Finding Life | ✓

Chapter Twenty-One

Finding Life

Part 22 • Lily

"Death should be sorry, but I'm damn sure he's not."

—Lucifer Anderson, The Devil

•••••••••

Arianna's old home stands tall before us with its large door only an arms length away. The thick fog that I witnessed in Zenith seems to not reach all the way to Lucifer's mansion. Over here, there's only a light mist in the air.

Surrounding the mansion is a lawn,
full of grass and flowers. I notice that many of the flowers are amphitrites—the flower Death gave me. Their sweet aroma flows around the mansion, making me sneeze.

"Bless you," Arianna says, with a smile.

"Thanks," I say, "Let's go inside."

Arianna nods and pushes the door open, revealing a bare hallway. I follow her inside as we walk into a living room. The mansion, so far, looks quite homely, but I'm sure horrible things have happened here.

"Where are your parents?" I ask.

"Right there," Arianna says, pointing behind me.

I turn around just as Lucinda and Lucifer walk into the room. Lucinda looks just like she did in my dream; Lucifer, however, I've never seen before.

His hair matches Arianna's; they both share thin silver-blonde hair, but it suits Arianna much more. The fairness of Lucifer's hair clashes with the the paleness of his skin. Ultimately, the Devil looks perfect, just as one would expect.

"Ari, you brung a guest," Lucifer states, "I thought it would be just the three of us."

"Well, I thought it was about time you met God's new helper," Arianna says, "This is Lily; she is Life."

"Ah," Lucifer says, "God became tired of doing one of his jobs. I can't say I blame him."

I roll my eyes. Where did I here this before? Oh, right, Lucifer's granddaughter, Marine.

"Dad, I need to talk to you about something extremely important," Arianna says.

"As do I," Lucifer says, "Can I go first?"

Arianna nods, as everyone takes a seat.

He says, "Your mother and I have adopted twins. Their with Lana at the moment."

"I've heard," Arianna says.

"Have you? Did Death or Løv tell you?" Lucinda asks.

"Yes," she says, "Death told me."

"And you, Lily? Did your lovely husband mention the new additions to my family?" Lucifer asks.

"No," I say in a flat tone, "I met them before he did."

"We all met in a dream!" Lucinda says, smiling.

"Yeah," I lie, "That's where we met."

Lucifer isn't going to admit that he was the man I met the first time I came to Zenith.

"Their names are Arden and Elliott Anderson," Lucifer says to Arianna.

"I love it. Where did you adopt them from?" Arianna says.

"Oh, the poor children were walking around Zenith when your father found them. He took them to the safety of our home where we discovered that the twins were orphans since birth!" Lucinda says, "So we've adopted them."

"Sounds heroic," Arianna says.

"Now what did you want to talk to us about, Ari?" Lucifer asks.