The scum beneath your fingernails

Chapter 6

There is some gorey description, so if you don't like it. You can stop reading or if you want to read you may continue.

Lucifer had hoped he'd never have to do this again. Never have to hold a member of his family, their lifeless body in his hands. He's hoped, prayed this would never happen. Though he supposes prayers never come true for demons.

He walks through the alleyway, twists, and turns. He ignores the stares. The looks he knows he must be getting from his brothers. Instead, he watches Mammon's face. The bruised and pulposus skin. He wishes he could take the pain away in a single swift moment. Though he knows the combination of magic and the chaos within Mammon will only cause more pain.

The sight of their home doesn't warm his heart as it usually does. It towers over him, a court for his jurors.

Beelzebub shuffles to open the door, a despairing look shroud on his face.

They walk in line, one behind the other. Lambs to the slaughter of their own shame. The house is cold. The sour Devildom air leaks in through cracks in the foundation. Lucifer almost laughs at how symbolic it all feels.

He enters the living room, scouts the area before landing on the long, plush couch. He crouches down, lying Mammon's limp body against the velvet. It hurts to look at him... to know this is of his own doing.

How pathetic.

He watches Mammon for a moment, as Satan sets a new fire. The warmth spreads through the room and yet Mammon's body is still cold. Lucifer brushes the hair out of his eyes. His brother. His lovely younger brother.

That he hurt.

He stands once more, squaring his shoulders before facing his family. Your eyes look at him, tearful. His own brother's, angry and sorrowful. Lucifer has never had problems with public speaking before but now the anxiety swarms him.

He swallows down his fear and pride. They stick to his throat and choke his words down.

"You all...were...right." He stumbles out. He doesn't cry, though the tears fester in his chest in a painful froth. He stands firm, fist clenched (it's all he can do). "I should've tried harder. I should have trusted him. I-..."

I should have loved him properly.

I should have told him how much he meant to me. To us.

Yet, again, the words get stuck in his chest.

He looks at his brothers. It's as if their eyes are glowering down at him.

Maybe now is when they finally realize, Lucifer muses. Now they finally see that he's been flying by the seat of his pants since that day. Since Lilith fell in love, since she died he never knew what he was doing. He was leading them into the darkness with nothing but his own pride. Maybe now they will realize how he damned them.

"I...you weren't the only one Lucifer..." Asmodeus is the first to meet his eyes. "We...I treated him terribly."

Satan drops a gentle hand on Asmodeus's shoulder. "We treated him as a punching bag for our emotions...I never considered how he felt...."

"I said I'd protect you all..." Beelzebub mumbles, holding his hand to his chest. Lucifer can see how his nails dig into the flesh. "But I failed him. I failed Mammon."

He, Lucifer contemplates, was supposed to protect them.

Belphegor rests his head against his bicep. "We all did Beel...Not just Lucifer." He doesn't look at Lucifer, rather his shoes as he says it. Lucifer knows it's the closest thing he'll get to an apology.