𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒

D

D A M O N

. .

Fifteen years ago

Walking through the streets on Earth, I look around the houses to see if the Demons are doing their job.

I sometimes like to join them with scaring people, it's always hilarious to see their faces.

A scream pierces through the air, and I whip my head around to see where the source of the sound is.

A smirk comes onto my face, and I start preparing myself to enjoy the encounter I'm about to witness.

I close my eyes and trace the person, and when I open them again I find myself in a field filled with flowers and grass.

A little girl is placed in the middle of it, sitting on the ground and her hands pressed against her knee. A little hesitant, I walk to the girl and frown. Is this the person that screamed?

Tears are streaming over her cheeks; her lower lip is trembling and she's sobbing over the cut she made when she probably fell on the ground.

My frown deepens when I see nobody running towards her, she's all alone. I make myself visible, and get a little closer to her.

'Hey,' I say, my deep voice scaring her. She looks up, her big, brown, and beautiful eyes staring into my blue ones.

She backs away from me a little bit, and I see the wound bleeding badly. 'Did you hurt yourself?' I ask her and kneel beside her.

She nods. 'Y-yes,' she whispers and wipes her tears away with the back of her tiny hands. I shuffle a little closer to her and lift my hand to tuck a piece of brown hair behind her ear.

The gesture seems to ease her a little. I smile down at her. 'You're a tough girl, huh? Playing here all by yourself,' I chuckle and ruffle her hair up a bit.

Her giggle fills my ears, and the sound couldn't be more contagious. 'Let me help you,' I say and sit down on the grass next to her.

'I wanted to play outside today, but nobody wanted to play with me so I came alone,' she shrugs, her voice soft and melodious to my ears. 'I admire that,' I say, and pick one of the flowers out of the ground.

'Hey!' she says when she sees me do that. I look at her, 'Yes?'

'You picked a flower off the ground! That's not polite!' she exclaims.

She has no idea who she's talking to.

'What should I've done then? Ask?'

She surprises me by nodding. I sigh and wonder what the fuck I'm doing with this little girl. 'Alright,' I mutter.

'Can I please pick you out of the ground?' I ask one of the flowers, and then I turn to the little girl sitting next to me.

'What did they say?' I ask her. She smiles, showing her little teeth. 'It depends on what you want to do with them,' she says.

I press my finger against my chin and pretend to think deeply.

'I will turn you into a princess with them, and then you won't feel the pain anymore,' I say. 'Really?' she asks. I nod.

'Yep, will you let me?' I ask her. She nods. 'Alright,' I say, and start picking some more. My fingers work fast, and then there's a crown laying in my hands.

'Look at that,' I say, and place the crown on her head.

She's too busy with her crown to notice me. I rub my hands together and press them on her little wound. I add some pressure to her knee, and I see the faint rays of light appear under my fingers.

'I'm a princess!' she giggles, making me smile at her. 'Yes, you are. A beautiful one at that,' I tell her, wanting to make her feel better. And when I remove my fingers, her wound is gone.

'Do you feel any pain?' I ask her. She parts her lips and shakes her head, her brown hair bouncing up and down as she does so. I smile. 'As I told you, princesses don't feel pain.'

She smiles brightly at me and gets up. I'm surprised when I feel her arms encircle my neck, and her face is pressed against my cheek.

'Thank you,' she mutters shyly and quickly kisses my cheek.

Not used to having this kind of affection, I gently push her away. 'Who are you?' she asks once she let her eyes travel over me.

'You're very pretty,' she admits shyly. I chuckle.

'I'm the Devil,' I tell her dryly. She starts laughing and scrunches her nose up in the most adorable way. 'You're too pretty to be the Devil, silly,' she giggles. I chuckle. 'Sure,' I chuckle.

'You may call me Luci.'

I'll never see her again anyway.

'That's a girl's name,' she frowns. 'I like the name,' I lie and shrug. She puckers her lips and nods.

'Alright, you don't need to be a girl to be named after one. Everyone is equal in this world,' she says with a firm nod.

My eyebrows raise in the air.

'How old are you again?'

She smiles at me. 'I'm six. My parents tell me all the things I know,' she explains. 'You're very clever, you know that?' I ask. She looks down shyly.

She opens her mouth to say something, but suddenly we hear someone yell, 'Honey! Is that you? I've made lunch!' some middle-aged woman yells at the girl. The girl looks up and nods.

The woman doesn't see me, of course, as I've made myself only visible to the girl in front of me.

'I'm coming mama!' the girl yells back. I get back up and kneel for one last time in front of the girl.

'It was nice meeting you,' I smile at her. She nods. 'It was nice meeting you too, Luci.'

Again, she takes me by surprise by wrapping her short arms around my waist, and this time I wrap mine around her too.

'Goodbye, Luci,' she murmurs into my ear. I hum. 'What's your name, Princess?'

She looks back at me before she starts walking off to her house.

'Angelina!' she yells over her shoulder, 'but you can call me Angel.'

. . .

*wipes tear away*