Hell (Part Four of the Purgatory Series)

Chapter Three: The one where Jelani is a cliche anti-hero

Chapter Three: The one where Jelani is a cliche anti-hero

The entire house and all surrounding it had fallen silent and completely still. No birds chirped, no wind stirred. The only sounds were his pounding heart and rapid breaths.

"Why are you wasting your time here, Jelani?" Lucifer questioned as he broke a tiny chip off of the coffee mug he was holding. Gesturing to it, he explained with a grin, "For bad luck."

"I just stopped here to rest," Jelani lied in response. "I'm just passing through."

The temperature in the room rose several degrees and the humidity fogged up the windows. Lucifer's eyes took on a dangerous gleam, as if a fire was burning in their depths. "Sure you are," the angel replied, his cheerful tone at odds with his deadly glare. "And I'm a cherub."

"I commend your attempt at lying, Jelani. After all, I am the great deceiver, so I appreciate a good ruse," Lucifer bragged. "But we both know you're here to try and find a way to rescue Thea. Or her family. It's very cliche: anti-hero becomes somewhat good in order to save the girl? It's been done, Jelani. Give it a rest."

Jelani swallowed past the lump in his throat and tried to figure a way out of this. Lucifer knew him too well to lie, so he would need a different strategy. Hopefully one that wouldn't get him killed.

"We both know I won't survive without her," he began, using his cowardice as camouflage. "I don't even remember how to be a human. I'm surprised I've lasted this long. Of course I was trying to find a way to save her. I need her around to keep me safe. And once she's back I don't have to he the 'anti-hero' anymore. I can go back to being who I really am. A villain. Don't you need more of those?"

Lucifer rolled his eyes and sighed. "Before your groveling and cowardice were amusing to me because I could use them to my advantage. Now it's just pathetic. And time consuming when I could be doing other things. Why was I even here again?"

The fallen angel looked around the room as if expecting someone to answer. After a few seconds, he snapped his fingers and turned back to Jelani with a smile.

"Oh, yes, I remember. I came to tell you that your little mission is pointless," he stood up and put his coffee cup in the sink. "You won't be able to rescue Thea. Go recruit her family if you want, travel to the depths of hell for all I care. It won't matter. She can't be saved. Not where I put her."

Jelani blinked in surprise. "You're giving me permission?"

Lucifer shrugged as he wiped out his cup with a dirty dish towel and placed it in the broken drying rack. "Sure. Knock yourself out. It will entertain me immensely to watch you fail. And, who knows, you might die horribly and painfully in your attempt, which means it will be a win win for me."

"What if you're wrong?" Jelani argued, wondering why Lucifer was so confident he would fail. "What if I do manage to save her?"

A bark of laughter burst from the fallen angel's lips and he replied, "You'd have better odds building a time machine and pulling a Kyle Reese than getting her back from where I put her, kiddo. But best of luck."

Jelani stared at him, his eyebrows drawn close together in confusion. "Why would I go back in time to sleep with my best friend's mother? And how would that help save Thea?"

"Obviously, I meant you'd have more success trying to go back into the past and change the future, you imbecile," Lucifer snarled.

Jelani shifted uncomfortably, but couldn't help but add, "But wouldn't a 'Back to the Future' reference have made more sense than 'Terminator' in this case?"

Lucifer pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath. "I will smite you right here and now, Jelani, I swear. Be very glad I am in a gracious mood."

Before he could reply, a bright light enveloped the room and temporarily blinded him. By the time his eyes readjusted, Lucifer was gone.

Jelani lowered his shaking body into one of the kitchen chairs and tried to make sense of what just happened. There were two things he had discovered during the conversation - that Thea's family was still alive, and despite being the great deceiver, Lucifer was telling the truth about them being unable to rescue Thea. It was reminiscent of his previous plan to hold Thea in limbo as a ghost. He allowed her to try and escape because he knew it would be impossible. He was proud of whatever foolproof plan he had in place and was confident enough to brag about it. That meant he was telling the truth.

Was there any point in finding Thea's parents now? He would just have to relay bad news and crush any hope they had that their daughter was still alive. He would have better chances freeing bird brain and his friends from Purgatory.

And just like that, Jelani knew that's what he had to do. Once the nephilim were free and scattered once again Lucifer would be distracted by their interference. It would give him time to think and more people to help him plan. Though Roran was going to cause problems. He was a human now, and didn't need the behemoth attacking him for his past misdeeds. Perhaps he could kill the phoenix discreetly and make it look like the cambion did it?

Jelani shook his head and took a few deep breaths. He was getting ahead of himself. First he had to find a witch capable of getting in to Purgatory and breaking the spell Thea and her friends put in place to keep anyone from leaving. God, that woman had been such a pain in the ass. Still was. But now he had no other options. Without Thea around too much attention from Lucifer and his cambion was focused on him and things were looking bleak.

The sun had begun to set by the time he had formed a concrete plan, so Jelani locked himself in the basement in hopes the cambion wouldn't find him. Just to be safe, he boarded up the window and shoved heavy boxes in front of the door. Lucifer had said he would be thrilled if he died horribly, so there was no guarantee he wouldn't send cambion to kill him intentionally.

He found candles and matches in a drawer and lit one in the farthest corner from either entry point. He wanted to be able to see what was coming if they did manage to break in. He bunched up a blanket and tried to get comfortable for the long night, but his muscles were tense in expectation of a fight. There would be no way he could relax, so instead he pulled out Thea's journal. He had read it cover to cover already looking for more clues, but it was almost comforting to see her messy handwriting scrawled across the pages.

He opened it to a tiny entry at the back that bothered him and he kept coming back to. It seemed to be dated after she had returned from Purgatory The first time. The entry read:

I was a vampire, part cambion: a demon human hybrid. So I went to purgatory, the place reserved for creatures who cannot enter heaven or hell because of their dual nature.

But I'm human now. Is my soul eternally tainted by the cambion I once was? Will I go to hell for the things I did as a vampire? Or would I get to go to heaven now because I'm a human again? After all, I was saved by a nephilim who burned the cambion out of me.

What will become of me?

Jelani found himself wondering the same now that he was human. Though he had been resurrected by the devil, so it was likely he wasn't headed up to heaven at the end of things. But Thea...was it even possible for Lucifer to determine the fate of her soul when she hadn't made a deal with him? She hadn't deserved any of this and he felt even more guilty knowing he could have saved her in limbo if he hadn't been such a coward.

Which is why he knew. No matter what Lucifer said, he would find Thea and he would save her. He had put her in this situation and he would be the one to fix it.

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Sorry for lack of updates. Life is kicking my butt right now. I appreciate any of you guys who are still sticking with me despite my rare posts. I can't tell you how much your support means to me. Thanks for reading!