"So, did you enjoy your little tour of your past, my lambkin?" Rosie asked as she stepped forward graciously, while Aria met her halfway as a feeling of foreboding settled upon her.
"I'm done, Rosie," Aria answered quietly, a calm, but tired look resting upon her as she remembered her murder, wishing with all her heart that her murderers hadn't condemned themselves so thoroughly, but had instead listened to her or, at the very least, had spared her life. "I want to wake up, now, and I'd appreciate no resistance from you, please. Let's make this a clean break, alright? I'm glad I could gain a better perspective, but I'm tired of seeing the spiritual fall of all who have hurt me deeply. It's such a waste and I can't help but understand a little of what British meant at the very end, even if he was so twisted about it."
"Ah, British!" Rosie said with a chuckle, a knowing grin on her face as she twirled around to admire the white roses that glowed brightly under the full moon above them. "I haven't seen a man so obsessed with his appearance since my late husband! He would always say, "Show me a man who's a snappy dresser, and I'll show you a man who pays attention to all the details!"
"Speaking of details, I found out later that the illegal rebellion that attacked my neighborhood wouldn't willingly surrender, but instead setup suicide bombers to throw at the police so that the rest of their forces could scatter and escape," Aria said sadly, wishing things had turned out differently as a sigh escaped her. "It's so senseless how many people died. I found out while asking my family members in Heaven who watched over me and my family that day. Many of the guardian angels were commanded to let that mass murder happen so that it would be just to condemn those murderers to Hell for what they did on Earth. The choice was in their hands, but they scorned my counsel as a disciple of Jesus Christ and chose to kill me and so many other innocent families, instead. Everyone murdered that day ended up in Heav-"
Then Aria stopped herself, her body freezing as she realized what she'd just admitted. She turned and looked at Rosie, who found the whole thing very funny as she was all a twitter at her expense, her black eyes glowing crimson red. Aria felt that dread deepen as she waited to see what Rosie would do now that her secret was out.
"An angel here in Hell," Rosie said excitedly, the words spoken with so much relish that it sounded almost delightfully scandalous to Rosie, making Aria wonder what she'd just gotten herself into. "Oh, the terrible and delightful tricks and folly I could play upon you just to see what you would do to keep that secret a secret! Oh, what fun!"
"Rosie," Aria warned, her face sad, but firm as she looked at the Manifest Demon evenly. "Don't."
"Don't what, my lambkin?" Rosie asked innocently as she lightly walked around Aria as her toothy, sharp smile grew fuller as she spoke. "Don't tell Alastor? I think we both know that he knows, don't you agree? Don't tell anyone else about your secret identity? Who would believe me, even if I shouted it for all of Hell to hear? Perhaps it's best to ask who specifically it is that you're afraid to reveal your true identity to."
"You promised to keep my secrets a secret," Aria stated suddenly as she remembered the song Rosie had sung as she toured her little shop. "I'm asking you as a client to keep that information private from anyone, no matter how much they may offer in return for that information. You said so in your song! Please, Rosie. Alastor spoke so highly of you."
"Ah, dear, charming Alastor!" Rosie suddenly gushed as she looked sideways at Aria, making her suddenly realize what Rosie was getting at as she blushed at the insinuation, but she said nothing as Rosie continued. "It seems you have quite a few juicy, little secrets all tucked away inside you, don't you? I can keep your secrets, it's true, but it'll come with a price. The more secrets you want me to keep, the more expensive it will be for you! Frankly, I'm not sure you can afford me, my lambkin!"
"What's your price?" Aria asked Rosie solemnly as she watched Rosie twirl her umbrella in her hands in thought before she elegantly adjusted her hat to see Aria better as a smug grin came over her face.
"A favor," Rosie answered simply, making a whole lot of red flags go up for Aria as she frowned at this, but she wasn't surprised by it.
"Sigh...no," Aria answered simply, making Rosie's smile widen with mirth as she walked away from Aria to look at the roses, again, while Aria took a deep breath, prayed in her heart, and dove right in. "I've already got my hands full with favors and I've been warned by Alastor to be careful about making deals with more than one demon. There's got to be something else I can give you in exchange for your silence."
"Well...there is one other, little thing you could give to me," Rosie said with a small, sly grin on her face as she looked over her shoulder at Aria, the demure gesture giving Aria pause as she looked at Rosie suspiciously.
"What's that?" Aria asked uneasily as she rubbed at her arm, hoping it was a better offer than the last one she'd made.
