Dark Desires

3. Easier Said Than Done

The persistent banging against the front door downstairs resounded throughout the whole of the apartment, leaving me in a pitiful mood as I was forced to get out of bed and put an end to whoever had deemed it wise to wake me up at such an ungodly hour.

The sun was barely up, a faint haze evident through the balcony door in the living room as I walked down the stairwell onto the first floor that was ground zero for where all my anger was currently resonating from.

"Hello? Is anyone home?" The nasally voice of one Mrs. Johnson who lived next door left me groaning in annoyance as I found myself less than thrilled with the idea of having to deal with her at this time in the morning.

She was as harmless as a fly contrary to her mouth which was anything but innocent. Mrs. Johnson had built a peculiar interest in both Lucifer and I's social life since the moment we had first stepped inside the building. For the first two months, she asked us questions about one another non-stop, ranging from how long we had been together all the way to that if neighbor dearest lived up to the sinful repercussions of his name in bed. I was tempted on numerous occasions to put her impressionable fantasies about the man to rest and lie to her by saying he absolutely sucked but I relented in doing so. I had absolutely no clue as why she would perceive we were in an intimate relationship with one another in the first place, be it that any other person would know better than to put me, Lucifer and sex in the same sentence.

It was like putting mayonnaise in a peanut butter sandwich.

Wrong on so many levels.

"Ah, good morning Mrs. Johnson," I greeted the old woman in the nicest manner I conjure up as I opened the door and smiled down at the sixty-four-year-old hag whose body was clad in running gear from head to toe.

"Good. Morning. My. Dear." She breathed out between each jumping jack she performed in front of me, her overly intense perfume burning the inside of my nose from how sickly sweet it truly was.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" I said.

"Quite the opposite really. I went downstairs this morning to collect my mail and thought I would save you the effort by collecting yours as well." Reaching into the side of her sweater, Mrs. Johnson retrieved a few envelopes from within before passing them over into my waiting hands, never once picking up on the wry glare I shot her while doing so. It was questionable as to how she could possibly do such a thing when the mailboxes downstairs required the owner to input a specific code in the care of privacy.

Obviously, that was a failed concept and a flawed one at that.

"Oh, that's nice." I thanked her without conveying some of the annoyance building up inside of me. The exchange of pleasantries between the two of us ended faster than Mrs. Johnson probably had anticipated and I released a sigh of relief once I was shrouded in complete silence once again after closing the door in her face.

Glancing down at my hands, I took note of the collection of envelopes within my grasp, most pertaining to various house bills and so on so fourth, but one had held enough peculiarity about it to latch onto my attention and force me to grab hold of it with my free hand, letting my eyes trail over the smooth contours of the crimson packaging.

It held a good amount of weight to it as I tested the envelope between my fingers, letting the smooth trail of skin skim over the golden emblem lined about on the edge. The extensive detail adding a sense of nobility to the whole thing, my gaze questionable as I read out loud the cursive scripture written on the front.

To Lucifer

To Lucifer? Rereading the name a couple more times in my head, I indeed confirmed that the envelope said exactly that. The handwriting was definitely not one I had come across before and I was apprehensive for a moment as to whether or not I should hand the envelope over to Lucifer for his eyes to feast on. The logical portion of my brain knew that was surely the better option but I found myself opening the envelope anyway, my finger sliding under the flap and quickly pulling out the simple white note inside that was once again labeled Lucifer on the outside.