Chapter 5

The next morning I was awoken by banging and crashing from the floor below. It took a moment for it to register that someone was actually within my house before I threw back the duvet and leapt off of the bed. Blindly I snatched up the first thing my hand could reach. Adrenaline pumped through my veins as the chill temperature of my bedroom caused goosebumps to form up the length of my arms a wince forming on my face as one particular part of the floor creaked loudly under the weight of me. As I crept towards my bedroom door, I stumbled over my half packed suitcase that I had failed to see in the gloom. Cursing quietly, I steadied myself and glanced down at the alarm clock held within my grasp. It probably wouldn't do much damage to an intruder but I supposed it could be a distraction if I needed to make a quick getaway.

It took me five slow minutes to edge myself out of my room and down the stairs. Each step was painstakingly slow, my entire frame on edge as I tiptoed across the soft fluffy brown carpets and edged down the stairs. The intruder was still making a ridiculous amount of noise in the kitchen so I tried to edge closer to the open door without making any sound. My heart didn't seem to like my sentiments and was pounding furiously within my chest until I felt sure that the person on the other side of the door could hear it too. Gulping in several deep breaths and gripping my fingers tighter around the alarm clock, I leapt into the door frame while brandishing the ticking object like a weapon.

"Heeyah!" I yelled out as I lashed forwards, chucking the object with all my strength into the room causing the person riffling through one of my cupboards to startle slightly and pop their head out from behind the cupboard door.

Almost instantly I dropped my hands at my sides as a breath of relief escaped my lips but then anger welled up at me just as quick as the terror had died. My usually gleaming farmhouse style kitchen was in complete disarray, ignoring the dent I had just made in on the refrigerator door, and I couldn't help get annoyed as the familiar sound of Lucius' humming greeted me as he continued to raid through my cabinets.

Stomping forward, I used my free hand to smack Lucius around the back of the head causing the man to pout like a child and gingerly rub the back of his head. Pushing up from the floor with his pouty scowl in place, he glared at me in accusation.

"What did you do that for woman? I was trying to find some decent food." He whined.

The mock anger in his voice only made me want to clip him around the head once more but I ignored the urge and instead decided to send one of my fists into his arm.

"- because you scared me, butthead"

Watching as he winced once more and rubbed at the tender patch on his arm, I felt a small smile grace my lips in triumph. He just pouted at me and continued to stare at my cupboards with longing, a frown forming between his brows as he contemplated which one he should search through next.

"Stop abusing me butch. Now just tell me where the chocolate pudding is and I will let you get away with those hits. If you don't hand over the chocolate pudding, I promise you there will be revenge." He removed his attention from the cupboards to focus on me as he took a step towards me before his eyes darted around the room once more and his tongue swiped across his lips in preparation for the chocolate dessert.

I was slightly confused about his turn around in emotions in light of yesterday but, then again – this was Lucius. He never did what was expected. If he was how people expected him to be, he would be a power hungry lunatic with horns and a tail. Instead he was a pouting twenty something looking man with tendency to act like a child more often than not. Rolling my eyes at his silly expression, I reached forwards and pushed his bottom lip back in so he didn't look quite as adorable as before but was more than taken off-guard when kissed my finger and then grinned at me with a slightly maniacal expression plastered upon his face.

"Pudding?" He questioned tilting his head to the side. All he needed to complete the puppy dog expression was some floppy ears and a cute little tail to enhance the beautiful blues looking back at me.

"I don't think that I should be feeding your addiction Lucius," I teased as I pretended to study my nails.

Hearing him sigh in dismay, I let a grin slip on my face before wandering over to a small cupboard tucked in a gap between the huge fridge freezer and the wall, moving a row of tins out of the way before my hand clasped around a small jar of pureed chocolate pudding for babies aged 3-6 months. Stupid man had formed an obsession when he found some unused pots in the cupboard so I had made a point to keep a few pots for when he came to visit.

By the time I had turned around with the pot in hand, he was right there behind me with spoon in hand, his eyes becoming transfixed by the pot in my hand. Lucius snatched the pot from my grasp and gave me a chaste peck on the lips before he skipped off with a massive grin on his face. It looked highly amusing considering he was wearing a suit and dress shoes. It wasn't until he was out of my sight that I heard him call back over his shoulder to me.

