MELANIE SAT WITH MICHAEL IN two of the set-out chairs sitting in the centre of the town hall. After Michael had spoken of a car crash, Melanie was determined to find out more. Was it possible that he had died in the car crash - that his memories had come back quickly, like Louis had said they might?

"I," he started, a dazed look washing over his face, "I remember feeling ill at the party. I told everyone that I was going out for some air, and I ... I saw you and Rachel leaving the building as I did. Rachel told me she was driving you home because you were so damn drunk."

"Sounds like me," Melanie chuckled before she urged him to continue. As Michael spoke, the memories slowly formed in Melanie's head. She remembered Rachel telling her it was getting late and that it would probably be best to head home.

"So I waved you both good bye and I started wandering about the town - I was pissed out of my mind too. I nearly got hit by a car!" Michael's eyes were wide as he spoke, as if he were re-living the moment. "I was so lost by the time I saw the crash. I must have just wandered right out of the town and not realised."

"Then what happened, Mikey?" Melanie asked, trying her best not to urge him too much. She doubted it would be pleasant trying to remember how you were just before you died.

"Er, I was wandering around in the woods, near the main road - the place you and Louis found me wandering. Then all of a sudden, this car whooshed past me and I saw someone fall from it. I was worried about them - they'd just fell from a car! So I started after them but I was distracted by the car still racing onward down the road. That's when I noticed that there was another car headed straight towards it. There wasn't much I could do, so I pulled my phone out to call someone for help."

Melanie listened intently, her eyes darting over to Louis who was sitting silently, listening too. He seemed to be slowly evaluating the words that fell from Michael's mouth.

"I called for an ambulance and then went to help the person who had fallen from the car, but they were already running after the vehicle. That's when the cars were about to collide, but the one she had jumped from suddenly swerved before the other car could make contact with it, but instead it crashed into a tree. There must have been another person in that car, because it wouldn't have swerved like it had unless..." Michael trailed off, running his hands through his hair as he re-told his tale.

"It's alright, Michael," Melanie reassured him, rubbing his back soothingly. "You don't have to-"

"Yeah, I do." Michael's voice was firm. "I haven't even told you the best part!"

"There's a best part?" Melanie asked, a brow raised.

"Yep," Louis said, a smile on his face. "He dies."

"Louis!" scolded Melanie, narrowing her eyes at him.

"You really are Satan, aren't you?" Michael sneered. Louis shrugged.

"Go on," Melanie said.

"I started for the car, running after the woman who had fallen from it. Oh yeah, it was a girl," Michael said as he noticed Melanie's bewildered face, "Unless the guy had decided to push a couple melons down his shirt... Anyway, I stayed in the trees and made my way towards the car, which had been crushed inwards - the bonnet had completely disappeared and smoke was coming from the engine. The other car stopped and someone came out and started making their way towards the woman. They hugged before they noticed me in the trees. And that's all I can remember..."

"That's it?" Louis said, sounding bored.

"It's more than I can remember," Melanie snapped and Louis rolled his eyes at her input.

"I know that I was hit in the stomach, because that's where I'm feeling the most pain," Michael said, rubbing his lower abdomen carefully. "I must have been jabbed with a stick."

"Or you just fell over?" Melanie suggested.

"He didn't," Louis said. Melanie knew that Louis was able to see how everyone in The Beyond had died. "If he had fallen over and somehow ... impaled himself, he would have gone straight to Heaven. It's only if you're killed purposely that you end up here."

Melanie slowly turned to look at him. Had she heard him right? It sounded like he was implying that the pair of them were murdered.

"What?" Louis said, his eyes darting between the humans.

"Are you telling us that we were murdered?" Melanie asked, panic in her voice. "Why would anyone want to kill us?"

"You'd be surprised at how many people have killer instincts buried deep within their souls. Maybe you were killed for a reason?"

"Bullshit!" Melanie screamed. "No one is killed for a reason!"

"No?" questioned Louis. He stood from where he was lounging - in one of the town hall's plastic seats - and dusted himself off. He looked around the town hall, a bored look on his face. "This place is awfully grim."

