Okay, I'm not gonna lie; I enjoyed putting Dorkus in here more than I should have. I know he definitely wasn't a concept character, and has a rather small role in the actual show as well, but he's one of my favorite secondary JTS characters. Other than Lucius, I see Dorkus as a stand-in father figure type character in Heloise's life. I know the show makes a point to show her being rather cruel to him but I always inferred that he had some sort of fatherly/guardian type relationship with her, seeing as they live together and he's a fully grown man and she's only 14 years old; and the fact that he's a pretty nice guy (despite being incredibly lazy as an assistant). Plus he's just so small and adorable. How could you not like him?

Chapter 10

All Settled In

"*Moan* Ugh when is this going to be over? This is torture."

"Shhhh, Beezy, I wanna hear the tour guide." Jimmy turned back toward the female monster guiding the group toward another building.

"But it's so early, and my feet are killing me. I've never walked this much in my entire life." The large red monster moaned.

"Aw, c'mon Beez, don't you want to know all this cool stuff about Miseryville?" Jimmy unfolded the pamphlet that the tour guide had given them. "It says here that Miseryville was founded over 10,000 years ago, by Lucifer Heinous the First. Whoa Beezy, that must be your great-great-great-great-great-granddad."

"Fascinating…" The large red devil monster feigned interest as he rubbed his eyes and yawned. "So remind me why we had to get up so early again? The suns are barely up."

Jimmy's face was still buried in the pamphlet. "I told you dude, we have a lot to do today, so we had to start extra early to pack everything in. After this, we're gonna check out the park and the forest. Then tomorrow maybe we can visit Miseryville's mountains, and then the beach!"

Jimmy was practically bouncing up and down from anticipation. The Guide to Miseryville pamphlet that the tour guide had given him was full of places to visit and things to do.

Beezy tried to keep his eyes open as he dragged himself along with Jimmy and the touring group of monsters. He had passed all these places and buildings hundreds of times before, but he never knew the history behind them. Not that he really cared though.

"So is there anything in there about getting something to eat?" The monster asked as he held his empty stomach. Jimmy had shaken him awake and pulled him out of his house without even letting him eat breakfast first.

"Yeah it says right here," The boy pointed to a page at the end of the pamphlet. "The Best Restaurants and Food Sites: Serving Monsters for Thousands of Years. We could totally go to some of these. They look really good."

Beezy bent over and looked at the different places to eat. "Well at least that pamphlet's good for something."

"Let's go, we're falling behind." Jimmy grabbed Beezy's arm and pulled him faster toward the tour troop.

"-And over on your left you'll see Miseryville's Official Sports Stadium. Used originally by Lucifer Heinous The First as a venue where monsters were forcibly pitted against each other in duels to the death, it's now used for pretty much that exact same thing, but sometimes on the weekends Lucifer VII allows soccer matches. The Misery Inc. Clones have never lost a match. And over here, you'll see-"

Jimmy drifted in and out of the tour guide's words. He was too busy memorizing everything about Miseryville. The pamphlet said Miseryville was the only populated place on the entire planet. Everything else was just volcanic rock, mountains, and ocean. "Huh, that's weird."

"-And right over here, you'll see Miseryville's downtown district. It has hundreds of buildings for entertainment, shopping, food, business, and much more. Considered the least miserable spot in the city, it's perfect for unwinding after a long day of depression and self-loathing." The tour guide stopped walking and turned to face the group. "Well that concludes our tour of Miseryville. Please feel free to ask me any remaining ques-"

"Um yes, excuse me ma'am?" Jimmy waved his arm in the air, trying to get the tour guide's attention amid all the other monsters crowded around him. "But what about the Misery Inc. factory?"

The tour guide's friendly face suddenly grew nervous. "Oh uh, sorry. We aren't allowed over there." She turned her head and looked around worriedly. "In fact, I would probably recommend avoiding that place as much as possible."

"Why?" Jimmy asked, not picking up on her increasing anxiety.

The tour guide gave a nervous smile. "Well because our dear, handsome, powerful ruler: Lucifer Heinous the Seventh, doesn't really like tour groups. Or visitors. Or monsters in general."

