Chapter Text
*Chloe’s POV*
Chloe was walking towards Ella’s lab and was surprised to see Ella whispering something into Lucifer’s ear when she suddenly heard a booming shout. “Lucifer!” The voice sounded female and absolutely pissed. Chloe turned to look to see who was shouting for Lucifer and her eyes landed on one of the most stunning women she had ever seen. The woman was short and petite with extremely fair skin, snow white hair that spilled over her shoulders down to her ribs in waves, delicate, almost elvish, facial features, and was currently wearing what looked like a royal blue Roman toga with beautiful golden filigree embroidery that fell to her knees as well as dark brown sandals that laced up her legs. She literally looked like a Roman goddess come to life.
Chloe startled when she suddenly heard Lucifer’s voice right next to her. “Oh dear.”
She turned to look at him. “Do you know her?”
Lucifer didn’t answer her but he looked really worried for a moment before he cleared his expression of the emotion and pasted on a charming smile. To all the world, he looked as though he did not have a care in the world as he called out to the woman. “Darling!”
The woman's eyes found Lucifer and she started marching over, her expression a veritable stormcloud. As soon as she stood in front of him, she started speaking, her voice trembling with rage. “Lucifer, I demand to know what happened!” Chloe noted that she had a British accent like Lucifer instead of an American one like Amenadiel.
Lucifer's smile did not falter even in the face of the woman's anger. “I'm afraid you'll have to be more specific, darling, a great deal has happened since I last saw you.”
The woman’s sapphire blue eyes narrowed in fury before she started shouting. “You know exactly what I'm asking about! Our brother is dead, you insensitive prick! I know he came here looking for you. Now tell me what happened to him!”
Wait, what? Amenadiel was dead? Was this woman Lucifer’s sister? She said “our” brother so she must be. As her thoughts swirled in her head at high speed, Chloe looked over at Lucifer. His expression was pained for only a moment before he wiped it away and his smile back. This smile was gentler, less "smarmy asshole" and more "big brother" as he reached out to his apparent sister.
“Let’s talk in private, okay?” Lucifer said as he placed his hand on her arm.
However, his sister didn't allow the touch, wretching her arm away from him. “Where?”
Lucifer turned towards Chloe. “Do you mind if we use the interrogation room?”
Chloe didn't know what was going on but she still agreed, they obviously needed some privacy to talk about Amenadiel. “Sure.”
Chloe watched as Lucifer led his sister into one of the interrogation rooms before spotting Dan making coffee at the counter and staring at Lucifer like a majority of the precinct currently was. Lucifer's sister hadn't exactly been quiet and everyone had heard her. Was that why Lucifer has been acting out recently? Because his brother was dead? Chloe thought Maze would have mentioned that Amenadiel was dead though... She had so many questions and currently no answers. She glanced at the door to the observation room connected to the interrogation room Lucifer and his sister had just entered. She shouldn’t. It would be so bad to spy on Lucifer but how else was she going to get answers? Lucifer didn't lie but he could talk in circles without actually answering a question for ages and he had never mentioned his brother being dead despite it most likely happening weeks ago. She started walking over to the door almost against her will and she noticed that Dan was too. At least she wouldn’t be alone in her sins.
They made it to the door to the observation room at the same time but Chloe hesitated before opening it. This would be such a breach of privacy... She opened it anyway. Dan followed her inside, neither of them saying a word. Lucifer was speaking as Dan closed the door behind them. He was angled mostly away from them so they couldn't see his face, just his back. His hands were clasped behind his back and his knuckles were white from how hard he was clenching them.
“Yes, Uriel is dead.” Lucifer's voice was completely flat as he declared his brother's death. Also, Uriel? Not Amenadiel? Just how many siblings did Lucifer have and why has he never mentioned them before?
The woman's eyes filled with tears, several falling down her cheeks. She didn't seem to even notice as she stared at Lucifer, devastation clear on her face. “Where is his body?” Her voice was small now in stark contrast to her angry shouting before.
“I buried him.” Luficer's voice was still flat and emotionless but his stiff shoulders and clenched hands gave away his current emotional state.
