Chapter Twenty: Planning a Dance, Unraveling a Plan and Working through Feelings
"We're planning a what?" Charlie asked curiously.
"A dance. Think like yer high school prom. Except this is in the hotel. And ya can invite an outsidah as yer date, let 'em see the hotel." Angel said. He was in a pretty good mood. He was nervous, but he was going to ask Husk to the dance. They didn't know who Alastor, Niffty, Cherri, Hawk or Tina would bring. But whoever it was, they'd welcome them.
"Oh, that's really cool. Did you come up with this idea, Angel?" Charlie asked. Angel blushed slightly with pride.
"Well… I had some help. Vaggie and the othahs were workin' wit me on it. We wanna spread the word of tha hotel. Already we got a numbah of clients. But the more the merrier, right?" Angel asked. Charlie nodded. She could tell he was nervous. His accent and verbal mannerisms got stronger when he was nervous. Charlie hugged Angel, thanking him. Angel sighed, taking a deep breath.
He was trying to be calm. Charlie noticed that he was feeling anxious.
"What's wrong, Angel?" She asked kindly. Angel Dust chuckled.
"Nothin', babe. I'm fine." He said airily, waving his hand to try to shake it off. Charlie shook her head.
"So… Who are you thinking of asking to the dance?" Charlie asked. Angel shrugged.
"Prolly Husk. But I don' know fer sure yet. So many possible suitors." He teased.
"Well, whoever you ask I'm sure they'll be happy to go with you." Charlie said.
"You've been doing really well, and I'm so proud of you." The princess said, heading off to help with preparations for the dance. Whoever would be coming, Charlie wanted to make sure that the Hotel put its best foot forward. She wanted to make sure that people saw what the Hotel truly had to offer. She was already preparing a performance that the Hotel guests could put on to show off a bit for new potential guests. She was humming possible songs that they could sing for outsiders that would portray their dedication to helping people. Over the last few weeks, she'd been doing better emotionally.
She had fewer outbursts, she was having fewer nightmares. She still occasionally woke up screaming, having dreamt about being raped or about having just killed the rapists. But she was doing better.
-0-
Angel had assured her that it was a process. That it couldn't be expected to happen overnight. He and the other Hotel members were still seeing Charlie in therapy. They were doing for her what she had been doing for them for the past year and a half. They were giving back to her. Angel himself knew that he could never fully pay Charlie back. But if this one small thing, letting her talk with him, giving her the help she deserved.
If that one tiny thing would help her, then he was more than happy to do it for her. He personally felt she had nothing to feel guilty about. Those scum caked pieces of shit got off lightly in his mind. They deserved to suffer for hurting an angelic, beautiful, perfect person like Charlie. Angel wasn't attracted to Charlie, but in many ways, he idolized her. He would do anything for her. He would go into the very deepest depths of Hell and put his life on the line for her. He adored her that much.
Charlie herself knew that he admired her and that he was devoted to her. But she didn't know just how deep his devotion and admiration went. It was almost an obsession for Angel. He tried to hide it because he was afraid that she would reject him if she knew, that she would be disgusted that a filthy cum soaked piece of shit like him would even think that he was worth more than her pity.
"Aftah all… That's all it is. She jus' feels sorry fer me. She saw a down on 'is luck piece-a shit an' though I was a good person ta start her plans. I 'ppreciate her helpin' me. But I can nevah tell 'er how I feel 'bout 'er." Angel said anxiously. He shrieked in shock as he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Why can't you tell her? Starting to have romantic feelings for her?" Husk asked. Angel laughed.
"No, no… No, no, no, no… Ah'm gay. I ain't evah had feelins' fer a gal. She's pretty and nice. But I don' see 'er like that. No. I just… I don' think she'd 'ppreciate being made the object of bordahline worship fer any reason. She saved my life. She picked me up outta th' muck and shit and cum and garbage. She don't know what she means to me. She's… More like the mothah' I always wish I had. Not th' mothah' that constantly judged me fer bein' gay, or told me that I wasn' man enough ta be my father's son.
"Charlie is the mothah that accepted me despite bein' a worthless piecea shit, despite havin' spent mosta my death on my back, takin' it in my ass and my mouf sometimes too. Ah can't tell er anya that. She's proud of me. She said she is. And that's what I need ta keep goin'. If I were ta tell 'er how I really felt, she'd kick me tha fuck outta tha Hotel. I'd hafta go back ta Val and be 'is lil' bitch again." Angel said. Husk could tell Angel was feeling confused. Angry, ashamed, conflicted.
"But Ah din't ask ya here ta bitch about my own problems." Angel said.
"I wanna ask ya ta th' dance." Angel said, wringing his hands, scratching his arm anxiously. Husk was silent for a long moment before nodding.
"Sure. I'll go with you." He said, snapping his fingers in front of Angel's face and pulling a card out from behind Angel's ear, handing it to the Spider Demon. Husk had been skilled at parlor tricks as a human and he still did them now that he was in Hell. The card had a request to Angel to go to the dance with him. Clearly he had been thinking the same as Angel had been.
