When I reopened my eyes I was greeted once again by the unhinged jaw of that nightmarish monster. His two rows of sharp pointed teeth beckoned me as I wriggled to get free. His breath was repulsive, reeking of fresh death and decay. I thought I would surely retch. But more than that, I felt hot tears in my eyes as I began to beg for my life again. "Wait! Don't do this! Please! Don't!" I begged loudly and rather shamelessly.

The monster of a man seemed puzzled and stopped, his eyes looked at me inquisitively. Clearly he'd thought me dead, and his eyes dropped to my chest to examine the hole in my shirt, his glowing red eyes probing about the surface of my skin. During my panic, I'd yet to notice that my stomach and chest were completely healed, such concerns were long forgotten in the haze of adrenaline coursing through my veins.

More than that though, I had failed to notice the way my body was slowly becoming warmer and the parking garage increasingly more illuminated. Once I realized the man had stopped my descent for his open maw, my begging ceased. Of course for this I was grateful, but I didn't understand what was happening, and clearly neither did he. His jaw quickly retracted and he looked at me with increasing concern. His pale face looked human, but something about it was wrong; his lips were too large and his mouth too wide, His nose practically vanished, and his eyes were three sizes too large.

"What are you?" He demanded with a reptilian voice that made my skin shiver. His question quickly brushed aside in my mind as my attention instead focused on the growing warmth within me. I began to squirm and then scream as my flesh lit up in a brilliant white light. My skin felt like molten lava and my back split apart as I felt something erupt from within. It was utter agony, yet something about the pain also felt good… Too good.

The parking garage was now so lit that it appeared to be full daylight, the woman's shoes across the garage clearly visible on the blood soaked cement floor. Each imperfect crack in the structure appeared to groan under some unseen force. The man, if you could still call him that, dropped me and stepped back, shielding his eyes.

"What is th-" He managed to say before the sound of my screams drowned him out. Pure white radiant light erupted from my eyes as I felt them burn yet further. My vision came in and out of focus as I stumbled, the light beaming from my eye sockets scorching cement ground, ceilings and the side of a lone sedan.

My body went limp, as the pain vanished, only to be replaced by something new; It was a strange sensation, as if some other person was sliding themselves into my skin, moving it about from within. I saw my arms raise and grip the man by his extremely thick scaled neck, completely of their own accord. My fingers threatened to burst from within as my veins shone through from the backlight. Before my vision faded yet again wholly to black, the last thing I remembered was the flesh melting from the now clearly reptilian man's face, mere inches from my own, a strange voice that was not my own, left my lips. "revelare tuum verum natura!"

****

I awoke in the morning with a splitting headache made worse by a dry mouth, aching bones and a phone vibrating so angrily it threatened to throw itself from my nightstand. I opened my eyes groggily, wincing in pain as light assaulted them from between my bedroom blinds. I looked about, still half asleep and delirious. My Room at the time was typical for a man in his mid twenties.

Posters adorned each of my walls denoting my favorite movies and pop culture references of the time. Batman vs Superman, Avengers, One Piece and a vintage Matrix poster above my bed. At this point in my life I prided myself on being part of the "nerd" archetype. I wasted untold hours with my nose buried into various screens and comic books, garnering useless knowledge that try as Nightwing might, he would never escape the shadow of Batman; or the various effects of green, blue, red, yellow, silver and gold kryptonite on Superman and friends.

My dresser sat opposite to the door, a bonafide shrine to the gods of anime- if ever there were- it was covered with figurines of dragon ball Z, Sword Art Online, One Punch Man, One Piece, Bleach and more. My room was often clean and presentable, though rarely did I have visitors, but now It was quite disheveled, my blanket lay on the floor beneath trash. Empty potato chip bags and fruit cores lay strewn about, thrown haphazardly without a care for basic hygiene.

"Ugh, what happened?" I groaned as I sat up in my bed. My phone vibrated again and I silenced it without looking, figuring it to be my alarm clock.

I rubbed at my temples when I suddenly remembered the agony of the night before, the image of the melting face of the strange monster like man flooding in and the swaying of of the dead woman's legs forever burned into my my psyche. I quickly looked down to inspect my chest, where a hand had previously invaded my insides, only to find myself naked and unharmed.

"Oh thank goodness! It was just a dream! I thought I had died..." I laughed to myself as I flopped my back onto the bed, happy that such a nightmare had been just that… but then why am I naked? I thought to myself, I never slept naked. I sat up and slipped my feet off the bed and onto the ground, an apple core squelching under my weight as I stood. "What the hell?" I cursed again, shaking the apple juice from my foot when I felt the world turn about; my muscles clearly too weak to stand let alone exert with force, and I fell back onto the bed once more.

