AUthor's Note: In chapter 2, we get to meet none other than the devil themself! Satan has arrived and he is pissed.

I've appreciated the comments I've gotten so far on this and the Christmas story... although most of it was talking about my Metroid fiction. I'm glad people enjoy that (truly), but it might be better to leave comments/reviews like that on the Metroid stories themselves. (Yes, I still check after all these years lol)

I understand that a weird Paradise Lost sequel that takes place in 2020 isn't everyone's cup of tea and it's a HUGE departure from my Metroid stuff, but I do hope that if anyone decides to read it, they get at least a little amusement out of it or find my little piece of escapism about these trying times relatable.

Chapter 2: Cloven Hoofbeats and Horses

Bailey wasn't sure what happened the rest of the day after she had left the coffee house. All she knew was that she had eaten lunch once or twice, sat on her mattress and played a few hours of Animal Crossing, napped, and then it was dark. When she woke up from the nap, she couldn't remember if it was morning or evening or what day of the week it even was until a glance at her phone informed her that it was a quarter past eight in the evening.

She sat up and stretched. It was too early to go to bed for real and too late to start doing anything else. She couldn't help but feel she had wasted yet another day, but over a month into the shelter-in-place orders, she was already used to that sensation of days simultaneously dragging on forever but also disappearing right before her eyes.

Tonight was different, however. Bailey was really feeling the effects of the solitude and after talking with Mike and Cici in the coffeeshop, she realized it was the first time she had interacted with anyone in real life in over a month. Not only that, but it was the first time since then she had actually held a conversation with people that didn't just turn into a discussion of the pandemic. And for some reason, Bailey was feeling a weird crash after the slight rush she had gotten from being around people again.

There was also a deep-seeded feeling of guilt and a little paranoia at having gone into the coffee shop at all, even if it was only to get something to go. Bailey was still trying to make sense of some of these feelings she had been having since the quarantine orders had begun, and she didn't quite have the words to describe them yet, let alone understand them. All she knew was that she was anxious and restless and that if she didn't get out of her apartment now, she was going to start climbing the walls and screaming. These nearly unbearable tangled-up feelings of anxiety, loneliness, and borderline hopelessness seemed to come in waves and this one was very much at its apex. It felt like her skin was crawling with tension.

At first, she tried getting back into her video game, but she found herself unable to focus on it. For some reason she wasn't getting that comfortable numbness from building her virtual island paradise that she normally did. Trying the television wasn't any better. As she turned it off in frustration, she laid back on the couch and stared at the ceiling for a while.

Going out to the coffee shop earlier that day really had messed up whatever this resignation was that she had developed to deal with quarantine. She had tasted a little bit of freedom and she wanted more, but she knew going out and trying to find more people to actually socialize with again was the least responsible thing she could have done.

There was an itch though, an itch she couldn't scratch and it was making her almost jittery. She needed something, craved anything, just couldn't stand looking at the white plaster walls and tiny half-unpacked apartment anymore. She felt like she was trapped in this box and just needed to get out, even if it wasn't to go anywhere in particular, but she needed to get out. Her body was driving her to leave with all of its being, and she wondered vaguely if this was what people felt when they were starting to lose their minds, not that it would surprise her if that was precisely what was happening. She had been wondering when all of the stress and isolation would cause her to snap.

Bailey threw on the same pair of jeans she had been wearing earlier and a beat-up black windbreaker. She stuffed her keys, phone, and wallet into the pockets and bolted out of her apartment, not entirely sure where she was going. It was a bizarre feeling, just this burst of hyper impulsive energy, and she was fixated on it and wherever it wanted her to go. But really it just seemed to want her to get as far away from her apartment as possible, just keep going and not look back. Her thoughts were coming at a mile a minute and she wasn't even sure what to do about it. Not like there was anywhere to go or anyone to see. At least if she was just walking around outside and away from people, she'd be safe while also satiating her need to get out and do literally anything.

