In the Devil's arms

Lili glanced out of the window at the stars. They twinkled merrily down at her, tiny pearls adorning Night’s bejeweled cloak. She smiled. The stars were beacons of hope, and hope was one thing she desperately needed. She wished silently upon every one of them before glancing down at her dress.

The dress was just perfect, light as a dream and yet black as a nightmare, embroidered with a simple curling design. It clung to her in all the right places, accentuating her slender frame. Lili admired herself in the mirror, pulling her long curls into an elaborate knot. I look like a goddess, she thought. If this doesn’t impress him, nothing will.

Viviane was waiting patiently on the sofa, watching Lili with an amused smile. She wore a plain dress just as night-black as Lili’s, but it was her dark red lipstick, in contrast to her pale face, that stood out. Her blue eyes were bright and dancing, in sharp contrast to Lili’s raven black ones. She looked innocent and fragile, like china, but Lili wasn’t fooled. She knew that porcelain face hid a tough, determined mind.

“You look beautiful.”, Viviane said. She stepped closer and slid a black bracelet around Lili’s wrist, made of snakes slipping stealthily over each other, forever etched in the light thread. The subdued fragrance of cedar surrounded her, and Lili took a deep breath. She would miss these evenings, spent in the company of her closest friend. Viviane and Lili had made a sacred promise during those long hours they spent together- each would be there for the other no matter what.

Lili allowed Viviane to open the door for her and stepped out. The cool, fresh night air swirled around her, caressing her cheeks. It seemed to her it whispered encouragement while she followed Viviane, the weight of what she was about to do dark and heavy in her heart. Fear gnawed at her like a living thing, swirling and expanding inside her chest to the point of breathlessness.

The lake was black and silent when they reached, just as it had been the last five times they had come here. Bits of linen, a bowl with a crescent drawn on it, two candles and a pin lay scattered on the ground, relics of their last visit. They had burnt the grass away, leaving a large, black circle littered with ashes.

Lili pulled of her shoes and stepped inside. The leftover stalks of the burnt grass scratched her feet, but the soft grey ashes soothed the pain. Pulling out the knife, Lili sliced her finger. Blood bubbled out, red as true anger, and marked the ground. A smile lingered on her face as she moved to the center of the circle, letting the blood mark her path. Viviane trotted behind her, uncertainty in her normally sure eyes when Lili paused. Her gaze followed Lili, bewildered and disbelieving.

Lili grinned at her own perfect handiwork- the dark red circle drawn in blood surrounded by a ring of flickering candles and incense. She threw her head back, drinking in the sight of the stars. Behind her, she heard Viviane begin to sing, her voice low and thin, straining against the thick air. Lili raised her own voice to join her, pushing away the oppressive silence with the steady chant. The music rose and fell, the notes swirling down to fall around them like intricate, perfect snowflakes.

The demons began to materialize, men and women, boys and girls, clad in a thousand different shades of grey, twirling together, completing the dance they had begun five nights ago. Lili grasped Viviane’s hand and spun her around. They continued singing, their voices rising and falling in perfect harmony, as they danced. The music felt like electricity, sending sparks flying down to Lili’s toes. She twirled through the group as the hours flew by, intoxicated by the darkness, drunk on death.

 “Aren’t you going to welcome me?”, a voice said by her ear. Lili whipped around, her hand losing Viviane’s. Black eyes widened when she saw the man- tall, bone-pale, wrapped in a shroud as black as death. His smile was knife sharp and just as deadly. She had not met him before, and yet he was no stranger in her eyes. Months of careful planning and five nights of desperate dancing, and he finally stood before her, piercing eyes as cold as ice trained on her frame.

“Lucifer…”, she breathed. He was better than she had ever imagined. Despite his paleness, light seemed to burst from his body in glowing waves. She loved the impossibly sharp angles on his face, his intense eyes, his thin, pointed lips. His rich, incisive voice sent thrills down her spine. He was, indeed, God’s greatest creation.

Her heart threw itself against her chest like a bird desperate to leave its cage and her breaths burst out in short, painful pants as she pulled a single flower from the folds of her dress. It was a rose as red as the blood she had earlier spilt, holding in its fragile layers her trembling heart. He did not react, his eyes as hard and keen as a the edge of broken steel. Every second that passed was an eternity, until finally, she cast her eyes down, spurned, and turned away. She longed to cry, but only anger filled her, anger at herself, anger at him, anger that all her love and longing had been wasted.

A cold hand caught her waist and she was twirled around to face Lucifer. He dipped her back till her long hair touched the grass. “Don’t be angry, my dear.”, he said, plucking the rose from her hand and pressing it against his breast. “Anger will help you survive, yes, but only for a while. Then it’ll eat you alive.”

She swallowed as he swung her back up again. “Come with me.”

His words were icy and flat and binding as promises. She hesitated. Viviane. How could she leave her? He gave her another glacial smile before twirling her around, pulling her into a strangely hypnotic dance. Though she did not know it, her feet never once slipped as she found herself spinning and stepping and bending with perfectly measured moves. Lucifer talked as they danced, telling her of Hell and his power as she listened, frightened. He told her of his scheme to destroy the earth, that it was but an insane asylum for the universe. He told her of sorrow and death and terrible, terrible things until, at last, he spun her for the last time before he clasped her hands.

“We can do great things together. We can make poisonous flowers bloom and plants wilt. We can watch men fight and kill each other. We can traverse the heavens without a care, wrapped in robes of darkness. “, he slipped the bracelet Viviane had given her off her wrist and replaced it with a different one. “We can do anything, if we are together. I may be dark, but that’s why you need me, Lili.”

And when he spoke her name, what shred of reality she had been holding onto tore away. She was lost in a a world of colors and visions and dazzling lights, a world where time and space weren’t constraints, but objects to be used at will. She saw a thousand different universes and a thousand different lives, each sparkling, mysterious, special. And then, with a flash, she was back in reality, and looking up, once again at the stars. They seemed different to her now, each an unexplored world with great possibilities. Lucifer’s hands cupped her face.

“Because that’s what the night teaches us, Lili.”, he whispered. “For without the darkness, you cannot see the stars.”