The Beginning of the End

37. What the Hell? Am I in Hell?

When Lucifer's feet touched the ground, ash flew in the air at the sudden disturbance, sticking to his clothes before her brushed it off and it settled back down on the rocky ground. It took but only a second for his eyes to adjust to the murky blue lighting. Loosening his tie, he began to walk through the maze of towering loops, banging doors, and muffled screams. He let Hell guide him, feeling himself be pulled through as though with an invisible string.

Eventually, the pulling sensation stopped outside a door Lucifer hadn't seen before. This wasn't uncommon upon his return from vacations. Hundreds of humans died everyday; he had been gone for nearly six weeks, so there were likely thousands upon thousands of doors he had not entered yet. This one, however, had a door like a city apartment.

"Detective Douche, what've you gotten yourself into?" Lucifer muttered under his breath, letting his shoulders slump some in defeat. Reaching out, he turned the brass colored doorknob and opened the door, light flooding the darkness outside before he stepped in and shut the door behind him.

It took a moment to adjust to what he was seeing because he didn't recognize (at first) where he was. Eventually, he saw a group of thugs among a few police officers, but the officers weren't arresting them or trying to keep the peace in anyway, no, they were dealing. Drugs, it seemed to be this time. One of the older officers ensured one of the thugs that no one in their ring would be convicted of a certain crime.

Dan was standing next to the older officer, looking very uncomfortable and confused. 

The scene warped and Lucifer did as he normally would in a new loop; he stood in the shadows, learning everything he could about this new resident and what they feel they did to land them down here.

Lucifer's heart skipped a beat as, several times, the scene changed to Detective Douche standing in a small apartment and having a discussion with a much younger version of the detective...Chloe. It seemed that she was agitated or displeased with him in some way (which didn't surprise Lucifer in the slightest), but what did strike him as odd was the fact that he had seen more of this reaction out of the detective toward Daniel after their marriage ended. Had he caused her to be this perturbed throughout the entirety of their marriage?

Lucifer wondered, as Detective Douche continued to make excuses for not being home and giving vague stories of a case, if he had spent all those years lying to the detective.

The thought made his blood feel as if it were burning. He had always considered lying one of the most disgusting transgressions a person could ever commit (along with a few others). To think that Chloe - the love of his life and his partner - spent nearly a decade of her own life being lied to and manipulated by the man who had vowed to be true to her in all aspects of life infuriated him to a point where he almost said, Forget it. Enjoy your time down here Detective Douche. 

However, the scene changed a few more times as Lucifer stewed in his silent rage. Mostly, Dan's guilt consisted of lying, cheating the system, and then his partnership with the late Malcolm Graham (which Lucifer had already knew about somewhat). 

There seemed to be a time skip in between Dan's last squabble with Malcolm and the next scene. He knew that Malcolm's reign of terror took place back in 2016, but for some reason, Dan's next torturous memory was now taking place in Jacob Tiernan's office. That case happened in 2019, three years later. What did Dan have to do with the Tiernan Case? That had been assigned to him and the detective (and Eve by consequence). 

It seemed to be dark outside, and Lucifer saw Dan be escorted into Tiernan's office by an assistant. Tiernan seemed reluctant to speak to the police again, but visibly changed his mind when he saw Dan instead of himself or Chloe.