CHAPTER 1
There are plants in this world that range from strong to petite, those that take specifics to grow, and those that accept all situations, or those that choose to perish.
Like Music, each flower has its own beat. A Rose is faint and is as fragile as glass, much like the perfection of ballet. A Rose of Jericho can face death and rebirth itself into something living yet again, much like Death Metal symbolising death and horror itself, evolving into meaning. How Touch-me-nots are easy going but bloom to die, leaving an explosive memory, much like many genres, such as Pop, Electro and Classical.
Growing every individual flower, tree, shrub, can never be predicted. You can give your all, but it won't bloom. You might not care and it will still bloom. Much like souls, many plants don't give a fuck what you think, but will be happy when you give them suitable living conditions.
But despite the agony of giving blood, sweat and tears, seeing the small petals show themselves for the first time is just as rewarding as taking a nice cold shower after a hard day of work. The beautiful thin, velvet purple bulbs and the leafless green petals starring around the foothold of the bulb standing brilliantly on the stems. A beauty among the decaying autotrophic matter.
In its few seconds of life… This mother fucking bastard decides to ruin it all.
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It's two weeks before the extermination, and Charlie is happy to report that she and Vaggie have acquire their first patron!
"Hun, I know you're excited, but you need to think this through." Vaggie states carefully as they both walk down the street and Charlie does this little dance. She's adorable, but she really needs to think. The guy they just took in is a famous porn star.
"I know! But, I'm so excited!" Charlie cheers and hops in her path. She has a patron! That's one soul she can save!
"Look, he's someone you don't expec-" Vaggie's suddenly interrupted by some arse crashing into Charlie. Both fall to the ground and instantly Vaggie pulls out her harpoon and points it to the Demon after she stands over Charlie "Who are you?!"
"He's going to kill me!" The Demon tries to get up and keeps slipping on his elbows and knees. Vaggie and Charlie move back once the princess is on her feet but they all feel a dark presence nearby. The Demon shrieks "I don't wanna die!"
"There you are, you little cunt."
A dark figure suddenly rushes in and the Demon shrieks being grabbed by vine-like tentacles. The Demon controlling them appears pissed off. Alexander, in all his glory.
Vaggie slashes at his vines and he retracts them, Alexander puts his focus on her briefly before rushing at the shrieking demon that's trying to get up.
Charlie manages to zoom in front of him with her arms out "Nope! No! Don't do it!"
Vaggie chases the poor demon off and his shrieks can still be heard even when he's out of sight. She hears Charlie struggling to keep the Deer Demon back and she holds her harpoon up and goes to attack.
"No! Come on! What did he even do?!" Charlie yells and manages to grab Alexander's wrist to keep him still.
"HE STOMPED ON MY CRYPTOSTYLIS HUNTERIANA!" Alexander roars out and both girls stare. He takes the chance to get around them but Vaggie trips him while Charlie stands there confused. Alexander gets back up and faces the two, if there are words to describe how pissed he is, currently they cannot describe it.
After a while of calming him down, Alexander becomes completely embarrassed and distraught at how he acted.
Charlie is trying to soothe him as he's hiding himself behind his hair in total mortification.
"Hey, it's okay…" Charlie manages to get a hug in and Alexander doesn't mind, but he doesn't hug back "Everyone has those days, you'll be okay."
"Who are you?" Vaggie still has her harpoon out but she's not pointing it at him. It's there just in case.
"Pardon, how rude of me…" Alexander sniffles but he pulls his hair back to tidy himself up. "My name is Alexander."
"Hi, Alexander, my name's Charlie." Charlie introduces herself and she pulls Vaggie over to introduce her "And this is Vaggie."
"Pleasure…" Vaggie crosses her arms looking up at him in distrust.
"Pleasure is mine, Love." Alexander finishes tidying himself up.
"Anyway… are you okay?" Charlie asks hesitantly.
"Yes, I'm quite alright now." Alexander clears his throat and he puts on a smile.
"What's a Crypta stylish hunter rianna?" Vaggie asks and Alexander stares at her for a bit in confusion before getting what she's asking.
"Oh, you mean Cryptostylis hunteriana?" Alexander asks then he groans, he pulls his hair in front of his eyes again and hides as he moves back on a wall. He slinks down into a sitting position in total defeat while Charlie comes over and tries to pat him on the back as he wails softly "He killed them!"
"Hey, come on, you're okay…" Charlie tries to soothe while Vaggie watches on. Like Charlie, she's completely confused by what is happening. Charlie takes initiative and she pulls Alexander up by the arm, she pushes his hair to the side to look him in the eyes "Come on, we'll get you some tea to calm down."
"That sounds lovely, thank you…"
They arrive and Alexander is amazed at the size of the place. It's huge! Is that the Titanic? Oh boy, it looks to elegant, the entire thing! "Happy Hotel"? That sounds nice.
"Welcome to my hotel!" Charlie announces and Alexander gives a brief clap before they head inside.
And like that, all thought of prestigious and glamorous first impressions disappear. This place is so dirty.
