It's been four months since Ace and Maiz came to live in Hell. Ace has gotten to know most of the staff in the castle by now and even found a routine that works for him to keep himself busy while Lucifer works. As much as Lucifer wants to stay with Ace all day, he can't abandon his own duties. Like torturing Travis and Hitler and all those damned animal abusers.
While Lucifer works, Ace has his own jobs to do. After breakfast, he drops Maiz off with Sage, then he goes to the gardens and takes care of the plants for the morning until lunch. When lunch comes around, he picks Maiz up from Sage, so she can eat with him and Lucifer. After lunch, Maiz goes back to Sage. Then Ace goes to the library to read up on the history of Hell or any other book he can manage to read.
Hell has a language all its own, to which Lucifer used his magic to allow Ace to understand the other demons. Ace wants to learn how to speak and read the language on his own though and rely less on Lucifer's magic. If Ace is going to be spending the rest of eternity here in Hell, he has plenty of time to learn the native language and alphabet.
After spending two hours in the library, Ace moves to the mail room to help sort through mail. Lucifer even gave him permission to read the complaint mail to see if anything catches his eye. Lucifer knows Ace will find something he will be able to fix, that's just the way Ace is. Lucifer has no problem with Ace seeing through to the complaint mail. If Ace can solve a problem, then the demons of Hell will be more likely to accept him.
Lucifer sighs as he shuts his laptop. He rubs both his temples with two fingers each before standing up. Today has been a busy day. More damned souls are entering Hell by the day. Something to do with terrorists that go by the name Isis.
Lucifer finds the terrorist's name to be odd. In mythology, Isis is the Egyptian goddess of marriage, fertility, motherhood, magic, and medicine. So how did terrorists come up with their name? Lucifer doesn't care too much to actually find out. All their souls will be his one day.
Lucifer leaves his office and walks down the empty corridors. He knows where he will find Ace, not only can he feel his mate in the castle, but he knows Ace's routine. Lucifer makes a detour to let Sage know that Ace will be late to picking Maiz up later as he would be taking the boy out of the castle for a while. Sage had no problem with watching the young human girl longer.
Lucifer finds Ace exactly where he knew he would, in the mail room. Ace doesn't notice Lucifer's presence, not even when the staff bow to their king. Ace is to busy sorting through complaint mail. Who would have guessed that Hell would have so much complaint mail?
"Love," Ace doesn't hear Lucifer though. Instead, the boy grabs another stack of mail so he can sort out all the complaint mail. Lucifer chuckles as he motions for the staff to continue what they were doing. Then he walks up to Ace and wraps his arms around him.
Ace jumps in fright, but he quickly realizes who it is holding him.
"Lucifer, you scared me," He grumbles. "What are you doing here?" Usually Ace doesn't see Lucifer until dinner after he picks Maiz up.
Lucifer kisses his small mate on the side of the head. "I needed a break. So, I thought I would take you out of the castle. There is something I need to do that only gets done once a month,"
"What is it?" Ace asks curiously as he sets the mail he was holding down onto the worktable.
"I think you'll like it," Lucifer smiles. "Come, my love, take a break,"
"Okay," Ace says as he gets out of his chair and allows Lucifer to lead him out of the room.
"We will teleport there as it is too far to walk," Lucifer informs.
Ace nods his head and wraps both arms around Lucifer's waist. After four months of teleportation, he is finally getting better with it. Occasionally he will still get a headache or dizzy spell from the form of transportation, but nothing too severe.
Lucifer smiles at his boy and wraps his own arms around him. He kisses the top of his head as he teleports them to their destination. He doesn't let the boy go once they reach the area, instead, Lucifer pulls Ace's head up and kisses him lightly on the lips.
Ace's heart skips a beat as Lucifer gently kisses his lips. Lucifer does that often, stealing gentle kisses whenever he can. When they first met, Lucifer was sweet, but he liked rough hot kisses. Now, he still loves the rough hot kisses, but he's also come to love the sweet gentle kisses. Ace loves every kiss Lucifer gives him though.
"Take a look, love," Lucifer uses a gentle voice, which surprises Ace.
Ace smiles at him before he looks to the side, his eyes widening impossibly wide until they actually hurt, and he fears his eyeballs will pop out of his head. Ace snaps his head to the other side, then spins in Lucifer's hold. Everywhere he looks amazes him and renders him speechless.
