Daughter Dearest

twenty-nine

An hour and a half into the ride, Venus quit looking out the window and finally turned her attention to the interior. They had gotten caught in traffic just as they reached the outskirts of the Pride Ring, and it somehow managed to free up some as they rode through the downward tunnel that took them to the Wrath Ring. 

“How long do you think this trip will be?” She questioned, her sights falling onto the rows of rubber ducks that sat between the seats and side windows. 

Lucifer looked up at her briefly before tapping on his phone's screen for a few seconds. “Another seven hours — we should be there by 1:00 p.m., which will give you time to mentally prepare yourself.” 

Venus nodded at the response, not knowing what to say. . . Too many questions were running through her head. What kind of father was Leviathan? Did he have any other children? Where was her mom? How old was she really? When was her real birthday?

She sighed, sitting back in her seat just as they cleared the dark tunnel that revealed the first orangish light of the Wrath Ring, with hazy skies and a desert landscape that looked like something straight out of a mortal's worst nightmare.

The roads were long and not as crowded as she expected. Sure, there were small towns along the way with little streets off to the side lined with almost identical houses, but it was mostly farmland. There was a large city that they had to cross through to get to the next tunnel that would take them down to the Gluttony Ring. 

Lucifer visibly became nervous once they got to Gluttony, because apparently, he hadn't been returning Beelzebub's texts for a while and he was worried that she would catch wind of him being in her domain and seek him out. 

Gluttony and Greed were probably the fastest to get through, seeing as not even the driver wanted to be in the Greed Ring longer than he had to be. 

From what Venus could see, it was like a dark and gross looking, industrialized wasteland that had gotten worse than the Pride Ring — likely due to who ran lt. 

Lucifer apparently had issues with Mammon, because of the whole LuLu World and LooLoo Land situation. . . LuLu World being the theme park that Lucifer created and LooLoo Land being the one that Mammon copied for his own personal gain, but it never took off quite like Lucifer's version. 

“So. . .” Lucifer began once they were halfway through the Lust Ring — only about two hours left in their trip. “Are you nervous to meet your father?” 

Venus chuckled slightly, clutching her VoxTek phone in hand. “Was it obvious?” She sighed, watching the neon lights fly past. 

“Everything I knew for the first one thousand or so years of my life was a lie. . . These people that I had been bonded to for as long as I could remember, were not biologically related to me. . . The only one in my family who could possibly relate is Loki — we were raised as twins. He, too, was adopted, but he discovered his true parentage long before I ever had a hint of my own.”

“How?”

“Odin had the decency to tell him. . . It isn't my story to tell, but the outcome was rather unfortunate for the Frost Giants. . .” She trailed off with yet another sigh as she noticed the approaching tunnel. 

“Do you think you'll be ready?” Lucifer questioned, watching the different colored lights reflect off of her pale skin. 

“I'll have to be.” She replied without looking at him, the darkness finally consuming the limousine, leaving the neon lights in the rear view mirror. 

★†★

Venus stared at the building in front of her. The word ‘Damnation’ was written in bold purple letters on the front of the building, the light shining down on the puddles on the pothole ridden street.