She avoided the main roads, walking in circles around quiet blocks for close to an hour. Still, she couldn't even fathom the idea of going back to her place for the night, not yet. She wanted to put it off as long as possible. To put off being trapped within those four walls again and to put off having to wake up early for work just so she could once again start working on another depressing article about hand sanitizer or something for her garbage online magazine. She picked up her pace and began walking farther and farther away from the main part of town and all of the residential homes.

By the time Bailey found herself at the edge of the woods, she was practically running. She only slowed down as she realized where she was and stopped as she reached the gate on the chain link fence that led into the nature preserve. Theoretically it had closed at dusk, and it was fully night now, but she doubted anyone was policing it. No one ever did during ordinary times. There was certainly no one there now.

The gate wasn't even locked so she just let herself through. Since this wasn't the main entrance to the preserve, there was no paved path, just some dirt hiking trails that were slippery with mud from the spring showers and the leftover dead leaves from the winter. Bailey walked carefully, trying not to slip. Most of the trees were still bare and gray, and there were a lot of large dead branches on the ground that had snapped off during the snow earlier in the year. Only a few were starting to bud, but it was too dark out to see any of the green. Bailey though it was creepy. The barren branches stretched like many interlocked skeletal fingers above her head and the bare bushes provided little cover from any eyes that may have been watching unseen. Bailey was very on edge about being a young woman walking alone in the woods at night, particularly nowadays when most people were sheltering at home and no one on the streets or on the hiking trails would hear if she screamed.

She shuddered. The air was damp, and that amplified the chill she felt down into her bones. The windbreaker was heavy and usually warm enough even for mild winter weather, but for some reason the deeper she walked into the forest, the more chilled she became. It didn't deter her though. Bailey had finally figured out exactly what she was looking for, and she wasn't about to stop until she found it.

Wandering and searching for another hour, she knew it was long past the time she should have gone home to get ready for bed, but she had no interest in doing that, especially not after the nap she had taken earlier in the day. No, she was in no rush to get back to the life of a shut-in.

A bit of yellow police tape that had been caught in the bushes let her know when she was in the right place. It wasn't a big clearing, but there were all sorts of footprints in it and a couple of cigarette butts that hadn't gotten muddied up yet by rain. Considering the amount of rain they had had the day before the body was found in the woods, Bailey knew they must have been fresh and must have been left by the officers of that very investigation.

She tried to be as careful as she could as she creeped into the scene, being mindful of where she stepped. She figured if no one was here anymore and the police tape had been taken down, it was no longer an active crime scene.

This was the kind of stuff she wished she could cover with her journalism. Perhaps it was a bit morbid, but investigating and writing about grisly murders just seemed so much more interesting than celebrity responses to the toilet paper shortage. Bailey sighed as she looked around. Aside from the aforementioned footprints, tape, and cigarette butts, there wasn't much evidence that this had been a crime scene at all. It just looked like a recently trampled part of the woods that a lot of people had congregated in. She found herself wondering which footprints belonged to the cops and which ones belonged to the alleged Satanists.

She heard a branch crack on one of the nearby trails and froze up as she looked around. It was dark, and she couldn't see very far. All of the irregular shapes from the bare tree and bush branches didn't help matters at all. She waited a while until it seemed like whatever had made the sound had passed. Her heart was racing, and she realized that perhaps rushing out into a recent crime scene in the middle of the woods was a bad idea. She had only been thinking about avoiding cops or anyone who might be infectious. She hadn't even considered predatory animals or that the Satanists might return to the scene of the crime.

Being there was a bad idea. She needed to get out of the woods and back home, but as she looked around for the way she had come, she realized that she had gone in so many circles on her hike that she could no longer tell which direction would take her back out to the road and which direction would take her even deeper into the forest. There were no signs around here, and none of the trails looked more traveled than any of the others.

She thought about taking out her phone and trying to figure out which direction was which, but she worried that the light of the phone might give away her location if there really was anyone here and they hadn't actually spotted her yet.

