»I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil.
I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.«
Marilyn Monroe
I don't know how long have I been trying to wake up. The annoying ray of sunlight sneaked from behind the curtains, reminding me that a new day had begun. I could still feel the cold, sticky sweat between my shoulder blades from last night’s nightmare. What a strange dream.
As if I would make a deal with the Devil.
My legs hit the floor and I dragged my soulless body into the bathroom. Warm splashes of water that ran over my nude back calmed me down like a jazz song at summer time, so smooth and all over the place. I filled my mouth with water running from the broken shower head, slowly letting it overflow across my lips.
"Good morning,"
My neck felt stiff as the silenced scream paralyzed my throat. At a slow pace, I forced myself to turn around. My heart was racing so strongly, I thought it nicked a piece of my rib.
I screamed and turned around, my heart racing as if it were trying to run out of my chest. What the hell was that?!
The guy from my dreams - , I mean nightmare, was sitting on the closed toilet seat. Nonchalantly, he turned a page of today's newspaper. Although the glass door fogged up, I clearly noticed those red eyes.
"What the hell," I shrieked at his presence.
"That was rather rude." He said.
"Y...You..." I mumbled, covering myself with the nearest towel. In a moment of disorientation, I forgot to turn off the faucet, which resulted in soaked, heavy towel. The fabric was gaining in weight by the second.
"Me," Lucifer turned his luminous red eyes upon me and made that half-smile only pretentious boys did.
"It was real," I whispered to myself, panic striking my nerves. The events of last night flashed in my mind. "My soul!" I yelled and covered my mouth to muffle my voice.
"Do not despair yet, little Lux, I am not here to collect." He licked his index finger and flicked to the next page, a gesture that quite obviously amused him.
"Lucija," Oh crap, my mom. "Are you all right?" the door-handle slowly moved.
"Yeah, I'm fine! Don't come - "
Did I mention we don't have any keys for the locks in this house? Yeah, it was my mom's decision – she has a bladder of a three-year old, she needs to pee every twenty freaking minutes, so she just barges in, even if you're showering. No regard for personal space, whatsoever.
" - in." I finished the sentence, but she was already peeking inside.
Fuck, there’s a stranger sitting on our toilet...I held my breath as if that would be able to resolve anything and squeezed the towel which was dripping wet with water.
"Are you okay? I thought you fell or something." Mom didn't even glance at him.
"Oh, have I disclosed that you are the only one who can perceive me," he spoke as if this information was nothing.
No, you didn't fucking mention that!
"I'm fine," I growled through my teeth. "can you please leave now?" my voice sounded slightly pissed off.
"Lucija, what in god’s name are you doing with that towel? Look at it, it's all wet now, do you have any idea how long it will take for that towel to dry again?" mom sighed.
"Well, maybe if you wouldn't barge in every few minutes, I wouldn't have to cover myself!"
"It's my bathroom, I can barge in anytime I want!" she slammed the door. "When you can pay the bills..." Her voice echoed through the closed door like a muzzled sound. Mumbling, such an annoying habit.
"Your mother is correct you know, the towel will - "
"Get out!" silenced scream finally slipped my mouth. The shock of everything came over me all at once.
The King of Hell looked at me with a surprise. Great intensity of his gaze confirmed that no one dared to raise his voice at him, in a while.
"Get out of my bathroom!" I yelled again.
"As you wish," Lucifer slightly bowed his head with a snappy undertone, and vanished into thin air.
Was my mental health taking a turn for the worse? I mean – a deal with the Devil, only I was able to see him...those are all the signs of schizophrenia and overactive imagination. There is no way that this could be real...right?
My neck ached, so I tried rubbing it. I felt a tiny bulge on the back of it. A reflection in the mirror had shown me a wound that teased my flesh. Mark in a shape of his lips. It appeared as a burn mark. A faint redness made it look like a kiss that was burnt into my skin.
