His legs shook, knees wobbling and threatening to drop all of his weight onto the floor the moment his guard was down and he had to lean against walls, grab at corners to keep his shaking legs from giving out from underneath him. He was trying to keep himself from swaying on his aching feet but Angel Dust truly couldn't stop his hands from shaking as he got his room door open, stumbling inside then shutting the door leaning against it. He slid down to the floor leaning against the door, the handle just inches above his head as the spider looked across the room to his vanity. He'd be expected to clean himself up, to make himself presentable for the next shoot, but the spider found his arms too weak to even want to drag his body across the floor and he gawked openly at the large mirror that reflected Angel's face right back at him making him want to drop his own eyes in shame. There as something degrading in the tears that had raced down his cheeks making his mascara run down his white fur, something in the matted wet fur around his chin and the corners of his lips from his drooling and there was something shameful in the glazed look in his eyes. There was a denial surging inside of him, that this image wasn't him and that he couldn't look this close to falling apart, but there it was. There HE was. Damn, the shit Valentino had given him wasn't strong enough for him and the damn pimp knew it! Angel watched the anger flicker in his blank eyes for a moment, the stirring of life making his fingers twitch against his thighs and his phone vibrated on the vanity with a rattle that had him blinking sluggishly.

What no one ever seems to talk about in the porn industry was the fatigue that could chase and dog a person. Not every actor had to be involved with so many movies but Angel? Well, he had a full schedule nearly every other week due to the high demand for his "movies" that Valentino was constantly pumping Angel for more, more, more. It was that treatment that Angel wondered how much longer he could handle this full schedule of his and he watched another sluggish blink in the mirror when his phone rattled against the vanity once again insistently making him groan as he shifted forward rolling his weight onto his knees before crawling forward. It felt like he was lugging dead weight on his exhausted bones, something Angel wanted to shed off but as he approached his vanity hiss shaking arm lifted upwards feeling around for the smooth glass face of his phone against his finger tips and he groaned at the stretch in his muscles. It had his back dipping downwards in a long stretch that made his agonized muscles scream but the stretch was so good. He slid his fingers against his phone dragging it off the vanity, his fingers clutching it tightly and fiercely as he brought it down to his lap as he let out a long breath as he settled himself against the drawers of his vanity then fixed his tired eyes onto the screen of his phone. There on the screen as a single text from Velvet, the red words glowing on his phone screen, calling for Angel to go to the lobby to meet with her so she could escort him to Valentino's office.

Angel hadn't been in the moths office in years. The last time -which had been his second time ever being in there- Valentino had beaten Angel down both physically and mentally for offering out his services for others on the street as a sort of double income and Valentino had been outraged that one of his upcoming actors was offering services outside of HIS choosing. Other than that the spider hadn't had a single reason to be called to the office for anything. He'd done his part, worked his body to it's boiling point and had continued working hard during those early years and Angel ahd gone above and beyond for the moth alone when it came to making his movies or dancing at the club the moth owned, leaving no room for any reason to be called to the room. He had done his absolute best to never have a reason to be back in that office. He felt icy throbs in his stomach which twisted as he stared at the text for a minute or so longer as he pulled himself onto his shaking legs, his breathes coming quietly and quickly as he rubbed at his eyes to remove the residual wetness from his tears and he wondered just what it was that he had done to be called to that office. He had done everything, anything, for Valentino. When the moth said jump, Angel leaped; when the moth said down, Angel was on his knees before the words finished leaving his lips. Angel did anything, everything, and nothing when Valentino asked him in that order. So why did he have to go to that awful office?

