Chapter Twelve
The next day we did a morning search of the house before convening in the upstairs hallway. Simeon sent me a text thanking us for taking care of Luke while he was going through this. That just shot my anxiety and guilt up.
I spoke first, “Find anything?”
“No,” he shook his head, “What about you?”
“No. Is there anything we’re missing? You know this house better than I do.”
“Let’s check the dollhouse. It’s an exact replica of the house.”
I nodded and followed him downstairs to the replica. I began checking off the rooms one-by-one. When I got to the second floor though, something was wrong.
“Hey Beel. What’s this room,” I pointed out an extra room by Lucifer’s.
“I don’t know,” he admitted, “I’ve never seen a room there.”
“Let’s check it out.”
He agreed and we went to were the room was supposed to be. But there was just a wall.
“This is where the room should be, right,” I looked to Beel for confirmation.
“Right,” he agreed, “There’s a plaque. It’s about Lilith.”
Suddenly a door appeared.
“Oh. That makes sense I suppose. Magic exists,” I don’t know how I keep forgetting that."
Beel opened the door and we entered what seemed to be a bedroom. I scanned the room as Beel touched a side table by a chair with the gentlest touch of his fingers. As though the table would disappear upon touch. He got that sad look on his face again.
“This is Lilith’s room,” he whispered, “Back in the Celestial Realm.”
“I know this is a rough subject,” I gently prodded, “But what happened to her?”
He looked at me for a moment before sighing, “You’ve heard of the Great Celestial War, right?”
“Yeah, that’s when you all fell, right?”
“That’s right. It was a huge battle... Lilith didn’t make it.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that. That’s awful.”
“Thanks. But I have a lot of guilt,” his eyes fell, “I could have saved her. Both her and Belphie at the same time. I saved Belphie and not her. I hate remembering the look on her face.”
“I know my words may not mean much. But I don’t think you’d be happy, no matter which one you saved. You feel guilty for not saving her, but I’m sure she’s happy you twins weren’t separated.”
“For some reason,” he smiled softly at me, “I believe you when you say that. Thank you, Drizzm.”
Our heart-to-heart got cut off when I received a call from Mammon.
“What’s up,” I answered.
“Whattya mean ‘What’s up?’,” he yelled, panicked, “You gotta get to the underground tomb! Luke’s down here and Lucifer’s ‘bout ready to kill him!”
“Calm down, I’ll be right there,” I hung up, “Luke’s in the underground tomb?”
“We gotta go quickly then,” he suddenly picked me up, “Sorry, this will be faster.”
Then he bolted through the house so fast I saw nothing but a blur of color. Within seconds he reached the tomb and set me down next to Mammon and the others observing. Observing what?
Lucifer in his demon form, angry as all hell at Luke, who was clutching a book.
“You think you can sneak in here and take our grimoire,” Lucifer bellowed, he voice literally shaking the ground.
“N-n-no I-I didn’t sneak-,” Luke got too scared to speak as Lucifer puffed bigger. I didn’t realize just how big they get in their demon forms. Lucifer is usually around 6’, but now he’s closer to 7’. And considering he’s still growing, he might just surpass it.
“Lucifer,” Beel ran to Luke and pleaded, “Please calm down.”
“You,” now his wrath was on Beel, “You let an angel in the house and now he has our grimoire. Do you not see the problem?!”
This was bad. Mammon even said what I was thinking aloud. This wasn’t their fault. It was mine. Without thinking I ran in front of Beel and Luke, arms out and knees bent, protecting them in what little way I could.
“Drizzm! What are you doing,” Beel panicked, but not leaving the more scared Luke, “He’s gonna hurt you!”
“Yes. What do you think you’re doing,” Lucifer hissed, “Do you think a human like you can protect them?”
“My abilities mean naught when it’s the principle of protecting others and taking responsibility when your actions put them in harm’s way.”
“Your actions?”
“That’s right. Don’t punish either Beel or Luke. I’m the one who persuaded Beel to hide Luke. I deserve the punishment, right?”
Lucifer about popped a vein.
“YOU!”
The room shook so aggressively pieces of the roof fell. But I stood my ground.
“You dare make decisions like that!”
He took a step forward.
“Do you think I’m going to allow a lowly human such as yourself make that choice?!”
Definitely taller than 7’ now.
“That you can do whatever it is that you WANT?! NO!!!”
Here we go.
He launched himself at me and I braced for impact.
It all went black.