Lisa turned sideways to find her girlfriend staring into her face. Chae's lips were barely an inch away, making it so damned impossible for Lisa to refrain from kissing her. But at that point, the other woman had known her Lisa more than any host could—let it be her own or someone else's that she was in now. Chae seemed to share the same thoughts as the detective, thus making the first move.
Smiling, she flicked a stray lock of hair away from Lisa's left temple.
Lisa returned the smile in response, leaning toward her woman for a soft kiss. Although it was just as quick as a breath, Lisa closed her eyes to welcome each pleasant sensation wafting through her as her heart suddenly beat twice as fast as normalcy demanded. She would like to kiss her as if it was her last, yet the final thing she had to do for love was lingering in her mind.
So she parted her lips away from the kiss, opened her eyes and stared right into Chae's amorous gaze.
I love you. She could hear the unspoken words on Chae's lips. That woman didn't even have to say anything. Both of them had gone this far—way too far in a crazy journey just to be together, and there was no amount of regret for everything they had done. It was all worth it, and they enjoyed every second of it until they couldn't think of how life was going to be without jumping on a train of universes. But as far as true love had passed all the challenges they had gone through, Lisa stayed with the only mission she was supposed to be doing before she had sold her soul; taking Chae to Heaven.
Little did she knew, Paddington was the only heaven Chae had ever known.
"Love?" Chae's low voice pulled the detective out of focus.
"Hmm?"
"Do you think this is going to work?"
Sighing, Lisa wrapped up the moment with a kiss on Chae's forehead before her arms went around the woman's body. At the feel of the warmth they shared, a wave of calmness settled over her.
"I believe so," Lisa answered. "Do your last confession, baby. You will have the kindest priest praying for you." She added. "And not only as a priest for a servant," Lisa paused, feeling the tickles in her eyes. "But as a father for his daughter."
For the rest of the ride, Lisa linked her fingers with Chae's and then cast her gaze through the window beside her. Their hands stayed locked together even when they exited the train, took a taxi and strode past the gigantic double doors of the church where they had hoped to find Mr Richards. They went further into the building, their footsteps resounding as they walked between rows of benches leading to the altar. Halfway down the pathway between the rows of pews, they stopped.
"This is strange," Chae furrowed her eyebrows as she checked the time around Jennifer's wrist. "It's empty? At this hour?"
"I don't think there's anyone here." Lisa swept her eyes around.
In an instance, a deep voice said from behind them.
"Think again,"
The voice was cold, devoid of emotions, but the detective could easily recognise it anyway.
"Hopkins?" Lisa turned around to face the man at the same time Chae did.
Smirking, the man walked past the church door as it was slammed shut by itself.
"Try again," He hissed.
Chae's fingers stiffened in Lisa's grip, alerting her girlfriend to her fears. So Lisa tightened her hold in an attempt to calm the other woman, yet she couldn't deny her own fright. Even as she tried to be brave for Chae, she couldn't feign oblivion to the tremor creeping into her own heart at the sight of a man's eyes looming only a few steps away. That was because she had seen the same eyes before, emitting an eerie red glow at her before she had stepped through Krauss' door for the first time with Nick.
"John, listen to my voice," Lisa let out her stammering voice, her right arm slowly pushing Chae behind her. "It's me...it's Lisa."
"Hmmm..." The man giggled a little. "What makes you think he can hear you?"
"John, please..." She took a few steps back when he was getting close to her and Chae. "You can fight this, please try harder. Break the glass wall. I know you can hear me."
"Maybe, Lisa," He laughed this time, hand fixing his hair as he continued his small steps. "Maybe if you have always been soft to him like this before, he would have listened to you."
Lisa had been right to conclude that John wasn't strong enough to fight for his own body. She understood how hard it was since she had been there, she was once thrown behind the glass wall—helpless and weak as she had watched things happen right before her eyes, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. But she was no longer there, she was in full control of her body, and she wouldn't let anything happen to Chae.
"Why are you doing this?" Lisa tried to stall the man with words, buying herself more time to think of what to do next because she didn't have any plan B ready. "John has nothing to do with this. Please let him go."
"I need him," He destroyed the smile on his face as his red eyes turned wilder. "There's no glass wall between you and me anymore, Lisa." He stopped his walk, steadying his posture that triggered the detective as a threat. "I can now touch you however I like with his hands."
"Lucifer, listen—"
"It would be fun to fight a man as a man and not as a demon."
"I don't want to fight anybody!" Lisa yelled, letting go of Chae's hand behind her when she felt the need to be defensive. "For God's sake, I'm fucking tired of this!"
"You have sworn you will kill me, Lisa." He said with an enraged voice. "You better do it, or I'll destroy your friend's body back there so she can't come back here again."
"No! No, no no—"
"It's showtime!" Lucifer bared his teeth, and a guttural sound emerged from the depths of his throat.
With a vicious growl, he leapt and propelled himself toward Lisa and Chae.
Making a split-second decision, Lisa shoved Chae out of harm's way and into the pew. She turned away from her girlfriend and looked up at Lucifer just in time to receive a hard punch across her left cheek.
