God's Gone AWOL

[3] HERE!

WHUMP!

They both landed in darkness. One beside the other.

And then Bentley started laughing.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Because..." She said between breaths, "Because— oh I don't know. I'm just laughing, alright? Let me laugh,"

Neither of them were hurt, and yet both could feel their bodies pumping with adrenaline. They had just fled from quite a chaotic fight. There was no sign of the trap-door over their heads, nor of the angel statue. Naturally, now that they were safe, the giddy rush of relief could take over.

"I have no idea what just happened," Atticus said, smiling shyly.

"God, neither do I." Bentley rolled on to her feet, "But at least we're alright now."

Atticus stood up as well. They were surrounded by the familiar, empty darkness again. But he could still make out Bentley's expression. She was grinning. Unfortunately, the moment she turned around, her grin melted away completely. Because behind them... were three doors.

Those. Same. Three. Stupid. Golden. Doors.

"Dammit," Bentley sighed,

"We only have one door left that hasn't been opened yet," Atticus observed.

The door that read "BACK AGAIN!" brought them to a place that resembled somewhere from Bentley's past. The door that read "THERE!" took them somewhere... —Well, it took them somewhere else. It took them "there" to the hedge maze. So they were left with the first door. The one that said "HERE!".

"Would you like to do the honors?" Bentley's voice sounded rather resigned at this point.

Atticus nodded and approached the final door. Both he and Bentley sucked in a shared breath, holding it as he turned the knob. At this point, having wandered an endless gallery of peculiar treasures, visited Pomegranate Hill, bushwhacked their way through an evil hedge-maze, and fought with a giant, killer angel statue, they were just about ready for anything. So they waited in silent anticipation as that last golden chunk of wood swung slowly open on its hinges.

On the other side... was a room. It was dark, but still brighter than whatever sort of place they were currently in. There didn't seem to be any immediate danger —nothing running at them, screaming or flapping its arms anyway. After a brief exchanged glance, Atticus and Bentley each respectively let out the breaths they were holding in. Then together, they stepped forward.

The first thing Atticus noticed was the piano music. It wasn't exactly ominous, like the wicked soundtrack of a horror movie, but it wasn't super upbeat either. The notes were clear, expertly played, and echoing throughout the entire room as if it had no true source. Despite this, Atticus knew in his heart that whoever was playing must be doing it live in real time as he and Bentley entered the darkness. Creepy or not, it was too beautiful to be a recording.

Once the golden door was no longer of use, it slammed itself closed and rapidly blended with the black drywall behind it until there was nothing left. Now shut into the darkness, both of them began to look around.

There was no light overhead, just a few dark blue lightbulbs hastily screwed into panels on the wall, all of them sticking out like pins. Aside from that, everything else around them was black. The walls were painted black, the wooden floor was black, several long draping black curtains hung in rows around them. It seemed like this particular room was specially designed for the purpose of not being seen.

"What kind of place is this?" Atticus asked.

"It's awfully messy." Bentley stepped over something on the ground. "What do you think all these wires go to?"

There was a slight crunching sound beneath Atticus foot. He glanced down. Not only were there multiple black, rubbery wires and cables taped down onto the floor, there was also quite a significant amount of clutter. Metal boxes with silver hinges, ropes, the base of a ladder. But the thing he had stepped on happened to be the fragments of a shattered lightbulb.

"Who leaves lightbulbs laying around like this? Aren't they dangerous?" He said.

He was about to bend down and touch it, when all of the sudden Bentley forcefully pushed him aside. There was a short, crisp whistling noise, but Atticus couldn't quite tell where it was coming from. It stopped as soon as it started. However something still felt wrong.

"Bentley—" He turned to look at her.

A shining black arrow had embedded itself in her forearm. It was buried several centimeters in, and blood was already starting to run down towards her fingertips. She inhaled sharply, but gave no other indication that she was hurt.

"Shut up," She told Atticus, her voice suddenly rough and agitated by the pain. Then she turned to shout into the jungle of metal and wire. "An ambush? Really Zibs?"

With just a glance at the arrow, Bentley had already guessed the name of her attacker. In response to her call, a clear, audibly angry voice came bouncing back.

