Fallen Friend

Satania still had to check to make sure that she hadn't gone to heaven when she woke up the next morning. The room was the same, the bed was the same, and the fireplace was the same. She felt safe for the first time in two years.

Don't take it for granted. You'll be thrown out as soon as she realizes just how messed up you are.

And Satania was on edge again. There was no way Eve was going to keep a failure like her—It was only a matter of time before she's be back in her apartment.

...her apartment…

Oh, fuck. Satania realized. She had left her knife there, in the bloodied bathroom with the broken mirror. Her arms were itching, and she felt the need.

Go on, useless. You have nails, you know.

And suddenly Satania gave in, digging her nails against her inflamed skin. It hurt, but she knew she deserved it. She didn't know why anymore, but she knew she needed it.

Pathetic. Useless. Weak. You can't even die right.

But suddenly Eve was there, peeling her hand off of her arm. Wait, how the hell did she get in here? "Hon, is this how you wake up every morning? Can you tell me why?" She said, sadly.

Satania was silent, glaring down at her arms.

You can't even admit how much you suck. Voice whispered into her ear in Raphiel's voice. Always at the end of the line. Nobody cares. You don't care. Why should she?

But when Satania reached for her arm again, Eve held it away. "Satania, please talk to me..?" She phrased it as a question, letting Satania stay silent if she wished. "Why do you do this?"

Satania wouldn't run, not this time. "I do it...I don't know." She took a long pause.

Because you deserve it. Because you need it.

And suddenly she was crying and shaking in Eve's arms. She cried and cried, and all the while, Eve rubbed small circles on her back. "It's okay, love. You don't need to say anything." She murmured.

"It...hurts." Satania whispered.

"What does, Satania?" Eve asked.

My arms. My fingers. My wrists. My head.

"I...I don't know." She repeated.

"Well, Is there any way that I can make it feel better?" She offered, and Satania wondered for a moment, sniffling. When she didn't answer, Eve released her from the hug. "Well, anyways, I made breakfast! Would you like to have something?" She smiled brightly, and very briefly, very briefly, Satania felt like the sun could shine again.

But one moment was all it took for her stomach to make itself known. When it growled, Eve laughed. "O~kay, I can see someone is hungry." And she got up from the bed, pulling Satania with her, however cautiously.

You see that? She can't trust you anymore. She's probably afraid you'll cut yourself to death when she looks away. Just another person who doesn't think you can take care of yourself.

Satania looked down, feeling very, very small. And that feeling was reinforced when she stepped through her door.

Eve lived in a mansion. Huge, golden stairs arched away in front of her, leading up to hallways covered in red carpets with gilded-framed paintings lining the walls. Between the stairs, hanging from the ceiling, was the head of a lion, also covered in gold, water pouring from its mouth into a pool below. The floors were, like all else, golden marble. Behind the lion-waterfall were two 10-foot tall doors, slowly opening up into God knows where.

Of course this wasn't her first time seeing it, as she's toured the angel's abode

last night. But every time she saw this, she only felt more and more small and insignificant. So she was relieved when Eve lead her past the waterfall into the room beyond the doors, which was just a simple kitchen and table. It was a little less larger than life.

The table had 3 plates, two on the ends and one in the middle. The middle one was stacked high with steaming pancakes and was surrounded with syrup bottles, butter, peanut butter, jelly, whip cream, blueberries, and strawberries. There was a orange juice container off to the side. The two plates on the ends had a fork, glass, and knife lined next to them.

Well, one plate had a knife. The other one that didn't was where Satania was going to sit, she supposed. That, and the no-knife plate already had a bunch of pre-cut pancakes stacked on it.

Wow, she really doesn't trust you.

But after Satania had sat down and taken a bite of the food, she felt immediately at ease, glum mood gone. Voice could wait for now. Eve smiled from the other side of the table, giving her the metaphorical permission to dig into her food.