Angel took a deep, stuttering breath as he began walking on his quivering legs towards the door again but unlike a few moments ago there was something urgent pushing him forward. He wanted nothing more than to get this little meeting over so he could finish filming his last scene of the day and get back to the hotel where Charlie would no doubt help pamper him just a bit, especially after he had handed her his schedule for the week and he knew that she would help him with some self-care. Angel always liked it when he practiced some self-care with Charlie, it honestly helped take some edge off watching the princess applying a face mask on with clumsy fingers before turning towards Angel with smears on her fingers and alng her eyes in clumsy lines making him laugh. There was rare moments of genuine laughter from Angel but Charlie could do it in a heartbeat, just by being herself, and Cherri drew the good side of him out naturally when they spent their allotted time just hanging out and Angel knew that if he just got through this last scene then he'd be able to run home. And if anything, depending on how he felt after Val, maybe Angel would talk to Alastor. He had tried so many times in the past week but the words, always bubbling on his tongue and building in his throat, would wither away the moment he caught sight of those red eyes waiting. Staring pleasantly at the spider like they were about to engage in a convenient conversation and it would spook the spider away from the deer demon. Angel knew that Alastor was just as menacing as Valentino was and yet he found himself fearing the moth right now much more than he feared Alastor.

He dragged himself onto his legs which quivered underneath the weight of his body but no longer shaking wildly like they had been moments ago and yet his knees still felt like they had been filled with liquid as he shuffled towards the door again, his phone held tight in his hand, his body protesting the movements. His ass throbbed, his hips ached, his stomach was bruised from the roughness of being slammed into a damn desk, table and the arms of his partner merely lifting him upwards during their shooting; he felt like someone had run him over with a car, healed him up just enough to hide the worst of it but left him in agony. That's what it felt like. Taking another stuttering breath Angel reached the door, tugging it open as he stumbled out into the hallway letting his breath out as he curled his arms against his battered stomach carefully and he bit at his lip wondering, debating, if what he had to do was as serious as it had to be. Because he could say fuck it. He could say goodbye for the day. He could leave. Valentino had never said it out loud but if someone wanted to leave they did it the hard way which is why many decided sneak out. Many would go running out the back doors, not looking back and hiding out for a few days so Valentino could calm down and give them less of a severe punishment. Angel had never ever left that way. So that's why, catching himself eyeing the back door as he inched towards it with his phone held tight in his hand, he found the idea appealing. Enlightening even. Could his legs carry him that far though? They were shaking just supporting his weight and his body ached. He knew he could run as far as he could get, call Charlie if he had too, and get her to come get him.

He could do it. He could do it. His heartbeat was a quiet, muted drum in his ears as he began walking backwards slowly towards the back door of the hallway leading to the fire escape of the building and he began to go a little faster when no one popped out shrieking at him to stop and he spun around rushing for the door now. His heart was thudding against his chest, not fast just hard solid thuds that had his stomach squeeze in on itself when his phone vibrated against his thigh. Faster. He had to go faster without running. His shaking legs had him stumbling as he rushed for that door, his breathes coming quickly as he considered just what it is that he was doing; running away. Angel Dust was running away. He reached that door slamming it open with both of his hands and crashing down the fire escape with zero hesitance for silence but Angel didn't care for it as his breath came quickly and he about shrieked as he sprang down those stairs and began smiling to himself with excitement. He was running away! He knew that Velvet's texts would be demanding his presence with each vibration, he knew she would be angry and that Valentino would be rip-shit to see Angel gone but the spider couldn't slow down as he ran down those metal stairs that clanged under his heeled boots. His shaking legs threatened to buckle underneath him each time he stepped down but he kept himself upwards as he raced down the final step of metal stairs before launching himself forward onto the ground laughing to himself as he ran towards the entrance of the Studio's parking lot knowing that if he got to the other end where the entrance was he'd be in the clear. He forced his legs into a run as his breath rasped, scraped his throat on it's way in and out in excitement. Anticipation.