"Are you ready to go yet Miss Holmes?"

Rolling my eyes at him, I allowed myself to take in the damage of my kitchen before I decided it could wait. I had to pack and had Danny to think of first.

** ** 

Twenty minutes later, my case was packed up in the large SUV that Lucius had driven to the house. Danny was comfortably in the back of the car in his kitted out chair while sipping on a cup of juice as I checked he was strapped in properly. When it all looked safe and secure, I smiled at the light of my life and gave him a peck on the forehead before ducking out of the door and shutting it firmly. Lucius was already in the driving seat so I sat in the passenger seat, grateful that I didn't have to drive and that I wasn't subjected to wearing formal wear like he was. Not that I would bother considering I had no idea where we were going and it was technically my day off.

The car drive wasn't that long and as we pulled outside a high rise that was not dissimilar to Satani media, I turned in my seat and raised an eyebrow at Lucius in question.

"You have business to attend to before we head down south." He replied simply as he reached across my lap and popped open the door. "Go on, Danny boy and me are going to get a happy meal while we wait. Just give me a call when you're ready to go."

Before I could protest, he had unbuckled my seatbelt and shoved me from the car so I had to stumble to my feet quickly so that I didn't fall face first onto the ground. I sent a scowl his way but he just slammed the door shut and waved happily to me before he drove off. Everything in me wanted to shout and curse at the retreating car but common sense and the fact that there were dozens of people around kept me in check. Instead I spun on my heel and gazed up at the intimidating building before me. Now that I thought about it, the building had the same strange aura that the Satani building had. It wasn't anything overtly obvious that would alert everyone who passed, it was a subtle feeling that nagged at the back of your mind that most would ignore but my experience in the weird and not-so-wonderful told me to listen to it.

"Here I go," I whispered before gulping audibly and fighting my way through the onslaught of people heading to and fro.

I hadn't even considered my attire as I stepped through the glass doors into the lobby but a quick glance at the people present gave me the strict impression that I stuck out like a sore thumb. The lobby looked like any other business yet the colour scheme was a bit more upbeat and soothing I supposed with the array of potted plants and the magnolia walls giving it that slight hint of colour instead of the cold black and white of Satani Media. There was a major difference though. Although it seemed cheery and set everyone else at ease, to me it just felt as cold and emotionless as most angels were. It was like it was trying to give what everyone expected but the glamour had been removed from my eyes so I could see, or more accurately - feel, the truth.

Taking slow and deliberate steps towards the front desk, I swiped my sweaty palms on my jeans, feeling rather self-conscious in my casual attire when everyone around me was dressed from head to toe in formal attire. The fact that my back was tingling too did nothing to help matters as I had to shrug my shoulders every other step to try and relieve the irritation.

When I finally got to the desk, I was met by an overly perky red headed man with the most startling green eyes I had ever seen. There was something about him that told me he was different but I couldn't quite put my finger on it, that is, until he gave me a wink and a knowing smile. He knew.

"I'm here to –" I began to speak but was hastily cut off by the man, who looked to be in his mid-twenties, who handed me a slip of paper with some details scrawled across it in perfect calligraphy.

"I know, follow the instructions up to Ms Roberts' office," He smiled at me like I was the best thing since sliced bread before he glanced over my shoulder. He then proceeded to completely ignore me as he addressed the next person in the queue. Well, it was certain that the angels left something to be desired.

As per the instructions, I soon came to the 30th floor, a rather unassuming place where I was about to discover the truth of my agreement. I didn't even understand how I was forced to keep an agreement that I made when I was dead. To make matters confusing, I didn't know which door to knock on. It seemed as if nearly every single door belonged to a Roberts. Arnold Roberts. Jack Roberts. Malcolm Roberts.  Mariah Roberts. There was even a Fanny Roberts which made me want to giggle. I think they need to update their names a bit because Fanny was definitely not a name you should have if you wanted to have a peaceful life.