Alexander frowns slightly looking around. Cobwebs, spider webs, dust. Really dirty.
"I'll go get some tea!" Charlie announces cheerfully and she bounds off, Vaggie goes with her.
When the girls are out of sight, Alexander looks around again and spies another demon on a couch, he's a pink and white spider. It's interesting colour scheme in hell, seeing as the combination are overall soft. It's very pretty.
The Spider notices him and he winks. Alexander flinches. What?
"Hey, babe, you work here too?" The Spider stands and walks over and Alexander steps back slightly unsure of how to continue with this. The Spider stands in front of him and manages to wrap his arms around him, Alexander looks down blushing slightly as he contemplates whether or not this Spider is male or female. The fluff looks convincing. "Aww, why so shy? Want a special massage to calm the nerves, honey? I'll even give you a discount."
"P-pardon…?" Alexader stutters. Is this demon an escort? What is this place?
"And British too, what a special one I have here." The Spider slips a hand behind and plays with Alexander's hair, the Deer's blush reddens feeling it being curled "So, what do you say, babe? Wanna take me for a ride?"
"I do apologise…" Alexander begins but he doesn't know this man's name.
"The name's Angel Dust, Sugar." Angel answers as he bats his eyes seductively as Alexander stutters.
"Yes, Angel Dust. I apologise, but I am in a committed relationship." Alexander explains awkwardly and there seems to be a light switch going off in Angel's mind.
"Oh well, your loss." Angel immediately unwraps the deer and Alexander pulls a strand of hair in front of his face still flustered. How did he change moods so quickly? He sees Angel lie on the couch and lounge, spreading his limbs everywhere to make himself comfortable. Alexander stands there unsure what to do and he flinches when Angel looks at him "So, babe, what're you here for?"
"The Girls are making me tea…" Alexander answers nervously and he rubs his arm, but he manages to maintain eye contact. "M-may I ask why you're here, Love?"
"I signed up for this shitty idea that Red-Cheeks has." Angel answers simply and he sits up.
"Pardon?" Alexander is more confused than before.
"She and Moth-A-Bye want to redeem demons." Angel laughs.
Alexander is still confused.
Charlie had come back with a tray with a teapot and teacups, Vaggie is beside her. Both see Alexander sitting next to Angel, looking nervous while Angel flirts with him.
"Aww, come on Cutie, let me see your tats." Angel leans in and Alexander hides behind his hair and curls up with his kneels to his chest to hide his arms. Both girls can see pink down his next, so they guess he's blushing.
"Angel! He's uncomfortable!" Charlie raises her voice slightly and Angel backs off crossing his arms. She places the tray down and pours Alexander a cup. He nods in thanks and takes a sip before Charlie could warn him about how hot it is, but he's fine. He smiles, it's delicious. "So, Alexander, tell us about yourself."
"Well… umm…" Alexander stutters his words before deciding to scull down the rest of the tea, he doesn't mind the burning down his throat. He likes it, just how tea's meant to be. He places the cup down and he plays with his fingers feeling all three stare at him "That-that depends what you want to know, Love."
"If the lobby's bothering you, we can take you outside." Vaggie offers and Alexander nods enthusiastically.
"Okay! We have a garden, so we can go out there!" Charlie states and Alexander stands up immediately, he's eager to see it. "Come with me, it's just over here!"
Alexander is in complete awe. It's huge. Many bushes. Many flowers. A few trees. And it's flowering season which should have made this more… Wow… But… Oh Lord, it's fucking dead!
"What the fuck did you do?!" Alexander yells and rushes into the garden to look around.
He starts ranting and walking around to assess all the bushes and flowers, Charlie and Vaggie look at themselves confused and a little awkward seeing their new acquaintance rush around gasping and reacting over all negatively to all the dead plants.
"How did you do this?" He pulls out a bush from the weeds and he shakes it – all its leaves fall off and all that's left is a sad excuse of wood "I don't even know how you could damage this so bad!"
Alexander yells in anguish seeing the flower bed. Charlie Angel and Vaggie watch as he freaks out sees the dead flower bed.
"How did you kill these?! The ground's wet!" Alexander picks a dead daisy and shows it too them. He rushes around again to assess more damages
Angel leans over to the two girls and whispers "So, where did you get the flower dork?"
"We met him when he tried to kill someone." Vaggie answers while still watching the deer zoom around.
"Ha! What did they do? Squish some flowers?" Angel jokes as he's standing back up straight.
"Yes." Alexander is looking over with a dark aura, all three flinch and step back at the sight, Alexander snaps out of it and continues to walk around while the trio are confused, he pulls out a weed "You guys have so many weeds too! Do you even garden?"
"I thought those were flowers…" Charlie mumbles, but it appears Alexander could hear her.
"Love, no, just no." Alexander pulls out another weed and ignores the thorns penetrating his skin and making his bleed a single running bullet of blood. He's used to it, it's no biggie.
Charlie watches as he throws the weed away and pulls out another one. He sure knows his stuff, maybe he can help? "Can you work here?"