“What do you mean ‘you buried him’? He deserves to be put to rest at home!” The woman said furiously, more tears spilling onto her cheeks.
“You know that I can’t go home.” There was an edge to Lucifer's voice as he said that which Chloe didn't understand.
The woman scoffed angrily. "Then why didn't you get Amenadiel to do it? I know he's down here too. Or one of our other siblings? Or me? Anything but burying him so far away from home!"
Lucifer sighed. "Amenadiel couldn't for reasons he'll have to explain to you himself." Lucifer paused and turned his head away. Chloe could see his expression was pained again. "And I didn't call any of you because I feared your reactions."
The woman suddenly sobbed, anger momentarily forgotten. “How did this happen?” She cried in anguish.
“Azrael’s blade.” Lucifer’s voice was back to being completely flat and his answer didn’t make any sense to Chloe but his sister seemed to recognize what he was saying.
“How did you get Azrael's blade?” The woman asked.
“Uriel took it from Azrael. He planned to use it on mum.”
The woman reeled back as if slapped, openly gaping in shock at what Lucifer just said, immediately denying his words. “He wouldn’t.”
Emotion bled into Lucifer's voice again as he responded. “Believe me, he would. He was determined and refused to be reasoned with. He had this twisted idea that dad would forgive mum and take her back so in his mind this meant he had to eliminate her.”
The woman scrutinized Lucifer for a moment. “So what happened?”
Here Lucifer hesitated but when he spoke, his voice was pleading. “Annie, you have to understand, he didn’t give me a choice. He was going to kill the Detective if I didn’t give him mum but if I gave him mum, he would have killed her. I didn’t have a choice.”
I stared at Lucifer in shock. His brother was going to kill me? And their mother? As I tried to come to terms with that, the woman— Annie— looked away from Lucifer and instead stared at the two way mirror.
“Who’s there?” Annie said loudly.
Lucifer looked between Annie and the mirror. “What are you talking about?”
“Someone’s there, behind the glass. I can feel them, they reacted strongly to your words.” Annie's tone was sure, as though she was speaking fact, but how could she possibly know they were there?
Lucifer looked at the mirror for a moment before he quickly left the room with Annie hot on his heels. Moments later he opened the door to the observation room but he didn't move from the doorway even when Annie pushed him to the side some so she could see into the room. Lucifer’s expression was one of shock as he stared at Chloe and Dan but it quickly turned to hurt. “Detective…”
Chloe immediately regretted invading Lucifer’s privacy. “Lucifer, I’m sorry—” She started to say but Lucifer quickly interrupted, his voice completely blank, all traces of hurt gone as if it was never there.
“I have some business that I need to take care of with Miss Lopez.” He turned to Annie. “If you would like to accompany us, you are more than welcome too or I can have you talk to Amenadiel.” Lucifer glanced at me and Dan but continued speaking. “He can bring you to Uriel's body.”
Annie’s mouth was set in a firm, grim line. “I’ll talk with Amenadiel.”
“Alright.” Lucifer pulled out his phone.
For some reason, Annie looked confused as she stared at Lucifer's phone. “What is that?”
“You've never seen a cellphone?” Dan asked incredulously.
However, Annie still looked confused, obviously not recognizing the word. “A what?”
Chloe couldn’t stop herself from staring at Annie in shock. How could she not know what a phone is? A glance at Dan showed that he was just as shocked.
Lucifer, however, was unsurprised by Annie's lack of common knowledge and simply explained. “It’s a communication device. It allows you to talk to people over vast distances.”
Annie stared in fascination at Lucifer's phone. “How does it work?”
Lucifer sighed. “I’ll show you some other time, okay?”
Chloe shook off her surprise and tried to speak again, wanting to apologize for spying. “Lucifer—“
However, Lucifer held up a hand to stop her from continuing and started speaking into his phone with false cheer. “Amenadiel! Guess you showed up. Annie! She’s here with me at the precinct.” Lucifer paused as he listened to Amenadiel speak. “We’ll talk about that later but if you could fill her in on everything that's happened, that would be great.” Lucifer paused again. “Yes, everything . Talk to you later.” He ended the call. “Don’t worry Annie, Amenadiel is on his way here. He’ll be here in about 30 minutes, so why don’t you hang out with the Detective and Detective Douche until he gets here?”