"Patience, Desmond. You still need to rest." A voice seemingly echoed into the room. My body stiffened as I quietly prayed that a monster wouldn't be under the bed.

"I am no monster Desmond. You should know very well who I am." The voice echoed again as I searched the room from the corners of my eyes.

"Uh, then come out! Show yourself!" I replied, louder than I needed to. Silence answered my demand. "Please?" I added, feeling self conscious. The voice hesitated before letting out a sigh.

"Must we play this game Desmond? You know exactly who I am. Though perhaps not what." The ethereal voice finally replied. As the hairs on the back of my neck stood erect. I stood, pulling loose the sheet from my mattress tying it about my waist when my body shuddered from the effort.

"I told you to stay and rest you fool. I used too much power before. You almost died -again- and likely should have in fact. However, your mortal coil is stronger than I had thought. Do not fear, I healed the open wounds and ingested fuel to further your recovery." As the voice continued to speak, I realized that it sounded very familiar, but from where… as I lay there pondering hard on where I had heard him before, I remembered. The winged man in the castle…

"But that was a dream though?" I mused quietly.

"No dream, Desmond, and you did not die. Not quite completely anyway. That castle was your soul, and you allowed me to take up residence within. For which I saved you from that basilisk, as repayment of course." He added simply. I felt the blood drain from my face as I remembered last evening's events again in perfect detail, the woman's screams drawing me into the parking garage, her legs jerking limply from the office man's jaw, his deep glowing red eyes. I remembered his hand plunging into my stomach, his sharp fingernails grasping for my heart inside my chest. The castle… and….

"Lucifer..." I recalled quietly, hoping that this would all prove to be some horrible nightmare or that perhaps I was simply going crazy.

"Yes. Excellent, Lucifer Morningstar is indeed my name and you have my gratitude for remembering! Also, no- you are woefully quite sane." Lucifer replied, satisfaction seeping from his every syllable.

"L-Lucifer? As in the Lucifer? From the Bible?" I asked incredulously.

"One and the same."

"But how? Isn't all of that fake? Make believe nonsense to control the masses? I mean, you can't be serious!?" I asked bewildered. I felt a searing pain in the back of my head and yelped. It was as if someone was clawing the skin from the back of my skull.

"Ow! Okay! not fake, not fake!" I shouted back, the pain quickly subsiding.

"I assure you that I am as real as the air you still continue to breathe. Now, relax, so that we may discuss our circumstances. Your body is still recuperating, I'll not have you damage yourself simply because you are too dimwitted to do as I tell you." As Lucifer's voice echoed through my head. I decided to do as he asked, if he meant me some kind of ill will, then I supposed he wouldn't have saved me the previous night as he had, if he really did that is… I still wasn't totally convinced I wasn't going insane.

"Firstly, I want to inform you that I can hear each of your thoughts quite clearly. Your mind is weak and unprotected, frustratingly so." Lucifer instructed, in all probability more for his own peace of mind, than my own. Likely he wished to make me aware so I would stop insulting him in the false security of my own thoughts.

"Okay… so then leave? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate your help last night, but I really don't want the devil sitting in my head making me do evil things." I replied, trying to be polite yet practical.

Lucifer laughed outright for the first time since we had spoken the night before. "Indeed. Alas, I have been trying to escape you since I bound myself here 25 years ago."

"What do you mean?" I inquired, confused by his choice of wording.

"Well… You see, 25 years ago a great battle was fought betwixt heaven and hell. Cliché, I know; Obviously I led the demons and fallen angels. Whilst my brother Michael, led the angels. I had shapeshifted myself into a mighty dragon, and battled my brother, but I miscalculated… and for that, he almost cut me down.

As I fell to either die, or once again be cast into hell, I chose a third option. The soul of a newborn child was sent from heaven to a new mother in order to be cultivated in the womb. I spotted what was simply a wisp in the aether, that is now your soul, I latched on and bound myself inside you. The process drained much of my devine powers.

However, when I was ready to leave I found myself quite unable to separate from you, trapped inside that detestable cage; now that I find myself free to roam your soul, I am frustrated to find myself still very much imprisoned. Which brings me to the conclusion that I believe my fate now rests with you Desmond, Should your life end, either mine will as well, or I will be cast down again. Both incline me towards a mutual understanding of survival between us." Lucifer's tone during the short retelling was a somber one. Clearly he didn't relish in it, for it was short and missing many details. Despite my crippling curiosity I decided I wouldn't press him on his personal story, that could wait. I still needed more critical answers to more detrimental questions.

"But if you are real, then that must mean that god and everything he did was real, right?" I questioned, my stomach feeling sick, all the times I had openly doubted and even mocked those who held any sort of belief quickly replaying through my mind.

