This could be considered a good start for Aruna. 6 months had come and gone, yet the only people she interacted with were Lucifer, Ambrosia and Giant Joe. She was highly intoxicated and their interaction wasn’t very positive but it still could be considered progress. This was only their first day at Enochian Academia and such a situation had already arisen.

By nature, Aruna was a powerful and emotionally strong person. When their mother was taken away, she was the one who held them together when it should’ve been Lucifer. She was the one who gave up her life to help support the family. She scarified her childhood and took up the burden. When she was raped she quickly overcame the emotional barriers that separated her and Lucif. She helped council him through his worries and offered a bright smile to relieve his stress.

Lucif was detached and found it hard to express his emotions but she helped soothe his cold mafia heart. He was a man with over 50 years’ of life experience, yet he felt like a kid before her maturity and understanding.

He lived by the gun and died by the gun. He never regretted his actions, his motives or his thoughts. But now that he had been reborn and experienced what love was supposed to be, he felt regret for the very first time. He regretted living his past life because it showed him just how inhuman he really was. He regretted the way he treated his son, because what he showed him was not love. It wasn’t even close.

Only now did he realize how messed up he really was. But this was the price you had to pay, it was equivalent to selling your soul and seizing everything you ever wanted in return. These thoughts were hardwired into his brain and were next to impossible to change. But at the moment, he needed this sort of ice cold mentality.

Aruna was the only person he could open up too and it made him feel vulnerable but from this almost crippling vulnerability came a strength that could topple the heavens.

On the outside Aruna was like an impenetrable fortress. But sometimes, during the still of the night, Lucifer would hear her silently weeping. He felt pain in his heart when he realized he couldn’t do anything to help her. She was helping him but he couldn't help her in return.

When Ambrosia joined them he was slightly apprehensive, she was a stranger and although she had just experienced a terrible trauma his guards were still held high. But overtime he saw how much of an impact she had on Aruna’s emotional state. They were both in the process of healing and had experienced a similar trauma. Both had been raped and lost their caregivers. So slowly but surely, that vulnerability grew larger as he accepted another person into his heart.

Tonight, Aruna and Ambrosia had finally cut loose and welcomed a new friend into their circle. Their small duo was now a trio.

--

Lucif was laying on his bed in deep sleep. His forehead was covered in sweat and he clawed at the bed in pain.

“Hh..hh…”, his breathing was erratic and heavy. His chest heaved up and down as he panted like a dehydrated dog left in the smoldering sun.

He clenched his teeth as a trace of blood dripped from the side of his mouth. Inadvertently, he had bit his tongue in his sleep. Inside his mind flashed various images. He saw dozens of people getting their bodies eradicated from a heat wave.

“No, stay back!” Lucifer yelled at the people around him. But they couldn’t escape, their bodies melted under the heat like a bird that flew too close to the sun.

“Why are you doing this to us? Whhhyyyy?” A person reached out to grab Lucif but he started to melt away the closer he got. His voice melted with him as he fell to the ground. By the time his voice reached Lucif the man was nothing but a skeleton. A second later, even his skeleton had disintegrated.

He saw Aruna, Ambrosia, Eve, Buck, Giant Joe and everyone else he had met shriveling up and then melting into nothing.

“I’m sorry…I can’t control it, I’m sorry.” Lucif screamed in apology as everyone around him turned to ash. This wasn’t a lucid dream, it was happening without his input. He didn’t know why he was saying the things he was saying and he didn’t know that it was all a dream.

There were two burning suns rotating in Lucif’s eyes. They encompassed both his pupil and his Iris. They rotated slowly and boiled fiercely. The heat started to spread around his body as his skin turned red and started to peel off. His face started to melt and ooze liquid, he grabbed his face trying to stop it from falling but it was of no use.

In no time at all, all his skin had peeled off and the flesh beneath became visible. His flesh started to burn and crack like the inside of a volcano. His blood looked like lava as it flowed through his veins.

Reality started to warp and bend, he couldn’t help himself from screaming in agony.

“Help me! Help me please!”

His voiced travelled out but there was no one left to answer him. He fell to the ground writhing and squirming in pain. The planet became a desert wasteland as oceans dried up beneath the heat, and all creatures forfeited their right to exist.

“Hah…” Lucifers eyes opened as he woke up from his nightmare. The virtual reality helmet fell from the roof and hit him in his head. Other items that weren’t buckled down to the ground fell from the roof and hit the floor. A glass he had filled with water before had also fallen and smashed.

Lucif rubbed his head as he tried to make sense of what had just happened.

“What a horrible dream…” He saw the smashed glass but he couldn’t put two and two together. “Is this place haunted? A talking skeleton and now a ghost? Great.” His toned was filled with annoyance and exhaustion.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead, it was incredibly hot but the heat was quickly fading away. As he sat on his bed he recalled his dream and the faces of his family and friends as they withered away into nothing.

He remembered Aruna’s last expression as she waved good bye, her expression was one of understanding and forgiveness. He remembered the look on his mother’s face as she died. She was still smiling with that beautiful smile she always had.

His heart ached. It had been 6 long months since his mother had been taken away. Since then he had made inquiries about the UCPS and other forces of the UCA. What he learned made him incredibly disheartened.