Chapter 13: The Library
Being trained since childhood in ice skating meant having light feet. That's why whenever she walked, Ines Coeurdor's footsteps were insanely quiet. She used to be insanely good at hide-and-seek. Besides finding the best places to camouflage herself, she could walk on her tiptoes with the hunting skills of a feline when she was the seeker.
As Indigo Caligo, she managed to sneak through the hotel without so much as causing the floor or doors to creak. She silently made sure that the rooms she passed by didn't hear her through their snores. She didn't have to worry about Miss Charlie, Vaggie, or Alastor, due to their rooms being on the upper floors. But she had to make sure she did hear Angel Dust, Nifty, and Husk snoring from their rooms before continuing down the stairs. Once she got to the main floor, she released the glow-in-the-dark butterflies to illuminate the way. She had to be cautious. Indigo had seen Mister Alastor's sapient shadow do things outside of the Radio Demon's bidding. The possibility of being spied on by voodoo shadows did not escape her, but she did notice that unlike every other room in the hotel, Mister Alastor's shadows never went inside her room. And Nifty, of course, didn't hesitate to let her motor mouth open.
Your room? I like how cute your room! Especially with all those stickers on your wall! I'm surprised Alastor let you keep them. His shadows don't really like phosphorescence.
Indigo finally made it and pushed the library door open. Despite nobody being awake other than Indigo, the chandelier lights have been left on. The levels were color-coordinated, so if the ground level was the red of Pride, Indigo had to climb up the stairs to reach the purple of Envy at the very top.
As she walked up, Indigo took in on the levels' unique designs and… God, the smells. The orange level of Wrath was of volcanic rock bricks, dried lava cement, and displayed fossilized horses with a spicy smell that nearly burned through Indigo's nostrils. The yellow level of Gluttony had a beehive wallpaper pattern, honey-colored chandeliers with dangling golden jewels with petrified bugs in them, and a sickening smell of lemongrass and honey lavender that made Indigo shudder. The green level of Greed had walls that looked like a sad paper mâché and collage hybrid using ripped bills and melted coins, mounted clown heads and masks, and an odd smell of pistachio ice cream. The blue level of Lust was just weird: black walls with neon painted silhouettes of demons making out, erotic painting and bronze statuettes of succubi tricking humans, and the disgusting smell of sweat, cum, menstrual blood, and tears. The pink level of Sloth wasn't that bad: taffy pink walls and potted evergreens everywhere. Not much to smell. The donors of the library's Sloth section were pretty lazy.
Indigo finally reached the staircase. She was met by two amethyst statues of hippocampi guarding the level. Each of the sea creatures was biting down the tip of a chain while the other was tethered to the ground, creating an X out of chains that blocked the way to the level. FORBIDDEN BY LUCIFER MORNINGSTAR was painted with lovely red paint on a smelly wooden board attached to the chains.
"Just great…" Indigo muttered. She didn't know why she didn't just go back to the room. The level was forbidden by the Devil himself. End of story. Instead, Indigo found herself down on her knees and crawling under the X.
When she got to her feet, she scoffed at what she saw. The wall of bookshelves composing Envy's level in the library… was nothing but a mural. A mural of old paint falling off the red wall. The muralist did a neat job of painting a 3D illusion of bookshelves, but it must have been a decade since the mural had been done. A wooden board was nailed on the wall right next to the 'fake' bookshelves.
HIS MAJESTY MORNINGSTAR HAS REMOVED THE ENVY SECTION OF THIS LIBRARY FOLLOWING HIS ABANDONMENT OF IT. WE HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS LOVELY MURAL. I'M GONNA GO THROW MYSELF TO THE EXTERMINATORS.
"SERIOUSLY?" Indigo hissed in frustration. Red admirals started flying with her glow-in-the-dark butterflies. "A mural? How am I going to figure out to deal with my stupid diet if all I can get my hands on is a fake library?"
She crossed her arms. Was that it? All for nothing? She snuck out at night jut to find that the Envy level was just a mural with fake bookshelves! Bookshelves with painted, three-dimensional books that only had random letters on the spine and one Genesis book…
Wait.
Indigo got confused. She walked up to get a closer look at the middle of the 'fake' bookshelves' 4th row. Sure enough, she found it. A single painted book that did not have a single letter on its spine but a full title.
Cain and Abel.
"Cain and Abel?" Indigo frowned. "What's the story of the first murderer doing in a mural about Envy?"
She blinked. Then her vision showed it. Words glowing in purple under the title.
The 4th to my left.
The 1st to my top.
The 1st to my right.
The 8th to my bottom.
What is it that killed my brother?
"What killed my brother? Cain killed Abel, everyone knows that." Indigo scratched her chin. "4th to my left?"