"Pardon?" Alexander pauses his weed pulling to look at her. Vaggie glances to her as well on concern.
"Can you work here?" Charlie repeats and she hops over to pulls the weed out of his hand "Can you help us build the garden?"
"Umm…" Alexander watches as she flings the weed off somewhere else and he holds his hand in his other when it begins stinging.
"Please, I can pay you." Charlie insists and leans in.
"I don't charge much to begin with, but since you offered… Sure, I don't see a reason why not." Alexander smiles down at the girl and she beams.
Then she gasps "Do you have a place to stay? You can stay here!"
"No, that's unnecessary, I have residence in my place of work." Alexander assures her holding his hands up.
Charlie looks to his bleeding hand in worry as she asks "Where's that?"
"Note String's Club." Alexander answers simply.
"The Tavern?" Charlie asks as she offers her hand, he places his wounded on in hers. She pats his hand to look at his small wound "That's the one with the… band?"
"Yeah, Rose of Blasphemy." Alexander smiles. He's so proud of it. So many fans nowadays, and so much money they bring in. His Boss is happy with them and as long as he's happy, the band has more freedom when picking songs.
Charlie had taken Alexander back inside to fix up his hand. Vaggie is off somewhere and Alexander believes that Angel is in his room.
Both Charlie and Alexander are seated on a couch, he's currently watching as she is cleaning his wound and admiring his tattoos. He doesn't blame her, they're clean and the flowers look pretty, and it doesn't seem like she dislikes the thorns.
"They're pretty." Charlie compliments as she grazes her thumb over the crocus on his arm. Alexander nods in thanks as Charlie slowly guide her fingers down his arm to spy the array of petals and flowers aligning the black vines, until they stop at his elbow, then on is just the vine. Charlie traces the vine and pulls some of his skin to get a better look at the ink work. Alexander smiles at her fascination, it's cute. "It's so clean and clear… so detailed… where in Hell did you get these done?"
"They were just on me when I fell." Alexander explains and holds out his other hand so Charlie could see the flower garden on his skin. He laughs when she realises that she neglected his wound and quickly finishes the wrap "Although, I'm still a bit sore about not being able to choose them, I've never had a tattoo before I came to Hell."
"Well, I think that they're pretty cool." Charlie announces in a bubbly tone and she gets up to reach back to get something, Alexander sees that it is a book.
Alexander pulls his hand back to admire her handiwork, the bandaging it wrapped tightly and clean, to the point of perfection. He glances to her as she searches through the book, it's thin but has a lot of papers and pages hanging out he now sees. But, despite her quickly flicking through, he saw the cover. It read "redemption".
"What is it that you hope to achieve, Love?" He asks while placing his hand down on his lap, he watches as she pauses then slowly close the book to look at him.
"I don't want the exterminations to be the only way that we can solve over population…" Charlie takes Alexander's uninjured hand and he smiles slightly at how sincere she sounds "I want everyone to have a second chance, because… well, everyone has good inside them, and if we can use that, we can redeem them!"
"It certainly sounds promising, Love." Alexander compliments and holds his tongue in politeness. It sounds so naïve but it is still promising even though no demon has ever been redeemed. But, he guesses everyone deserves a second chance. There are… questionable reasons why some people are here… "How exactly does one get redeemed?"
"Well… by doing no sins." Charlie answers awkwardly. Has she not figured this out?
"Explain?" Alexander tilts his head and leans down slightly to see what the book is, but Charlie had put it by her side so he can't see it.
"No fighting, no cursing, no listening to evil music, no drugs, no alcohol." Charlie lists of and lets go of Alexander's hands to count her fingers. Alexander's smile shifts nervously hearing "Evil Music." He knows what that means. Heavy metal, Rock, Hip Hop, Jazz, and Death Metal. This will be difficult. "Just things that are starters."
"How does music affect this?" Alexander asks and he holds his arms.
"Because some songs promote violence, sex, and sinning in general." Charlie sees his smile and figures he's guilty of it. It's no biggie… technically.
"I don't think I'd be able to commit to that, unfortunately, Love." Alexander states awkwardly and he feels sweat going down his back. He really can't commit to that.
"We'll work through it." Charlie insists. If only she knew.
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Alexander unlocks the door and spins around to lock it again once he enters it. It's closed since it's late and this day isn't great with most customers.
"Where have you been?" Alexander looks to the bar and sees his Landlord, he's cleaning glasses and raising an eyebrow at the buck. Alexander nervously laughs and rubs his arm, the Landlord narrows his eyes slightly making him flinch "You've cause a disturbance with your friends, and you've left them to do most of the work."
"Someone squished my leafless tongue-orchid…" Alexander mumbles but it's loud enough for his Boss to hear.
"If it wasn't for your energy and your band, I would have kicked you out already." The Landlord sighs and holds the bridge of his nose while Alexander continues to smile and stand at the door awkwardly. He looks at the Deer again and flicks his head to the stairs "Bed. I'm giving you more chores."
"Course, Sir…"