Rosemary Gravely rushed down the stairs, making for the front door. “See ya,” she hollered to her parents sitting and reading in the living room. “I’m off to meet Kayleigh and Ashley at the arcade.”

“Is your room clean, young lady?” Carmen asked. Earlier that day, she found her eldest daughter in the garage, practicing her rock jams on her guitar, obviously not cleaning her room. And, of course, as any parent would, she scolded her while listing off the assorted mess that was discovered in the bedroom.

“Um, yeah, totally,” Rosemary fibbed. She touched nothing in her room after her mother’s scolding. It wasn’t a mess, not to her. It was organized chaos.

“Do I need to check?” Carmen looked out, an eyebrow raised with concern.

Rosemary paused, just short from reaching the doorknob. If her mother had to check, she was done for. That much she knew, and the consequences that would follow. Grounded with extra house choirs for this weekend and the next after. No TV, no video games, no guitar practice (unless it was specifically for her school’s concert band), no listening to her favorite rock music. “I’ll go clean it up quick.” she sighed, turning back and making her way back to her room.

Carmen and Lu chuckled to themselves as they continued their reading. The laughter of a child interrupted them. Pearing outside through the sliding door, beyond the patio deck, there was Regan laughing and playing. “What do you suppose munchkin’s up to, my dear?” the devil asked.

“Oh, she’s probably playing with Gaia,” Carmen answered.

The devil raised an eyebrow. “Gaia?”

“Regan’s imaginary friend she made up when she was about three years old.”

“Seriously?” Lu rolled his eyes. “An imaginary friend?”

“Alright, I’ll admit that it’s a bit odd that she’d be playing with an imaginary friend after all this time, especially since she stopped all that when she made friends in preschool. But there’s no harm in having one. She’s young and just having some fun with her imagination.”

Lu stood, making his way to the glass door. “Yeah, well, I always thought the idea of imaginary friends was dumb.”

“Come on, are you telling me you never had an imaginary friend?”

“Not since my Father knocked it into my head that imaginary friends were dumb. Add that to the ‘Dad Sucks’ list. I didn’t need imaginary friends. I had my siblings, and I was very popular in school.”

“From how Mike tells it, you were more of an introvert.”

The devil looked back, giving his queen a sly grin. “But then you married me. Thus making you the ‘Queen of Introverts’.” his retort was ridiculous enough to force a small chuckle out of Carmen.

He stepped out onto the patio deck, closing the door behind him while his wife continued reading her magazine. Walking to the railing, he watched as his youngest stepdaughter played by herself. His eyes followed Regan as she ran back and forth like a game of tag, chasing at the air around her and then acted as though something invisible chased her in return. Then she rolled around in the soft grass, enough for small splotched of green stains to appear on her yellow dress. After that game, she announced the next game. Hide and seek. Regan closed her eyes and counted to the highest number she knew. Once done, she ran around the tree, performing the same game of tag as earlier. The devil smiled humbly as he watched her play alone. Technically, she only appeared alone. Lu certainly couldn't see or hear this Gaia that his wife described, but Regan seemed to act like she was present. She was also happy. Lu couldn't argue against that. Perhaps there was some merit behind this imaginary friend business, he thought to himself. It left him wishing that he did something like that for his childhood.

Regan played, and Lu watched, the two unaware of the third presence nearby. There, standing close, unseen and unheard as the phantom she was, Gaia looked on to the devil with a proud smile and fresh tears leaking down her cheek. He was only a boy the last time her eyes saw him. Those very eyes watched him grow into a handsome man he was now. She watched him. He did not know it but she was always there in his life too. She watched him and his seven older siblings too. But she knew this one, the one standing before her, still oblivious of her presense, needed for her to be there.

There were many times, when he was only a boy, Gaia could find him alone and saddened. One would never believe, little less believe, that the devil, or even a devil, could be sad, or start off as a boy. No, they want to believe only what they received from their scriptures that did not record all of the history of the universe. Less so, their scriptures never documented the childhoods of Lucifer the angel became a Devil, or how exactly three of his older siblings (Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael) were knighted as the archangels the Heavens and the Earth knew them as such. But she knew. She was there but not always. She could be there, but she could never stay. Her essence would not allow it. But she was there when they each were alone and sad, including a little Lucifer. She knew exactly what he was sad about too. It was something that plagued his mind since his youth. Even now, as he watched over his youngest stepchild, he was thinking about it. He was thinking... of Her, and how it pained him that he never had the chance to know Her. Gaia understood this. It pained her to no end as it did with the devil. No matter how far he had fallen from his origin, how she felt about him was unchallenged. Not with all the blood he spilled during the war—demon, angel, and mortal alike. Nor how the corruption of Hell, after all the time he has dwelled within the demon realm since his forever banishment from Heaven, that twisted his soul and mind. Nor the cruel teachings of his former master, his predecessor, Baracrus, the monstrous Lord of Darkness, whose dark fires were as black as his own heart, could wholly convert him down his path that he followed long ago.

Lu pulled out from his jacket pocket a small box of his favorite cigarette brand, Rotten Core. Gaia noticed. Her face scrunched in disgust as she watched the devil placed one of those rolled-up paper toxins between his lips. She always hated when he smoked. Must have picked up that nasty habit from his Father. Demons like him couldn’t get cancer—hard to do so when their lungs were already made of tar from the mixture of ash and sulfer that populates their air. But what of Regan or Rosemary or his wife Carmen? Secondhand smoke was still a danger to them. Sure, Lu was respectful enough to have himself a smoke outside, away from his family. But who would want to be standing near him with is suit and hair and skin all smelling of ripe tobacco? Can’t have that now, can we? Gaia smiled and blew her lips.

Lu felt a small breeze sweep the air fast only to disappear shortly after. It certainly felt small but it had the strength to shut out his flame off his fingertips before it could kiss the head of his cigarette. “What the crap,” he whispered. He snapped his fingers once more. Nothing. Snapped again. Once more, nothing. A woman giggled behind him, sounding neither like his daughters or wife. Yet it was familiar laugh. He only heard of when he was a baby. A very laugh implanted into his memories of a woman. Her. Quickly he spun around, finding no one there. Gone, as if never present.

#sinsofthefather #fiction #fantasy #comedy #horror

Mechanically, Anna wiped crimson

blood off her silver blade, the raggedy cloth sliding across the slick surface. Just another night of slaying demons. It was always the same, the same rituals over and over again.

Anna had barely been keeping track of

the passing days, but earlier that day, her friend Rei told her it would soon be a new year. It didn't matter much to her either way. Whatever day it was, Anna would be doing the same; killing demon after demon in a futile attempt to salvage any bit of life. A new year wouldn't change that.

She'd heard that, in the days of old when

another year approached, people would make a goal for it. Something to work toward, to achieve in the following year. It wouldn't make much difference, but Anna supposed she would make one anyway. Whether it was just to preserve some shred of normalcy, or a twisted sense of nostalgia, she didn't know. Regardless, she would make a resolution.

Slowly, Anna closed her amber eyes and

began. She promised to herself, that even if she had to die for it, she would wipe out every last demon in this world. It was set then, Anna wouldn't perish until all demons had. And that would be her only goal, for yet another year.

My New Years resolution

Is to be the one for someone

Be the one who lends an arm when yours has been blown off

By the war of life

Be the one who gives love to the loveless

I want to be the someone who lifts the person out of their wrecked car

I want to rescue the child from the burning building

But I am just me.

So I guess all I can do is

Save myself