The elevator ride up was awkward to say the least. No words were exchanged with only the calm elevator music filling the thick atmosphere.
"So, this is some nice music." I nod trying to break the awkward silence. Vaggie's only response was to continue to stare at the elevator doors with her arms crossed and a serious look.
"Ok then." I think to myself, seeing how uncooperative Vaggie seems to be. For what was only about 30 seconds felt like forever. which is weird seeing as how old I am. After what felt like an eternity, the elevator doors finally opened to the fourth floor. Vaggie immediately walks out the elevator to what will be my room with no hesitation. I let out a small sigh as I follow right behind her. After a few quick turns, we arrive at the eleventh room of the floor.
"Here you go." Vaggie says with little emotion, pointing towards the door.
"Thanks." I reply walking past her. I hover my hand over the door handle, about to insert my hotel card into the lock, when suddenly a huge external sense overcame me. The sense sends a small wave of shiver down my body. Having felt this sense an uncountable number of times in my life, I know it means that something is trying to harm me, or someone. My instinctive reflexes kick in as I immediately turn around and grab what seems to be a silver hook/spear held by Vaggie. The sudden counter to her welding the spear shocks Vaggie more than it does the fact that she is trying to threaten me.
"What the." Vaggie gasps at my sudden motion of turning around and blocking her "attack". She tries to regain control of the spear, to no avail as I hold a stronger grip to it. Now knowing she has no real power over me, I decide to play with her a little.
"Nice fishhook." I jokingly chuckle. In an instant, I shatter the spear into pieces with one hand. Vaggie recoils in shock as to what seems her only means of defense is now lying on the floor more broken than a piece of china-top hitting a kitchen floor. I change my eyes to a more violet and black color and begin to release a dark cloud of mist into the hallway. Curious to see what she is thinking, I use my mind reading ability. but what I saw felt, off. What I thought would be regret, was instead fear and somehow, assurance. Assurance that Vaggie was right about something she dreaded.
"I knew it, I knew this man was a danger to us all." Vaggie thought inside her head with fear. "Why did I do this? Why did I think I could attack him with no difficulty?" I notice her arms rapidly shaking in fear, her only functional eye is gridlocked to mine with no sign of being able to move, and tiny bits of sweat falling down the side of her cheeks. The dark mist must be paralyzing her. Taking in the situation, I realize I got carried away with my so called gestures and let out a huge sigh.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take it this far." I respond with regret. I raise my hand to absorb all the dark mist in the hallway and condense it into a tiny black ball to put in my pocket. With a bit of guilt, I kneel to pick up all the pieces of the shattered spear and begin to atomically piece it back together. I hand Vaggie the spear back, only for her to hesitantly take it back. "I'm not going to hurt you, or anyone here really, I was serious when I said I'm just looking for a place to stay." Vaggie gently caresses the newly fixed spear in the palm of her hands. Her eye gazes at the little details like how shiny the tip of the spear is, how much sturdier the hilt is from before, and how all the cracks, scratches, and crevices from battle have been completely filled in, effectively making it a new weapon. I notice vaggie's face goes from a surprised but curious look to a more guarded scowl.
"Why did you do this?" Vaggie asks me.
"Did what?" I ask her, knowing the true answer to her question.
"All of this" she gestures towards the hallway where the dark fog was. "What was the point in you doing all of this?" I let out a sigh before I confessed my intentions.
"As stupid as it sounds, the truth is i did all of this to just mess with you." I respond. "I had no real intention to hurt you, but once again, my lack of impulse control makes do stupid things." glancing at her face, I can tell that the answer wasn't a good enough answer. "That doesn't really answer your question, does it." Vaggie closes her eye and takes a deep breath.
"So let me get did straight, you did all of this, paralyzed me, almost poisoned me, for a bit?!" Vaggie angerly asks me. I begin to chuckle nervously.
"Yeah, not one of my finest, or smartest moments." I respond with embarrassment. Vaggie begins to twitch her eye in anger. Knowing that the truth wouldn't be enough i peeked into her mind to see what she wants.
"What the fuck is wrong with this guy." Vaggie thinks in her subconscious "he just comes to hell, asks Charlie for a place to stay, and then almost kills me for a bit; is this all a joke to him?!"
