Trixie moaned, squeezing her eyes closed, as the awful man pulled her along by her wounded hand, squeezing it tight.
"Let me goAAH!" She screamed again as he jerked her forward, almost pulling her off her feet. Gasping, groping desperately at the hand clutched around her own, dripping with her blood, she started crying again as she stumbled to keep up.
"You could heal that in an instant, if you simply remembered who you really are." He smirked down at her. "I find that really funny."
The tears stole her vision, but those red eyes burned into her own, and she glared back, hating him.
It was bad to feel that way, she knew that, but he'd been so awful!
"I HATE YOU!" she screamed, then scrabbled at her hand again with a cry as he only squeezed it tighter.
Stopping, he leaned into her, his red eyes blazing.
"I HATE YOU, TOO!" he screamed back. "WANT TO KNOW WHY?!"
Scared, her nerves sparking wildly, Trixie suddenly remembered Aunty Maze's words.
Strike when they're angry, Trix. They're off balance then. Easier to disembowel.
She wasn't so sure about the disemboweling thing, but rage closed her own fist tight.
And she punched him as hard and as fast as she could, in the nuts.
The man's burning eyes went wide.
His mouth fell open.
And he shrieked.
Collapsing slowly to the ground, he mewled words she barely caught as she wrenched her arm free.
"...I... am wounded... I am... destroyed... oh help..."
Trixie ran, clutching her wounded hand to her chest.
She couldn't think at first, she just ran, her breaths strangled sobs.
Her hand hurt so much, but she didn't want to look at it, she didn't want to see how awful it was!
Trying to stop her own tears, trying not to make a sound, she slowed and tried to work out what to do.
The phones were in the offices - she couldn't go back there! And he'd just run after her if she ran outside!
She needed a phone, and she need to hide, and there was only one place she knew she could find one.
Behind the stage, in the dressing room, on the wall. She remembered that from that stupid play they made her do, the one with the wise men, the baby, and the cows, and stuff.
They made her play a donkey, and she was still angry about it. She'd found that phone after looking in the mirror with her stupid donkey ears on and the goofy makeup they made her wear, and seriously considered calling her mom in the audience and asking her to pretend there was a terrible detective emergency and pull her out of there so she wouldn't have to go on the stage.
But she didn't. And she went out there.
And she 'eee-awwwed', loudly, like a complete dummy.
The memory gave her a boost of angry energy - quickening her pace, she made it to the side door into the auditorium, grabbed the door handle with a blood-spattered hand...
...and was suddenly moving so fast!
Up, up into the air!
"LUCIFER!" she squealed, the biggest grin spreading on her face, as they sped up towards the clouds.
And abruptly stopped.
"LUCIFER! YOU SAVED ME!" she cried, and she grabbed him around the neck as his wings beat the darkening air, and she held on so tight.
Trixie started bawling again. She felt really embarrassed and relieved, and a little shocked.
Because...
She remembered now...
The last time she'd seen him... hadn't he been a ghost?!
Trixie pulled away from him, her eyes wide.
He wasn't a ghost now... but the look he was giving her wasn't a good one.
And... why was he wearing this weird outfit?
"Father," Lucifer said, in a low, almost angry voice, "why are you calling me 'Lucifer'?"
Trixie felt suddenly very scared, because he didn't sound right at all.
"Why are you calling me 'Father'?" she said, in the smallest voice, almost drowned out by growing winds. "I can't be your dad - I'm only twelve!"
Lucifer's eyes began to blaze, and his brows drew down hard.
Around them the skies grew darker still - the clouds thickening and turning a terrible blackish-green. The wind was howling against her ears.
And it was so cold!
"What are you doing?" Lucifer yelled at her, his eyes blazing gold. "I'm trying to return to Heaven, but your form is stopping me? What is the advantage of this plan?!"
Why was he so angry at her?!
"I don't know what's going on!" Trixie cried, her eyes filling with tears again. "Why are you so weird? Why is your son so MEAN?! He hurt me!" She lifted her arm, her wounded hand curled and useless, and wiped her sleeve against her eyes as freezing rain sliced against her skin. "Take me home! I WANT TO GO HOME!"
Lucifer grasped her arm, his eyes wide, as something caught her eye - a figure rising behind him, black t-shirt flapping in the growing storm, eyes just as bright as Lucifer's but so terribly red.