"Then, my sweet prince, Ah'll see ya at th' dance." Angel said, feeling relieved now. He walked away. He went over to Vaggie, who was sitting on the couch, taking a break. She was exhausted. She had been working overtime taking care of the kids. She and Charlie both were. But Vaggie was the one who was feeding them. Charlie got up to change their diapers. They both got up to cuddle with them and help them get back to sleep. Both women were overwrought, being mothers. Fortunately, Vaggie was not a first time mother. She'd done this before. She'd had twins before. She was a twin in life.
She had a twin sister that she was always very close to. So she knew how to deal with twins. He smirked at the Moth Demon.
"Ya know, ya look pretty tired. Why don't ya take a nap, babe? We can handle settin' up the party." Angel said. Vaggie looked at him suspiciously, raising an eyebrow. Angel was never this nice without expecting something in return. She knew that he'd improved over the year and a half. But he was still Angel Dust. She still didn't fully trust him.
"Oh, don't get so suspicious. Ya ain't gonna be no good if yer tired. Get yer ass up to bed. We'll take care a yer' brats." Angel said, waving off Vaggie's suspicions. Vaggie nodded and went upstairs, lying down on hers and Charlie's bed, sighing as she drifted off almost immediately. She was grateful that Angel was taking over things. So tired that she didn't hear when the doorbell rang. Angel went to answer the door. Alastor had agreed that while he was improving, he still had too fearsome a reputation to be the face of the business. He simply might scare some potential guests away.
And while Alastor wished that wasn't so, it was and he accepted it.
"Hey, babes. C'mon in. Tha 'otel is a bit cluttered right now. But ya can sit anywhere there ain't shit on." Angel said, seeing three young women who went in and sat together. One was an Adder Demon, one was a Dart Frog Demon and the third was a Wolf Spider Demon.
"Alright, where's Charlie… She's the brains of this operation, right?" The Adder asked.
"Yeah. She's takin' care of her and her girl's kids right now. Ah'm tha one ya should talk to. My name is Angel Dust. I ain't exactly royalty, but I'm her first client and I take on new guests when Charlie is busy." He said, trying to sound confident. The Frog Demon raised what would be an eyebrow if she had any.
"Okay. My name is Maddie, this is Maxine." The Frog Demon said, referring to herself and the Adder Demon.
"And this lovely spider is Mary. We're triplets. We all ended up in Hell together after a police shootout."
Maxine was speaking now.
"Ya got any cigarettes?" Maddie asked gruffly. Angel rolled his eyes. He wasn't sure these three would be a good fit for the hotel. But he was sure that he didn't look like a good fit for the hotel either when he first joined and he was doing better now… Or at least Charlie said he was. He wasn't sure if he agreed with her. But there they were.
"Nah… I gave up smokin' a while ago. Charlie's prolly gonna try to get you three to as well." Angel said.
"Still, what brings ya ladies here?" Angel asked.
"Do you mean what brings us to Hell? Or what brings us to the Hotel?" Mary asked, a light accent tinting her voice. She seemed the most sophisticated of the three. Angel suspected that whatever brought them to Hell, they did together. As triplets, they were probably inseparable.
"Eithah." Angel said.
"Well, we were confidence women in the human world. Bilked people out of their life savings." Mary said.
"Mary did the planning, Maxine did the talking, and I did the re-investing of the money. I may have also spread out on my own and robbed banks." Maddie said.
"That was what led to our downfall. We got cocky and started doing bigger and bigger con jobs. Pyramid schemes, investment fraud, insurance scams. We bilked people collectively out of millions." Mary said.
"It all caught up with us one day when we were backing out of a bank and the police were there. At least twenty people had committed suicide after we took their life savings and they were pinning their deaths on us. We went out shooting, rather'n face the music." Maxine said.
"Anywho, we ended up here." Maddie said, shrugging. Who'd have guessed, right? Angel thought sarcastically to himself.
"Yeah, yeah. Tha whole sad story. Why'dya wanna be in a hotel fer redemption?" Angel asked. Charlie may have believed that anyone could theoretically be redeemed. But Angel wasn't so sure. He usually questioned the prospective guests before he just accepted them in.
"Well… Hard as this may be to believe, we feel bad about what we did in life. We've had a lot of time to think about it. We've been down here since the late 60s." Maxine said.
"And we're not sure whether this whole hotel thing will work." Maddie said.
"But we figure that we have nothing to lose from trying it. If nothing else, we're bettering ourselves, regardless of whether it benefits us through going to Heaven or not." Mary said. They seemed to speak like that all the time, like they had a connection that allowed them to finish each other's thoughts. It was actually a bit annoying. Angel sighed.
"Well, ya ladies got any romantic partnahs? We're settin' up a dance here that'll be allowing membahs to invite outsidahs to join us so they can see the hotel." Angel said.
"We've all had past sexual partners. But none that have lasted more than a night or two. We usually rob them when they're asleep." Maddie said bluntly. Angel rolled his eyes. Charlie had her work cut out for her with these three.
