S I X
Lucifer's Cell

IT BECAME A routine for me to keep awake throughout the night. By the time in which the rest of the castle was awake, my eyes were already half closed with eye bags as dark as the night sky. I was a human panda of sorts, simply just staring into thin air as everyone hustled around with bursts of energy.

After leaving the garden, Dimitri had walked me back to my room. Though it had to be near dawn by the time I reached the room and had my head against the pillow, I still couldn't fall asleep. I was tired, yes, but sleep did not come easy. Instead, I was left very much awake and thinking until sunlight broke through from the windows adjacent to my bed.

Fabian had made sure that my mind would never be put to rest. It wasn't that I didn't want to sleep, but rather the fact that my body and all its past lives didn't quite allow it. I could feel Ida's every thought, though not loud enough for me to make out what exactly she was saying, and it kept me tossing and turning in the sheets until I heard Minnie rising from her slumber in the room connected to mine.

"You look like death," Minnie said. Somewhere behind her, Dimitri scoffed loudly. "Did you not get some rest?"

"I think this castle is turning me into an insomniac. The last time I actually had a good rest was when I died." To that, I could hear Dimitri cough in surprise. That little eavesdropper.

"This journey is going to be difficult for you if you don't stay awake." Biting her lip, Minnie dug around at her little backpack in which she had packed. "We were supposed to have breakfast on the go since we need to utilize every single second we have to its fullest potential but you seem like you need this now."

In her hand was a simple energy bar. I did not recognize the packaging of it but it was obvious that it was a product brought here from the mortal realm. That alone was enough of a driving factor to push my hand towards it, grabbing it hungrily.

"It feels like forever since I last had some food from the normal world." Munching it greedily, I devoured the bar with little to no elegance. The chocolate smeared onto my lips and immediately, my tongue darted out to lick it clean.

"You look like a starved child," Wilhelm commented, a single fiery eyebrow raised as he pointed to the corner of his lips. "You've got a little something there." Instinctively, my hand was raised to wipe the dot of chocolate away.

"We're ready to leave," Fabian said, walking closer towards Wilhelm. "Dimitri and I will bring Addison and Minnie to find the book. If Lucifer is willing to give up the book's locations, we will be able to find it and return to the castle by nightfall."

"And if we don't, we would have wasted an entire day." I bit my lip, hands continuously tapping my legs as my limbs moved with anxiousness. "This feels weird. To have a time bomb strapped to my head."

"You'll be fine, Addison." A weight was placed on my shoulder, rubbing soothing circles on my back as Dimitri smile down at me. "I won't let anything happen to you. Not again."

There was already the beginnings of a smile slanting my lips, heart blooming deliciously when Fabian coughed once, causing my eyes to darken when he drew both Dimitri and I's attention.

"Friendly reminder, that was what you said when you were acting as that prick Cassiel," he pointed out, arms folded across his chest. "And look what happened?"

"To be fair, that was a really long time ago." With a hand up against his mouth, Calvin barely even resisted a laugh from spilling. "Darling Dimitri couldn't keep his promises for shit, back then."

Wilhelm scoffed, and though his eyes seemed hardened and serious, the upward tilt of his lips said otherwise. In fact, all of them were taking full advantage of the situation right now to poke fun at Dimitri.

"It's not he's any better now." Waving a nonchalant hand, Wilhelm shook his head in mock disapproval. "Brother always had a problem with pinky promises. I think he just doesn't like to be tied down so tightly."

"Oh how very humorous you are." Folding his arms across his chest as well, Dimitri deadpanned.

The two brothers, Calvin and Wilhelm, both stifled yet another laughter before finally cracking, completely laughing their asses off even to the point of tearing up.

"Come on. We're just wasting time here." Dimitri offered his hand to me, outstretched with an encouraging look from him as I took it without hesitance. Easily, as if I weighed nothing, he pulled me to my feet as I dusted off the crumbs of the energy bar off of my pants. "We get the book and return here immediately. The worst thing that can happen will be that Lucifer refuses to give up the information. In that case, we'll force him to talk."

With that, the four of us set out on a long journey, ready to brave whatever fate might throw at us.

How strange it was to leave the boundaries of the castle at long last. When the morning sun was finally up in the air, we had just but ventured towards the hills a distance away from the castle. I turned back, the winds caressing my face as my eyes searched for the large magnificent structure. It stood there, against the bright blue sky, towering gloriously as it overlooked the grounds of Hell. At such a high location, it seemed as though the view had just grown a little more breathtaking than usual.

Minnie was walking up at the front with Fabian, silence surrounding not just the both of them but us four as a whole. And though we had just but started the journey, my legs were already starting to grow sore, my entire being burdened by what was to become of myself should I fail in this.

"Don't you just look like a bundle of joy this morning?" Dimitri asked, suddenly by my side and walking at the same pace as I did.

His words simply deepened my frown, a very audible sigh escaping past my lips. I could not hide the fact that every inch of me was resisting this. Yes, I very much wanted to be alive again but it was hard to look towards the brighter side when the world was seemingly against you.

'But that's the thing, isn't it?' a little voice at the back of my head spoke. 'You take what horrors that life throws at you, and you fling it back twice as hard. That's how you keep moving on and better yourself.'

