Love Sucks

Innocent Blood - Epilogue

His eyes, a pair of sparkling black gems, gleamed in the darkness. Abigail could see the hollowness in his cheeks with the shadow falling over his face, and in each shaky breath she took, he stepped even closer.

Abbi was rooted to her spot, unable to make a noise as he neared her, that smirk playing with his thin lips.

"Abigail," He hummed pyschotically, stopping that impercievable walk until she could smell the stench of decay off his clothes. Lucifer pushed a hand through her hair, then lowered his fingers down to the side of her face. Abigail could feel something sticky and warm smear across her cheekbone as he traced crimson fingers along the bridge of her lips, that reptile smile still carving his face.

She stopped herself from shuddering in disgust; remaining completely still, like her body was trapped in ice, frozen and unmoving. Lucifer grinned, bringing his other hand along the curve in her collarbone, then with a quick movement (movements too quick for Abbi to follow) had both his hands at the base of her neck.

Abigail opened her mouth, knowing what would happen next, preparing herself for the pressure that would soon follow. But before any sound - not that she could even make one in the first place - managed to escape, he constricted ten nimble fingers around her throat.

With a choke, the sudden pressure on her neck was inescapable, Abigail watched as Lucifer smothered her, a laugh at his lips and a flash in his hungry, murky pupils ...

Abbi shot up in bed, sweat making her hair stick to her face. She struggled for breath, her hands flew to her chest to make sure there were no pale hands suffocating her.

Bars of pale moonlight shone in through the blinds of the window. Abigail could barely see Evangeline in the corner, settled into her father's old leather recliner with her head resting on her shoulder. That's all the girl seemed to do anymore; sit in that chair, staring passively at some imagined object.

It had been two weeks since Patten had disapeared, two weeks since Lucifer's mansion burned down, and two weeks since Abbi had scrambled away from a life she'd thought would be permenant. And Evie, without the presence of her beloved, had completely withdrawn from the world arround her.

The only words that the broken Evangeline had spoken during those weeks was to demand that she stay with Abigail. And that in itself was a very short conversation.

She still blamed herself for everything, especially Patten's disapearence - and only she knew what happened in that dark room in the midst of the storm. Only she knew about the knife, Lucifer's presence, and Patten's martyred last stand.

Abigail swallowed down her guilt - a thing she did often since that night - and swung her legs out from under the tangled sheets. She padded softly towards her door, opening it cautiously, and then sneaking into the hallway of the small third-level apartment.

Transitioning back into her home was easier than Abigail had first thought. She refused to come face to face with Nathaniel, and in doing so, she'd also refused to get any of the clothing and other items still locked up in his house. It was as if she'd never even spent the summer there.

Evangeline was the one who brought her mother back to the safety of their Los Angeles "home". The girl had claimed that Marcee was still traumatized, and that wasn't hard to believe, considering the woman had come back in a catatonic state.

Abigail knew she should've stayed with her after the mansion was blown to bits, but with the pressuring guilt - all she could think of was getting away.

The hallway beyond Abbi's bedroom was empty. Just a few doors down, she could hear Todd, her father, snoring loudly through the thin walls, then the ice-maker in the kitchen, and the ventalation system shifting gears through the nighttime hours.