“Why is it going to take so long?” Annie asked.
Lucifer sighed. “Because a lot has happened recently that Amenadiel will tell you all about when he gets here. Now,” he pushed Annie towards Chloe and Dan. “I hope you two will treat my sister fairly while she waits for Amenadiel and I run an errand with Miss Lopez.”
Chloe had to admit her curiosity was peaked since she had seen them whispering together earlier. “What errand?”
“Don’t worry about it, I promise we’ll be quick.” And with that, Lucifer turned and left.
A part of her wanted to go after him and apologize immediately but Chloe knew that wouldn’t be welcome right now. Instead she turned to his sister to introduce herself. “Hello, I’m Detective Chloe Decker and this is Detective Dan Espinoza. Your name is Annie, right?”
Annie crossed her arms and glared at Chloe with disdain. Her voice was cold as she spoke to Chloe. “You were spying on a private conversation between my brother and I which means we are not friends. You may call me Anael.”
Anael's words caused another wave of remorse and shame to wash through Chloe. She was right after all, what Chloe did was wrong and she shouldn't have done it. She knew she shouldn't have but she allowed her desire for answers to overwhelm her common sense.
Anael sighed, her arms dropping down to her sides as some of her cold demeanor melted. “You are genuinely remorseful though so maybe you aren’t a bad person. However, your actions really hurt Lucifer so I expect you to apologize to him as soon as possible.”
Chloe immediately nodded. “Of course.”
Dan clapped his hands together. “Welp, I've got paperwork to do so I’ll see you later Chloe. Bye Anael, it was nice to meet you.” Dan said before exiting the room and abandoning Chloe.
Now it was just Chloe and Anael. Great. Chloe glared at the direction Dan left as she searched for something to say. “Have you been to LA before?” She asked awkwardly and immediately knew it was stupid question. Anael didn't know what a phone was, of course she's never been to LA before.
“No. I rarely leave home.” Anael started to fiddle with the necklace she was wearing that Chloe hadn't noticed before. Hanging on a thin gold chain was a medium sized golden pendant of some kind of symbol within a circle. The circle was interrupted by three stones of the same size and shape. Beside the middle of the symbol on the right side was a small piece of black, onyx stone and opposite it on the left side of the circle was a piece of white moonstone. At the bottom, directly below the symbol, was a blue, sapphire gemstone. It was a very pretty necklace.
Chloe realized she was staring at Anael's chest (the pendant rested on her breastbone) and immediately looked away. “Oh.” God, this was awkward. Why did Dan have to abandon her? He should be suffering this awkwardness with her. “Lucifer said Amenadiel will be here in 30 minutes, so why don’t we wait by my desk? That way I can get some work done while we wait.”
“Alright.” Anael agreed easily enough and so Chloe brought the woman over to her desk.
The next 30 minutes passed excruciatingly slowly as Chloe did paperwork and Anael watched. Chloe tried to initiate conversation a few times but Anael was uninterested, obviously lost in thought. So they sat there in awkward silence until Amenadiel showed up. When he did, he immediately hugged Anael before quickly ushering her away. He didn't even say hello to Chloe. It was odd to say the least. Suffice to say, Chloe had a lot to think about from everything that had happened.
When Lucifer came back, we left to go to the Sole Depot where the victim, Maddie, worked. It was silent in the car as we drove there and I just couldn’t bring myself to break the silence. When we got there, we ended up talking to one of the employees there about Maddie. I was questioning her about anyone that really hated Maddie when Lucifer interjected. “What about petty grievances? Perhaps Maddie drank someone’s probiotic smoothie or did one too many peacock poses for someone’s taste?”
I looked at Lucifer. “Lucifer—”
He cut me off. “No, just, think. There must be some little disagreements. So why don’t you write us up a list? Anyone who so much as raised a patchouli-scented eyebrow in Maddie’s direction could be the killer.”
