Lust, Envy, Greed, Gluttony, Wrath, Sloth and last but not least… Pride. I could see Matthew fanboying beside me but I was too caught up in my head that there were demons in my apartment. Actual demons, I realized. Baekhyun and Chanyeol had actual fear in their eyes, Kyungsoo tensing at the arrival of Pride.

And Lucifer was pissed.

The corners of his lips lifted up into a hiss, the male glowering at the other demons. I saw Lust blink, the red-haired female sliding her hands behind her back almost in a submissive manner. Envy looked quite pleased at the arrival of Lucifer, the female keeping her eyes on him.

“Long time no see, Brother,” she greeted, Lucifer shooting her a look. The door slammed shut behind him. “I see you have ventured out beyond the gates of hell.”

“Leviathan,” he said Envy’s name, his eyes skating over her black hair and oriental features. “I wouldn’t be here if all of you kept Earth under control!”

His voice echoed through the apartment and I swear I felt I a gust of wind blow through my apartment, the hairs on my arms standing up.

“Since when was it our responsibility to keep it under control?” Satan asked and as I looked at him closely, I realized that I’ve seen him somewhere before. “All we have to do is make sure people aren’t too good. How did you find us?”

They must have not invited Lucifer for a reason, I realized, Lucifer taking his bottom lip between his teeth and chewing on it. Greed winced when he saw what his brother was doing, turning away to nudge Sloth on the knee.

Sloth jolted up and I realized that he had been napping, the male rubbing his eyes very sleepily before yawning.

“I checked all of your homes,” Lucifer began. “Beelzebub’s gym—”

Gluttony blinked.

“Leviathan’s salon.”

Envy paled.

“Belphegor’s Therapy Clinic.”

Sloth rolled his eyes.

“Mammon’s mansion.”

Greed tapped his hand against the side of the couch rhythmically.

“It is big, isn’t it, Brother?” Greed asked, raising an eyebrow, Lucifer snapping back.

“Not the point.” Lucifer sighed, “I also checked Satan’s whereabouts through his current wives and I found none of you—”

“How many wives do you have?” Lust asked suddenly, her eyes on Satan, the male shrugging and saying that he had multiple. He’s cheating on all of them, apparently. “Nice.”

I was still caught up on how Satan looked familiar—too familiar.

“And lastly, I checked Asmodeus’s strip club.” Lucifer paused.

“Cut to the chase,” Greed quipped, the male with adonis looks leaned back. “How’d you find us?”

“Asmodeus posted on her Instagram,” Lucifer answered smoothly, jerking his head towards Lust who gave out a girly gasp. She reached down into her pocket to whip out a phone.

“Brother! You follow me on Instagram?”

“It’s on public. I must make use of mortal amenities and technology in this day and age. Especially, to keep track of you all,” Lucifer replied. “Your bikini photos are rather , Asmodeus. Have you ever thought of, I don’t know, putting on more clothes?”

“Decency isn’t for demons, brother.” Lust winked, Lucifer rubbing his hands together when he turned to Kyungsoo who had been quiet. “Ah, yes. We were contacted. Such a surprise to find that it was relevant to us. We usually don’t meddle with such… affairs.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me?” Lucifer asked, Envy speaking in turn for her sister.

“We thought you were busy,” Envy’s eyes flashed green and she smirked. “I bet the gates of hell need you more than Earth does.”

“Nonsense,” Lucifer snapped.

“Exactly. Maybe we just wanted to have a little fun without an adult in place,” Envy finally admitted, making me wonder how many years would it have to be for a demon to be considered an adult. Lucifer’s gaze settled on me but he didn’t say anything, the male finally taking action.

“We can’t talk here,” Lucifer began, Kyungsoo clearing his throat. “Handler, Grim, have you any other place we can take sanctuary in?”

“My church,” Kyungsoo blurted out, Lucifer nodding at the idea. “Here, in Seoul. Though, leave the two.”

He motioned over to Baekhyun and Chanyeol, the two boys nodding frantically in agreement.

Lucifer nodded, Kyungsoo telling him the name when he closed his eyes like he was running information through his mind, and with a snap of his fingers, I felt my body materialized—my knees stumbling forward when my body hit grass.

At the corner of my eye, I saw Sloth falling backward without the support of my couch, the male rolling for a bit when his brother helped him up. Demons could be clumsy too, I realized, Matthew grabbing my arm to steady.