He had never done anything like this before, never taken off when Valentino was waiting for him but there was a freedom in just running away from the situation altogether that had Angel's legs pumping him across the parking lot towards the taste of freedom. He whooped loudly listening to echo around him as he streaked towards the entrance, the sound of his name being shouted from somewhere behind him was a ringing distance away, untouchable to him as he ran across the parking lot towards his self-care, towards people who could possibly care for him and he ran for himself. To get himself away for just one day, to get himself one step at a time to a break and he was smiling widely as he neared the entrance which had to be only a handful of steps way as he ran towards it. He laughed again only the sound was strangled in his throat when he spotted something out the corner of his eye; something he wished he hadn't noticed. There was Valentino bursting out of the doors, his red eyes outraged as they landed on the running form of Angel Dust. The moth shouted his name in a deep commanding way that had to pull his vocal cords taut and Angel's breath gasped out in a rush that left his chest caving in on itself from the pain of such a command. His feet twisted together throwing him to the ground of the parking lot, his arms outstretched in front of him just inches away from his freedom when he noticed the red smoke streaking across the ground like a snake as it wrapped it's burning hot presence around Angel's leg making him howl. Howl in pain, in outrage, and in fear as he was dragged across the parking lot ground away, far far away from his freedom. And right when he had been so close.

Staring upwards the deep red pentagram in the sky, the one for which this city got it's name for, was a pale red. Almost as if it was mimicking the pale light of the moonlight on Earth. Angel wished he knew what time it was so he could gather his wits, get himself up and getting back to the hotel but he didn't have a watch and his phone had been smashed so time meant little to nothing to the spider as he stared up at the pale red pentagram. Was the city always this quiet? Or was it because his very being, his very center, was silent? He didn't know but there was a few things of which he was certain and it was that the roof of the Studio's was smoother than the ground outside but the blood splatters dried into the cement of this roof was an all too visible sign of Valentino's grip on his actors and Angel, after having run, had never thought he'd be dragged up here after those early days. Yet here he was, laying on the blood splattered roof of the Porn Studio's, the cold wind tugging at his fur and hair like playful fingers while his body burned from the chilled air moving across him as he laid there staring upwards. His eyes were wet, sticky from the tears that had been shed and his throat was raw from the promises and bargains he'd tried to scream out in order to make the agony, the torture, to stop. It's all he'd wanted; for everything to just stop. And here he was laying out broken because of a simple want. Now all he wanted, all he needed to do was to get onto his feet and get to Charlie's place.

He knew the hotel couldn't hide him away from Valentino but it had come to feel somewhat safe to the spider, what with the terrifying Alastor sitting within the hotel's depths and the princess of Hell herself standing between her sinners and their bad habits. She always stood in the way of her sinners and their horrible choices, Hell she'd done it for Angel so many times now that the spider knew he owed her many times over for her protective nature. Even Vaggie was protective over the patrons of the hotel, and as much as the two of them bickered he really did enjoy the moth girl's presence much more than he'd admit to her but he knew exactly what she would do if she could see him laying here. He knew what Charlie's reaction would be if she saw how broken he was, laying on a frigid ground with his body screaming pain if he so much as twitched a finger or wiggled his foot. Angel wanted nothing more than to get up and rush off of this blood splattered roof down to the fire escape nd to run, never looking back until he got home and he knew he'd do it. But the curling, twisting red smoke filtering up to the dark sky had the spider frozen still against the cold ground beneath him with his eyes trained on that smoke while his ears remained ever ready to hear Valentino move, stand or leave. He just wanted to go to the hotel. He wanted to curl up in bed and forget his stupid actions. Angel had never, in his afterlife, felt such pain since his overdose but here he was on a ground in an agony worse than his death, on a ground wishing he'd never existed. Laying on a ground feeling lower than the dirt itself, just like his father used to say. Used up and abused, was all his father said to him when they would fight and he knew Henroin wasn't a man to change his opinion no matter what Angel did or how hard Angel tried.

Angel had tried so hard for love. Had tried so hard to get his parents to love him the way they did his twin and his elder brother but he always felt it, always saw it, that they loved him differently and loved him so little that he ran to the first man showing the slightest bit of that love he had been trying so hard to find. That was his problem; he was always wanting love, even now as he laid in an agony ridden shell of a body, Angel still wanted to know that Valentino wouldn't throw him away by tomorrow morning and he knew he was going to grovel for that assurance if he parted his lips. If he spoke, if he met those red eyes, that would be the end of his control that he was biting down and swallowing in heaving gulps to keep the tears at bay. He had, at one long ago point, wished Valentino would love him and after the seduction, after the words and papers were signed, Angel had hoped to win the moths heart only to find there was no heart to win and he felt his own break yet again because of this stupid hope he had. Now all he wanted was to pick himself up, go home, and get some sleep before having to ever come back to the Studios. He already knew that once the moth stood, once he started walking, Angel could get up and go home. That was all he wanted, so surely Valentino could grant that one wish for him. The one unspoken wish he had, a hope to get home to someone who showed him a smidgen of care and Angel knew he would greedily accept the attention showered on him from Charlie then the next day he would push her away, like he always did stupidly. A lot of his actions were stupid.