"This entire place is!" Melanie yelled. She stood up from where she and Michael were seated and stormed over to where Louis was. "I'm going to wipe that smug little grin off your face if you don't stop taking the piss. If it were you who was dead and had a jerk who claimed to be helping you out-"

"Like you?" Louis snapped, anger bubbling within him. He gritted his teeth together as he and Melanie took part in a glaring contest, his own eyes slowly turning red. He was losing his temper with every snarky comment from both Melanie and Michael. Never had a pair of humans mouthed off to him in such a way before.

"You're a dick," Michael muttered and Louis's intense gaze fell to him.

"Do you want to say that again, Michael Quinn? I'm pretty sure you'd miss your pretty face if I were to fuck it up," Louis threatened. "Wouldn't it be awful to be alive with a face like a Demon?"

"But ... you're a Demon?" Michael said, his voice coming out quieter than before.

"Angel, Demon, Devil... There are a lot of terms used to describe me, but I am no Demon. I am The Devil. There is - and will only ever be - one of me."

"Stop arguing about rubbish," Melanie said, rubbing her temples in frustration. She was stressed about many things; being dead, stuck in The Beyond, Michael's and Louis' fighting, her sudden painful moments as her memories clawed like an animal in a cage inside her head, Louis' attitude, Louis' sly grin, Louis, Louis, Louis-

"Am I really that attractive that you can't keep your eyes off of me?" Louis's voice broke her line of thought and she flushed when she realised she had been looking into his eyes for God knows how long.

"I was thinking," she muttered.

"A dangerous action," Louis said, nodding as if it were a known fact about her. 

"Louis, can I talk to you in private?" Melanie asked. He looked over at Michael who was not too subtly eavesdropping. Melanie gave him a small smile before beckoning to Louis to follow her. They left the building and sat on the stone steps outside.

"What's troubling you, dear Melanie?" he asked.

She let out a sigh. "Lots of things."

"So nothing new?"

Melanie shot him an exhausted look. She couldn't bring herself to continuously send him death glares - it was just becoming tiresome. "No. I'm just scared, I guess."

"Why?"

"What Michael said made me wonder... He said someone else was in the car when it crashed into a tree. I woke up next to a tree, out where Michael was. I don't want to believe that I was murdered in a stupid car crash..."

"Melanie," Louis started, his voice soft. "It won't matter after you choose to live or die-"

"But it will," Melanie sighed. "Murdered, that's what you said. So, the person who jumped out of the car was probably the one who..." Melanie trailed off as a memory surfaced. Michael had seen Rachel leaving to drive her home and she frowned. It couldn't have been her and Rachel in the car, that was ridiculous. 

"Melanie, when your memories return, I want you to realise that whoever killed you can't get away with what they've done." Louis's voice was stern and she looking over at him.

"You want me to get the police on them?" she questioned.

Louis nodded. "Yes. It will keep you safe - that is if you decide to return..."

"I think I will," Melanie said, determination in her voice. "I'm going to find out why they killed me."

"I think you already know," Louis said quietly. When he looked back into her eyes, one word formed on Melanie's lips. Dread filled her.

"Money."

Louis nodded slowly. "I know your family is wealthy and that you like helping friends out with your wealth, but did you ever think that people would find a way to take it?"

Melanie was frozen in shock. The only friends she helped quite regularly were Rachel, Michael, Kaleb, Chrissy and Molly. None of them would harm her for an even more generous amount, surely? Michael was dead! Even if he had something to do with her death, money would do him no good while stuck in The Beyond.

"Are you saying one of my friends-"

"No, I'm not saying anything, Melanie," Louis said. "You're taking my words wrong. I said did you ever think. I'm not trying to make you think family or friends would do that to you, but it's a possibility."

"You know how I died." Melanie shuffled closer to Louis. "Do you know the whole story?"

Louis nodded slowly. "I do."

"So someone I know did betray me. For money?"

Louis shrugged. "You'll know very soon enough. You're memories will return very soon. Probably the next time you go through tremendous amounts of pain again."

Melanie nodded, taking in his words slowly. Was she really ready to remember how she died? Who had killed her? Melanie was hoping that Louis was wrong. If she returned to earth, alive and well, what would she do if the person who killed her showed up at her hospital bed?

"So, I call the police, yeah?"