She turned her head to the left and took 4 steps. Nothing. She went back to the painted titled book. As a new risk, she counted the next 4 painted books on that one's left.
E.
Curious, the tried the book on top. Then at the right. And the eighth one at the bottom.
N.
V.
Y.
ENVY
"'Envy killed my brother'?" Indigo was still confused… "Wait. Cain murdered Abel… because God favorited Abel over him… Which led to their father Adam favoriting Abel, the second born son…" She gasped. "Envy killed Abel because Cain was envious!"
The 4 letters unleashed purple glows. Purple lines appeared around them, outlining a rectangle with the letters as corners. Cain and Abel, at the center, sank in and the rectangle pulled up. Indigo gasped as a small tunnel entrance big as her old home's crawlspace appeared before her.
She got close to the entrance. Besides the distant sound of dripping water, there was nothing else in that dark tunnel. Her glow-in-the-dark butterflies flew in first, sticking themselves on the walls to illuminate the way.
"A secret passage… Miss Charlie and Mister Alastor probably don't know about it." Too daring, Indigo dared to crawl into the tunnel. She didn't pay attention to the tunnel's entrance closing behind her. She did, however, pay attention to the scrapping sound her knee made when crawling against the stone surface. Indigo should have really thought of wearing something more practical than her pajamas.
When she reached the end of the small tunnel, the glow-i-the-dark butterflies swarmed out so Indigo could see where she stepped out. She dropped her jaw. The tunnel led her right at the very top of some sort of stepwell. She remembered her father once selling books about Indian architecture used to collect water in advance of droughts. Why there was a stepwell far more complex than the Chand Baori underneath a hotel in Hell was beyond her imagination. And this underground stepwell was made of nothing but stones of fossilized fish. Probably bones belonging to all 32,000 fish species on Earth… and whatever died before the dinosaurs. On every step was an unceremoniously tossed book covered in cobwebs. The platform she stood on had purple words spray painted on the stones.
The library won't reveal itself
Unless you bring collateral for its shelves.
The right books will bring you to the dock.
The wrong books will trap you in a deadlock.
Indigo groaned. Whoever designed this secret library was just the worst! She would probably waste the whole night figuring out which books to pick out or die for picking the wrong ones!
Some of the glow-in-the-dark butterflies flew ahead and split into two groups. One of the butterflies tried picking up a book on the opposite side of the stepwell. A whole column of stairs crumbled and fell into the purple waters at the far bottom. The stones made sizzling noises after landing in the boiling water, roasting the fossilized fish bones into unleashing burned fish smells.
Indigo gulped at the sight of the possibly acidic water so many feet beneath her. The butterflies flew away as fast as they could from the collapsed stairs to their owner. The other swarm, on the other hand, flew off from the stepwell's right side with a book. The stones remained untouched while the bugs dropped the book in Indigo's hands. She wiped the cobweb off the cover.
Snow White.
"Seriously? A fairy tale… Wait." Indigo tapped on the cover. "The tunnel was hidden behind a painting of a book about Cain and Abel… Cain was envious and he killed his brother… And the evil queen wanted to kill Snow White because she was envious of her! Of course! I need books about envy to reach the bottom!"
It then got a bit easier. Using her blinking vision, Indigo walked down the stepwell, picking up nothing but books about envy. The butterflies also helped in carrying the lighter books. Some of the literary context made sense, such as the stories of the Norse God Loki, more fairy tales with envious stepmothers, and Biblical stories. She had to admit, she was surprised to find some unexpected titles in the envy selection such as The Picture Of Dorian Gray, a nonfictional book about emotions, and Wuthering Heights.
She reached the bottom of the stepwell. The acidic purple water morphed into purple sand and an amethyst dock rose from the sand. The remaining sand swirled together to transform into a purple glass elevator. It waited at the end of the dock and opened its doors, releasing the typical dinging sound of an elevator.
Indigo was impressed. "Ok… The designer might have been pretty awesome."
The butterflies followed her into the elevator, the books still in her hands. The doors closed and the elevator went down underground. Indigo noted the typical elevator music playing until it reached an unknown subterranean floor. The doors opened into a circular entrance. Indigo stepped in and gasped at the sight.
She couldn't believe it. She had stepped into an underground cenote. An artificial cenote with amethyst walls filled with high bookshelves crafted out of gemstone corals. Emerald tables, chairs, and benches surrounded a circular fountain with a hippocampi statue sprouting water out of its mouth. Somehow, the ceiling was enchanted to look under a blue sea, causing blue rays to illuminate the library. From the underground library, Indigo could see the aquatic, life swimming above: caimans, Hawksbill sea turtles, West Indian manatees, anacondas, pirarucus, European pond turtles, fire salamanders, and even an occasional hippocampi swimming by. The jackets on the books were encrusted with gemstones, causing the ocean rays reflecting on them to create a rainbow of lights across the walls.
