FicWad

I realized something was wrong when I entered the mall with my best friend, a coffee clutched in my hand. It hung in the air, this sense of foreboding so strong I nearly ran out. But I stayed next to Sarah as she led me around to all her favorite shops, trying on jeans and shirts, gathering my opinions and then shoving me into the dressing room and throwing black tops over the door at me. I couldn’t worry her, because that worry quickly became curiosity and I knew better than anyone that curiosity quickly led to questions. And while I loved Sarah desperately and usually would confide in her with my deepest darkest secrets, I couldn’t tell her. It would make Gerard have to do something he definitely didn’t want to do—kill more than he had to in order to keep it quiet.
We stopped for lunch just after one o’clock. I got some orange chicken from the Chinese place in the food court, and she grabbed some pizza from the Italian. We settled down to eat, and I saw him across the room, staring directly at me.
Lucifer.
I gasped, nearly coughing up food, causing Sarah to look up as Lucifer’s deceptively sexy face split into a grin. “You okay?” Sarah asked.
“Fine,” I wheezed. “The food just went down the wrong pipe.”
My body was screaming at me to get out of there. Now. The very face of evil sat just across the mall food court from me, grinning because he knew I was terrified.
“I’m just gonna go to the bathroom,” I croaked.
“Okay,” she said, giving me a questioning look as I got up and started towards the bathroom.
I washed my face out in the sink and took deep breaths. I could do this. I could do this. I could—
“Hello, Sammy.”
I turned to face Lucifer, who was behind me (in the freaking ladies’ room!). “I think you know I despise that name.”
“You do? I love it.”
An indescribable kind of venom slipped from between his lips any time he opened them. I was just too blind to see it last time I was with him. I could feel the evil, as if particles of it were floating in the air between us.
I fought to keep my voice level as I responded. Fear pounded through my veins, its icy fingers closing around my throat. I had a limited time before I choked. “What do you want?”
“I want you to stay away from my guy. Gerard is getting rebellious ideas from you. He never had those before you came in. So back off. Or I swear I will kill you in a way that tears you apart before I damn you straight to hell, where you will rot in my clutches forever.”
I stepped back so far the sink jabbed me in the back, but he only leaned closer. He smelled like evil and peppermints. I was about to be sick.
“Gerard is not your little boyfriend. So leave him alone.”
Then he dissolved into nothing, leaving me standing there, shivering.