But after that breakfast, Satania's nervousness had returned as gradually as it left her, creeping back into her consciousness. Eve had somehow led her to a couch in a inconspicuous— albeit comfortable—room in this maze of a house. Eve sat down on a blue chair in front of the couch.

Ah, hells. She's gonna go full shrink mode now, isn't she…

You are pretty messed up.

Eve had felt her aura shrink just ever so slightly, and she frowned in concern. "Okay, Satania, you don't need to say anything about...yesterday, but I just want to check with you, okay? I need to know what I can do for you."

Satania was quiet, playing with her hands as she waited for Eve to continue.

Oh, wait. She asked me a question, Satania realized, and looked up at the woman in front of her. "What...you can do for me?"

Eve nodded. "Yes, I want to help you feel better. That's what this all about,"

It suddenly struck Satania about how weird this was. It didn't occur to her when she was at her low point yesterday, but, "How—I don't want to seem rude or anything—how are you able to do this? Isn't this...like, kidnapping?"

Eve was caught off guard by the question, but rolled with it. "Satania, do you...want to do this?"

And the ball was thrown back into Satania's court. "...sure? I mean, I dunno, but last night, you were like...and I...I want to see where this goes."

"So I have your consent for this?"

Satania looked down at her thumbs. "...yeah."

"And you're 18, correct?"

Satania nodded slightly.

"Well." Eve smoothed her dress. "We don't need to do this if you don't want to, but I assure you, I wouldn't try this if I wasn't absolutely sure you couldn't legally make your own decisions."

Satania continued looking at her hands. "Alright…"

"So, love, can I ask you something?"

Satania nodded.

"Is there anyone we can connect you with?"

...wait, what?

Satania's head whipped up to meet Eve's eyes. "What do you mean?"

"In your case, it is best that we get together a support network. We don't need to do this today, but eventually, love, we should try to find someone you can trust. And from there, we can help you recover faster, by having multiple people you can rely on. How does that sound?"

Satania looked at the woman.

She's already getting tired of you. Voice reminded.

The demon felt very vulnerable, not answering for so long. But what was she supposed to say? She hadn't had a lot of friends, aside from the other people who'd come from heaven/hell. Gabriel wouldn't care at all, Raphiel was absolutely not an option, and Vigne…

No. Satania couldn't do this to Vignette. She couldn't ruin the closest thing to an actual friendship that she had.

On the chair across from the girl, the angel was watching her with worried eyes. How did Satania live socially? It was no wonder she fell into the hole that she did. But when Eve opened her mouth to tell the girl they could do this some other time, Satania spoke, ever so quietly.

"Vignette."

Satania had let her mouth speak of its own accord. damnit, She told the wanting voice in her head, What the hell!

Vignette cares. The voice told her.

No she doesn't. It's only out of pity. Voice argued.

She still cares! It's in her nature!

She does it because of how much a better person she is than you. When she sees the freak you are underneath, she'll leave in a heartbeat.

"Satania? Who is that?" Eve asked, noticing the girl was going into a downward spiral.

Satania stared at her feet. "Nobody." She might as well be, with who I am to her.

Eve was very conflicted. On one hand, she wanted to push, but on the other, she couldn't make her patient more uncomfortable than she already was. Well then, maybe I should try a bit of a roundabout method. She concluded.

"We don't need to tell this person anything." Eve coaxed. "But can you tell me about them?"

Satania rose her gaze back up to Eve's. "Tell..you? About...Vigne?" Eve nodded, smiling. "Yeah. just talk to me about her for a bit, if we don't want to focus on you. Just say what she's like." Eve conjured a pen and paper.

"Well...she's a demon." Satania muttered, almost offhandedly. "But really, she should have been an angel. She's way too nice, but her stipends manage to keep her afloat. She makes sure that Gabriel does her homework and stays alive, and makes sure Raphiel doesn't make a too mean prank, and me…"

Eve rose an eyebrow to herself. Gabriel. Aw yes, the prodigy turned nearly-fallen. Quite the story up in heaven. Kept people guessing, with all of her sins. But she wasn't bad enough to completely fall, because she still had care for her friends and family, albeit grudgingly. But still, between her and Raphiel, Satania got stuck with the worst example of heaven.

