It was time.

Charlie knew that they would be here for a while, since Exterminations would happen at midnight.

Over the course of the past few hours, the hotel staff were given a tour of the Exterminator bases and learned a lot about the purges they enacted annually.

While the tour did give insight on some things they didn't know initially about the Exterminations such as the fact that Exterminators did have lives up here, the princess of Hell still wasn't so sure why they were up here in the first place.

At the moment, she was looking over the horizon which was turning into a sunset. Charlie was alone as the rest of the hotel staff wanted to take a break from the touring and eat at the cafeterias.

For the moment, Charlie observed the glorious sunset as she sat down on the outskirts of the Exterminator's base. Wherever she was appeared to be a soccer field for the Exterminator to play in. She sat on a bench, observing the distant sunset.

Being someone that could never see something like this before, Charlie had to appreciate the beauty in front of her. It took literal blood, sweat and tears for her to even remotely get to paradise, but she succeeded.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps coming towards her. Charlie looked in the direction of the steps and saw a man.

He had pale skin, a quiff hairstyle, dark eyes and a stunning vantablack suit. As the man approached her, she couldn't help but feel the same radiation that the one Exterminator gave.

"Uh, hi." Charlie said to him, as he sat down next to her.

"Greetings." he said, "It's nice to meet you."

Confirming her suspicions, this was the Exterminator that promptly made everyone kneel for Vaggie from the very voice he had.

"Who are you exactly?" Charlie asked.

"I am Mal, but I prefer to be called Chief." he said, "Alongside that, I am also one of Heaven's archangels."

"Oh.." Charlie replied, "You're related to my father?"

Mal laughed, but what made it weird was that he didn't smile, "I am. Your father and I have a close connection with each other."

"R-really?" Charlie responded, "Um.. okay."

"I've known about your dream of redemption for a while now. Lucifer had brought it up when you were just a child, but I knew that was just because you were unfortunately born with his angelic personalities." Chief stated.

The princess kind of forgot that her father was a fallen angel, but that was long before she was even born.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" Charlie asked sheepishly.

Mal looked at her, "Well, I wanted to tell you something about a dear friend of yours."

"Which friend?" she asked.

"Actually, she's not just your friend, right?" Chief inquired.

"Oh.. Vaggie." Charlie said softly, "I know that she was an Exterminator in training, but.. things went wrong."

"You could say that." Mal stated.

Chief moved closer to her, and he raised his head slightly to reveal his neck. What Charlie saw was a large scar across his throat, and she choked just a bit.

"She did that?" Charlie stammered.

"Unfortunately, yes." Mal said as he backed away, "It's a long story, but I'm sure Vaggie has told you, correct?"

"Well, she did leave some details out of her side." Charlie replied.

"That's understandable." Chief said.

"I.. just want to ask.. why do you do the Exterminations." she questioned.

Mal looked over at her, "I feel like it's a rather easy explanation."

Charlie stared at him, bewildered, "What do you mean it's easy?"

"Every human on the face of the Earth has done some kind of sinning, whether minor or major. But what our Creator wants is for them to understand they had done wrong and better themselves. Obviously, a majority of them don't do that, and wind up in Hell for it."

"That's.."

"However, our Father judges everyone on a system. I still am unsure what that system is, but he is the most fair when it comes to humans' lives." Mal stated, "We were tasked to eliminate the worst sinners off the face of the afterlife, as they deserve the ultimate punishment."

"I understand that part.. but why doesn't Hell help redeem people? Shouldn't everyone be worthy of paradise?" Charlie said.

Mal looked at her, "Rapists? Pedophiles? Serial murderers? Cannibals? Cultists? Authoritarians?"

"They.." Charlie stopped herself from saying anything after that.

"Well, I admit while some of those people may have some redeeming qualities, most of them are horrible people and are mostly unredeemable." Mal said, "To put it in perspective, they can take up a majority of those we kill."

"But what about the ones that went to Hell but didn't deserve it?" Charlie asked.

Chief stared at the sunset that was turning into twilight, "All of us up here try and spare as much as we can. Though, there's nothing we can do about it. However, our Lord does have his way of dealing with it."

