Alastor led Vaggie and Molly into the ornately decorated grand ballroom he had taken Vaggie to earlier that week.
The room looked the same except long tables replaced the round tables that were there before giving the guests more room to walk around.
Alastor led Vaggie to a special spot next to the head of the table closest to the stage where he was sitting.
A multitude of kingpins and overlords sat themselves at the various tables and the room buzzed with their conversations.
Molly sat down next to Vaggie. Rosie sat across from them. Alastor sat down at the head of the table as the first course of the meal officially began.
The first course was clam chowder and bread.
The moth demon glared at the food in front of her. She never got this kind of privileged food even after her death, but Vaggie wouldn't take a bite.
Alastor noticed, picked up a spoonful of clam chowder, and directed the spoon towards Vaggie's mouth.
"Take a bite of food, darling," Alastor said, poking Vaggie on the lips with the spoon. "You look positively famished."
"I'm not hungry," Vaggie said, refusing to look in his direction.
Alastor turned Vaggie's chin to face him, gave her a reprimanding look, and said, "Please, eat, darling. This is good food. Remember what we spoke about earlier?"
Vaggie growled at him, but reluctantly began to eat.
Molly ate and watched Vaggie in sympathy.
Once the first course was done, Arackniss and Henroin walked over to where Alastor was sitting.
"Hello, gentleman," Alastor said, wiping the remains of soup from his mouth.
Vaggie held her water goblet in her hand and sipped nervously. Molly turned around to look at her family.
Arackniss took the cigarette out of his mouth and said, "We want to see my little brother."
"Of course," Alastor said, rising in his chair. "Come along, Molly dear."
Molly rose from her chair. Vaggie immediately did the same.
Alastor stepped behind Vaggie, gently pushed her back into her chair, and said, "Nah, ah, ah, my dear Vaggie, you need to stay here with Rosie."
"No!" Vaggie exclaimed, getting back to her feet and pushing her chair under the table behind her. "Can't I see my friend one more time before you give him away?!"
"You'll see him soon enough," Alastor replied with a chuckle.
"You're lying," Vaggie retorted. "I demand you take me to see Angel now!"
"Hmmm…" Alastor pondered for a moment, purposefully dragging out his response to annoy Vaggie more before taking Vaggie's arm. "Alright, my darling. Come along. Let's go see Angel. Rosie, would you keep an eye on our guests?"
"Of course," Rosie replied. "Have a good time!"
With a smile on his lips, Alastor walked away from the tables and walked towards the backstage with Vaggie on his arm and Spider family following behind him. They soon disappeared into the hallway going backstage.
Unbeknownst to them, the three V's noticed and noted everything.
Alastor, Vaggie, and Angel's family entered the backstage area. After walking down a short hallway, they entered a large room.
Nestled in the corner of the room in between all the antiquities, weapons, artifacts and expensive items, there was Angel sitting in a cage just big enough for him to stand up and sit down in. He was in a straitjacket with a muzzle over his mouth and black pants and shoes over his feet.
Vaggie didn't waste any time.
Swiftly, Vaggie got in front of the group, and yelled out "Angel, Alastor lied!"
Angel groggily looked up from where he was sitting in the cage and said, "Vaggie, it's okay…"
Vaggie, on the verge of tears, cried out, "No! I have to tell you! Alastor has…!"
Alastor placed a hand on Vaggie's shoulder and said, "I think it's time we left Angel alone with his family."
"NO!" Vaggie screamed as Alastor took her arm and firmly but gently began to lead her back to the ballroom while she desperately tried to pull out of his grip.
With tears of desperation of his own coming down his cheeks, Angel yelled down the hall, "Vaggie, I know! It's okay! I'll come back for you!"
"Don't lie to her, little brother," Arackniss's cruel voice said with a chuckle as he puffed on his cigarette. "That's not nice."
Angel and his brother shared a glare until Molly broke the silence.
