Vaggie waited until the couple had walked away before she rushed into the bathroom to check on Angel.
"Angel?" Vaggie asked fearfully. "Angel, are you alright?"
Vaggie heard Angel get up from his bed, use his crutches to hobble himself into the bathroom, and sit down against the wall.
"I'm better now," Angel said between ragged breaths from the other side of the wall. "I can sit on my ass again, so at least, that's something."
Vaggie sighed sadly and said, "Angel, I'm so sorry…"
"It's fine, baby girl," Angel interrupted reassuringly. "It's not your fault. Besides, I'm used to the pain. You know that."
Vaggie smiled sadly. She knew Angel was staying strong for her. He had much more inner strength than she ever realized…
"Angel?" Vaggie asked nervously. "What did Rosie do to make you scream?"
"If you must know, that slut grinded herself against my crotch," Angel said audibly shuddering. "It made me feel agonizing pain."
"That bitch," Vaggie snarled angrily. "I hate her so much. She spent the better part of the day literally lecturing me about etiquette and how I needed to follow all these 100-year-old rules to be Alastor's perfect trophy wife."
"Oh, God," Angel replied. "That sounds awful. How did you take it?"
Vaggie scoffed and said, "Not very well. I know. Big surprise, right? I've been pushing Rosie's patience all day. She and Alastor punished you in the most painful way imaginable just because I said something about Alastor she didn't like when we went shopping for dresses. I shouldn't have, but I couldn't help it. She insulted Charlie."
"I don't blame ya," Angel replied.
"Before that, Rosie made sit through a boring lunch and the same boring lecture twice in a row…" Vaggie ranted.
"Wait, twice in a row?" Angel asked confusedly.
"I drew an offensive doodle of Rosie instead of listening to her lecture the first time through," Vaggie admitted. "That's probably why they made sure to make sure to make your punishment more painful…"
To Vaggie's surprise, Angel started laughing. He laughed for a good minute eventually pushing Vaggie to begin giggling herself.
"Oh, my God!" Angel said finally taking a breath. "That's hilarious, doll. I can just imagine that look on that bitch's face. Tell me. Was she pissed?"
"Absolutely livid," Vaggie said.
"Oh, man," Angel said. "I wish I could see it for myself."
Vaggie's eye then noticed the old-fashioned vent on the ground. She got on her knees to look at it, and as she examined it, she got an idea.
Vaggie picked up the vent grating, set it aside, and looked into the shaft. It looked like it also connected to Angel's room, so out of curiosity, she reached her arm down and to the right as far as she could.
"Vaggie, what are you doing?" Angel asked.
"Angel, look into the shaft of your vent," Vaggie said. "Do you see my hand?"
Angel looked down into the vent shaft and saw Vaggie's waving hand.
"Yeah, I see it," Angel replied. "What are you doing?"
Vaggie smiled and said, "Wait a second."
She stood up, ran back to her room, grabbed the notebook off the dresser, and headed back into the bathroom.
Vaggie then tore her drawing of Rosie out of her notebook, wadded it into a ball, and stuck it into the vent making sure to roll the wadded-up ball as close to Angel as possible.
"Angel, I sent you something," Vaggie said. "Check it out."
Angel opened the vent on his side, leaned over with his one good arm, picked up the crumpled paper ball, unfolded it, and started laughing hysterically.
Vaggie chuckled with him and asked, "You like it?"
"Vags," Angel said. "This is absolute gold!"
"Well, I had to do something to stay awake," Vaggie said laying back against the wall. "That lecture was so goddamn boring! You should have heard the nonsense she was spouting then and while she made me try on all those old clothes at the store."
"Did you take any real notes, babe?" Angel asked.
"Yeah, do you wanna hear Rosie's bullshit etiquette advice?" Vaggie asked with a smile in her voice.
"Fuck yeah," Angel said. "It ain't like we have anything better to do."
Vaggie picked up her notebook, turned the page to her notes, and read out loud in as posh a tone as she could muster, "Shoulders back, feet flat on the ground, back straight…"
"It sounds like she said that a lot," Angel interrupted.
"You have no idea," Vaggie said making her aggravation clear through her voice.
"Oh, do tell me more," Angel teased.
"Maintain your beauty and your personal appearance to your husband's taste," Vaggie read. "As a wife, you owe it to your husband to remain pleasing to him to retain his respect and his love."
"Jesus Christ," Angel muttered with a chuckle. "Are you his wife or his employee?"
"That's what I said," Vaggie retorted.
"Keep going," Angel goaded.
"A lady doesn't eat like an animal," Vaggie continued reading. "She uses her cutlery and her manners."
"Fair point," Angel replied. "Fair point, but you don't eat like an animal anyway. Why the hell does she need to teach you that?"