Bailey just picked a random path and got going. She cursed the slippery dead leaves and roots beneath her feet since she couldn't afford to speed up at all without the risk of tripping and falling and making an even louder noise or potentially injuring herself and not being able to get out of the woods. She looked back a couple of times as she went, but she didn't see anything. After a while she slowed down, figuring it was much more likely that whatever she heard had been a deer or something.

If you hear hoofbeats, think horses, she thought to herself as she looked around one more time and pulled out her phone. At this point she was completely lost and opened her map to get a vague idea of where she was. She figured she could use the compass app to figure out which way was north or whichever direction she needed to head in.

The GPS hadn't even finished pinpointing her location when there was the sound of another branch snapping, and Bailey looked up instantly, her eyes wide. There, barely six feet in front of her, stood a tall figure in a dark gray robe. His face was obscured by the hood and the darkness.

"Are you looking for something?" he asked in a fake-friendly voice as he took a step forward and Bailey took a step back, "or just snooping around where you don't belong?"

"I…" Bailey felt like she had something in her throat. She couldn't speak. She could barely breathe. Her heart was racing a million miles an hour and she couldn't remember the last time she had been so scared as the man took yet another step closer to her. "I… I was just out for a walk…"

"This deep in the woods? Didn't you hear about what happened here, girl?"

"I—"

She couldn't get the words out because she was suddenly grabbed from behind by two other figures, both wearing the same robes. They each took an arm and held her back as the first man continued to approach. Bailey tried to thrash and throw them off of her, flailing wildly and trying to get free by any means necessary, but it was to no avail. She screamed her loudest bloody murder scream, but there was no one around for at least a mile. Only the trees and the animals heard her plea.

The first man, the one now standing not three feet away from her, pulled out an ornate silver dagger and held it up to Bailey's face. She tried to scream again, but the first time had already strained her vocal cords. All that came out was a small strangled sound.

"P-please don't kill me," she begged, a last-ditch attempt to get them to let her go. She knew it was futile, but it was all she could do now.

All that happened, however, was that the cloaked man held the dagger even closer to her face, breaking the skin enough to bleed.

"We didn't get to complete last night's ritual," he said. "And our Dark Lord demands more blood. So scream and struggle all you want, but Lord Satan himself came to me and demanded a sacrifice, and I refuse to disappoint him."

"I asked no such thing," a deep voice suddenly boomed, and this time even the hooded men were looking around nervously as Bailey desperately scanned the area.

"Help me!" she called out to whoever was there, desperately hoping that it wasn't some other homicidal psychopath. "They're trying to kill me!"

"I do not demand the blood of the innocent," the voice boomed as a new figure came into view. Whatever it was, it was far too tall to be a human, though it was similarly silhouetted. Aside from its height, however, the horns and barbed reptilian tail gave away that this clearly wasn't a human. "I am a punisher of the wicked!"

The men suddenly looked like they were about to wet themselves, and one actually did as they all threw themselves on the ground, bowing before their supposed deity. Though she was free, Bailey could only stand and watch the scene before her in horror and disbelief.

"Lord Satan," the first man said, sounding far more like a cowering puppy than the man who had held a blade to Bailey's face only moments before, "we did not mean you any disrespect. We are but your humble servants and—"

Before the man could finish his sentence, each of the hooded figures suddenly burst into flames right before Bailey's eyes. But these were no ordinary flames. They were white. White flames with violet centers. And as they burned the men alive, consuming them faster than any earthly fire, they left everything around them untouched. Bailey couldn't even feel any heat coming from the flames, but within seconds the men were reduced to nothing but charred husks at her feet. Even though they were silent now, their death wails continued to echo through her mind to the point where she wasn't sure how much of it was real and how much was just in her head.

She felt like she was in a dream, and it felt like hours before she was able to tear her eyes from the corpses and look up to whatever the being was that had just slaughtered three men before her eyes without even touching them.

The winged and horned creature just stared back at her through golden eyes that could have been those of a human. Its entire body was gray and dragon-like, an unsettling cross between man and beast. His legs were like those of a goat, ending in large cloven hooves. Bailey had no words as she just fell down to her hands and knees, feeling like she was going to vomit from fear. Why the creature hadn't killed her yet, she had no idea.

