by Dahlia Lu
She lay there for hours, watching the sky darkening through the window. She turned toward the door when she heard it creak open. Chevalier stood there with a smile. “I’m sorry I came by so late,” he said. “Something came up at work. I bought you some snacks.”
His face suddenly turned pale at the sight of her. He rushed to her side and felt her forehead with his hand. Within seconds, he had burst out of her room. She could remember his angry voice from a distance as he approached her grandmother.
“She’s running a fever, why didn’t you call for a doctor?” he demanded.
“The girl runs a fever every year,” her grandmother replied. “She’ll be fine tomorrow.”
“You’re a heartless woman!” Chevalier dialed his cell phone and waited patiently. “Damn, the offices are closed this late!”
He rushed back to her side and felt her temperature again. “Kali? How are you feeling?”
When she didn’t respond, he gently shook her. “Kali, can you hear me? Kali? Damn it, her fever is so high!”
He snatched her coat from the closet, brushed aside her blanket, and put on her coat. As soon as he finished buttoning the last button, he positioned her on his back and left the house. She needed a doctor, and fast. He hoped that the doctor who lived a few blocks away would be home.
The rain came suddenly. He was glad he had thought of her coat, which protected her from the rain. He carried her as fast as he could to the doctor’s doorstep and impatiently knocked on the door. A middle-aged woman opened the door.
“She’s running a high fever, is the doctor home?” Chevalier asked without a moment of hesitation. There was no time for introductions.
“No, but he will be home shortly,” the woman replied. “Bring her in. I’ll call the doctor home right away. Are you her family?”
“I’m the closest thing to it.”
Kali snapped out of her reminiscence and gently laughed when sudden realization came to her. She hasn’t noticed it but Chevalier really did love her for a long time.
†††††
Chevalier pressed harder on the gas handle to urge his bike to go faster. “Why does it have to rain?” he muttered. “That idiot probably didn’t bring an umbrella.”
“This is as far as you go,” Soren decided. He held out his hand in the direction of an oncoming truck.
The truck driver panicked. “It’s…it’s steering by itself!” he shouted out and tried to step on the brakes, but the truck careened on. “Watch out!” He shouted as he frantically tried to brake. “Runaway truck!”
“What the hell?!” Chevalier said, seeing the oncoming truck as it crossed over into his lane, coming right at him. He yanked the bike to the left to avoid the head-on collision, and then back to the right before the oncoming traffic could hit him.
The truck smashed into several cars that were heading towards it.
“That was close!” Chevalier gasped. “What the hell was that?”
“Not half-bad,” Soren praised. “However, If Lord Lucifer wants you to die, you cannot live!” Soren held out his hand to another truck, this one much bigger than the last.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Chevalier muttered with annoyance, trying to avoid it a second time. The truck turned sideways on the highway as it slid towards him. There was no way to dodge it unless he could lean the motorcycle so close to the ground that it would slip under the truck. Such a professional maneuver required time; something Chevalier did not have.
He attempted it anyway.
The motorcycle slipped under the truck with ease, but it was leaning too close to the ground. Sparks flew where the metal parts of the motorcycle ground against the asphalt. The speed he was traveling at threw him off the motorcycle, and he tumbled onto the cement of the highway.
Chevalier slowly regained awareness and tried to get up. His right leg was broken.
He looked up to see a car coming toward him at an unbelievable speed. The front lights blurred out the horrified face of the driver behind the windshield.
Kali!
Chapter 8: Unwritten Contract
Kali looked again at her watch. Her entire body was shaking as the result of standing too long in the cold rain. She gritted her teeth together to stop them from chattering. Chevalier had never been late before. That worried her. He was an hour and a half late.
She took out her cell phone again, but this time she called Hana. Hana was not picking up, either. Kali swallowed hard. She couldn’t stay in the rain much longer. It wasn’t a good idea to wait in the rain in the first place.
Kali walked back along the path to Lucien’s house. She passed by an electronic store and a large scene TV was the display window. The news was on. Kali paused for a moment in front of the window, listening to the faint voice through the glass.
A pretty young woman with very short hair was reporting, “There has been a tragic accident on the highway Route 81, 4:50 P.M. today. Reports are just coming in. There are a total of 8 people pronounced dead, while 9 others are injured. Two young men were taken to the local hospital in critical condition. They had their IDs on them. The first young man is identified as Chevalier Shiva. Twenty years old. He was driving a silver motorcycle model…”
“Chevalier…”
For a moment, Kali forgot how to breathe. Her lungs felt like they were collapsing. The hospital. She needed to go to the hospital. She inhaled a deep breath of air and turned to see a taxi heading her way. She waved at it, but it ignored her completely.
She waited for the next taxi and jumped out in front of it. The tires screeched. It stopped before it hit her.
“Do you have a death wish?” the driver yelled angrily out of the window.
Kali ran to the side of the taxi, opened the door, and got in. She took all of the money she had in her purse and offered it to him with both of her hands. “The hospital. Please, drive me to the hospital!” she yelled in panic.