All because of his stupid over bloated sense of importance. Look at him! Being jealous, envious over Charlie and Vaggie's happiness, wimping out talking to Alastor the past week or so just because he knew he'd be talking out his ass to the Overlord who would just see right through it anyhow. The Overlord would see right through him, just like he always did, and Angel would feel himself shivering under that red gaze of the deer demon's and he would avoid the man for the next week or so like he always did when he tried to confront Alastor and he knew that was the reason he hadn't spoken to him since the elevator scene. He was a man who had survived merely on empty threats, talking out hat tricks and charming those he had too and all for what? TO be some other guys stupid bitch? He sniffed through his nose, the sound clogged and wet with the tears that streaked down his temples which he instinctively raised his hands to cover away from the two silent Overlords somewhere on the rooftop with him while he sniffled into his hands as those hot tears streak downed his temples. The sobs came out as great, harsh shoulder bouncing sniffs into his palms as his eyes refused to clear no matter how many times he blinked he still saw the same waving sky and smeared pentagram glowing down at him each time he stared up through his fingers before pinching them closed once again. His lower lip trembled while he cried as quietly as he possibly could but he knew Valentino and Velvet could hear him from over there, knew they heard him crying to himself and they probably knew just how painful it was too dissolve like this. No, there was no probably about it, they knew it caused him pain to sob quietly into his hands.

This was, after all, the effect that they wanted to get from the great high and mighty Angel Dust. They wanted him to cry and they got their wish. He rolled onto his side whimpering to himself at the pain spearing through his ribs but he had to do this, he had to do it for what else was there for him to do but beg? He rolled himself slowly, painfully, onto his hands and knees with his first pair of hands hiding his wet face away from the Overlord's view while he leaned on his second pairs of hands. "Val." He keened out the Overlord's name into his wet palms, sniffling. "Val?"

"What do you want, Angel?" Valentino's voice, cruel as ice and yet deepening in the expectancy of the words that would be flying out of Angel as the spider began to slowly crawl forward towards the moth, wobbling as he did so and the pimp tilted his head staring down at the spider. "You know what I think you're problem is? You think you're untouchable, that you're my number one star and that no one can say or do shit to you. Well, Angel, that ain't the fucking case as much as it used to be because I've got many different actors all ready to jump the moment I snap my fingers but you? You run away. Why should I keep you, hm?"

"Val, I'm sorry, I fucked up! Please, don't do that! Please!" Angel's soft voice turned into a desperate shriek as he crawled towards the moth's feet, red smoke curling around his throat as he rested his head against the moth's knees as he softly sniffled into his hands and squeezed his eyes shut. He wanted to get away from Valentino yet he was terrified, horrified even, at how hopeless he was without him. Valentino didn't need Angel but Angel needed Val. God, he hated to admit it but he truly did need the moth. "I promise, I'll never ever do something this stupid ever again! I promise! When you call for me from the hotel I'll come and if you want me right that second I'll drop what I'm doing but you have to understand I'm sorry! Please, Val, I'm sorry I did what I did this afternoon. You know I'm no good out there, I'm no good and I know nothin' but you! Please!" He grabbed the moth's pants tightly in his hands, moving his hands to look up at Valentino with fear fluttering in his chest so intensely that he wanted to shriek louder but instead hid his wet face into Valentino's thighs sniffling again. "Don't get rid of me, Val, please! It was stupid, I was stupid! Please!"