Louis laughed. "Yes, you do. If you don't then I will."

"Are you able to do that?" Melanie asked. "Can you come down to earth and walk and talk like the rest of us?"

"Yes, though not for long periods of time. I'd probably be allowed to stay for ... a day at the most. I can't leave other poor souls stuck here for too long."

Melanie nodded, understanding. "I get it. You should come down with me and help kick the shit out of the bastards who killed me."

Louis laughed once again. "I'd love to, but if I were to cause too much trouble, then I'd probably be completely stripped of my powers by the Big Guy once again."

"Oh. Then it's probably best that you stay here," Melanie said, smiling at him. She couldn't help but grin at Louis, realisation hitting her like a ton of bricks: he was actually quite normal. Well, as normal as you could be for The Devil.

"You should know," Louis started. "That when you awake again, you'll be in a lot of pain. You'd be waking up after an accident, Melanie. Depending on how you died, it might take a while for you to fully recover."

"I don't care," Melanie said. "I'm not going to let them get away with what they've done."

"Very bold," Louis said, nudging her shoulder gently. "You're pretty feisty. For a girl."

Melanie gasped. "How dare you? Women can be just as feisty as men. But you wouldn't know - you're rather feminine for a guy."

Louis glared at her. "Funny you should mention that. Gabriel said something similar to me once."

"Gabriel? As in the angel Gabriel?"

Louis nodded. "We had a few arguments now and again. He called me a girl."

"What did you do?"

"I hit him."

Melanie laughed. "No wonder God kicked you out of Heaven. If you're fighting with his other creations, then you're going to be put on the naughty list."

"Melanie, this isn't a story of Santa and his elves," Louis said seriously. "This is about Gods, Angels and me."

"'And me.'" Melanie quoted, giggling. "'Me' the big, bad Devil."

"I'm not as evil as everyone makes me out to be," Louis said. "I learned my lesson."

"Sure you did, big guy," Melanie said, standing up. She stretched and turned to look through the ajar door of the hall. Michael sat humming to himself, looking off into space. Melanie felt bad for leaving him there by himself, but she needed the two of them to be apart - Michael and Louis. "Louis?"

"Yes?"

"What do you do with the souls that you collect?"

The question took The Devil by surprise. No one had asked him that before - they only wanted to live! What did it matter to Melanie anyway? It wasn't as if she cared what went on in Satan's world. 

"I-"

Before he could answer however, Melanie's eyes widened and she let out a scream as piercing as the last. She fell to the ground in front of him as the pain raced through her body, fire in her veins, her body shuddering with each assault. It was so painful, that she could no longer let out shrieks, her throat was too sore. 

Louis bent down beside her and grasped her hand tightly in his. "Breathe, Melanie. Breathe."

And she did, trying her best to breathe as calmly as possible. It hurt with each intake of breath, but she would get through it - she had to. She held Louis's hand tightly, her knuckles turning white as her whole body started to shake. 

It's OK, she thought to herself over and over. It's OK, it's OK, it's OK...

The pain only increased in her chest and head. Melanie wondered what happened while she had died - had she hit her head and then fell into something? She curled in on herself, a small ball lying on the stone steps of the town hall. 

She could see Michel running towards her, panic on his face, but the words that left his mouth went unheard. She couldn't focus enough to make out a thing that was being said, the pain was the only thing she could focus on.

Then it stopped just as quickly as it had started. She let out a relieved sigh, her muscles calming where she lay. Slowly, her ears picked up pieces of speech.

"... what you're doing! Something better, perhaps?!" Michael was screaming at Louis. Melanie watched The Devil as he rolled his eyes as Mikey rambled on at him.

"Oh, shut up!" she yelled at him, and Michael shut up instantly. He looked embarrassed for  second before he let out a sigh and sat down beside her. "You two need to stop."

Louis helped Melanie to her feet, and she wobbled slightly, but there was something different. Unlike when she had first woken in The Beyond, there was no pain in her body at all. She felt completely fine.

"Louis-"

"Melanie, you're ready to remember now." He took a step towards her and held out a hand. Melanie eyed it cautiously before slowly lowering her palm onto his. His hand was surprisingly warm. "Close your eyes."

And she did.