8

There was a sudden pin-drop silence, as everyone stopped eating for a few seconds and looked at her blankly. Grace worried momentarily if she had touched a raw nerve and shouldn't have asked that. Then, Lucien sighed.

'It's a long story,' he said.

Kuro cleared his throat. 'I've finished,' he said. 'So if you don't mind, I'll excuse myself now; I've heard this enough times, you see.'

'Oh, go away,' said Lucien, half-annoyed.

The cat leapt off his seat elegantly, and walked out of the room in silence. Lucien remained seated, sadly sipping the overly-sweetened tea he had forgotten to introduce earlier.

'I'm really quite curious,' said Grace, taking a sip from her own cup and noticing its pleasant fruity tones for the first time. 'You seem so desperate to get to Earth one way or another!'

'I am,' nodded Lucien. 'I want nothing more than to find some way to do that somehow... but you asked me why... Well, first of all, how do you like this place so far?'

'I... it's all right, I guess,' said Grace.

'If you got a chance to go back to Earth, wouldn't you take it, though?' said Lucien.

'Yes, but that's because it's my home, what I'm used to,' reasoned Grace. 'Even if it's not the best, it's mine, so of course I miss it. But this place is your home; so I don't see why you would want to leave it.'

'But I do,' sighed Lucien, setting his cup down and leaning back. 'This place sucks, to be honest! I'm trying to set a good impression for you because you're stuck here now and I don't want you to feel bad, but it just plain sucks! You've seen the Mainland already – the Devil's Assistant is the coolest guy there and you already know what a jerk he is.'

'But that's the Mainland,' said Grace. 'Isn't this Sheltered section better?'

'Huh!' said Lucien bitterly. 'Boring! Nothing ever happens here! The landscape, it's so dry, and nothing ever grows; you can't have a garden – you can't even have a freaking vegetable patch! And the people? They make that barren wasteland look interesting!'

'Are they all that bad?'

'Well, the humans, they've all been sent here for a reason, you know, so finding an agreeable person amongst them is like getting an apple tree to grow in my yard! As for my fellow demons, unfortunately, they all believe the Assistant to be a sort of role model for them, and so they're always trying to be like him and follow in his footsteps – and I'm not having it! So who am I supposed to talk to everyday or be friends with or spend time with? A philosopher cat? No offence, Kuro!'

'None taken!' said a muffled voice from a distant corridor.

'I don't want to rot away like some lonely recluse in a rundown castle in a barren world!' continued Lucien. 'I want to live! I want to see new and beautiful things everyday; I want to go on adventures; I want to meet other people like me and have a thriving existence!'

'I see what you mean,' said Grace. 'But why Earth, then? Why not Heaven if you have to get out of here? Isn't that way better?'

Lucien snorted and shook his head. 'Heaven? Are you serious? I don't stand a chance there! In the first place, they'd never let me in; but even if they did... I don't know... don't you think the whole idea is kind of boring? Like, you just get everything served to you in a silver plate! Everyone's so privileged – no wonder all the angels I've seen are so stiff and uptight! What do they know what hardships are or what struggle is?'

'Isn't that... a good thing?'

'No! Life without any conflict isn't a life at all! Tell me, would you read a story where nothing bad ever happens and everything goes well without a single hiccup? You wouldn't, right? So how am I supposed to live my life that way?'

'You're... right, but... don't you think...'

'I need conflict; I need action! But I also need something rewarding after that... something that makes the struggle worth it; and Earth, it has it all! The struggle, the freedom, the reward... all in one place! That's my kind of life! Oh, and don't forget the fact that over there, there's no one to judge you for being this way or that; you can be as good or evil – or both! – if you want, and that's the kind of variety and freedom a healthy society should have! Hell is just this mundane place of hopeless cases without a scrap of basic decency, and Heaven is full of goody-two-shoes; it bores me to death!'

Grace looked at him, half in surprise and half in deep thought. 'That's a very... different perspective,' she said at last. 'You feel that Earth is better than Heaven because it has conflict and problems – and the chance to be evil?'

'Yes, and it's better than Hell because of all its beautiful things – and the chance to be good,' said Lucien.

'What can I say...' sighed Grace. 'I've dreamed of Heaven all my life, but to you, what I lived in was your idea of Heaven!'

'Yeah,' nodded Lucien earnestly. 'Oh, what wouldn't I give to have your life!'

'No,' said Grace firmly. 'Not my life! I hope you live a far better one.'

'Was it that bad?'

'I don't like to complain and be ungrateful.'

'Oh, come on, what's going to happen? You're not going to go to Hell because you already are in Hell,' said Lucien with a laugh, but he stopped halfway through when he saw her serious expression. 'Okay, bad joke, maybe... but you can't deny it, you know. From now on, you don't have to be good just because of some lousy system of reward and punishment – you'll only be good if you really want to!'

'It's not lousy!' said Grace with a frown. 'And I was always trying to be good because I wanted to, and I still will! And complaining is something I never did and wouldn't like to start now, either. Let's just say I had a less than ideal life, okay?'

'Look, complaining isn't being ungrateful, it's therapy,' said Lucien. 'So, go ahead – what was so bad about your life?'

'Well, I lost both my parents when I was very young, and have had to rely on my aunt all these years; and she is awfully strict and never liked me... I never get to do anything I like and she talks down to me all day long or makes me do chores and stuff...'

'Hmm, that does kind of suck...' mused Lucien. 'Well, you're welcome then.'

'Excuse me, for what exactly?'

'For summoning you; at least you're free to live as you please here!'

'I've barely forgiven you, and now I'm supposed to thank you for ruining my life?' said Grace indignantly. 'I was about to come of age soon and was this close to finally living on my terms! Now instead of a cruel aunt, I have entire Hell to deal with. Yeah, thanks, indeed!'

'All right, you don't need to snap at me like that!' said Lucien, raising his hands. 'You remind me of Kuro!'

Grace glared at him.

'Yeah, even more so now, hehe,' grinned Lucien. 'That expression is gold!'

'Why are you always so non-serious?' said Grace, shaking her head.

'Why are you always so serious?' retorted Lucien with his infuriating couldn't-care-less grin.

'Well, it's going to take some time for me to accept that I was randomly picked and summoned here, you know! What in the world made you think that I could make your wish come true, anyway?'

'Hey, not totally randomly, okay? Kuro chose you! And I still can't get why it didn't work!'

Grace looked at him, startled. 'Kuro chose me?'

'Of course! Since sinners are never able to get out of here – good idea, too – we needed someone who was absolutely Heaven-bound and all; Kuro said he saw you feeding some old lady your last sandwich and I told him you were just the girl we needed! According to the book, you should have been able to grant my wish when I summoned you, and I still don't get why it didn't go the way it was supposed to! I did everything right!'

'Book? What book?'

'Oh! Yeah, I forgot to explain! That book was the reason I got the idea of summoning you!'