"Chae, you stay right there!" She groaned against the cold floor when her skin pressed on it.
"Get up!"
It was Lucifer who replied to her when she had hoped to hear Chae. Because as much as she worried about her girlfriend's safety, Chae was the one who had to witness her being punched, and Lisa didn't really know how to fight such strength. It was different compared to her experience in killing a demon before. So the last thing she would ask for was Chae trying to save her, while all she wanted at that moment was for Chae to run away.
Lisa staggered backward with a whimper but regained her footing right away. Her cheek burned from the contact of Hopkin's knuckles, but she had no moment to dwell on the pain.
Keeping her eyes open, she knew that he would not hesitate to hit her again. Shoulders squared, she immediately stood on her feet and balled up her fist to deliver a heavy blow.
Lucifer didn't move on purpose, earning the pain to the face he had wanted to feel.
He halted. "Impressive."
With a malicious grin crossing his face, he lunged at Lisa again. This time, he thumped his boot against her stomach and knocked her into the stairs leading to the altar. Lisa cried out as she fell again like a ragged doll.
"Lisa!" Chae's screaming voice pierced through the detective's eardrums.
Chae's agony rendered Lisa oblivious to the pain in her body and the taste of the warm blood streaking out of her mouth. Her eyes looked up to the love of her life, finding Chae at the edge of the bench looking so ready to run toward her. But Chae still obeyed Lisa's order, not wanting to make things worse than they already were.
Despite the pain in Lisa's guts, she scrambled to her feet and lurched at Lucifer, aiming for his waist to bring him down the floor. But she was only halfway there when the man dodged and struck her with his elbow on her back, grabbed her hair and slammed her head onto the edge of a chair.
"Lisa...Lisa," He giggled, walking in a circle with a soul that he once bought in the middle of his path. "You fight like a detective that you are. Come on, show me your holy water and strangling skills."
With a grunt, he snatched Lisa's jacket and threw her toward the standing cross in the middle of the church, intending to ram her into it. And so she did when her head was brutally slammed against the hard stone by the strength of his arms. More blood spurted from her lips. Her heartbeat was slowing down as her eyesight was getting poorer every second.
Yet, Hopkin's face was still clear for her view when the man squatted in front of her.
"I'm kind enough to give you options right now, Lisa. A soul like yours only belongs to hell." He gritted his teeth, holding the urge to just smash her skull on the floor and get this over with. "Can you see this?" Lucifer raised an object from his pocket for Lisa to look at. "Surrender yourself to me."
Swallowing the blood back down her throat, Lisa whispered in frailty.
"Or what?" She asked.
"I'll stab your gut out with this knife."
Lisa brought down her heavy eyelids, pushing her head up as she took a deep breath. She might look like she was taking her sweet time to think and give her answer to Lucifer, but she was in a throbbing pain that had been unbearable through time. It tortured her just to speak, let alone making any move, but she played it cool so it wouldn't pain her girlfriend by the eyes.
"T—thank you for your offer, Mr Lucifer", Lisa stuttered, slowly opening her eyes again and seeing the cross above her. Tears gushed out and ran down her swollen cheeks as the view felt so familiar, like she was brought to where she actually belonged—in a church, under a big cross where she had died. "But I will only surrender to God—" A weak smile tried to crawl on her sobbing lips. "And I won't ask to be taken back this time."
Veins of anger popped out at each side of Lucifer's temple. His red eyes now resembled the hellfire while his heart grew agitated to that name; God. It wasn't Lisa's rejection of his offer alone that drove him manic, but it was also the kind of mercy his Father had been giving to humans that was never the same for him.
Lisa cried out as her back was pinned to the cross, bearing the torment of those continuous stabs of the pocket knife. Other than her own grunts of pain, she could hear Chae begging for Lucifer to stop, but Chae's voice only invigorated him.
Screaming, Lucifer wrenched the sharp weapon out of Lisa's flesh for the last time and threw it away as he stood up in a sudden swift. "Goddamn it!"
"Lisa!" Chae shouted along with her fast steps toward her girlfriend, catching Lisa's head right before it hit the carpeted floor of the altar."My love?!"
Her arm was as tender as a pillow could be, caring for Lisa as if the woman was lying on her bed at home, tired from work.
"You will be fine—"
Her trembling fingers were gently wiping the blood that stained Lisa's lips, hoping she could kiss them again and still feel the same.
"S—stay with me, alright?"
Her tears fell like a rushed London rain, sending chills and shivers through the bones as Lisa's skin had been so cold on hers.
"You're fine—" Chae's sobs brought the heaviness in her chest, dragging her into a new void she had never been while staring into Lisa's half-closed eyes.
"C—Chae?" Lisa used every energy she had left, calling out her most favourite name for as long as her heart had been beating.
"I'm right here. Stay with me, please..."
Chae's brittle voice accompanied Lisa when her mouth could no longer talk, her muscles could no longer move, her eyes could no longer see a beautiful face she had always dreamed of...when she finally took her last breath.