Chapter 1
The smell of smoke was
what woke him. At first, Daniel thought he was dreaming. He had topped off the
longest, busiest, most intense week of his life with drinks at O’Loughlin’s
Bar, and after finally stumbling into his apartment at one in the morning, had
fallen into a deep sleep as soon as his head had hit the pillow. But that sleep
was slowly leaving him as his senses began to stir. First, the smell of smoke
intensified in his nose. Then, his ears picked up the distinct sound of
crackling fire. Finally, his eyes opened in slow blinks. He turned his head to
squint at the bright red numbers of his alarm clock; it was three in the
morning. He raised himself onto an elbow and strained his ears, listening.
There was no sound of fire, no smell of smoke, and he could not see any unusual
light coming from the crack under his bedroom door. Shaking his head, he fell
back and rolled onto his side, hoping that sleep would once more claim him.
He had just settled into a comfortable position
when, again, the smell of smoke filled his nose. He opened his eyes with a
frown. Letting out a frustrated sigh, he rolled onto his back, thinking. He had
been certain that he hadn’t actually smelled or heard anything a moment before;
that it had just been his imagination—his tired, hungover brain playing tricks
on him. But what if there is a fire? his
brain now taunted him. Groaning, he sat up, and reached out an arm to his
bedside table, fumbling to turn on the lamp. He had just flicked it on when a
fire suddenly erupted out of the floor at the end of his bed.
“What the fuck!” Daniel exclaimed, shielding his
eyes against the bright, hot flames.
“Now, is that any way to greet a guest?” a voice
asked, amused.
“Holy shit!” Daniel shot out of his bed, banging
his hip in the process, and grabbed the nearest thing he could find to use as a
weapon: an umbrella. He brandished it in front of him like a sword, backing
himself into a corner. The flames slowly abated, revealing a tall figure; a
man. Everything about the man was dark; dark hair, dark eyes, dark clothes. The
only thing about him that wasn’t dark was his skin; it was white as snow. The
man started coughing as the smoke from the fire billowed around him.
“You know,” he chuckled, waving smoke away from
his face, “as much as I hate the smoke, I do enjoy scaring the hell out of you
people with my grand entrances.” He cleared his throat. “That’s one of my
favourites, I have to say.”
Daniel gaped at the man. Was this really
happening? Daniel closed his eyes tightly and then opened them, hoping not to
see the man. Nope, he thought, still there. Pulling himself together,
Daniel stabbed the umbrella towards the stranger. “Who the fuck are you? How
the fuck did you just do that?”
The stranger smiled. “Which question would you
like me to answer first, Daniel?”
“Ho – how do you know my name?” Daniel
stuttered.
The figure rolled his eyes. “Please. I know
everything about everyone.” He walked over to the dresser and peered into the
mirror, inspecting his reflection closely, poking and prodding at his face.
“Daniel Lindsay,” the man said, “Thirty-one-years-old, single, only child,
bestselling author.”
Daniel sucked in a breath. The man was a
stalker!
The man chuckled. “I stalk everyone.”
“Did you just,” Daniel swallowed the lump in his
throat, “read my mind?”
“Yes.” He turned to face Daniel, a proud grin on
his face. “Pretty cool, huh? It’s not my only trick.”
Daniel suddenly felt lightheaded.
The man eyed Daniel closely, his grin slipping
from his face. “You’re not going to faint on me, are you?”
“Um,” Daniel thought out loud, “I’m not...
sure.”
“Well, you’re not allowed to. This body isn’t
going to last me long.”
“Body?”
“Yes, I’m borrowing it. The previous inhabitant
died about three hours ago. I managed to sneak it out of the morgue.” He struck
a pose. “What do you think? Not bad for a dead guy, huh?”
Daniel stared at the man, not quite believing
what he was hearing.
“What?” the man asked, frowning. “No good?”
“Who are you?!”
“Oh, I’m sorry, where are my manners? I,” the
man bowed his head, “am Lucifer. But you may call me Lu, for short.”
Daniel blinked, his mouth hanging open in
disbelief. “I, um, I – I think I’m...” the words were lost as he keeled over,
his body hitting the hardwood floor with a thud, the umbrella rolling out of
his grasp.
Lucifer looked down at Daniel’s prone form,
sighing. “Humans.”
When Daniel came to, he was lying on his bed. He
mumbled nonsensically and then slowly opened his eyes. Pushing up onto his
elbows, his head began to spin and a sharp pain shot down his leg from his hip.
He groaned, putting a hand to his head to stop the throbbing. “What the hell
happened?”