"I will keep your identity as an angel a secret permanently in exchange for the memory of Gloria's demise," Rosie offered nonchalantly as she picked up a rose, took a delicate sniff of it, and then presented it to Aria as though it were a gift. "I'm a collector of sorts when it comes to memories and her death piqued my interest. Nothing else got you out of that vile stupor you wallowed in under The Stage until you witnessed her murder right in front of you. That instant, that jolt of how fragile life is as a life was suddenly snuffed out before you...a memory like that holds power."
"What do you intend to do with my memory, Rosie?" Aria asked, but Rosie just shook her head with a knowing smile as she put a finger to her lips.
"That's my secret, lambkin," Rosie said mysteriously with a wink as she waltzed over to Aria with the rose extended as she gestured to her conversationally. "Either offer me your memory in exchange for my silence, or you can offer me an unconditional favor to be cashed in later. The choice is yours, but you shouldn't dawdle. I am still feeding upon you, after all."
"You can't be serious!" Aria demanded with heavy disappointment and fear in her tone, but Rosie just laughed as she twirled the rose in her hand playfully as Aria thought about it before asking one more question. "Will I forget Gloria if I give you my memory of her death?"
"Why, of course not, lambkin!" Rosie said with an amused tone as she put a hand on her own cheek as though surprised by how deliciously naive Aria was. "Only the impact of that memory will be affected. The copy I will be taking requires that I keep a great deal of the emotional memory behind it. It just won't stand out quite as much as it had and you'll be fully aware of why that is, given you'll be giving me this memory willingly."
"It'll be just a copy," Aria repeated, making sure she heard Rosie correctly as the demoness just smiled coyly with amusement as she nodded in answer, watching Aria with those dark, fathomless eyes. "I'll remember Gloria, but it won't be such an emotional roller coaster when I think about her death, anymore?"
"Why, it's just like a little, tender mercy when you say it like that, isn't it, my lambkin?" Rosie said jovially, making Aria suddenly feel very uneasy as she now wondered if Rosie was telling the truth or not.
"How can I be sure I can trust you'll keep your word and not just devour me?" Aria asked suddenly as that terrible feeling of dread set in more deeply into her very bones. "How can I know I won't be erased after I give you what you want?"
"If you don't trust me already, my lambkin, despite that I've refrained from just killing you outright, then answer me this," Rosie said with a deep, rich tone that spoke of juicy gossip and confidence as she leaned forward towards Aria. "Do you believe Alastor would just leave you in my hands to perish?"
"...No," Aria answered quietly, blushing with embarrassment as she realized she really believed that, making her wonder as she looked at Rosie with a disarmed expression.
"Then, I take it that you're ready to pay me in full, then?" Rosie asked good-naturedly as she offered the white rose gently to Aria with an elegant, toothy grin on her pretty face.
"I...sigh...fine," Aria finally conceded, feeling no alarm bells from the Holy Ghost as she reached out and took the rose reluctantly. "I...I give you my memory of Gloria's death in exchange for your permanent silence in regards to my identity as an angel."
"Very good!" Rosie said with excitement as her eyes glowed red with fiendish glee as Aria felt the air around her darken and pulse.
Aria felt something pull inside her mind as she felt it course through her entire body before the sensation burned on her fingertips holding the rose, making Aria shout out in sudden pain! Aria resisted the urge to drop the rose as the burning sensation intensified as the innocent, white bloom began to turn pink, then red, and then a deep, crimson hue as it still grew darker as she watched in morbid fascination. Through the pain, a dark power steadied her hand as the burning sensation eventually dissolved, leaving the rose to become a deep shade of black as Rosie gently plucked it out of her hand.
"Our transaction is complete, my lambkin!" Rosie said happily with a contented smile on her face as she took off her hat and pinned the black rose upon it, confirming to Aria that Rosie had pulled up her hair in a very pretty bun as she pinned her hat back on her head in an elegant angle. "There we are!"
"Hmm...," Aria hummed to herself as she thought about Gloria's death to test whether Rosie had kept her word and, sure enough, the memory felt dimmer and oddly lack-luster like it was just some mundane memory, unlike the emotional upheaval she'd get every time she'd thought about it. "Strange...I know what emotion should be there, but it's just...gone."
"Yes, it can be a bit like turning a colored photo into a black and white one, but the gist of what you experienced is still there," Rosie offered as she suddenly took Aria's hand, inciting a wave of uncomfortable emotions as Aria fought to calm herself and remind herself that she wasn't going to get bitten, again. "Shall we be off?"
