Supernatural in Real Life 5

Chapter 51

~~ Time skip because the author can't kill time ~~
Bailey's POV
It's been a month since Macie died, and things are kind of starting to return to normal. Gabriel's always by my side if I need a should to cry on — literally or figuratively. It's been strange, though, knowing that Lucifer is out there, that he's been killing people for sport, and not having heard his name mentioned at all. I don't know if they've been keeping any news of him away from me, or if he's just good at hiding his tracks.
I know I did check my phone a couple weeks ago to see a text to Ryan asking him not to text me about that case again; a text that I didn't send, so it was doubtlessly Gabriel's work. That would make it seem to be my friends trying to protect me, but I can't know for sure.
I try not to wonder about it a lot. Actually, I try not to think about him a lot in general. But thoughts of him creep into my mind on a daily basis, thoughts of what he did to Macie and what he doubtlessly has and will do when I'm not around.
I can't say if want to be around him, though. Not even if I could have stopped him from hurting anyone else. It sounds selfish. It is selfish. I know that. But I mean it. After what he did to Macie... I don't want to ever see his face again.
Gabriel and I are watching Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, when there's an unexpected visitor. We're the only two in the room, as she quickly realizes, and she's directly in front of us almost immediately.
"Alexis, what are you —" Gabriel begins, but she cuts him off.
"Have you seen Michael lately?"
"Define 'lately,'" he replies.
"Within the last month," she clarifies.
"You've been living without Michael for a month?" he repeats incredulously.
"Yeah, and Balthazar — he's one of Michael's friends from Heaven, I think — he's cool and all, been helping me look for Michael for weeks, but I really miss Michael and I don't know what's held him up so long. He said he was just gonna be gone a day or so but it's been more than a day."
"And you're just coming to us now?" I demand.
"Well, we're not exactly on speaking terms," she reminds me. "It's a lot less dramatic if I'm only gone for, like, a month. I wasn't gonna come back at all, but I made a deal with Balthazar that if Michael didn't come back in a month, I'd ask, so I'm asking. I'll take that as a no, though, so I'm just gonna go."
"Wait," Gabriel says quickly. "A month? Like, exactly a month, or just about a month?"
"Exactly," she replies. "Why?"
"No no no no no," he mutters, covering his mouth with his hand as if it will block his voice. "He wouldn't..."
"What?" Alexis and I ask at once.
His gaze on me, he says slowly, "We saw Lucifer exactly a month ago. You don't think..."
My eyes widen as I realize the possibility. "Can — Can he do that?"
"With Amara by his side, he can do just about anything. I mean, what's an archangel when he killed Zeus?"
"Zeus is dead?" Alexis repeats. If I didn't know better, I'd say she didn't want to hear that. But it's Zeus. She should be happy.
"Yeah, Lucifer killed him," Gabriel tells her. "Pretty much the only good thing about that day."
"Where is he?" Alexis asks, a dangerous sound to her voice.
"We don't know, and we don't want to know," Gabriel replies. "But there's more. Lucifer, he — he killed your parents."
All the color drains from her face. "He — What?"
"I'm sorry."
"They're dead?" she says softly. "My mom and d — and Jesse?"
Gabriel nods sympathetically. "Yeah. We tried to reason with him, and he just... wouldn't listen."
"But..." it's obvious that she's fighting back tears, and though I knew this already, I'm doing the same. "And you think he killed Michael?"
"That's not what I said," Gabriel says quickly.
"But you implied it," she reminds him. "So Michael might be..."
"I doubt it," Gabriel says quickly, then adds in a sadder tone, "but we have to consider the possibility."
"But..."
"I know," he replies, giving her a sad hug. "Michael and I are close, too. If anything happened to him..."
Alexis buries her head in the crook of his neck, sobbing. Gabriel rubs her back comfortingly.
I just stare off into nothingness for what feels like hours and seconds at the same time. Michael and I were never friends, so I don't feel that loss like they do. But knowing it was Lucifer who killed him... Michael was his best friend whenever he needed one. The idea that Lucifer killed him just shows that not only is no one safe, but that we're in more danger than anyone else. It looks like he's killing people that he used to love, and there's no way Gabriel and I aren't on that list.
"What are you gonna do?" Alexis asks finally, snapping me back into reality as she pulls away from the angel and wipes her tears away.
"What do you mean?" he asks, his eyebrows drawing together in confusion.
"About Lucifer," she clarifies. "What are you gonna do to stop him?"
"Nothing. He has God's sister with him. Even if we knew how to stop him, she'd make it virtually impossible."
"So you're just gonna let him keep killing people?" she demands incredulously.
"But —"
"What about their families, huh? You want to put more people through this because you can't bring yourself to kill your brother?"
"That's not it," Gabriel tells her. "Trust me, if I had a shot at taking Lucifer down, I'd take it in a heartbeat. Not because I hate him, not because I'm mad at him, but because someone should. But no one's handing us the chance to stop him on a silver platter, so until we have an actual plan, you're going to leave my brother alone."
"But he killed Michael, and —"
"We don't know that," Gabriel interrupts calmly.
"You say that, but you're pretty damn sure he did," she spits. "He killed Michael. He killed my mom, and Jesse, and who knows how many others, and you just want to let him go?"
There's a loud rumbling, one I instantly recognize as thunder on a day predicted to be one of the sunniest days so far this year.
"Alexis, calm down," Gabriel says, though he's fighting to keep calm himself.
"Calm down? Lucifer's out there killing people and you want me to calm down? Screw that. Screw all of this. Lucifer's going down, and he's going down tonight."
"No, don't —" Gabriel sighs, his gaze on the spot Alexis used to stand, and falls back onto the couch. "Dammit."
"Could she do it?" I ask. "I mean, she's stronger than him, right?"
"It's not Lucifer I'm worried about," he replies. "Amara could take her down with the blink of an eye."
"Then what do we do?" I ask. "How do we find her?"
"We can't," he tells me. "She's warded against me. So's Lucifer, though, so she shouldn't be able to find him."
I breathe a sigh of relief. "Good. So she's safe 'til Balthazar finds her?"
He nods. "Pretty much. I'm just wondering why Michael is hanging out with Balthazar. I mean, it's not like they're friends. It's just weird."
"What isn't weird about our lives?" I ask.
"Touché."