The Demon’s Bride

Lucifer appeared on the gate of Heaven with his black bat wings spreading wide on his back. Considering his last action, he expected the angels to be holding spears as they guards alongside the gate. Once they saw him, they would immediately strike without letting even a breath escape from his mouth. But at the moment, the angels who guarded the gates looked startled by his unscheduled arrival yet they didn't react aggressively. 

Michael stepped out as if he had been waiting for him and beside him was an older angel who appeared on his mid thirties. His eyes were bright golden and his wings didn't appear on his back unlike Michael, pertaining a human's appearance. The angel's eyes met once with Lucifer and he had offered him no smile but neither a glare.

"You found out who it was?" Lucifer didn't go the roundabout way and neither did Michael.

"Camael," answered Michael with a deep frown. "It was him."

Lucifer's eyes had only narrowed when the angel beside Michael said, "He is also the one who is responsible for your sister's death, your punishment and even the punishment that had fallen to your nephew."

Turning at the angel, Lucifer's eyebrows raised, "Do I know you?"

"I suppose I know you more than you know me," answered the angel who crossed his arm then, "I'm your family. A part of it. Elise's maternal grandfather."

"Raziel," Michael completed the name. 

"I thought he died," Lucifer expressed his confusion and the news that he heard from the fellow demons in Hell. But seeing the angel who was known as the angel of wrath similar to Camael in person, Lucifer could tell this man was the real one.

Lucifer's lips formed a smile, "Who would ever guess that angels are better in lying compared to demons. Whether it maybe you or Camael," he said to Michael, causing him to frown. "Where's that bastard then?" Lucifer's eyes switched to a deep red color as anger filled him. It appears all this time that he had been fooled by Camael. The angel had taken not only his reputation but his sister and even harmed his nephew.

"Whatever you say now Michael, I would kill him whether that needed to be judge by the heavens or not," Lucifer warned Michael before the angel put a protest as he always did but this time, Michael had been silent, giving him a single nod. 

"Raziel will be coming with you," Michael looked at Lucifer with a complexed look, "I cannot come with you nor am I liable to do anything I can only ask you this Lucifer, stop him." While Michael was responsible to give judgement after before Raphael, the angel had a shackle on him. Like Gabriel who could never lie, Michael could never let her anger cloud his reason and he knew at his current situation, controlling his anger to Camael would be extremely difficult and although it was cowardice, Michael had loved every single soul living in Hell. To kill Camael wasn't anything he could do easily. 

Lucifer frowned, looking severely disgusted as if he had just seen something he didn't want to see ever again, "Don't beg me. That send shivers to my spine. Oh Hell, never do that again, I will do what I want. No thank you is needed especially from you. And I don't need to bring anyone with me. I alone will be enough to defeat that fucker."

Raziel said, "I'm not going with you to keep a tab on you. I'm there to also solve a little of my grudge. Lucy's death that he cause, Camael would be responsible for every pain he inflicted on her and my granddaughter."

Lucifer tilted his smile, not disliking this combination of demons and angels going or a bad path that was thrilling to him, "It seems like the family is slowly spreading. Elise would be happy to know this."

Beneath Heaven, not far from the abyss, Elise rode the boat as it slowly tread its way across the Black Sea. Her blue eyes roamed around the place, keeping herself on guard. She looked down on the sea when she noticed from the black surface of the water boney hands tried to crawl to the sides of the boat. Elise was taken aback at this and quickly summoned her shadow when the creature beside her had used his paddle to swat the boney hand. 

The creature gave her a pointed look even as his face was covered in the cloak, "Fight... all you want but don't ruin my boat. You won't be ever to afford it."

But she didn't plan to ruin the boat in the first place, thought Elise in her mind. The silence was loud and Elise decided to fill the silence to drive away her nervousness, "How long have you been here? Driving the boat and transporting people across the sea?"

"I... don't remember," answered the creature that piqued Elise's interest. The creature seemed to dislike her questioning, "Stop... talking you are noisy."

Paying no heed to the creature snipped remark, Elise continued, "Why don't you remember? Were you from abyss or hell?"

"I... don't know," the creature answered and this time instead of annoyance, Elise heard his downcasted reply. "Whether... it is abyss or hell I have never went there before. All since I could remember I have been here, waiting for passengers. How long has it been? Even I cannot remember. There has never been time in this place."

Elise asked herself how the creature manifested if he didn't come from abyss or hell, was he created simply to wait here for people to cross the sea? By who? 

"It must have been lonely," sympathized Elise. She didn't like the darkness of the sea. It keeps her eyes unoccupied, making her head to roam in the thoughts she knew she shouldn't entertain. The sadness her heart held still overweight her eagerness to meet Ian again. She felt guilty for what she had done to him, regardless of how she hadn't done it in purpose. The creature had to stay here for longer time than her and she couldn't imagine how terrible it must have felt.

"I… don't know," said the creature, "I don't know what is loneliness. The silence is enjoyable."

"Has there been anyone like me?" Elise asked the creature again, questioning how many people had attempted the same ritual as her.

The creature nodded his head once, "I… remember a person. A man, breaking down, bawling like a child. He was searching for his lover but he had made a promise to never bring back from the dead with her. Breaking the promise seemed to be impossible for her. Yes… I remember now. That person is the same person who was on the shore earlier."

Elise raised her eyebrows, "Which one?" Was it her father? Or grandfather?

"The… one who had been following the three of you together… the one who now looked younger. You didn't saw? The boy with the golden hair."

Elise's head turned toward the creature, her expression turning startled. It wasn't Satan or her father! It was Caleb! The demon had been following them this entire time!