Chapter 4
After Lucius’ words, Levi and I immediately broke into a flurry of activity. He gluing the phone to his ear and yapping away to some poor person on the other end of the line. I rearranged Lucius’ desk quickly so that he knew what to do before we departed for hell and what could be left until afterwards. And then, when he allowed the two of us to leave, I darted from his office and hurriedly grabbed my things from my desk before scurrying towards the elevator.
I had only gone a few steps however before I had to backtrack. Gently placing my bag back on the desk, I sidled around until I was standing in front of the door. Ever so slowly I bent down and ran fingers down the front of the desk before grasping hold of the handle and yanking. Gasping as my eyes fell on the golden scroll; a strange kind of awe fell over me leaving me gaping open mouthed at the mystery object. I could feel power radiating from it as my hand hovered over the surface of it before I snatched it up from the confines of the drawer and held it tightly within my grasp.
It flashed white hot under my palm before I pushed myself backwards and somehow got into my chair. Holding the end in one hand, I dragged the fingertips of my other hand across the scroll almost reverently as my mind lingered on the possibilities of the contents. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I snapped open the almost invisible seal and unravelled the golden parchment.
For a moment I stared at the words in confusion. The message within making absolutely no sense to me at all so I simply set the paper down on the desk. Glancing back down at the paper again, I shook my head back and forth.
“Agreement? What agreement? What duties?” I muttered under my breath while glaring at the paper in annoyance.
Before I could do anything else other than lean back in my chair with a huff, the paper was snatched out from before me. Snapping my head around to Lucius as he dangled the parchment before tauntingly, I then flipped him a bird and sent him a scowl. All to quickly though he straightened up and a frown formed on his face. When he lifted his gaze to me he was a little perturbed.
“You can read this?” He questioned as he waved the parchment in front of my face.
“Of course I can,” I retorted with a frown. “I’m not illiterate.”
Lucius looked between me and the paper several times with a look of utter confusion.
“Can you understand me?”
As he stared at me waiting for my answer, I looked at that man like he had been hit around the head too many times. It was entirely plausible.
“Yes I can Luce,” my voice was slightly raised as I jumped up from the chair and moved to stand in front of him. “What has gotten into you? Do you need to go and rest or something? Are you sick? Does the devil even get sick?”
Whilst I continued to ramble, my hand moved on its own to his forehead. Brushing away his hair to check his temperature, I frowned when I realised that I wasn’t sure if he was supposed to have the same body temperature as humans or whether he ran hotter or colder. Lucius brushed my hand away and instead waved the paper around like it was the answer to everything.
“You can read this? Don’t you realise how strange and important this is? And you could understand me talking in a dialect that you shouldn’t be able to even begin to comprehend.” He handed me back the paper before manoeuvring into the seat that I had just vacated. “How is it that you can understand the angelic language both written and spoken?” He tilted his head to the side and stared at me – like really stared. It was like he could see into my very soul and knowing him it was probably within his capabilities.
Opening and closing my mouth several times as I tried to gage what he was saying, I dropped down onto the edge of the desk and stared straight past him.
“How- ? What-?” I couldn’t even finish my sentences as I tried to figure out the implications of this.
Lucius however posed a more interesting question that had even me puzzled. “What the hell happened to you when you were dead?”
I stared down at him while propping my head on my hand. “I have absolutely no idea.” I gestured towards the parchment. “All it says is that I have to report to them so that I can be given my first assignment as per agreement. Shouldn’t I be able to remember agreeing to sign my life to helping a cause?” An image of a man in a Stetson briefly flashed through my mind.
“You were dead Savannah. Of course there will be terms and conditions. I’m just not sure what they are just yet. It doesn’t seem to have a deadline. Do you want to go to hell before or after you’ve visited Angel headquarters?”
“I don’t know. We’ll discuss this tomorrow. But I’m thinking sooner is probably better than later in this case. If He sent it then it must be of some urgency.”
Lucius nodded and stood from the chair. He picked up his bag and then held his arm out for me like he was a gentleman or something. I knew he was far from it but that didn’t stop me looping my arm with his and resting my head tiredly on his shoulder.
“Don’t worry. We’ll get this sorted out in the morning.” He mumbled before I felt his entire demeanour droop. “Will you come with me down to the basement? I need to authorise the release of the Celia’s body. Her mother will be here soon and I’d rather not be here when she is.”
His voice was laced with bitterness at the mention of Celia’s mother but I chose to ignore, only nodding my head in agreement and allowing him to pull me towards the lifts. Exhaustion pulled at my limbs as we headed down and it was probably Lucius’ steadying arm that prevented me from toppling over. My problems could definitely wait until tomorrow; they were a million times smaller than his at this point anyway.