"I told you to never fuckin' call me that again!"

"And I told you to stay away from me. Yet here you are,"

On the other side of the room, a bright light flashed on, perfectly highlighting the figure of a woman. Well, no— a demon in the form of a woman. Her black clothing matched the rest of the room, but her hair was a silvery shade of purple, tied in a high ponytail at the top of her head. Her features were viciously beautiful, and her expression looked ready to kill. In her hands, she gripped a sleek, black shortbow, with a quiver full of arrows slung across her back. Actually— yeah, she was very DEFINITELY ready to kill.

"f**k you!" Said the demon, "I was here first. You just waltzed in here without asking anyone,"

"If I knew you were here, trust me, I would not have come," Bentley replied.

Atticus stared between the two of them. Something about the other demon seemed a little familiar, but he couldn't say where he'd seen her before.

"You'll have to forgive me for being a little behind on this conversation," He said politely, "Who are you?"

This seemed to be the wrong choice of words.

"Who am I?" Her mouth hung, agape. "Bentley, are you shitting me? You've never talked about me to anyone else?"

"No, as a matter of fact, I haven't,"

"f**k you!"

"Bentley?" Atticus asked.

She took a deep breath.

"This is..." Bentley hesitated for a second. "Zibs,"

"That's not my f*****g name!"

"Fine! This is Hephzibah! Are you happy now?" She turned back to Atticus and lowered her voice, "Uh, once upon a time, she and I, um... hooked up."

Atticus eyebrows knit. Hephzibah— Zibs— whatever she was called, also frowned.

"'Hooked up'??? Bentley we literally dated for over a hundred years. That's not a f*****g hook-up, that's a full-a*s relationship you little piece of s**t. Are you just gonna treat me like some f*****g stranger now or what?"

"Alright fine. I'll start over!" Bentley immediately swirled into a completely new, obnoxiously false personality, "Oh, Zibs, my dearest ex-girlfriend! It's been so long, yet your foul language hasn't changed a day!"

"You haven't changed either." Zibs glanced at Atticus for the first time, "Who's your new side-piece?"

"Oh don't worry, he's not—" Bentley started.

"I'm Atticus pash de Ophaniel." Atticus offered a neat little angelic salute, "Nice to meet you."

Hearing his proper angelic address, Zibs laughed cruelly.

"This little fucker is an angel?" She said, "You've branched out, Bentley. It used to be that you'd only ever f**k other demons. I guess you have changed after all."

Bentley said nothing at first, her cheeks flushing a deep shade of red.

"Let's go, Atticus," She said quietly, tugging at his sleeve.

"Hey whaddaya know, the b***h is running away again!"

"Shut up!" Bentley shouted back.

She started dragging Atticus away, but Zibs' voice only increased in volume as the distance between them increased in size.

"You better follow her, angel. She'll cheat on you if let her out of your sight for too long. Isn't that right, Bentley?"

At this, Bentley could no longer walk away. Her steps came to an abrupt halt and she called back without mercy.

"Zibs, my darling, you've always had a talent for wasting your breath. You'd make a fantastic singer, you know." She spun around again. "Is that why we're in an auditorium? Are we currently getting an exclusive concerto-performance?"

So she had already guessed at where they were. Atticus hadn't really been thinking about it since the arrival of Bentley's ex-girlfriend, so he hadn't figured out the mystery yet. Now that she said it out loud, sure enough, this mysterious dark collection of wires and lightbulbs must have been the backstage of an auditorium.

Zibs knocked another arrow in her bow.

"f**k you!" She said again,

"You wish," Bentley replied.

Enraged, Zibs hand released the string and another black arrow shot directly towards the space between Bentley's brows. However, before it could hit its target, the arrow was sent bouncing aside by some sort of invisible barrier. Of course, Zibs paid little mind and sent another arrow in their direction. But it only bounced off as well, hitting the floor with a quiet clatter.

Atticus glanced at Bentley, assuming the protection charm was her doing. Much to his surprise, she looked just as puzzled as he was. It was definitely not a spell cast by Hephzibah, but it wasn't Atticus or Bentley either. Which meant it had to be someone else. As the two exchanged cautious looks, Atticus realized something a little nerve-wracking.

