Forgiveness was, in fact, not as easy as Lucifer had originally thought it to be. He figured this out pretty quickly, his frustration mounting as he did everything he could to achieve the goal of forgiveness with his first soul, a feat he had thought would be relatively easy. Father Kinley was proving to be everything but.
"Can't you just, I don't know…say a prayer to-to God and feel better?" He sighed in frustration, tossing his arms up as the next person in Kinley's Hell loop approached him and began shouting.
"That isn't how heavenly forgiveness works," Kinley called back over the din, his voice straining from his attempt to stay rooted in reality. "And besides, all of these people are people I neglected. How can I forgive myself for this? How can I move on from my sins?"
Lucifer groaned and threw himself into a pew, putting a hand to his forehead. Why couldn't he accomplish this one simple task? He knew it was going to be difficult, but he hadn't grasped what the concept of "difficult" would mean with the constant drum of Hell knocking in his brain. Damn, he hated it down here.
The noise was becoming unbearable, so he snapped his fingers. Instantly, the crowd disappeared.
"Thank you," Kinley said after a moment of composing himself. He stood up and maneuvered to the pew in front of Lucifer, settling in with a heavy sigh. "It isn't so easy to forgive oneself. Especially when I didn't realize how poor and selfish my choices were until I ended up rejected by heaven. I swore myself to the church to do good deeds, and I did as far from good as I could find. That isn't something I can just brush away."
All this talk of forgiveness was reminding Lucifer of Linda's words in the hospital, back when Charlie had just been born. Forgiveness isn't so easy, after all, he mused to himself. Perhaps he hadn't cracked that code.
"What can I do to help?" Lucifer offered, voice short and annoyed. He wanted to get this started so he could get back to earth and Chloe. He wanted his weekend off. Had it been a week already?
Kinley was quiet for a few moments until Lucifer interjected again.
"Well come on now, you're the first in billions of souls I need to work with. What can I do to get you up to where you want to be?"
"Contemplating one's self worth takes time," Kinley replied. "I don't know where to begin."
Lucifer groaned and rolled his eyes.
"Fine, let's start with your constituents then," he said, snapping his finger. A single soul appeared in front of them. "How would you help her?"
The woman was older, hunched in the back, and had the most sorrowful eyes Lucifer had ever seen. She was clutching a small purse, which matched her faded blue dress. She stared silently at them. Kinley's eyes widened.
"This is Mrs. Lorraine Warsaw," he said. "I recognize her from my early days at this church."
"Come on, father, how would you help her?"
"She lost her daughter," Kinley murmured. "In an accident. She came to me for confession and confessed she had been angry with God."
"As she should be, but that's beside the point," Lucifer interjected, before pressing, "What would you do?"
"I would tell her it isn't her fault. It's okay to be angry with God," the father replied slowly. "But to recognize where her faults are and to take steps to remedy them."
The woman smiled, the first smile Lucifer had seen in any of the endless barrage of torture the priest had encountered in his time here. She vanished of her own accord. Lucifer exclaimed delightedly, standing up to celebrate.
"You taught her to forgive herself!" he cheered. "Now you know what to do!"
"It can't be that easy," Kinley muttered nervously, eyes darting around. "There are so many people I harmed. How do I forgive myself for all of it?"
Back to square one. Lucifer rolled his eyes again and snapped the next person forward. A young boy, maybe twelve years old, stood before them. He was holding a stuffed elephant, ripped head in one hand and body in the other. He was crying.
"Oh, for goodness sake," Lucifer yelped, snapping his fingers again. "Is the child really necessary?"
"That was William," Kinley said, seemingly not hearing him. "Right before I left for Rome on my crusade, he came to me. He had ripped his younger sister's toy. I had never seen such sorrow in a child's eyes. I knew his father wasn't a nice man, but I didn't know how to help him. I was so focused on where I was going, I shoved him away."
Lucifer sighed loudly, wincing to himself as he brought the child back.
"All right then," he said impatiently. "How do you help him?"
Kinley had stood up, took the few steps forward, and knelt in front of the boy. It was as if Lucifer was no longer there.
"I'm sorry, William," he said. "I should have listened to you. And you should apologize to your sister. Perhaps with some sewing, this animal could be good as new."
William looked down at the toy in his hands, and Lucifer watched as he put the pieces together and it seemed to mend himself. The boy's tears dried up and he beamed up at Kinley. Then he, too, vanished. Kinley stood up, wiping his eyes a bit. He seemed a bit more at ease after this one.
"Didn't you say something about recognizing your faults and taking steps to fix them?" Lucifer asked. "Perhaps, father, that is the advice you also need to take. And perhaps you need to do that by seeing these people one at a time and making those amends."
Kinley looked at him, a new expression gracing his features. Hope?
"Do you think this will work?" he asked, that hope dripping into his voice.
