Animosity

3. More conflict

“What do you mean?”

He sat up.

“You see them too.”

He may have been vaguely interested in what her response meant for them, but he was more pissed off to be honest.

How dare she compare herself to me, he thought, she’s just a snot-nosed, conceited; spoiled brat who has no idea who the fuck she’s talking about.

Of course he couldn’t show any hostility towards the pint-sized prima donna, for fear of being subjected to a worse treatment.

“Really now? How, exactly, are we the same?” He managed to squeeze through gritted teeth.

“Well there’s a reason I’m in a psychiatric institution, isn't there?” She chirped.

She paused, and as he was about to scream, she continued, “Also, there aren’t many other people who’re also able to see him, are there?”

She pointed behind him, and it took Luci an embarrassingly long moment to figure out she was referring to his shadow, who he’d almost forgotten existed. Speaking of embarrassingly long moments, it also took him one to stop gaping at her. 

She quirked an eyebrow, asking,”What, did you think you were special, or something?” He had actually thought that; now he was beyond pissed; she had taken away the one thing that made him unique, memorable; important.

Luci wasn’t sure how long he could go for before he legitimately strangled her; it might be worth the consequences to get rid of something this infuriating. Hell, even chihuahuas were less annoying than she was.

She then began speaking to his unnamed silhouette and he wondered if he could get away with murdering her during the night– not that he knew what time it was.

“So what's your name?”
Lucifer started paying attention to their conversation; taking a break from plotting the little girl’s demise.

“I –um– don't really have one,” his shadow replied nervously.

“Well my name’s Penny,” Penny declared.

“Ok?”the shadow said; seeming like he was asking rather than affirming.

“But you can't have my name; you can't have Topic’s either.” She frowned.

The moment of silence he hadn't even noticed creep into the room left with a bang; literally, Penny banged her hand against her headboard in frustration.

“I can't think of a good name; you think of one...Guy,” she demanded, evidently not knowing Lucifer’s name at all.

Deciding to humor her, he did reply despite wanting to snap her neck for even more reasons,”How about we call him Jacka–”

“Jack is perfect, yeah; we’ll call you Jack. Thanks... what even is your name?”

“Shouldn't you know already? Considering you seem to know everything else about me anyways,” he snapped; upset once again.

“Well sure, but I wasn't sure if your parents were actually weird enough to name their child Lucifer.”

“Who is Topic anyway?” He couldn't deal with thinking about his parents then; every time he did dragged him unwillingly back to his past like someone was trying to push him off a plank into the ocean.

“Him, obviously; he's the only other person in this room.”

“Why'd you name it?” He was genuinely confused; it's not like shadows were actually people, as Penny herself had stated before.

“Nobody named me,” (presumably) Topic replied to Lucifer’s shock,”I picked my own name.”

“Don't sass me, you're the unnecessary one,” he snapped.

“Says the human trapped in a corrupt mental institution.”

“What does that have to do with anyth-”he cut himself off, “Y’know what? I don't need this; piss off to whatever hell you came from.”

“I actually come from a pretty nice place, thank you very much,” Topic retorted.

“Well at least now I know I'm all set for the afterlife.”

“Aren't you meant to be the king of Hell anyways?”

“Your king, you mean; yeah, I like that idea,” Luci fired back.

“Whatever I don't need even need to reply at this point, you're making yourself seem stupider on your own.”

“At least I don't come from a pitch black, dusty forest dump.”

He didn't respond, so Luci, the smug asshole he was, assumed he'd simply won the argument. At least he did until it seemed Topic was just shocked, which was evident in his tone when finally speaking again after a few seconds.

“How did you know about Realm?”

Luci’s eyes widened, “You mean you actually live in that shit hole?”

“Not exactly,” he replied.

He seemed suspiciously uneasy, but as Lucifer was about to ask him about it, Penny interrupted guys train of thought by yelling, “Enough!”

Even Jack turned to look at her.

She just sighed and threw herself under her cotton candy covers.Luci was exhausted and decided to follow her example; he flopped back onto his bed. This time when he slept, there were no dreams of liquid gold floods, or rusted iron cages, but instead recreations of the past shifted and merged with his own delusional versions of them before his eyes, like red and blue paint, until he could no longer tell the two apart in the purple mess.

The fire of his old feelings blazed through the stagnant blue calm of his isolation in the asylum, and the the black and white kept distorting and discolouring everything further in his mind.

Memories flashed by like the end of an old film reel on loop; showing him the horror movie that was the murder of his parents. It left him covered in sweat again after his dreams passed, but at least it wasn’t shivering. He hated that feeling more than the burning soreness in his muscles.

It turned out it wasn’t over entirely; he swore he could see himself standing at the foot of his bed, just like on that afternoon. The afterimage of his nightmare slid off the real one when he blinked.

Penny was the one standing in front of him; he calmed down until she started to talk.

“You guys were supposed to be friends,” she whispered.

Her lips started trembling as her eyes misted over and she started breathing shallowly.

“Don't...cry, didn't you just hate me a few minutes ago?”

He predicted this wasn't going to go well; he had no experience trying to comfort people, especially people he disliked.

Seemingly out of nowhere, the door opened; Luci was almost grateful for someone else coming to deal with the situation until he caught the first glimpse of shining weaponry hastily shuffling through the door. 

“Don't you think that's a little overkill?”

On the word kill, the guns were cocked.

“Okay, forget I said that; can't we just start over,” he asked meekly and raised his hands.

His ribs felt like they were digging into his lungs, and he once again felt like he couldn't breathe.

The fingers on their triggers pulled down and he saw everything that happened next in a blur. Penny was full on sobbing with her face in her hands.

As she lifted her face and mouthed something at him, they fired.