"Oh… My Gosh…" Indigo gasped.
The books just flew out of her grasp and organized themselves within the bookshelves. Curious, Indigo rushed to the shelves and felt the books.
Solid gemstones on the book jackets.
Real books!
They weren't organized properly, probably due to it being abandoned for a while. But clearly there was some sort of magic keeping the library in perfection condition. Indigo took a look at some of the titles.
Species of the Envy Ring.
Djinn and Fairies: How Envy Fuels Their Powers.
The Power Of Envy In Wishing Superstitions.
Envy in Fairytales.
Envy in the Bible.
Flora of the Envy Ring.
The Monkey's Paw.
Wish Upon: The Hated Earth Movie That Everyone Loves in Levitowne.
Be Careful What You Wish For.
Envy: It's Everywhere.
How Envy In Teenagers Is So Beneficial.
Envy and Greed: What's Different Versus What's Common?
Geography of the Envy Ring.
Envy In The Sin Polls: A Historical Data Catalog.
My Envious Life.
The Royal Family Of The Envy Ring.
Prophecies Of The Envy Ring.
Cynocephaly-Type Demons And Why They Matter.
Cockatrices: Servants Of The Evil Eye.
A Beginners' Guide To Hippocampi.
Envy and the Constellations.
The Herds of Capricorn.
Melusine: Legend Of the Envy Ring.
Indigo looked at the endless list of books. She didn't know where to start! What book would she even select?
"Wait… I just found a secret library in the hotel's library! I got to let Miss Charlie and Mister Alastor know!" Indigo shook her head and headed for the entrance.
A chuckle echoed in the library. Indigo stopped and quickly turned. "Who's there?" She called out to the empty library.
No one's there besides you, little butterfly.
Indigo gasped. The glow-in-the-dark butterflies flew around her, ready to become a bug shield for their mistress.
"I don't think this is funny…" Indigo hesitated to warn. "Please show yourself…"
Something that isn't there can't possibly show itself. Have you ever heard the term 'heard, but not seen'?
"Uh, no. I heard of 'seen, but not heard'." Indigo frowned suspiciously. She cautiously took a step back in the library, hoping to spot whatever, or whoever, it was talking to her.
Rather outdated, if you ask me. People always place expectations on the inferior ones to be present but silent. Being heard but not seen? That's more artistic. More… cautious. Preserved. Remembered. Everyone heard of Jack Ripper and could still never figure out who he was. No one has figured out who Banksy is yet he is heard of through his street art. It's the beauty of envy. Everyone's heard of it but fail to see it… until it's too late.
"Yeah, no… I got to go…" Indigo didn't like the tone of that 'library spirit.'
And then what? You'll tell the Princess and The Radio Demon what you were doing? 'Yeah, I was snooping in the forbidden section of the library and found a secret library so I can figure out the problem with my diet. Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm a sin-devourer and I got to feast on envy!' Fun fact, my little demon, Lucifer has ugly thoughts on sin-devourers.
Indigo froze. "H…How ugly…"
Beheading by guillotine. Oh, and your head would be poked on his royal fence so your rotting flesh would scare off trespassers. Lucifer likes to use 'Storm Of The Bastille' tributes to traitors as his own way of telling Hell that an execution of his command is just as bad as the exterminations. I mean, you either get killed by an angel on New Year's Eve or you get executed by the Fallen Angel just for, well, existing. Those are Options A and B for you if you go up and tell everyone what you found. Option C, you make this your little secret.
"Lie to them?" Indigo shook her head. "No… No, I can't lie to them."
Is it really lying if you don't provide without being asked? If they don't ask you if you found a secret facility within the hotel, then there's no need to say anything.
"Yeah, no. I'm not gonna listen to some ghost library. I'm going to go tell them." Indigo looked back at the exit. "Besides, I'm trying to hurt anyone. And I don't know why I'm in Hell or why I'm a sin-devourer. Mister Alastor knows and I'm sure that Miss Charlie would understand what I'm going through…"
And you're ready to be a burden?
For some reason, Indigo stopped.
Imagine if you tell them and the Princess doesn't tell Lucifer. You might delay the inevitable, but then what? Are they going to spend hours finding alternatives for the envy you must feed on? Will they lock you up, force feed you with what they can find? How many demons might end up sacrificed just to satisfy your appetite? And what about the hotel? Will they have to shut down the hotel because they might not know when you could attack a demon? Will you be banned from interacting with anyone? And what about that Ars Goetia Princess? Octavia, right? Will she be disgusted by your nature? Will she think that you faked your friendship to get near her and exploit her emotions? If you accidentally hurt her, Stolas would burn the hotel! Who cares if the Princess owns it, because all anyone will hear is that its destruction will be YOUR fault!
