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Jimin

Shit.

Time ran out, and Y/n was far from Hell-bound. If anything, she seemed like Saint Peter himself, that damn bastard. It was like she spent her free time wishing for world peace. How had his plans gone so wrong, and why did it have to result in him losing his powers?

Jimin stood in the backyard, facing the sun and not bothering to look up at it, instead letting the rays scorch his face. Summers in Hershey had intense heat, but the breezes drifting through the trees counterattacked the warm waves that swelled inside him. He didn't mind; after all, Hell was his home.

The home he was about to return to.

"Is this it?" Y/n's meek voice asked from behind him. She didn't bother grabbing his hand or touching him in any way when she stopped by his side. The old Y/n would love to hold him. Time changed her. Well, more accurately, Jimin did.

"Yeah."

His voice sounded meeker than hers, though perhaps that was all in his head. He tried his best not to stutter, stagger, or crack, but fate loved to defy him. Fate used to be an old pal, letting him live centuries beyond what was needed, yet there he stood, about to dive into madness and remove the part of him that had made him Park Jimin.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm about to lose everything I've ever known. Of course I'm not okay, Y/n, and I won't be for a while." Jimin sighed and rolled his shoulders back to ease the tension in his muscles. It didn't work. "But I guess that means I can start going by my real name now, huh? At least there's one positive to this."

Not that Jimin minded June, but it could be nice to go back to his actual name. Over the years, he had almost forgotten the name Park Jimin. Lucy helped him remember. Jimin didn't want to think about all the other memories he had forgotten with age. Particularly the ones about his parents and the way they used to nurture him. More than anyone else ever had. Up until Y/n, anyway, and he knew he didn't deserve that.

"Might want to read a book or something while you wait. Could take a while," Jimin said, and Y/n kissed the back of his hand before backing off.

Jimin raised his hands, preparing to snap them for the final time, and then, he shifted through time and space. Teleportation happened in a split second, yet that one took longer. Time slowed and showed him an older woman brushing his hair. The same older woman he had always seen whenever he had teleported.

The woman hummed a gentle but distorted tune. The entire flash was fuzzy and distant, yet Jimin felt it closer than he had ever felt anything before, even the touch of Y/n. He could feel the woman in his soul, and he gazed as she finished brushing his hair and made sure no locks were out of place.

"There. You look perfect, Min Min," the woman said, her voice warping around his mind. The little Jimin bounced and clapped his hands, his black hair bouncing on his head.

"Thanks, mom," real Jimin whispered, his voice feeling forced and breathless.

And it ended. The memory faded in favor of lava, flying demons, and succubi laughing and flashing their breasts to anyone who walked by. Heat skimmed his cheeks as he let his boots crunch the rocks underneath him. Each step was slower than the last, and his breathing picked up at the reality of the situation settling in. No more teleportation. No more invisibility. No more immortality. No more demon life.

No more Park Jimin.

Jimin stopped and stared at the cave Lucifer resided in. It was darker than Jimin remembered. He couldn't see inside. No sign of Lucifer or his millions of servants, though Jimin knew it was because of the shadow cloaking the interior. If he wanted to see his bestie, he needed to take the leap and cross the threshold into his demise.

"Shit."

Jimin let out a few other whispered expletives and wondered if he could throw himself into one of the lava pools. Then again, it was either mortality or eternal suffering. Eternal suffering sounded more appealing than living a boring human life—at least Jimin would be in Hell, a place he was familiar with—but it was eternal. Living and dying started and ended. Suffering did not. So, mortality it was. He had done it once, all that time ago. All he had to do was do it again.

His legs trembled while he willed them forward. Demons flew around and laughed, something Jimin yearned for. Too late, huh? All his schemes had failed. Y/n had risen above them, and as much as he held resentment toward her for it, a small part of him respected her. No one else could have persevered. Who else would spare a rapist's life? Hell, Jimin would have killed Jameson if he didn't fear eternal suffering. No monster like that deserved to live, and that was why he had been certain Y/n would have killed him while he was unconscious and unarmed. Jameson deserved it, and Jimin would celebrate every second, yet it was still a sin of wrath due to the nature of the situation.

