his pocket and waved it in front of him. I was too busy noticing how unfairly long and elegant they were to notice the scene changing around me.
I was still in the hospital room, except it wasn’t empty anymore. On the bed was my mother and standing by her side, my father. In their hands was a pink bundle.
A baby.
I furrowed my eyebrows but stepped forward, anyway. My mother lowered her head to gingerly kiss the child but my father was glaring at the door.
“Damn it!” he shook his head. “Can’t anyone do anything? Anyone! Please, I beg of you!”
He fell to his knees and hid his face in his hands. My heart broke as I saw the tears slip through his fingers.
“Dad,” I called out, reaching for him. My fingers touched nothing.
Smoke began to rise from the floor again, just like earlier. The blue and black haze covered everything but I could still make out my parents in front of me. They glanced around in a panic and my father got up to hover over my mother and the baby.
I saw movement above the child’s head. It was too difficult to see, but it seemed like a curved blade hovering above the baby’s head.
Just like before, I saw the man who claimed to be the devil walk out of the smoke. I glanced beside me but he was watching the scene unfold just like me.
Was this a memory then?
“Anything?” the man asked.
“Yes!” both my parents answered. “Anything!”
“Please, just save her,” begged my mother.
The man tilted his head, his eyes sparkling with interest.
“Would you damn her to live on earth for your own selfish happiness?”
My mother looked down at the baby in her hands and a tear fell from her cheek into the pink blanket.
“I just want her to get a chance at life. That’s all I want.”
My throat felt tight as I swallowed.
“Whoever you are,” my father added, “Please save her.”
The man’s well-groomed eyebrows furrowed. Crossing his arms, he looked between my parents and behind them.
I narrowed my eyes, trying to see if there was anything there. I couldn’t see, but apparently the man could because he nodded his head as if telling someone to back off.
He grinned.
“So it shall be. On this 28th day of October, I answer to your pleas. However, this will come at a price. By the child’s 21st year, should you fail to pay your due—”
“We accept,” my mother interrupted.
What are you doing? I wanted to scream at her. Instead, I ran my hands through my hair and pulled.
The man blinked and ran his tongue over his teeth.
“I wasn’t done.”
“It doesn’t matter what you say,” my mother said, clutching the baby closer.
“We’ll do anything to save our little girl,” my father finished.
“We accept,” they said together.
I shook my head as if that would somehow change the outcome. My heart beat loudly in my ears as they agreed to something they weren’t paying attention to.
The man tilted his head down and pinched the bridge of his nose. His body shook and his quiet laughter reached my ears before I saw the shaking in his shoulders.
“Very well, as you wish.”
My breath hitched in my throat as I saw him pale further, to a point where he was almost blue. His eyes burned red in contrast. In his hand, a small blue flame appeared.
Eyes wide, I watched in horror as he leaned over the baby and grinned. It grew as the flame got closer and disappeared into the child.
My brain ceased functioning.
This man was… Well, he was the man from my dreams. The one with the gorgeous smile was this strange man who’s eyes turned red, who somehow pulled fire out of thin air.
He smirked and stood up straight. The smoke gave way and the silence was broken by a small cry coming from my mother’s arms.
We all looked down.
My own blue eyes blinked open and closed again to cry even more.
I jumped in fright when a hooded figure walked out of somewhere unseen and moved to the man’s side, where the smoke was beginning to circle around them.
“Who are you?” my father’s whisper was heard through the cries,
The man looked over to where my father stood and grinned, sending my heart beating wildly within my chest.
“Lucifer,” he said before disappearing with the smoke.
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