A sigh escaped Raven as she packed her laptop back into her bag as the Professor rounded up the end of the class. The platinum blonde had been interested in the class at the beginning, but it was starting to grow boring.
"Why did I decided to go to night school again?" she muttered to herself as she picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder.
"Because the moment you'd step into the light, you'd go up in a burst of flames," a voice said with a snicker, causing the blonde to shoot the owner a half-hearted glare... which only had her friend breaking down into laughter as they left the classroom. "Seriously, Raven," Jasmine continued when she managed to stop laughing, "You need to get out in the sun more. You're as pale as a piece of paper, and it doesn't help that you don't wear anything that isn't black."
Raven watched her friend warily as Jasmine paused, an all to familiar look overcoming her face.
"You should really come shopping with me and Jake," Jasmine stated as she suddenly swung an arm around her friend's shoulders, making sure that Raven couldn't try and run off like she had done in the past. "I can really help you put some colour back into your life."
The blonde's nose wrinkled in disgust at the mere thought of what type of clothes she knew her friend would suggest. "I'd really love to, Jasmine," Raven begun as she managed to somehow slip out from under Jasmine's arm, "But I'd rather not be a third wheel. You guys make me physically sick with all your... 'lovey dovey'"
Raven's face was scrunched up it revulsion as she said those last two words.
Jasmine only snickered again. "I doubt that's the reason you don't wanna go," she retorted.
"You're right," Raven agreed with a snort as the pair stepped out of the main building and headed towards the carpark, "We both know I'd end up as a pile of ashes on the ground the moment I stepped out into the sunlight."
Her friend merely rolled her eyes, but decided to drop the subject. "Are you heading home?" she enquired, and when Raven nodded, she added, "Jake's going to drop me off, and I'm sure we can swing by yours on the way."
The platinum blonde shook her head. "No, I'm going to go and get some food. After hearing about the Professor drone on about how food gets from the farm to the table, I find that I'm feeling rather peckish."
Jasmine shoved Raven's shoulder good-heartedly. "Only you would get hungry after listening to how a cow gets turned into a steak," she remarked with a shake of her own head. "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow night then, right?"
"Sure thing," Raven agreed as she started walking backwards, heading in the direction she knew her favourite take-away joint was, "See ya at six."
"Don't forget you ran out of sunscreen!" Jasmine shouted after her, which only resulted in Raven giving her the bird before turning around and heading off.
The blonde adjusted the strap on her bag as she heard her friend laughing behind her, rolling her eyes.
"Now... do I want the burrito, or the salad?" she muttered to herself as she crossed the street, only for everything to suddenly go black.
Raven let out a groan as she slowly returned to the land of the conscious.
Opening her eyes slowly, the platinum blonde found herself looking up to a dark and stormy sky. And when she let her head roll to one side, she saw endless fields of brown grass.
"Okay..." she breathed as she turned her gaze back up to the sky. "This is definitely not Papa Jeremy's Kebabs," she stated as she watched the storm cloud roll over – only for the sky to 'glitch' and the storm reset itself. "That's... weird."
"Weird doesn't even cover it," a voice remarked from nearby.
The young woman tilted her head back in the direction of the voice, and found a man standing nearby, looking down at her with a raised eyebrow. He had long white hair with piercing blue eyes and pale, but sharp features. His clothes were nothing more than a blood red top, black jeans, and a pair of polished, black boots. A long coat lay draped over his shoulders, the ends almost touching the ground.
Raven frowned as she rolled over, not enjoying the feel of looking at the man upside down. It was giving her a bit of a headache, and there was something niggling at the back of her mind; screaming at her that she should be frightened and demanded to know where she was.
But she just wasn't feeling it.
If anything, Raven felt quite okay where she was. It almost felt like coming home.
"Do get off the ground," the man sighed as he pulled out some kind of paperwork from his long coat – which the blonde noted seemed to shimmer as it moved.
As if his words had compelled her to do so, Raven quickly got up off the ground, dusting off her black shirt and slacks before straightening. "Who are you?" she asked before shaking her head quickly, "No, no, no. Forget I asked. The better question would have been where am I?"
The platinum blond glanced at her as he continued to search through his paperwork. "Where do you think you are?" he asked before returning to his search.
Raven looked around once more, though found that there was nothing but the same brown grass for as far as her eyes could see. There was a slight breeze that smelled dry and tasted stale. "Well, I'd say Hell," she said, looking back to the man, "But I'd have thought it'd have been a lot warmer. So, I'm going with Purgatory."
The only sign she got that the man was listening was a raised eyebrow as he continued to rifle though the sheets of paper, muttering under his breath, "What's the point of having an office if they can't even get the paperwork in ord..." he trailed off as he pulled out a sheet and gave it a once over. The blond then glanced to Raven as he stuffed the rest of the paperwork back into a pocket of his coat. "Why do you think this is Purgatory?" he asked.
"Well..." the young woman looked around again, "I certainly wouldn't call this Heaven. I don't think I'd feel at home there. A bit too bright for my taste."
The man smiled as he muttered, "So, I was right," more to himself before refocusing back on Raven. "You're right, this is Purgatory."
"Huh," Raven paused as she thought about what that meant. "So... I guess this means that I'm dead," she stated rather calmly. It wasn't like she could really panic about it. She was dead, and had been suspicious of that fact when she had first woken up on her back in the field of grass.
"Do you want to be dead?" the man asked, cocking a white eyebrow as his blue eyes studied the blonde before him.
Raven mulled over the question, a small frown tugging at her lips as, she too, studied him. "To be completely honest," she said after a moment, "I'm kinda more concerned about becoming a brain-eating zombie."
Laughter escaped the man. "Oh, I like you, Raven. I've been watching you for quite awhile now, and I've come here to offer you a deal."
"Who exactly are you?" the blonde asked, although she already had a fair idea. There was only one person that she about in the religious sense that liked to make deals.
"I think you already know," Lucifer replied with a smirk as he stepped towards Raven, holding out the piece of paper towards her, "And my offer is this; you can either stay here in Purgatory for all eternity, or sign on the dotted line and become part of my family."
Raven frowned as she accepted the document and quickly read it. When she was done, she looked back up in surprise. "This is an adoption form," she stated rather unnecessarily, "Why the hell would you want to adopt me?"
The Devil smiled rather toothily as he said, "Why the hell, indeed."
The blonde looked back down to the form, her eyebrows furrowing. "And what do you get out of this deal?" she asked.
"To watch another of my children create chaos in a realm of my choosing," Lucifer stated as he withdrew a pen from his coat and held it out to Raven, who glanced at him with a smirk.
"What the hell," she said as she grabbed the pen, "To chaos," she declared as she signed her name.
"To chaos," the Devil repeated as he watched as her name appeared on the adoption form. His coat seemed to flutter on its own in his anticipation, and the moment the ink had dried, they changed – bursting into a pair of large, black feathered wings. He was quick to catch his newly adopted daughter as she collapsed, feeling the bonds between them begin to form.
"And I know just where to let your chaos reign supreme," he whispered as he brushed a lock of Raven's hair from her face; fascinated as it slowly changed from an inky black to a soft, snow white.