Lucifer [Louis] [On Hold]

27 | L i m b o

If some of you are still around and have been waiting for this update then hello, welcome back and you all deserve a God damned medal. I apologise for the wait, life hasn't been too kind to me over the last few years and the last thing I wanted to do was sit in front of a screen and write when I really wasn't feeling it. I hope to get back into the swing of things soon. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy! 

"WELL, THIS IS not what I was expecting."

"You like it?"

"I suppose... What's not to like? It's just very..."

"Beautiful?" Louis suggested.

"Very..."

"Exquisite?"

"Very ... boring." Melanie said finally.

Lucifer was aggrieved, a hand flying to his chest as if someone had ripped out his heart. Melanie had never seen him look so disgusted. 

But she wasn't wrong - Hell was nothing at all like she'd anticipated. It was so vastly deliberated in media, biblical studies and fiction that there were several possible versions to take into account. Melanie had read up on Hell after her initial visit to the Beyond and the countless variants of Lucifer's realm left her curiosity unsatisfied. She knew the only way she'd ever truly know was when her seventy years of life were up and the pair were reunited for eternity.

One version depicted Hell as a ruined wasteland: somewhere barren and desolate where blazing fires encompassed the crumbling remains of buildings, repressing the lost souls to catastrophe for the rest of their (undead) lives. 

On the other hand, she'd also considered it to be a frozen plain where all the trapped souls would be lost in never-ending blizzards, cursed into isolation and never to find another soul again. 

She'd even expected a Hell Hound to be sitting guarding a throne made of bones and innards...

But this.

This was a joke.

They were exactly where they'd been moments ago, the exact same spot, in the exact same clothes. The only difference being that everything was now in colour. And so damn vibrant. Melanie had almost forgotten just how bleak and drab it was in the Beyond.

Around them, the turning leaves tore free of the branches above them and momentarily obscured Melanie's vision. She batted yellows and greens from her eyes and glanced over her shoulder to find the hospital behind them, the surrounding gardens well kept and dotted with the last flowers of the season, wilting in all colours and sizes. 

"This is Hell?" Melanie blurted. "We've not even moved."

"Oh, but we have," Louis said. "Welcome to Limbo. It's very much like the Beyond but instead of being a 'waiting area' this is the real deal. This is the official first stop into Hell."

"But..." Melanie began, not quite sure what she was trying to say. "I thought it would be like ... fires here, there and everywhere! And Hell hounds guarding every entrance. I thought you'd have a castle surrounded by a moat of boiling lava, souls made of magna reaching up to try and grab and drag victims into the fiery depths below. I thought it would maybe even be an icy fortress, with ice shards and an avalanche hurtling down in the distance..."

Louis just fixed her with an incredulous look and huffed. "I'm not Elsa, you dumbass."

"That's not what I'm saying-"