"It better," Lucifer said exasperatedly, "or I'm never getting out of here."
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door to the Hell. Kinley and Lucifer looked at each other, surprised. Nobody down here knocked. Maze wouldn't anyway.
"Keep working, father, I'll see what's going on," he said distractedly, snapping his fingers again for the next person Kinley would work with. He hurried to the door, opening it. Standing on the other side was a demon, nervously twisting his fingers with equally anxious eyes.
"Yes, Doyle?" he snapped, searching behind him to see if others were with him. The demon Doyle was alone.
"Sorry to interrupt, my king," Doyle stammered. "A new soul just arrived, and he…claims to know you. From above."
"So?" Lucifer demanded. "Why would I care?"
"My lord, he says he's a friend. And he said he knew your girl. Chloe."
Lucifer's eyes snapped back to the pitiful demon.
"Take me to him. Now," he barked. Somebody was in Hell who should be back on earth.
The door behind which Detective Daniel Espinoza ended up was closer to his towering throne. The streets of LA came into focus, behind which stood the precinct. In front of it, Chloe's ex-husband paced.
"Daniel?" Lucifer asked, utterly confused. "What are you doing here?"
The detective's head jumped up, and his eyes widened.
"So it's true," he said accusingly. "You are the devil. The real devil."
"Yes, yes, I never lied about that," Lucifer said dismissively, waving his hand. "How did you get here, Daniel?"
Dan threw his hands up, stopping his pacing and moving towards him instead.
"I died, didn't I?" he shouted. "I died, what the actual f – "
"Yes, but how?" Lucifer asked impatiently. "Did my brother have something to do with it?"
"No, uh – yes? I don't know!" he said, obviously frustrated. "Look, Lucifer, can you get me out of here or no?"
Lucifer stared at him.
"That's just the thing," he said slowly. "I'm trying to figure that out."
"What do you mean, 'trying'? Aren't you the damn king of Hell? Can't you just wave your hand and make it so?"
"Hell doesn't work like a magic show, Detective Douche," Lucifer enunciated sourly. "I may be in charge, but not everything works for me." He sighed again. Sighing was becoming his new habit. "Look. Let's watch your Hell play out, see what guilty thing dragged you down here. And then I can pop back up, speak with the detective, and see if we can send you on your way."
"On my way? You can't just bring me back to Earth?" Dan asked, his voice low. He was mad.
"I could, but you're dead, Daniel. I can't just make you alive again," Lucifer snapped. He was getting tired of the man already. "You'd be a spirit inhabiting another's body."
"Why not my own body?" Dan asked. "Can't you just drop me back in there?"
"Well theoretically, yes, but last time I did that, Pierce's brother ended up in the body of a woman instead."
Dan was silent for a few moments.
"Oh man, he really was Cain, wasn't he?" he said then, and Lucifer watched his expression as he put the dots together. "Wait, Abel was down here? Wasn't he the good son?"
"Story for another day, Daniel," Lucifer reminded, gesturing to the scene around him. "Can we see why you're here already?"
"I already know," Dan said quietly. He pointed and Lucifer looked over at a startlingly familiar face. Charlotte Richards was walking towards them with coffee. Lucifer looked back at Dan, who was holding a small, thin box.
"Hang on, wasn't that that ridiculous piece of jewelry?" he asked.
"Yup," Daniel replied. "The waffle one."
"Good morning," Charlotte greeted him then, handing him one of the cups. The detective accepted it.
"Good – Good morning, Charlotte," Dan managed to choke out. Charlotte smiled. Lucifer was caught remembering his mother for a moment.
"What's that?" she asked curiously. Dan and Lucifer both joined her gaze on the box.
"It's for you," he said, handing it to her. "I wanted to get you something nice."
Charlotte opened the box and the glinting of gold caught Lucifer's eye in the LA sun. How he missed that sun.
"Dan, it's beautiful," she breathed. Her eyes sparkled and she laughed.
The scene changed around them.
"What's happening?" Dan asked, his voice genuinely frightened for the first time that Lucifer had ever heard. Before he could respond, the scene changed. He knew exactly when it was. Dan did, too. He dropped his arms, eyes clouding over as he left Lucifer and dashed over to the lifeless body on the ground. This was not something he personally wanted to relive, but he caught a glimpse of himself and Chloe from the original memory. His eyes lingered on the detective, remembering this scene. This was when she hadn't known about him yet. She was about to find out, though.
"Daniel," Lucifer called out, voice more gentle than usual. "Daniel, it isn't real."
"I know," Dan replied through gritted teeth. "I don't want to be here."
"Come on then," Lucifer coaxed, holding out his hand. Dan turned from the body with what looked like great difficulty, eyes blazing as they met Lucifer's.
"I know who killed me," he said flatly.
Lucifer sighed for the umpteenth time that day. Another wrench in his plans.