The piano music had stopped.

"Alright, that's enough now." A deep, yet musical voice reverberated throughout the entire darkened auditorium. "You're going to scare them away,"

Zibs didn't look even slightly perturbed by the massive disembodied voice. She just stuck out her tongue and offered a reply to the endless ceiling.

"Can't I at least shoot her through the eye? Just once?" She asked. There was no answer, so she lowered her voice and continued her complaining. "You got to play around with them, where's my fun?"

The voice ignored her, "You two have some guts... searching for someone like me. Aren't you scared of what you might find?"

"Scared? You're the one who's been hiding for all these centuries," Bentley told the darkened air.

"Perhaps," It replied, "However, I'm also the one who let you find me,"

Bentley didn't look even the slightest bit scared. In fact, a little smile had already started playing itself across her lips again.

"If that's the case, why don't you come on out, Lucifer," She called, "Or do you still prefer Leslie?"

Atticus drew in a breath. For a moment, there was no sound at all. Only a concealing silence accompanied by the impenetrable dark surrounding them. Bentley's grip around the angel's wrist tightened ever so slightly in anticipation.

And then, the stillness was broken by a light-hearted, clear burst of laughter. All at once, several bright stage lights flashed on, beaming down from the catwalks overhead. They were all pointed at the center of the stage, where a bedazzled, blue grand piano sat glittering like a collection of stars in the night sky. Laying atop the piano, in a matching sparkly blue suit, was a familiar male figure bathing in the heat of his personal spotlight.

"Actually," Said Leslie... or rather— Lucifer, "I don't really like either of those names. I prefer Lucy the best,"

Even though the face and the body were the identical to those of the obnoxious bellhop they had accidentally left behind, there was something phenomenally different about the person sprawled out in front of him. He was even more... beautiful. There was not a single flaw about him. From the shine of his clear, unblemished skin, to the way his elegant dark coils of hair framed his inconceivably handsome face. Everything about his appearance was perfect, in every single way, shape and form. Atticus could not believe it.

But the energy coming off of him was of the most wicked potency that the angel had ever witnessed. It was beyond James Charles perfume.

"So you figured it out, huh?" He said, now with a sweet, Northern-Irish accent, "What gave it away? Was it my sonorous voice? My dashing looks?"

"It was how relentlessly annoying you were." Bentley replied.

"Ow!" He said, pretending to be offended, "But did you at least have fun with the little puzzle I gave you?"

"Absolutely not!"

"The recreation of Pomegranate Hill and the hedge maze were both your doing?" Atticus asked

A grouchy snort came from Zibs.

"Obviously. This dipshit can't even talk to another person without throwing jade's tricks left and right,"

"Zibs, darling, is that anyway to speak about your superiors?" Lucy turned his attention back to Atticus and Bentley, "Yes, all that was my doing. You'll have to forgive me for how messy it was, but honestly, I was hoping you guys didn't actually want to find me. Turns out the two of you are just as stubborn as the legends say,"

Neither of them could think of anything as a response to this, so Lucy sat up, swinging his long legs down over the side of the piano.

"But now that you're here, I'm actually quite excited to meet you. Unfortunately, the formalities and humble greetings are going to have to wait for the time being. I need to have a private word with you,"

"Which one of us are you talking about?" Atticus asked, turning to glance at Bentley.

Except Bentley was gone. In fact, everything was gone. There was no auditorium, no wires, no angry purple demon trying to shoot them. Only darkness, and beside him was just an empty void where Bentley had been. Atticus quickly spun in a circle, looking around for his companion, but she was nowhere to be seen. All that was left was Lucifer, floating like an island in the darkness.

"You," Said Lucy. "You're the one I wanna talk to,"

"W-why do you want to talk to me? I'm not the important one in this case,"

Bentley hadn't been even the slightest bit nervous when in the presence of Lucifer himself. She even insulted him without even the smallest amount of reservation. So until this point, Atticus hadn't really been all that worried about this terrifying entity before them. But now that she had seemingly vanished into thin air, the poor angel suddenly found himself frozen in fear.

He was standing face to face with Lucifer.

Completely on his own.

Well this was terrifying...

...

END OF EPISODE 3