“Come,” Lucifer said to us, his cloak blowing backward behind him as he stepped into the church. Much to my surprise, I saw each and every cross begin to turn downwards. Kyungsoo looked worried, Lucifer giving a grunt as he stepped up to bow down to the cross before he sat down, crossing his legs right in front of Jesus Christ. “Ah, the embodiment of good.”

Lucifer now smiled and for a second, he looked like a very kind man, the male taking in my pale expression.

“Demons are not all that bad, Medium,” he began and I took a seat. “You can ask questions. Mortals are always so curious about the afterlife.”

“Y-You…” I began, trying to sort out my thoughts. “Used to be an angel?”

“That’s what demons are, yes.” Lucifer nodded. “Fallen angels, the ones that sinned in heaven. Though I am sure I have earned my place in the afterlife to be able to come this far, as one who manages hell. My siblings, have also sinned their own way but worked to be an embodiment of a certain sin.”

“That’s true. The world is in need of bad for good to be present,” Lust smiled at me, her red lipstick glowing underneath the candles when she looked at how redly lit the church was. “Oh, change the color.”

With a snap, Lucifer had changed the color of the flames to blue and I blinked.

“Hell is blue,” Lucifer said, almost kindly. “The hottest part of a flame is the blue part. It’s a misconception that hell is red. Though, we do have a cold area for those who deserve to be frozen to death.”

“Ah, yes. The screams are rather melodious in those areas,” Satan as Wrath nodded.

“Anyway, my story. Have you ever heard of the Baby Boomer?” Lust asked, batting her lashes and I blinked.

“Baby Boomer?” I repeated. I wasn’t one for history but I vaguely remembered it, Lust nodding eagerly.

“A point in history where people were having like rabbits. Babies popped out like little seeds from fruits!” she gushed, looking proud. “That was my doing!”

She winked at me and I felt my face flush.

“Cold War was me. So was the Great Depression,” Sloth said, waving a nonchalant hand. “Economic downturn, funny how the lack of money made people so sluggish! The tension between the countries—”

“Oh, shut up. You know you enjoyed it,” Greed said to his brother, rolling his eyes. “I took part in that too, the inflation. More of the recovery process. The greedier people became, the better it turned out, didn’t it?”

“Sometimes, we do need greed,” Envy admitted. “I’m still working on mine. Though Modern times call for modern measures. People have envy in their hearts more than ever with social media. We have statistics now, don’t we?”

Lust nodded, whipping out a phone, her tongue stuck out the side of her lip as she showed us her Instagram. Another wink, but to Matthew this time, the Grim Reaper shifting uncomfortably.

“And I’m Wrath, Satan as you call it—” Satan began when I gasped, realizing where I saw his face from.

“Kevin Hart! Without the E!” I exclaimed, Satan raising an eyebrow before he scowled.

“You just knew? Damn, maybe I ain’t as famous as I thought I was.” His face scrunched up. “But yes, comedian by day, a demon by night. There is no better uproar than laughter. Dwayne The Rock Johnson is my best friend.”

“I can’t believe you chose to be a comedian this life,” Greed complained, Satan’s jaw-dropping.

“Mammon, you literally acted in a movie,” Satan snapped, crinkling his nose. “Are YoU Lost bAby GuRL?”

Never watched the movie but I thought to myself that maybe I would never have to. Greed scowled, lifting up a hand to do something when Lucifer stopped him.

“No time to fight brother, but do remind me to watch whatever acts you have performed—”

“Performed? 365 days is not a performance,” Gluttony argued, crossing his arms across his chest when Lust gasped. “I don’t even know why it was trending on Netflix.”

“Oh, shut up. I was the one who wrote the script! The real performance was his act in bed,” she passed Greed an air kiss, Lucifer sighing. The conversation sounded more of a catch-up between demons and Lucifer finally snapped his fingers to demand silence.

“Enough,” he said and they all shut up, sitting back down. “We’re here to handle a case. I was filled out about Judas by the management team, now tell me, do any of you know where he is?”

“We don’t keep track of each other, Lucifer,” Gluttony said, shaking his head. “All this came as a surprise to us, as well.”