* * *
I put on a shirt with floral pattern, swiftly touching the burn mark of his lips on the back of my neck. It still ached a little, like sunburn after a hot summer day. Without a bra, the shape of my breasts was almost completely visible, but the thought of something else teasing or constricting my skin in an unpleasant way was a little too much.
"Soreness will die out in a few days," Lucifer’s voice came out of nowhere again, striking me with electricity that pulsated in the atmosphere.
"Could you stop?" I asked.
"Stop what?"
His ignorance was so taunting, I sighed out-loud. "Appearing out of nowhere when I'm naked...or getting dressed." I pulled on a skirt.
"But I am the Devil," he grinned, leaning on the wall behind him. Lucifer crossed his arms and waited for my reply.
This was a game to him, and we were the players. It amused him. But it revolted me. I shifted away from him, searching through my bag for the house keys and a pink wallet. Lucifer’s attitude was exactly the reason why I didn’t associate with boys. They enjoy the hunt and playing the game, but once you give in; you’re just another boring, old toy they toss under their bed.
"Fine," Lucifer gave in. "as a gift for signing a contract with me, I shall grant you that one rule. No appearing while you are exposed or unclothed."
As if I can trust the Devil.
"So my darling, what is your request today?" he asked seductively. The way he uttered those words reminded me of the poison that infected the apple given to Snowhite. Nearness of his physical presence caused me to sense the heat that his body created. When he was close it was like breathing in fire.
"No requests." I murmured and grabbed my bag.
Maybe if I don't wish for anything he'll just go away, I thought to myself as I walked towards my bus station. It didn't look like he followed me.
Summer was approaching, each day it smelled more like cold rain crashing into feverish pavements, freshly cut grass and barbequed food. Only a few more days, and summer vacation will start. That first taste of creamy ice cream and walks down the granite paved road in the City was what I desired the past few months.
The City I lived in was; art. Street musicians drowned the streets with music, artisans of colour painted the concrete ground we walked on with images from fairytales, even the architecture was something that made you crave your own art. Bridges clashed into one another like lovers holding hands, and street lamps made you wonder if Narnia was right around the corner. Statues of dragons guarded our City for centuries, never shutting an eye.
I craved for one thing just as much as any other person; I wanted to change to world. I wanted to change it with words. I wanted to lend my voice to those whose voices had been silenced. That was my greatest dream and my darkest secret, and most insufferable temptation; something to ask of Lucifer. But my heart refused to cheat, to take shortcuts. It was not in my nature to claim something I did not deserve.
I took in a deep breath of fresh air before I stepped on the bus. It was one of those older buses with wooden chairs, quite unpleasant way of traveling for your derriere. Stench of sweat circled inside the bus that had no air-conditioning, people dripping with sticky droplets escaping their overheated skin. I tried to cool down by fanning my shirt, circulating the air, but it only made me realize that my thin shirt began showing the outline of my nipples.
When in doubt or despair – listen to music. Carefully, I untangled white headphones wrapped around my phone and placed them in my ears.
I'm a puppet on a string
Tracy Island, time-traveling diamond...
...I go crazy 'cause here isn't where I wanna be
And satisfaction feels like a distant memory...
Those lyrics echoed in my mind, healing my wounded soul like the best cure for heartache. A slight pinch on my arm made me open my eyes, and there he was. Lucifer, sitting next to me.
He pointed towards my headphones and mouthed something. I couldn't hear him, nor did I want to. I turned my head away, staring at the passing trees through the bus window.
He pulled one of the headphones out of my ear, saying: "Converse with me."
I ignored him and put the headphone back in.
The fact that I ignored his presence did not mean that I could dismiss the raising heat Lucifer evaporated. You think it was hot before? Try sitting next to the Devil. Somehow I could feel that he was getting annoyed. Suddenly something popped in my ear, creating a very unpleasant sound and melted plastic almost stuck to my skin.
Quickly, I pulled out the ruined headphone and touched my burned ear. "Are you completely fucking mental?!" I yelled at him.
"You should not speak so loudly with yourself. It appears strange," Lucifer pointed out as the entire bus started staring at me. That's right, only I can see him. "Besides," he pierced me with his bloody red eyes. "I needed to get your attention somehow."
