Chapter 5
As everyone made their way to be seated at the table for the scheduled brunch, Lucifer moved to pull Lilith’s chair for her, but of course Alastor had already beaten him to it. The look on Lu’s face was simply to die for, well, die again for. Lilith couldn’t help but think, silly Lu, you haven’t even noticed yet. You think you’re angry because he and you are both focused on me, but the truth is you’re actually both focused on one another. I’m just an irrelevant pawn in your game. Just another bystander watching this very entertaining struggle between you two. I’m so happy to see you’ve finally regained yourself. I should have known if anyone could bring you back, it would be the radio demon.
Now there’s just one very important conversation we need to have, but I think you may finally be ready to have it and I now know for sure that you are going to be okay. We are going to be okay. She chuckled again as Alastor moved to take the seat next to her and Lucifer immediately started throwing a fit. Lilith had been seated at the end of the table with Charlie and Vaggi to her right and Alastor to her left.
“I don’t think so, Red Guy, that’s my seat!”
Alastor rolled his eyes, “That’s clearly my name on the place holder. The seating arrangement was planned by our Dear Charlie.”
“She’s not ‘our dear’ anything to you! She’s my daughter! And Lily is MY wife!”
Charlie intervened before Alastor could provoke her dad further, “I set you down at the other end of the table, dad…you know…at the head of the table…across from mom…”
Lucifer blinked at her sheepishly as she explained, then tentatively replied. “Oh…oh yea…right,” he gave a weak laugh, “right, of course. That makes sense. Good thinking, sweety. Yea, I’m just going to go sit there at the head of the table…because, you know…I’m the king and all…and your dad, of course! Your. Only. Dad.” Lucifer glared at Alastor as he made his way down to his seat.
Lilith just smirked at those last three words and thought for now. Alastor seemed to catch her smirk. His ears did that cute little twitch thing as he broke his stare down with Lucifer to glance at her. Surprisingly he didn’t comment, but Lilith noticed he now appeared to be on guard like maybe he had started picking up what she was putting down and he didn’t approve. Both of them, really. If either of them catch on too soon, they’d probably double down on this amusing, but ridiculous rivalry. Once Lucifer was settled, Charlie redirected everyone’s attention back to Lilith. Oh poor, sweet, impatient, hyper fixating daughter of mine, Lilith thought as barrage of questions burst out of Charlie.
“So, Mom, where have you been all this time? Why didn’t you call sooner?…or, you know…reply to any messages? I sent you, like, a ton and I know dad did too. Oh, but I guess you were busy, right? What were you doing? Where were you? Did it have anything to do with what happened with the protests? And how do you know Alastor? Why didn’t either of you say anything? Oh, right, but I guess you’ve been gone so we really haven’t had the chance to talk? Where were you?”
As Charlie began to cycle through her questions, Lilith stilled her. “Slowly, dear, one question at a time please. How can I answer if you don’t give me pause to? There you go. Just breathe. I promised I’d explain everything, and I will.” Lilith paused and waited for Charlie to catch her breath and breath normal again, while she patted one of Charlie’s hands and Vaggi did the same with the other. “First allow me to clarify my acquaintance with our Dear Alastor.”
Lucifer bristled. Now it’s ‘our Dear Alastor’? Really? Lucifer did his best to maintain his composure as Lilith continued.
“Of course I knew of the radio demon, not only for the uproar he caused when he showed up in hell and started toppling overlords, but also because of your father’s love of his show.”
Lucifer bristled again and peaked briefly towards Alastor hoping he wouldn’t notice. Of course he noticed. Does that prick really have to smirk at me like that?
“I had also done a fair bit of my own research. Any demon with a talent and power related to music was worth investigating, especially with a reach, not mention a voice, like his. Admit it, Lu, you really loved his voice.”
Lucifer felt heat rush to his cheeks and he just knew that he was blushing with embarrassment. He could neither look at Alastor or his wife directly anymore.
“Anyway,” Lilith continued, “a demon like Alastor was certainly worth keeping an eye on, after all, he had the potential to be a real problem if he wanted.”
