It was a week before Mika was next visited by the Devil. In that time, a routine had settled, in spite of her uncertainty over what exactly she was supposed to be doing.

No-one told her about Demons having special dietary requirements. JD ate thrice the amount she'd expect, and far more meat than anyone she'd known, whereas Nahira seemed to get by on nothing but honey, milk, occasionally tea, and bread. That is, when he ate anything at all.

Still, until she received further instruction, she tried her best to entertain the demons', even if their whims proved troublesome. It was difficult to find time to spend with Wren and she could tell he wasn't fond of having guests, but he wasn't close to kicking them out, remaining oblivious to their non-human nature. She had to hope that'd be enough for a while.

Satan showed up as Mika and JD had been having lunch, with Wren at work and Nahira not having returned home since the night before. He waltzed straight up to the table, alerting Mika to his presence with a harsh tap on her shoulder. Safe to say she almost had a heart attack.

With JD giggling along behind her, Lucifer frantically dragged Mika upstairs, jabbering on about 'a task of great importance'. Whatever had him so worked up, it must have been big. The waves of agitation radiating from him made her shiver despite the warmth of her home.

The party came to an abrupt halt outside her bedroom door. Lucifer dropped her forearm, pointing sharply to a spot of carpet. Mika took this to mean something along the lines of 'stay here, don't you dare move'. Questions burned on her tongue, but she was able to bite them back. This of course was assisted by the poisonous glare the carpet was receiving. Mika half expected him to spit acid.

Satan reached into his inner pocket, pulling out a small metal cylinder. The surface glinted as Lucifer pulled apart the cylinder, revealing a slightly smaller metal tube beneath the shell of an exterior. It was only as he twisted the base and she saw the first hint of red that Mika realised what Satan was holding.

What on Earth was he doing with lipstick???

"Hey!!" She exclaimed, watching in horror as he began scrawling loops of red over her rather expensive bedroom door.

He merely glanced in her direction, eyes narrowed.

"It's necessary." He snapped, returning to abusing her poor door panels.

The final design looked like a particularly intricate pentagram, with what resembled runes both within and surrounding the circle.

Mika had zero clue what the purpose of the lipstick design was, what the hell it was doing on her door, or even why Satan was there in the first place.

But she did owe him everything, so she gave him the benefit of the doubt.

He turned to face her, ushering her back with his hands in a shooing motion.

"You don't want to be close for this part."

His tone was deep and serious. Mika sent out a little prayer to the universe that her house wouldn't be destroyed.

Lucifer removed his jacket (and swiftly chucked it at Mika's face) before loosening the muscles in his neck, shoulders and arms.

Dread settled deep in Mika's stomach at the sight of the man limbering up.

It was almost underwhelming when he dramatically placed his hand on the door, palm flat, then stopped. Unmoving, he stood there for a minute, face painted with a concentration so intense she thought he might pop a vein.

With an exaggerated flop of his arms, Lucifer backed away from the door, chest heaving.

Curiously enough, the previously dull red of the lipstick now had a shimmery glow to it.

The faint scent of smoke reached her nose, making it crinkle. It was more... acidic than any smoke she'd smelled before.

The shimmery glow intensified to sparks of flame and electric. Embers and shrivelled paint chips lifted off the wooden frame, fluttering through the still air to the plush carpet.

And then, it vanished. The glow and heat faded into the door, dragged in by invisible hands too quick for her to grasp what was happening.

Lucifer immediately stomped straight back up to the door and, with a flick of his wrist, opened it.

Her breath caught in her throat.

The door swung out to reveal darkness. Complete, unyielding black.

It was far darker than night. Her eyes desperately strained to see something, anything in the abyss that was once her bedroom.

It was a strange sensation to be unable to discern anything in the sea of ink, like a piece of her vision had been neatly cut out, permission denied.

A sharp clap cut through the silence, echoing through the new space. Blue flame spurted from the darkness, illuminating the area beyond. Lanterns lit up one by one, casting a soft blue glow over the space.

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She didn't realise how close she'd crept until her fingertips passed over the border of the doorframe and were met with a shockingly damp heat.

Sprawling before her was an immense hall. Huge columns of polished stone towered above her on both sides, delicate engravings snaking them from the polished floor right to the domed ceiling. The architecture was grand and old-fashioned in the best way - sturdy and built to last, with overwhelming care poured into every detail.

She jumped when Lucifer touched her shoulder. In all honesty she'd completely forgotten about his presence.

"Come on."

And with that she was pushed unceremoniously into the alien environment. Heat washed along her exposed arms, a slight tremor running through the length of her body.

The space, in all it's expansive glory, intimidated her. Something about it was... unnerving. Wrong, somehow. It made her on edge and thrust in her face just how much she didn't belong there.

Their joint footsteps echoed around the hall as they crossed it. Mika found herself on the verge of a jog in her efforts to keep up with Lucifer's determined strut. A glance at his face showed him to be fixated completely on something internal, gaze intensely fixed on a spot ahead of him. She could practically hear the cogs turning between his ears.