Before Jimin could make the decision to enter, Lucifer made it for him. The demon king lunged out of the cave, grabbed Jimin by the throat, and threw him in. Jimin rolled on the floor, dirtying his trench coat and getting grime under his nails. One of them broke, too.

"What the fuck?" Jimin grunted and got to his knees, whipping his head up with narrowed eyes. They were alone in the cave, and the king burned a brighter red than normal.

"Rape!" Lucifer kicked Jimin in the stomach, and Jimin ended up coughing out a mix of vomit and saliva. "You couldn't accept the girl as your partner, so you send someone to try and rape her?"

"You know?"

"I know everything. I've been watching you, and my, my, Mr. Park, you do not disappoint." Lucy grabbed Jimin by the hair and pulled him back, straining his neck and leaving him vulnerable to more attacks. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Lucy." Jimin groaned and gagged from the force of the king's hold on him. "You torture suicide victims for a living. You're not in a great position to lecture me on morals."

Lucy released him, and Jimin choked and collapsed. Any action Lucy took hurt twenty times worse than any human, or even any other demon. The king had more strength than any powerful figures, rivaling God Himself.

"I wasn't going to let him get that far," Jimin said, which resulted in a punch from Lucifer that broke Jimin's nose. Blood squirted on the ground, and Jimin shouted out from the sudden crack of his bone. "Fuck! Lucy, enough! I came here to give up my powers, what more do you want from me?"

Lucy rolled Jimin over so he was on his back, facing the jagged rock formation of the ceiling. No words came for several beats. And then, Lucifer scoffed and strolled back to his throne to plop down. Jimin took it as permission to wobble to his feet, wipe his bloody nose, and glare.

"Really?"

"I should be saying that to you," Lucy said, his voice quieter than before. Not soft, but not loud, either. "I have to give you credit, Jimin: you used that loophole well. If you used that brain of yours for something good, the world might be a better place. Perhaps Hell would not be as overrun with sinners who scream about their innocence." Lucy clicked his tongue and met Jimin's gaze. "But it's easy to do things in life thinking you'll get away with it, right? It's easy for Jameson to do the things he does because he does not believe in Hell. And you..."

"Yes, I get it. I've been through Hell before, Lucy. I know what I did was wrong, but you knew I didn't want a soulmate. I had a great life before you fucked it up."

"You fucked it up yourself."

"How?" Jimin stomped forward and jabbed his hand with the broken nail at Lucifer's chest. "I never asked for this. All I wanted was a way out, but even after stabbing myself and thinking I could be free of the real world, it's not enough. You can't just let me rest. You need me to get tortured as a damn tree and then threaten me with mortality? Threaten me with the same thing that destroyed me in the first place? I know what I did was monstrous, but I did it to protect myself. To protect little Jimin."

Lucifer glanced at the finger, and then back into Jimin's eyes. He didn't speak for a long moment. When he did, he leaned forward until the tip of Jimin's index finger—the one with the broken nail—touched his flaming chest.

"What you went through in your mortal life was terrible, and you have my deepest apologies. But if you hated it so much, why did you inflict it on another?"

Jimin took a few deep breaths to steady himself. "I didn't want to. I just wanted to protect myself. You don't understand, Lucy. If I killed myself once, I'll do it again."

Lucifer sunk back in his seat again, shaking his head. "Jimin, you have my sympathies for what you went through as a tree, but what you did to Y/n? You can blame it on your fear all you want, but that is an explanation, not an excuse. It does not excuse your actions toward the girl. Her life was fine before you showed up, and instead of being a good partner and being there for her after her father died, you torment her and make her go through an attempted sexual assault. There is no coming back from that."

"I get it." Jimin set his feet and hung his head. "It was wrong. Beyond wrong. I may not love her like you want me to, but I don't... I don't hate her. She's a pure soul, even if she wouldn't agree. I know you won't believe me, but I regret it."

"I do, which is exactly why I'm not going to put you in eternal suffering."

"You're... not?"

"No," Lucifer said, standing and showing his true height that rocketed over Jimin. "I'm going to do worse."

"Worse than eternal suffering? How is that possible?"