I wandered up and down the hall for a few minutes before I eventually gave in and knocked on a rather mundane looking door with the name Angel Roberts on a small gold plaque below the frosted window. I thought it was kind of ironic that this person was working with angels, was called an angel but probably wasn't even an angel. But still I stepped forwards and rapped lightly on the frosted glass and waited for someone to respond. It took several long moments but the door whipped open to reveal -. I glanced down and stared at the young girl who appeared to be just shy of her 10th birthday. Frowning in confusion, I leant forwards and glanced into the office behind her but it just looked like any other office and unfortunately there was no one else in there.

A cough brought my attention back to the little girl whose hair was braided down her back and tied with a cherry red ribbon around the ends of her white blonde hair. To say she looked adorable was an understatement. She was kind of like the little girl I had dreamt of when I was pregnant – actually she was identical to the little girl in my dream. A shudder ran through my head at the very real possibility that she was actually in my head.

"Of course I was Savannah; I take care of all mothers-to-be and children. Well, I do as well as several others but I am what you would call the face of the organisation. If you dreamt of Arnold you might get a little worried about your life." The little girl who sounded so old in her speech, giggled so innocently that it caused a smile to form on my face and my heart to pang in my chest. Abruptly the sound cut off and the little girl trained her baby blues on me and smiled apologetically. "Sorry about that, it affects all mothers. It's the mother's instinct that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy when you lay eyes upon a baby or something cute. It can get quite annoying really."

I nodded my head as if I understood while my hand moved up to caress the skin over my heart. It was difficult to think that I would ever get used to this kind of life and all the weird and wacky things that came with it.

"Anyway, you were summoned here for this." I had been so preoccupied that I hadn't even noticed that the little girl or Ms Roberts - as the little girl informed me to call her - had strolled over to the desk and had pulled out a rather bland looking file from her desk. "It's your first charge. I normally would be taking care of this but let's just say she is – special."

I didn't like the way that she put emphasis on the word special. The fact that she was my charge – whatever that meant- gave me the distinct impression that the person in the file was going to become a large part of my life or at least would be an annoying presence there until she no longer needed me.

"So what do I do?" I questioned as I went to take the file from Angel's tiny hands.

"You guide her, you protect her. You know angel stuff." The little girl replied with a raised brow as if the answer was perfectly obvious to everyone with two brain cells to rub together.  Finally she released the file to me but her eyes told me that I shouldn't open it. "Read it later, you'll need some reading material where you're going. Oh and be careful. I don't want young Danny being influenced by those dunderheads from the pits. They act all nice and charming but they are secretly teaching your child to cuss and swear behind your back."

I nodded my head and held the file closely to my chest feeling the insane need to protect it with everything in me. There were some things you just didn't want to question in this life and the insane need to protect some paper just wasn't one of them.

"Right well, I have a meeting in five so I need to go." With that the little girl left me standing there in the middle of her office as she skipped from the room with a joyful laugh on her lips before she disappeared in a flash of white light. I wonder whose dreams she was going to plague now.

I phoned Lucius to come and pick me up and after my short and very brief meeting with - well I don't know what she was - I headed back down into the main lobby to wait for my ride. In the time that I had been upstairs, the weather had drastically changed and was now a torrential downpour. Curses left my lips as I realised that I was going to get absolutely soaked even in the short distance between the lobby doors and the parking bay and unfortunately my clothes were all packed away ready for the trip to hell. This day just couldn't get any better, it seemed.

Finally the SUV chugged to a stop outside, rain bouncing off the room and trickling down the windows. My phone buzzed a few times from my pocket before it stopped.  Had the file clutched in my hands as I tried to decide what to do. Do I use the file as protection to keep my hair dry or do I try to keep the file dry? I bit my lip and hesitated a moment before lifting my shirt up slightly and tucking the small file underneath so that it would be protected from the weather. At least the car had heating so I wouldn't get too cold.

I made a lunge out into the horrible weather, my clothes becoming soaked in the mere seconds it took for me to yank open the door of the car and slide into the passenger seat before closing it once more. Lucius was chuckling in the front seat while Danny was giggling along to as he pointed his finger in my direction. I guessed that I looked like a drowned rat in that moment but I didn't care; the only thing that mattered was that the file was safe. There was no way that the big guy upstairs would be happy if I had managed to destroy the file before I had even read it.

