I stood frozen in place as the images faded away into nothing. I couldn’t bring myself to look at the man next to me— part of me believing without a doubt that what I’d seen had truly happened, but the other half...
“This is one fucked up dream,” I muttered under my breath.
Lucifer’s chuckle had my eyes snap to his. “You think this is a dream?”
I looked away and to the bed that only seconds ago held the image of my mother. With me in her arms.
I had been stillborn.
“Well,” he started, brushing away nonexistent dust from his shoulder, “Not to be rude or anything, but I need to get back to Hell. So just tell your parents I need two lives and they get to live, alright? If not, I’ll just take them— whichever they want, I’m not picky.”
I had been stillborn but a deal with this man claiming to be the devil brought me back. That wasn’t possible… Right?
A chill swept over my body as I accepted that even if this was still a dream, I was dreaming about the devil.
I closed my eyes and called forth words that hadn’t escaped my lips in decades.
“Father, hallowed be your name. Your… Um, your… Kingdom!”
My face burned as I struggled to remember the entire prayer. Religion wasn’t big in our home but still, I could recall the words almost effortlessly the two times out of the year we did go to church. Why was it so difficult now?
“...Our sins, for we ourselves… We…”
“For we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us,” Lucifer continued, his voice getting closer with each word. “And lead us not into temptation.”
His voice stopped right in front of me and my eyes opened out of their own accord. He was close.
Too close.
The scent of winter overwhelmed my senses and his closeness helped cool down my face.
“That doesn’t work on me, sweetheart. Not even when the person saying it knows how to pray properly.”
His breath fanned across my face, laced with the alluring touch of whiskey and cinnamon.
My hands trembled as I fought with the urge to reach up and touch his face, just to see if it would be as soft and perfect as the rest of him appeared. The crooked twitch of his lips snapped me back into focus. I felt my face heat up again in anger and embarrassment.
Why couldn’t I control myself around him? This was my dream, damn it! I should be able to control it.
Glaring, I opened my mouth to say something, anything, that would make that smug grin disappear.
Except, everything up to that moment finally sunk in and I felt a numbing cold spread through every inch of my body. The fact that I was dreaming escaped my mind and everything right then and there was real.
“Oh my god. They’re going to die.”
His eye twitched as if he wasn’t expecting me to say that at all.
“That’s entirely up to them. If they don’t want to, they can—”
“Mom and Dad wouldn’t kill anybody. Not even to save themselves,” I muttered under my breath.
“There’s not much I can do there.” He shrugged.
Why couldn’t they kill someone, though? It wouldn’t be that hard, right? An accidental car crash, perhaps? Would that count? Honestly, this all seemed so easy, why was I in a panic before? I could just leave the hospital and tell them what they had to do.
So simple.
A slow pulse made itself known across my eyelid. I tried rubbing it away but it only made it beat stronger. I felt my mind try to tell me something but the thought wasn’t coming through, it was stuck on the tip.
“Well, sweetheart.” I looked up. “I’ve said what I needed to say. The rest is up to you.”
The colors began to blend together in a mix of white, black, and blue. The ground beneath me gave way and I began to fall. A scream tore out of my lips.
I jolted awake in my own bed with sweat matting my hair across my face.
“A dream. It was just a dream,” I mumbled to myself, gasping for air.
There was a slight shuffling before a biting cold draft came by my ear.
“You have one month,” Lucifer’s voice spoke into my ear.
My heart beat wildly against my chest and my throat clogged up. I scurried out of bed and turned on the light, looking around my room. Coldness washed through me as I saw familiar smoke slither out of my bedroom window.
“Holy fuck, it was real. It was real!”
Desperate, I jerked open my bedroom door and ran downstairs. I needed to see my parents immediately. I needed to tell them about Lucifer, about the message about—
I reached their door and placed my hand on the doorknob, ready to yank the door open and demand answers.
Doubt wrapped around my body and held me back.
In the darkness of the hall, in the silence of the night, everything seemed too peaceful. I looked out the living room window and the moon lit up the street, making it almost seem like it was daytime. This perfect, tranquil hour was my reality. Dreams were just that— dreams.
My eyebrows came together as I looked back at the door. I let out a long breath and let go of the knob, stepping back quietly.
I held my hands in front of me as if would somehow calm me down.
“Venus, chill,” I whispered to myself. “You’re overreacting. It was just a dream.”
Images of the smoke escaping through the window came to mind but I shook my head and took one more look out the window.
I quietly walked backwards until I reached the stairs and ran back up. Anger rushed through my veins. It took everything I had not to slam the door shut once I reached my room.
“What the hell did you just do?” I muttered as I slid down the closed door. I hid my face in my hands.
“Run to mommy and daddy just because of a bad dream?” I hit my forehead against my knees, “Stupid, stupid, stupid.”
I glanced up and saw Kevin staring at me. He was probably judging me for everything that had happened in the last five minutes.
Jerk. He could’ve said something but no, he just watched me make a fool out of myself.
I bit my lip and glared up at the ceiling.
“Stupid dream.”
I got up and went straight to bed, willing myself not to think about anything or anyone, no matter how gorgeous they may have been.
It didn’t seem to work, as I could still hear his voice in my dreams, could still see his eyes in the crowds. At every turn, I swore I could smell the lingering winter frost.
I woke up before my alarm rang.
More annoyed than ever, I got ready in record speed with enough time to have breakfast before my father left.
I wasn’t sure if that was good or not— the images from the dream were still haunting me.
Both my parents were already eating when I reached the kitchen.
“Venus,” my mother exclaimed when she saw me. “You’re up early?”
I picked up an apple. “Yeah, I couldn’t really sleep well.”
“Nightmare?” she asked.
“Uh huh.”
I washed the apple and twirled it in my hand as I glanced up at them. I felt my face burn in shame for the idea that crossed my mind, but I needed to get it out of my system. I needed outside confirmation that the entire thing was too bizarre to be true.
“It was a really weird and creepy dream. I saw you guys with a stillborn baby and there was this guy offering you a deal to bring it back to life or something.”
My heart felt like lead inside my chest because I was expecting them to laugh or look at me with concern. I wasn’t expecting them to freeze up and forget the food that was halfway to their mouths.
I cleared my throat and they seemed to come back to life.
Disbelief masked their faces but all I could really pay attention to was how their eyes didn’t meet mine.
“Wow,” my mother finally choked. “That sounds like a heavy dream. No wonder you couldn’t sleep.”
“Really weird,” my father added, clearing his throat.
I narrowed my eyes at them and bit into my apple. Really weird, indeed. And not at all what I was hoping for.
“Yeah. Anyway, it was just a random dream, nothing important. I should get going, I told Kim to pick me up earlier today.”
As if summoned, a car horn was heard outside our house.
“Gotta go. Bye!” I said, heading towards the door. I felt my chest contract.
“I love you guys,” I called out. “Always.”
“We love you, too,” my father answered.
They finally met my gaze to smile at me before I left.
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