He could feel the satisfaction oozing off of Valentino at the sight of the spider groveling on his very knees, a reaction that made Angel sick to have to resort too and yet he had too. His words were true after all. How would he survive without Val? Honestly? He was all talk in wanting to get away from the moth but in the end what would he do? Where would he go? How would he survive on his own? Those uncertainties, the doubts inside of himself, were what kept him crawling back to Valentino even on his worst and hateful days but now he wept into the moth's pants as he squeezed his second pair of hands into fists on the ground until the nails bit into his palms. Then he felt a hand on his hair as he sniffled, keening out a low sound as the hand stroked his hair softly. "Angel?"

"Yes, Val?" Angel's voice was quiet, like a child being punished and Angel squeezed his eyes shut knowing this wouldn't be the end of his punishment nor the end of his humiliation. He hated this but he needed Valentino to support him, he hated this but he knew that honestly he was nothing without Valentino. He'd be back to a life of petty crime work for his father or being a mule for his father's business like he had been when he'd been alive and he didn't want to go back to the bottom of the food chain like that; so if this meant he had to grovel and beg he would. If he had to overwork his body doing shoots, he would. If he had to bend over backwards to his heels, he'd do it. He just couldn't afford not to be kept, couldn't afford to be thrown out to the seas of uncertainty and doubts. He'd leave Val, he would! He just...couldn't right now. Not now. Not yet. It wasn't a good time in the slightest bit to leave. The fingers on his hair drew him out of his thoughts making him sniffle. "Val?"

"Angel, promise me you won't ever do this. From here on out when I say jump?"

"I jump."

"When I say run?"

"I'll run."

"If I say don't leave until you're fucking finished with your shoot," The fingers threaded through his hair tightened until they gripped the white locks so painfully that Angel cried out as his head was ripped backwards from the moth's thighs making Angel scream in pain. "Then you fucking listen to me! You got it? I own you, Angel Dust. You are mine. And you will put a good show, a good performance of absolute obedience to me and me alone for the other sluts, do you hear me? I don't want to ever see this kind of behavior in you ever again. You got it?" Angel whimpered as the moth tugged his hair fiercely with his words, the fingers pulling at his hair as though the moth wished to rip it from the rooms and Angel wailed when the Moth pulled until it came just short of ripping a fistful out and the spider's hands flew upwards to grip the moth's arm tightly. Desperately. "Do we understand each other, Angelcakes?"

"Yes, we do! I get it!" Angel screamed out as the fingers continued pulling, pulling, pulling at his hair as if they were itching to rip them from the roots at that moment and had Angel been paying attention he would have felt the hand shoving him down as the knee came up hitting the top of Angel's forehead against the boney knee and leaving the spider to see stars. His smeared vision danced with them as the fingers slid away from his hair and the moth walked around the swaying spider as he flopped forward holding the throbbing spot of his forehead desperately. He barely heard the moth snap at him to clean his face off had he not heard it echoed from Velvet's lips as the Overlord followed the moth after lightly tapping Angel's back with her foot before those little feet raced off to catch up with the moth and the clanging of the roof door rang out in the cold air crisply.

Angel hated the reality of this situation. A situation that, at this moment, proved him to be weak and powerless against the pimp. Powerless, insubstantial when compared to an Overlord 's perspective and perhaps it was this quiet, little realization that had kept him away from Alastor the past few days. He knew he could scream and threaten the deer to keep quiet but he also knew that he would be left in a position like the one he was in right now; on his knees begging for mercy, for forgiveness for his harsh words. And it made him feel sick. He new that an Overlord could kill him without so much as batting an eye and he would be forgotten about in the next moment alone. Alastor could threaten him just as well as Angel could but he knew Valentino would maim him to the point of disability and that he would be forced to live like that for the rest of his life. There was stark differences between Overlords and Angel saw the difference between the deer and the moth. Angel slowly moved himself from his position, his knees digging painfully into the ground and he rose to his feet. His legs, like before, shook underneath his weight as he walked towards the door the moth had walked through just minutes ago and he took a deep breath as he made his way there. He took a deep breath through his stuffy nose, threw his shoulders back and lifted his head while he straightened his back as he curved his second pair of arms over his stomach just beneath his chest fluff. He could do this. He would do this. And he'd get home at any cost.