The Devils Due

Chapter Two Don't Park in My Spot

Maura tightened her spine farther and opened the door with a beaming smile.
“Hey Lu, whats going on?” she chirped.
“Cut the shit Maur, I know what you did to Jackson in the torture department.”
What she did to Ja….? OH SHIT. She had completely forgotten about that…
“Look Lu, he had it coming, parking in my spot like that. I was right there, and that blight STILL parked in my spot.” She defended.
The demon in front of her looked more tired than normal. His amber eyes had bags under them, and his usually clean face had stubble on it. It made his face look older than the normal twenty-something.
“That is no reason to challenge him to a duel in hand to hand.” He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.
“What? I was supposed to just let him do that?” She scoffed, plopping down in the office chair in front of Lu’s desk. “Last time I checked, you had to be a demon to park in the yellow parking lot.”
“While this is true,” Lu sighed. “I have no choice but to reprimand you.”
“Reprimand?!  What are you going to do?” She tried to keep herself calm, taking a deep but silent breath.
“I have no choice but to suspend you without pay,” he announced, standing and walking around to the other side of his desk.
“Suspend?” she gaped.
“That's not all. Due to the fact that this is your third strike I have to send you to planet.”
“For breaking that useless soul's spine?” Maura shreeked, shooting up from her chair. “That's not even fair!”
“No. What isn't fair, is that you think that Jackson is a blight!” Lu boomed. Maura for her part, sat back down, wide eyed and scared, waiting for the demon in front of her to say something else. Lu sighed. “This has always been a problem for you. You don’t treat anyone with respect, except me.” He leaned against his desk and folded his arms across his chest, making his suit jacket strain at his elbows. “I have had more complaints about you from Helping Resources than anyone, and if this doesn’t at least appease HR I'm going to have to put you through sensitivity training. I really don’t want to have to do that.” He paused and looked at the wall behind her, then nodded as if he was making a decision. “So I'm going to send you to planet for the remainder of your soulmate's afterlife. And then I will bring you back to reevaluate everything.” He announced, and finally made eye contact with the demon sitting in front of him, “I will give you 24 planet hours to get everything in order. Then I expect you to be in the transfer room this time tomorrow. Got it?”
She nodded and stood. When he got like this there was no point in arguing with him. He was Lucifer, King of the Underworld, after all.

…

She made her way into her apartment and looked around. She had lived in this particular apartment for a little over 30 years. When she moved in, it had been bright yellow with fresh flowers all over it. The exact opposite of the way it was now. Everything had a corner to it. The couch, the lamps, not a thing didn’t look square and standoffish. Everything was a shade of grey and the farther into the apartment you went the darker it got. Her guest room was the only thing that was slightly cheery. It was all white and fluffy, but she never went in there, so she never thought about it until now. Why she thought of this room now she had no clue.
She walked to her bedroom at the very end of the hall and turned on the light.
Okay, she thought, I'm going to be gone for a decade...what do I bring? She grabbed the green duffle bag she had taken from a soldier in the first world war. She had been in the soul selling department at the time. Starting to throw clothes into the bag, she let her mind go, not really paying much attention to where it led itself. Wandering around her apartment putting random things she might need into the duffle. Once the bag was full, she grabbed her favorite leather book bag and stuffed it with a few books to read while in transit, and some snacks from her kitchen.
Later that evning everything that was going to be packed was, when the sudden ringing of her land-line had made her jump. She quickly recovered and answered it on the third ring.
"Hello.” She grumbled.
“Hello Maura, this is Doris from Lucifer’s office. I have him on the line, and he has something very urgent to speak to you about. Will you hold, while I transfer?” Doris’s monotone voice sounded on the other line of the receiver.
“Of course,” Maura sighed as she leaned against the arm of her couch.
“Maura, I need you to come back into my office as soon as you can, we have a bit of a situation that needs both of our attention.” Lu’s voice sounded without even a hello.
“Yeah, okay it takes me about 15 minutes to get over there. I’ll be there as fast as I can.” Maura announced, hanging up her phone and grabbing her car keys.
There was a highway that connected Maura’s apartment to the palace. It went over the third ring, and for that reason the road always seemed a bit wet. By the time she had reached the palace, she had come up with 10 reasons as to why Lu needed her, but had thrown them out of her head each time reasoning with logic every time. She walked to the elevator at a quick pace not quite jogging, but not walking either. She impatiently hit the button with the number four written on it. When the doors reopened to reveal the office, she felt a pang of love and comfort wash over her, but shaking it off, promised herself she would revisit that later, after whatever was bugging Lu was taken care of. She walked past the assistance desk and straight to the big door at the end of the room. She rapped on the door with her fist, and before waiting for an answer, she opened the door.
“Lu what is it? What's going o...” she stopped mid word and the sight of the soul sitting in one of two chairs in front of Lu’s desk. “Jacob?"