Incubus

14. If I Were Human

It is really dark, so dark I can hardly even make out the bars of my little makeshift jail cell. Honestly, I'm concerned with how much time I will have to spend with Lucifer because I have to get back to work eventually. I wonder if he'll give me time off or a moment of reprieve.

My lip twitched with amusement. Who do I think I am? Piper from Orange is the New Black? With a shake of my head, I blew out my breath in exasperation. I'm running out of things to do in my boredom.

I started off with thinking of all the different model components of motherboards and then what they can connect to. Later I started thinking of all the food dishes Helen could make next since she's in the whole Mediterranean faze. Following that I thought of all of the Catholic cultural facts I know from Collin. Right now, I'm thinking about how dark it is. I should go back to the Catholic facts.

Immensely bored, I leaned my head back against the bars and closed my eyes. After a while I fell asleep.

Abruptly, I jolted into a dream. Maybe I'll see my demon! I snapped my eyes open and found myself in the middle of a desert. The moon is shining bright and all of the stars are twinkling. I turned around to find an extravagant palace with camels posted at the entrance.

"I've always been entranced by human royalty," an annoyingly familiar voice said from behind me.

I flinched, turning around to face Lucifer. "I thought you despised humans."

"I do, but I admire their ability to live large." He smiled, stunning in every way yet I hate his entire existence. "You thought you'd see someone else, Cenric, maybe?"

Keeping a placated expression on my face, I said, "It would be a better view, don't you think?"

He snorted, laughing. "You amuse me, Jessica. I do love this outfit on you."

Looking down at myself, I found myself dressed in a stunningly gorgeous red and gold sari. Frowning, I said, "This is extreme cultural appropriation."

"We're actually in India though. The Thar Desert to be exact."

After rolling my eyes, I shifted in my little sandals. "What do you want? Why can't I just sleep?"

"You wouldn't say that if Cenric were here instead of me," he snapped and then I saw him for what he really was. Truly and utterly jealous of my demon in every way. In other stories, he's always jealous of Gabriel, but not in this one. In this story, he is seething with hate for my demon.

Jealousy is such a dark emotion, it causes men and women to go to war, for blood to spill and if I'm going to beat the dark by becoming the darkness I refuse to join, I just might need to push this.

"In my opinion you're better off. Did you know that?" I mentioned absentmindedly, squinting up at the bright moon.

Cocking his head to the side, Lucifer asked, "What do you mean?"

"He was punished for not being able to make decisions. You're just kind of rogue, wanting to be greater than God himself, slowly trying to find your way. I think you have it better, that's all. Why be jealous of him?" I shrugged, wrinkling my nose.

"You call him 'he' as if he's God himself," Lucifer spat. "If thought about that way, then yes. But you don't see what I see. I'm an outcast in every story, every belief, while Cenric has room to change and become any man he wants to be."