Trixie screamed, squirming away in Lucifer's arms from the man as he stopped level with them both, looking at the thunderstorm whipping up around them all.
And he smiled.
"I like this! These are cool! I've forgotten what you call them, though? Wait - storms, right?" He grinned, nodding at Trixie. "Very powerful - great invention!"
Lucifer shielded her, helping her climb onto his back, between his beating wings, as the wind howled around them, and the rain turned to cutting ice.
What have you done to Father!
The incredible sound Lucifer made tore through the growing thunderstorm, and buffeted the man standing in front of them, dark hair plastered to his face.
Trixie blinked wide-eyed at the back of Lucifer's head. He'd never made that noise before!
But... she understood what he'd said?
"Made him forget!" Lucifer's son shouted back, his hands cupped around his mouth. "Hey, are you still Lucifer?!"
Undo what you have done!
"Answer my question and I'll think about it!" the man roared back, as a lightning bolt split the world behind him.
Trixie screamed, her vision obliterated, and almost fell. Lucifer's strong hands grasped her tightly until she could fold her arms over him again.
"Please, please take me home," she sobbed at him, pressing her face into his shoulder.
I am not Lucifer. Lucifer was destroyed. I was created in his place. Now undo what you have done!
The storm grew wilder. Screaming in terror, Trixie squeezed in tighter, clamping her wounded hand down over the angel's chest.
And it hit her, what had been said.
Lucifer was destroyed?
"Well, that's SHIT!" the man yelled, and he sounded even more angry that before. "I liked him! He was fun!"
UNDO WHAT YOU HAVE DONE! the angel roared, in a voice that seemed the still the whole world.
Trixie shivered and tried desperately to hold on. But her limbs were getting so cold they were almost numb. And it was getting hard to breathe!
"Momma," she whispered, squeezing her eyes closed.
"No. Not yet. I want him to feel things with that human heart he's wearing. And I think I'll take the girl he's pretending to be back now. I'm sure you understand."
"I... I do not," the angel whispered, something only Trixie could hear.
"You do now."
The angel's hands went from supporting her to tugging at her. Frantic, Trixie clawed at his robe, then his wing, pulling a single feather free as he pulled her relentlessly away.
"NO! STOP!" she screamed, as she was handed to the young man who wrapped his arms tightly over her chest. "NO! LUCIFER, NO!"
The young man looked down at her, his hair whipping wildly around his head, and smirked.
"He's not Lucifer, stupid. He's just a bad copy. Do you know what we do with bad copies, Second?"
Trixie looked away from him to the angel who wasn't Lucifer, who was drifting back to where he had been, his hands raised still, his face dark with despair.
"I am sorry, Father, I-"
"We destroy them," the man whispered in her ear, above the storm.
"No! No, DON'T HURT HIM!" she screamed, clawing at the man. "DON'T!"
There was a horrible cry above the storm - a scream of such anguish that she sucked in a breath and squeezed her eyes closed tight. Then a tremendous wave of heat buffeted her face, and that snapped her eyes wide open again.
Trixie looked.
But the angel wasn't there anymore.
Feathers flew in the winds around her, a mass of white feathers, and... the bloodied, shredded limbs that had held them, spinning off into the dark clouds.
Below was a bright, awful light.
A fireball, falling.
Flailing.
Screaming.
"Seemed fair to give as good as I got. And Lucifer had a fall like that, thanks to you, so that seemed fair too. How's it feel to see it with your human eyes, Second? To feel it with a human heart?"
The man looked at her with disgust as she cried.
"I shared in Lucifer's fall, you know. I felt his horror, and pain, and hate. It leached into the void stone, like everything else did. And while I hated you utterly before the dawn of this universe, I think his hate made it all so much stronger." His gaze fell to the blazing form below. "Guess that really does make him a father of sorts to me. I inherited his rage against you."
Scowling, he looked back up at her. "Remember that when I give you your memory back."
Shivering violently, hammered by hail and scathing winds, Trixie stared up into the man's face, watching his brows twisting down over his burning eyes, as he said things she didn't understand at all.
And she decided this was all a dream.
She didn't feel her wounded hand anymore, after all. Or her legs, or her arms, or her face, even.
So she decided none of it was real.
Making that decision, Trixie sank down deep inside of herself, turning off every light she could find in a little world she made up on the spot.
And passed out completely.