MELANIE AND LOUIS CONTINUED TO walk around the small town, chatting about different interests and hobbies. Melanie found it difficult to keep a conversation going with Louis; after all, she'd told him a fair bit about herself already. She mentioned her love for reading and playing tennis twice before both of them realized that a new conversational topic was needed.

"I like setting things on fire," Louis said.

Melanie raised a brow. "Random but thank you for sharing."

"Any time," Louis said, smiling.

"You're a bit of a pyromaniac then?"

"Indeed," Louis said. "Didn't you see me set my hands on fire earlier?"

"I did," Melanie said, kicking a stone with her shoe. "It was idiotic and childish."

"Not many children I see set their hands on fire."

"Stop it."

Slowly, the pair approached the church once again and Melanie laughed quietly to herself. She had dared him to walk into the holy building, and he'd only glared at her in response. The church itself was a beautiful building with stained glass windows and a golden cross on top of the steeple. Melanie had only been in a few times with her school as part of their Christmas activities schedule. For Melanie, the hymns and candelabras weren't her cup of tea.

"What?" Louis asked, confused as to why Melanie had laughed.

"I just remembered the look on your face when I dared you to walk in earlier," she said, smiling. "It was priceless."

"You either find everything I do funny or unbelievable," Louis said before he took a step towards the church. Melanie watched in fascination as he slowly reached out a hand to touch the door. For a second, nothing happened, but Melanie's eyes widened when she saw smoke rising from his hand. He quickly retracted his palm and looked down at the scorch marks left on his pale skin.

"Oh my-"

"Yep," Louis cut her off before she could say the Lord's name. "It's been burned."

Melanie cleared her throat. "Why does that happen?"

"God cast me from Heaven - a sacred, holy place. It works in any other place run by religion. Churches, Mosques, Chapels, you name it."

"What about your hand?" Melanie asked, looking down at the burning flesh.

Louis smiled down at his injury and held it up so Melanie could see. Slowly, as if by magic, the skin began to knit itself back together until there were no marks at all. Melanie reached out and took his hand, turning it over to examine it. The skin was flawless and unmarked.

"How?" she questioned, looking up at him in wonder. "What other powers do you have besides healing and flaming hands?"

"I can levitate," Louis said before he suddenly started to float before Melanie's eyes, a few inches from the ground.

"That's cool," Melanie said, smiling. "What else?"

"You've seen my skin turning red," Louis said. "And that's because if I get too mad, my human disguise starts to crack away."

"Why do you still have your human form now?" Melanie asked. "I won't judge you for growing horns."

"I don't want to be horny around you," he said, grinning wickedly. Melanie only rolled her eyes at his cheeky innuendo.

"What else?" Melanie urged.

Louis shrugged. "Not much anymore."

"I thought you said you regained your powers?"

"Some of my powers is what I said, actually," Louis corrected. "You've been looking at one the whole time."

"I have?" Melanie said bluntly, looking him up and down. "What would that be?"

"Physical beauty," he said slowly, enunciating each word. He took a step towards Melanie until he was standing right in front of her. "Any man or woman with a beautiful body and heart can be the undoing of someone. Beauty can corrupt a person so much that they may never be themselves again."

Melanie looked up into his eyes and said, "If seduction was one of your previous powers, I'd like to inform you that it's not one of the powers you managed to regain." She raised her hands and pushed at his chest gently, a grin on her face. "You're so in love with yourself, Lucifer."

"Maybe," he said, smirking. "I at least know when to stop talking about myself. Many people in this universe cannot."

"You're talking in riddles now, you sly bastard," Melanie laughed before she skipped over to him. "What else can you do?"

"My eyes change colour," he said and Melanie watched as his pale blue irises darkened into a blood red. "Depending on my mood they change and I can change them whenever I like."

"Creepy," Melanie said as she looked at his eyes changing back to blue. "Anything else? Do you have wings?"

"Wings?" he laughed. "I use to. Angels do tend to have wings, but when I was cast out, they started to die. The white turned to black and eventually the feathers started to fall out. They were left as nothing but bones until my powers started to recharge. Now they're just..."

"Useless?" Melanie finished for him. "I'm sorry, Lou."

He laughed. "I quite like 'Lou'," he said, smiling. "The abbreviation of an abbreviation."

