The house was silent except for the light sound of classical music playing in my dad's parlor which was where he spent most of his time when he was home. The door of the parlor was slightly ajar when I approached it and I could see him sitting in his leather chair reading a book with the music from the old-time radio playing next to him. I pushed the door open just far enough where I could squeeze through and walked over to where he was sitting with his back turned to me. He was still unaware I had come into the house. ‘I could slice his throat right now and he wouldn’t even see it coming.’ The dark thought made my heart shudder, that I could think of something so disturbing especially about my own father.
“Hello, Father.”
He jumped when I spoke and spun around in his chair to face me.
“Holland!?” I could hear the nervous surprise in his voice. “Hhh...how...are you here? You died...is it really you?” He stuttered on his words. He had to have been in shock that his dead daughter was standing before him in the flesh.
“Yes, it’s really me.”
“But how?”
“I was sent back for a short time.”
“I’ve missed you so much, I can’t believe you’re really here.” Tears formed in his eyes and he reached out to hug me. I stepped back before he could pull me into him. He looked confused that I wasn’t showing him the affection I always had before.
All of my life I had felt that I was his pride and joy, his little girl, until I found out that he hadn’t cared about what happened to me as long as he got what he wanted.
“You said you were sent back, sent back by who?”
“Lucifer.”
His shoulders dropped and his eyes widened in horror. “I don’t understand.”
“You should understand quite clearly; you did, after all, make the deal with him. Do you remember that?”
“What deal? I don’t understand.”
“Oh, save the bullshit, Dad! You offered your first-born child in exchange for money and power like the greedy piece of shit you are!”
“I gave you an amazing life, Holland. Sure, I made the deal, but I never expected him to collect.”
“What did you think was going to happen? That you would just offer my soul and he would forget about it later once he gave you your desires? You made a deal with the devil and the devil always collects.”
“How do you know about that?”
“He told me everything. My entire life was a lie. You never loved me, you loved what I allowed you to have.”
“Yes, I did love you and I still do, Holland. You are everything to me.”
“If you did then you wouldn’t have offered me before I was even born. Did Mom know what you did?”
He shook his head. “No, she didn’t. I was young and full of pride and greed. I didn’t know what I was truly offering him at the time because you weren’t even in existence yet. But once you were born, my entire life changed. I gave you the world because you were my world. I thought that Lucifer would show some mercy and allow you to be pardoned from what we had agreed upon.”
“I’m no Lucifer expert, but have you ever heard of the devil pardoning someone? There’s a million horror movies and a bible full of stories that actually say quite the opposite.”
“I didn’t know what would happen. I had hoped that you would have followed a Godlier path and that that would have saved you from him.”
“I didn’t exactly have the best role model to follow, Father.”
He looked down, ashamed knowing that what I said was true.
“I messed up bad, Holland. I know that what I did was wrong, and I have spent my entire life trying to find a way to change it, but it’s too late to change anything. When you died, I prayed that you had gone on to Heaven.”
“Oh, I went to Heaven for a brief moment and then got cast down by the angel of death, Azriel. I didn’t know about your little offering until I was in Hell working out my own deal with Lucifer. He told me everything.”
“I deserve to be punished for what I have done. I thought that Lucifer would have come for me, not you.”
“Oh, he’s definitely coming for you. You damned me and if I have to suffer for eternity, you will too.”
“All I can ask for is forgiveness from you, and I will accept my fate.”
“I’ll never forgive you, Father. Only thing that I can thank you for is that through all of this, I have found the love of my life, in Hell, nonetheless. Who’d of thought, I find my fucking true love in Hell!” I laughed like a psychopath making him flinch uncomfortably. I was angrier than I thought, from my fate being laid out on the table like that. It sounded absolutely crazy.
“I’m so sorry, Holland. I know you don’t believe a word I say because I have lied to you your entire life, and that is my cross to bear, but it is true, I would die for you.”
“And that is exactly what you are going to do, Daddy.” I pulled the dagger from my back pocket that I had kept after we killed Lilith. We were going to bring it home to Lucifer to keep it safe, but it had one more life to take.
I swiped the blade across his stubble grown throat, feeling how easily the flesh broke open. It felt like I had done nothing, but when the blood began to spill from the wound, I knew this was the end for my father.
He held his throat, his hands covered in blood, and after a few sputters from his mouth he collapsed on the floor.
“Goodbye, Dad, I’ll see you in Hell.” Tears streamed from my eyes that I had just killed my father – the man I thought had loved me but had used my life as a bargaining chip. I would see him in Hell, and I didn’t think Lucifer would do him any favors.
I stuck the dagger back in my pocket and exited the house, locking the door behind me.
Roman was waiting for me and pacing the living room when I arrived back at the apartment. He saw my tear-stained cheeks and rushed over to me, wrapping me in his arms.
“I don’t know what you did, but I know whatever it was, was not easy.”
I pulled the dagger that had my dad’s dried blood on the blade from my back pocket.
“I killed him.” His eyes widened and he squeezed me tighter against his body so I could hear his heart beating in my ear. His breaths were comforting to my shaking body. I had never murdered a person in cold blood and my father was the last person I ever thought it would have been. Lilith wasn’t a person; she was a demon. I may have sent all of those men to Hell, but I didn’t kill them. It was an agreement they chose to make and Lucifer took care of the rest.
“He confessed everything to me, and I sliced his throat right there in his parlor. But the strange thing is he seemed to know it was coming and he accepted it.”
“I’m here with you now, my love. You’re going to be okay.”
I nodded my head. “I know I will be. As long as you are here with me, I’ll be okay. It’s just hard knowing that everything you ever knew was a lie. My life was full of deceit and betrayal, and he went all of those years pretending like everything was normal. He acted like I was his everything, but my life meant nothing to him.”
“Sometimes people do crazy things to get what they want without quite understanding what it is they are agreeing to. I’m sure he loved you, Holland. His greed just got in the way of his judgement. It happens more than you know. Hell is full of people just like him.”