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Her steps echoed through the smooth, uneven stone tunnel as Chloe carefully made her way downwards. Naked light bulbs hanging from a power line every few yards cast dim, yellowish light and dark shadows that moved as she did, but she wasn’t afraid. She’d probably never be afraid of anything earthly ever again.
Still, she watched her steps. Spraining her ankle down here would be a little inconvenient.
There was the lowest platform, the last base of human civilization before the stone path descended into the bowels of the earth. Well. Descended a little deeper towards the bowels of the earth. Nothing could ever truly get there from here, not without wings, or dying. But she knew that the place where the path ended would be deep enough.
The platform had been in use since the last time she’d been here a week ago. Human trash had been left behind - cig butts, empty plastic bottles - her lips compressed briefly in anger -, and wrappers from takeout food. Probably a gang of some sort having a theme party. Or maybe Satanists doing one of their rituals down here, as close to Hell as they could get.
“Not close enough, guys,” Chloe muttered, stepping off the platform and walking further down. Down.
Down.
The line of electric lighting had ended at the platform and now what light there had been was fading, shrouding the path ahead in complete darkness. She took out her flashlight - with fresh batteries just put in today - and walked on. By now, she had to watch her head as the tunnel became increasingly low and narrow, but she knew all the obstacles by now. The air was stale but dry. Nothing lived down here, even though it was surprisingly warm. And getting warmer with each step.
Her heartbeat sped up in anticipation. Not long now.
It had taken her almost a full day to stop crying.
Lucifer was gone, back to Hell, to take back his throne as king and to keep Earth safe from demons running loose. He had, for one of the few times Chloe had known him, taken responsibility and acted in a mature manner, against his own desires. And against hers.
And it hurt. It hurt so bad that there had been times during that first day when Chloe, curled up on his big, empty bed and clutching one of his shirts to her face, didn’t think she’d ever stop weeping.
But she had, and then she’d given herself a stern talking to, telling herself all that, and that she was proud of Lucifer, her partner (her lover?). Proud of the Devil for doing the right thing.
It didn’t stop the hurting. She knew she loved him, had admitted to herself and to him that she loved him, all of him. And she would probably never see him again.
After he had left for Hell, she’d broken down right there, in his penthouse. It had taken her a while to realize that she’d never been alone during that first day. Amenadiel had been with her, then Linda, then Amandiel again, taking turns. She’d realized eventually that she’d been on suicide watch.
That realization was what had caused her to pull herself together.
“He can hear you,” Amenadiel had said at one point. “If you pray to him. He can hear you.”
So, during the week that followed, she did. Whenever her thoughts wandered to her beloved Devil, and they often did, she prayed. Pouring her heart out to him, telling him how she felt, how she hated that he had had to do what he did, how she understood why, and how proud she was of him. She told him that she would find the strength go on without him, that he shouldn’t worry about her, that he should keep doing what was necessary, that his sacrifice wouldn’t be for nothing. That she still loved him and always would. That she hoped he wouldn’t forget about her, that Hell wouldn’t turn him cold and make him unlearn everything he had learned during his stay on Earth.
There never was a reply. Lucifer couldn’t talk back to her, Amenadiel had explained, but he could talk to his brother via prayer, and yes, Lucifer had told him that he could hear her; every word she said (prayed?). Amenadiel told Chloe from Lucifer that she shouldn’t worry about him; he was fine, a little sooty, terribly bored, fed up with his demons, and out of booze, but fine. Also, he missed his piano. And her, of course. But he was fine.
It had made her smile for the first time since his descend.
And Amenadiel had looked at her thoughtfully. “Listen, Chloe,” he’d finally said, “I’m not supposed to tell this to any human, but, well, it’s become obvious that you’re not just any human. So.” He’d hesitated.
Chloe took his hands. “Go on,” she’d begged him.
“There’s a place nearby. An ancient place, a cave. Well, more like a tunnel. It’s been here since prehistoric times. It formed when the earth was still all molten. Connective forces between the planes have kept it open when the Earth’s surface cooled. There are nine of them all over the planet. The closest is here, in California.”
“What it is?” she’d asked breathlessly. Surely he would be telling her this if it hadn’t anything to do with her and Lucifer.
“It’s a conduit. At its very bottom, the walls between planes are very thin. Thin enough to be overcome by a sufficiently strong will. Like yours, Chloe. And Lucifer’s, of course.”
Her chest lit up with hope. “What are you saying?”
“If you go all the way down there, you will be able to see Lucifer. To actually be in the same place as him.” He sighed. “I hope that telling you this won’t make things worse. This is actually his idea, and, well, we both know that not all of his ideas are good ones. But he was very insistent, so.”
She’d stopped listening at ‘see Lucifer’. “Please. Please tell me where I can find this tunnel.”
