I'm The Devil

The room was dim, lit only by a dozen flickering candles placed in a shaky circle around an old marking carved into the wooden floor. It didn’t look fancy—just chalk lines, messy scribbles, some faded ink—but there was something weird about it. Something that made the air feel heavier than it should.

It wasn’t a dungeon or some ancient temple.

It was a cabin.

Up in the mountains. Quiet. Cold. Supposed to be a chill spot for the weekend.

Seven of them were there. Friends. Sort of. Some were close. Some just knew someone who knew someone. Typical.

Not all of them were sitting near the mark.

A girl named Ivy was standing in the corner, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. She wasn’t feeling it.

"This is dumb," she said.

The others barely looked at her. They were focused on the book—an old, dust-covered thing they’d found under a loose panel in the floor. Real dramatic stuff. Leather-bound, red pages, no title. Looked like something from a bad horror movie.

"It’s just for fun," said Aiden, the guy holding the book. Tall, too confident, hoodie half-on like he didn’t care how cold it was. "Like a campfire story, but with more candles."

"You don’t draw crap like that and read out weird words from a creepy-ass book just for fun," Ivy snapped.

Jess, sitting closest to the circle, gave a small laugh. "Ivy, chill. We’re on a cabin trip. Aiden’s just being dramatic. What’s gonna happen? A demon pops out and offers us free Wi-Fi?"

A few people chuckled. Even Aiden smirked. But Ivy didn’t.

"I’m serious," she said. "That symbol—it’s old. Like ancient-old. I’ve seen stuff like it in a museum, and they locked it behind glass. Not chalk on a floor."

Liam, slouched near the window, rolled his eyes. "Okay, then how do you explain the book just being here? Like it wanted us to find it?"

Ivy turned to him. "Exactly. That’s why we shouldn’t mess with it."

"Too late," Aiden said, flipping a page. "We already lit the candles."

He looked at everyone. "Come on. One read-through. Then we burn it or whatever. It’s just words."

People exchanged glances. No one wanted to be the buzzkill. Not after the long drive, the cold hike, and the awkward silence that came with half the group not really liking each other.

Aiden cleared his throat.

The room felt colder.

He read:

"Zhalem-in valtorah… Ash nureth. Al morah… De’karaz ulthion."

The candle flames twitched.

Jess shifted. "That didn’t sound Latin."

"Probably not," Aiden said, staring at the page. "There’s like five different scripts in here. Some of it’s not even readable."

"Good," Ivy muttered. "That means stop."

But something was different now.

The room didn’t just feel cold. It felt wrong. Like someone was holding their breath and never letting it go.

Liam glanced at the window.

"Hey… is it just me or did the trees get closer?"

Everyone looked.

He was right.

The trees outside—pine and black and tall—looked like they’d inched toward the cabin. Barely. But enough.

"That’s creepy," Jess whispered.

Aiden looked back at the book.

The page he was reading from had changed.

No one turned it.

But now it had a new set of words. Written in black, thick strokes that almost seemed wet.

He frowned. "That’s weird."

"What?" Ivy asked.

"The writing changed."

Everyone leaned closer.

The symbols were jagged now. Twisting. And somehow… angry.

Liam took a step back. "That wasn’t there a second ago."

"Nope," Ivy said, voice flat. "Nope. We’re done. I’m done. We’re putting that thing back in the floor and going outside."

"You wanna hike down the mountain in the dark?" Aiden asked.

"I’d rather do that than summon Satan by accident."

"Guys…" Jess said suddenly. "Where’s the wind?"

They all stopped.

She was right.

There was no wind outside.

But the trees were moving.

Not shaking like in a storm. No.

Swaying.

Like they were breathing.

"…Did the forest just exhale?" Liam said.

Ivy grabbed the book, slammed it shut.

The candles went out.

All at once.

The cabin was silent.

Pitch black.

Nobody spoke.

Nobody breathed.

Then—

The fire in the fireplace lit itself. Without a spark. Just woomf.

It burned black and silver.

Everyone backed away.

The chalk circle on the floor began to glow. Faint at first. Then stronger. The lines pulsed like veins. The air buzzed.

Ivy dropped the book. "I told you. I told you not to mess with it!"

Aiden stepped back. "I didn’t even finish reading—"

The circle cracked.

Not broke. Cracked.

Like glass under pressure.

A whisper filled the cabin.

It didn’t come from a mouth.

It came from everywhere.

All at once.

"Let… me… through…"

Jess screamed.

Liam bolted for the door.

It didn’t open.

The air thickened. The floor shook. The chalk lines broke open, and underneath them, something shimmered.

Not light.

A void.

Dark. Vast. Bottomless.

Something was moving inside it.

Not crawling.

Climbing.

Aiden stumbled back. "I didn’t mean to—"

"I heard her voice…"

It wasn’t a growl.

It was a whisper.

And it spoke through them.

Each one of them felt it in their bones. In their teeth. Like pressure inside their skulls.

Ivy covered her ears. "What the hell is that?!"

The markings exploded in black flame.

And then—

From the crack—

A hand reached out.

Black.

Burnt.

And shaking with power.

Lucifer’s voice echoed, not through the room, but through the soul.

"…Finally."

The cabin shattered inward.

And the Void came with him.

Elsewhere

"He’s out."

A low voice cut through the dark like a whisper made of smoke.

Somewhere deep in a place that didn’t follow time or rules, shadows moved. Tall figures stood still—cloaked in layers of old energy, faces hidden, but eyes glowing faintly like dying embers.

One of them stepped forward, arms crossed. A smirk tugged at the edge of his mouth.

"Well, well… let’s see what kind of mess he causes this time."

The others didn’t speak. Didn’t need to. The air around them was already starting to hum. Like it remembered what chaos really felt like.

Elsewhere…

Winds bent in directions they weren’t supposed to. Clouds froze mid-spin. The world tilted—not physically, but spiritually.

A woman in white stood at the peak of an ancient ruin, cloak flapping like wings behind her. Her eyes were closed. But she felt it.

That pressure.

That fire.

That impossible, untamed burn that only one being carried.

Her eyes snapped open. Silver irises glowing against the sky.

"…That aura…" she whispered.

She took a step forward, slow, steady. A hand rested over her chest, right where the energy hit hardest.

"That’s not just any power." Her voice trembled, not from fear—but from the weight of memory. "That’s his."

The skies above her cracked like glass.

She looked up.

"Lucifer… you’re back."

And far off in the distance, something howled—joyful, or afraid. Maybe both.