Evan Black was running. 

His breathing was failing him.  Evan couldn’t catch it back fast enough.  He was afraid of falling, or stumbling over something in his way.  Evan knew if he fell it would be over.  His heart beat rapidly in his chest.  He kept looking behind him and counted three of them.  The dogs were gaining on him.  Their barks yelled hunger.    

Hunger for him.  To rip up his skin and dine on his flesh.     

They moved gracefully, jumping over and in front of each other, fighting for the lead.  The front door of his house was open and Evan ran inside. 

Heading straight down the hallway, he ran towards his bedroom and felt himself come off his feet as flames licked the back of his neck.  Evan came crashing down on top of his bed. As he raised his head and looked around, everywhere he turned he saw glowing eyes.  The room turned into a fiery pit.  Taking one last look over his shoulder, he screamed loudly. 

The lead dog turned into Lucifer, leaping towards him with outstretched claws--       

He woke up from his nap screaming in unison with the girl chained and held by restraints in the corner of his bedroom.    Evan reached for the night light and switched in on. 

The restraints he constructed to hold her were still intact.  Her gag had somehow come loose.  When he got himself under control he ran over and quickly put it back across her mouth.  He smacked her across the face and grabbed her, pleading with her to be quiet. 

Evan tried to make the room as soundproof as he could by covering the walls with anything he could find.  Misplaced sheetrock he purchased, pillows, bedspreads and anything else that he could find provided the room with a muffled sound.     

“You can’t wake the neighbors when you....play with her,” Lucifer had said with a chuckle the night they took her.  He had on the same Armani suit from two weeks before, but it looked new, shinier. 

He remembered how Lucifer had been so adamant about her being the one.     How he wouldn’t stop talking as they got closer and closer to her.    His pace increased with every passing word. Evan found it very odd that no one else had been on the street that night.   

“This is how you’re going to beat Shipley in sales this quarter.  This is my gift to you Evan.  I want you to enjoy it.  I want you to enjoy every moment and every second that you have with her.”  

He grinned at Evan and his eyes blazed with fire.       

“Isn’t she beautiful, Evan?  Can’t you feel yourself....with her?    “Don’t you want her, stud?” 

Evan had wondered what it was that Lucifer had whispered in her ear when they finally approached her.  A big smile had crossed her face.  Evan remembered feeling disgusted.  She could’ve been no more than 18.  He loved them young, but she was too young. 

He wondered if Lucifer knew all his thoughts and were playing on them.   

“This is Evan, Angela.”     

The girl had extended her hand out to Evan.  He remembered how warm it had felt in his own.  Evan watched as smoke escaped Lucifer’s nostrils.  The girl laughed as if it was the funniest thing she had ever seen.     

“Evan, say hi to Angela.” 

Words had failed to come out of Evan’s mouth.  That’s when he remembered how Lucifer had waved his hand in front of her face, and she fell in his arms.  Lucifer had carried her on his shoulder back to the car.  Her summer dress revealed the fact that she wore no underwear.  He put her in the back seat.   

Evan had asked no questions when Lucifer remained in the back seat with her.  He just got in the car and started the engine.  The sounds that Evan heard coming from the back seat were wet and unsettling.   When Lucifer would touch her on the ride back to his house, she moaned in ecstasy and pain.  It had made his skin crawl so bad that he felt like screaming but he held it in.  Evan’s eyes would meet his every time he looked in the rear view mirror.  Lucifer would just smile at him.  

He remembered Lucifer snapping his fingers in front of her face when they got back to his place.  The girl immediately came back to her senses.

He walked up to Evan and took a photograph out from the inside of his breast pocket and showed it to him.  He recognized Shipley immediately.  Shipley had his arm around the girl in the photograph.  It was the same girl who was in the backseat of his car.   

“The best dad ever!” was written in bold print above it. 

Evan looked at her through the window and it dawned on him who she was.  An uneasy chill fell over him.  He saw that the girl was now tied up.  Her mouth was even gagged.  Lucifer had taken care of all the preliminaries. 

Her eyes bulged in their sockets.  She was trying to scream and nothing was coming out of her mouth. 

The blood came together up under the pentagram and formed three words.  The words were backwards on the window, but Evan could clearly read them.  He wondered what would happen to him if he failed to hold up his side of their agreement. 

They were meant for her to see.  She violently thrashed around on the backseat in a terrifying wave of panic and terror. 

Welcome to Hell, they read.  He faced Evan and his eyes blazed with that fire again. 

“She’s yours now,” he said.  Lucifer walked away and slowly disappeared out of sight.