It wasn't just the main hall - the entire place lacked colour, other than the occasional pop of gold. Although it was undoubtably luxurious, the entire place felt empty and hollow. It was a far different kind of luxury to the kind in her own home, glowing with a cosy warmth very separate from the temperature.

Mika wondered if that was why there was such an all-encompassing heat here; a cheap attempt to return the homeliness to this temple of a house. Well, assumed house. Realistically she had no clue what this place was.

It took a few minutes alone to climb the immense staircase. Unfortunately, her flushed face and slight lack of breath were ignored when Lucifer immediately sped off left.

The gleaming stone swam around her. She obediently followed Lucifer as he shot forward with wide, fast paces. The air was too hot; it was making her lightheaded. He walked so quickly too, taking sprightly long strides through the intimately familiar maze of his home.

She struggled to keep up, almost colliding with his back when he slowed to make a particularly sharp turn.

They passed large bay windows shielded behind pairs of heavy, massive curtains. In the back of her mind, she absently wondered what lay outside those windows. Rolling hills, mountains, desert? Or perhaps they were somewhere impossible, surrounded by fire or mushrooms as tall as skyscrapers.

There wasn't much she could rule out anymore. Logic had gone out the window when she woke up in a stranger's body. For all she knew she could be in a different world, on a different planet, on a higher plane of existence. Who knew...

There was a left turn, then two rights, and eventually a long curved hallway that fell back on itself.

It was as she started to doubt that they'd ever stop walking that she saw their current hallway led to a dead end. At least, seemingly so. There were many doors scattered along both adjacent walls that may well lead elsewhere.

Lucifer stopped only when facing the dead end, however. Directly in front of him stood two grand, sturdy dark oak doors. He grabbed the handles firmly and swung the doors apart, revealing what looked to be an office of sorts.

A hefty desk sat in the centre of the room. The entire back wall was covered in book shelves, most of which were filled to the brim with books of varying size and age, all places haphazardly in on one another.

He strolled up to the wall, plucking out random books as he progressed from one end to the other. Mika held herself still with patience, watching curiously as the man before her ferreted about.

She couldn't help herself and snuck peeks at all the clutter within the room.

A foreign globe sat in the corner, collecting dust. Various scrolls and papers were scattered over the surface of the desk and lumped together in piles around the room. A few of them were illustrated with strange forms and stranger faces. One of the most visible sheets of paper had what looked like a feathery winged pompom with a wide, toothy grin and bold, red ink spelling 'DANGEROUS' beneath it.

After some time, Lucifer's impatient muttering ceased as he placed a final book on top of the frankly impressive tower in his arms.

"Alright! That should be enough to get you started." he exclaimed, thrusting the pile towards her. 'Started with what?' her mind supplied, but she held her tongue. Instead, she eyed the wobbling stack of books, unsure if she could carry that many at once. There were a good fifteen books of varying thickness lumped together after all.

"Would you mind... helping me carry them please?" she asked, relatively shy at the display of strength and balance he was bestowing. After all, he was carrying them effortlessly. It was perfectly natural to be apprehensive over revealing her inferiority.

"Ah, of course. Think I'm a tad too used to demons..."

She took the top five books and followed Satan back through the winding maze of hallways.

"So, what are these for?" 

"You'll be learning magic." he replied, seemingly calmer in this new place. The way he looked around was with such fondness that she supposed it must be his home.

"Magic? Like spells and stuff?"

Her tone was tinged with doubt, although she had experienced enough unexplainable events to keep her mind reeling for years.

She held down her questions. That would come later. Her head was already trying to skim over whatever had happened to get her here after all.

Satan sighed in response to her words, replying in a more monotone, bland voice.

"That's oversimplifying it a tad, don't you think?"

She could hear him rolling his eyes.

"You'll find out after reading these, I guess. Theory before practice~"

She was surprised to find she was excited by the prospect of learning magic. Her mind threw up images of witches cackling over bubbling cauldrons and of wizards with silver beards and gnarled staffs. The part that enticed her, however, was the promise of power; a seductive whisper speaking of impressive, lethal abilities. She was determined to grow stronger and become capable of protecting those she cared about. She wouldn't let anyone make her feel pathetic, not like then.

She refused to be that vulnerable ever again.

The rest of the walk back to that grand hall was spent in relative silence, the only sounds being those of their footsteps and the low whistle of violent winds outside. Lucifer was still absorbed in his thoughts, humming absent responses to any of her attempts at conversation.

"What kind of magic am I going to learn?"; he hums in agreement.

"Why now?"; a dismissive rumble.

So helpful.

They reached the doorway where they'd entered. Mika could see her home through the open doorway, and relished in the sight of it. The small chunk of fear lodged in the back of her brain dissipated and she passed through without hesitation.

At some point she must have adapted to the hot humidity of the foreign space, as the air meeting her body was sharp and icy. Her whole body shuddered as the cold shot down her spine.

Crossing back into her house seemed to snap Lucifer to reality again, his eyes losing the distracted stare they'd adopted for a fair while.

He refocussed on her whilst pulling the door shut, immediately flinging the door open again to reveal her room, as if it had never vanished.

"Get reading." he ordered, dumping the books on her bed.

And so, she did.