Damned By His Touch

Lucifer For thousands of years I had felt nothing except the dry, pulsing heat of the runes burned into my skin and the endless, gnawing boredom. I stood at the gates of Hell, where the air tastes of sulfur and wasted lives. Beside me Cerberus growled softly with his three heads in a slow rhythm. That was the only music I could tolerate. I watched the gray river of souls as they arrived one by one, losing their humanity, fading, and eventually surrendering to damnation. Then I saw her. A single flash in the gray filth. She did not fade like the others. On the contrary, she burned with anger like a torch in the dark. Two of my guards dragged her forward, but she refused to submit. She kicked, fought, and screamed at the armored demons with such fury that it almost seemed as if she believed escape was possible. She was soaked with water. Her torn clothes clung to the curves of her body, and her pale skin almost glowed in the mud. She looked small between my guards, yet there was something about her that made time pause inside me. I walked toward her slowly. With every step the runes on my arms glowed brighter, a sign of the power I carried. The souls shrank away from my path in terror, but when I stopped in front of the girl she simply looked at me. There was no respect in her gaze. No fear. Only pure defiance. "I am Lucifer, ruler of this realm," I said, letting the power in my voice shake the ground beneath her feet. "Who are you to cause such noise at my gate?" The girl was breathing hard, black hair stuck to her face, but her blue eyes flashed like lightning. "I don’t know who you are and I don’t care," she snapped back, her voice steady. "Tell these idiots to let me go. I don’t belong here. I have no idea how I ended up here, but this is a mistake." "There are no mistakes here," I said quietly as I stepped closer. I could feel the heat radiating from me, the same heat that usually forced mortals to their knees. But she only stood straighter. I reached into her mind. I expected to find sins, dark secrets, the filth every human hides. Instead I found nothing. A vast untouched whiteness. It was as if someone had erased her past with a single stroke. "You are lying," I growled, lifting her chin with my fingers. Her skin was icy cold against my burning touch. "Tell me your name." "I already told you I don’t know," she shouted at me. For a moment I saw desperation flash through her eyes. "I woke up by the river. I was soaked, and the only thing I knew was that I didn’t belong here." I smiled coldly. Everyone says that. But her mind had not lied. Something was wrong. I signaled to Cerberus. The enormous three headed beast stepped forward slowly, the ground trembling beneath his paws. Cerberus loved fear. He loved tearing apart anyone who dared to defy me. I expected the girl to scream. She did not move. In fact she looked almost fascinated by the massive heads above her. Cerberus stopped. All three noses sniffed the air. Then the beast did something he had never done before with anyone. The middle head lowered itself and licked the girl across the face. Then the monster, the most vicious guardian of the underworld, simply sat down in front of her and gave a quiet whine. Rage and confusion flooded through me at once. What in hell was happening? Meanwhile the girl wiped the demon saliva from her face and looked at me with open sarcasm. "See? Even your dog has more sense than you." I shook my head. This woman irritated me. She was like a grain of sand in the machinery of my world, something I wanted to crush immediately. Yet something stopped me. I could not kill her until I knew who she was. "Enough," I said, grabbing her wrist. It felt thin in my hand, like the wing of a small bird, yet her posture was made of steel. "You are coming with me to the palace. We will find out who you are there. And believe me, you won’t be so loud when I pass judgment on you." I turned and dragged her toward my black carriage. She resisted, but I gave her no choice. I knew she would run if she had the chance, so the moment I threw her onto the velvet seat I pulled out the chains of the damned. I bound her wrists and ankles tightly. I looked at her. Soaked, dirty, chained, and still staring at me as if I were the insignificant one in her world. I still did not know her name. But I knew one thing. This girl would either bring about the fall of Hell… or the end of me.