33 Chapter 33 - A Lesson Never Learned

I was in the library, only this time inside of Lucifer's office which looked elegant and bore the same tapestries if not more, red and gold. I told him about my dream, the pale king and the boy in the castle. It has been three days and I've yet to get a good night's sleep. The only good thing that seemed to happen is the constant late night conversations with Caroline. Mephisto and Asmodeus had both suggested that I come here for answers. Both of them looked bothered when I told them about it.

"The answer doesn't lie with any of us." Asmodeus said to me when I told him about my dream. "I do not decipher dreams, nor does Mephisto, we can only minister that which we know and dreams are none of our concern."

"I'm good at exploiting the weakness of humans but not with dreams. I'm no Joseph." Mephisto said as he was sipping his morning coffee. "Go to Luci, he might have the answers you're looking for."

And so I found myself standing in Lucifer's office. His face looked grave when I was done telling him about my dream.

"I have a theory as to what might be happening though it may not give you any sense of reassurance." He gestured at a seat in front of his desk and I sat after which he gave me a cup of coffee.

"What is it?" I asked, both dreading and wanting the answer.

"Your soul is splitting apart." He said it gravely and for the king of hell to say it in such a way made me afraid. "Death has began to invade the inner chambers where your soul lives, where your memories, your dreams and your fears live."

*Splitting apart?* It made no sense.

"This is just a theory. You are after all a first. There might be other explanations and this is one of them." Lucifer reassured me.

"Any advice on what I should do if I happen to find myself in there again?" I asked. I wanted to sleep in peace, it's been quite some time.

"Don't let yourself be devoured." Lucifer simply said. "It is your flesh and blood, and your soul."

"Wanna know something funny though?" I remembered snatches of images from my dreams. "I almost welcomed it, being swallowed by the peaceful emptiness."

"Tired of being alive?" asked Lucifer.

"Used to hate it but now, there's something I wanna do." I said and then he looked at me with questioning eyes. "I wanna feel how it is to fall in love, just once I'd like to love someone and to be loved."

"Caroline?" Lucifer sipped at his coffee.

I wanted to deny it but it was no use. I wanted to say that I was making her fall in love with me when it was the opposite. We were already texting each other constantly. Even when she was at practice or doing promotional stuff for her album, she still got the time to reply to my messages. We talked about anything. Books, dogs, food, it seemed we could always find something to talk about and the weirdest part of it is that it seemed so natural. There seemed to be no effort from our part. We just talked.

I nodded.

Silence. Then Lucifer stood up and looked grave, thinking until finally he made up his mind. "Dante, would you like to learn how to use Death?"

When he saw the incomprehension on my face, he laughed. "Let me rephrase, would you like to learn how to wield the power of Death?"

That peaked my interest. It was something else entirely, something that needed no contemplation nor self-reflection on my part. The mere idea of power can be intoxicating. "I don't know how this works but okay."

"Very well. Let's start now, shall we?"

He blinked his eyes and we were transported into an open field which is located at the center of the park in Cerulean City. The difference however is the sun was nowhere to be found, the grass is gray, the sky seemed to be filled with gray mist and everything seemed to be there and not there at the same time. It felt familiar.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Purgatory." Lucifer replied. "It lies in the middle of Heaven and Hell, this is where angels and demons wage wars."

"Is it safe to be here?" I didn't want to be caught in the middle of a crossfire between supernaturals.

"For now. Angels rarely come here, they are not welcome here." said Lucifer.

"Why?"

"A story for another day." He replied. "We're here to discover what you can do."

The words thrilled me. "Okay. What do I do?"

"First I'll have to coerce the pale king to show himself and then we'll start there."

"How do you do that?" I felt so stupid and useless just standing there in the barren wasteland.

"I have my ways." Lucifer's voice took a more serious tone. His eyes glowed the same way that reminded me of Michael's, only his shone with hellfire. "Brace yourself."

Then he went at me. I didn't even see the punch, but I felt it, the pain, it was excruciating. I must've flown a few feet and when I hit the ground, my whole body protested. I felt my bones break in my ribcage and somehow thought that my lungs were going to collapse. My breathing came in rapid gasps and I could no longer feel my legs. I didn't even know where he hit me. My vision was hazy and I wondered why I wasn't unconscious yet. I realized one thing though, that was a killing blow.

My whole body was paralyzed, with fear and pain, I didn't even know it was possible. And Lucifer was walking towards me, his eyes showing no hint of emotion. I was going to get killed. Panic, desperation and sheer will to survive, to live filled my thoughts. I felt a shift inside of me, like a switch being turned on. Everything became numb and pushed at the background.

Is it still me? I don't know, a voice was living inside my head, whispering. "He's going to kill you, would you like that?"

"No, I have to live. There's so many things I wanna do." I heard myself say.

"Then open the gates." The voice said and then finally. "Accept me."