An hour later, I revisit Luci to check up on her. The cuffs are dangling on the bed and she's curled in a corner, crying. She must sense I'm in the room.

"Don't bother asking how I escaped the cuffs. Just get me out of here."

I make a bad call when I kneel beside the patient that tried to escape twice already and threaten two medical staff.

"The paper work is almost finished. Can you just tell me what's going on?"

"You're a stupid mortal. You wouldn't understand."

"Try me. I've heard and seen some pretty crazy stuff in my life."

She turns to me, her blue eyes now a deep red. She blinks and they change back to blue.

"Ask me my full name."

"Alright. Luci, what's your full name."

"Stay down and I'll show you."

She gets to her feet, locks the door. She waves her hand and black-out curtains appear over all the windows. When she looks satisfied with her handy work, she turns her back to me, untying her hospital gown. Even though it's wrong, I can't tear my eyes away. Her scars have me too curious.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes."

She takes a deep breath and her back starts to glow. Writing appears in shimmering blue ink. It's in a different language, rendering it useless to me.

"It reads, 'be careful who you trust. The devil was once an angel too'."

"What is that supposed to mean?

"My name is Lucifer."

"As in, the devil Lucifer?"

"The one and only."

"Two things. One, the devil is a boy. Two, the devil doesn't exist."

"You know what? I'm sick of people thinking I'm a boy. If it wasn't for my stupid father brainwashing everybody into thinking I'm male, I would be living my life happily right now."

"But the devil doesn't exist."

"Explain my wing scars, Doc. They were torn off when I was sent to Hell. That's what these scars are. Touch one and you'll see I'm telling the truth."

I do as she says, frightened of what her mental stability could cause her to do. As soon as my fingertips touch the reddish pink skin-

I stand in a line amongst my siblings. Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel stand on my left, falling in birth order. Dad appears in front of us.

"Gabriel, I would like to speak with you first."

Gabriel vanishes. It stays quiet in the chamber as he speaks with the youngest. I know what's going to happen. I can already sense it. I'm going to be booted out. I'm the black sheep in a white herd. In order to perfect the herd, my own father is going to remove me. I'm unsure how much time goes by before I'm called in. My father sits in his throne, looking down at me.

"I assume you already know why you are here, Lucifer."

"No, father. Please tell me why."

"As much as I love you, your rebellions are getting out of hand. You constantly reveal your true identity to mortals. You threaten to use your powers on them. All this for free services? Free tattoos, which you know I don't approve of. Free piercings, which are unprofessional to have when angelic duties are being completed."

"So what is my punishment? A slap on the wrist? My powers stripped away for a few years?"

"As much as it pains me, you will be banished from Heaven."

It's this point when I realize how much I hate my father. Rage bubbles up inside of me. I release century's worth of anger. In that moment, I say the one thing I am positive of, not caring about consequences anymore.

"You just don't like me because I'm a girl!"

He's caught off-guard by the question but quickly recovers. Being his usual self, he tries to get the last word in.

"That's not at all-"

"Shut up and listen to me for once!"

A loud crack of thunder rumbles through the room. God sits in front on me, waiting for me to speak.

"You wanted you're direct bloodline to involve males only. You were all excited when Eva found out she was expecting. Until she delivered a baby girl. I've seen the memories. I've seen the paintings. The angelic news even announced that Eva had delivered a boy! You cut my hair short and make me wear robes that hide my true identity. Every painting I'm in my lower half is either hidden behind one of my brothers or covered in a cloth garment!"

"It's for modesty purposes."

"Shut up! You can lie all you want but you're never going to change. You will always be ashamed of having a direct bloodline daughter. All the other female angels with diluted bloodlines that have to go back eons in order to tie to you are okay, but I'm not. Lying is a sin yet you commit it every day. And you say I'm the bad one for rebelling against you. Next time you need help, don't ask me."

Suddenly, I'm snapped back into reality. Luci ties up her gown and turns to face me.

"I need to get out of here. There's always a way for angels to find out information. If word makes its way to Heaven about my pregnancy, there's going to be a price on my head."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"How many human months or weeks am I in?"

"It seems that you are about four months."

"Keep me here for three more days. Give me morphine every day. Angels are only pregnant for two weeks. That length of time is equivalent to forty weeks for mortals. I'm almost a week for angels, if you give me morphine, it'll speed it up."

"But morphine is a-"

"It works for angels, trust me. Any pregnant angel that needs torturing is injected with morphine to speed up the pregnancy."

"Then what?"

"Then you need to keep the baby."

"I'm twenty-six and single. I'm not father material."

"You won't have the baby forever. I just need to prepare a safe room to raise the child in. Or get the other angels to leave me alone. Whatever comes first."

"So you want me to babysit your kid?"

"Yes. And keep everybody out of this room except you. I can sense you aren't an angel but I'm not sure "

"I'll do my best."