House of the Damned

The Epilogue

Twenty-Eight
The Epilogue

There’s a knock at my bedroom door.

“Come in!” I shout, knowing that I can’t let anyone in from this side. They need a key to enter. Venus has a problem with letting me wander these days. Then again, I’ve been setting souls free for the past eighteen years, so it makes sense.

A young man enters the room, only nineteen years old. Granted, he looks older than me these days. Michael forgot to mention that the necklace also stops me from aging.

I smile at the kid; I haven’t seen much of him lately. He looks good, muscles are well-built. There’s a nice, healthy shine to his black hair. His grey eyes sparkle with happiness. He’s been outdoors a lot recently; his skin is much darker than normal.

“Hey, Lucifer. How’ve you been? It’s been, what? A month?”

“Two,” he corrects. “I’ve been crazy busy or I would have been by sooner. It’s hard to visit, too, you know. Venus never approves. Whatever, though. So how’ve you been, Mom?”

“Luke, we’ve been over this, I’m not your mom.”

“More than she ever was or ever will be. You’re changing the subject. How are you?”

“Same as always; bored, tired, weak. She just had to find the damn loophole.” I haven’t had food or water in years. It’s not torture, because the end goal is my death. It’s not a murder attempt, because it can’t kill me. She went around her agreements.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. She’s your mom, not your fault. So tell me, how’s college life treating you? Oh, and how was your birthday?”

We make small talk, sitting on my bed. I’m glad he’s happy and well. Doing the best he can anyway.

For the millionth time, he mentions the situation. “You know, I could burn your contract. Or just ask her to let you go. You know that she would agree to it, if I asked.”

“She would agree to it because it gets me out of her hair. But you know my answer. I’m staying here.” Michael and Ian didn’t die for nothing.

He sighs. “I just wish there was something that I could do. I hate knowing you’re trapped here, with her. She really hates you.”

“Yeah. Yeah, she does. And I totally deserve it, so don’t worry about it. It’s my problem.”

Another sigh, but like always, he drops the subject. He knows that he won’t get anywhere, but I can’t say that I blame him for trying. More small talk, his grades are great and he’s in the honors college. He has the hugest crush on some human girl in his Calc III class. A picture on his phone shows me that she’s pretty much as nerdy as telling me she’s in Calc III implies. The cute kind of nerdy, a little awkward but not ugly. Her name is Zoey and she sounds nice. I’m glad to know he doesn’t have his parents’ tastes. (Shockingly, they’re still together. But I suppose having a kid is a bit of a bonding experience.)

A weird scratching sound at the door interrupts our conversation. As if knowing what it is, Luke sighs in annoyance and mutters something to the effect of, ‘Gosh dangit,’ before going and opening the door. The scrawniest little white cat ever enters the room, acting as if its presence just makes the world ten times better. The furball jumps onto my bed and curls up into a ball.

“That…thing…has been following me for a month now. I can’t make her go away, no matter what I do. She doesn’t have any tags, either. Just a name written on the collar and this random charm.”