The Devil's Lover: The Wish (9 page)

She couldn't breathe.

She shook his body roughly, but he
didn’t move. Or breathe. Or tell her to stop.

Her heavy tears fell to the ground and
mixed with his blood. "I just talked to you,” she said to him.
"Hours ago, you were still alive. How do you expect me to do this,
Chevalier? How am I supposed to believe it?” she pressed his cold
hand against her cheek.

"You were still warm just last night
when you made me promise you. You think you can just walk out of
that promise? You think you can just leave me all alone in this
heartless world? You were the only thing that made it all
bearable!"

"The dead cannot come back," the
doctor said. "Please try to calm down.”

"Did he…” she held him with her eyes
one last time, “Did he suffer long?"

"No," the doctor shook his head after
a long moment of pause, "we do not believe so.”

"That's good,” she said before she
collapsed. Lucifer was quick to catch her before her head hit the
floor. At least he did not suffer long.

†††††

 “
You should eat
something,” Lucien said from the head of the dinner table. Ever
since Chevalier's death, she hadn't been herself. She hadn't shed a
single tear since she returned home.   

She shook her head in
refusal.

Lucien dipped the spoon into some
porridge and held it to her mouth. She turned away. He grabbed her
face with his hand and forced the spoon into her mouth. She tried
to swallow the porridge, but she choked on it instead.

“
Why won’t you eat?”
Lucifer asked in an unsympathetic tone. “You need to consume the
necessary nutrients to sustain yourself.”

She shook her head. Her face remained
emotionless as two lines of tears fell from her eyes.

He licked them away. “Be a good girl,”
he said in a much gentler voice. “Eat for me.”

“
I just can’t,” she said.
There was no strength in her voice.

“
Seeing you like this
makes me want to do even worse things to him,” Lucien said. “Don’t
cry for him any longer,” he kissed her gently. “Don’t think about
him anymore.”

She was unresponsive to his
kiss.

“
And yet, thoughts of
anything besides me still persist,” Lucifer stood up.

She grabbed his hand and looked up at
him. “Could you bring him back to me?”

It was a silly question. "I don't see
why I should.”

"Those dreams... they weren't dreams,
were they?" When he did not deny it, she pressed on. "Those men on
the streets, you killed them didn't you?"

“
I supposed it is better
this way," Lucifer decided. "I have no need to pretend any
longer.”

"I couldn't make sense of it, all the
things around you. I thought long and hard, but I couldn't make
sense of things until I realized you were the man in my dreams.
Your resemblance to him grew more and more each day. I see things
more clearly now than I ever have before. Everything has been a
lie, hasn't it?"

"Not all of it.”

"In the cave, you said that you
prolonged my life in order to grant me a wish. I’ll die after my
wish come true, right?"

He nodded. "That was the original
plan.”

“
Bring him back,” she
rested her head on his forearm. “That’s my wish. If it’s within
your power, please bring him back.”

Anger flickered in Lucifer’s eyes. His
dark hair bleached into platinum and his brilliant blue eyes glowed
fiercely. He pushed her to the ground, both of his hands wrapped
around her delicate neck. The sudden flair of his aura caused the
glass windows to shatter into millions of glittering pieces before
falling onto the ground. He fought to restrain himself from using
any strength, because even a small amount could easily sever her
head from her body.

“
That
is the wish worth dying for? Bringing him back to life?” his
furious voice shook the foundation of the house.

"If you have even the smallest idea of
what he means to me, then you won’t even ask,” she said through a
screen of tears. "He was there long before you showed up in my
life. That man worked himself every day to provide for me, a girl
he had completely no ties or obligation to. He cared for me when no
one in this world even bothered to give me a second glance. He has
nothing to offer me, but himself. And from nothing, he had given me
everything, but I was too big of an idiot to realize it. And what
did I do for him? I refused him again and again, and left him the
day before he left this goddamn forsaken earth! I left him when he
begged me to stay. How am I supposed to live with that the rest of
my life? I would be heartless or insane if I could sleep another
night with that in the back of my head.” 

Her words only fueled his
rage.

“
You can take my body! You
can take my life! You can even take my soul!” she offered without a
second thought. “Just bring him back to me.”

“
I would never,” he
hissed.

“
That is my only
wish.”

“
I am under no obligation
to oblige!” he clarified. "You were far too young at your untimely
death. I prolonged your life in order for you to have a final wish.
Taking your life was never my intention!"

“
But you do want this body
and this soul,” she daringly looked into his eyes.

He couldn’t deny it. He wanted her.
The moment that he discovered her genuine concern toward him, he
had wanted to possess her. And she was asking for a bargain with
him.

It was a bargain he could not
refuse.

It would not make any difference
whether Chevalier was dead or alive if Kali was in another realm.
Their paths would never meet again.

His anger slowly resided. “I would
only resurrect him," his tone of voice much calmer now, "if you
pledge your heart and your soul to me for all of
eternity.”

“
I am human,” she said,
turning her head to the side to avoid his cold gaze. “I do not have
an eternity. I’ll grow old in a few decades. A life for a life, I
suppose that’s fair.”

"I am not willing to settle for a few
measly decades. You will live as long as I desire so,” then he
added. "Do I have your promise?”

She didn't know who he was, or what he
was. It didn't matter. She would make a deal with the devil himself
if he could bring Chevalier back to life. Kali nodded. “I
promise.”

With those two words, she knew she had
sealed her fate.

“
I will hold you to your
words.”

“
Where are you going?” she
sat up as he headed toward the window.