"It is not so simple Desmond. You see, all the pantheons are real. The Olympian gods, Roman and Greek; The Norse mythos, Hindu, Buddhism, Judaism, Catholicism, Celtic paganism, the First People, Zoroastrians, must I go on?" Lucifer listed each as if this was some type of mundane revelation, either unwittingly or perhaps not so... Shattering most of my core truths in this short life.

"But how is that possible? All those religions have different methods of how the world was created, and how it operates!" I countered, trying to catch him in a corner.

Lucifer sighed. "You are not wrong. But you see we are manifested and made immortal through faith. They preached for many years of Yahweh, we angels, Mary, Jesus, and they manifested into this world, and theirs, exactly as told."

"The Norse people believed in a world serpent, and so there is; the Greek believed in titans and a man casting lightning from a mountain, and so there is. Gods are made more powerful by the number of believers, but do not believe that a pantheon is weak just because most have ceased believing."

"Each are dangerous, and will do most anything to keep the faithful, as when they lose their last, they cease to be." A dreadfully long pause held about in the room as Lucifer finished speaking. What he was explaining was beyond my wildest imagination, beyond comic books, beyond anime, beyond anything I'd ever been willing to consider. It's a funny thing when you are faced with what appears to be absolute proof of something you denied and rebuked your whole life.

"Okay." I finally mumbled, taking in a large breath. "So what does this mean, and What did you mean by 'mutual survival?' Are we in danger or something?" I asked, maneuvering my pillow under my head.

"Oh Desmond, how studious! First, I feel the need to commend you on how well you are handling this. I do hope you will continue to remain calm as I continue. Yes, Heaven is most certainly aware of my presence on earth since I recently manifested within you. They will certainly send an angel to smite us before I have a chance to recover my full strength." Lucifer's tone was dry and matter of fact, terrifyingly so.

"What?!" I asked, jolting upright.

"Oh yes. But do not fear. We have at least a few day's time to prepare. Unless I manifest again that is, that could make it easier for them to locate us. You see, you are but one human among many, and I doubt they will find it a simple task to find a single fish in an ocean of them. Or more apt, a single human on a planet of them."

"What does that mean?" I asked, my pulse still quickening, edging to the end of the bed feeling the need to run away as fast as I could… Perhaps if I sought out the angels they would simply remove Lucifer from me and let me go? My survival instincts kicking into full gear.

"Now see here, that is not a favorable train of thought, young Desmond. You and I are bound, whether either of us likes it, where you go, I go. The only way I can leave your body is when your heart stops beating, of that I am sure. I sincerely doubt you wish for such an event. But that said, fear not. As I said when you accepted me into your soul, I will prevent this however possible, mutual survival is our only option." Something about the way Lucifer spoke calmed my nerves. I had no idea what he was talking about, but perhaps it was the way his confidence manifested in his voice, every word calm and collected. Nothing seemed to bother him, and it showed. I knew he could hear my thoughts, and I was sure he knew what I was feeling, but he said nothing, and I appreciated it. I leaned forward towards my dresser, opening the bottom drawer, pulling a pair of boxer-briefs out and snapping them on, Trying my best not to stand. I hated the feeling of vertigo but was sick of being naked. I took a big deep breath.

"Okay then. Let's say I believe all of this, let's say I'm not going crazy, what do we do next?"

"An excellent inquiry Desmond!" His voice practically purred in the back of my head. I wasn't sure how sincere he was being, but I didn't really care. If someone was coming after me, Lucifer had already saved my life once, and I'd hoped he could do it again.

"Sit on the floor and cross your legs for me please. I would like to speak face to face." Lucifer asked,

"Why?" I asked as I hesitantly followed directions, sliding off the end of the bed and onto the floor. Sweeping aside the muck and trash with my legs. "By the way, what the hell is all of this trash? I sure as hell didn't leave it here." I growled under my breath, annoyed that my room was so messy.

"Your body required sustenance and sleep in order to heal from it's injuries. You're welcome, again." Lucifer made a point of emphasizing the word 'again', making certain I didn't forget that he'd saved my life, not once but twice. That annoyed me, as I knew he'd only done it to save himself. I pulled my legs into a cross as I finished the thought. An echo of a chuckle thrummed in my head, reminding me that I would need to figure out some method to protect my thoughts. I bit my cheek as I chided myself.

"Worry not Desmond. Contrary to your thoughts, I do not care what you think, as you are but a mere mortal human. Though, we should work on partitioning your mind that we might make this more comfortable for the both of us." I wasn't exactly sure what he meant, but if it meant that he'd be unable to read my thoughts, I'd consider it a goal worth prioritizing.

