--A Gnat--
"Now there was a large dragon, and the Babylonians used to revere it."
-Bel and the Dragon 1:23
The place was nearly as run down as he expected. A weathered sign swung, metallic clang, declaring the place "Piston's" and old. All the windows were yellowed, dusty, three were shattered but still clinging to the framework.
Lucifer hesitated outside the splintered door, glancing down at his seamless white clothes. He thought about changing, shrugged, and pushed open the door. It creaked.
"Ah, fuck you. Damn bunga. I've done her."
"Bullshit. You come at her full-mast and she'd cut it off."
"Still be bigger'n yours."
Lucifer smirked, absorbed the place in a glance. Two maggots slumped against the bar, sounding and looking and smelling like rednecks. The bartender wiped a filthy rag on his brow, then a chipped glass, and never blinked once as beauty itself walked in to his fine establishment. A few other locals were hunched over tables, nursing their alcohol, backs and spirits both beaten down.
Only one face in the dingy, filthy place was bright-eyed and clean-shaven. Attentive, too, his pale gray eyes caught both a rat bolting across the floor with a moldy pretzel and Lucifer's unglamorous entrance. So with an amused smile Lucifer strolled to him, ran two fingers through his oddly mature silvered hair as he passed, and took the seat to his right, folding his legs out to the side. The other two at the table sat as stone, though the woman's nostrils were flared.
"Demons, Samael?" he wondered conversationally.
"Demons, Lucifer."
"A talkative couple too, I see."
"Screw you," the woman growled. She was a hard-looking woman, a native for sure, with a lopsided nose probably broken in youth and scraggly, lanky red hair. Pockmarks lined her face, she smelled of vomit and piss. The man was practically the same, just with short brown hair and a bigger gut beneath his leather jacket. Made the two seraphs look even better.
"If you could," Lucifer challenged. Then he sneered at their stink, smelling the vodka on one's breath and the bourbon on the other's. Preferred vices survived even Hell, he mused. The man lit up a cig, burning through half of it with one long drag, blew the smoke out his nose. "Must you ride them so hard?"
"Only way to live," the man answered, voice gravel.
"Such admirable company," Lucifer said to Samael. "What are you doing with them?"
"Discussing business. Nothing more than trivial."
"Imperat tibi fides-" Their eyes were flashing now, white like their skin but whiter. Neither made a move, made any move at all, knowing it would be useless. "Sanctorum-"
"Servare hoc animae ex gehenna."
The white flashing of their eyes died, gone and gone, their rotten souls hidden again in this human man and human woman. The man took another drag. "Never got the whole Latin bullshit. Got these damned New Zealand hick accents, but we still understand real talking."
Lucifer turned to his fellow fallen seraph and smirked.
"Saving demons from the pit? You must explain."
"Their hosts will die with them-"
"Please. You have no love for humanity."
"But I'd still rather not see souls be damned," Samael said. "Demonic or not. Surely you can understand?"
"Surely I can." Lucifer took a moment, and when he continued his voice was ice. "Remind me, Samael, when were you sent to Hell?"
Samael gulped.
"Oh, that is right. You never went." The two demons, the man and the woman, were actually snickering now. "I forgot that you quailed and begged some unearned forgiveness, sparing yourself the horror."
The light was shifting wild, the dark getting light and the light getting dimmer. Locals were muttering into their glasses, feeling the atmosphere get thick but not knowing why. And Lucifer's words were venom, his voice a quiet scream and his flawless face a terror.
"I forgot that you never had your soul ripped apart piece by piece and devoured. I forgot that you never froze in solid darkness and begged for the ice to slit open your throat and the black to smother you."
"Enough!"
"I forgot that you never screamed as fire licked your insides and your outsides. I forgot that you never drowned on your tears and gagged on blood that would not stop flowing. I forgot that you never screamed for death, begged for death but received nothing but life!"
"Stop, please, stop!" The locals were muttering audibly now, commenting on the mad tourist shouting at nothing. The two demons were laughing.
"Maybe now," Lucifer murmured, practically licking his ear. "You can pretend to sympathize slightly better."
He leaned back as the seraph tried to compose himself. "So, what did he want you two lovely souls for?"
"He wants us in China by tonight. Going to attack some humans."
"Really?" Lucifer exclaimed, surprise mostly feigned. "I was under the assumption demons acted slightly more… subtle. And fallen angels only kill humans if they, well, want to fall further."
Samael reddened, slightly, pale skin flushing against the attack of Lucifer's blue eyes and white smirk. Those eyes examined every minutiae of his being and forced out the truth.
"The Trinity," he said. "A piece of the Trinity."
"Ah. I see. And of course you would not want the demons you are manipulating to know that juicy secret." The demons smirked; Lucifer did too. "Well, I will leave you to your… business."
He rose and began to walk away. Finally the bar urchins had noticed him and were beginning to ogle.
"Lucifer!"
"Yes?"
Samael said nothing, just glanced between the man and the woman. Their eyes had clouded, turned a liquid black. Lucifer smiled, leaned down, whispered love in the woman's ear.
"In the name of the Most High," he whispered, then glanced at the man. His eyes were flashing white quite madly and he'd dropped his cigarette. "I banish thee."
Both choked wet, their eyes returned to plain brown, and the man slumped limp and the woman dropped dumb. Her forehead cracked on the table. With dramatic flair Lucifer put a finger to her neck, struck a thoughtful look, and shrugged.
"They did not make it. Oh well."
With a wink he strolled away, on and on, away from the fly.