"Lucifer," Ace gasps once he manages to find his voice. "What is this place?" He speaks in a low tone, afraid that if he speaks too loudly he will ruin the serene atmosphere.
"The demons call it Heaven in Hell," Lucifer informs as he rubs small circles with his hand on one of Ace's hips. "They are not wrong,"
Ace shakes his head as his eyes snap from one thing to the next, not able to look at any one thing for long. The area is lush with green foliage, tall green trees, and mountains in the distance. The area looks out of place from the rest of Hell that Ace has seen so far, yet he enjoys it immensely.
"Lucifer, is the air cooler here?" Ace suddenly asks. Lucifer's presence is what keeps Ace from burning up outside of the castle, but here, the air doesn't feel as scorching hot.
Lucifer smiles and kisses his mate's temple. "Yes, my love. This is a piece of Heaven graciously given by God himself. This used to be in Heaven, but God thought I needed something to remember home by, so he gave me this. The air is cooler because Heaven is cooler,"
"Wow," Ace breathes out. "This used to be in Heaven? You mean, Heaven isn't in the clouds?"
Lucifer chuckles. Perhaps he could take Ace to Heaven someday. It's not like it's forbidden or anything. He would just have to make sure Ace didn't leave his side for even a moment because his siblings are bastards and would try to harm Ace.
"Yes and no," Lucifer answers. "Heaven has many entrances, one of those entrances happens to be in the clouds with a massive golden gate. Another entrance used to belong to this area we are in now, but once God gave it to me, it no longer works. There are even entrances scattered all around Earth, very few are lucky enough to find them though,"
Ace nods his head in complete fascination. He is looking at a piece of Heaven. A beautiful piece of Heaven. He had no idea Heaven could look like this. He always imagined winged people flying around in the sky and sleeping on fluffy white clouds. He couldn't have been more wrong. At least this piece of Heaven he was wrong about. Lucifer did say there is an entrance in the clouds.
"What does Heaven look like?" Ace wonders as he leans back against Lucifer in contentment.
Just being in this place makes Ace feel wonderful, more wonderful than he has ever felt before. He feels calm and happy. Like nothing bad could ever happen. He feels safe here, especially with Lucifer holding him from behind.
"Like everything," Lucifer answers. "Heaven is hard to explain. It looks like this," He sweeps one hand out to gesture the greenery surrounding them. "It looks like the clouds you imagined. It looks like floating islands and waterfalls. It is almost as beautiful as you, Ace Nova Williams," He whispers the ending in the boy's ear, and then kisses it.
Ace blushes hard at the compliment before shaking his head lightly. "No, Lucifer, if this is just a piece of Heaven, then I can't even compare to it. This, this, this is beyond beautiful, Lucifer. This is... perfect," He whispers the ending.
Lucifer chuckles. It doesn't matter what he could say, Ace would never believe that he is even more beautiful than Heaven is. Lucifer means it, though, Heaven is truly a beautiful sight, but to him, Ace is even more beautiful. Lucifer could stare at Ace for the rest of eternity and never tire, whereas he left Heaven because he needed a new scenery.
"This is not why I brought you here, though," Lucifer says after a long silence.
Ace blinks a few times. "It's not?" Why else would he bring him here?
Lucifer smiles as he turns himself and Ace around, so they are facing the other direction. Ace gasps as he stares dumbfounded at the new scenery being presented to him. Ace's jaw works but no words come out. He can hardly breathe at how magnificent it is.
"Lucifer," Ace gasps out breathlessly. "What is that?"
"It used to be an entrance to Heaven," Lucifer answers. "I remember, sometimes I would come here just to watch a human or animal break the surface of the water and enter Heaven. It was why my father gave me this particular piece of Heaven, because I often visited it,"
"Animal?" Ace wonders. "What kinds of animals?"
"Mainly dogs and cats, sometimes we would get a deer, antelope, or fox. Animals can sense Heaven, so they flocked to the entrances. Some would pass through, others just wanted the serenity. You would find predators among their prey, but they never dared to hunt around an entrance to Heaven. It used to amaze the humans when they would find a group of wild animals surrounding one area and acting calm. You would expect a wolf or mountain lion to hunt the deer and antelope, but they never did,"
"What happens when they pass through?"
"They have their own choice on if they want to stay in Heaven or not. Some just visit, others stay to live. Sometimes they visit multiple times, going between Earth and Heaven like it was a vacation spot,"
"And the humans? What about them? How do they find an entrance, and what happens once they get to Heaven?"