Pulling the file from between my soaked t-shirt and my skin, I was relieved to see that it had managed to escape largely unscathed. Lucius was pulling into the stream of early morning traffic just as he looked over at me and glanced over at the file. He raised his brows in question, curiosity burning within the depths of his beautiful blue eyes.

"So what did they say?" He asked as he refocused his attention on the road.

"That I have a charge to take care of. I'm guessing it is going to be either a child or a mother to be considering the person who gave it to me was the guardian of those souls." I replied as I pulled open the glove box and stuffed the file inside. I desperately wanted to open the file but it just didn't feel right in that moment. The car load of us were about to take a trip into the depths of hell, I didn't need another load on my mind with the whole betrayal and deception thing happening down under.

"Ahh I remember those days so well. My first charge was way back when man had only just learned how to form speech. The poor woman was shunned by the big boss of her tribe in favour of some new floozy who had wandered into their territory. I had to convince the woman not to follow her instincts to challenge the newcomer. Took some doing but she managed to have a happy life with the second in command who eventually took over and gave her lots and lots of babies." The tone of his voice was quite sweet in the reminiscent form but it caused me to choke on my breath. Sometimes I forgot that he was a supernatural being and had lived eons longer than me.

"That's nice -" I said through gasps as I tried to right my breathing. The car lapsed into silence for a few minutes as Lucius walked down memory while I tried to guess what my charge would be like. How could they even expect me to have a charge? What could I do to help them, it's not like I have any special powers to help me.

"So why haven't you looked in the file yet?" Lucius questioned breaking through my thoughts.

"- Because it doesn't feel right. I'll do it later when I don't have a million things on my mind." I murmured staring out through the window and avoiding Lucius' gaze.  Clearing my throat as my eyes followed a trail of water down the glass, I tried to think of a way to ease the strange tension that had formed in the car. "So, how long until we get to the gateway?" I questioned as the world buzzed on by.

"About two minutes," Lucius replied as he pulled off of the main road onto a gravel driveway. I now understood the need for such a big car because there was no way that my Mini Cooper would have survived this road with all of the dips and hills.

I couldn't contain my surprise when we went around a rather sharp bend and a small beautiful little church appeared before us. It was what you'd expect for a little country village, complete with the little hanging basket and stained glass windows. Surrounding it was a rather empty looking graveyard; the newest stone looked like it had been there at least 300 years. There was no way that this was the right place.

Lucius pulled the car to a stop about ten feet away from the main door of the church just as it creaked open and out stepped a nun. She beamed in our direction and there was nothing more surprising when a pair of wings shimmered into view, a pure untainted white that lit up the gloomy skies for a moment before they vanished from view once more. I supposed it was her way of identifying herself but it left a doubt in my mind. Was this really the gateway to hell or was it some weird kind of intervention?

Lucius scrambled out of the car before I could ask him any questions and he skipped over to the nun-angel with the biggest grin on his face. The two of the conversed deeply for several minutes bit I could only hear the muffled suggestion on the words through the car windows. I took the time to check on Danny and felt a soft smile appear on my face when I saw his peacefully sleeping form. It didn't feel right bringing him with us because of the possible danger in hell but there was no one else to look after him. Not someone that I would trust to look after him for the possible weeks that we might be stuck there.

Unbuckling myself, I climbed out of the car and moved around to the door closest to Danny and unclipped him from his car seat and removed him from the car. Immediately he blinked his bleary eyes up at me and then nestled his head into my shoulder. A thump issued through the air as I slammed the car door closed and then wandered over to the pair who were still deep in conversation. The nun looked rather upset as she laid a hand on Lucius' shoulder while he had his head bowed down to the ground. It didn't take a genius to figure out what they were talking about.

