The Flames that Engulfed Us

Chapter 36: Mr. Devil, No

Lincoln hadn't woken up after a few hours, and I wanted to try something. I imagined a glowing hand pulling the door open from the outside. It worked. The hand moved and opened the door, holding it open as I starred out with satisfaction.

"Lincoln," I smiled, shaking his shoulder.

He rolled over, "Sky, what's wrong?"

I tipped my head towards the door and he looked up at me. "Sky, what'd you do?"

"Do you want to run? I mean, it didn't work well last time, but we could still..."

Lincoln sat up, and he looked disoriented. "Whatever," he said, still sleepy.

"We don't have forever," I told him gently, "but we could stay... I mean I like C.C., but..."

"No. Let's go."

Lincoln stood slowly, offering me his hand to pull me up. I took it and he hesitantly walked to the doorway. Then he went through, pulling me out behind him.

We went down the stairs, but at some point, we got lost. We wandered, ducking behind doorways as people strolled unknowingly by, but we didn't get caught. We found our way out a back door and suddenly found ourselves back in the desolate grassland.

The building spanned out massively, stretching forever up, and wide as I could see. I wanted away from it. I wanted the horizon to gobble it whole, like Cookie Monster and his cookies, maybe counting goofily as it did.

Lincoln and I looked at each other and he let go of my hand. Then we were running away from it, going nowhere but away. It turns out away is a great distance, potentially eternal. Assuming hell was round like Earth, if we went away enough, we'd come right back to where we started, but if it was forever flat, we'd never know when to stop.

Spoiler alert: Running is not fast.

Lincoln couldn't go that far before he collapsed, forcing me to stop. I thought about giving him the glow treatment, but based on past experiences, I held back.

"Skylar. Are you ready to consider heaven?"

The voice came from behind me and I screamed. I screamed like a little girl. I spun around to where the voice came from. I was lucky the devil had fast reflexes otherwise I would have hit him in the face.

"Mr. Devil," I whispered.

"Surely after all that, you'd be willing to consider heaven?"

Lincoln stood, his breath still heavy. I heard it as he struggled to reign it in.

"I've always been willing to consider it. My only thing was that I wasn't leaving Lincoln. I'm still not. It doesn't matter where I go as long as he's with me."

"Both of you would fare better." He turned to Lincoln, "Don't you want her to be safe? Perfectly safe, so you don't have to protect her? Don't you want her to be happy? Heaven is better suited for her. It'll be designed to conform to her will. It'll be less painful for you too. Just consider it, just your punishment, the way it was intended. No more unpredictable events. No more blots in my creation. It'll smooth out all the wrinkles you've been experiencing. If you tell her, she'll leave with me, and it'll be better."

He had said all the right things. For a moment I thought Lincoln would cave, beg me to take the offer, but he just turned to me.

"I love you," he said, his breath still strained, "and I will stand by whatever you say. I'm not going to tell you anything, Sky. Most of the time you make better decisions than me anyway."

I moved towards Lincoln, taking his arm and wrapping it around me, almost unaware I had. "I'm not leaving him."

"Skylar," the Devil hissed, his voice weaving the words together, enunciating them so they sounded like a threat, "you can't stay together forever. Human nature isn't built for eternity. Go to heaven. He'll be fine down here. His body is physically meant for here, but yours, I think you already know that it's not. Physically, you'll tear this world apart if you stay. You'll complicate everything, and Souls might end up getting hurt. Is that what you want?"

There was no way to know if he was telling the truth, but I got the sinking feeling that it didn't matter. I knew he was manipulating me and Lincoln, playing on the things that would make us bend to his will, and that's why it was infuriating when it worked. He was probably lying.

But what if he wasn't?

What would I do? Lincoln meant the world to me, but if staying together would cost the world, I knew he would pay that price, but would I? Probably not, but then again, it could've been a lie. I couldn't take the chance.

"I can't leave Lincoln," I repeated, already losing steam.

"You wouldn't consider it," the Devil said, noticing my change in attitude.

"I might," I admitted, pushing into Lincoln's side, listening to the way he'd finally got his breathing so it was normal, soothing even.

Lincoln squeezed me tighter, and I could feel in the way his muscles tensed that he didn't know what he wanted to happen. The Devil had said the right things. I wouldn't be hurt. The world might be.

"I need a firm answer," he smiled, already counting his chickens before they'd hatched.

"I'll go if Lincoln comes with me."

"Not an option."

I listened to Lincoln's breathing. Was I kidding myself that I could go without that? But, if it would hurt people I didn't even know and didn't know me.

"Who exactly is getting hurt if I stay?"

Please be bluffing. Please, for me. Pretty please?

"It's hard to say. Last time an Angel spent too long here, he got hurt and the fabric of what makes this place up started to rip, making holes. No one was hurt because he came back home, but someone might have been."

"What was his name?"

"Huh?"

"The Angel in the story. What was his name?"

Mr. Devil looked away from me.

"Flynn Hickman."

Either the Devil was creative or telling the truth. I hoped it was the former, but it was killing me that there was no way to know. I let Lincoln's breathing absorb me, and I knew I couldn't survive like I was without it. But what about-

No, it was a lie. I needed to believe that.

"I'm staying with Lincoln. Wherever that is, I don't care. I'm staying."

Lincoln's muscles tensed around me, and I looked the Devil in the eye.

"Skylar, you're messing everything up. I thought you'd see how bad hell was and go to heaven like a good girl, but you're not doing that. I thought if I was friendly, you'd take the nudges, but no. You're fickle, and it stops now. You're ruining it all. I've built a masterpiece, but somehow you found a glitch in the system and are unwittingly going to send everything tumbling down into chaos."

"Fine, then stop me. Just let me stay with Lincoln. Please."

"It's not that simple. I'm trying to stop you, but if you're in hell, I can't without actually messing things up. You gave the Faceless One identity and now he's moving freely. He's designed not to do that, but you gave him a will even if you didn't mean to. Now I have a problem. You don't see these things, Skylar, but they are still there. I need you to be away from it all."

"Ok. Just let me take Lincoln with me. Simple."

"No. Lincoln would destroy heaven, just like you're destroying hell. You can't stay together."

Me and Lincoln were on the same page. If we were going to be separated, which we'd do everything in our power to not be, it wouldn't be because we let it happen.