So... crickets after the last chapter. That was a surprise.
This chapter is quite lighthearted. Much from this point out is not, because very bad things are about to happen. Surprising things, hopefully, but still very bad.
There's always light at the end of my stories though, and much is usually won along the way. A way I'm still writing.
If you're enjoying the story so far, let me know.
Lucifer walked away out over the sinking valley, giving no heed to the lack of ground beneath his feet.
"Lucifer, stop!" Trixie called, a child again, chasing after him.
No.
He was reeling, and had no sense of destination or purpose. He just needed to move.
To leave.
"Please, son! Please - we must talk!"
No.
The valley floor lay a couple of hundred yards beneath him. A river snaked through it, wild with rapids, littered with boulders, fringed by trees. The full moon lent its pale light to the entire scene.
He was a father.
When he looked up again he was walking back the way he came, a moment from bumping into Trixie.
No, he said, and turned on his heel to walk out again.
"Do not make me stop you in place."
I'm not making you do anything, Father. You are the one with the choices here. Like the choice not to allow in your stupid 60-billion-year plan for the creation of the Anti-Christ. He leaned back. Or should that be the Anti-Trixie now?!
In the next moment he stood hand-in-hand with Trixie before the gates of Heaven.
Struggling to adjust to the transition, he turned to her.
That was abrupt.
But she ignored him, her focus on the gates.
They weren't quite gates, really. More a portal. One he was very familiar with, having fallen through it.
A man with grey hair, curls close to his head, appeared wearing a white robe.
Lucifer smirked. Hello, Peter.
Peter frowned, looking from Lucifer to Trixie and back.
"And what business would the foul fiend of the pit have at these gates?" Peter blustered, before gesturing to Trixie. "Who is this? One of your demonspawn in disguise? I am not so easily tricked, King of Lies, Deceiver of the Righteo-"
Oh, just shut it, Peter, Lucifer snapped. I haven't got time for your pious bullshit right now. He lifted the hand firmly clasped by Trixie. This is my Fa-OOW!
Trixie stomped on his foot. It hurt, more than anything had a right to in heaven.
Why did you do that? he yelled, hoping on his good foot.
Trixie ignored him, turning her most beguiling smile to the apostle. "I've heard so much about you, Saint Peter, and so much about the splendor of heaven that I had to come see. This is my friend, not the enemy. Will you let us in?"
Peter blinked and looked back at Lucifer.
Then down at Lucifer, as Lucifer looked up at him, because Lucifer was now Trixie's size.
Still impeccably dressed in a suit, tailored to fit an eleven-year-old boy.
Lucifer scowled.
"Unbelievable!"
"I guess..." Peter said, as if his mind hadn't quite caught up to the chain of events.
But he stepped back and gestured them through.
"Welcome to Heaven, my children."
"AUGH!" Lucifer cried, stomping through the portal as Trixie giggled behind him.
The world about them coalesced, shimmering in crystalline majesty - a vast landscape of living light populated by multi-faceted structures reflecting every color of the rainbow and beyond.
Despite his irritation, Lucifer smiled.
"I missed this view. It's not quite the same from the back."
Trixie nodded. "Yeah, first impressions are everything."
His smile faded.
"Why am I a boy, Father," he asked, tapping his foot against a ground carpeted in a wild spectrum of tall flowers, their crystal petals sparkling against the sky.
Everything about them had a voice - the ground, the sky, the flowers, the lights spinning through everything - all sang with melodic, clear tones of joy.
Trixie shrugged. "I wanted Peter to see you differently."
"Great, he saw me. Change me back."
"Nuh-uh."
The boy's eyes blazed red as he slowly turned to face Trixie.
She giggled.
"You're adorable."
He bared his teeth at her, then frowned, pausing to feel them.
"Braces?! Oh, come ON!"
"You'll stay this shape for a little bit - fewer questions."
Lucifer took a peek down his pants.
"What the fork?!"
He blinked.
"What the holy fork? Oh no... fork! SHIP! BOLLOCKS!
He smiled.
"Well, at least that one still works."
Trixie rolled her eyes and took him by the hand to lead him towards the city.