The driver took the money and shoved it into his pocket. “Anything you say!”
“Please hurry!”
The car raced through traffic and ran through a few yellow lights until they pulled up in front of the hospital’s front entrance. Kali got out of the taxi and ran into the building.
“I’m looking for someone!” she said to the receptionist at the front desk. “Chevalier Shiva. His name is Chevalier! Please look him up for me!”
The receptionist looked through her list. “He’s still in the emergency room.”
“Where’s the emergency room?”
“Down that hallway and it will be to your left.”
Kali followed the receptionist’s directions. At the end of the hallway she found a spacious wing with a red “Emergency” sign. Hana sat on the chair and leaned against the door.
“How is he?” Kali ran to Hana.
Hana didn’t say anything. Her face looked as if she were possessed.
Kali shook her. “How is he, Hana?”
Hana raised her hand and slapped Kali across the face. Kali turned back to look at Hana, shocked. “You bitch! He ended up like this because of you!” Hana lashed out.
She pushed Kali against the wall. “It’s all because of you! It’s all your fault!”
Lucien caught Hana by the wrist, preventing her from swinging again. He gave her a threatening look before he turned to Kali. Hana was trembling. Lucien hadn’t done physically done or said anything to her, but she couldn’t stop shaking.
Kali stood still, confusion and hurt apparent in her eyes. She just couldn’t comprehend what was happening to her world.
"You think this is my fault?” she questioned Hana.
“That’s right,” Hana responded, glaring. “Nothing good ever happens to the people around you! Not your parents, not your grandma, and not Chevalier! I should stay away from you, before you kill me too!”
"Is that what you really think of me? Is that what they say about me?" Kali’s body lost its strength, and she slumped down the wall to the floor.
; “Say another word, and I will have you killed,” Lucifer warned Hana. Hana gave him a nasty look and turned to run down the hall.
Lucien knelt down to Kali’s level. He lifted her face up to kiss her eyes and the sweet tears on her cheeks.
The red light on the emergency board turned off, and the doctor stepped out from the emergency room doorway. “Are you the patient’s relative?” The doctor asked once he took off his mask.
“Yes, I'm his only family,” Kali stood up immediately. “What’s his condition, doctor?”
“Take him home.”
Kali didn’t understand what the doctor meant and simply looked blankly at the man.
“Prepare him a proper burial,” he sighed.
Kali brushed by the doctor to run into the emergency room. Her eyes widened and she turned away at sight. It took her some mental preparation to turn around again. His entire body was covered by a white sheet, and his arm hung limp off the table. His blood was trickling down to form a puddle on the floor. She tried to control her thick breathing and slowly walked to his side. She carefully lifted up the sheet with her trembling hands. When the sheet revealed his face, it was too real for her to deny.
She couldn't breathe.
She shook his body roughly, but he didn’t move. Or breathe. Or tell her to stop.
Her heavy tears fell to the ground and mixed with his blood. "I just talked to you,” she said to him. "Hours ago, you were still alive. How do you expect me to do this, Chevalier? How am I supposed to believe it?” she pressed his cold hand against her cheek.
"You were still warm just last night when you made me promise you. You think you can just walk out of that promise? You think you can just leave me all alone in this heartless world? You were the only thing that made it all bearable!"
"The dead cannot come back," the doctor said. "Please try to calm down.”
"Did he…” she held him with her eyes one last time, “Did he suffer long?"
"No," the doctor shook his head after a long moment of pause, "we do not believe so.”
"That's good,” she said before she collapsed. Lucifer was quick to catch her before her head hit the floor. At least he did not suffer long.
†††††
“You should eat something,” Lucien said from the head of the dinner table. Ever since Chevalier's death, she hadn't been herself. She hadn't shed a single tear since she returned home.
She shook her head in refusal.
Lucien dipped the spoon into some porridge and held it to her mouth. She turned away. He grabbed her face with his hand and forced the spoon into her mouth. She tried to swallow the porridge, but she choked on it instead.
“Why won’t you eat?” Lucifer asked in an unsympathetic tone. “You need to consume the necessary nutrients to sustain yourself.”
She shook her head. Her face remained emotionless as two lines of tears fell from her eyes.
He licked them away. “Be a good girl,” he said in a much gentler voice. “Eat for me.”
“I just can’t,” she said. There was no strength in her voice.
“Seeing you like this makes me want to do even worse things to him,” Lucien said. “Don’t cry for him any longer,” he kissed her gently. “Don’t think about him anymore.”
She was unresponsive to his kiss.
“And yet, thoughts of anything besides me still persist,” Lucifer stood up.
She grabbed his hand and looked up at him. “Could you bring him back to me?”
It was a silly question. "I don't see why I should.”
"Those dreams... they weren't dreams, were they?" When he did not deny it, she pressed on. "Those men on the streets, you killed them didn't you?"
“I supposed it is better this way," Lucifer decided. "I have no need to pretend any longer.”