"Angel!" Molly yelled as she dashed to the cage.
Angel smiled warmly and leaned his head against the bars so that she could give him a hug.
"Hi there, Molly," Angel said as his twin sister hugged him through the bars. "I never thought I'd see you again."
"Oh, Angel!" Molly cried. "What has that brute done to you?! Hold still! I'll remove that muzzle!"
"Nothin' I couldn't handle," Angel reassured her, turning his head so that she could remove the muzzle.
"You know I hate it when you lie to me," said Molly as she quickly unbuckled the muzzle and let it fall onto the floor of the cage. "Now, hold on. I'll untie your straitjacket…"
"No, you won't!" Henroin commanded spooking Molly into backing away. "The straitjacket stays on until we take him home."
Angel finally allowed himself to glare at his father and older brother standing in front of the cage and staring down at him.
Angel got to his feet and said, "Hey there, big shit and little shit. What do you want?"
"To see how much work we have ahead of us," Arackniss replied with a mocking smile.
Angel rolled his eyes and said, "Oh, yeah. For the therapy, right?"
Arackniss and Henroin blinked in shock for a moment before the latter asked, "How could you possibly know about that?"
"You tried it for about the first 20 years we were here," Angel retorted angrily.
Henroin sighed deeply and said in an attempted caring tone, "We were only trying to help you, son. You have something deeply wrong in your head…"
"Bullshit!" Angel snarled. "You both just want to get me out of sight and into gay conversion therapy, so I stop embarrassing you!"
Molly jumped to her feet and yelled, "How could you?!"
"It's for his own good, Molly," Henroin said. "He'll thank us for it later."
"Bullshit!" Angel retorted angrily. "Since when have you cared about what's good for me?! You just want to mold me into your image of a perfect son and zap me back to hell if I refuse!"
Henroin scoffed and replied, "If that's how you want to put it…"
"Why, Dad?" Angel replied with angry tears stinging the corners of his eyes. "Why? Why do you need to change me? Why couldn't you two just accept me for who I am? Why do you have to go out of your way to make me fucking miserable?!"
"Why do you go out of your way to make our reputation shit?!" Arackniss spat back.
Angel's mouth fell open in disbelief and he replied, "Reputation?! I don't even live with you anymore! How am I ruining your reputation?!"
"Like it or not, you're still a part of our family and your actions reflect upon us!" Arackniss yelled.
"We're tired of you running around like a tramp for that tasteless pimp!" Henroin snapped, holding onto the bars of the cage and looking into Angel's eyes. "Starting tomorrow morning, you will be undergoing some intense therapy to correct your sexual deviancy once and for all! You've been allowed to wander for far too long, Anthony! You're coming home tonight and that's final!"
"Oh, wow, such caring," Angel replied sarcastically. "Excuse me while I choke on all the crap you're spewing!"
"I can't believe you two! How could you?!" Molly yelled.
"Molly, don't you want Anthony to come home!" Henroin retorted.
"Not if it means letting you torture him!" Molly snarled back.
"It's for his own good!" Arackniss snapped desperately. "We're doing this because we care! You have been that fucking pimp's boy toy for long enough, Anthony! If you comply, you'll be part of the family again! Don't you want to come back?"
"Will you fuck off with that shit already?!" Angel snapped back. "If Alastor wasn't giving you territory, you'd be content to let me be auctioned off!"
"Be grateful we even made an offer, ingratio moccioso!" Henroin retorted, slipping into his Sicilian Italian.
"Ingratio moccioso (ungrateful brat)?!" Angel asked incredulously. "You're putting me through gay conversion therapy, and I'm supposed to be grateful? Vai a cacare!"
"Non dire cazzata, rottinculo!" Henroin spat back.
"Smettila di urlare a papa, tu cazzone!" Arackniss snapped.
"Smettila di urlare a Angel, mezza sega!" Molly shrieked back.
"Zitto, cogliona!" Arackniss yelled.
