The Devil's Son (II)

Chapter 2: Francis Applebaum

Francis Applebaum was early, as she usually was.

"Better thirty minutes too early, than a minute too late" was her dad's motto, and being as successful as he was, Francis never had cause to doubt him.

In her own way, she had tried to become successful like her dad and though others may say she was, Francis never quite felt that way. She had graduated summa cum laude from Stanford with a psychology degree, won awards for her thesis papers on cognitive dissonance and was an annual trophy winner at the Nautical Competition for Professional Sailors. She'd even been in a fashion magazine once, admired for her soft curling black hair and piercing grey eyes.

But here she was. Just a psychiatrist as the end of the day, and all the accolades just felt like fluff.

And standing out of Elizabeth's door, listening to her giggling co-worker, Francis was reminded of how alone she was.

When Lizzy and she met at the firm a year ago, they had become quick friends. Elizabeth was good natured and always slightly mysterious, which made Francis beyond curious. From Lizzy's own description of her life, nothing seemed to have marked her out as extra special. If anything, Francis would say that Elizabeth de Baptiste had had a rather boring normal life so far. But the first time Francis met Lucian, she understood that Lizzy held a huge secret.

First off, Lucian was the most beautiful man on Earth. She knew the first moment she saw him, all the models, all the men she had seen on Instagram – they suddenly seemed so boring, and even grubby. Lucian, with his raven black hair and eyes the color of an icy ocean, looked ethereally gorgeous to the point that Francis had to remind herself to keep breathing.

Secondly, the pull between the two lovers was unmistakable. They weren't just a couple in love, all romantic movies and great romances suddenly also seemed boring and bleak in comparison. It was nearly indescribable, the way they behaved around each other – towards each other. Like they were one.

And thirdly, and quite contrastingly, they had a terrifying relationship. It was hard to explain, but the magnitude of stormy affection and attraction had left Francis impressed, jealous, joyous, and absolutely terrified at the same time. It did seem so right, but something was very wrong about it too.

But Elizabeth had never once complained about Lucian to her, the only remarks were that he made occasional snappy comments about other people. And Francis thought perhaps Lizzy would complain about Lucian's dead-end job, but that never happened either.

Elizabeth seemed to be beyond proud that her boyfriend worked at Rocky's Pizza and could hold a job. Francis was so surprised; she felt her eyeballs would pop out of her head. With Lucian's looks he could be the most famous person in the entire world or even the universe. Instead of washing dishes at a low-end pizza parlor, his face could be plastered on billboards, TVs, even satellites – it would probably make aliens fall in love at that point.

Francis shook her head and gripped her bag of homemade pie tighter in her hands. There was something off about them, and shouldn't someone with her intelligence, be able to figure it out?

If not for her own sake, for Lizzy's. Because Lucian was off, in some way or another.

Before her mind could turn a darker corner, Francis knocked on the door, shook off her fear and magicked a smile onto her face.

∞

She was staring again.

Lucian grabbed the utensils from the kitchen drawer, his back turned on Lizzy and her friend.

Mary, Lindsay, Fanny... whatever her name was. Either way, he didn't like it when she stared.

Whatever-her-name-was had eyes that were a little too probing. Lucian's fingers caressed the knife in the drawer and gave a soft sigh, in Hell a little eye-gauging was customary but here... He shut the kitchen drawer, taking extra care to do it gently and slowly as to not shock their human visitor.