“Not much,” a voice called out from his
bathroom. “You just fainted on me after I explicitly told you not to.” The
owner of the voice strolled into the bedroom, smelling like Daniel’s
aftershave.
“Aargh!” Daniel scrambled backward on his bed
until his shoulders bumped into the wall. “You – you – you’re...” he stammered,
his memory quickly coming back to him.
“Still here? Yep. Look, this will go much faster
if you don’t faint on me, okay? I have other people I need to see before the
night’s over.”
“I didn’t faint!”
“Oh. Right. Sorry. Pass out in a manly fashion.”
Lucifer rolled his eyes.
“No,” Daniel argued. “I didn’t faint because in
order to faint, I would have had to have been awake, and clearly, since you are
not real, I was not awake. I’m still not awake. I’m dreaming or hallucinating.
Or just... incredibly hungover,” he finished, pressing his palm against the
side of his head.
“You’re not dreaming or hallucinating, but you
are pretty hungover. And, I am real.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No,” Daniel said, drawing the word out,
“you’re not.”
“Yes,” Lucifer mimicked, “I am.”
“You’re not real!”
“Look, do you want me to prove it to you? Fine.
Let’s see...” Lucifer cocked his head to the side and thought. “Okay, here’s
one. In the fourth grade, Emily Young gave you five dollars to show her your
penis.”
Daniel sputtered. “What – wh – How did you – ”
“I told you,” Lucifer interrupted, “I know
everything about everyone.”
Daniel pulled himself up, leaning against the
wall for support. “Oh, this isn’t happening. This is not happening,”
he muttered, his hands pulling at his hair. “I’ve finally cracked it. I always
knew I would go crazy, but this... I didn’t expect it to happen like this.”
Lucifer rolled his eyes. “Dramatic, much? Look,
you’re not going crazy, and frankly, I don’t have the time to stay here and
convince you of that. I’m on a tight schedule.”
Daniel stopped pulling at his hair and looked
up. Okay, Daniel, think, he ordered his brain. On the one hand, the
man—Lucifer, apparently—had appeared out of thin air. Well, thin,
flame-y air. And the fire that he had... arrived in hadn’t harmed him in any
way. Daniel didn’t know of any human who could stand in the middle of a fire
and live to tell the tale. And it would make sense that he would arrive in a
big ball of fire, since Hell was all fire and brimstone and Hell is where
Lucifer resided. On the other hand, he was claiming to be Lucifer. Lucifer.
The Prince of Darkness. Satan. The freaking Antichrist!
“There’s no need for name calling, you know.”
“Okay,” Daniel said slowly, his brain still in
the process of waking up. “Okay. Okay. So, assuming you’re real – ”
“I am real.”
“– what are you doing here?”
“I have a request.” Lucifer settled himself on
the edge of the bed and crossed his legs. “I want you to write a new series of
novels that paint me in a better light.”
Daniel opened and closed his mouth several times
before finally spitting out, “I don’t understand.”
“Believe it or not, Daniel, I am not actually a
bad guy. However, everyone believes that I am. I would like to change that.”
“Yeah, okay,” Daniel nodded his head. “But,” he
added after a moment’s pause, “I still don’t understand.”
“Christ Almighty,” Lucifer muttered in
exasperation.
“Are you allowed to say that?” Daniel inquired.
“Won’t God strike you down or something?” he added sarcastically.
Lucifer glowered at him, his eyes flashing
momentarily. “What’s he going to do, send me to Hell?”
“Okay. Point taken,” Daniel conceded.
Lucifer stood and began to pace. “I want to be
painted in a better light. All I ever am is the bad guy. But let me tell
you—God is the real bad guy. I mean did we all just forget about the flood? God
creates mankind, gives them free will, and then is shocked and appalled when
they squander it. I mean, how dumb do you have to be, right? And what does he
do to correct his mistake? He unleashes a flood that kills them all.” He looked
at Daniel. “And I’m the bad guy.”
“You possess people,” Daniel stated. His most
recent novel, while fiction, was about demon possession. He had done extensive
research into the area in order to make it believable and realistic. Some of
the stories he’d heard and read about had sent chills down his spine.
“Yeah.” Lucifer stopped pacing. “But I’ve never
killed anyone.”
Daniel raised his eyebrows. “There are who knows
how many reports of people being possessed by an evil spirit—you, I’m assuming—and
then dying.”
Lucifer pulled a face. “So not the
same thing. It’s never my intention for the humans I possess to die. It’s just
an unfortunate side-effect a lot of the time.”
Daniel closed his eyes and massaged his
forehead. He was getting a headache. He also very much wanted to wake up from
this bizarre dream.