"Huh. That doesn't sound like Lucy." Jimmy thought to himself.

"Well if there are no more questions then I'll leave you all to have a slightly less miserable day."

The group of monsters disbanded, with many headed toward the downtown shops and buildings. Jimmy was still looking through the pamphlet. It didn't mention a single thing about the Misery Inc. factory. "Now that's really weird." He turned to Beezy, who had fallen asleep while standing up. "Hey Beezy, why don't we go get some breakfast. Maybe that'll wake you up."

The sleeping red devil monster's eyes shot open. "Now you're talking. Let's go!" Beezy grabbed Jimmy in his arms and ran down the street toward the dozens of restaurants Miseryville's downtown area offered.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

"What's taking so long!" The girl barked from the front of the lawn.

"Oh I-I'm terribly sorry miss. We'll have everything moved in and assembled in just a moment."

"Well hurry up buster! I have other things to do you know." Heloise watched as the last of the furniture was loaded off the truck. "Hey be careful with that!"

Although she was a little crabby, the girl's insides were ecstatic at the sight of her new house being filled with beautiful furniture. The house itself was just her kind of place. It was tall and cozy looking, with stone bluish-grey walls and a blue bricked chimney running along the house's side. It had three circular windows on the house's upper floor, and even an awning that shaded the right side of the house. And to top it all off, it was only two houses down her new boss and the ruler of Hell.

"Okay miss, th-that's the last of it. Your carpeting and f-furniture are all set up." The movers then hurriedly sprinted back in their van and took off.

The girl smiled and waved goodbye. "Thanks for everything."

She was able to convince the furniture depot to give her all her furniture for free, partly from being Lucifer Heinous the Seventh's new right hand killer—or at least that's what she told them—and from just being extremely persuasive.

She walked through the front door of her new house and took a deep breath. "Ahhhh, now this is a home."

Heloise gazed at the inside of her brand new house. The first room to come into view was the living room. It was spacious, and tidy looking, with a new red couch, skull shaped cabinet and shelf,and a tall red-bricked fireplace. Chandeliers hung from her ceiling, and the new flower pots set up along the hallway really brought out the color of the place. Her new beige carpeting would look especially nice with the green and teal wall color scheme that she was planning on adding later.

She could see the entrance to her new kitchen, which she made sure to stock with the best new appliances. A brand new refrigerator, oven, stove, toaster, multiple blue cabinets for her pots and pans, and a beautiful new marble counter top. Her bathroom and bedroom were on the second floor of the house.

Heloise strolled over to her new couch and laid down on it. She was so exhausted from wandering around for two days with no good place to sleep; but she was proud of herself. She had managed to secure her first real job, even though it was only temporary, and get a new house with all the fixings; all in just three days too.

"*YAWN* Must sleep… *groan* but I can't." The small girl lifted her tired head from the soft coach and fumbled onto her aching feet. She wanted to sleep badly but she had one last thing to do for the day. She was on the clock with her new job and she didn't want to blow it.

Heloise dragged herself from the house and shut the door on her way out. She began walking down the street, past the small little red roofed house next door to her (Thank Satan she didn't pick that puny little eyesore) and her new boss' lavish mansion. She giggled as she walked past the posh, elegant Heinous manor.

"After that Heinous guy sees what a good job I'm gonna do to this Jimmy, he'll give me a permanent job for sure."

She pondered her new future position at that huge factory up north from the neighborhood. She wanted an important one with an authoritative title, like Executive Minister of Evil and Chaos. Or Head Chairwoman of Pain and Suffering. Or even Vice-Ruler of Hell and Miseryville! But most important of all, she wanted her new job to be something that would let her really deal out torture and devastation.

Heloise caught herself smiling and quickly tried to suppress it. She put on her standard tough, irritated expression and continued toward the Misery Inc. factory. A quick trip back to that Realty Department, and then she could go straight home and sleep for the day.

