Lucifer: The story behind the angel

Chapter 19

1950

Lucifer's POV
I walk into the cavern, now a tall building hidden in the veil. It looks like an office building from the 20s. Father knows I lived through them. I walk into my office, not seeing Lilith on the way.
She's probably still sulking about what happened back in New York. I tried to forget what other conversations took place there also, so I partially knew how she felt. On another note, I was happy I spent my precious time and energy getting another soul, on a man I've been working on for four years not to mention. There was a girl in California that's been cheating on her husband. Little does she know she's due to die from meningitis in four weeks, three days, and one hundred and ninety seven seconds. I hold back a laugh. She got it from the affair. It's pretty lonely in hell. Besides me, Lilith, Rex, the seven princes, and the occasional loose soul, it's almost completely empty. The dark crystals and seemingly endless hallways were the only other company. As I'm walking down one of the corridors, Lilith appeared from behind a corner. She glared at me as she walked by.
"You have a visitor." She spat out, her words dripping with poison. I walk past her, and didn't say anything. I've realized over the years that she hates it when I ignore her, so doing it now is both helpful, and amusing. She clomps off in her red soled heels, and I continue walking. All of a sudden, a man appears in front of me. Like, a human, man. He's in a dark blue business suit and a Rolex on. If I looked really closely, I could tell he had the eyes of a man that stared at a something bright for far too long. He gasped as he tried to stand up, and I just stood there, gaping at him. He smiled widely when he was finally up, revealing pearly white teeth.
"Hey. I'm Apollo!" I prop one of my eyebrows up.
"Apollo? The Greek god of music or whatever?" He straightens my own tie and I jerk back a little.
"Actually, I'm the Greek god of the sun, and music, and poems." I slap his hands away, as if they weren't good enough to touch me.
"Okay, one, I don't care, and two, why are you here?" He pouts.
"I'm here to ask you something." I shrug offhandedly.
"Alright. Shoot."
"Can I have two of your feathers?" He says it quickly, and holds his breath when he's done, awaiting my answer.
"No." I say plainly and walk off.
"But please, I only need them to create a couple of flying horses." This time I turn back to him.
"Horses? Who do I look like? Santa Claus?" He looks away in confusion. "Right. You don't know who that is. The point is, no."
"They fall off of you all the time!" He pleads. He is starting to disgust me.
"Look at yourself Apollo. You are pathetic. If you really want a few of my feathers, then strap on your big boy pants and try and take them."
"That's perfect!" He shouts excitedly as he starts reaching for my wing.
I gesture over to Rex. "From him." Rex growls and I snap my fingers, attaching two large feathers to his brandished silver collar. I had to admit, I did a good job making Rex look intimidating. The muscles on his furry toned body tensed up as Apollo walked closer to him.
"That's a good... creature." He says, as if he was unsure of what it was. I don't blame him. Rex's pointy ears flicked upwards, on high alert of the stranger. His black beady eyes had their full attention on the approaching god. I knew my Rex wasn't afraid of him. He's faced worse before. His fur looked ashen as if he'd been burned before, and once furry tail was sticking straight as a board behind him. He growled briskly, lowering his head as a sign of dominance. Apollo was very close to him. He reaches out his hand warily. And.... snap! Rex flicks his head over to him and nearly takes his hand off. Apollo jerks his entire body back, scared now. Unfortunately, I didn't see the next thing that happened, because I was laughing too hard.
"Haha! That is known as a fraternity test! Welcome to hell." I start to regain my composure after he cracks a small smile.
"Wow. That was.... he wasn't actually going to attack me, was he?" I walk up to him and whistle for Rex, who pads up to us, with the persona of a puppy again. He is panting loudly and has his stupid dog smile on. I pat Apollo on the back.
"Rex only wrangles in lost souls. He can't hurt anything physical." I reach down to his collar, take the two feathers, and handed them to Apollo.
"Don't waste 'em. Emperyeas is in them." He nods sporadically, takes one last look at Rex, and disappears. I look at Rex as well.
"Come on then Rex. Has any ever told you that you are a drama queen?" He gives a small 'yip' in reply, and wags his tail as he follows me the rest of the way to my office.