"Don't you dare fucking insult Molly, ya kiss-ass!" Angel yelled. "That goes for you too, Dad! I'm sick of both of you! I don't care if you ice pick my brain! I ain't going back to the fucking family and that's final!"
Arackniss was about to insult Angel again, but then he caught something, flashed a wicked smirk, and said, "Tell us. How did you know we were doing gay conversion therapy, Anthony?"
Angel saw Arackniss's suspicions and felt a shudder run through his spine.
"What do you mean?" Angel asked, trying to hide his nerves.
"Yeah," Henroin replied, catching on to his son's suspicions. "And how did you know Alastor gave us territory in exchange for you?"
"A lucky guess," Angel said, blurting out the first words that popped into his head.
Arackniss walked up to the bars, flashed a cruel smirk, and said, "The broad tipped you off. Didn't she?"
"Maybe," Angel lied. "Or maybe Alastor told me?"
"That seems unlikely," Arackniss replied before he puffed on his cigarette.
"Yeah," Henroin agreed, taking a few steps away from Angel's cage. "But there's only one way to find that out."
"No!" Angel protested, his eyes flashing in panic.
"So, it was the broad," Arackniss replied. "I knew it…"
Angel's eyes flashed in fear before going back to a hateful glare.
"What does it matter, Arackniss?" Molly asked.
"It matters a great deal," Henroin replied. "I think Alastor should hear about this."
"NO, PLEASE!" Angel cried out desperately. "YOU CAN'T!"
"Dad, you can't do that!" Molly begged. "You saw how that brute treated her at the front door. If he finds out that Vaggie told Angel, he's gonna do somethin' awful!"
"I know," Henroin said, staring Angel and Molly down cruelly until…
KICK!
Arackniss and Molly's mouths fell open in shock.
In his desperation, Angel had kicked his father in the groin causing him to keel over onto the floor in front of the cage. He then reached his leg through the cage and began angrily stomping his father's head into the floor.
In all his years of suffering under his father, Angel had never dared to attack him like this.
"YOU! WILL! NOT! SAY! SHIT!" Angel yelled, accentuating each word with a stomp. "You have no idea what Vaggie has suffered under Alastor! I will not let you make things worse for her!"
PUNCH!
No sooner had those words escaped Angel's lips, then had Arackniss punched Angel in the face to get him off his father.
Angel reeled back until his back hit the back of his cage and he fell onto his bottom.
"Angel!" Molly cried, pushing Arackniss aside and reaching her arm into the cage so that she could rest her hand against his cheek. "Are you alright, big brother?!"
Arackniss scoffed as he helped their father to his feet and asked incredulously, "You're really worried about him after what he did to Dad?"
"I don't feel nothin' for you two!" Molly snapped back. "You're gonna torture my twin brother!"
"You shouldn't feel nothin' for him either," Angel interjected, just managing to hop back onto his feet. What I did to him is nothing he hasn't been doing to us for our entire lives! Why do you think Molly and I left, Arackniss? It's because of Dad and his cruelty and all his bullshit that has poisoned us since the day we were born. Don't you see it? I know you do. Quit trying to deny the truth."
Arackniss looked away, desperately trying to ignore another one of Angel's attempts to make his older brother see reason.
Henroin scoffed and covered his bleeding nose with one hand before he retorted, "All I did was to make sure you fit the bill of the life you're supposed to have!"
"The life you thought we were supposed to have," Angel snarled, giving his Dad an especially pointed glare. "I don't care if you try to chisel my brain with that exterminator ice pick! I ain't changin' for you!"
Henroin shook his head in disappointment, flashed a smirk, and said, "That's what you think, son."
Just then, a shadowy figure emerged behind them before revealing himself to be Alastor.
"What's going on?" Alastor asked. "I can hear you yelling from the ballroom."
"Just some family troubles, Radio Demon," Arackniss answered first. "Nothin' we can't handle."
