Cherry Pies, You and I (P.S the Devil Lies)

Black Coffee

She was three weeks and two letters into her stay in the French Quarter, and things were quiet. Not just quiet in the sense that everything was normal and usual, but it was also physically quiet. It was nine-thirty at night on a Wednesday. Marie had just left to attend ten o'clock mass. Many of the Soul Food Shack's usual patrons were at mass as well. That meant she was all by herself in the dining area.

She usually used this time to write her next letter back home. She had no way of knowing if her letters ever arrived at their destination, but writing them made her feel better. A pen and some paper were in her bag if she ever felt the urge to write anything down. It was a very one-sided way of talking to her family, but she didn't feel like doing that right now, so she just sat there staring at a blank piece of paper with a cup of black coffee, remembering the day that started this whole journey. The day Lucifer first showed up.

Her Aunt Zelda had been incredulous. She said that he had some nerve showing up to their house and intruding in on their lives after fifteen years. That someone guilty of the things he was, had no place in Greendale, and no place around Sabrina. He just laughed and turned his attention back to her. He went on and on about how much she had grown since the last time he saw her, how beautiful she was, and how smart she must be. He seemed only slightly disappointed when she didn't recognize him. Auntie Hilda took the flowers from her hands and tried to lead her into the dining room, but she refused to go. If this man knew her parents, he could answer some of her questions.

"Enough of this nonsense, Hildegarde," he had said, "You always were the sensible one," he pulled something from the breast pocket of his suit and held it out to her, "Shouldn't the girl know the truth? Have the father she always wanted?"

The truth? What truth? She carefully reached out to accept the piece of paper he was offering to her. It was a picture. There were wrinkles around the corners, and it was at least a decade old. It was a picture of him. He was younger then, but he still had the same curly brown hair and attractive features. Next to him was a young woman. She was striking with her waist-length brown hair, slightly sunkissed skin, and unusually sharp features. They were outside on a picnic blanket. It looked like it was a sunny day. Both of them were smiling, but not directly at the camera. The woman was trying to get the little girl, who was sitting in her lap, to look at the camera, and Lucifer was smiling down at her with all of the love and affection of a father. The little girl was no older than three, had little blonde curls with a black headband nestled neatly on the top of them, and she was unmistakably Sabrina Spellman.

The loud revving of a motorcycle brought her back to the present day. Unfortunately, it also scared the living daylights out of her. She had jumped and spilled her coffee onto her paper and the counter. Thinking quickly she untied her apron from around her waist and used it to absorb some of the spilled coffee. The bell above the door rang, indicating that whoever was riding that obnoxious machine had decided to grace her with their presence.

"Welcome to Marie's Soulfood Shack. I'll be right with you."

She had successfully managed to clean up the worst of the spill, but her apron was soaked and her paper was ruined. She dumped the paper in the trash and put her apron to the side. It would need to be hand-washed as soon as she was done here.

"Did I frighten you?"

That was certainly not the voice she had been expecting. It was low and accented. Australian, perhaps. She looked up to see a man who couldn't be more than a few years older than her. He had strong features, tan skin, and jaw-length golden hair. He was, to put it simply, beautiful. He ran one of his hands through his hair, and she noticed that he was wearing a leather jacket and carrying a motorcycle helmet.