The Beast and Beauty

Chapter 12: Fear

Lucifer

Belle never failed to surprise me, and people rarely if ever surprised me. I had said the most cruellest and wicked things I could think of to hurt her, unforgivable things and yet here she was, she had not only still spoken to me with kindness and grace but was also willing to help me escape. The least I could do was allow her protection in my realm.

I had felt uncomfortable feelings stir inside of me when I’d made her cry, I hadn’t felt it since before I fell, it was guilt. I had shoved those feelings away though and carried on being cruel, I didn’t want to give her any illusions that I was some good person, if you could even call me a person, and I really did not wish to speak about my past or anything deep and personal for that matter, and so I’d snapped.

She was looking at my chest and for a moment I thought she was checking me out, the white shirt I wore had the top few buttons undone and was loosely tucked into my black leather trousers, I wasn’t a huge fan of the outfit or the long black boots, but it was all the witch b.itch had given me.

I looked down at myself and realised it was my chain she was looking at. “What are you thinking?” I asked.

“I’m wondering whether I can trust you once that comes off.”

Great, I’d ruined the trust that had slowly been growing between us by opening my big mouth and throwing vile insults at her all night. I went and leaned down on one knee before her and met her eyes. “I swear to you that you can trust me, I am many things, but a liar and dishonourable are not one of them.”

She looked at me and said, “maybe, I suppose Dagon did also say you are fiercely loyal.”

I smiled inwardly at her using Dagons name as if they were friends when she’d only known him a few hours. She still looked hesitant, and I looked down to see her hands in her lap, they were shaking slightly with fear. Was she really that afraid of me?

“Why are you so scared of me?” I asked.

Her eyes widened in disbelief, “uh, besides the many books and their stories about you and the things you do?” She went more quiet when she carried on. “My stepmother used to torment me as a little girl, she would tell me stories about you coming for me if I made her tea wrong or if I didn’t wash the dishes properly.”

“Wait, she made you do the cooking and dishes as a child? How old were you?”

“Oh, she had me doing chores when I was around four or five.”

“And your father?”

“He didn’t know, she would play the perfect stepmother while he was around, but he wasn’t home much as he was often at war.”

“What did she tell you about me?”

She looked down into her lap. “Awful things, she would tell me how you t.orture souls for all eternity in hell, she would sometimes describe the things you’d do to your victims and tell me you would be coming for me because I was a bad girl for wetting the bed and having nightmares after those stories.”

Still on one knee, I gripped the arm of her wheelchair and squeezed so tight my knuckles turned white, but I had to control myself, I didn’t want to scare her and I didn’t want to break her wheelchair either.

I tried my best to keep the fury in my eyes from showing. “Do you still feel that way about me?”

She blushed and refused to look up at me when she whispered, “yes, I finally managed to stop wetting the bed a year ago, occasionally it still happens if the nightmares are really bad.”

I gently took her chin in my hand and lifted her eyes to meet mine. “Belle, I want you to know that you do not need to be afraid of me, ok?”

When she didn’t answer, I repeated, “ok?”

She nodded and I carried on. “I won’t lie to you and say those stories aren’t true, but I will say I only come for those who deserve it, and I mean the most evil and vilest of people. I would have no interest in small everyday sins and I would never ever hurt an innocent child. Never.”

She nodded and smiled at me, when I looked back down at her hands, they were still shaking but not as badly as they had been. It was a dangerous game for people like Zatana to spread lies about me, that I would not condone, not if it left innocent people as traumatised and terrified as Belle looked right now.

I was used to this in the earth realm, many stories in the bible or people who had near-death experiences saying they’d been to hell, they instilled fear into everyone, and they were lies, fear used to control people. I’d heard it all, claims of seeing good people down in hell for the most stupidest of reasons like being a non-believer or having s**x before marriage, maybe the people telling these stories had seen something, but it was most likely to do with their brain because it certainly wasn’t my realm.

Did I punish people? Yes, it was my job, did I like it? It really depended on how vile the person had been, and you had to be a terribly evil and wicked human to end up in my hell, I never hurt innocents or good people.

I laughed bitterly and Belle asked, “what’s so funny?”

I hadn’t realised I’d laughed out loud.

“Sorry, the stories you hear about me, nobody ever seems horrified or appalled by the things my God did or allowed to be done, though.”

“What is your God like? I always thought he was kind and benevolent.”

I stood up. “Pfft, when it suits him maybe, otherwise no, he is as fickle as the rest of us.”

“How did you become a God?”

I really didn’t want to get into my past, so I changed the subject and asked, “are we going to chat all day or are you going to take a leap of faith in me and tell me how this chain can be removed?”