"Oh, another person is coming with us as well. They're not exactly our friend. But they decided to check out the hotel with us." Maxine said.
As she said that, there was a knock at the hotel door. Angel hurried to answer it. He looked up, seeing a very tall Demon. They looked like they were at least 6'4". Not quite as tall as Alastor, but probably taller than Evan.
"Hi… My name is… Well… I've been going by the name Zaelwyn. I've been in the gladiatorial circuit for a while. I did pretty well. Maybe you've heard of me." She said.
"Wait… Zaelwyn Dibriakond?" Angel asked, standing back to let her in. She nodded.
"No shit! Yer one a the most famous gladiators in the circuit!" He said excitedly. Val bet on her. She was badly beaten up at the point and whether she won or lost, he'd had fun watching them tear each other to shreds. Zaelwyn clearly still had scars all over her body from the fights she'd endured. The truth was, she'd been a slave for almost a century. She'd been captured in Lodvik's turf and put into the gladiator circuit. She'd actually taken pretty quickly to being a gladiator and a slave.
She'd been a slave even before she came to Hell. She thought that in killing her master on earth, she'd finally be free. But then she was shot in the back and died. Hoping that in death, she'd be free, she ended up in Hell. In life, she'd made many attempts to escape. She hated her cruel master who despite many offers to buy her, he'd decided to keep her. Once she got to Hell… Well, at least she'd be free in some way. Then she was captured. She was sure she'd never be free. Then rumor spread that Lodvik had been killed by one of his lieutenants and in the chaos, many slaves escaped.
Now she was here at the Hotel. She didn't know why she thought that this was the chance for redemption for her. But Lodvik had frequently mocked Charlie's attempts to heal and redeem Demons. He frequently laughed and said that it was not only impossible, but a fool's errand to try. But now she was here. She was free. She could try to start over and do what she wanted to do.
"I don't really want to talk about that." Zaelwyn said. Angel nodded, bringing her inside and getting each of the four women a room. Charlie would be happy that her family had grown so much during her nap.
-0-
"What could they be planning. Even I don't recognize some of this mumbo jumbo. I'm over 600 years old and even in the books I've read in my father's library, I don't recognize all these symbols." Evan said, taking a long drag on his cigarette. He didn't normally smoke. But it calmed him down when he was feeling pressured. Lucifer was coming over to his place to help him do research. The data that they had found suggested a plot that was many decades if not centuries in the making which looked like it was nearing fruition. There were relatively small items.
They looked to be mostly symbolic. Items that represented the Seven Deadly Sins. A gold lion for Pride, a silver coin for Greed, a stone heart for Lust, binoculars for Envy, a spoon for Gluttony, a sword for Wrath. They seemed to be necessary for a ritual, and while the items didn't have to function in the capacity that they represented, they needed to be of fine quality and have some monetary value. For instance, the gold lion needed to be solid gold. The silver coin made sense, the stone heart needed to be precious or semi-precious stone and so on.
The objects would be destroyed in the ritual, and it looked like it was entirely possible that all the ritualists would be killed as well. It was a little bit frightening that the ones who wanted to bring about whatever this ritual did were willing to die for it. What exactly was it they were bringing about. Evan saw some mention of Satan being involved. Was he the target of the ritual? As far as Evan knew, Lucifer, who had done battle with Satan had locked him away in a temporal prison long ago in the ancient past. Soon, there was a knock at his door, which made Evan jump.
"Fuck! Who is it?"
"Lorcan, Sir. Your father is here to see you." Lorcan said. Evan sighed, clearing away the smoke and letting Lucifer in.
"Father." Evan said.
"Evan. You seem to have been researching quite a bit even before I got here. How do you keep any of this straight?" Lucifer chuckled, looking around the room and seeing piles of books everywhere.
"They're about as straight as that picture of Charlie and Vaggie in the Hotel." Evan said bluntly. Lucifer chuckled.
"How long has it been since you've slept?" Lucifer asked. Evan tried to remember. He didn't know.
"Who knows? It's been a while. I've been busy. Researching Satanic cults and all." Evan said.
"Well, maybe you should get some rest. I can do the research for now. Go get some rest and when you wake up, we can work together." Lucifer said. Evan sighed, downing another elixir. He'd been taking these for days to keep himself going. They just weren't having the same effect anymore though. They were starting to not work as well and to not work for as long. He yawned as he felt it take partial effect.
"I'll be fine. A good ol' activity elixir keeps me going most of the time." He said. Lucifer sighed. He could tell he wouldn't get Evan to get some sleep until the man actually collapsed.
"Fine. Let's get to work." Lucifer said. They went back through some old files from the warehouse, going through each of them and cross-referencing them to each other. Fortunately, Lucifer's help was just what Evan had needed.
"I can call in my research team if we need them." Lucifer said. Evan nodded absently. He'd been staring at the same piece of paper for five minutes.
"Evanthos Magne. Sleep. Now." Lucifer said, dialing up his research team on his Hell Phone. Evan sighed and went up to bed.