Satanborn

Beauty in Death, Pain in Life

A/N: So I messed up a bit and accidentally posted chapter 17 before 16 so I am posting 16 and republishing 17 today so there is hopefully no confusion. Also, I'm publishing this today cause I forgot to publish a new chapter on Saturday. 

Lily and I started making our way to different places. Both exploring and somewhat doing our jobs. But mostly just concentrating on ourselves. It felt amazing when Lily would just hold my hand while walking down the street. I had lost track of time before Lily stopped and we were in front of a hospital.

"This looks like a good place to start," Lily said, giving me a little push.

We went inside and I watched Lily walk through the rooms looking for a good target. Both Angels and Devils have the ability to turn invisible to other humans. It's honestly just there so that humans don't wonder why a random teen is walking into the hospital room.

Lily pointed to a room where there was a teenage boy laying on the bed.

"Suicide," I heard Lily say quietly.

I could see his body was almost covered head to toe in casts.

"He's in pain," Lily said now whispering.

I saw her close her eyes and take a deep breath. At the same time, the boy on the bed took a breath. When I saw Lily exhale the boy did too and then I heard it.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP.

The terrifying sound of a flatline. Suddenly a doctor and a nurse rush into the room and start checking the boys pulse. After a few minutes of checking the doctor spoke.

"Time of death 4:34 PM. Call his family and tell them he has passed," he said sadly.

"Yes doctor," the nurse said, turning around and leaving the room.

"Would you like to continue?" Lily asked me, noticing that I was staring at the boy.

"I think I'll just go outside and wait for you there," I said walking out in a daze.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Lily asked me, turning worried.

"Yeah, I just need some air," I said.

I left the building and waited on a bench outside of the hospital. All I could think about was the sight of the boy on the bed. What will his family do? How will they react to the news of his passing? After almost an hour I saw Lily walk out of the hospital.

"How many more?" I asked quietly when she sat next to me on the bench.

"Just 2. It should be enough to get me through the day. Normally Devils only take one," she said as if nothing happened.

I had a burning question in the back of my head the whole time I sat on the bench and I just had to ask it to Lily.

"Does it bother you? Killing these people?" I asked looking down.

"No," she said looking at me. "It's not really killing if that makes you more comfortable."

"Then what is it? To me it looked like you killed him," I said now looking right at her.

"Well, I don't kill. He did the damage to himself. I only helped with the final push to get him to death. I don't take the souls of people who aren't sinners. Devils can feel it. His name was Jonathan, he was known for stealing and then boasting about it. He killed himself because he had a girlfriend who broke up with him because he cheated on her. He became extremely angry and pushed away his family. They abandoned him and that led to his depression. One thing led to another and he ended up like this. I don't just kill Jessie, I take the souls of people who don't really deserve to infect this planet in sin. So technically I'm a good guy," Lily said looking ahead now. "Besides I put a quick end to their pain."

"But by taking the person's own pain you are giving the family a ton more pain," I said, still looking at her.

I saw Lily think about it for a second.

"I guess you're right," she said with a serious expression.

We then moved on to another hospital. This time it was my turn. We walked into a room with a woman who had already passed away.

"She died a minute ago, I can still save her," I said quietly trying not to alarm the family crying at her side.

"Ok, go-ahead miracle worker," Lily said, teasing me.

I stared at the heart monitor intently and then felt a sudden tilt of my head. Suddenly the monitor started beeping again, I had brought her back to life. I heard the whole family screaming for the doctor and celebrating the rebirth of their family member.

Lily and I walked out after the one miracle. I was too lazy to do any more than that and I wanted to spend more time with Lily. We walked out and sat on another bench.

"See, death causes nothing but sadness. Meanwhile, life makes people happy," I said proud of myself.

Then I heard Lily whisper softly.

"Not for her."

"What?" I asked looking at her.

"She'll recover but she will be in pain, so much so that she will want to die. Then what, she dies again and you revive her again? Death is something inevitable, sure life is great don't get me wrong I'm loving life right about now. But you revive people that are sick and then what? They will get sick again and eventually die. Death is something no one can avoid... not even us," she said quietly.

I never thought of it like that. I'm not going to lie, she was absolutely right. Life makes the family happy but the person in the bed will suffer longer and eventually die anyway. Death makes the person free of pain but their family suffers the grief. Neither one makes everyone happy. I could feel dark thoughts entering my mind but I forced them aside.

"Hey, are you ok?" Lily asked me noticing how deep in thought I was.

"I don't know," I said, being completely genuine.

"Let's go somewhere nicer," Lily said, trying to cheer me up.

We ended up walking all the way to Times Square which was a few hundred blocks away. I was so lost in thought the whole time that I didn't notice how far we walked or that the whole time neither of us spoke. We ended up sitting on the steps right in front of the towering screens in the middle of Times Square. Suddenly I got a good idea that would cheer me up.

"Check this out," I said pointing at a couple sitting a few steps down from us.

I focused my energy on them and felt a surge come up, I directed it their way and watched everything unfold. The man got on one knee and pulled out a small black box. The girl put her hands on her mouth and nodded. Meaning that there would be a beautiful wedding soon. Now I was really proud of myself, Lily couldn't say anything to ruin the mood I was in now. I looked at her and saw she was looking straight at me.

"Will you be my girlfriend? Like for real?" I heard the words leave her mouth and I immediately knew what to say.

"Yeah," I said, trying to sound like I was calm.

We hugged hard and after a few seconds. Thinking about all this death really took a toll on me and all I wanted was to be held.

"I love you," I quietly whispered to Lily.

"I love you too," she said quieter than me. Then she whispered again, "Let's go back to my place."