"I don't know," Vaggie said in frustration. "She yelled at me for not properly introducing myself as Alastor's fiancée. "God! You should have heard her lecture me on modesty!"
Angel scoffed and said, "You? Modest? Was she serious?"
"She was dead fucking serious," Vaggie replied with a groan before she read from her notebook again. "'Ladies do not use profanity. It is unbecoming. Do not raise your voice unless you're spoken to and given permission by your husband. Do not make your feelings known. It is a mark of good breeding to suppress undue emotion, whether of disappointment, of mortification, or laughter, of anger, or of selfishness in any form. Do not make any vulgar comments. Don't laugh too loud...' Oh, my God!"
"That shoulda killed ya," Angel said.
"It almost did," Vaggie replied. "I had to stay calm or Alastor would have made me watch his familiars hurt you again. No, the shopping is what killed me. She only let me pick out these old ass dresses from the '30s…No offense."
Angel cackled and said, "None taken."
"I wanted another dress, but she ripped it away from me because of Alastor's dress code," Vaggie continued sadly. "God, I couldn't believe it. It's something that seems so petty, but it was so humiliating. It was like I wasn't even a person. It's hard to explain..."
"It's like you only existed to be someone else's object? Like you didn't have a will of your own? Like your only purpose was to please an asshole you don't even care about?" Angel replied with unexpected sorrow behind his voice.
Vaggie fell silent.
"Believe me, babe," Angel continued. "I know exactly how you feel. That was my whole fucking life."
"It was?"
"Yeah, my father was the same. He had a rule for everything. I was a son of the don. I had no choice. I lied about being the firstborn son earlier, but I still had a role I had to play and hated every minute of it. I had to be fucking perfect for his goddamn mob, and he hated me when he realized I wasn't his perfect son like Arackniss was. That I was a fag. He tried to change me. My mother kept him back until she died. God rest her soul. But then, he went into overdrive. He poured all his hatred into my big turd of a brother and made him hate me, too. The two of them did all they could to control my life. The only one I could talk to was Molly, but she was losing her mind. I was too until that night I overdosed. I tried to do all he asked, but not a fucking thing I did was ever good enough for him."
"Oh, my God. Angel, I had no idea."
"I don't exactly like to talk about it. Why do you think I'm strung up most of the time? It's funny. I've stayed away from both their asses for the past 73 years only for me to become the property of another no-good motherfucker…"
"Valentino?"
Angel paused with a sad smile and said, "You really do know everything."
"You are the most popular porn star in all of Hell," Vaggie said.
"More like the most popular prostitute and slave to the most powerful pimp," Angel said with a scoff. "God, you think I would have figured it out after the first time. I've fucked up enough for both lifetimes. I'll be much happier when I'm in heaven with my ma, finally on good terms with God, and have a dimension separating me and all those other fuckers."
Vaggie remained quiet for a moment before flipping to a blank page, writing on the blank page, tearing it out, folding it up, and slipping the slip of paper to Angel through the vent.
Angel reached into the vent, picked up the piece of paper, and read: "Charlie and your mother would be so proud of you."
Angel smiled and felt an unexpected tear come to his eye as he said, "I love you too, Vaggie."
Just then, Vaggie heard a door open and the sound of a cart being pushed in.
"Angel?!" Vaggie asked nervously.
"There's nothing on my end, babe," Angel said. "It's on yours. Just stay right here next to me."
Vaggie sat next to the wall nervously. But just as soon as the cart rolled in, the noise stopped, and the door shut and locked again.
"It's gone," Vaggie said. "But I need to investigate."
"Vaggie, I'd rather you didn't," Angel pleaded.
Vaggie stood up and said, "I have to get out of this bathroom eventually. Besides, I think I know what it is."
Before Angel could protest, Vaggie exited the bathroom and saw the cart before her. It was just a simple dinner cart with a large bottle of water and a plate of food covered by a silver lid. She lifted the tray and saw a dinner plate of Southern comfort food. Fried chicken, fried okra, green beans, and macaroni and cheese.
"What?!" Angel exclaimed in surprise.
"What is it?" Vaggie asked anxiously as she picked up her tray and carried it to the bathroom.
"Another smoothie like the one Alastor drugged me with earlier just appeared out of nowhere," Angel said. "Must be my dinner."
"Dinner?" Vaggie said angrily. "Alastor gave me a tray of food. Why isn't he giving you anything to eat?"
Angel scoffed and said, "Isn't it obvious, doll? Alastor has me on a liquid diet. He's trying to starve me to make me weaker and more compliant. I know it. Valentino has used this method of torture on me before."
Vaggie furrowed her brow and said, "Wait a second."