I looked at him incredulously and put my hand on his arm to stop him from going on. “Excuse us.” I said to the employee and led Lucifer away so we could chat privately. Once we were out of earshot of the employee, I leaned towards Lucifer to say quietly. “That’s not the profile of the murderer we’re investigating.”
“I’m just being thorough, detective. Like you said, ‘shake the bushes until the truth flies free’.” Lucifer said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever said that before.” I replied.
“No?”
“Mmm-mmm.” I disagreed.
“Oh,” Lucifer briefly touched my arm. “Perhaps it was Ms. Lopez.”
That got my attention. “Mmm. You’ve been spending a lot of time with Ella. You know, working together, I mean.” I cleared my throat awkwardly.
“Not particularly.”
“Hmm.” Was all I said in response.
“Should we see how this list is getting on?” Lucifer asked in order to change the subject.
“Lucifer, wait.” I put my hand on his arm to stop him from walking away. “I wanted to apologize for invading your privacy earlier. It was wrong of me and I’m sorry.”
Lucifer’s expression darkened. “Then why did you do it?”
“Because I was curious and that’s not a good excuse but when Anael said that your brother was dead I wanted to know more about that. I mean, you had never said anything but it happened about 2 weeks ago right? That’s why you were acting out during the serial shooter case and then impersonating Dan during the Joe Fields case. You were grieving.” I looked at him for confirmation.
“Yes, that’s correct.” His mouth was a grim line.
There was a question that had been burning in my mind since I had heard about it and I couldn’t hold it back any longer. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Lucifer was silent for a moment. “Because I didn’t want to tell you what I had done.”
“What you had done?” I repeated. “What do you mean? What did you do?” Lucifer just stared at me with pain in his eyes. That’s when the puzzle pieces started fitting together. His brother had been planning to kill me and their mother. I didn’t have a choice , he had said. “Did you…” I almost couldn’t say it. “Kill him?” Lucifer just looked away and that was all the confirmation I needed. “Oh my god.” Lucifer didn’t even make a crack about god having nothing to do with it. That’s how bad this was.
The moment was interrupted by the employee we had talked to joining us. “Um, excuse me? I have that list you wanted here.” She handed me the list and I numbly took it from her.
“Thank you.” I said before I took Lucifer’s arm and started dragging him to the exit.
Only once we were safely in the car did I start talking again. “You killed your brother?” I said again because it was so hard to believe that Lucifer, my Lucifer, killed someone. Why? To protect me and his mother? I needed facts. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
Lucifer sighed but complied. “He gave me an ultimatum. I had the choice to bring our mother to him so he could bring her back to hell or he was going to kill you. I didn’t want to hand over our mother so I confronted him. That’s when I learned of his plans to kill our mother with Azreal’s Blade. We fought and I was losing. Maze showed up and tried to beat him but he bested her too. My brother was tricky you see, he had a thing with patterns and that made him very hard to defeat. He was going to kill you though, so I didn’t see any other choice but to use Azreal’s Blade on him.” Lucifer was quiet for a moment before whispering. “He died in my arms. My brother died in my arms.”
I sat in stunned silence in the parking lot of the Sole Depot. I hadn’t even turned on the car because I wanted to have this conversation before we left. But it was true. Lucifer killed his brother in an attempt to save me and his mom. I couldn’t deal with this right now, I needed time and space from Lucifer to deal and right now, we had a case to solve.
*Anael’s POV*
I left what I had been told was a police station with Amenadiel. My abilities were to sense and influence emotions and my dear brother was mostly happy but there was an undercurrent of trepidation and worry. We walked over to another building that was filled with the metal boxes I had seen humans use to commute. We stopped walking on the second floor, next to a black metal box. There were doors on the sides and Amenadiel opened one of them and gestured for me to get in. I looked at Amenadiel in bewilderment. “Why don’t we just fly?”
Amenadiel sighed and looked down. I could sense feelings of shame roll over him. “Annie, I can’t fly.”
“What do you mean you can’t fly?” I asked. What he was saying didn’t make sense.
“Annie, I lost my powers.” He took a deep breath. “I lost my wings.”