"Wait a minute! I mean, what about...that's to say, well...um...you know...what about what my subconscious said about Alastor?" Aria suddenly blurted out, uncomfortable to the extreme as she realized she hadn't sworn Rosie to secrecy about what she'd found out at the diner!
"You know, you really should make sure all your memories are all in a row before completing a transaction with a Manifest Demon!" Rosie declared with a chuckle as Aria suddenly felt the strange sensation of floating up through thick water as she closed her eyes to ease out of the nausea and disorientation she was suffering from as she felt the weight on her spirit body shift.
The first thing she noticed was that she was back under the museum where Major and Minor were staring at her in great concern just a step or two away. The second thing she noticed was that there was the distinct feeling of teeth and lips moving away from her throat as she found herself hovering a few feet above the ground. The hovering didn't last long as Aria felt Rosie let go of her, making her catch herself with her own levitation powers before she face planted onto the white, stone floor with glowing, golden, curling veins of light.
"You're back!" Major shouted out excitedly as she rushed over to Aria and gave her a big hug, checking her over as Minor huffed and kept her distance, but Aria could tell by how fidgety she was with her clipboard and pencil that she'd been worried, too. "Oh, I knew you'd make it before your time ran out!"
"Cutting it close, don't you think?" Minor asked sarcastically, her voice betraying the intensity of her worry as the scratching of her pencil on her clipboard became incessant.
"What do you mean?" Aria asked as she rubbed at her neck where she felt two, small holes before they closed up beneath her fingers, making Aria look back at Rosie grimly, but little else, while Rosie looked positively glowing like she'd just gotten the full treatment at a high-end spa.
"Why, my lambkin, it's already well past seven o' clock back in the waking world!" Rosie piped up happily as she took out a pocket mirror from a pocket hidden in the folds of her dress as she took a good look at herself before looking incredibly satisfied with what she saw as the mirror disappeared, again.
"WHAT!" Aria cried out in dismay, the implications of what that meant making her feel a dizzying tingle shoot through her soul at the incredibly close call! "That means...I had less than five hours before I would've died!"
"Three, actually," Rosie said with a careless smirk, her hands applying a bit of make-up from a compact Aria had seen her pull out of the hidden pocket on her dress, making Aria wonder how large that pocket was. "I rounded up, since it was practically by the end of the day that you'd eventually succumb to me. It was rather close, but lucky for you, I didn't want you dead. I expected that you'd take too long to process your memories, so I found your last one for you to save time. You should thank me! You'd be dead if not for my intervention!"
"Thanks," Aria muttered sarcastically, not really sure if she should be grateful she was alive or she should be angry for almost getting erased by the very person who apparently "saved" her.
"Come, come, now, Miss Aria! Why the sour face?" Rosie asked, a light chuckle escaping her as she put away her make-up and opened up her umbrella once more. "You survived your psychological nightmares! Really, you should be commended for getting through any of it at all! You really did face a rather nasty death, by the way. It's up there in my top ten worst ways to die that I've witnessed while delving into minds, that's for sure!"
"Sigh...well, I did learn a few things while going through my worst experiences from my mortal life," Aria admitted begrudgingly, a tired sigh escaping her as she looked at Rosie with a mix of gratefulness and exasperation. "I'd rather not admit any of my epiphanies to you, however, given that it might make things too expensive for me."
"A wise choice!" Rosie acknowledged with a small chuckle as she suddenly closed the distance between them as she looped an arm through Aria's and started to escort her away from the underground archives. "Good-bye, Minor and Major! I personally hope I get to see you again!"
"Don't count on it!" Minor snapped out angrily as she stopped writing on her clipboard to glare at Rosie while gesturing pointedly with her pencil for emphasis, while Major only shook her head and giggled as she waved energetically good-bye to Rosie and Aria.
"Good-bye! I'll miss you!" Major called out kindly as Rosie led Aria back to the glowing circle that slowly rose up into the air as they began to make their way back up to the main building of the museum.
"So...what happens now?" Aria asked warily, hoping that the return trip to the waking world would be an easy and gentle transition.
"What do you mean, my lambkin?" Rosie asked with a curious smile as the lift reached the top, the sun dazzling upon them as Rosie hid once more beneath her umbrella.
"I want to go back to the waking world," Aria pointed out tiredly as she felt suddenly listless as her energy ebbed. "I hardly have the energy left to do anything else."
"I wonder why that is," Rosie said with a smirk as she shook her head and led Aria back the way they'd come as they walked through the circular entrance and weaved through the city until they reached Aria's spiritual tree once more.