"Please don't kill me," she murmured, unable to move. "I'm not one of them."

"I know," the creature said in a much gentler, much more human sounding voice.

Bailey looked up to see that it had extended a clawed hand to help her up. She stared at it for a long time but eventually took it against her better judgment. The creature helped pull her to her feet. There was a marked change in its demeanor.

"I apologize for the theatrics," the horned being said. "The stupid devil caricature form just seemed appropriate. I swear I'm normally far better looking than that thing. I needed to find some way to amuse myself in this mess. I simply despise those who commit acts of evil in my name, and well… I do sort of enjoy seeing people like that grovel and beg for their lives."

"I… um…" Bailey wasn't sure if she felt more scared at this point or straight up confused. The shift in the being's demeanor was extreme enough and abrupt enough that it really threw her for a loop. "So… does this mean that you're Satan?"

"That's one word for it," the being muttered before suddenly shifting into a new form.

Where the dragon beast had once stood before Bailey now stood a surprisingly petite, somewhat androgynous man. His complexion was of a middle olive tone, and he had long black hair down to his waist and stared at Bailey through the same golden eyes the creature had possessed. His clothes were unremarkable, just black slacks and a red long-sleeved button-up, but there was something strangely attractive about the way he pulled off the ensemble. He was smiling slightly, a devilish smirk, but it managed to set Baily a little more at ease. The man looked like he could have been an angel.

Except for the big black horns that were still on his head. They were thick and curved slightly like those of a goat. He still had the barbed reptilian tail, which now seemed to be twitching curiously as he studied her.

Bailey's mouth was dry, and she was having a hard time forming words. Her mind was somehow simultaneously blank and racing. She had so many questions. She wanted to ask why he had rescued her if he was the Devil, but she couldn't find the right words.

"Are you going to kill me?" she asked instead.

The being called Satan chuckled slightly. He looked amused by her terror.

"I have no reason to kill you at the moment. I was only here for those three and any others from their cult who might show up. I was hoping not to reveal myself to a human, but I think if I had delayed a moment longer we would have ended up with a higher body count."

He had a nice voice, smooth but not too deep. Surprisingly feminine. There was a certain charm to the way he spoke and a pleasant cadence.

"What are you planning to do to me?" Bailey asked, pretty sure that trying to outrun the actual Satan wouldn't go so well for her. If that was even who he truly was. Not that she had any reason to doubt he was who he claimed to be.

Satan shrugged.

"I'm not planning on doing anything. I don't really care about what happens to you. Like I said, I just dislike when people commit acts of evil in my name. Your death just seemed unnecessary."

The Devil's words were cold, but Bailey wasn't offended. She was actually a little glad he didn't seem to care what happened to her. Maybe she actually did stand a chance of escaping.

"So, am I free to just go?" she asked.

"If you wish," he said. "I doubt you really want to be the only one around when someone inevitably stumbles across three dead bodies, especially when the only explanation you would have is that the Devil did it."

The Devil had made a very good point.

"Right… I'm going to get going then," she said feeling awkward.

Was she supposed to thank him? Say good bye? Tell him to have a good night? He was the Devil. The whole situation had taken a sharp turn from terrifying beyond belief to just straight up surreal.

"Thank you, um… Satan," she finally said after debating for a moment about what to say.

"Please, just call me Lucifer. All of my non-existent friends do."

Bailey wondered what it said about her that she was now apparently on a first name basis with the Devil himself.

"Right well, good night… Lucifer. It was very nice meeting you... sort of."

"Wish it had been under better circumstances. Now hurry home, Rebecca Bailey, and hopefully we'll never have to see each other again."

Bailey's skin crawled when he said her name, and things went from being surreal back to being terrifying. Her eyes widened in horror once again as she looked at him, just smiling his smug smile at her, but this time she wasn't frozen in fear. She took off running, leaves and tree roots be damned. She didn't care if she was running further into the forest or if she was running out of it. She just ran like her life depended on it.