Chapter 6: The Crimson Stained Hotel
With a light tap on my forehead, Lucifer had zapped us from that murky old room to what seemed to be a lobby of a four star hotel. The sudden light blinded me for a split second until I felt the devil's hand grab my wrist and pull me towards the posh looking counter where a very slick and slim man stood. He was dressed in a burgundy dress suit with a black bow tie and a slightly big name tag with 'Mercury' written on it.
He looked up as Lucifer's hand hit the bell almost mockingly. "Checking in." He mocked in his usual sinister voice.
The deity smiled nervously in his presence, clearly sensing his power. "Lucifer… Thanks for coming."
I watched the way Lucifer stared at him, his eyes cold and hating... Disgusted, even. I already knew how much he hated humans and demons… Hell, I learnt that the hard way. It seemed as though he hated everyone with the exception of poor little ol' me, but that honestly wasn't reassuring. I think I'd rather end up dead. "Oh, you did right calling me."
The black haired man seemed to notice the revulsion as well, for in his next few words, he himself started to get tense. "I-It's just... The way the talk is heading in there, it's... It's insane!"
"You know, I never understood you pagans, always fighting, always happy to sell out your own kind." Lucifer frowned. "No wonder you forfeited this planet to us. You are worse than humans. You're worse than demons. And yet you claim to be Gods." I couldn't say I was expecting Lucifer to shake hands with the guy but when he twisted his fingers effortlessly and the deity perished before me, a stomach churning crunch echoed in my ears as he fell onto the ground in a heap. "And they call me prideful." He sneered.
Lucifer glanced at me, clearly making sure I'd seen his sudden death. He smiled when he saw that I couldn't seem to take my eyes of off the fallen deity, my heart still pounding inside of me. All I could think was, 'Thank God it was quick...'
"Come on." The killer urged.
I had no choice but to follow him upstairs, where more pagan gods awaited, ready to fight to their last breaths. Deep down, I wondered if they even knew who they were up against. By the time Lucifer had finished with them, their bodies lay like butchered animals in a waste of blood and mushed up intestines scattered all over the floor. One corpse lay there, mouth open, blood oozing out of his mouth, staring up at me with dead eyes. Another was propped clumsily against the far wall, his guts spilled out onto the blood stained floor.
Others lay there, dispersed all over the corridor, staining the walls and wooden floor in crimson.
It was a slaughter, just like Carthage… Was he really always this violent? Would I end up like these gods one day? I could feel the tears well up in my eyes again, seeing their faces as Lucifer tore them apart. I glanced at him, spattered in blood just like myself. His grin terrified me more than anything else in the room as he walked over to me. "I must say, you took kept it together much better than I thought." He admired. "Almost as a person pinned under a bus keeps it together."
Before I could reply, hell, before I could process his words, I heard a familiar voice a little further down the hall. "It's him." It was Sam's voice, but before I could react and run towards one of the sounds I'd been longing to hear for three long months, Lucifer grabbed my forearm roughly as he slammed me against the wall.
"Don't get any ideas. You're not going anywhere." He warned before he dragged me towards the voice's source.
"How?" A woman's voice asked.
I flinched at Lucifer's warning yet my heart fluttered when I heard Dean. "Does it matter? Shazzam us outta here, would ya?"
"We can't."
Lucifer grinned as he entered the room. "Of course you can't. You didn't say 'mother, may I?'" My eyes connected with both of the Winchesters and I couldn't help but give them a weak smile. Just seeing them, after all this time somehow bought back the faith I'd lost during my months away from them. "Sam, Dean, good to see you again."
It was as if they were too much in shock to do anything when they saw me standing there, not torn completely into shreds. Perhaps I didn't look it, but mentally, it felt like my once blazing fire had turned into mere embers. The two deities however, didn't even give me a second glance, nor did I look at them.
"You think you own the planet?" The male one snarled, getting into Lucifer's face. "What gives you the right?" Without warning, Lucifer stabbed him, ripping him apart from the inside with his bare hand.
"No one gives us the right, we take it." He growled, watching the light fade from his victim's eyes. Blood coated his right arm like caramel over an apple. In the darkness it barely shone red, instead under the flickering yellow light above, it was almost a sickly blackish-gold.
As he threw the dead body onto the ground, the woman became enraged, engulfing her arms in fire which she threw at him, giving Sam and Dean a chance to grab me and jump for cover behind an overturned table. The flames dissipated revealing no damage whatsoever to Lucifer's vessel.