I hovered by the pair as they spoke, waiting for them to acknowledge me before joining in. It gave me an opportunity to study the nun as they continued on, oblivious to me. There was obviously a connection between the two. I didn't like the feeling that flared within me as she pulled him into a comforting hug. Just like Lucius' secret family, I didn't really know much about him other than he was the devil and he fell because of a woman. Other than that the man was just as elusive as ever and there was the very real possibility that there was more between the two of them than purely platonic feelings. I pushed down the thought – it wasn't my business anyway.

The nun was insanely beautiful. I could see a strand of chestnut brown hair peeking out from under her habit and foretold of long flowing locks that would make supermodels jealous. Even though her attire left a lot to the imagination, it was clear to see that she would be pretty much every man's fantasy – with a figure and a face like hers she could easily be on the cover of every magazine. I don't think I've ever seen someone with eyes the colour hers were. I supposed that was why they had her all the way out here guarding the gateway, people might question someone with violet eyes.

"Anyway, Aaliyah, this is Savannah Holmes." I jumped at the sound of Lucius speaking my name, feeling a bit flustered at the fact that I had been thinking about the two of them while they were chatting away to each other. "Savannah, this is Aaliyah, my sister and the gatekeeper to hell. We better get going, there's a lot to do on the other side."

He smiled apologetically at the nun as he reached out and took my hand and led me away from the car and towards the graveyard off to the right of the church's entrance. I glanced back over my shoulder in time to see the nun wander over to the SUV and climb in the front seat. The engine rumbled to life and the car quickly sped off leaving the two of us in its dust.

"Where the hell?" I questioned as I stumbled to keep up with Lucius while keeping hold of Danny within my arms.

"Don't worry; Aaliyah is only going to park it. We will get it when we come back. All of the stuff you packed will be sent down later." His voice was soft and comforting and I instantly relaxed my shoulders which I hadn't even realised had been tensed.

He led me to a rather dull and neglected crypt. The writing had been eroded away by time and there only remained a crumbling greying structure that was covered in moss and ivy. Lucius dropped my hand so that he could reach forward and yank open crumbling piece of wood that was substituting for a door. I gulped as it disintegrated at his touch and left a cavernous opening into a darkened stairway.

"We have to go down there?" I timidly asked staring into the gloom that offered no answers as to what lay beyond.

"Yeah." Lucius informed me as he wiped his palms off on his trousers before he took hold of my hand. "If it looked pretty everyone would come here. When it looks derelict, humans tend to stay away."

Nodding my head in understanding, I allowed him to lead me forwards into the all-encompassing darkness. I felt the wood remnants from the door give way under my feet as we stepped forwards. The chill, stale air clogged my lungs causing a cough to escape my lips as I blindly followed after him. I felt Lucius' hand give mine a comforting squeeze as a sudden bout of nausea and dizziness hit me and I fell forward so that Lucius had to catch me before I fell to the floor with Danny still on my hip.

Lucius steadied me and held me tightly as my eyes blinked as bright suddenly flooded the area around us. It took a moment to focus but as Lucius righted me I found myself in a rather well let foyer. A chandelier hung above our heads, red and black colour crystals causing the room to be bathed in a strange light that almost looked like fire as the crystals moved back and forth causing the light to flicker and waver. I took an unsteady step forward with my mouth hanging open. It was definitely not what I was expecting, not that I really had any expectations. Who could really guess what hell was like?

The walls around us were like huge TV screens about twenty metres long. There were images flickering on all of them in different colours and different brightness. I couldn't get my eyes to focus properly on them though, it felt uncomfortable and I constantly hand the urge to look away. Black flag stones were under my feet, and were unforgiving under my feet.  

"So this is hell, huh?" I questioned turning my gaze back to Lucius. He shook his head at me with a smile on his face. He took my hand and pulled me over to one of the walls and grasped a handle I hadn't noticed before.

With a push forward, a hole opened up in the wall and the door swung open and Lucius gestured through it with a gentlemanly sweep of his arms. Pride was clearly evident in his voice as nodded me for me to go forward. My mouth dropped open as I looked through the doorway and saw things that I didn't even know how to describe. "No, this is hell."

Sorry it's late. Internet went down yesterday so I was completely lost without it :/ Thank you all for you patience and I hope you like the chapter :)