“
To the realm of the
dead.”

In the form of a shadow, he
disappeared into the night.

†††††

Lucifer stepped onto a vast and barren
land that stretched as far as the eye could see. In the realm of
the dead, there was no such thing as night or day; only the dark
pit sky and lifeless gray soil. From the gray soil grew trees that
looked as if they had been dead for many years, sprouting in
twisted and strange shapes. On the branches of those seemingly dead
trees were small dim lights, each holding a life of its
own.

“
A demon trespasses in the
realm of the dead?” an eerie voiced echoed. A black hole opened in
the sky as a white skeleton in a black hood appeared. He bony hands
held a large, sharply glittering scythe.

“
What is your business
here, demon?” Death asked.

“
Find me a man by the name
of Chevalier Shiva,” Lucifer commanded.

Death let out a disdainful laughter.
“You dare to give me order? I am Death and this is my realm. A
demon trespassing is a sin in itself!”

“
Find me this Chevalier
Shiva,” Lucifer repeated impatiently.

“
And what will you do with
him once you find him?” Death asked. “No soul can leave the realm
of the dead.”

“
There are exceptions to
everything,” Lucifer said. His hand reached to his side to pull out
his trusted sword. He was in no mood for tea and a light-hearted
chat. “Act now or I will make you.”

Death sensed the power of the
summoning spell. It was a simple spell, but the demon who called
upon the sword released a tremendous amount of energy. “Identify
yourself, Demon.”

“
Listen and listen well,
Death,” he said. “I am Lucifer.”

Chapter 9: Advent to
Hell

His heart was beating. She could hear
him breathing. His cold body was warming up. The colors had
returned to his flesh. Joy danced in Kali’s honey-colored eyes as
she wiped the tears away. He’s alive! She said to herself, he’s
going to live!

“
I have fulfilled my end
of the bargain," Lucifer said. "Shall we depart?"

“
I want to speak to him,”
she pleaded. “I want to talk to him. Just let me stay with him
until he wakes up,”

“
It may take a season,”
Lucifer said, offering her his hand. “Come. I do not wish for you
to stay in this realm a moment longer,”

Kali realized there was no point in
pleading with him.

"I should at least know your true
name,” she demanded. "Since everything up until now has been a lie,
why not your name.”

"Lucifer,” he replied to her. “That is
what I am called. As for my true name, that is only for me to
know.”

She decided she was not at all
curious. She gave Chevalier a farewell kiss on the cheek. “Sleep
well, my knight,” she stood up, facing Lucifer. “I will come with
you as promised. Be it Hell.”

†††††

Lucifer lowered Kali to her feet after
he passed with her through the fiery gate. It closed immediately,
leaving behind a hollow black frame. Kali stared at it, trying to
comprehend it to the best of her ability. She, a person who had
never believed in the paranormal, was being carried by the fallen
angel to the Hell he calls home. Irony has a sense of
humor.

Lucifer placed a hand on her shoulder
to draw her attention and pointed toward the South. “That is my
home,” he said proudly. “And from now on, it shall be yours as
well.” 

Kali’s eyes widened with surprise at
the city in the distance. It was a vision of grandeur, enough to
impress even the most prestigious of engineers. Massive buildings
towered above each other in an unorganized and unplanned manner,
but their effect was breathtaking, nevertheless. They were slightly
slanted as if they lacked foundations. It was clear that these
buildings did not originate from this plane.

In the center of it all was an
enormous black castle, floating above a forest of black thorns. It
was physically impossible for something so massive to be suspending
in mid-air. It defied all laws in the realm of physics. It looked
as if it had been torn from the ground along with the earth
underneath.

The sky in the background was filled
with gray clouds. Kali looked down, noting the black soil and the
strange flowers which bloomed from it.

“
Shall we enter?” Lucifer
asked, noticing Kali’s curious eyes.

“
How can we get up there?”
Kali asked, staring at the eerie castle in the sky. “The castle, I
mean.”

“
The conventional
way,”

“
And that is?”

Four pair of black wings grew from
Lucifer’s back and spread out, many times his body length. They
layered neatly atop of each other. The motion was so majestic that
she wished she could see it in slow motion. Feathers falling from
them remained in the air for a few seconds and then disintegrated.
Just when Kali thought nothing else could surprise her.

Lucifer swept Kali up onto his
arms.

She wrapped her arms around his neck.
Before she knew it, she found herself leaving the ground and
soaring into the sky. After a few moments, she dared to look down
over the landscape. She wasn't about to let her fear of heights
make her miss this. They flew over the city and forest of thorns to
land on the marble porch of the castle’s entrance.

“
What are those thorns
for?” Kali asked. There was a strange beauty about the blue flowers
that bloomed from them.

“
Keep a distance from
them. They are extremely poisonous, even to demons,” he explained.
“A human wouldn’t stand a chance of surviving.”

“
Then why won’t you get
rid of them?”

“
Open,” he commanded the
giant gate. It swung wide, obedient to Lucifer’s voice. “They
protect the castle. And from now on, they will also prevent you
from escaping.”

"Even if I try to escape...where would
I go?"

"It doesn't matter if you have a place
to go or not, this realm is far more dangerous than your own. I
would feel more at ease if you stay close to me.”

"And you would protect me?” her little
voice was unsure.

"Yes,” he assured her.

Lucifer led her through a long and
dark hallway. Their footsteps echoed on the marble floor. Kali paid
close attention to the beautiful winged statues placed along the
long hallway. She had never seen anything that looked so
life-like.