In that tiny moment I held them both in an embrace I never wanted to end, one that made everything feel alright. I lost them once. I wouldn't lose them again. I sobbed into Dean's chest as he and Sam embraced me. This wasn't exactly the reunion I'd hoped for, but I couldn't deny how happy I was to be in the arms of the boys I loved. My brothers… The ones who wanted to keep me safe.
The devil hit the deity with an uppercut to the chin, sending her flying across the room. Had she been human, the blow alone would've killed her.
"You okay?" Sam asked me, obviously noticing all the bruises on my cheek and arms.
I bit my lip. "N-no... I-I want to go home…" I knew I didn't actually have a home, but to me being on the road in Dean's 67' Chevy Impala or even at Bobby's house, I'd always felt home. I sobbed, at this point I didn't care how weak or pitiful I sounded, I just needed to tell them how much I was hurting, how much I wanted to run away… "I missed you, both of you, so much."
I could see the anger and determination in Dean's eyes when he saw me break down like this. It was heartbreaking. "What did that son of a bitch do to you?"
"I-I…" I didn't know where to begin, the isolation? The beatings? The constant taunting? I could talk for hours on end about my time with that puffed up asshole… But truth is, so far the only major thing that happened was when I tried to run away… And I never want to talk about that, not Sam, or to Dean. I'm not sure I ever will.
But before I could utter another word, I was interrupted by a voice beside me. "Better late than never, huh?" Then his eyes spotted me… I knew who he was the moment I felt him beside me. Last time I saw him we'd just come out of his pain in the ass 'TV land' and figured out who he really was. Gabriel. If I'd known then what I know now, I would've known the first time we met him… It was the almost the same feeling as Lucifer. "Gabriel…?" I sniffed, trying to cover up my tears.
It was unexpected, him being here. What he said to us, last time I saw him… He couldn't bear watching his family fight each other… So he left heaven. But now, here he is, right in the middle of it all, completely contradicting himself. However, there were clearly more urgent matters at hand. "Guard this, with your life." He gave something to Dean and ran out from our pathetic excuse of a hiding place.
Lucifer was about to stamp on the weakened deity, but was blown back through the doors by his brother. "Lucy, I'm home!" Gabriel picked up the woman, who seemed okay enough to walk. He was in love with her… It was clear enough to see. "Guys! Get her outta here!"
Sam, Dean and I were about to take the woman, whose nametag spelled 'Kali' away, yet Lucifer wasn't having it. He clicked his fingers and I was hurled back by his side again, he sent me his warning glare and turned back to his youngest sibling. "Over a girl. Gabriel, really? I mean I knew you were slumming, but I hope you didn't catch anything."
It broke my heart when I saw how Dean hesitated to come back for me, but I didn't want to risk his life for me so… I just nodded, praying to whoever would listen that Gabriel would win this fight before it had even begun. "Lucifer, you're my brother. And I love you. But you are a great big bag of dicks."
Lucifer glared at him angrily. "Wait, what did you just say to me?"
"Look at yourself! Boo hoo! Daddy was mean to me, so I'm gonna smash up all his toys." The archangel mocked.
I watched the scene worriedly, unsure whether or not Gabriel's remarks were cunning or not. By the looks on Lucifer's face, it only seemed to make him livid.
"Watch your tone." The devil warned.
"Play the victim all you want. But you and me? We know the truth. Dad loved you best. More than Michael, more than me. Then he brought the new baby home and you couldn't handle it. So this is all just one big temper tantrum. Time to grow up!" I couldn't help but agree with him there, yet I decided it a very wise idea not to voice my thoughts.
"Gabriel, if you're doing this for Michael-" Lucifer started.
The trickster cut him off. "Screw him. If he were standing here, I'd shiv his ass too."
"You disloyal-"
Lucifer's eyes darkened as Gabriel interrupted him once again. "Oh, I'm loyal… To her, to them! All of them!" He gestured towards me and I knew straight away that he was on my side. That he'd thought long and hard about what Dean had told him about standing up to his family.
I smiled at that, yet I was beginning to wonder if Dean had said the right thing. Lucifer glanced in the direction Gabriel had shown him, and glared at me crossly.
He scoffed in disbelief. "So you're willing to die, for a pile of cockroaches. Why?" I narrowed my eyes at the way he described my family.
"Because Dad was right. They are better than us." Gabriel explained. "They all are."
Lucifer's temper resurfaced again. "They are broken! Flawed! Abortions!"
"Damn right they're flawed. But a lot of them try. To do better, to forgive. And you should see the Spearmint Rhino! I've been riding the pine a long time. But I'm in the game now, and I'm not on your side, or Michael's. I'm on theirs."
"Brother, don't make me do this." Lucifer sighed.