The girl walked right past the faulty, misery inducing intercom at the factory's entrance and continued along the wall until she reached a door located at the far-east side of the complex. She pushed her way in and looked around. The office had been repaired and cleaned since her little incident the day before, and that guy she was going to staple to second-death was still working at his desk.

She calmly walked over and waved to get his attention. "Hello there, it's me again."

The monster behind the desk took one look at Heloise and screamed like a small girl. "AHHHHHHHHH! Wha-What do you want? I thought you already got your house?"

He tried to bolt from his chair but the girl grabbed him by his sleeve.

"Relax pal, I'm not here to smash up the place again. I just need a bit of information."

The monster's panicked breathing calmed slightly. "J-Just information? You're not going to try and staple my face again are you?"

Heloise smiled. "Only if you say no."

"W-Well, alright then."

The girl loosened her grip on the monster's sleeve and let him return to typing on his computer. He brought up a site that looked like the Realty Dept. online records. "Okay, so what is it you need to know?"

"I need to know where a certain person lives. I've been trying to get in touch with him you see, but I have no idea where to start. His name's Jimmy Two-Shoes."

"Jimmy Two-Shoes? Are you sure that's not just a nickname? Our records don't really carry a customers' nickname."

Heloise's face crinkled with annoyance. "Look buddy, that's just the name I was give- I mean that's the only name I know him by. Just type it in and see what comes up."

The monster began typing and then clicked. A page instantly popped up with dozens of monster profiles.

"Okay let's see here… we have Johnny Two-Smiles, Jaime Two-Squirrels, Joey Two-Skis, Jimmy One-Shoe (wow that's weird), and Jim- ah here we go, Jimmy Two-Shoes."

"Perfect!" Heloise exclaimed as she hoisted herself on the desk and looked at the screen. "Where does he live?"

The worker narrowed his eyes and tried to point out the address with his monster claw. "It says here he lives at 26 Misery Street. Looks like he just got the house yesterday too."

Heloise blinked and stared at her victim's address. "26 Misery Street? 26 MISERY STREET?"

She couldn't help be taken by surprise; her new home's address was 28 Misery Street. She and this Jimmy Two-Shoes were apparently next door neighbors. "Oh boy, Lucifer isn't going to like this." She thought.

She wondered if the short, red devil creature even knew that his target was living right next door to him as well. After all, the Heinous mansion was perched right on 24 Misery Street. "If he knew that this Jimmy guy was living next door to him, then he probably would have told me." She figured it was probably best that she keep this little nugget to herself. She didn't want any minor details blowing her shot at her dream job.

"Uh hello… you still there?"

The girl snapped out of her thoughts and saw that she had blanked out for a few moments. The monster behind the computer was staring at her with a slight fearfulness. "You okay?"

"Oh of course." The girl hopped off the desk and adjusted the hair band on her dirty-blond ponytail. "Well thanks a lot. I guess we're even now."

"E-Even?"

"Yeah, I didn't staple you in the face and you repaid me by helping me out. So we're even."

Heloise continued out of office and made her way onto the main road back to the suburbs.

After a long, exhausting walk back to her neighborhood under the heat of Miseryville's three suns, Heloise eyed the small, red roofed house sandwiched between the Heinous mansion and her own home. "It figures this guy would have such poor taste in housing."

She decided to try and see if he was there. Just to get a quick glimpse of her new assignment. "One little peek couldn't hurt." She reasoned in her mind.

Heloise innocently strolled over to the front door of the small white house, all while formulating a story in her head. If that guy did answer the door, she would just tell him that she was his new neighbor and wanted to be friends or something like that.

Knock Knock. "Yoouuuwhoooo, anyone there?"

She waited a few moments, adjusting her hair band and dusting off her newly cleaned maroon gown. Thank goodness Lucifer let her wash it at his mansion that morning; she was getting sick of running around in blood-stained clothes.

After a few minutes, it was clear that nobody was home. "Oh well, guess I'll try again tomorrow."

She followed the path down the sidewalk one house over to her beautiful new house; perched right on 28 Misery St.

"*YAWN* Ugh, what a day. My feet are killing me."

She entered through the door and went straight up the stairs to her new bedroom.