Horror swept through me. “Oh dear brother!” I rushed forward to hug him. I couldn’t fathom how this had happened. “Amenadiel, please tell me. How did this happen?” I pleaded.
And so he told me. Everything. He told me about his mistakes regarding a human named Malcolm and the death that was brought about because of his choices. He told me about how he was injured and that Mom had used the opportunity to escape hell. How she now possessed a human body and was living out the human’s life as a sort of punishment here on Earth so she wouldn’t have to go back to hell. He told me about how Uriel came and was intent on killing mom with Azreal’s Blade. That he had given Lucifer a choice, to either give him mom or he would kill Detective Decker, who Amenadiel told me is very special to Lucifer. Which wasn’t news to me. I could sense how much Lucifer and Detective Decker cared for one another earlier.
“So mom is really here on Earth?” I asked.
Amenadiel nodded. “Yes.”
“And Lucifer killed Uriel because he was going to kill mom and his friend?”
Amenadiel sighed. “Yes, he didn’t have a choice.”
The waves of grief and sadness crashed against me and it took all of my strength not to break down. “Where can I find Lucifer?”
“Annie, it wasn’t his fault.” Amenadiel insisted.
“I know, but I want to talk to him about it. Where can I find him?” I looked Amenadiel in the eye to let him know I was serious about this.
Amenadiel paused before acquiescing. “If he isn’t at the police precinct, then he’s probably at Lux, his club.” He rattled off the address of the club.
I unfurled my wings. They were blue-gray in color and not that large. I used to be teased for having smaller wings but I always thought they were perfectly sized for me since I was also on the shorter side. I took off, leaving Amenadiel behind. I didn’t immediately go to the club though, I had to clear my head first. I flew around aimlessly until it was dark. By then, I had more control of my emotions and I felt ready to have a conversation with Lucifer.
I flew to where Amenadiel told me Lucifer lived. When I landed, I saw Lucifer standing there by a piano. When he saw me, he grimaced. He said nothing as I approached him.
When I was standing right in front of him, I spoke in an emotionless tone. “You killed Uriel.”
His grimace deepened. “I did.”
“You killed our brother.” I made sure my face was blank.
He sighed. “Yes.”
“Would he really have killed mom?” My voice was small and I wasn’t looking at him.
I could feel the regret and shame pouring off of him. “Yes.”
I couldn’t contain myself anymore and I launched myself at him. I wrapped my arms around him tightly and started sobbing into his chest. “I don’t blame you.” I said as I cried. “It was an impossible situation and you did what you thought was the only way.”
I could feel his complete shock at my words. Then he tentatively put his arms around me and hugged me back. We just stood there for a while before we were interrupted by a dinging noise and Lucifer let go of me. I looked towards where the noise came from as well and saw two metal sliding doors opening. A woman stepped through the doors and started walking towards us. She had something in her hand and when she saw me however, she stopped.
“Ms. Lopez. Well, this is a surprise.” Lucifer said. He glanced between me and the woman. “Ella Lopez, this is my sister, Anael. Annie, this is my friend and coworker, Ella Lopez.”
Ms. Lopez brightened at the fact that I was Lucifer’s sister and surged forward. She was exuding happiness and pulled me into a hug. “Oh my god! It is so nice to meet you!”
I returned the hug enthusiastically. I had always been a tactile person and when we were growing up, Lucifer was usually the one to indulge me. “Hello Ms. Lopez.” I said.
Ms. Lopez released me. “Oh, call me Ella.” Ella looked at Lucifer before continuing. “What are you doing in town?”
“Our brother, Uriel, died.” I answered.
Ella immediately looked sympathetic. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” She exclaimed before giving me another hug. She then gave Lucifer a hug. “Are you guys doing okay?”
Lucifer smiled at her. “Don’t worry, Ms. Lopez, it was a few weeks ago.”
“We’ll be okay eventually.” I added.
Ella looked between the two of us before settling on me. “I’m really sorry to ask this but, do you mind giving me and Lucifer a minute to talk? I promise I’ll be quick.”
“Anything you want to say to me, you can say in front of Annie, I assure you.” Lucifer said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Have you found something new?”