"Indeed," Melanie said before she looked up at the dull sky. Despite the landscape being colourless, Melanie was still able to tell that the sky above them was stormy. "Does the weather here copy the weather at home?" she wondered aloud.

Louis nodded. "Yes. Looks like it's going to start raining soon."

"It can rain here?" Melanie asked, bewildered.

Louis nodded once again. "The Beyond is just like the world down below, Melanie. It rains, snows, gets cold just like it does on Earth."

"Hm," Mel muttered, looking up. "I would never have expected that to be possible."

"Nothing here is possible to you, is it?" Louis asked and Melanie just shook her head before she felt a single droplet of water land on the end of her nose.

"And it begins," she said and Louis gestured for her to follow him further into the town. "Louis, I don't care about the damn rain. I don't need to find shelter."

"As the lady wishes," he said before lowering his hand to his side again. As the two walked onward, Melanie smiled to herself as they passed the neighborhood park. As a kid, her two brothers would push her on the swings for hours, laughing together happily. It brought a sadness as well as a joyfulness within her and she found her feet carrying her through the gates and over to the swings.

"I use to come here as a kid," she said as Louis followed her and sat down in the swing next to her. "John and Craig would play with me for hours here when our parents had to work all day."

"Childhood memories coming back, huh?" Louis asked.

"Yep," laughed Melanie. "Seems like yesterday."

"I think yesterday for you was a little different from sitting on swings," Louis said and Melanie just slapped his arm gently.

"Yeah, crashing into a tree is just a little bit different," she agreed, nodding to herself. Melanie could feel Louis' eyes on her and when she asked what he was looking at, his shrug had been almost too sudden.

"You know..." Louis said, looking down at his hands. Absentmindedly, he willed his powers to work their magic, and soon small flames appeared in his palms. Melanie watched as the flickering flames illuminated his face. "You should probably start to think about leaving soon."

"Yeah," Melanie sighed, looking up at the sky again. The rain suddenly became heavier and she closed her eyes as she let the water drench her clothes. "Not just yet," she said. "I want to stay here a little longer."

"Alright," Louis said, his eyes glued to the flames he was playing with. "Let me know when you're ready to go."

"That desperate to get rid of me, Satan?" Melanie asked, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I'm hurt."

"What can I say? I'm evil, aren't I?" he answered with a crooked smile. Melanie watched as he pushed some wet strands of hair out of his face, his nose crinkling as he did. "And yet I find myself wishing you didn't have to leave."

"Why?" Melanie asked, squinting at him through the rain.

"Because I like you, Melanie." Louis grinned up at her, the flames in his hands vanished. "I haven't had a friend in so long."

"So we're friends?" Melanie asked. "You are such a soft Devil."

"I can be mean," he said, his voice deepening. "I can be very mean ... and ruthless."

"Big words from a dick-less gent," Melanie laughed and Louis just grinned at her.

"I'll prove you wrong, don't you worry." The hidden promise in his words sent a shiver down Melanie's spine but she ignored it and looked down at her hands. Raindrops fell from her fingertips as she bowed her head and she jumped slightly when Louis placed a hand on her back. "You alright?"

"Scared," Melanie admitted. "Everything will be different when I wake up."

"At least you'll know to give up the drinking," Louis commented. "I suspect you'll be throwing all the expensive stuff out your bedroom window when you get home."

"Shh," Melanie said. "No one needs to know about my secret stash."

Her sarcastic comment made Louis smile widely. "It's not so bad in Hell. You get used to it after a few hundred years. I happen to have my own stash of wine."

"Liar," Melanie said. "I don't believe you."

"There's something new!" Louis chimed, rolling his eyes. At first, Melanie's sarcasm and disbelief had irked him so much that he'd wanted to hit out at her. However, the more time they spent together, the less he seemed irritated by her sassy ways. In fact, Louis was happy because she reminded him of a female version of himself.

"If I had been told as a kid that I'd be chatting with The Devil at the park in future years, I wouldn't have believed them," Melanie said, ringing out her hair. "I'd have laughed in their face if they'd said I'd have a pint with him."

"Technically, you didn't," Louis said. "I had the lager and you had a sip."

"Fine, if someone had said I'd be sitting in a pub with you," she corrected, sighing in frustration. "Happy?"

"Very much."