"I couldn't make sense of it, all the things around you. I thought long and hard, but I couldn't make sense of things until I realized you were the man in my dreams. Your resemblance to him grew more and more each day. I see things more clearly now than I ever have before. Everything has been a lie, hasn't it?"
"Not all of it.”
"In the cave, you said that you prolonged my life in order to grant me a wish. I’ll die after my wish come true, right?"
He nodded. "That was the original plan.”
“Bring him back,” she rested her head on his forearm. “That’s my wish. If it’s within your power, please bring him back.”
Anger flickered in Lucifer’s eyes. His dark hair bleached into platinum and his brilliant blue eyes glowed fiercely. He pushed her to the ground, both of his hands wrapped around her delicate neck. The sudden flair of his aura caused the glass windows to shatter into millions of glittering pieces before falling onto the ground. He fought to restrain himself from using any strength, because even a small amount could easily sever her head from her body.
“That is the wish worth dying for? Bringing him back to life?” his furious voice shook the foundation of the house.
"If you have even the smallest idea of what he means to me, then you won’t even ask,” she said through a screen of tears. "He was there long before you showed up in my life. That man worked himself every day to provide for me, a girl he had completely no ties or obligation to. He cared for me when no one in this world even bothered to give me a second glance. He has nothing to offer me, but himself. And from nothing, he had given me everything, but I was too big of an idiot to realize it. And what did I do for him? I refused him again and again, and left him the day before he left this goddamn forsaken earth! I left him when he begged me to stay. How am I supposed to live with that the rest of my life? I would be heartless or insane if I could sleep another night with that in the back of my head.”
Her words only fueled his rage.
“You can take my body! You can take my life! You can even take my soul!” she offered without a second thought. “Just bring him back to me.”
“I would never,” he hissed.
“That is my only wish.”
“I am under no obligation to oblige!” he clarified. "You were far too young at your untimely death. I prolonged your life in order for you to have a final wish. Taking your life was never my intention!"
“But you do want this body and this soul,” she daringly looked into his eyes.
He couldn’t deny it. He wanted her. The moment that he discovered her genuine concern toward him, he had wanted to possess her. And she was asking for a bargain with him.
It was a bargain he could not refuse.
It would not make any difference whether Chevalier was dead or alive if Kali was in another realm. Their paths would never meet again.
His anger slowly resided. “I would only resurrect him," his tone of voice much calmer now, "if you pledge your heart and your soul to me for all of eternity.”
“I am human,” she said, turning her head to the side to avoid his cold gaze. “I do not have an eternity. I’ll grow old in a few decades. A life for a life, I suppose that’s fair.”
"I am not willing to settle for a few measly decades. You will live as long as I desire so,” then he added. "Do I have your promise?”
She didn't know who he was, or what he was. It didn't matter. She would make a deal with the devil himself if he could bring Chevalier back to life. Kali nodded. “I promise.”
With those two words, she knew she had sealed her fate.
“I will hold you to your words.”
“Where are you going?” she sat up as he headed toward the window.
“To the realm of the dead.”
In the form of a shadow, he disappeared into the night.
†††††
Lucifer stepped onto a vast and barren land that stretched as far as the eye could see. In the realm of the dead, there was no such thing as night or day; only the dark pit sky and lifeless gray soil. From the gray soil grew trees that looked as if they had been dead for many years, sprouting in twisted and strange shapes. On the branches of tho
se seemingly dead trees were small dim lights, each holding a life of its own.
“A demon trespasses in the realm of the dead?” an eerie voiced echoed. A black hole opened in the sky as a white skeleton in a black hood appeared. He bony hands held a large, sharply glittering scythe.
“What is your business here, demon?” Death asked.
“Find me a man by the name of Chevalier Shiva,” Lucifer commanded.
Death let out a disdainful laughter. “You dare to give me order? I am Death and this is my realm. A demon trespassing is a sin in itself!”
“Find me this Chevalier Shiva,” Lucifer repeated impatiently.
“And what will you do with him once you find him?” Death asked. “No soul can leave the realm of the dead.”
“There are exceptions to everything,” Lucifer said. His hand reached to his side to pull out his trusted sword. He was in no mood for tea and a light-hearted chat. “Act now or I will make you.”
Death sensed the power of the summoning spell. It was a simple spell, but the demon who called upon the sword released a tremendous amount of energy. “Identify yourself, Demon.”
“Listen and listen well, Death,” he said. “I am Lucifer.”
Chapter 9: Advent to Hell
His heart was beating. She could hear him breathing. His cold body was warming up. The colors had returned to his flesh. Joy danced in Kali’s honey-colored eyes as she wiped the tears away. He’s alive! She said to herself, he’s going to live!
“I have fulfilled my end of the bargain," Lucifer said. "Shall we depart?"
“I want to speak to him,” she pleaded. “I want to talk to him. Just let me stay with him until he wakes up,”
“It may take a season,” Lucifer said, offering her his hand. “Come. I do not wish for you to stay in this realm a moment longer,”