"Well, I can't talk to you here." I mumbled into my hand.
Lucifer breathed out heavily. "Take out your mobile device and pretend you are conversing to someone."
I reached for my phone and placed it against my ear.
"It will not achieve anything," a few locks of his windswept hair fell across his face. Lucifer combed through with his fingers, making it spiky, but messy at the same time.
"What?" I asked.
"You – disregarding me on purpose."
I paused for a few seconds. "Why?"
"The contract became valid last night. You could say that today is the begging of the rest of your life – quite literally. Your six months will be over before you know it. Use it while you can, at least have some enjoyment before you disappear in damnation," as if he knew he invited my most kept desire to paint its way with words on my lips.
My eyes searched for a piece of sympathy in his, but...he didn't seem like he'd be capable of that kind of emotion. I bowed my head in silence, hot tears fogging my view, painfully threatening to roll down my cheeks.
"Hear me out," his lips curved into a sinister smile. "it can be quite entertaining."
"How?" I wiped away the tear that ran down my cheek. How can losing one’s soul be entertaining?
Lucifer gazed across the bus, his eyes carefully examining every person. Like a creature perceiving more than was visible to the naked eye, he pierced each passenger. "Behold that man, sitting in the corner at the front of the vehicle?" he gestured towards a man in a business suit.
The way he was dressed and a few wrinkles on his face, pointed to the fact that he was in his forties. In one hand he was clenching a neat suitcase, and in the other a political magazine, which he consumed with enthusiastic, but serious expression.
I nodded to confirm.
"When he is unoccupied, he enjoys clothing his two dogs in rosy garments fit for a ballerina. After that he performs theatrical plays with them, dramas that he composed himself."
I furrowed my brows at the business man. Somehow a picture of him and the two dogs in girly dresses made me smile.
"And that woman over there,"
My look averted towards an elderly woman with a knitted shopping bag.
"she dreams of murdering her spouse. Slicing him up with a silver blade, storing pieces of his body in a freezing container, slowly consuming him. She would love to brew a stew out of his delicious liver. Cannibalistic urges haunt her mind ever since she was a young child, witnessing swine slaughtering."
I swallowed, staring at a kind old woman with silver hair. Could a face like that hide evil?
"And her," Lucifer mimicked towards a girl my age. "she is passionately into binding of the body." his eyes flickered with a demon spark as he observed my reaction. "Under all those garments, a silky rope binds and squeezes at the most delicate parts of female anatomy."
Cat caught my tongue when I saw her squirming on her seat and sucking onto her lower lip. Lucifer was right.
"Everyone has a dark side," he gently blew a whiff of cold air near my ear. It felt wonderfully on the burnt areas. "do not be frightened to ask for anything your heart desires." Lucifer purred like a cat asking for a treat.
When the bus finally arrived at my stop, I quickly stepped off and ran down the narrow path that led towards my school. If there was no way for me to get out of this deal...If I was going to die...Then why not? Why not be a little bad? Cheat life? Even good girls do bad things sometimes.
The boy with red eyes suddenly appeared before me out of nowhere. How I hated when he did that...
Lucifer held hands behind his back, appearing like an authority figure. His hair was amber brown with shades of cooper. He was tall, at least a head and a half taller than me. Black leather jacket fit his broad shoulders perfectly. I always imagined that the Devil looked evil, you know – the horns or goat legs, all that. But no, I was wrong. The devil was beautiful. After all, he was a fallen angel.
"Okay, Mr. Devil, you've got yourself a deal." I stretched my hand towards him and gave into my destiny.
He looked at me with gaze of a heart-breaker and a sentence formed on his sinful lips. "Please," he spoke as he gently took my hand into his, slightly bowing his head and pressing a searing kiss upon it. "call me Lucifer."
Author's note: Wow yeah so, haha, what do you think about the devil now? More chapters coming your way, be kind and tell me what you think, everything is apreciated, vote if you like ;)