Devil May Care - Deckerstar

Chapter 6: A sense of a newfound normalcy

Chloe's eyes opened slowly, with a direct proportionality to the velocity in which her mind was starting to think.

Through her eyelids she could see it was bright outside, if the intense orange color covering her field of sight told her everything. It was eerily calm, no sounds, no sensations, no smells. She had no sense of time whatsoever. She could have easily been like that for a few seconds, or a few hours, and she didn't care enough to ask.

Her senses came back to her unhurriedly, the same way morning dew would form on the petals of a rose. First, it was the smell. It was always the smell. Everything around her smelled to be impeccably clean, though not in a nice way, the scent of disinfectant and rubbing alcohol growing stronger by the minute. Soon after came the hearing, but there wasn't much to hear. Just a soft voice humming something unintelligible, like a lullaby, in a language she just couldn't recognize. It took her a couple of seconds to realize that a) that voice was very familiar and b) not understanding the language went beyond her degree of consciousness. It was a language she'd never heard before. Ultimately, she was able to feel things around her and position herself in the world.

She was laying on a bed with very soft sheets and covers, that she was sure of. There was a mild but constant ache on her lower stomach and her chest, and her head hurt. She felt dizzy, so much that the thought of opening her eyes was almost unthinkable.

She then did, however. She opened her eyes when she realized that the weight of her baby was no longer crushing her ribs like it usually would whenever she lay down on her back.

Her hands went immediately towards her belly, finding it still swollen but not nearly as much as it had been just hours before, and not nearly as hard. It was soft and squishy in all the wrong places, deflated.

That was when the memories from the night before started dawning on her, making her remember the way she gave birth in the backseat of her car with none other than Lucifer Morningstar to assist her.

When her eyes opened, it took them a little while to get adjusted to the light of the early morning. It was around five am, but strangely, Chloe felt like it was later. Maybe because the room was brighter than it should have been.

As focus graced her eyes with its utilities, they landed on a figure on her left. And that was for one, an image she'd never thought she'd see, and also, a picture so beautiful she wanted to remember it forever.

Lucifer was sitting on an armchair, this one far plushier and more comfortable than the one down by triage, and was holding a tiny bundle that was so small it managed to get lost in between his big and strong arms. He was looking down at the baby, singing in a tongue Chloe would dare to say was not of this world, and there was such peace and tranquility inside that room that Chloe almost could feel all her worries washing away.

Aside from that, though, what also contributed to making that picture just a touch more magical, was the way Lucifer and the little bundle were surrounded by a bright, heavenly light. It had a golden tinge to it, making it warm and welcoming, and upon further inspection Chloe realized the light wasn't just surrounding them, it was coming from them. From within them.

Her daughter was there. She was there and, without having seen her even once, Chloe already knew she was perfect.

And she was being held by the devil. Her daughter was in the arms of the devil.

And just as panic threatened to arise within her, just as the thought of getting herself out of the bed, snatching her little one away from his hands and running away crossed her mind, she remembered the night before.

He had jumped in front of a flying axe, knowing very well that it could kill him because she was nearby, all to protect her. To stop her from being killed, when she was sure about the fact that she couldn't be. He had done that; he had been willing to sacrifice his life to ensure her safety. How could that man be that awful thing history and popular culture said he was?