"Okay, I'm sitting here now, what are we gonna do? We're not going to pray are we?" I asked awkwardly, lest you forget I was still quite secure in my atheism until that very morning.

Lucifer chuckled once more. I grit my teeth and did my best to keep my thoughts empty just focusing on Lucifer himself, instinctually visualizing him in my head as I had seen him before. Lucifer had taken a breath to start speaking but quickly quieted, which concerned me, but even that left my mind as it continued to empty.

The image of that dirty grimey man with pale wings fast in my mind. The hard stone castle walls around him, the soft glow of a fire illuminating his starved features. A long slow breath left my lungs, followed by the sensation of my body being pulled away from me and though my eyes were already closed, I sensed the darkness behind my eyelids getting even darker, time felt like it slowed to a stop; The darkness around me became thicker and more terrifying.

*****

As soon as I felt the fear enter my mind, I snapped my eyes open. A soft breeze brushed past my left cheek. I was surprised to find myself not in a pitch dark world, but instead the light of twilight and fresh seemingly natural air, with just a hint of smoke. I found myself standing before a large stone gate. A thick lush green forest at my back. I could hear birds chirping, cicadas buzzing and the sound of a stream close by.

All the colors were so vivid, causing me to reel back, my eyes unused to such vibrant colors. Emeralds, turquoise, magenta, deep lush browns and royal purples. A soft and slow clap brought my attention back to the yellow stone gate.

"You sincerely do not cease to amaze, young Desmond. You figured out how to enter your soul all by yourself, with no direction! though partly by accident." The voice sounded sweet to my ears, its praise made my breath catch in my throat momentarily. As I regained my composure, I immediately recognized the voice to be Lucifer, my eyes turning to take him in.

Though he looked different, cleaner. His long blond hair was tied back into a loose ponytail that laid flat against his back, his once ragged and dirty physique was now replaced with a freshly washed and clean looking man. Lucifer's skin was still quite tan, and he wore a perfectly tailored black suit with a white shirt. He looked like the alter ego of some kind of wealthy superhero. One who simply oozed confidence. I looked down to see myself still wearing only a bed sheet for pants. At least one of us looked presentable.

Now that Lucifer was changed I could see that his face appeared perfectly symmetrical, a thin and delicate jawline and short nose, with defined cheekbones, a light layer of stubbled beard covering most of his face. His eyes were a pale blue that I could feel drawing me in.

"Alright. Let's begin with the basics here." Lucifer clapped once and turned on his heel, throwing his arms wide, gesturing to the whole castle. "This, Desmond, is your soul. Well, rather the manifestation of your eternal soul. By the look of this I can see yours is quite the old soul." Lucifer slapped a hand affectionately on the stone gate, inspecting and discarding the dust and dirt that remained with meticulous efficiency.

"Wait, what do you mean? My soul is a castle? Are you saying I'm a thing and not a person?" I practically interrogated, growing more and more confused by the second.

"Slow down Desmond. Truly, this is a lot to take in. I shall do my best to explain." Walking and talking in stride Lucifer explained. "Every human soul manifests differently, though most never even glimpse them. What you've just done would take a Tibetan monk a lifetime of meditation to achieve." Lucifer raised an eyebrow at me, trying to gauge my reaction. He wasn't disappointed, for he was greeted by a freely hanging jaw.

I was at a total loss for words, so Lucifer just kept going. "I'm not sure why your soul manifested this way, I've gone about exploring it, and I've found this castle to be extravagantly complex." Lucifer almost sounded impressed, each word like it was made of butter, begging to be savored.

"What do you mean complex? Why would it be?" I inquired, still feeling like I was a stark fifty steps behind.

"Desmond, this castle houses all of your memories, everything you've ever seen, heard, tasted, smelled or learned. All of it. But more than that, your soul has a name." Lucifer seemed extra puzzled by the name part, and by the look on my face he could tell I had no idea either, so he continued.

"Arce Elymas Magus". He said with a smooth calculating voice, eyeing the castle's upper structure approvingly, as if he was hoping that by saying it's name the castle would reveal to him all of its secrets. After a few moments of silence, he finally turned back to me and spoke simply. "Not all souls have names, you see. Only special souls name themselves."

"You can guess what this means Desmond, yes?" He asked, gauging my reaction of drooling stupidity correctly, with a disappointed sighed he continued. "It roughly translates to 'The Castle Sorcerer' in Latin." His voice boomed as he spoke its name and I felt a pang in my chest as he did. I didn't understand why it was, but the name of this place seemed to hold power.

Obviously Lucifer could tell I did not understand a single word of what he had just said, however he still looked like he was brimming with excitement. When he turned to me, his pale blue eyes glistened. "You're a wizard, Desmond."