I'm The Devils Daughter

M.I.A

It's late evening. I could talk about how the sunset is magical and the city of the dead is lighting up beautifully. However, I would prefer to announce that I am hopelessly lost. Honestly. I swear I was trying to find Julian, to tell him that I am NEVER EVER EVER going to be telling dead people that they're dead since one was sick by my feet earlier (ghosts can be sick it's just a bit transparent - gross)!

Anyway, I was trying to find him and I thought he mentioned earlier he was going to see some of the new dead people and see how they were settling in which is a waster of time because they're dead and it's not like they can do anything other than settle in. I have also just discovered that there are a LOT of dead people. So many. And the houses they have built to live in go on a very very very long way. So I am lost.

What's worse is all the dead people are asleep. They're ghosts, so they really don't need to. In Hell they don't get to sleep (we take eternal punishment seriously). I can't ask any of them where Julian is because I do think they might get a bit mad and I DO NOT want to be starting a mob at this hour.

So I am walking and walking and walking - I hope you get that I am walking - and hoping to find some street sign or anything to lead me back. It is very boring. And of course, I nearly happen to walk into something awful.

It's God. And my father. 

I hide. If they're this far away from the palace (I am starting to suspect I have been walking in a big circle and am therefore quite close to home now) then something must be up. There is a lot of geraniums that I hide myself in (the ghost from earlier would love this) and really quietly listen.

"Do you think they've figured it out yet?" Satan asks. 

There is a really long pause. "Not yet. They still feel that attraction for each other-"

"But it's not real!" I hear Satan cackling - yes cackling like a witch. 

"Don't be so unkind Satan," God mutters, "Thana and Julian think that their infatuation is real. I will not ruin it for them."

God waits for my fathers laughing to die down. "We will not be able to keep hitting them with the scent forever Satan."

"I sprayed it into their room this morning! They were all over each other! And then - I walked in! They were so shocked." This morning? When I was kissing Julian? What?

"Yes I heard you're laughter from miles away. All we wanted was to make this easy for them. To take away the hardships of the relationship. But I feel we were mistaken to do so."

I don't need to hear any more. My love is fake? I think I'm upset - and not in a vengeful I-will-do-anything-to-make-Satan-suffer kind of way. Of course I should have suspected my father would find a way to trick me. I mean, it's been unlike him to go so long without trying something. And like a fool I let him. 

As it turns out, I had nearly found the palace. Julian was waiting for me on the doorstep. I wanted him, but I didn't. "Where have you been?" He asks. He wants to kiss me. I push him away. This cannot be him. 

Instead, I race to my fathers room. If he was spraying something he should still have the bottle. He wouldn't expect me to ever go in his 'domain'. 

I find a little bottle inside his wardrobe. Unscrewing the top I give it a sniff. It smells so enticingly of Julian, that I must have lost a minute of time thinking about him. But this isn't a really nice cologne. I know this. It's what the angels use when they want humans to fall in love! Humans! 

I've been tricked.