She looked at him, "What's that?"

"It's kind of hard to explain, but we have some time to kill." Mal stated, "You want to know?"

"Of course." Charlie replied.

There were numerous ways Alastor would've spent New Year's Eve.

Vomiting his insides out was not one of them.

In all honesty, he barely remembered the past hour, since he had spent a fair decent amount of time bent over his toilet.

Fortunately, Abigail was there, but she couldn't do much to alleviate his situation. All she could do was give him some comforting words.

After what felt like an eternity, he managed to heave out a few breaths, and dropped himself onto the floor.

He groaned, as Abigail flushed down the mess, and carried him into the shower. The radio host was slowly recuperating so he tried to speak, though his initial words were gibberish.

"What was that, dear?" Abigail asked.

"Can you bathe me?" Alastor slurred, to which she chuckled.

"Sure, cher." she said.

Bringing him into the shower area, she began to strip his clothing. Alastor was a bit too out of his element do it himself as he was in the midst of the final stages of withdrawal.

With Alastor naked, Abigail quickly turned on the shower, and warm water splashed across his body.

The radio host didn't exactly know what was going on, but his mother was bathing him properly. All of it was just becoming an unfortunate blur, as he was cleansed.

His mother remained entirely silent as she helped bathe him. The only sound was the running water of the shower, and the faint buzz of the lights.

It took a while for him to be bathe properly, but he felt refreshed in a way. Sure, he still had jerky movements around his limbs, goosebumps, and rapid changes in temperature but he had a refreshed mind.

Abigail quickly took a towel and dried him off. She was still not speaking so Alastor tried to say a thank you to her, but all that came out was incomprehensible.

"Hm?" she said.

"Thanks." Alastor blurted out.

She chuckled, "You're welcome."

Once Alastor was dry of water, Abigail brought him out of the bathroom and into his walk-in closet.

"What clothes would you like to wear?" she asked.

"Anything." Alastor groaned, the sickening feeling in his body radiating across him.

Swiftly, Abigail began to dress him up in a basic T-shirt and boxers.

It was possible that she took notice of Alastor's worsening state so she was picking up the pace.

Upon being dressed, she managed to get Alastor up on his feet and maneuvered him out to the wardrobe and into the bedroom.

It was night, but he wasn't going to get any sleep tonight.

"Are you okay?" Abigail asked.

"Er, I'm fine." Alastor slurred, "The fireworks show is coming at midnight, right?"

"Yes, you want to watch it on the picture show?" Abigail mused.

The radio host smiled and nodded as they made their way to the living room sofa, with Alastor trying to look at the clock within the living room.

"It's 10.00pm, so we have to wait for a while before we can see the firework show." Abigail said, "But do you think you could last that long?"

"No." Alastor jokingly replied.

"Well, that's unfortunate." Abigail said.

She plopped him down onto the couch, and moved away to grab a blanket. Alastor was a bit too out of it, but he was able to grab the remote and turned on the television. It was hard to see what was playing but Abigail came along to wrap his weighted blanket around him again.

With the sudden warmth enveloping him, Alastor fell into a bit of lulling state as his mother sat beside him and changed the channel to something that he would like.

The audio of whatever show was playing echoed into his ears, but he couldn't exactly pinpoint what was being said. Abigail placed a hand around his shoulders, and he let a satisfied yet strained sigh.

"Maman?" Alastor called out softly.

"Yes?" Abigail replied.

"Thank you for everything." Alastor slurred.

His mother smiled, "You're welcome."

"Fireworks, Charlie. Fireworks."

Vaggie had been reminding her plenty of times of the key sign that would initiate the Extermination.

While she knew that by now, Charlie had much more on her mind.

Firstly, she was thinking about the conversation she had with Mal.

She did learn a fair bit about human behaviours and ethics and helped her understanding of the psychology of humanity.

Secondly, the princess was looking down at the Exterminator army.

It was hard to describe how massive the military was, but they surrounded a large hole in the center, revealing the fiery depths of Hell below. The operation of it all was complicated but understandable for all of the hotel staff.

