CHAPTER 2 A Walking Temptation

His first stop is Cafe Ysabel. A famous coffee shop downtown where people crowd in like they can’t breathe without their coffee. It has a beautiful Romanesque interior design with a lot of different kinds of coffee and desserts offered. The owner of the cafe is a client of Lucas, who sold his life just so he could attain success in his business.

Lucas entered the cafe and the owner, Aeron, approached him immediately wearing a big grin.

“Well, well, well, to what do I owe the pleasure of your presence here? Name it and you’ll have it!” His smile annoys Lucas, he just can’t fathom humans’ level of stupidity when it comes to their desires.

“Just the blackest and most bitter coffee you have, like your soul.” He winked at him and proceeded to the table beside the window, just right in front of a lady who looks like in her 30’s wearing a nude spaghetti strap dress looking like she’s here for a date. Lucas let out a devilish smile, he just found his target for today.

He stared at her until she glanced on his way and he immediately flashed a smile, making the lady all flustered and blushing. He held her in his gaze because he knows that even without using his powers, he attracts people by his presence. And to no surprise, the lady got up and approached him.

I know humans too well.

She sat right in front of Lucas and put both of her arms on the table, trying to make him see her front as much as possible, while wearing a seductive smile.

“You look very familiar,” she said, initiating a conversation. The black coffee arrived just before Lucas can answer. They both did not bother to look or thank Aeron. Lucas took a sip on his black coffee without breaking eye contact with the woman.

“Do my face look ordinary to be so familiar with you?”

“No, no. You just look like the man who would bring me home tonight,” she said, confidently, like she just pulled the most effective way to seduce a man. Lucas chuckled showing his most dazzling smile, his golden eyes lit with amusement as he reached for the table napkin to wipe his lips.

“Well, I would really love some company tonight. Come and be my guest.”

“Where to?” The woman started rubbing his legs against Lucas underneath the table.

“Where a gorgeous lady like you should be at.” Lucas told her as he leaned over to get closer while looking deeply into her eyes, waking the inner evilness within her.

The girl stopped smiling, she can’t take her eyes off of Lucas’ nor can move her body, her face went pale and her hands feel cold as she loses herself in his eyes, dragging her inside her cell in hell. The power of the devil gave her a glimpse of her sinful desire.

In his eyes, the woman saw herself committing adultery. She sees her husband losing his sanity when he found out that she’s betraying him with another man, her husband’s eyes turned red for a second and returned to black, she saw him reach for the gun under their bed, he went to her room where she was getting ready for a date and pointed the gun at her, just after he pulled the trigger, the girl snapped from Lucas’ eyes and started screaming.

It caused a commotion at the cafe. People looked at their way but no one dared to come near to the poor woman who was screaming like she just saw the devil. Lucas stood up and all he heard was Aeron shouting, “Get her out of my cafe!” before he left.

He is a walking temptation.

He either lures people to sin, unleashing the demon within themselves or make them see what awaits in their future as sinners, to be haunted by their own dirty secrets wishing they could die already.He wanted to see for himself why people descend to hell, to understand why these people deserve a ticket to the infinite torture and in just a few months in this world, he knows damn well enough.

“That’s not a nice way to treat ladies, you know,” a random man spoke and when Lucas turned his head, this man has a mic on his right hand and a placard hanging by his neck that says “THE END IS NEAR, EMBRACE GOD NOW.”

Lucas scoffed. “You only live once, my brother.” He then tapped the guy’s shoulder and entered his car.

“It’s not yet late to repent! Repent now before the devil makes his move!” the guy shouted once more and Lucas sped off.

“We have 5 clients scheduled for today,” Zera announced.

“Good morning too, Zera. Tell me how good do I look today,” Lucas said as he fixes his black tie around his neck in front of a mirror.

“Your first client will be here in ten minutes.” She quietly placed Lucas’ coffee on his table and left.

A knock on the door came after exactly ten minutes. Domus Malum’s first client for today is an unpleasant young man that lacks a right leg. He stumbled on his way towards Lucas who was just staring at him until he sat down.

“Well, young man, I am very sorry to see you in that state, tell me what can I do for you?” he told the man with a sweet smile on his face, his words were empty, he did not really felt sorry at all.

“I…I want to have my leg back and be r-rich,” he stuttered, eyes filled with fear.

“Okay.. That’s really easy. But tell me one good reason why I should grant your wish.”

“I just want to be normal!” he answered, this time, he did not stutter. Liar.

Lucas knew he was lying, in his application it was stated that he lost his leg at work. Got stuck between heavy metals that torn his limb apart hence the amputation, but he never got compensated nor got any coverage in his medical bills from his boss. He was neglected and eventually got fired.

He wants revenge. Lucas smirked. This type of sin is his personal favorite, an evil for an evil.

Lucas took his dagger and asked for the guy’s hand. As he thrusts it into his thumb, the guy winced a little and Lucas noticed a tear escaped from his eye. He got confused, but he shrugged it off. After signing the paper, he lit it and the contract is now in effect and irrevocable. Another soul to be sent to the eternal damnation.

“It’s better to live the best life in this world and suffer in hell later right?” the guy asked while he puts bandage on his thumb.

“You can’t compare the present to something you’ve never experienced before.”

The guy scoffed. “Right. It’s fine. There’s only two options and it’s not like I’ve lived a good life to be sent somewhere nice anyway.” He stood up and stared at Lucas as another tear escaped his eye.

“Thank you, man. See you in hell.”

After the the first client left the room, Lucas heard noises from the lounge.

He stood up to check but before he could approach the door, a woman came barging in looking so disarrayed. She is wearing a white shirt covered with blood stains and dirt and not wearing any footwear. Her face is full of horror.

The moment she saw Lucas, she held him on his arms with her trembling cold hands.

“PLEASE…P-PLEASE SAVE MY DAUGHTER!” she shouted and tears started to flow from her eyes. “I..I don’t know what to do…please..please help me..”

“Woah, okay Ma’am calm down, let’s talk this over, shall we?” Lucas tried to break her hold off of him but she was firmly holding on his arms her nails almost digging through his sleeves down to his skin.

Zera came and held the woman on her shoulders dragging her away from Lucas.

“Please!! I will give anything, just please..” The poor woman lost all of her energy and fell on the floor sitting down. “She was a good child, she..she never told me anything..”

“Her daughter committed suicide. She never applied for a schedule today,” Zera explained to Lucas. The poor woman’s daughter ended her life by jumping off from their 3^rd floor apartment early before she woke up in the morning and saw her already bathing with her own blood.

Lucas bent down to her. “We are very sorry for your loss, but unfortunately we can’t bring back the dead,” Lucas tried hard to sound sincere.

The woman again held him on his shoulders, her eyes full of tears and almost drooling from her uncontrollably trembling lips as she spoke.

“Y-you’re the devil! You can bring her back!” she said helplessly.

Lucas scoffed. “I am just the devil. I am not God himself. I can’t reclaim a soul. But never worry, your God would not accept her in His kingdom, He is a little fussy when it comes to people acting like Him by deciding for their own lives.”

Lucas stood up, still looking down at the woman who’s now even more crying. He looked at Zera and she immediately understood what to do. She closed the door and took the dagger from the table.

“I can’t bring back your daughter, but I can deliver you to where she is.” He offered his hand to help her get up.

A mother’s love will always prevail, it will follow through even to the gates of Hell. Shivering, the woman accepted his hand, together with the offer to be with her daughter again.

Humans are weak and all cowards. Pain makes them vulnerable, sufferings will reveal their true nature. They will always find a way out of it and when they do, they always see me at the end of the road they have chosen to take.