Time. It froze again when the person Chae loved the most slipped out from life. If only the agony she was dwelled in didn't weigh her chest at that time, she would have screamed her lungs out, not caring if she couldn't breathe afterwards. It was a moment of silence; almost nothing went through her ears as she kept Lisa's lifeless body on her lap. And she didn't even have the strength to call for her girlfriend, knowing that Lisa was no longer there with her.
Lisa was gone; she died in the universe she was born in.
Sniffling, Chae gently ran her fingers down Lisa's eyelids to close them. It was getting harder for her to breathe when sobs and cries were fighting to escape from her mouth, yet she forced a smile on her lips as she stared at Lisa's face. Her fingers made their ways to the woman's hair, stroking them while her other arm pulled Lisa close.
"I'm so sorry-" Chae whispered, planting soft kisses at the side of Lisa's head. She would love to have one last hug with her girlfriend, hugging tight in her embrace for as long as she still had the time to. Because Lisa must have already crossed over to the afterlife, unlike her-a floating soul. She would stay afloat forever. She wouldn't get the same chance to hug Lisa again, but she was more concerned if her touches would hurt Lisa, so she treated the body as kind as she could.
"I love you..." She said with more tears leaving her eyes. "I love you so much, Lisa. Please don't forget me."
Sadness. Her emotion was filled with sadness until she didn't feel like travelling and knowing another Lisa again. She just wanted to stay there, having her one and only Lisa in her arms, and she applauded that woman. The Lisa she had known would have been disappointed; the detective would have called this a failure. But for Chae, it definitely was not. Lisa had done her best. She always did. Chae knew how tiring it must have been for Lisa, emotionally and physically. Both of them were exhausted in this journey, and Chae honestly thought Lisa deserved to rest. If many universes ago she had caught Lisa from falling off the balcony, fearing death and its vicious ways in separating her from Lisa, it was different for Chae this time.
She let Lisa go.
But as she was focused on her own feelings and thoughts, an unnatural wind alerted Chae to a menacing presence behind her. With a terrified gasp, she turned around to face Lucifer, who was in his true form; a massive, lean muscular body flanked by an enormous pair of black feathered wings.
Lucifer kept a straight face, standing in front of two human beings he hated the most and staring at Lisa's cold body before raising his eyes toward Chae.
"She was stubborn and stupid" He initiated a conversation with another soul he thought he would still have the chance to drag into his place. "I hope you are nothing like that, or...are you?"
Chae didn't respond, her eyes fixed on a demon she never expected to meet in person. She was still in shock, trying so hard to deal with the death of her girlfriend as if the first Lisa's wasn't dreadful enough for her to take in. But the hell creature in front of her had his own agenda that she wasn't aware of, considering his failure in having Lisa's soul in his grasp. That was because the soul of the detective was crossing over and going straight to Heaven.
That stupid Michael, Lucifer complained in his heart. Father really granted Michael's last prayer for a human but never forgive me.
Sighing, Lucifer came closer to Chae when he received nothing from her yet.
"I don't want to know what happened between you and Asmodeus. He just let you go when you were supposed to be with him," He continued, his gaze never left Chae's. "Back then you refused to go to hell. That's why you jumped, am I correct?"
Silence. That was all Chae could offer to Lucifer because her mind was empty. She couldn't think of anything at the moment except for the Lisa she had lost.
"What if I tell you..." He paused, bringing his eyes down at the detective's body. "That your Lisa is in hell right now? Would that change your mind?"
Chae's brown eyes sparkled as soon as she heard that, inviting a smirk on Lucifer's face when he knew he already got her in his trap.
"What?" Chae finally gave her response with the thought that she might be seeing Lisa again.
"Yes, that's right" He went harder in convincing the woman, moving his wings slightly. "She's mine, Ms Richards. I bought her soul, of course she's in hell right now."
"But-"
Lucifer immediately cut her sentence off.
"There's no but, you know how soul-selling works", He proposed confidently. "You would do anything to be together with her again, correct?"
"Anything," Chae blurted out. There was no thinking things through.
"Anything?" Lucifer asked, intrigued. He stepped toward her and lifted his left hand to her tear-stained face, trailing his fingers along the right side of her face. "Even if it means throwing yourself into hell?"
Chae looked away, dismissing Lucifer's touch in disgust as she glanced at Lisa's calm face again. She had hoped for peace, just like she used to have whenever she stared at Lisa sleeping. She had wished for tranquillity since she had a decision to make, thinking that she had already committed a big sin. She had desired in repose when she needed to ask herself if she was willing to make the same mistake twice. But none of them served her heart with anything at all, only misery burdening her chest when she knew Lisa wouldn't open her eyes anymore.