Gabriel gave him a small smile. "No one makes us do anything." My heart skipped a beat when I noticed a second Gabriel, coming up slowly over Lucifer's shoulder. He was going to kill him. He was going to win. There wouldn't be an apocalypse… I was going to be free.
"I know you think you're doing the right thing, Gabriel. But I know where your heart truly lies." As he lunged forward, Lucifer caught his arm and stabbed his brother with his own sword, directly into his chest. "Here."
"NO!" I screamed. But they took no notice of me.
"Amateur hocus pocus. Don't forget, you learned all your tricks from me, little brother." I watched in horror while Lucifer jerked the blade in Gabriel's chest. In a burst of light, he lay there, wings sprawled out… Dead.
"No…" I whimpered, falling to my knees. "Y-you… You…" I didn't know Gabriel all that well, hell half of the time I'd known him I thought he was just another monster we hunted. But he wasn't. He was on our side, trying to stand up to his brother and save us all… Now he was just lying there… Dead.
Lucifer hauled me to my feet and once again and we were back in that shadowy room. A single tear slid down from my pale green eyes, followed by another, and another, until soon a steady stream of salty tears flowed their way down my bruised cheek, releasing the sadness and sorrow that had been held inside since the very beginning, but still I didn't make a sound.
When someone is crying, of course, the noble thing to do is to comfort them. But if someone is trying to hide their tears, it may also be noble to pretend you do not notice them. Lucifer didn't acknowledge my tears, instead he simply stared at me, curled up on the bed shaking. "He was your brother…" I sobbed, breaking the silence. I barely even noticed we'd moved.
Lucifer faced me, his eyes flashing dangerously. "He betrayed me."
"I betrayed you… Or so you keep reminding me!" She cried. "Why haven't you killed me, you complete psycho!?"
He frowned at my sudden outburst. "If by 'psycho' you mean that if you cross me, I would enjoy watching you suffer horrendous pain before I kill your friends in front of you. Then yeah, I'm a psychopath... but I would never kill my own little angel." He taunted. "Not without brining her back first, of course."
I stared daggers at him. "I am not your angel."
"Oh yes. I almost forgot. Siranymph." He chuckled. "You still want me to prove that you're mine, don't you? Oh, Lydia… I thought we'd already gone through that."
My eyes widened fearfully as he climbed on to the bed towards me. "N-no." I backed away.
"Now, don't be scared, princess." He mocked sympathy. "I might go easy on ya this time… If you're good." Lucifer crawled closer towards me, cornering me until I could feel the wall behind me. Trapped. "But you tried to leave again, didn't you?" He paused to stare callously at my intimidated face.
"Hm?" He urged me to reply.
My stomach twisted with a new found dread, I did try to leave. When Dean carried Kali out of the room, I tried to follow but Lucifer had pulled me back. "I-I'm sorry… Please! I didn't mean-!"
Lucifer scoffed. "Shh." He sneered. "I am going to punish you, Lydia. And you wanna know the best part? Hm? No? Too bad. I'm going to enjoy every last second."
I glared at him. "B-but I didn't leave… I'm here, aren't I?!"
"There's more to it than that, honey." He teased. "You're a feisty one at times… Like now. More or less, anyway." He added with a grin. "Yet mostly docile. You have a mind of your own unlike any other angel. Not to mention one very important thing; you were made to be mine."
My eyes widened and I could barely stop myself. It was always the same whenever he said I was made to be his. It annoyed me, angered me even. I'm not some personalized whore for the devil. I refused to believe it. "Bullshit, you-!"
He cut me off, clearly expecting my reaction "Deny it all you want, you know it's true… You're my bunk mate, buddy." He chuckled.
I bit back my tears, and cringed. It terrified me, more than anything. If I was created for him, there had to be a reason, right? "N-no… I'm not…"
Lucifer nodded, tucking a loose strand of my hair behind my ear. "Yes… Oh yes, you are." He grinned.
"Why me?" I whimpered.
Lucifer sighed. "Because it had to be you, Lydia. It always had to be you. If you don't believe I own you, then I will prove it to you." The threat lingered, but I was far too upset and angry to care. I knew he'd 'prove it' eventually and by that I'm sure he's talking about my memories.
I didn't get it at first… But now I do. He told me it'd be six months until I remembered everything… It'd already been three… If I remembered everything, it'd prove to me what really happened between us… But a part of me didn't want that to happen, ever.
"I'll die first." I snarled.
He didn't reply, so I looked up, but he was nowhere to be seen. I was once again left with my troblesome thoughts. Gabriel was dead. The Winchesters had lost me again. And Lucifer was only three months away from reminding me of everything I didn't want to remember. It couldn't get any worse than this, could it?
