Chapter 11: He likes me he likes me not
1438 Words
Arabella
When morning came, I woke to Lucifer shaking me. “Get up, you have a bookstore to open, and Zatana threatened to make another curse if you didn’t hurry up.”
I slapped his hands away from me and he backed off. I moved myself over towards my wheelchair and when he went to help, I slapped him away again. “I don’t need your help.”
“Fine, just hurry up.” He left me alone and I got ready. Lucifer was already at the bookstore when I arrived and was even dealing with a customer.
The customer, Mr. Holten was on his way back out when he passed by me and tipped his hat to me, “good morning Arabella.”
“Good morning, Mr Holten, have a good day.”
Lucifer snorted at us from where he was stood at the desk. “What?” I asked.
“Your good mornings and, have a good day Mr. Holten!” He sarcastically imitated my voice. He looked out the window and carried on in his normal voice, “it’s f.ucking dark out there, there isn’t a f.ucking good morning about it.”
“Don’t use such foul language when speaking to me.”
“I’ll do whatever the f.uck I want because I’m the king of hell.”
I didn’t know why he was being so cruel, but I wasn’t having it. “Lucifer Morningstar, you better start talking to me with more respect.”
“The f.uck I will, why should I when you don’t even respect yourself.”
“What on earth does that mean?”
He came and stood in front of me so that he towered over me. “You let your stepmother treat you like s.hit, you let her talk to you like you’re less than nothing, it’s pathetic.”
“And you.”
“What?”
“And you. You talk to me like I’m less than nothing too, I don’t know why you’re suddenly being so cruel to me, but if it’s to make clear your lack of feelings for me, I understand. You’ve made it perfectly crystal clear not that I thought you had any for me anyway, I’m not sure why you are so worried I would think that, we’ve not even known each other for very long.”
I wheeled past him and behind my desk and added, “if you’ve suddenly decided you hate me so much that’s fine, but we can at least be civil while working together surely? After all you did mention respect and manners are important in hell.”
He looked at me as if he were seeing me for the first time or something. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
I watched as he seemed to mentally shake himself out of whatever he was seeing, and he replied, “nothing, and you’re right, we can be respectful to one another while working together.” He walked over to the tray of books and wheeled them to the correct section before stopping and saying, “and I don’t hate you.” He didn’t allow me the chance to ask anything else as he walked off down the section to put the books in their rightful places.
I wheeled myself over to the borrowed books to make sure everything was in its correct place. Seeing the books that had been returned by Mrs. Beatrice I sighed at the messy way they had been shoved onto the shelf and in the completely wrong section. Lucifer.
I sorted them out and quietly hummed to myself while I did.
I jumped when Lucifer spoke behind me. “Well the fairy tales certainly got your singing qualities wrong.”
With my hand on my heart, I looked up at him, “I’m not singing, I’m simply humming.”
“Exactly, your humming is atrocious. God forbid you try and sing.”
“Is that all you came here to say?” I snapped.
He shrugged, “pretty much, yes.” With that, he walked off, leaving me both insulted and confused.
I grumbled to myself while I finished sorting all the books, and then I felt a sudden sharp pain in my chest. Grabbing my chest, I gasped in agony, it had only been a second, but it had felt like a knife through my heart.
Lucifer looked over at me. “What’s up with you?”
My stepmother chose that moment to walk into the shop, and she smiled serenely when she saw me in pain. “Ah yes, it has begun.”
“What’s begun?” I breathed, rubbing away the last of the pain.
“The second part of my curse, first the darkness, now your life. The first petal has fallen.”
She grabbed a book from the spell section happily and then skipped out of the shop. Lucifer came and stood beside me, watching her as she left. “Your stepmother is batshit crazy.”
I looked up at him and said, “so how about it, Lucifer, you up for breaking free with me?”
He looked down at me with raised eyebrows. “You want to break me free after the horrible things I said to you?”
I placed my hand lightly on his wrist. “Whether you like it or not, I see the man behind the beast, all this evil and hatred, I know it comes from a place of deep hurt and pain.”
I watched his face become unreadable and cold, I knew he wouldn’t want to talk about it, so I carried on, “I know a way to break you free, but you have to take me with you.”
“I can help you get away from your stepmother but that’s all.”
“No, I won’t be safe, no matter where I try to hide. I need to escape to another realm.”
“You mean my realm.” He stated.
“Yes, your realm is the only realm she cannot enter freely. I’ll be safe there until I can figure out a way to break the curse without true love.”
“You can’t come to my realm.”
“Why not?”
He laughed and answered, “you are very much a princess and rainbows and unicorns kind of girl, two minutes in my realm, and you’ll be screaming for the curse to take you.”
“Please Lucifer. I need the time to break this curse and be safe while doing so, there’s nowhere else for me to go that she won’t find me. Besides, you’re terrible with ladies and emotions, I can help you find the right way to admit your feelings to Hecate.”
He was quiet and looked at me suspiciously and said, “you would really help with Hecate?”
I nodded.
“How?”
I smiled confidently, “I’ve read almost every romance novel there is, I’ve dreamed of my own perfect prince coming to rescue me, trust me, any help I give you is going to go down way smoother than if I leave you to your own devices.”
He picked up the glass of water on the desk and took a sip while he thought about it.
“You know I’m right, if I leave you to do it alone, you’ll probably propose with a c.ock ring or something.”
He spat his drink out at my words and choked.
I couldn’t help but laugh at his reaction.
“How the f.uck do you know what a c.ock ring is?”
“Well, I don’t really, but I’ve heard of it and figured it’s something perverted.”
He laughed, still in shock, but nodded his head. “Alright, fine, you get me out of here I’ll give you permission to enter my realm and stay until you can find a way to break the curse without me.”
I nodded happily, but he gave me a warning look, “don’t get too excited, it’s a terrible place filled with evil spirits, don’t forget it’s not a realm only for the living, it’s also full of the dead. To be fair, it’s not really for the living, only the most powerful magic can protect those who enter while they discuss business with me and my demons.”
“I don’t have any magic,” I answered quietly and feeling defeated.
He crossed his arms and trailed his gaze over me while he thought, then he said, “you don’t need magic, mine will be enough to protect you.”
- Writer