Angel complied setting his smoothie down on top of the toilet lid as he settled back in his spot.
Angel then heard the sound of another paper ball being rolled in his direction through the vent. He looked down into the vent, picked up the ball, and unwrapped the paper to find a fried chicken drumstick.
Without a second's hesitation, Angel scarfed down the chicken until the bone was picked clean.
"Thanks, Vaggie," Angel said.
"There's more where that came from," Vaggie said crumpling up more paper balls of food for Angel. "But you need to give me back the bone first."
"Why?" Angel asked confusedly.
"So that Alastor doesn't suspect anything because of a missing bone," Vaggie replied.
Angel smiled, rolled the bone back into the paper, rolled it back to Vaggie in the vent, and said, "You're quite the clever bitch. I underestimated ya."
"Well, you don't survive being a prostitute in the slums of El Salvador by being stupid," Vaggie said picking up the paper ball with the bone and rolling some okra in a paper ball back to Angel.
"So, you really were a whore, huh?" Angel said picking up the paper ball and unwrapping it to find okra inside. "I'm sorry. I just can't imagine you letting any douchebag do you for money."
"I was a very different person six years ago. I'm not exactly proud of it," Vaggie said preparing more paper balls for Angel. "Make sure you leave no trash. I don't wanna imagine what Alastor and Rosie would do should they find out about any of this."
"Gotcha," Angel said. "Just like dumping a stash of drugs in the old days."
Angel scarfed down his food, threw the paper in the toilet, used toilet paper to sweep up any crumbs that were left, threw that away, and flushed the toilet.
"Good work," Vaggie said as she finished rolling the last paper ball of food. "I'm almost done rolling all the paper balls. Get ready."
"Thanks," Angel said. "And for the record, I was a very different person too about 73 years ago."
After doing some quick math, Vaggie replied, "1947?"
"Yep," Angel replied. "2014?"
"Yes," Vaggie said opening the vent to roll all the paper balls to Angel. "Get ready, Angel. I'm sending the food over now."
"You're a saint, Vaggie," Angel said. "I don't know how to thank ya."
"Keep recovering until we can escape," Vaggie replied rolling the paper balls through the vent. "That'll be thanks enough. That, and maybe, start taking your redemption work at the hotel more seriously."
Angel scoffed as he picked up all his paper balls and said, "I tracked you down here, got captured trying to save you, and still insisted on not leaving without you even though I was given the chance to escape. Doesn't that count for anything?"
Vaggie paused for a moment as she settled in on her side to eat her half of the food before she replied, "You know what? I think you're right. You just might be closer to repentance than I thought."
"Awww, what a sincere compliment," Angel retorted facetiously. "I'm flattered."
"Don't get used to it," Vaggie replied sarcastically prompting Angel to chuckle to himself before they both returned to eating her food.
The pair ate in silence until all the food was devoured and Angel had properly cleaned up his side and re-covered his vent.
When they were done, Angel asked, "Did you get enough to eat, babe?"
"Yeah," Vaggie replied placing the last of the bones on her plate and covering the vent. "Don't worry about it."
Vaggie stood up, exited the bathroom, and replaced the platter on the cart. As soon as she did, the cart magically sped away. The door opened by itself to let it out, then locked itself again once the cart was gone.
Vaggie sighed as she sat on the bed to figure out what to do next. That was when she noticed the book The Taming of the Shrew sitting on the vanity. Not having anything better to do, Vaggie picked up the book and carried it to the bathroom.
"Guess what I found on my vanity?" Vaggie asked.
"The Taming of the Shrew?" Angel asked.
"Yep," Vaggie replied unenthusiastically. "I must have held on to it when Rosie was dragging me up here."
"That, or Alastor is being about as subtle as a bat to the face," Angel replied with a scoff.
Vaggie snorted and replied, "No kidding. Do you want me to read it to you this time?"
"Sure, I don't mind hearing it," Angel replied standing up. "I can translate the bits you don't understand. Just wait a moment for me to grab my pillow and blankets. Sitting on this floor is murder."
"Alright," Vaggie replied standing up and heading into her room to do the same thing.
Vaggie grabbed her blankets and pillows and set up a bed on the floor right next to the vent.
When she turned away to brush her teeth, Angel asked, "What are you doing, babe?"
"I made a bed, so I could sleep closer to you," Vaggie said picking up her toothbrush and turning on and off the sink to make it wet before she put on the toothpaste.
"Awww, you do have a soft side," Angel gushed.
"Shut up," Vaggie said turning away to brush her teeth amidst Angel's chuckles.
When Vaggie was done, she shut off the light and settled into her bed. Angel did the same in his while Vaggie began reading the play from the last place they had left off.