It was another evening in The Council building. Candles and gas-lit lamps flickered around, casting odd shadows around the rooms. Lucas quietly and diligently flew his pen across papers that reps and bosses sent in. Some were little things like a housing change or restocking the vending machines more often. Others irked him a bit more. Asking to be reassigned to a different disorder, wanting to go to Heaven or Hell and stop the work, or some other request he’d inevitably probably deny.

Lucas didn’t mind burning midnight oil; he actually liked working late. Most people didn’t think he slept, and he entertained the idea by never answering if he did. Did he? He would never tell you.

The candles flickered for a moment, and in an instant a twin pair of girls were standing in front of Lucas’ desk. He didn’t even bother looking up from his paperwork, addressing them with a simple head nod.

“Girls,” he said dully.

“Mr. Lucas,” they said in unison.

“I’m guessing you have something to report?”

“We do-”

“-have something-”

“-to tell!”

“One at a time,” he said, growing a slim smile. He knew it wouldn’t work, but asking it still amused him. “Skip or Sophie. Not both.”

“Sorry-”

“-boss.”

“We can’t help it,” they both finished, smiling in unison.

“Oh, alright then,” he sighed with a small chuckle; a rare show of emotion. He was dull and gloomy to most people, but there was something about the girls that just cracked him up a bit when they had something to say. “Get on with it.”

“The carvation-”

“-we hired-”

“-was captured-”

“-and lost.”

“Hm, captured…?” he softly mumbled, pensively. “Captured by who?”

“In Heaven by Iris-”

“-and Max helped plan it!!”

“Dammit Maxine!” he growled, pounding the desk with his fist. The shadows in the corners of the room seemed to howl just a bit before calming down. Lucas regained his composure. “You know, Gryft was a loose cannon anyway. We barely had control over him.”

“We couldn’t-”

“-find him, so-”

“-we thoughtt they might’ve-”

-taken care of him.”

“Even better,” Lucas nodded. “What about the angels though?”

“Their wings and halos-”

“-have been stripped and-”

“-all have gone to a division.”

“Good, good… Any resistance?”

“A few have-”

“-protested, but were-”

“-quickly silenced.”

“That’s a relief. We can’t have any uprisings or anything. Not that they’d be able to since those reps don’t have any magic. I’m just worried about… The Council.”

“Do you-”

“-think we have-”

“-a traitor?”

“Not sure…” he said suspiciously. “But there are places my darkness doesn’t reach, and I can’t listen there. That’s where I’m certain they talk in secret.”

“But Mr. Lucas-”

“-where can people hide-”

“-in The Afterlife where-”

“-you can’t reach?”

“The light,” Lucas grimaced, looking at the flickering candles. “You girls run along now. Thank you for the update.”

“No problem-”

“-Mr. Lucas!”

The two girls disappeared in a flash and Lucas went back to his work. The whole time though, he couldn’t help but think about all the events unfolding. He could feel it in the shadows; something was changing. Something was going on under his nose, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“Everything’s going just as planned,” he sighed with a smile. “We’ll see who was right in the end.”