The room was decorated in blue, her second favorite color next to red of course, with blue stone-block walls and a bluish-grey concrete floor. She had gotten a nightstand, a wooden dresser, and a tall monster shaped lamp for the room. A princess sized bed (at least for her small body it was) with light blue flower-patterned sheets and covers, and a large bookcase behind it that was hung up in the center of the wall. She had a window which overlooked the front lawn, and the blue flower-patterned drapes she had hung up really made the room come together.

"Ahhh sweet bed; how I've longed for your embrace." She jumped right onto the soft, single mattress bed, wrapped herself in its warm covers and closed her eyes. "Hmmmm goodnight."

"Sweet dreams. Don't let the lavaworms bite."

"*YAWN* mmmMmm Thanks… wha- AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Heloise screamed and tumbled off of the bed, dragging the sheets she was intertwined in off as well. "Who's there? Show yourself pal!"

She looked around the room frantically for any sign of intrusion. The shock of someone breaking in while she was nearly asleep had caused her tiredness to disappear completely. "Whoever's there better come out right now!"

"Oh gee, sorry to scare ya."

The girl pulled the sheets off her body and turned, ready to attack whatever monster was waiting for her, when she felt a tiny hand grasp onto her own. She looked down and saw a small, pale beige, Lilliputian-like monster in pajamas shaking her hand. He was about half of her own short height, with combed brown hair, two small stubby horns, and a single Cyclops eye covered by single lens glasses. "Hi there, nice to me ya; the name's Dorkus."

Heloise tightened her hand on the small creature and threw him against the wall. OOOPH. The monster bounced off the wall and plopped onto the ground.

"OoOoo the pleasure'sss all mine." The small monster stumbled up, dizzy with disorientation from the hard crash.

"Okay, talk! Just who are you and what are you doing in my house?" Heloise demanded angrily.

The small creature shook his confusion off and smiled. "Well, like I said before, my name's Dorkus. I'd show you my card, but I'm not really in my business clothes." He pointed to the pajamas he was wearing. "And you sorta' came into my house."

The girl folded her arms, maintaining her angry frown. "That's impossible; this place was completely abandoned when I found it. And the Realty Dept. said no one was living here."

The tiny monster laughed and shrugged his shoulders. "Well there's your problem. The Misery Inc. Realty Department is supposed to make your life miserable. They tell everyone buying a house that it's available, even when it's not. It's supposed to create big problems for you and drag you into even more paperwork to get it all fixed later on. Besides, I don't really use the upper floors of this place anyway, I live in the basement."

Heloise clenched her fists in rage. "Why those no good, dirty-"

"Hey whoa, whoa, relax." The small monster cut her off, "They're just doing their job. If the Realty Dept. doesn't create a little misery here and there, they'd get canned by Lucifer. And when I say canned, I mean dismembered and fed to his serpents. But don't worry, I don't mind if you live here. We can be housemates."

The girl narrowed her eyes in suspicion. This guy didn't really seem to fit the profile of a sinful monster of Hell. He seemed… nice. A little too nice. "Soooo, Mr. Dorkus, how exactly did you wind up here?"

"Hmmm well I came home after work and saw the place all decked out, so I figured someone must have moved in while I was gon-"

"No, no not that." Heloise shook her head. "I mean what did you do to get sent to Hell?"

"Oooooh that. Ummm well-" The small monster rubbed his head, trying to think. "…Huh; I guess it's been so long I can't even remember what I did. Whatever it was, I guess it was bad enough to get me into Hell though."

"You don't seem all that bad." Heloise remarked.

Dorkus smiled. "Gee thanks. Between you and me, I'm not really into the whole 'causing misery' thing. The only reason I work at Misery Inc. is because it pays pretty well, at least compared to the other jobs around here."

The girl's ears perked up. "You work at Misery Inc.?" She couldn't believe that this nice little pip-squeak actually scored a job at the most misery-inducing place in Hell. He was probably just some assembly worker or something. "What do you do exactly?"

