A/N: Thanks for continuing to read on! I genuinely appreciate it guys. This chapter does get a little somber, but does end on a positive side. If anyone is wondering, the song that is referred here is 'Lucky' by Seven Mary Three which is a really wonderful song that is worth the listen. Anyways, thanks again for reading!

Natalie went back up stairs to her room carrying a tray of soup and crackers. She closed the door with her foot quietly, still expecting Satan to be sleeping. "Hey, dude, this soup won't stay warm for long, you better wake your butt up!" She called out to him as she set the tray down on the small desk on the other side of the room.

"Hey, no need to yell at me, I'm awake." Satan mumbled from over by her dresser near her bathroom.

Natalie flipped on her heel, a bit startled to hear him answer back with his deep voice. She still wasn't used to his voice at times with how the commanding tone reverberated as he spoke. "Sorry, it's just that with your attitude recently, I was expecting you to still be as lazy as a dog."

Satan seemed bemused by a few items Natalie had on her dresser; not that there really was much anyways as she generally tried to keep things tidy. Natalie could see him fiddling with the few makeup brushes she had in a mesh metal cup. Tucking the sleeve of crackers under her arm, Natalie picked up both bowls of soup and went over to where Satan stood. "Excuse me, this bowl is pretty hot, so if you wouldn't mind taking it off my hands, that would be fantastic."

"Oh, not a fan of second degree burns? You would never fit in if you ever came down to Hell." He grabbed the bowl and sniffed it a bit as he sat down.

"What, do you think I poisoned it?" Natalie plopped down cross legged.

"No, actually it smells different," He poured a spoonful of the broth into his mouth and let it marinate on his tongue a bit before swallowing. "It tastes a bit different too. Maybe my taste buds got used to it. It's still pretty good though."

Natalie meekly opened the package of crackers and grabbed a couple to crumble into her soup. She looked down at it while swirling the spoon around in the broth as her eyes and movements slowly glazed over. For a moment Satan could swear that something in her expression changed, much like as it did before when he had asked about her mom. "Hey, girl, I normally don't like to get to know the people I'm summoned to, but you've been acting a bit weird."

*Tick*

For the briefest moment, the clock and everything around her literally froze. She recalled the way her dad's body slumped over her mom's, like a shell trying to protect and keep the soul underneath from escaping the last little bit of humanity that was left of her. She saw a small sliver of her brother's scrunched up face sheltered by his left hand as his right slammed against the wall as a last plead to some higher power to hear him - hear anything that would stop this. She saw the faintest smile on her mom's face right as it started to slip away and her mouth open as if to relieve herself of her physical form and the last bit of light flicker in the exiting breeze. But most of all, she recalled the bile in the back of her throat as the electrical impulses struck her knees and she was forced to the floor as the background played the brief pause before the track sped up and it hit.

*Tock*

Flatline.

*Tick*

The days passed in a blur, setting up funeral arrangements. Natalie had to take care of most things involving the family such as phone calls to her grandparents and other relatives as her dad seemed, for a while, a former shell of himself. The normally aloof man mused himself away, his eyes seemed monotonous and his replies to simple questions were broken fragments of a consciousness that left when her mom, Carla, passed. It was harder still, even though Natalie wasn't much older than 11 at the time, when her dad looked at her as the striking resemblance to her mom took him off guard, his eyes would smile for a brief moment before collapsing into teary pools.

Her brother Max, couldn't be bothered to break himself away from the sports at school, as it was the only thing keeping him sane; keeping him from acknowledging the wretched reality of the situation at hand. He hid away in his room and would hardly say a thing while grabbing food before burrowing back away. Late at night all Natalie could hear was the deep reverberations of Max's bass system as she would do what she could to push through everything to try and catch a few moments of sleep before that sound awoke her from her dreams.

*Tock*

Flatline.

