Elucidation

Lucifer

i. I have been dancing with the Devil; he smells of the flames of an enraged fire and makes Hell seem like a beauteous oasis. He swears that he is not in love with me, but when he handles my soul, his hands are gentler than they've ever been. I know of waters so pure that they would burn his hellfire flesh. I know of sacred words that, should I whisper them into the crook of his neck, would sear into his depraved skin. All my life, I have learned prayers to keep Satan away; but they are cast from my mind into oblivion when his callused palms caress my jaw, when his fingertips trace the pathway from my cheekbones to the base of my throat.

ii. His mouth is stained with acrid blood and cloying rot, and I know that I can't, that I shouldn't, but I kiss it anyway. I taste death sickeningly sweet on his lips and inflicted pain like mellow honey on his tongue, but I forget to mind it. He makes me forget his transgressions.

iii. Of course he can make me forget. His breath on my neck turns my eyes misty with lust—and only faintly with regret. He knows how to salve my bruises with his tongue, kiss the mauve blossoms on my skin away. He knows how to tempt my body into betraying my mind and leaning into his touch. Lucifer was once an angel, after all. Though his wings are gone, I can see the outline of where they used to be—like a shimmering veil of gossamer—when he allows me to catch a glimpse of the seraphic being he once was. Sometimes, I think I see the golden halo atop his head, until I remember that halos and furling rings of hellfire do not look all that different.

iv. I have been dancing with Lucifer, and for loving him, I face eternal damnation. His voice is more dulcet-toned than I ever could've imagined, especially in comparison to mine; for he spurs from deep within my throat desperate rasps. Strangle me softly; kill me sweetly; bid that thick saccharine smoke that curls through your teeth to asphyxiate me—to bring me to my delightful demise.