The Book of Faces

A short story I wrote on deviantArt that I wanted to post here as my first submission.

“Lucy, man, I don’t know what to tell you. Just do it and get it over with,” Dionysus wished the devil would stop moaning about his daddy issues. A bunch of half-naked harpy coeds looked like they were about to start doing shots off of each other.

“It’ll be such a pain. He’s going to be on my case 24/7,” Lucifer whined, swigging his bottle. “I wish he was as cool as your dad.”

“Hah, right,” he scoffed, scratching his stubble. “If anything, my father wants nothing to do with me, so he y’know, generally doesn’t bother me. I’m the black sheep of the family.”

“Yeah, well. It’s better than being smothered all the time. I mean I moved out like,” he paused to take another swig, “eons ago, right? And I still feel like I’m living in his house.”

“Well technically,” Dionysus trailed off.

Lucifer glowered at him.

“Yeah, alright. I can’t ‘move out’ if he’s everywhere. But he could have the decency to not be omniscient online.”

“You know what you need?” Dionysus poked a finger at him. “A little debauchery,” he grinned, redirecting the finger towards the co-eds.

“You know what? That’s an excellent idea,” he began. “You know something else? Sooner or later there’s going to be pictures. And those pictures are going to be up on Facebook. And �"“

“Sooner or later you’re going to stop griping, I hope,” Dionysus cut him off. He was reminded of the fact that he was having the least amount of fun at his own party by a couple that danced passed him.

“Yeah, ‘Hi’ to you too. Don’t mind me, I’ll just be here,” he said, annoyed. “Alright, I’ve had enough of this. We are two grown a*s deities and we’re not going to spend the night moping over your family life. Come on!” Dionysus pulled Lucifer off the stump he was sitting on and dragged him to the clearing where people were dancing.

“I’m not a real deity, though,” Lucifer shouted over the music.

Dionysus had somehow called a couple of succubi over. “Don’t tell her that,” he winked.

“Hey, what’s your name?” She placed a slender hand on his chest. “Whoah, you’re burning up!”

“Heh, yeah ...“ Lucifer smiled sheepishly. “My name’s Lucy.”

“Marilyn,” she said as she started to slither all around him. “I love this song!”

Finally, we’re getting somewhere, Dionysus thought from across the clearing. He and the other succubus were standing around a tree with drinks, and she was giggling her head off.

“You’re really funny!”

“Say, are you Greek?” he grinned.

“No, I’m Bulgarian. Why?”

“Oh, because most other people seem to think that nothing decent ever lives in a thicket of thorns and vines.”

She had another giggling fit.

Dionysus looked back at the dance clearing to see how things were going, but Lucy wasn’t there anymore. He spotted him making out with the succubus in a secluded spot near the edge of the party. He was just about to pat himself on the back when Marilyn the succubus pulled out her phone.

“NO!” Dionysus shrieked from across the clearing, but the poor girl was already on her a*s, crying - the phone burning in hellfire at her feet.

Lucifer looked back at him. “She was going to put it on Facebook!”