"Most find the entrances by accident, some have followed animals that had led them there. Domestic dogs are the biggest animals to go to Heaven. Dogs would lead their masters to the entrances. Once a human enters Heaven, they cannot leave without God's permission. God has to make sure they are not going to do something to the entrance or bring everybody and their mom to Heaven,"
"What is the purpose of the entrances?"
"For the animals mostly, but a few people are led by God himself to the entrances. People who need to escape Earth,"
"Who would need to escape?" Ace asks confused.
"Every human needs an escape every once in a while. Some need it more than others, though. Children who are homeless or abused, God helps them escape. People who will suffer a terrible future, God will help them. My father doesn't help just anybody though. Do you remember how I told you every human chooses who their family is?"
Ace nods his head. He does remember when Lucifer told him that every human chooses their family before being born. Ace had forgotten about it, but now that he is reminded of it, he wonders why he chose Travis and Bree.
"Sometimes, they choose the wrong family. Sometimes, they choose their family for one specific moment in life, even if they know it will all go to shit in the end. For example, the family you murdered to ensure you would come to Hell if you were to ever die, which will never happen by the way, each of them knew they would be murdered at the end of their lives. Yet, even knowing they would be murdered, they still chose the family they did. That boy and girl, they knew they would never reach adulthood, and yet they chose that particular family. Perhaps they chose that family for the love they would provide. They got a chance at a happy life. A short life, but a happy one,"
Ace bites his bottom lip in understanding. "Lucifer?"
"Yes, my love?"
"Are they in Heaven? The family I murdered," He feels almost guilty.
"Yes, they made it to Heaven," Lucifer answers. "They will be reborn soon, though,"
"Oh," Ace mutters. "I sort of feel bad for killing them,"
Lucifer chuckles. "It was going to happen either way. Besides, I did tell you you didn't have to kill anyone to come to me,"
Ace rolls his eyes. "Shut up. I don't regret killing Bree and Travis, I just sort of feel bad for killing my neighbors when they did nothing wrong. But oh well, there's nothing I can do about that now. I did it and I can't take it back, and I'm here now, so I'm not going to worry about it,"
Lucifer smiles against the boy's soft black hair. There is no need for Ace to worry. The family he murdered is in Heaven now, all together. They will be reborn and live a new life. And perhaps they will choose a life where they can die of old age or something.
Ace sighs as he looks at the most gorgeous thing he has ever seen before, besides Lucifer himself. A set of dark stone steps lead up to a pool of water that is surrounded by five tall columns on what appears to be a small mountain. The columns are beautiful with knotwork carvings in the white stone.
"Come, my love," Lucifer says as he pulls away and grabs his hand. Then he leads the teenage boy up the steps.
Ace bites his bottom lip as he follows after Lucifer. The steps are short but long, making it seem like there more steps than there really is. At the top, Ace gasps loudly. The water is clear, so clear he can see all the way to the bottom. But what confuses him is that at the bottom it looks like the blue sky and green trees overhead. Ace snaps his head to check if it isn't just a reflection. There are no trees and the sky does not look as blue.
"Lucifer, what is that?" Ace asks as he grips his arm tightly and peers into the water, afraid that he will fall in and contaminate it.
"That is Earth," Lucifer replies.
"Earth?" Ace snaps his head up to look at the taller man. "I thought you said the entrance doesn't work anymore?"
"It doesn't," Lucifer agrees. "The other side of this is on Earth. My father only took this piece from heaven, he left the one on Earth. What you see now, it is replicated on Earth. It may not be as green or lush now, but it is still the same. This pool of water, it is the same on Earth, only it doesn't have these columns," Lucifer places a hand on the cool white stone.
"So you can see Earth," Ace mutters more to himself. "When the entrance worked, did it only work one way?"
"For humans, yes. God has to give permission for humans to leave. It worked both ways for animals, though. They could come and go as they pleased,"
"Wow," Ace whispers. "Lucifer, this is so cool," He smiles wide. "Thank you for bringing me here,"
Lucifer smiles. "There is one other thing I wanted to show you, the whole reason I have brought you here,"
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Author's Blurb:
January 23, 2018
LOOK, an update! HAHA.
I had this chapter written out two days ago but it's been crazy busy so I couldn't find time to post it. Also, this chapter has not been edited yet.