As the rain poured down around them, Melanie thought about how different her life was going to be. She'd be paranoid every second of the day, wondering who to trust and who not to trust. She'd probably never touch alcohol again or agree to get a lift home with anyone. She hated how two people in her seemingly perfect life had managed to ruin it for her in just one night.

"I need to go back," she muttered. "I have to."

Louis understood and shifted from his seat to stand in front of her. He held out his hands for her to take and she smiled up at him as she allowed The Devil to help her to her feet. They stood inches from each other, staring.

"Do you remember what I told you earlier?" Louis asked seriously. "When you wake up, you'll still have the injuries that caused your death. Depending on whether you've been given medicine or not, you might not be able to feel the pain as much, but usually when you return to your body, you'll experience quite a bit of it."

"Fantastic," Melanie groaned, wiping her hair from her face. "Hopefully I've been drugged enough."

"Oh for Hell's sake," Louis said. "Don't you dare stop the drinking to begin with drugs."

"I never said I was!" Melanie retorted, grinning up at him. "So how does this work?"

"I'll do the same thing I did with Michael; I'll take hold of your shoulders and send you back to Earth."

"I fade?"

"You do," Louis answered. He gave her a small smile, and Melanie couldn't help but see a hint of sorrow in his eyes. "I hope to be seeing you in seventy odd years, Melanie Cooper."

She laughed. "Yeah, when I'm old and decrepit." Melanie felt a spark of sadness to be leaving The Beyond - to be leaving Lucifer. He'd shared with her his personal thoughts, told her of how he was truly alone with a nasty - but frankly, deserved - past.

"Remember my offer, yeah?" Louis said, smirking at her. "Youth, immortality and me. What more could you ask for?"

"Someone less up himself?" Melanie said, placing her hands on her hips. By now, the clothing she and Louis wore were soaked inside out from the rain, and she was starting to feel chilly. "Maybe someone who likes to talk about others more so than his glorious self."

"So I'm glorious?" he asked, a brow raised. "You know, you still didn't answer my question from earlier. The one I asked you when you first appeared here."

"And what question would that be?" Melanie asked.

"If I had an attractive face or not."

Melanie let out a sigh and crossed her arms across her chest. "Fine, you do. But only in this form. I haven't seen your true form."

Louis laughed. "You've seen the majority of it. I look exactly the same but with red skin, eyes and horns."

"No pointy tail?" Melanie asked.

"Yes, there's a tail," he huffed. "And sharp nails."

"It's a shame I didn't get to see," Melanie pouted.

"Maybe you will ... in seventy years," Louis said, grinning. "Are you ready?"

Melanie nodded slowly, taking a deep breath before Louis gently placed his arms on her shoulders.

"So, I'll be in a hospital?" Melanie blurted, her eyes wide. She became more and more frightened at the thought of waking up in excruciating pain with multiple tubes sticking into her skin. "In pain?"

"Yes, but don't worry," Louis said. "You're going to be OK."

"Promise?" Melanie said, just above a whisper.

"I promise." Louis cleared his throat. "Goodbye, Melanie Coo-"

"Will I remember all of this?" Melanie asked suddenly. "When I wake up?"

Louis nodded. "Yes, you'll remember everything."

"Good," Melanie said, biting her lip. "Because I want to remember this." She quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his mouth down to hers in a lingering kiss. For a second, Louis was too stunned to do anything, but he slowly found himself kissing the human girl back with just as much passion, his eyes slipping shut. Melanie tangled her fingers into his hair at the same time as Louis pulled her hips towards his.

All too suddenly, Louis pulled away, his eyes still closed. Melanie was about to speak, but was cut off when Louis untangled her arms from around his neck and forced one of her hands down to his crotch. Melanie gasped at his rough action but soon realized what his intention was. 

"Consider yourself proved wrong," he gasped, grinning widely.

"I apologize," she muttered, moving her hand carefully over him. "Who would have known you'd be colossal?"

Louis laughed loudly before placing his hands back on her shoulders. Suddenly, Melanie felt a dizzy sensation take over her and her head began to spin. She panicked when she realized he was sending her back to her body, and she quickly leaned forward to kiss him again. He pressed his fingertips against her mouth to stop her and shook his head.

"To be continued," he whispered. "In seventy years."

The last thing Melanie saw was Lucifer's lazy smirk and piercing eyes watching her as she was spun into darkness.