God's Gone AWOL

[4] Little Demon Queen

The Cupboard was quiet again. Only this time, it was actually peaceful.

Lucy had been given his proper royal treatment. They would see him in the morning. Xander probably wouldn't be returning any time soon since he had his own business to attend to back in Hell. Frances had set Hazel up with a proper inflatable mattress in one of the back rooms of the store before disappearing on their own. So the only ones left in the main shop were Atticus and Bentley.

She was sprawled out along the length of the couch, her head resting on a pillow Atticus had set in his lap. He was sitting up properly, looking calmly around the room. Amidst the warm, sweet scents of alcohol, cinnamon and vanilla, both were very much at ease.

"And now the room has fallen silent," she said softly, "Like the heavy, cold embrace of an unmoving graveyard,"

Atticus glanced down at her big, round eyes, shining under the light of the warm lamp. It sounded as though depressed red Shakespeare was back.

"I'm sorry for getting drunk again. I'm so stupid, aren't I?"

"You are a little stupid," he replied.

"Thank you," she said honestly.

"Why are you thanking me? I just insulted you,"

Bentley shuffled around slightly.

"Cuz' the way you insult me is different from everyone else. Whenever other people insult me, it's always out of rage or jealousy or resentment or something. None of their words mean anything, but when it's coming from you, it's always true. I really am reckless, harmless, stupid..."

She trailed off, staring blankly forward in her sweet state of drunkenness.

Hearing those words repeated back to him, Atticus frowned slightly. He didn't like insulting anybody. Being kind to everything had become almost second nature to him. But Bentley was right, he really did say all those things about her, not even caring in the slightest how she felt. Even now, certain things still slipped out when opportunities arose. And though it had been years since the lowest part of their relationship, he still felt terrible about all those words from past. At that time, he had said a lot of things that were true, but shouldn't have been said out loud. Now that the situation had changed like this... it was embarrassing to hear them repeated back in such a way.

Perhaps he had never really thought she would remember any of his previous negative feelings towards her. For better or for worse, he had always known that he was just an insignificant part of her life and he had always hated that. She had always been infinitely more important to him than he had ever been to her —taking her down was his obsession, but she just wanted to live life freely. Though they had their rivalries, she was always the greater being. And maybe that obnoxious Atticus of the past resented her for it, but the Atticus of the present had long since come to terms with it. Now the only person he really resented was himself.

"Xander should have settled Lucy in a safe place by now," he said, trying to change the subject before he got too angry over past mistakes, "What do you think about him?"

"Who? Lucy? I don't know... he's certainly not exactly what I was expecting." She rolled up into a proper seated position, "Y'know, I used to idolize Lucifer. To me, he was like God —if God was applicable to realistic expectations."

"Even before The Fall, he was quite the individual," said Atticus.

"Back then, we were all so tired of Heaven's stupid status quo, and all the rules that came with it. Even though I never got the chance to meet him, I was willing to follow that angel all the way to the grave if it meant getting my freedom."