Ella glanced at me again before answering. “Oh, I found something all right.” Then she held up a piece of paper with a footprint on it.
Lucifer looked and felt confused. “Proof of Bigfoot?"
Ella looked at him seriously. “Tread on the shoes Duncan Watts was wearing when he was found dead.” She held up another piece of paper. “Tread that you showed me at your super-weirdo hole in the ground. They match, which means that this case and your favor are connected. Start talking, dude.”
I could feel the dread coming off of Lucifer as he chuckled nervously. Ella continued talking. “Do you have something to do with these murders?” Lucifer scoffed in reply and Ella continued. “Come clean with me or I can’t keep this a secret anymore.”
“You see, that’s just it. The last person I came clean with became a tad untethered.” Lucifer said.
“Dude, I grew up in Detroit.” Ella deadpanned.
“Look, all I can tell you is I’m dealing with a matter of cosmic importance and I ask you to indulge me for just a little longer.” Lucifer said.
“You mean have faith.” Ella replied.
Lucifer scoffed. “Tomayto, tomahto.”
Ella took a deep breath. “Well, I guess faith isn’t faith unless it’s tested.”
“Hmm.” Lucifer said.
Ella started towards Lucifer. “Bring it in.”
“What?” Lucifer questioned as Ella hugged him. “Oh.”
Then there was that dinging noise again and detective Decker walked into the room. “Ella?” She asked as she walked forward.
“Detective?” I could feel the surprise coming off of Lucifer.
“Oh, um…” Ella said awkwardly as she let go of Lucifer and stealthily folded up the papers she was holding. She put them behind her back. “I was just… You see there’s this store that has really special soap, and… Well, you know… But I should really get going now and clean stuff with, uh, soap… Bye!” She walked through the metal doors with a ding.
“Have a nice shower!” Lucifer said cheerily and I was so confused.
It was then that detective Decker noticed me. “Oh, Anael! What are you doing here?”
I decided it was time for me to leave. “Actually, I was just leaving.” I started walking towards the balcony.
“Oh, nope!” Lucifer grabbed my arm and started directing me towards the metal doors. “I’m afraid you’ll have to use the elevator.”
“What’s an elevator?” I asked.
“This,” he gestured to the metal doors, “is an elevator. Once inside, you press the button that says one and then you’ll be at the club. Why don’t you enjoy yourself and have a few drinks on me.”
“Oh, okay.” I allowed myself to be shepherded into the elevator. I did as Lucifer asked and watched him wave at me while the doors closed. I waved back uncertainly.
*Lucifer’s POV*
We had wrapped up the case and I had retrieved Azreal’s Blade. Now it was time for my therapy appointment. We were both standing in her office. “So, a global crisis averted?” She asked uncertainly.
“Yes, for now.” I replied and I was getting ready to sit in the doctor’s chair to try and help her come to terms with the celestial. “So we can talk about Caligula, Stalin… Trump. I mean, I know he’s not dead, but he’s definitely going.”
“Lucifer, I owe you an apology.” Linda took a breath. “But in my defense… you’re the Devil.” I couldn’t help but chuckle at that but she continued. “Things were much less complicated when I thought you were just another average delusional patient with a complicated family.”
I smiled at her. “Well, I’ve never been average, Linda. Mentally, physically, and, as you know, sexually.”
Linda leaned against her desk in shocked realization. “Oh, my god. I had sex with the Devil.”
“Many, many times. And you’re welcome.” I replied.
Linda came back to herself and pointed at me. “Okay, now, see, that I understand.” She started walking towards me. “Narcissistic tendencies, rooted in a complex paternal relationship and a disrupted adolescence.”
I smiled at her again. “See? Just another screwed up patient. And you can treat me as such.” I started walking towards the couch.
Linda sighed. “All right.” She sat down. “Let’s do this. The doctor is in.”
“Lovely.” I said.
“So, other than the crisis with Azreal’s Blade, what’s been going on?” Linda asked.
“Well, my sister showed up.” I started to explain but the doctor interrupted.
“The angel of death?” She asked, eyes wide.