"Everything is against me." Taking the advice of my own subconsciousness, I shrugged. "It's hard to have to fight for something in which I had taken for granted all the time. Yet it also helps me to realize that nothing comes easy and if we want to take our own fates into our hands, we have to work for it and not sit there and wait for it to be served on a pretty platter."

"Life after death is a difficult journey, Andy." With his hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans, Dimitri braved a smile. He seemed awfully casual today, with a simple casual black blazer worn over a dark colored t-shirt. Only Dimitri could pull off such an easy look and make it look majestic at the same time.

"How far away is Lucifer's lair exactly?" I asked, mimicking his action.

"If I do recall, you've been there before."

"Yes, by complete accident," I snorted. "Minnie and I were lost beyond oblivion when we came across Lucifer's jail cell. I don't even remember most of the way there. It's just a bunch of whining from my part and a hell lot of worrying on her part."

Who would've thought that the spirit of death had such a melodious laughter? It rang like a thousand chimes, perhaps in just the way people descried the twinkle of stars to sound like. Softer than the chime of bells and more alive and whimsical than ordinary laughter by just as ordinary people.

"It's a distance, but the cell cannot be measured exactly." There was a sparkle of sunlight that was reflected in Dimitri's silver eyes, hinting that there were more secrets about him than what he was willing to let on or share.

"Why don't you just teleport us there?" Flabbergasted, my voice was raised a little higher than I probably should've, which attracted Fabian and Minnie's attention from in front of us.

"Because," Fabian started with a drawl. Already, I wanted to kick him in the face for the mere tone of his voice. "Lucifer's jail cell is unplottable. You can only get there by not wanting to get there."

"Great! That makes perfect sense." I laughed sarcastically just as Minnie cried out her own reply.

"That makes no sense!"

Dimitri threw his twin brother a look of amusement, one that was tinged with just a little bit of mischief. "You only find it when you're looking for something else. The first time you two came across it, you were both looking for a way out and not for Lucifer. I found you because I was looking for you. This magic protects the cell away from Lucifer's followers, should there still be any, and prevents them from finding him because you can only get to him when you're not looking for him."

"That's got to be the most complicated and nonsensical thing you've said to this date." From a few steps away, Minnie folded her arms across her chest. Judging by her facial expression, she was just about done with Dimitri's riddles, as much as I was.

"You have a thing for riddles, don't you?" I joked, shaking my head with a chuckle. "Even your questions back from that wretched party made zero sense and was practically impossible to figure out."

"But you did, didn't you?" With that, I was silenced for I knew that Dimitri spoke of the truth. Noting my zipped lips, he smirked a little, a look of triumph covering him completely. "That aside, we're here. Welcome to Lucifer's holding place."

Just as I remembered, the entrance to Lucifer's lair was a large cave, one whose fiery blaze could already be felt from the outside. There came a large gust of hot air, charging towards us as my hair flew in wild directions. There was, however, a significant difference. The last time in which Minnie and I had been here, there was a ball of light within the tunnel, as if beckoning us forward into its comforting glow. Darkness replaced it this time, not a single beam emerging from the void.

"Something's off about this place," I commented, a hand raised to wipe a bead of perspiration away.

The others, though silent, were evidently agreeing with me. Fabian's eyes were cautiously accessing the area, scanning the environment as Minnie took a small step closer towards me. Dimitri on the other hand, had his eyebrows furrowed and lips turned down. He took a step closer towards the entrance as if just letting the warm gusts of air to embrace him for a moment before he finally turned back.

"Let's hurry." His command was simple, short and sweet, yet it still held as much urgency as a string of words would've. In fact, his lack of wording only seemed to increase the emphasis on the importance of the situation.

When we stepped in, everything was a dark blank. I couldn't see anything ahead of me, and it was only because of Dimitri's hand placed reassuringly on my waist had I not gone running while screaming my head off.

Further into the tunnel was the familiar red glow of the walls, the bars of appearing jail cells are all still gleaming and firmly in place. The demons were thankfully not as lively as before, all collapsed into a corner of their jail cells, either fast asleep or on the brink of death. Instead of the maniac howling, all that could be heard was our own breaths mingling with the heat of the air.

"I never got to ask." My voice was soft, a mere whisper even though I didn't know why I allowed it that way. "These prisoners, demons, are they..."

"Yes." There was no hesitation in Dimitri's voice, his eyes fixed forward as we trudged on. Only for a single second had his gleaming bright eyes left the road to catch a glimpse of the demons. I might have imagined it, but his gaze was fixed on the two large scars placed on the demons' backs. "They're all fallen angels. Ones that supported Lucifer during his reign instead of defying him."

"They are all disgraces," Fabian spat. At his significantly louder voice, some of the demons looked up, though never completely rising to their feets. It seemed as though they were waiting patiently for something to happen. Something to set them free.

When we had reached the end of the tunnel had I finally placed all the pieces of the puzzles together to form the larger picture. Why the demons were all so calm and passive, why the light within the tunnel was gone, and why there was just something off about the place.

What greeted us was a large jail cell, it's bars tore opened but what could've been a being of extraordinary strength. It had to be opened from the inside, the metal turning outwards due to the direction of how it was pushed open. I could feel Dimitri and Fabian tense up immediately when we all finally clicked and realized the gravity of the situation. Lucifer's cell was empty.

The fallen angel of light and former ruler of Hell was gone.

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