The small monster's face beamed with pride. "You are lookin' at the head inventor of Misery Inc.'s Product Creation division. I come up with ideas for the products in Misery Inc.'s catalogue. I make prototypes for new inventions too, and if the boss man likes them, then they get mass produced in the factory."

"Wow," Heloise remarked, a little envious, "so you actually get paid to invent things that cause misery?"

"You bet. *Cough* In fact, one of my recent inventions just became a top-seller. Have you by chance seen the new Misery Inc. Anti-Cool Freezer™? That was all me."

"Huh, you don't say." She pretended to sound impressed, never hearing that invention before at all. "Well uh, my name's Heloise… sorry about hurling you at the wall."

"Aw don't worry about it; I get knocked around all the time. I'm used to it." The monster stopped and stared at Heloise with his Cyclops eye. "So tell me; how'd a cute girl like you get into Hell?"

Heloise smiled. "I sorta stabbed 32 people to death."

"Oh." Dorkus responded, trying to hide his surprise. He never would have guessed this little girl could be a serial killer. "So I guess you got put to death huh?"

"No actually I- I uh… um…" Heloise rubbed her head. "I…I- died from…from…"

Her mind was blank! She couldn't remember what killed her! She recalled that stupid receptionist from Purgatory had told her what it was, but three days in Hell had already caused her to forget.

"Did you get hit by something?" The small monster cut in. "Most people who die that way end up losing part of their memory."

"O-Oh yeah! Yeah that's it." It was starting to come back to her. "I was running from the cops and I got hit by… umm… lemonade? Nonono wait, not lemonade, it was uh… a shiny quarter?…wait-." Now she realized she was just sounding stupid. "I can't really remember what happened…"

Dorkus just smiled with a look of sympathy on his face. "Hey don't worry; I can't remember what I died from either. After a while in Hell, you just sorta forget these things. It doesn't really matter now anyways, we're already dead."

"Yeah, I guess…" Heloise looked out the window. The suns had nearly set, and the sky was turning a reddish-lavender color. "Well it's getting pretty late *YAWN*… I think I'm gonna turn in."

"Oh yeah, I should probably turn in too. I'll be in the basement if you need me. Night."

Dorkus was nearly out the door before Heloise suddenly spoke up again. "Hey wait a minute!"

"Huh? Yes?" The small monster turned around with a sound of surprise in his voice.

"You know the house right next door, the small one with the red roof? You didn't by chance see whoever moved in did you?"

"Hmmm, the house with the red roof…" Dorkus rubbed his head and closed his eyes, trying to remember. "Oh yeah, I did! I was leaving for work pretty early this morning when I saw him run out to Lucifer's garage. He was kind of hard to miss."

"Did you see what he looked like?"

"Well uh, I definitely remember him being human, that's how I figured he was new around here. He was moving so fast that I didn't really get to see his face, but uh, I think he was white with blond hair."

"Oh, thanks. I wanted to talk to him today, but he wasn't there. I guess I'll try again in the morning."

"I'll wake ya early then, so you won't miss him. *YAWN* Whelp, goodnight." Dorkus yawned as he turned back around.

"Night." Heloise watched the small monster exit, and heard his minuscule footsteps hop down the stairs.

She turned back to her messy bed, with the sheets thrown on the floor and sighed. Even though she was already dead, she didn't want to forget her life on Earth, but her memories felt like they were slipping. Now that she actually thought about it, she couldn't recall anything from when she was alive, other than running from the police and murdering people. Her parents, her old school, and even her last name were coming up as blanks in her head. She couldn't even remember how she had died.

"This place sucks." She muttered under her breath.

The suns had set by now, and outside her window, she could see the moon starting to brighten Hell's dark purple sky.

"*Sigh* Guess I'll go to bed now…"

Heloise picked up her sheets from the floor and began fixing them back onto her bed. She wasn't quite as tired as she had been before; more than anything, she was pretty depressed. The girl then hopped into bed and pulled the covers over her body.

"Goodnight!" She yelled out angrily, feeling the need to release some of the emotion that was building up inside her. The small girl then buried her head into her pillow and forced herself to sleep.