16 Chapter 16 - Son Of The Morning

A week passed and everyday I was at the cafe, drinking coffee and reading a book and Caroline never showed up. I've checked her social media accounts and knew that she had a busy schedule. The tour for her album was about to start and she was busy rehearsing yet that didn't stop me in dropping by everyday at the cafe. It's not just the chance of seeing Caroline that brought me there. I also liked the ambience, not to mention they served great coffee.

Mephisto didn't say a thing about my lack of progress with Caroline only told me that time was not on my side. "Either way I take your soul, better remember that." It was the only thing he said about the matter.

It was Monday and I decided to change my routine. I bought a pack of smokes from the store near our home and just walked around the city. I had no idea where I was going. I just wanted to clear my mind.

It's as if my mind had a mind of its own. My wandering took me to Cerulean City's local library. It was a two -storey building with a coffee lounge and it had an air of luxury in it for a library. The floor carpet was a mix of red and gold with intricate patterns. It was quite startling but what surprised me the most is the large collection that they had. I started to browse through shelves upon shelves of book, and every shelf offered a book I wanted to read. Finally deciding that I had a new go-to place in case I got bored of going to the fan cafe or hanging out with Mephisto, I picked Dickens's A Tale Of Two Cities.

I got some coffee from the lounge and went upstairs to read since the ground floor was full of people. Not that they were noisy or anything, I just felt like it. The upper floor was the same in design as the one below, the only difference is that there were only fewer bookshelves in here.

I sat down on one of the couches that were unoccupied and placed the styro containing my coffee on the near table. I felt at home sitting there, it almost brought a sense of nostalgia. And so I began to read and lose all sense of time. I immersed myself in Dickens's book and watch as the characters start to untangle the thread that bound them together.

I stopped after what seemed like minutes but when I checked my watch, it was already 3:30pm and I started at around 1pm. I massaged the corners of my eyes. I felt like I was still in France 18th century. I looked around curious if others had found their way up here. There was no one around or so I thought until I saw a man sitting at the chair across from me. As soon as I saw him, I couldn't take my eyes off of him.

Even from a distance I could tell he was beautiful, and it's a word I don't use lightly especially for men. His auburn hair fell in lazy curls over his face, his eyes were the color of the deep blue sea, his sharp features gave him a proud and intimidating look. He was wearing a suit. I could also see some jewelry, a pair of earrings and a ring which gave off a faint reflection. I didn't know how long I was staring until he looked up and his cold blue eyes seemed to see through everything and when he saw me looking, he broke into a smile. He got up and went to me with book in hand.

He moved the table earlier and an unoccupied couch so we were staring at each other. I was bewildered when he gave out his hand and I shook it without hesitation.

"Nice to meet you, I am Lucifer." His voice was deep, a baritone that seemed to command my whole attention.

I was speechless. There was no way this is happening. It felt like deja vu, only this time instead of a fastfood chain, I was in a library. Or maybe I was overthinking things again, perhaps this guy's name was just given by weird parents. I decided to play it cool. "I'm Dante,nice to meet you."

"I know, you're Mephisto's current ward." He replied.

His words came as a surprise.

"So you know each other?" I asked in a voice almost like a whisper. It's remarkable that I could even speak.

"Yes, intimately." He was studying me with his deep-blue eyes, it seemed as if he was reading me. "Tell me, Dante, what brought you here?"

The question caught me off-guard. "I don't know, I was just walking around the city wondering where to go and I found myself here." I answered truthfully.

"It never occured to you that you were brought here by fate?" He inquired.

"No, I don't believe in fate." I replied.

He smiled at that and he looked even more beautiful when he did, it softened his features and made him look younger. "So you believe you are your own master?"

I started to relax around him, it was weird. " I do, I mean, we make decisions everyday that can change the course of our lives."

"That may be true but do you think everyone in the world sees it that way?" He asked me his eyes brimming with dark humor, the same as Mephisto when he was about to give out his revelations.

"I guess only a few people do." I replied, uncertain with my answer.

"People are ignorant of this, in fact a lot of people would tell you that you can't change your fate, that it's all part of a divine plan." He gestured with his hands in dramatic fashion. "They want to put their trust on something that would relieve them of the unknown and so they go down on their knees and tell themselves that it'll be alright as long as they believe yet at the same time they struggle against their predetermined fate. "

"But you're real, so God must be real and if that's true, then I'm going to hell." I said with a chuckle, so much for redemption.

"Is he? Surely, you are not blind to the world. You're not like the rest, are you?" He drew out a deck of tarot cards. He shuffled them face-down and brought out a single card and flipped it. It showed The Tower. "This is the world." He tapped the card and flipped it so now it was upside-down."And it is falling apart, now if there is an all-powerful and all-loving God up there, do you think things such as poverty and suffering will exist?"