Lucifer risked glancing at Alastor again. The schmuck was practically beaming from Lilith’s words, but not at her. Instead, he was looking right at Lucifer. Smug punk.
“I had it on good faith that he was an acquaintance of the overlord, Rosie,” at this Lilith noted the recognition and fondness in Charlie’s eyes, “I requested that she arrange a meeting for me if she could. Apparently Alastor was always off and about somewhere. Rosie did, however, manage to set up the meeting between us. I found him to be just the charmer she had described him as!” Lilith had to hold back another laughing fit as she saw her husband struggling to contain his demon form. “It was my determination that Alastor had no ill will towards myself, or any member of our family, and wasn’t foolish enough to pick unnecessary fights. He also didn’t strike me as the time to blindly covet power. Therefore, we parted on good terms after a lovely tea. I hadn’t had many occasions to encounter him after that. However, eight years ago when your father made his deal with heaven, I made a few deals myself.”
Lucifer visibly winced at the memory. Lilith had not been happy. It was one of the few times she’d voiced genuine anger and disappointment towards him AND one of the few times he hadn’t simply apologized and caved in. Instead, he had made it worse by trying to dilute the severity of what he was allowing with the poorly delivered excuses of ‘there’s no reasoning with heaven’ and ‘they won’t listen’ and ‘I had to allow it to protect Charlie’. He had then followed up with the worst possible thing he could have said, ‘they’re just sinners’. Lilith’s anger had instantly left her eyes to be replaced with hurt and tears and just as instantly Lucifer regretted it too.
He’d messed up again. He knew it. He also knew the sinners were their people and didn’t really deserve that, even if they were gross and obnoxious. He’d just been so angry that those sinners had not only wasted his gift of free will, but has misused it to such degrees. So many had done it, in fact, hell’s population had become a concern for heaven. Their numbers had caught heaven’s eyes and brought those eyes to his realm and his family.
So when he had been summoned to meet and discuss the problem he knew he’d have to make some kind of sacrifice. When heaven proposed the culling of hell’s population through scheduled, sanctioned executions they had been vague. Too vague for Lucifer not to notice their blood thirsty intent. So he stipulated that no hellborn were to be harmed and the exorcists could only come once a year.
He knew it made it sound like he thought of their people as nothing more than animals, and many of them were, in more ways than one, but the only thing he was thinking about in that moment was protecting his family. Lilith was rightfully upset with him, and what’s worse, he couldn’t even face his daughter. Lilith had to be the one to tell Charlie. No wonder Charlie hated him. Or maybe not so much now…he hoped.
Lilith continued, “One of the deals I made was with Dear Alastor.” Gasps sounded all around the table.
Before anyone could panic or point an accusing finger at him, Alastor interjected, “not for her soul,” he purred.
Lilith clarified. “Fortunately, our Dear Alastor prefers to deal in favors. I do believe I still owe you one.” She winked at him. Though Lilith and Alastor seemed amused, everyone else was now tense and awaiting further explanation with their breaths held. “He kindly provided the broadcast I needed to project my voice across all hell and rally the sinners. I intended to fight back against such brutality as slaughtering sinners just because heaven was afraid our how many of them now reside in hell. I mean, how much of a threat could they even be? It’s not like they could actually reach heaven to attack if they wanted no matter how many of them there are. How senseless. Besides, most are just trying to survive this place. If it wasn’t for kind overlords like Dear Rosie and Dear Alastor…,” everyone faltered at that.
They were now all looking back and forth between Lilith and Alastor. Alastor? Kind? Alastor just winked and gave a little figure wave towards the group as Lilith completed her speech. “…who protect the souls under their care, our people would suffer far worse. Sure, maybe they’re a bit rough around the edges, but so are we and it was our fault they ended up here.”