“What is your connection to Judas, that’s the question,” Peniel began, the Grim looking tense. “Grim Reapers handle Earthly affairs but we are never allowed in heaven or hell. Just the area in between. Is Judas still around?”

Lucifer rubbed his temple, nodding.

“You know how we’re the embodiment of the seven sins?” he asked and I nodded. “Judas died. He died in order for Christianity to start and when he killed himself under orders, following orders that were given to him, suicide was the ultimate sin. A betrayal to god, per se.”

“But because he would have played such a big part in triggering Jesus’ Christ crucifixion, the afterlife made him the embodiment of the eighth sin.” Lucifer his lower lip. “Betrayal.”

“He came back down?” I asked, finding my voice. “Like all of you fallen angels?”

“We don’t consider him our brother, but he is part of the basic sin set, if you know what I mean…” Lust shrugged. “We’re fallen angels, Judas was a mere mortal that was blessed to live like us because of the importance of his role in Christianity. Without Judas, Jesus would not have ascended. Not like it wasn’t all planned by the management team—”

She rolled her eyes.

“And what happened after that?” Kyungsoo asked, Lucifer answering his question.

“He’s down here, doing what we’re doing,” Envy answered. “But you see, we think like demons. We don’t ever want anything and we find joy in seeing mortals’ sin.”

A flicker of gaze towards me and my heart seared with envy at how relaxed their lives were. Envy smirked.

“We never realized that Judas was a mortal, he must have… felt wrong when he came back down and realized that people saw him as this bad person who betrayed Jesus. That is something mortals would feel, no?” Envy asked and Kyungsoo nodded, our handler pacing back and forth. “Then the holy chalice went missing and that was when we had our first inkling.”

“You felt that, too?” Gluttony asked, Envy nodding, her lips pursing.

“I felt like the missing of the Holy Chalice, especially with the power it holds, had nothing to do with humans. There were no accounts of it being sold around—I asked Greed to check, no accounts of it showing up soon after, so I guessed it was one of us.”

“We know better than to mess with Christianity,” Sloth snapped from where he was at. “If you don’t know, Medium—”

He gave me a nod.

“The Holy Chalice is the cup that Jesus used to drink wine on his last supper, the supper on the night that Judas betrayed him. It’s blessed, a cup of life. It’s able to prolong life, give life, and take away a life under the right prayers. That’s why Jesus’ disciples who drank from the Holy Chalice lived longer than normal mortals because they drank from the chalice and were to spread Jesus’ teachings even after he had passed.”

[Last Supper painted by Leonardo Davinci]

“What we think is that Judas wants his revenge on Christianity as a whole,” Lucifer began. “If Christianity can be put up over a miracle baby, it can happen again. This is his embodiment of betrayal, people turning against their own religion to pray for him.”

Matthew wordlessly pressed on his screen and much to my surprise, the numbers for the new religion were rising rapidly.

“The question is, Miles was born years ago and his mother died. Suicide, another sign that it was Judas’ doing. How did it slip? He was birthed in 2010, why now?” Peniel asked, Lucifer shaking his head.

“We don’t know his plan, nor do we know what is going to happen and where this is going. What we do know is that this is a long-term plan and that it was all triggered from the finding of Judas’ Gospel. Once the Gospel was found and people found Jesus’ teachings of him telling Judas to betray him, mortals were quick to pray to Judas.” Lucifer paused. “He would be getting prayers now and like us, he will become powerful.”

“If he isn’t already,” Greed answered and Lucifer raised an eyebrow, asking what that meant. “I know he hid behind Ares, God of War back in the Greek times. Those who prayed for Ares, God of War, Judas got the prayers.”

“Oh, I did that, too,” Lust mused suddenly. “But Aphrodite, god of . Felt powerful back in the day. Now, I just want to lean back and relax.”

“What are we supposed to do now?” Kyungsoo asked, frowning from the side. “Is there anything to do with the possessions and Judas? How is he replacing souls?”

“Mhm, from what I think, he may have promised such souls bodies of their own,” Lucifer began, looking over at Wrath. “It has happened before in the City of Strasburg. Wrath was going through one of his tantrums.”

Satan scowled.

“What did you do?” Matthew asked and I felt relieved that I was on the same page. “What happened in the City of Strasbourg?”

“July 1518, Satan decided that it would be good to gather up souls and possess people. He made everyone dance. Mass hysteria, they called it. The people danced unt