“No, no, my other sister, I have quite a few, Anael is the one that showed up.”
“And what did Anael want?” Linda asked.
My face and tone turned somber. “Well, she showed up to find out what happened with Uriel. She was quite distraught over the fact that he was dead.”
“And what did she say when she found out?” Linda asked.
I sighed. “Well, I wasn’t there when Amenadiel told her everything but she came to me afterwards and at first she was completely emotionless, which was not like her, but then she started crying and she hugged me. She said that she didn’t blame me, that it was an impossible situation and I did what I thought was the only way.”
“And how did that make you feel?” Linda questioned because she always wanted to know how things made me feel.
“Well, good, I suppose.” I paused as I looked away from the doctor. “She was my favorite sibling growing up and she visited me from time to time in hell. She was the only one to do so.”
“Why was she your favorite sibling?”
I smiled to myself, still not looking at the doctor. “Annie’s powers are the ability to feel other people’s emotions and influence them. She was also the smallest of us all, only 5 foot 2 inches tall. My siblings would tease her for that but that never affected her. She was almost proud to be so small but she would often get overwhelmed by our siblings’ emotions, especially when they were fighting, and she would come to me for help. There was nothing I could do other than hold her but that always seemed to be enough for her. She was a very tactile person in general but not many of my siblings were willing to indulge her like I was.” I finally looked at Linda. “Perhaps that’s why she came to visit me in hell, because she wanted more hugs.”
“Sounds like you two are pretty close.” Linda said. “It must have meant a lot to you to have her forgive you for your brother’s death.”
I looked away again. “Yes, it did.”
The doctor continued. “Do you think that she is going to stay on Earth?”
“I don’t know. I hope so.”
“Why do you hope for that?” Linda asked.
I didn’t speak for a moment as I collected my thoughts. “I guess, because… I care about her a lot and I don’t want her to leave.”
“Then maybe you should tell her that.” Linda suggested.
I looked at the doctor. “Maybe I will.”
That night, I met up with Ms. Lopez to go to bloody church. “I really do have urgent business to attend to.” I tried to insist so I didn’t have to go. “Are you certain that this is the favor that you desire? Because, believe me when I say the last two times I darkened the doorstep of a church, insert blood-soaked carnage here.”
“Again with the drama.” Ella groaned. “We solved your case, now I get my favor. Just go with me, okay? Look, since the moment we met, okay, I’ve had this spidey sense that you were, I don’t know, searching for something.”
“Right. Spiritual lost-and-found.” I said sarcastically.
“Yes.” Ella insisted. “And I have found a lot since I developed a relationship with the big guy. And so might you.”
Oh, dear. “Trust me, we’re much closer than you think.” I said.
“Well, then, no harm, no foul.”
“I beg to differ.” I said as a rather attractive woman walked past us in a tight pencil skirt. “Oh. On second thought.” I saw Ella look at me. “What? I should at least give someone a reason to go to confession.” I said with a flourish before following the woman inside. I’m sure that Ms. Lopez was rolling her eyes behind me but I simply didn’t care.
She caught up with me as we entered the doors. “You still haven’t explained how the cases are connected.”
I sighed. I had been hoping to avoid this conversation. “Basically, the murder weapon in this case was my sister’s celestial blade which I had buried at the place where I took you. My mother drew maps to the place in hopes of unleashing the blade on humanity and Duncan Watts dug the damn thing up.”
We sat down in the pews in the middle of the church. Ella was silent for a moment before she asked. “Then why was the hole the size of a person?”
I sighed again. I didn’t want to talk about this and I had unfortunately lost sight of the beautiful woman I followed in here. “Because it was also where I had buried my brother, Uriel.”
“Oh, Lucifer! I’m so sorry.” Ella said sympathetically.
“Yes, well, if it’s all the same to you Ms. Lopez, I would rather not talk about this anymore.” I said.
“Okay, of course. Just know that if you need anything, I’m here, Lucifer.” Ella replied.
I smiled because I knew she was speaking the truth. “Thank you, Ella.”
She smiled back. “You’re welcome.”
And then the service started. Here we fucking go. I thought to myself but at least didn’t say out loud.