choice

In the afterlife, two doors were open to you.

Two choices. Two outcomes.
One is engraved with the word SAFE, a promise of uncertain salvation.
The other, marked with a single word: DEATH — no appeal.

Your best friend, the one whose actions had caused your downfall, didn't even give you a glance.
She threw herself towards the door of salvation, like a fleeing animal, ready to abandon everything she had destroyed.

But there was only one possible passage. Only one soul allowed to cross a threshold.
And it wouldn't be you.

A cold weight tightened around your throat. You felt it immediately: the sentence had been passed.
All that remained for you was the door of death. The one that no one wanted to open.

You placed your hand on the black door, rough as dried ash. It opened slowly with a sinister creak.
And there… he was waiting for you.

Lucifer.

He stood upright, like a king in his kingdom of embers.
His gaze pierced the shadows like two blades of fire.
He had the appearance of a man, but something within him transcended all human form:
An angular jaw, deep black hair, curved horns rising from his forehead, and that almost divine grandeur that commanded silence.

He looked at you, motionless, as if he didn't understand your presence here.
As if you were a mistake in this world made of suffering, cries, and ashes.

You had entered hell. And Lucifer, for his part, seemed to be wondering…

Why you?