I didn't say anything, merely took it all in, in deafening silence. I felt my head spinning.

He continued. "Most humans are easily beguiled and convinced by the promises of paradise that they fail to rise to their true potential. Their talents suppressed, creation and self-expression are seen as blasphemous."

When he saw me grew silent, he continued. "You dream of becoming a writer don't you?"

I was no longer surprised that he knew. "It's just a far-off dream and I don't see if I'm achieving it anytime soon."

"Such a dream you have remains unspoken because you fear the judgment of others. You are shackled to a system, where you let others define who you are." He looked almost sad as he said it.

"Why do you care? I mean, you're the devil, well one of many." I replied and he chuckled.

"Perhaps, I've fallen from grace but it hasn't changed my nature. I may have lost my wings and exchanged them for horns but I am still the angel of the morning and though I have come to despise mankind, there are still a few who you might say keeps me interested." He said in a tone filled with melancholy. I couldn't understand it, why the king of Hell looked almost sympathetic.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

He gave another one of his boyish smiles and said, "We'll need coffee for this. Go down and ask for some, will you?"

When I had the coffee, Lucifer poured for both of us.

*What is it with these demons and coffee?*

He must've heard my thoughts for he smiled. "Mephisto has his chocolates, I have coffee."

He took a sip. "It's really good, try it."

I did. The bitterness exploded in my mouth and I could feel the caffeine course through my veins, it was exhilarating. "No kidding. Anyway, what do you mean with what you said?"

"Who do you think shapes the world?" He began. "God? Religion? Faith? No. The ones who've opened and paved the way for mankind to progress to where it is right now are the enlightened ones, the ones who went seeking for answers to questions that most people overlooked or simply ignored. They answer the riddles of the world, they unravel the wonders of God and the universe." He took a sip from his cup, and he seemed far away as if remembering something.

"When I fell, I roamed the Earth creating discord and scourged humanity. I thought of it as my purpose. I thought that if I corrupted God's chosen children, he'll see that you are unworthy of his love and he'd take me back. It's how I saw it. However, such is not the case. And so in my anger I created chaos all over the world, my influence reached every corners of the earth.

The first of the faithful were strong, they truly were pure and they dedicated their lives to God and as the gospel spread, I felt threatened. Soon though, as history would tell you, what was once beautiful became twisted and corrupted thanks to the nature of men being unable to contain their thirst for power. They like to put the blame on me when in reality, they did it with their own free-will, the greatest gift God had given them. They wanted power, fame and fortune, and so they exploited and shaped faith into something they could use to get all three. I saw it all and it made me happy, I watched as the world burned.

Yet where there was darkness, there was also light, it was quite the irony. A few men, enlightened men, sought answers for the ways of the world. Concepts of evolution, the setting and the rising of the sun, medicine, philosophy, science. I was already the king of the fallen, so I could not minister anymore but my love for knowledge and discovery remained and so I watched them, fascinated. They started to unravel the mysteries of the world. For the first time, I found myself in awe of them. Their thirst for knowledge drove them to great lengths. They overcame hardships the same way as the saints of the faithful. And for all of their ideas and discoveries, they were ridiculed , their works and ideas written off as blasphemy and heresy. I watched as they were casted out and burned at the stake, their only crime, for wanting to show their fellow men the light, for wanting to share the knowledge and wonders of the world and what lies beyond the universe. In their mind, they wanted to understand God.

For those who are enlightened, they know that their fate is not in the hands of God, they understand that their actions shape the world, that the answer lies not in the past but in the present, the here and now."

We were both silent for a long time, drinking coffee, Lucifer looking at the afternoon sun.

"What should I do then? I'm dying and I have a task set before me that I have no idea how to accomplish" I implored him, and I could hear the desperation in my voice.

He laughed. "I know, but are they really the ones stopping you from doing what you want? Or is it because you are so scared to try?"

That amused me. "Cancer, writing and Caroline King, what more can I ask for?"

Lucifer lifted his cup at me. "Exactly."

**

When we were done drinking coffee, I told him that I had to go. "Mephisto may be looking for me."

"Don't worry, he knows you're here." He replied. "And he won't object of me talking to you. On the contrary, I think he'd be interested in our conversation."

"Okay." I fumbled for words, I was actually thinking of thanking the prince of hell for his words.

"There's no need for such niceties. I'm no human." He said. "Off you go."

I was about to go when he called me back. "I forgot to gave you this. Consider it a gift." He handed me a book, it was the Inferno by Dante Alighieri, the poet I was named after. "I've always loved Dante's depiction of punishment in the nine circles of hell. His words were so effective that people who read the book were inclined to go to church fearful that they would find themselves in hell. Take it, read it and by all means contemplate on it, I assure you there's a lot of surprises in there."