Lucifer, on the other hand, was getting anxious second by second, and he had no idea why. He was the greatest Lucifer; once a God's beloved. Even after he was cast out from Heaven, his name was still glorified as the most feared demon in hell and earth. But there he was, standing in front of a woman and waiting only for a yes from her. Finally, after hundreds of thousands of years, he felt this excitement toward a soul.
That was because Chae's soul had no voice for him to listen to, leaving him clueless about what she was thinking about or what she would do next. Thus, Lucifer had never been so desperate for a soul before-he really desired for Chae to be with him in hell.
"Think about this, Ms Richards" He spoke again. "Where would you go? Jumping in and out to see Lisa, who isn't even yours? Not the one you love?" Lucifer added. "Do you want to live like that for eternity? Even hell doesn't have a place for someone like you."
Chae squeezed her eyes shut, releasing one big sob as her arms tightened around her girlfriend's body the moment she heard those painful words from him. That was due to the truth. The truth hurts. It wasn't just about her losing Lisa, but Lucifer reminded her that she had nowhere else to go, no one to love and to be loved. She would no longer exist with her own Chae Richards' identity, forever standing behind another Chae's shadow.
"This isn't the life you would like", Lucifer continued to convince Chae, his scrawny fingers playing with her hair like how he was toying with her feelings at the time. "Surrender your soul to me, Ms Richards. I can take you to my place, where your real Lisa awaits."
Taking a long breath in, Chae looked up to him again.
"Alright", She agreed shortly.
"Yes?" Lucifer was delighted with the good news. "You want to give this life up and come with me?"
"Yes," Chae let out a small, bitter laugh. "If giving up this life could reunite me with my Lisa, then yes. I'd give it up a thousand times."
Her eyes followed Lucifer's gesture as he looked up to the ceiling, being indulged in seconds of silence. His wings slowly rose and fell while his smile grew bigger, staring at his home that Chae would be able to see soon.
"Granted!" He exclaimed in excitement, dragging his gaze down to his brand new soul he had wanted the most. "It's nice doing business with you, Ms Richards. Is that how humans thank each other?"
Lucifer's giggle didn't amuse Chae even a bit, let alone his unneeded sarcasm as if the Bible didn't say enough about how much he hated humans. He would make everything about humans a joke, degrading God's greatest creature like it was his nature to do so. But Chae couldn't care less about that matter. She just wanted to be taken to hell now. She claimed for the things she was promised about.
"Can we go now?" She went straightforwardly. "I want to see Lisa now."
"Absolutely!" He chuckled. "But I'm not always an asshole, if that's what your people call it?" Lucifer lifted his wings slightly, getting them ready to leave earth with a believer's soul that was now belonged to him. "And I can't lose to Asmodeus. I'd be embarrassed!"
Chae's heart flicked when she heard that name again, remembering how good she was treated by a demon that bought her soul before. Asmodeus, despite being a little bit harsh, he had been nothing but kind to her. Even on the night she was supposed to give herself to him, he had tried so hard to be gentle, knowing how scared Chae was. Reminiscing those times she had spent with Asmodeus, she invited new tears in her eyes.
"So...do you want to pray for forgiveness?" Lucifer asked in a mockery tone. "Do you have any last prayer before you'd be damned to hell?" His smirk went intense. "I'm not giving you any hope, though. You know God won't forgive you, and I know that too. You'd be amazed how many prayers of mine went unanswered."
He looked up at the ceiling again when he spoke, as though he could also see the heavens through it.
"God never forgives sinners like you-" His sentence stopped when the despair that had been a part of him ever since he left Heaven came knocking his feelings. "...sinners like me."
"I have one last prayer," Chae responded, receiving a sigh from him as he didn't say a word.
Then she closed her eyes.
Time. It might fly faster for some and slower for others, depending on urgency or easiness. For Chae Richards, time moved like it was delayed each time she prayed. Because her mother had reminded her not to rush in talking to God, so she always knew there was no need to hurry, hence all those hours she had spent every Sunday at the church.
But that same time was as fast as lightning for Lucifer when he began to feel a kind of pain he had never experienced before, stopping Chae in an instance when his spine-chilling scream echoed through the building. Her eyes popped open as she found him clutching his head in pain.
Lucifer's agonizing voice rose in pitch, his back arching as his pain aggravated. The aching forced him to withdraw himself away, and right before Chae's eyes, she was witnessing the deep black of his wings slowly changing their colour-feather by feather.
"What did you pray for?!" Lucifer screamed, his words almost lost in his groans.
Disbelief crept into his eyes as Chae stuttered to answer him.
"I-I prayed for you,"
"But who prays for Satans? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?"-Mark Twain.