“I need to know— what you showed me in my dream, the hospital thing… Was that real?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yes, that was how it happened.”
I looked down at my hands. Somehow knowing it was true didn’t make me feel better. Especially knowing that Lucifer— someone not from this world— was being much more honest with me than my parents.
“Have you talked to your parents?”
Anger washed over me, stinging my eyes.
“I mentioned the dream to them. At first, they comforted me, saying that it was a bad dream and they understood my reaction. Then when I mentioned it to them last night my mother made me doubt whether any of it was real. She made me think I was crazy for believing in it.”
“Do you still doubt?”
A bitter laugh escaped my lips.
“After summoning you last night and seeing you here right now? No, definitely not.” I bit my lip. “She knew I was the baby in the dream and that a deal was made with a demon. I never told her any of those things when describing what I saw.”
“She gave herself away, then?” He chuckled. “Wait. A demon?”
I turned to look at him.
“Yeah, isn’t that what you are?”
He frowned.
“I told you who I was in that dream.”
“You don’t actually expect me to believe you’re the devil, do you?”
Lucifer’s face became serious— his intent was clearly to scare me. Laughter bubbled in my chest but got stuck in my throat as the temperature around me dropped to the point where I couldn’t feel my skin anymore. My eyes were locked with his and it seemed like the brown in them was heating up— it was burning red.
“Okay,” I choked out.
The temperature returned to normal, as did his eyes. My breath shook as I tried to feign nonchalance.
“Believe me now?” he chuckled.
“I guess I always did,” I muttered. “You’ve never lied to me before. It was just hard to wrap my head around it. How would my parents end up making a deal with Satan, of all people?”
He rolled his eyes. “It’s not that they’re special or anything. I took the deal out of spite.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“An ex of mine wanted to answer their prayer but I couldn’t let her take the glory of answering the first prayer in centuries.”
“Oh my god.” I rubbed my forehead. “Are we just playthings to you?”
He shrugged.
“And what do you mean? Don’t you get prayers on the regular from your followers?” I asked.
Lucifer groaned and I would’ve laughed had the sound not caused my mind to travel down inappropriate roads.
“Those cults aren’t my followers. I don’t know who they’re worshipping, but it’s not me. I could never get behind half the things they spit out.”
Huh. A devil with a heart. What kind of crazy, alternative world was I living in?
“I have a question,” I stated like an idiot. “Why do you need human souls? Why not animal souls or something like that?”
He looked out to the lake and sighed.
“Human souls are what keep Hell running so smoothly. They do all the annoying work the demons and I don’t have time to do.”
“Or want to do,” I added.
Lucifer smirked.
“Yes, that too. But also, their energy is what keeps us fed. We draw from them to expand our own powers. I also gather demons from those who prove themselves to be better than the rest.
“And the reason I don’t ask for animal souls is that enough of them are sacrificed already in the name of a false idol.”
“Oh,” was my brilliant response.
“What people don’t understand is that not all animals go to heaven, as they would like to believe. If they don’t fit in with the ideal image of Heaven, they go to hell. I can’t begin to tell you how heartbreaking it is to see all those creatures running around in a panic because they don’t know where they are. The worst are pets who spend the rest of eternity looking for an owner they’ll never find.”
His face was neutral but I could see the red flashing in his eyes as he tried to keep control of his fury. He really cared about the animals in his realm— it was surprisingly nice to learn how caring he was.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked at his dogs. Had they been thrown in hell, too, for not fitting in?
“These two were the first in Hell. They’ve been there nearly as long as I have.”
Lucifer reached over to rub their heads. I smiled as the dogs closed their eyes and pushed their heads against Lucifer’s hand, asking for more attention.
The smaller one of the two, the one with longer fur, opened its eyes and meet my gaze.
“Would you like to pet her?” Lucifer asked.
My eyes grew wide as I glanced between the two.
“It’s okay, she won’t bite. I’m afraid I can’t say the same about Diego, here,” he said, rubbing the chin of the other one. The dog’s eyes closed as he shifted his head so Lucifer would scratch him in the small area behind his ear.
“Can I?” I asked, my hands already imagining Ella’s soft fur under my fingers.
“Go ahead,” he said with a smile.
My heart stuttered. In that moment he looked so much like he did in my dreams— his smile wide and excited.
I reached out to Ella but froze when I saw Diego snarl. Lucifer looked down at him with disapproval. However, Ella got up from her place next to Diego and came up to my outstretched hand. She sniffed it before moving her head to brush against my palm.
Coming out of my daze, I used both hands to rub her head, her neck, her ears. She was softer than I thought she would be. Her black fur felt like what I’d imagined a cloud to feel like.
“Oh, you’re so soft and beautiful,” I muttered, bringing my face closer to hers. Her tongue came out and licked the side of my face.
I laughed and rubbed my nose against hers.
Ella waited until I pulled back to walk back to where Diego was. The glare on his face made my smile fade.
“She likes you,” Lucifer said.
“Now if only I could get the other one to like me, too. He looks like he’s going to attack me at any second.”
“Believe it or not, Diego is the friendlier of the two,” Lucifer grinned. “He’s just a little reserved around people he doesn't know.”
“Huh,” was all I could say in response.
Lucifer turned his entire attention back to me.
“Did you have any more questions?”
“Are you kidding?” I teased. “I could go on forever with all the questions I have.”
“Well,” he smirked, “I’ve got all of eternity to answer them.”
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