"Oh Rosie, no," Aria said softly as a deep, abiding sadness spread over her as she suddenly realized why she was so very tired as she moved away from Rosie to stand between her and her beloved tree. "Don't tell me...you're still feeding upon me, even now, aren't you?"
"What makes you say that?" Rosie asked, a smile of humor gracing her lips as Aria felt the fatigue spike, making her feel dizzy as she struggled to keep her focus on the Manifest Demon.
"I shouldn't be this tired, especially since we're in the sleeping, dream, spirit world-thing!" Aria insisted as she fought to find that source of light she'd struggled to find in the deeper depths of her subconscious and found to her dismay that it was dangerously low. "My light of life inside of me is almost completely gone! You're about to drain me of my life force!"
"Aw, you caught me!" Rosie replied with a gleam in her black, abyssal eyes that left Aria feeling like something truly foul had crawled inside of her mind. "You were just so exquisitely yummy, I couldn't stop myself! Do you have ANY idea how rare it is to find anyone this rich in repressed, psychic material here in Hell? It's positively criminal how many here in Hell enjoy their worst moments like they were trophies! It was like I've been living off scraps all my life until you came along and suddenly the greatest and richest feast I've ever seen was just given to me willingly! Even your life force is tastier and longer lasting than any here I've ever feasted on! There's no way that I could ever let you go until I had utterly devoured you!"
Aria had no words to say to Rosie. She was struggling to just keep herself from falling over as another wave of dizziness hit her. She had to sit down as she walked quickly to her tree, her body leaning heavily upon it as she sat under its branches. Rosie stood in her ring of perpetual night with the wickedest grin on her pretty face, making Aria just shake her head sadly as she looked up at her with pity and disappointed anger.
"I dared to trust you," Aria murmured loud enough for Rosie to hear as the Manifest Demon stepped forward confidently, but her footsteps left no shadows of doubt this time as she sought to claim Aria's safe haven for herself, but was stopped short by a powerful shield of light that encircled it and Aria. "I dared to let you in, and this is how you repay me?"
"What did you expect?" Rosie insisted as she became embroiled in living darkness as she assaulted her barrier with enough force to make Aria feel the force of it reverberate through her very soul. "I am a demon, after all! To think you've repeated the same mistake you made with Uncle Joe all those years ago right here in Hell! It's positively laughable! Trusting a total stranger's word just...because? Oh, lambkin! You should've known that this would be your fate from the beginning when you came to Hell!"
"No," Aria whispered as she locked eyes with Rosie, making the Manifest Demon suddenly pause as the intensity of Aria's barrier grew as Aria firmly pushed against the darkness as the light around her began to blaze. "This is my realm. This is who I am. I lived through Uncle Joe and his nightmares and I endured to the very end when facing British. You're nothing compared to them!"
"What is this!?" Rosie cried out in surprise as her shadows shrank away in fear at the light, their cries small and whining as the barrier became even brighter than the sun above them! "How are you doing this!? You're almost dead! There's hardly anything left of your life force! You shouldn't be able to do this! Where is this immense power coming from!?"
"It's my shield of faith," Aria answered simply as she closed her eyes and gave into the light that began to swallow her up, too, in its warm, gentle embrace. "It's what helped me get past my hatred of bullies and to see them as people, not monsters. It's what helped me live through six months of torture and pain when I was taken prisoner under The Stage. It's what helped me endure my violent death by the hands of those I hoped to help as I sealed my testimony of the truth of The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ and that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God with my own blood. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, and that is what gives me my power to defeat you here."
The light was all that was, now, as Aria heard Rosie cry out in dismay! Aria felt Rosie's assault on her spiritual barrier disappear instantly as the telltale feeling of release passed over both of them. With a gasp, Aria awoke back in Hell, her red and yellow eyes staring at Rosie's face as the Manifest Demon retreated from her with a look of illness coming over her pretty features. Out of her line of sight, Aria heard someone vomiting in what sounded like a bucket, but Aria was only guessing as she awoke on a familiar loveseat as she found herself back where Aria and Rosie had left Alastor. To her surprise and relief, Alastor poofed in shortly afterwards as his huge smile greeted her as she sat up and smiled back.
"Well done, my dear Aria!" Alastor said with a genuine smile of approval as he and the invisible audience gave her a round of applause. "Well done!"
The story continues in the next book in the "Hazbin Hotel: The Second Fall" series titled: "Hazbin Hotel: The Second Fall: Unpleasant Company