Charlie simply looked at the army, wielding their angelic spears, ready to purge sinners once more. She couldn't imagine such a thing, a massive army ready to perform

Ultimately, she heaved a sigh and looked at Vaggie who was about as tense as she was.

"Hon.." Charlie spoke up, but she couldn't bring out the words.

"Yes?" Vaggie replied, taking notice of the princess's behaviour.

"I know that I've always talked about how I felt it was unfair that Exterminations happened?" Charlie stated, "I just wanted to.. make them stop? For Hell's citizens to just have a break?"

Vaggie nodded, "You've always talked about it. Is there.."

"This evening, I talked to that Exterminator leader. You know, the guy that made everyone kneel for you?"

"Um, yeah.. I know him."

"We had a pretty long conversation. It was about a lot of things like the hotel, humans, the afterlife and.. you." Charlie stated.

The moth demon remained silent, as if she didn't wish to respond to that.

"Vags.. I understand why you did that. But almost every Exterminator here, does want to see you again, and they also understand what you went through."

"No, they don't." Vaggie hissed, "All of them can go fuck right off. Plus, I'm sure Mal has some bad blood for me, and just wants to deal some punishment himself."

Charlie remained quiet, before touching Vaggie's shoulder to calm her down. Eventually, she did, and heaved a sigh.

"Sorry, just still have some grudges." Vaggie said.

"That's okay." Charlie stated, "If you have a problem, then talk to me alright?"

Vaggie smirked, but a single echoing sound caught their attention.

Looking outside, they saw fireworks exploding in the distance. Colours filled the night sky, and vague shapes was amongst the sparks.

Promptly, they looked down at the army that was now descending on mass into Hell. Both of them stared in awe at the spiral of Exterminators, gliding down into the fires.

The princess wondered what the rest of the hotel staff were thinking of the sight before them, since they were below them and watching the same spectacle.

Soon enough, the base became silent, with the only Exterminators around being those tasked to monitor the purges.

"Did you know Angel Dust's sister is an Exterminator?" Charlie perked up.

"Huh? Really?" Vaggie replied, bewildered.

"Well, she came up to during the tour, and she thanked me." Charlie said, "Though, she did say that Anthony wasn't so keen on that info."

Vaggie sighed, "To be honest, I'd also understand that pain. Finding out one of your relatives is also someone that could've killed you down in punishment land will take a toll on you."

Suddenly, the sound of someone running came to their attention. Looking back, they saw Baxter coming to a halt before them.

"Baxter?" Charlie called out, noticing a file in his hands.

"Hi, Charlie. And Vaggie." Baxter said gleefully, "I've got to show you something."

The couple squinted their eyes, "Is it something to do with that file?"

"Err, yep." Baxter said, "Me and the others read this already. Here."

They received the file, which was red in colour and surprisingly thick. Opening it, they swiftly realized why Baxter was gleeful.

As it turns out, the information in the file was focused on Alastor, one of the latest recruits into Heaven's army. It pertained to numerous aspects of the radio host, which showcased some personal details that they didn't necessarily need to know, but they took notice of one detail that would benefit.

"His house address?" Vaggie mused.

"Yeah. Have you written this down, Baxter?" Charlie asked.

"Fortunately, yes. We better return that file since I stole from some guy's desk." Baxter stated, "Plus, I don't want risk getting skewered."

Charlie couldn't help but notice that the file stated that Alastor was dating someone named Molly Costello, and wondered if that Exterminator was in fact the person that the file was pertaining to.

She quickly shrugged it off and passed back the file to Baxter, who swiftly ran back to put it in back in it's initial place.

Vaggie cleared her throat, "We're allowed to leave after the Extermination, right?"

The princess nodded, "Let's go talk with the others. I'm kinda interested in their volunteering system now."

With that, the couple began their walk to the other hotel staff members, and conversed about the developing situation.

Little did they know, someone had been listening in on their conversation. Once the couple were out of ear shot, they chuckled.A soft feminine laugh that echoed slightly within the hallway.

"Oh, miei amici." they said, "I have something special for you."

Hm, I feel like this story is about to go on longer than I thought... and I'm feeling the burnout of it.

But I'm gonna get a new PC in a few days, so I'll see if I can handle it.

Thanks for reading, amigo.