Alastor interrupted her there, “Oh nonsense, dear, all you did was open their eyes and free them from their shackles of ignorance and heaven’s control. It was their own choices that landed them here. I, for one, knew exactly where I was going in my after life and was smart enough to prepare in advance. Ha! But those who chose to use their gifted free will to make the very choices that earned them their place here had the same odds as those who found their way into heaven. Sure, we’re not all born with the same chances and opportunities in life and bad things do happen to good people, but it’s not about the cards we’re dealt, but rather, how we play them!” He finished with a proud and theatrical flair.
Lucifer admittedly was at least somewhat impressed and perhaps a tad touched. This was the first time he had heard a sinner appreciate free will as the gift he’d given them. It was no secret Alastor, unlike most sinners, enjoyed hell and had never been disappointed to be here. However, Lucifer only now realized Alastor was also the first sinner who didn’t blame him, the devil, for his actions and instead actually defended him. Of all the beings in all of heaven or hell Lucifer never expected Alastor to be the one to defend the actions of the fallen angel who doomed them all. Though, maybe his words were only meant towards Lilith? She certainly doesn’t deserve the blame. Alastor would never cut me any slack, right?
Charlie was also staring at Alastor. She couldn’t help but think back to her first meeting with heaven. Adam had no real answer, and just scribbled down some quick notions on a scrap of paper without much thought, if any, when asked what it takes to get into heaven. He couldn’t actually provide reason for why some make it and some don’t. Alastor, on the other hand, had just delivered a perfectly sensible, and even maybe a little sentimental, speech about accountability as though it were the most obvious of every day common knowledge. Some part of her thought maybe she should have taken him with her to talk some sense into heaven, but she quickly shoved that thought to the back of her mind. Oh, no. She knew how Alastor was by now. He’s a very logical and insightful person until someone sets him off and honestly…he’s kind of unpredictable about that. Her mother drew her attention as she spoke again.
“Well, before I could take my stand and fully demonstrate that we wouldn’t just lay down and take it, Adam found me. He didn’t appreciate me empowering the sinners and threatened me with divine retaliation towards all of hell if I didn’t cease my broadcasts and rallies. He said my refusal to cooperate with what had already been ordained could be seen as an act of war which he would report to heaven. So to prevent him from persuading heaven into believing their delegation had been met with a violent resistance, as he tried to spin it, I made my other deal with him. I offered myself as collateral. He wouldn’t declare a holy war, and I would be his prisoner. Without me to inspire the sinners, he couldn’t accuse us of an uprising.”
“But then how are you here now?” Vaggi asked.
“My deal stipulated that I was insurance against an attack. Lute mistakenly thought that meant an attack against Adam and had assumed that my deal had been broken when he was killed. She even demanded I come down here and stop Charlie’s plans. She misunderstood entirely. My deal was that I would be collateral to prevent an attack against heaven, not against Adam. So, naturally, my deal ended when someone blew the gates clean off their hinges. Now that was quite a blow! I felt it!”
Everyone stared at Lucifer, who was now feeling even more guilt. Not only had he stupidly fallen into that dumb TV guy’s trap, dealt the blow that blew the gates off heaven, was the source of the power that killed who knows how many sinners and nearly all of hell, but he also almost took out his wife. It was his wife and daughter he’d been trying to protect from the start and he almost killed them both. Not only that, but I drove my poor wife back into the hands of the man she defied heaven to escape in the first place. I really don’t deserve her.
As if she could hear his thoughts, Lilith spoke again. “Oh, come now, Lucifer, it wasn’t your fault. Don’t dwell, dear.”
Alastor just had to add his sentiments, “yes, it’s most unbecoming of a king. Besides, what’s done is done. Now then,” he turned back to Lilith, “if you have finished with your lovely tale and brunch, my dear, please allow me to show you around the hotel.” Alastor offered his hand to Lilith as she stood.
She reached out to accept it, but Charlie jumped up. “Mom, wait, I still have so many questions.”
Before she could rattle them all off Alastor simply said, “then by all means come along. This is your hotel, is it not? And as host, I do believe we should show it together as we have before.”
“Oh, right, like we did with dad! Dad? Will you be coming too?”
Lucifer was all too quick to join them. No way he was letting that bellhop escort his wife around. The nerve of this family stealing jerk!
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