"What are you doing in here?", Ausirne asked as she opened the cupboard.
"I'm playing", the little one laughed.
"By yourself?", she smiled.
"No, with Lucy", he answered.
Ausirne sighed, a concern rose on her face.
"Mum, do you not like Lucy? She's really nice though."
"Aren't the boys nice to you too now? They don't beat you anymore, do they?", Ausirne pulled him out of the cupboard, "Didn't I tell you to pray whenever Lucy talks to you?"
"But I...I like Lucy. She can be a little rude sometimes...but she always helps me. I don't want to play with others...I just don't."
"Right, now let's pray and go to bed, alright?"
Ausirne put her hands together with him and the mother and son prayed together. She then tucked him in bed and left his room.
"She hates me, I told you."
"No, Lucy, she doesn't hate you!"
"Oh, yer just a kid. Can't you tell? Say...can't you tell?"
He said nothing. Suddenly everything around him was going dark, a dark mush was drowning him.
"Can't you tell?"
The distant voice echoed as he felt something choking him. He struggled to breath but his mind was going numb by the second. He flailed around trying to grasp something in the dark but everything was out of his reach. Two hands had got him by the throat and he was fighting against them, writhing to get some air.
How long he continued this struggle he didn't know, but when he opened his eyes as he was being choked to death, the first face that met his eyes was Ausirne.
"Mum!", he screamed as he backed away from her, "Why?!"
She was dumbfounded.
"What's gotten into you?", she went after him, "It was just a bad dream, calm down now."
He jerked her hand off and ran away as Ausirne kept calling his name.
******************
"What's your name?"
"I don't know."
"She doesn't love you."
"I know."
"She hates you."
"I know."
"So...what's your name?"
The night got darker and darker. The storm outside was beginning to calm down now. In his empty room, the boy sat in one cold corner, curled up and muttering to himself. He was deathly pale, sitting in his dark room, hallucinating.
Soon, the door sprang open.
"You should call a doctor, he's really not-"
"Let me at least see him, Ausirne", his father and mother walked in.
His father stood in the middle of the room, looking at him as he hid away in his dark corner.
"Come here", he ordered.
The little boy obeyed. He slowly got up, struggling to walk with his weakened legs. Ausirne tried to go help him but the boy's father stopped her. He managed to make his way to them and stood facing them.
"Why are you sitting here all alone?", his father asked gently, "Wouldn't you like to have some fish with me?"
There was no answer, the boy wasn't even looking up.
"The river would be really nice tomorrow morning. Wouldn't you like to take a walk there?"
No answer. The two of them waited patiently for the boy to make some reaction but he stood frozen, looking down.
"Hey", he broke his silence, "I found my name."
"What?", Ausirne spoke, "What are you saying? Don't you already have a name?"
His silence was a denial.
"Mum...I prayed like you told me...", he finally looked up at them with the most wicked expression, "My name is Lucy."
*******************
"Prophet", I nudged his shoulder.
"I don't remember what my father's name was...or what he looked like", he said, "And everything else too...I can't seem to remember much. Just her face..."
I waited as he fell into a dreadful silence with the saddest, most horrified look on his face.
"Ausirne...she was...she was all messed up...her face..."
I put my hand across his shoulder and pressed it a little.
"This is Lucifer's castle", he looked up at the huge castle we were sitting in front of, "But Lucifer is gone."
"So...you are saying that if he hadn't left, this hell would have died?"
"This isn't hell, Seraph", he replied, "This is just an image of it. All these lost souls gone astray, the only one that can lead them back is Lucifer."
"Well, if he left of his own accord, where are we going to find him?"
"Not him...Lucy isn't a he."
"Lucy?"
"Her real name is Lucifer. Well, its neither a he nor she. But Lucy is what she is to me, that's the one I know...", he continued, "Demons aren't bound by genders like us. Lucy never told me why she took on that form with me...but that's who she is."
I was taken aback. I tried to piece things together. I wondered if Prophet had realized the things which he didn't mention to me, maybe he'd been hiding it from himself as well.
"Can't you tell Lucy to go back?", I asked.
"No way!", a shrill voice coming from right behind me shook me to my core.
"Lucy!", Prophet said as I turned around.
She was the same height as Prophet, with long blonde hair and clear skin. It was hard to look away from her. I mean, she was easy on the eyes, sure, but majorly because she wasn't wearing anything.
"I told you to put something on!", Prophet yelled at her, covering her with his cape.
"I can't help it, I have nothing on me", she said carelessly.
"W-why can I see her?", I tried to change the topic.
"Because I decided so", she replied cheekily.
She was a little bratty but also had a hint of cunning to her. In that regard, she was a complete opposite of Prophet. I saw the two of them bickering about this and that as we stood in front of that huge home belonging to that delinquent, Lucy.
"Lucifer...err...Lucy, whichever it is", I interrupted, "Why don't you want to go back to your castle?"
"Why, you ask?", she grinned, hanging over Prophet's back, "It's 'cause I'm in love with him."