"...She's the only one who gives me a damn."

Eve was shaken back to the couch and chair, surprised. "What do you mean?"

Satania took a deep breath. "She stood up for me when my ego would give Raph more incentive to make fun of me. We went to karaoke once, just me and her. She was the one who proved to me Gabriel had a soul. She helps me with my homework...when she wasn't busy making sure I didn't actually bring some new toy from Hell's shopping channel to test on Gabriel. "

The last part was confusing, but Eve got the sense that this Vignette character would be the best starting option for Satania. Yes, she sounded perfect. "Are you sure you don't want to say anything to her?"

Satania immediately felt like a deer in the headlights. She tricked me! She looped right back to the support network thing!

"Because it seems to me that Vignette would be the easiest place to start."

Satania shook her head. "No! I can't...I can't ruin my only...friendship."

So that's why she said 'nobody'. Eve realized. "Satania...again, we don't need to do it today if you're not comfortable, but if we start somewhere, I think it should be with her. She seems to me like the type of person who helps you already, so she's the best option to help you through this."

No she isn't. Nobody is. You are a lost, worthless case.

Eve knows what to do. Satania's tiny voice responded. She's already helped you feel the best you've been in two years! And Vigne won't run! She'll help you, too.

She'll run. She's already close to doing that. She's been close to running for years. She's not really your friend.

...Trust Eve, okay?

Satania gulped. "N-no...we, we can do it today."

Eve really wanted to hug this girl. By even considering this, she was being so brave. She had attempted suicide yesterday, but already she was trying to reach out of her shell. This was very good. But even so, Eve need to make sure. "You're okay with this?"

Satania was silent for a moment. "...I want to trust you." She admitted, rubbing her arms.

Eve beamed at her, and Satania felt at ease, like everything was fine again, for a split second. "When do you want to do it?"

"...Now is okay. Before I change my mind." And Eve smiled brighter. Moving her hands around, she conjured a phone to appear. "Here." She said, handing the phone over.

Like everything else, it was golden. Satania took a deep breath, waited a second, and dialed Vigne up.

Vignette liked to believe she was a good friend. She made sure that Gabriel survived financially and educationally, kept Raphiel in check, and made sure Satania didn't isolate herself with her ego. Sure, she wished that her friends weren't always so hard to take care of, but it was that fact that made her love them more, somehow.

Currently, however, she was a little...uneasy about one of her friends. Satania was always hard to figure out, but she was even more confused because of recent events. Satania had stopped coming to school a lot, and often disappeared earlier and earlier in the rare event that she did. When confronted about it, Satania was smirk and announce, "Why, a GREAT demon such as myself doesn't need something as trivial as school! I am wasting time that could be spent TAKING OVER THE WORLD! MWAHAHAHA!" And she would raise her arms into the air triumphantly.

And the long sleeves. Her wardrobe was the other thing that changed about Satania's persona. She began to wear more muted clothes, often coming to school in greys, dark greens, and blacks. Vignette had observed this from a distance, and had wondered what was wrong. She knew that Raphiel or Gabriel might be able to tell, being angels and all, with their emotion-sensing abilities. When she asked them, all she got was a "Oh, Satania is just coming into her demonhood' and a giggle from Raph, and a "I don't care. It's probably just her ego." from Gabriel. So Vignette shrugged it off, and paid no mind. There wasn't really any change that Vignette could see.

But that one phone call had changed everything.

I had a lot more planned for this chapter, but I wanted this out fast, so I could have another chance to see what you guys have to say! Please please please review! And if you do, tell me what I'm doing right, so I keep doing that. Equally important, tell me what I'm doing wrong, so I can change that. It was thanks to asianantics that I was able to get another perspective, so thanks, man. Anyways, thanks for reading! R&R, yall! DFTBA.