"No, I wasn't going to kill you, like at all really; And no this isn't all a joke to me." I respond to her. Vaggie flinches to the notion of me answering her questions she hasn't even asked yet.
"How did you-?"
"Know what questions you were thinking?" I interrupt her. "I simply listened to your subconscious thoughts and responded." After taking in the information, Vaggie's face begins to turn red from embarrassment. "What's wrong?" I ask her with a puzzled look.
"Did you see anything else?" Vaggie nervously asks. After a full minute of not knowing what she was talking about, the implication hits me like a truck.
"Oh no no, I don't invade privacy that hard." I answer with a slight chuckle. "Funny enough, I've accidentally read too much of someone's personal thoughts that I mentally blocked myself from being able to reach that part of the subconsciousness." Vaggie responds with a forced laugh and an uncomfortable smile. I proceed to let out a disappointed sigh knowing that she has a garbage first impression of me.
"Look, I know you are naturally a defensive person, and it doesn't help how horribly stupid I've been acting, so how about we start over and talk it out?" I ask her. Vaggie raises her eyebrows and crosses her arms at the question.
"So, you want to have a therapy session or something?" she asks with concern in her voice.
"At least come to an understanding, you don't have to like me, but since I'm staying here for a bit, I don't want us butting heads over the most pointless shit." I respond in earnest while I manifest two chairs out of thin air. While having some skepticism, Vaggie slowly but willingly sits down on one of the chairs, I sit opposite to her with the other chair. "Ask away." I say while gesturing to her an approachable pose.
"Ok, why are you here?" she asks me.
"Hold on, ask me more personal questions, I'll be answering more generic open ones tomorrow morning with everyone else." I calmly interrupt her.
"Fine, what do you want with Charlie?"
"Truthfully, I don't know yet, although it's nothing harmful or malicious if that's what you're worried about."
"And I'm supposed to take your word for it?"
"Vaggie, I'm a dimensional hopping dark destroyer, talking to a moth demon who's in a relationship with the daughter of Satan, the least we can do is be honest with each other."
"More like the most we can do because of the whole dark destroyer and demon part."
"Hm, I guess you have a point.'' I jokingly respond to her sarcastic comment. "Anything else?"
"You like Charlie, don't you?" Vaggie asks me with a deep concern in her voice, with a bit of possible jealousy. I let out a small chuckle at the claim she is making.
"I don't swing that way Vaggie, or any way really; besides even if I did, she's with you, and I'm not one to try to intervene in relationships; I'm a dark destroyer not a scumbag." I reassure her. I notice her body relax a bit due to my answer. Yet she still has a confused look on her face.
"If you really are this 'dark destroyer', why are you acting so calm and approachable right now?"
"Good question, but that is a story for another time, although I will say this, what we are shouldn't always define who we are."
"Like how inside every demon is a rainbow." she says softly.
"Yeah, exactly, to be frank i don't think you believe that, so who told you that?" i ask her
"Charlie said it." Vaggie answers.
"well, she has a point despite being the daughter of lucifer"
"I mean it is why she started the Happy Hotel."
"What do you mean that's why she started it?" I ask her in confusion
"That's a story for another time, a story for Charlie herself to say." she responds.
"I guess so." I reply. I then get up from the chair in order to finally get into my hotel room. "Welp, this was a fun conversation Vaggie, but I want to take a nap right now so I guess this is a good stopping point." I hold out my hand for Vaggie to shake and for us to part out ways for now. Vaggie gets up and looks at my hand with a stern look on her face before looking back at me.
"Still don't trust me?"
"Nope."
"Look, you don't have to trust me, but I meant every word I said about not having any malicious intent."
"And how am I supposed to believe you after that stunt you pulled?"
"Maybe you can't, but maybe you can see what I do rather than just hear what I say in these next few days if that helps."
"And if it doesn't?" she asks.
"Then I guess that's your answer." I respond as I open the room's door and proceed to enter it. "But know this, I won't hurt you, Charlie, or any of your friends here, I promise." Vaggie slightly nods while remaining in her usual concerned look. As she walks back to the elevators, I close the door of my hotel room, and lean on the closed door. I let out a huge sigh of tiredness. "This is going to be a long trip, isn't it?" I ask myself before getting ready for bed.