As the lift began to descend, I couldn’t help but question my boss on his daughter and granddaughter. I knew it wasn’t the most appropriate time but this man knew everything about me and probably then some and the only thing I thought I knew about him was wrong. To make it worse the man had told me before that he hadn’t had kids, heck he used Danny and I as a test to see what it was like to play baby daddy.
“So how did you – you know- become a dad?” Instantly I cringed and resisted the urge to hit my forehead with the palm of my hand.
“If you can’t work that out for yourself Savannah then I would be really worried.” Lucius chuckled but there was little humour within it. “It was the 60’s, the time of peace and free love. The woman was so high half the time that she probably didn’t know who the hell I was when she saw me again. The only reason I knew about it at all was through Celia. She developed her powers and received certain visions which led her to my door.” Lucius shrugged his shoulders like it was a simple trivial matter not the discovery or a long lost family. “Celia’s mum is whole other matter, she has always been bitter about me being the absentee father and then for being who I am. Unfortunately she is what you would call an ice queen.”
I nodded my head and decided to keep quiet for the rest of the ride down to the basement due to the resentment that was laced within his words. Obviously there was a feud between the father and daughter and it wouldn’t do to irritate the grieving man any further. Allowing my hand to slide down his arm, I entwined my fingers with Lucius and gave him a smile as I squeezed his fingers in reassurance. It wasn’t much but it was all I could offer him.
The door gave the tinny ding sound as it lurched to a stop and the doors pulled open. It was probably the dread in my stomach but the motion seemed to take longer than usual like the building was giving us time to back out. I felt the hand wrapped around mine squeeze it tighter before it tugged me forwards and out into the draughty corridor. Much had changed since I had last been down here. I always made a point to avoid it because the place was very nearly my grave. Looking around it was much different to what I remembered. Not unexpected though because everything down here had been damaged by the fire or the water from the sprinklers.
What chilled me to the bone was the sign that clearly directed the way to the ‘morgue’. I gulped and looked up at my employer and friend.
“Why exactly do you have a morgue in your basement?” I whispered accusingly as goosebumps appeared on my arms. We followed the hall along like the sign suggested, passing several closed doors along the way.
“Why do you think?” Lucius taunted as he turned his head towards me and raised his eyebrow at me. “It’s so we can keep situations like this out of the eyes of the human authorities. We don’t need them becoming jumpy or suspicious. They’re already on edge already.”
Almost like they sprang up from nowhere, a set of double doors stood before us. It was strange how two unimposing blocks of wood could be so terrifying but the whole idea of a morgue made me feel a little queasy. I squeezed the hand in mine, suddenly needing the reassurance that I wasn’t there on my own before I reached forward with tentative fingers and pushed open the door.
A blast of cold air ran over me before a strange smell engulfed Lucius and I. Wrinkling my nose I allowed him to pull me forward but stilled when my eyes locked upon a steel table and the ominous looking body bag laying on top of it. It was a chilling reminder of why we were here. Lucius tugged me forward with him and then his voice which was unusually gravelly broke through my thoughts.
“Doctor Jay,” Lucius greeting a man that was decked out in scrubs but looked as if he was not long off his eightieth birthday. “This her?” His fingers skimmed the edge of the black bag as his voice cracked slightly.
The old man nodded, snapping on a pair of latex gloves before walking up to the end of the body bag. He pulled off the plastic tag holding the zip of the bag fastened shut before he tugged it downward. Never in my life have I dreaded the sound of a zip so much and on instinct I shut my eyes so that I wouldn’t have to see the contents of the body bag. I felt the hand around my squeeze mine painfully hard so without even thinking what I looked like, I blindly wrapped my arms around Lucius body.
Missing some of the silent interactions between the doctor and Lucius, I kept my eyes closed for several minutes until I heard the sound of the zip once more. Opening my eyes, I glanced up at Lucius to see his jaw clenched as if he was fighting some intense pain. I held onto him even tighter which caused him to unclamp his jaw as he wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in the crook of my neck.
The squeak of the wheels rang through the room as the steel table was wheeled away and the body along with it. For a while Lucius and I stood there is the chilly aftermath until finally I felt him pull away. Looking up into his face I saw that his eyes were slightly red as if he had been crying but there were no other signs of his obvious grief.
“Come on Savannah, let’s get out of here. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day.”
Taking his hand in mine once more, I retreated from the place that was sure to haunt me in my nightmare even though the only thing I really looked at was the gurney and the black enshrouded form upon it. If what Lucius said was true and that this was an inside job – well, I could only assume that this was going to become a very familiar sight.
Okay that's chappie 4. It's a bit of a filler as I can't really concentrate right now. Got two assignments to worry about. Might be MIA until they are done so please stick with me. Oh and it's coming towards the end of the first round of the watty awards I think there might be a month left? So if your a fan of this series and have read Devil's Assistant and liked it then could you please please take the time to vote? It's my first time entering and would love for the story to make it through to the second round. Anyways thanks for reading xx