“For the last time,” Lucifer stated, enunciating
his words slowly, “you’re not dreaming!”
“Okay, so you want me to write a series of
novels that will make you appear... what? Nicer?” He couldn’t help but laugh.
This whole thing was preposterous.
“I have my flaws, naturally. I did get
kicked out of heaven, and with good reason, I’ll admit. However, I am not
wholly evil. I do not spend my time inflicting pain and death on the world.
Actually,” Lucifer added, “a lot of the time that’s God’s doing.”
“Inflicting pain and death on the world?”
Lucifer nodded. “Most humans believe that I do
it for one of two reasons: one, I’m evil and get kicks out of seeing humans
suffer and die—not true, by the way—or two, I’m testing them. I’m... seeing if
they’re worthy or whatever.”
“But that’s not the case?”
“No! God is the one who likes
to test humans. A lot of what’s happening in the world today is his doing.
But,” he added, “try telling that to you people.”
“Okay,” Daniel said, deciding to humour the guy,
“so, why are you asking me to do this?”
“A, I am not asking only you; your writing is
not that good. However, and point B, you are a current
bestseller, so people already know who you are, and your previous novels have
all been in the top ten. Ergo, you are the ideal choice.”
“And if I don’t want to do this?”
Lucifer smiled. “Oh, you will. Not only can I
guarantee that doing so will make you rich—if you don’t, I’ll just have to make
this here visit of mine a more regular occurrence.”
“So, pretty much, you’re threatening me?”
“Yeah,” Lucifer nodded, “pretty much.” He looked
at the watch on his left wrist and tapped it. “Well, now that that’s out of the
way, I’d better be going. More people to threaten, and all that good stuff.” He
walked over to Daniel and stood over him. “I’m going to touch you now and
you’re going to fall to sleep. And no, you won’t forget anything when you wake
up in the morning.”
“But, wait – ” Daniel raised a hand to hold him
off, but it was no good; Lucifer laid an icy cold hand on the top of Daniel’s
head, and with one final look at the pale face before him—a pale face with
bright red eyes, he noted—Daniel’s eyes closed and his head fell forward, his
chin coming to rest against his chest.
The familiar tone of “You’re so Vain” woke him a
few hours later. Daniel groaned into his mattress. It was the ringtone he had
assigned his agent, Barry. Without looking, Daniel extended his arm, banging
it against the wall. “Damn it!” he swore, opening his eyes. “What in the – ” he
trailed off, his eyes widening. He was lying across the width of his bed, his
legs hanging off of the side. Sitting up, he fumbled for his phone.
“How much did I drink last night?” he said into
the mouthpiece.
“Good morning to you, too,” Barry said. “Are you
awake? Please tell me you’re awake.”
“How much did I drink last night?” Daniel
repeated.
“I don’t know. A lot.”
Daniel looked around his bed. How the hell had
he ended up at the very top of it?
“Are you okay?” Barry asked. “You didn’t wake up
next to someone you shouldn’t have, did you?” Daniel could hear the cringe in
his voice.
“What? No. I just...” he thought back to the
dream he’d had. “I had the weirdest dream last night, and somehow ended up
lying across the top of my bed.” Daniel shook his head, chuckling to himself as
he thought about it. Lucifer paying him a visit in the middle of the night?
Yeah. Right.
“Hmm, that’s nice, dear,” Barry said,
uninterested, “but what I really want to know is, are you awake? Because I am
going to be knocking on your door in exactly twenty-four minutes, and you had
better be ready.”
“Yes, mother,” Daniel replied. “Love you, too.”
“I’m serious, Daniel.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I mean it, Daniel. You are scheduled to be – ”
Daniel ended the call. As much as he liked Barry
and appreciated everything he had done over the years, the guy worried too
much. Daniel put his phone on silent, knowing that Barry would call again to
bitch about hanging up on him, and then crawled out of bed. He was sore from
head to toe, and it took a little while to get his muscles working. He also had
a bruise on his hip, though he had no recollection of hurting himself the night
before. “I’m never drinking again,” he declared.
When he could finally move, he padded his way
out of his bedroom, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. What he desperately needed
was a big cup of coffee; even more than a shower, which he also needed since he
smelled like booze and... smoke? He frowned. Where did the smoke come – “Oh my
God,” he whispered, realisation dawning on him.
Turning around, he hobbled back to his bedroom,
his hip groaning in protest with every step. There, on his hardwood floors at
the end of his bed, was a burnt patch, the words, “I stalk everyone” written
across it.
Daniel took one look at it and then promptly...
passed out in a manly fashion.