Lucifer snatched his hand back. "No! I'm not skipping my merry way into Heaven with you, Father." He paused, and pointed behind them at the swirling portal. "Why did you stop me from saying that to Peter?"
She released a sigh. "I don't want him to know who I am. If he knew he'd be checking on me every moment, seeing if I needed anything, bowing like a fool. He's got a terrible guilt complex - he's never gotten over the whole disavowing thing."
"Huh. You mean the whole 'Who the fork is that Jesus guy, never seen him before in my life' thing?"
Trixie nodded, looking a little sad. "That's why I put him here. Hoped the fresh faces might keep him occupied. Distract him from his pain. He would have gone to Hell if I hadn't done that."
Lucifer crossed his arms. "Oh, I see. So it's okay for Peter, just not okay for every other poor unwashed soul out there, feeling guilty for things outside of their control."
Trixie's face went dangerously neutral. "We're done talking about this now."
Lucifer nodded agreeably. "Okay."
Then he frowned slowly. "What were we talking about?"
"How you have to call me something other than Father here."
"Ah. What do you want me to call you then? Trixie? Spawn? Imp?" He paused for a moment and his eyes narrowed. "How about 'bollocks' for wiping my mind again just now? Father, you are such an asparagus!"
"Call me Beatrice. Follow."
With an annoyed sigh, Lucifer came, trying to shake his hand from hers as she tugged him along.
Other souls smiled and passed them as they walked, and he felt their thoughts.
So young, such a shame
"I'm 14 billion Earth years old, thank you very much," he snapped, then hissed as Trixie squashed his hand. "Ow! Why are you being so MEAN TO ME!"
"Because you won't shut up!"
"BOLLOCKS!" Lucifer cried out, as they neared the sweeping entrance to the city, where crystal spires rose to the sky and light shimmered over and through everything. Souls in myriads of brilliant colors spun around each other, some looking human, some preferring other shapes, some simply stars of light.
"Bollocks, bollocks, BOLLLLOCKS!" Lucifer continued, as they made their way through each outer ring of the city, past libraries and open air amphitheaters, teaching areas and gathering spaces for those practicing minor acts of creation, and workshops where the eldest souls fashioned new solar systems and planets and the life contained within.
Lucifer smirked. "Outsourcing, Father?"
"Everything is me, Sammy," Trixie sighed. "I don't know why I keep having to say that. This way."
Sighing himself, he followed, and continued experimenting with words.
"Bollocks, bullship, asparagus, motherforker, cant." He frowned. "Cant. C A N T. Dammit, I'm not saying cant!"
They reached the innermost ring of the city and approached the broad door of carved crystal leading into the main hall of Heaven.
Two angels flanked the doorway, unsmiling, as they approached. Hadraniel on the left, Zophiel on the right. They were impressively dressed - flowing robes and all - and beautiful beyond reproach.
"Twit," Lucifer stated, pointing at Hadraniel, before pointing definitively at Zophiel. "Cant."
Then he stomped the ground. "Forking Hell!"
Trixie snorted back laughter and waved to his siblings. "Hello!"
Hello, child, they said in unison.
"Oh, that's impressive, that," Lucifer said. "How long have you both been working on that whole speaking at the same time thing?"
Trixie covered his mouth with her hand and addressed the angels. "Can we go in?"
No, child.
Trixie winked at them. "How about now?"
Father, Zophiel said, bowing deeply. We did not realize.
Our apologies, Father. Hadraniel bowed just as deeply, then raised a slender hand to point at Lucifer. Who is this?
Lucifer licked Trixie's palm - when she jerked away with a squeal he stepped forward, his chin high.
"I'm Lucifer, britches!"
He winced then, his shoulders slumping. "Oh for fork's sake, Dad, can you lighten up on the censoring?"
Hadraniel scowled deeply. You are not welcome here, brother.
Zophiel echoed the scowl. You are not.
Trixie sighed.
"Yes he is."
The angels blinked, looked at each other, and slowly smiled. Brother, welcome! It has been a very long time. You must tell us what you have done.
"Exactly 389,732 humans and demons, some multiple times," Lucifer said bluntly, before pushing his way past them.
Into the Great Hall of Heaven.