"You get used to eternal suffering after a while." Lucy did a hand wave and stepped down, walking by Jimin with a chuckle and swiveling on his heel. "I'm going to take your powers and send you back to the mortal realm. You're going to live and fall for Y/n every day for a year, and when that year is up, that's it, she's gone. She'll find out the truth about what you did that night, and then you'll never get to be with her again, right after you finally realize she truly is your soulmate. All that love, the thing you haven't had in centuries, gone in a blink. And then you'll live the rest of your mortal life alone, die alone, and go into purgatory. Not Hell, not Heaven, but the darkness in between."

Jimin rolled his eyes. Sounded better than eternal suffering. Not pleasant, but not awful. He got to live and not get thrown into torture again. Seemed like a win-win for him. Heaven wasn't his style anyway. Too many angels with moral compasses. No crimes, no sex, no nothing. Boring.

"If you insist, Lucy. Now let's get this shit over with."

"Eager, hm?" Lucy placed his clawed hand on Jimin's head, and Jimin felt the pressure return. "I risked everything for you, and this is how you repay me? By trying to corrupt an innocent woman? You were like a son to me, but look where that got us, huh?" Lucy dug deeper into Jimin's skull to pry away his demon powers, and Jimin wheezed, his lungs going dry. "I never want to see you again. If I do, I'll make you beg for eternal suffering."

Jimin couldn't answer. It was as if his tongue had been cut out and replaced with sand. All at once, light engulfed him, and he felt his soul get sucked out—literally. Every ounce of his being warped out and ended up in Lucifer's grasp. Jimin gasped and fell back, his hands shaking as he raised them. No more invisibility or teleportation. His finger snaps didn't work. While his appearance hadn't changed, everything else did. He would've rather lost his good looks.

"Enjoy your time with your lover. You don't have much of it left," Lucifer said, his voice like a dog's hiss. Jimin brought his gaze to Lucy's blank one, still processing his new body. His weaker body. "Goodbye, Park Jimin."

Jimin didn't know if it was the dim lighting, the lava, or the intensity of the situation, but he swore he saw tears in Lucifer's eyes. But he had no time to confirm that; right as he went to peer deeper, Lucy snapped his fingers, and the lava world disappeared from sight. Instead, Jimin felt grass beneath him. Sun on his face. Wind through his black and red hair.

In any other situation, the grass clearing would be the most gorgeous, refreshing sight in the world. The trees blowing in the breeze only added to it, and he yearned to reach out and touch every inch of the nature. He wished animals, like deer, would run around and cuddle with him. Perhaps Harry would be a substitute.

Mortality. That was what awaited him for the next sixty or so years until he died and went to purgatory. Neither Heaven or Hell, just a space in between where you watched souls go to either side of the coin. Jimin remembered that. The one guiding the souls sent his to Hell, and he had not been surprised. Lust was his number one sin, or so he thought. When he got taken to the trees and told he had committed wrath against his own body, he had tried to resist and fight back. It didn't work. No one could stop God's will.

Jimin sat in the grass and watched the sun. Not directly out of fear of burning his eyes, but the sky and how the birds pranced around. They chirped and chirped with no signs of slowing down. They were mortal, too. Happy but mortal. Blissfully ignorant to the reality of their tiny lifespans.

All those years of seeing Earth evolve would leave Jimin at some point. His memory would block them out in favor of his limited time, and he knew he would die alone. He never thought he would die with company anyway, so at least that hadn't changed.

"Jimin?"

Jimin didn't bother turning to meet Y/n's voice. The woman sat down beside him and didn't add anything for a long moment. When she did, she did it with a soft voice and a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay. We define what forever means, not God or Lucifer. We'll make our lives last forever."

The heat was high enough to be visible. He could see the faint waves stretching across his vision. He counted each one, sucking them in and rolling them around his mind until he was satisfied. And then, only then, did he face her with a smile. It wasn't genuine, but perhaps one day it could be.

"Okay."

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Read Starfield for clear skin. Like, seriously. My best work by far.

Anywho, see you on Monday for the next chapter. I'll probably post three chapters next week so I can meet my ideal December 20 deadline on this story, so you should totally vote if you're excited to see the end of the book.

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