She’d been going down that tunnel regularly. Each Sunday, provided she had no active case, she drove her car to the small parking lot near the entrance. It was actually a minor tourist attraction that doubled as an informal party location out of any inclement weather. The entrance fee was very moderate; there wasn’t much business, because it was so remote. At its busiest, she’d seen a dozen tourists at once who didn’t even go down to the lowest platform.
She knew by now that there was a place, several hundred yards down, when the tunnel seemed to end. It had baffled her the first time she’d been down here, because when she tried to talk to Lucifer there, nothing had happened. She’d certainly been unable to see him like Amenadiel had promised. After a while, she’d noticed that the stone wall at the very end did not respond to the light from her flashlight the way it should. There were no shadows on it, even though the surface looked uneven. She’d put her hand to it, and she’d almost stumbled, because there was nothing. No resistance. Nothing to touch her hand. Her eyes saw the stone, but her hand felt only empty air.
She’d closed her eyes and walked through.
By now, she had been down here so often that the illusion of the wall at the end of the tunnel didn’t even make her slow down. She merely braced her shoulders and held her breath as she passed it, feeling nothing even as her eyes informed her that she should have been walking full-tilt into unforgiving stone.
Beyond, the tunnel widened into a small cave. In its center, a fluorescent stone cast a greenish light bright enough to illuminate the walls and ceiling and to make the smooth stone glisten.
The cave was devoid of any devils, but on the ground, she could see the hourglass, its upper bulb empty.
Smiling to herself, she took her blanket out of her backpack and shook it out to spread it on the floor. Next, two bottles - wine for her, whisky for Lucifer - and two glasses. A bit of food, cutlery, two plates.
She was just straightening back up when she heard a step behind her.
“Chloe.”
Smiling, she whirled and threw herself into his arms. “Your Majesty.”
He gave a drawn-out put-upon sigh, but she could hear his amusement.
They kissed, but they were on borrowed time, so the kiss was brief.
Letting her go, he bent down to turn the hourglass. The sand began to trickle down, marking the time he could stay. “How are things up top and with you?” he asked, like he always did.
They sat down together on the blanket, and Chloe told him about the week she’d had while his arm was warm around her back and his cheek rested against her hair. She could smell Hell on him despite all the things she brought him and that he had taken back down with him - changes of clothing, product, the occasional can of water -, but underneath, there still was the familiar Lucifer smell.
When she was done, he told her about his life in Hell. Almost half a year had passed for him again. After the initial uprising and consecutive show of strength on the Devil’s part, things were mostly quiet now in the Underworld, and his main problem was boredom. He took his amusement where he could, and some of the anecdotes he told her about the demons he ruled made them both smile.
Eventually, they fell silent.
By unspoken consent, they had never done anything more intimate while they met here. For herself, Chloe wasn’t sure she’d be able to let him go back down again if she allowed herself to go all the way with him. Besides, their first time shouldn’t be like this, pressed for time, in a cave that only existed because of a fluke of nature.
So instead, she snuggled up more closely into his warmth, and he held her, his large hands slowly stroking her, as they both watched the sand trickle down and the time pass - about an hour, for her, and a little more than a day, for him.
They had found out during their first meeting here that he couldn’t cross the threshold into the tunnel that she had used to come here without using his wings, and that neither could she follow him into Hell. This small cave, a nexus between two planes, was the only place they could both reach. Technically, neither of them had left their home plane. Technically, Lucifer didn’t leave his throne while he was here.
It was a loophole.
They sipped at their glasses in silence. Some things didn’t bear being spoken aloud; how much this sucked, how there was no way out that they could see, how God was cruel, how Lucifer’s siblings were selfish fuckers who couldn’t be bothered to help their bro out, how Trixie missed him, how Charlie would grow up without his uncle Luci.
Instead, Chloe tried to soak him up, her Lucifer, her Devil, to make it last for the coming week without him, hoping that he’d be able to do the same; only for him, another six months or so would pass before they could see each other again.
And still, he gave her a hopeful, almost joyful smile whenever their eyes met. He was so much stronger than she was.
Finally, the last grains of sand had trickled down. They both stood.
“Good luck, Lucifer, until next time.” She wouldn’t say good-bye. Ever.
He nodded, pointedly not saying good-bye, either. “Next time, my love. Take care.” He picked up the water can and the provisions and the suit cover with the suits Chloe had brought for him and smiled, looking so regal and mature that Chloe felt something constrict in her chest. How far had he come!
And then he turned to go. She missed him already.
“I love you, Lucifer,” she called after him, just as the threshold swallowed him from her view.
I know, Chloe, his voice came strong in her mind, for here, in this place between worlds, his prayer could reach her. I love you, too. I always will.
She took a deep breath. The blanket was still on the floor. There was a little food left. She could just… stay here. Where she could hear him.
But, no. Her life went on. Trixie needed her. So did the precinct, all her friends. She couldn’t spend her days down here in the dark, living a half-life, pining for the Devil.
“We’ll find a way out of this,” she said out loud to the empty cave.
Yes, my love. We will.