*Tick*

The day of the funeral had arrived and was still surreal. Natalie phased out of her body and let the autonomous system take over. She read the eulogy to her mom like she was supposed to and picked up the guitar to play her mom's favorite song; Lucky by Seven Mary Three. That was the last day she would strum the metallic strings as, unlike the advice from the lyrics in the song, she had felt the waves crash as discontent and apathy caught on and stuck at her bones leaving her undoubtedly cold and wet. She had heard the cliche numerous times before and didn't quite believe it could happen, but it was in the moment that the last note reverberated beneath her fingers that her soul grew out of her youth and she became slightly hardened.

*Tock*

"-Ello! Girl! Hello, is anyone home?" Satan waved a hand in front of her face.

Natalie jolted and the sleeve of crackers jumped out of her hands and landed in Satan's soup; she hardly noticed the tears that had rolled down her cheeks. "Ehehehe... sorry about that..." Natalie flung a hand up and anxiously rubbed the back of her neck.

"Hey, you don't have to tell me what you're thinking about but you've been a bit of space cadet the last couple of hours." He pulled the crackers out of the soup and let the small bit of broth drip it's way back into his bowl.

"Wait, I wasn't zoning out for hours was I?!" Natalie quickly sprung up to grab the box of Kleenex sitting on her night stand. She knew she had quite the day dream, but she didn't think she was out for that long.

"Thanks," Satan said as he plucked a tissue from the box and dabbed at the last bit of liquid on the plastic. "And you weren't out for hours, but I was wondering if you heard my 5 minute conversation with your teddy bear on the bed over there."

"You mean Carla? She's quite the conversationalist... Well, she was. Always knew just what to say to comfort you, much like the soup she taught me how to make." Natalie's smile edged on the verge of vulnerability and she quickly turned her head finally making the connection that the wetness on her face was not a splash of broth.

"Hey... I-I'm sorry if this about your mom." Satan's tone filled with condolence.

Natalie grabbed a tissue and quickly blew her nose. "It's okay. I didn't mean to get emotional there. Sometimes it hits me like a brick all at once. As cheesy as it sounds, you kind of remind me of my mom sometimes. She was always quite witty and snappy with her remarks during conversations, I think you would have liked her."

"Well, if it makes you feel better, I haven't met her, so she must have done something right. If you don't mind me asking, how'd she die?" Satan gave a barely visible reassuring smirk as his eyes met Natalie's.

She gazed over at him, dabbing at her wet eyes, the faintest feeling of content and familiarity filling her heart. "She had been diagnosed with lung cancer which was odd as she had never smoked in her life, aside from the one and only time when she was a teen. But doctors weren't sure what caused it really since no one we knew smoked and she never put herself in that situation. She just got the raw end in the deck of cards." Natalie sat back down picking up her bowl, comforted by the fact that it was still warm.

Satan watched Natalie pick a little at the soup and methodically tear larger pieces of chicken apart. Normally, when parents died, kids had a hard time dealing with it, especially if the parents died when they were younger. It was so odd to him that she spoke so frankly about it as if it were just another day in the news. Of course her eyes were wet, but the voice unmistakably sober for someone that seemed so small in that moment of reflection. "I wouldn't say that, Girl. It seemed like, from what I can see, that she had a pretty good life while she was here. I mean as much of a pain in the ass you are for me, you've got a good head on that body of yours and I can see that she passed her sass onto you."

"You know, you're not that bad of a guy as most people say you are. That still doesn't dismiss all the horrible crap you've done, but I've seen more of you than probably most at this point." Her face lit up a little as a genuine smile poured through. "Thanks, Satan."

"Yeah, yeah. But so help me if I find out that you tell anyone of this little 'moment'. I will make your job of being my master a nightmare." He lightly tapped a finger to Natalie's forehead.

Natalie laughed a little and peered through her bangs as she ate the rest of her soup before it got any colder. She couldn't believe that Satan was here in her room trying to comfort her in a time that generally would have left her wrapping herself up in her blankets, crying herself into a sloppy, lonely mess. She really couldn't lie, it was nice. "You know, as much as I hate that time of the month, I have to say that I'm thankful for having had my period this time."

"Hey now, I said-" His eyes flared up as he peered at her.

"I know, I know, you'll make my job a nightmare." She chuckled a little. Perhaps this job wasn't as bad as she thought it would be.