"Your dame told Anthony what we were planning," Henroin answered maliciously with a devilish smile as he painfully rubbed the sore spot on his chest.
Alastor's left eye twitched in shock, anger, and frustration. His smile disappeared for only a moment before it reappeared on his lips, barely concealing the rage inside.
"I see," Alastor said once he had regained his composure. "I will see to it that she is reprimanded…"
"NO!" Angel yelled in a panic, desperately reaching his head through the bars. "Haven't you made her suffer enough, you son-of-a-bitch?! Leave her alone!"
Alastor turned to the cage, flashed his signature smile, and said, "Vaggie is my bride and my wife. What I do to punish her is none of your concern."
"Vaggie's my friend! That's more than she'll ever be to you! Even if you force her to marry you, she'll never be yours! She'll always be Charlie's! You couldn't make Vaggie happy if you tried! Besides," Angel said, smirking and leaving a pause for dramatic effect. "You're not even a good kisser…"
SMACK!
Alastor crossed the room and backhanded Angel so hard that he hit the back of his cage.
"Speak in such a manner again," Alastor said, hyperventilating between each sentence while still retaining his smile. "And you'll find your tongue sliced out."
Angel smiled flirtatiously and moaned, "Oooooh, Daddy! That sounds like a fun time! Why don't you come over here and try it?"
Alastor quickly regained his composure again and replied, "I would, but I have a misbehaving wife to attend to."
Angel's expression fell in a panic as he yelled "No!" before throwing himself against the door of his cage, resulting in a loud clang against the bars.
With every sentence that followed, Angel threw himself against the door of the cage in a desperate attempt to escape.
"My hope ain't dead…"
Clang!
"you son-of-a-bitch!"
Clang!
"I don't care…"
Clang!
"…if it takes…"
Clang!
"10,000 years!"
Clang!
"I won't give up…"
Clang!
"…on Vaggie!"
Clang!
"Hey!" Angel yelled, falling backwards onto the floor of his cage.
Having had enough of his annoying efforts, Alastor finally snapped his fingers causing ankle cuffs to appear around Angel's ankles so that he couldn't attack the door of his cage anymore.
Alastor then summoned a pair of keys, handed them to Arackniss, and said, "Here are the keys for later. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go discipline my wife."
Alastor walked away, and Henroin and Arackniss looked down at Angel with condescending smiles.
"We'll be back to pick you up after the auction, son," Henroin said. "Until then, think about changing your attitude before you place yourself in even deeper shit than you are now."
"F-mmph!" Angel yelled, before the muzzle reappeared over his mouth.
The Spider Family looked over at the hallway to see Alastor standing in front of it.
"I suggest you keep all Angel's restraints on until it's time to take him home," Alastor suggested. "In fact, I demand it."
"Sure," Henroin replied. "No problem. Thanks again for all your help and your territory."
"Of course," Alastor said, gesturing down the hallway. "Now, let's return to our dinner and the rest of the auction."
Henroin instantly turned and headed down the hall.
Arackniss walked over to Molly, grabbed her hand, pulled her to her feet, and said, "Come on, Molls. Let's go eat."
"I'll be there in just a minute," Molly said, yanking her hand out of Arackniss's grip.
"I'm afraid I must insist, dear," Alastor called out from across the room. "Say your goodbyes to Angel and let's go."
"I'll make sure she leaves," Arackniss reassured Alastor. "You can go on ahead."
Alastor nodded and said, "I'll hold you to your word, my good man," before disappearing down the hall.
"Say what you need to say and come on," Arackniss said, turning and walking down the hall behind Alastor.
Molly kneeled down to Angel's level and whispered in his ear, "Don't worry, big brother. I'll get you outta here somehow. Just stay strong."
"What about Vaggie?" Angel asked.
Molly looked askance for a moment and then looked back at Angel and said, "I'll see what I can do."
Angel smiled under his muzzle and nodded.
Then without another word, Molly got to her feet and walked out of the room.