The voice's questions and taunts echoed multiple times in the library like an orchestra. Indigo fell on her knees and started crying, the reality striking her. The voice was horrible, but it was right. She didn't take into account the type of problem she'd cause. Even with her contributions to the garden, then what? She hadn't even gotten started on any rehabilitation sessions yet. Only Mister Alastor knew of her condition, but he could easily cease his help. Either he'd stop helping her or he'd leave the hotel. Angel Dust would feel betrayed. Husk and Nifty might be disgusted. Miss Charlie could ban her or turn her over to her father. Vaggie could kill her.
And Octavia would hate her.
Something suddenly fell before her feet. Her eyes dared to look at the grimoire that had landed before. She could see the silver ouroboros on the cover, but her eyes were clouded by tears. Caterpillar eggs were flooding the library floor.
Grand-père!
Indigo gasped. She wasn't in the library of envy anymore. Somehow, she was back on Earth. Well, not exactly Earth. An old memory.
She knew she was still dead when she saw her younger self crying. Ines Coeurdor was crying and banging on her bedroom door, forgetting that she could just reach the doorknob. The door finally opened and Martin Coeurdor stepped in.
Indigo remembered that night. Her father had gone out of town to acquire books for the bookstore so her grandparents had come over to watch her for the week. It must have been around midnight when the little Ines woke up from a nightmare and started screaming for her grandfather.
Ines? Qu'y a t'il? Martin Coeurdor had picked up his granddaughter in his arms. (Ines? What's wrong?)
Un monstre... Une baleine! Elle voulait me manger! J'ai peur! Elle va revenir! Younger Ines cried in her grandfather's pajama shirt. (A monster… A whale! It wanted to eat me! I'm afraid! It will come back!)
Indigo sniffed. She remembered her grand-père drying her tears and acting shocked.
Un monstre? Dans ta chambre? Comment-es-ce possible? Martin Coeurdor had sounded surprised and cautiously stepped inside the child's bedroom. He had carried her in his arms and looked around despite his wobbly leg, pretending that he did believe that there was a monster in his granddaughter's bedroom. (A monster? In your bedroom? How is this possible?)
That's when the old man had noticed the small table that Ines loved playing on. She still hadn't cleared away her new My Little Pony plastic tea set before going to bed. He had found the mistletoe bunch in the plastic tea kettle.
Tiens donc. Tu bois du thé au gui? He had put down Ines and took the plastic tea kettle with the mistletoe batch. (Here then. Do you drink mistletoe tea?)
C'est pas ma faute! Scrunchy faisait la fête pendant que je faisais mes devoirs! Ines had pouted and pointed at the scorpion plushy on her bed. (It's not my fault! Scrunchy partied while I did my homework!)
Her grand-père had chuckled and hung the mistletoe bunch back on its sport near the window. Well, you need to tell Scrunchy that this mistletoe can't be used for parties, he had switched from French to English. Mistletoe is a very powerful herb. Druids and other ancient cultures used it to heal. Besides being a cute Christmas decoration for kissing, it scares monsters away. But it's also very deadly. That's why I hang mistletoe. To protect myself and those I love from danger. And don't let Scrunchy eat mistletoe. It's pretty poisonous.
The memory faded and Indigo found herself back in the library. "Mistletoe… Grand-père…" Indigo gasped.
She remembered the golden sickle. The letter. The words of her grandparents begging her to stay safe until Extermination Day came. That her grandfather was an Exorcist. Indigo got up.
"Get out of my library," she spoke up.
EXCUSE ME? The ghostly voice snarled.
"I said… GET OUT!" Indigo stomped her foot on the ground.
What happened next was unanticipated. All the caterpillars and eggs flooding the floor from her tears rippled and glowed. They exploded into clouds of white glowing pollen. The pollen clouds swirled around the library and hit the walls. White vines started appearing and growing on the amethyst walls and onto the ceiling, blocking the aquatic view. A chandelier of mistletoe grew from the ceiling and stopped when it reached the max length of 60 inches. The gemstone corals exploded as blue diamond speedwells replaced them. The ghostly voice let out a series of sneezes before finally silencing itself. Candles emerged from the berries of the mistletoe chandelier and glowed in blue and purple flames. Crystal butterfly ornaments dangled from the ceiling and balconies standing on columns appeared, transforming the cenote and library to resemble a colonial library.
Indigo marveled at the transformation. "Maybe I'll wait a little bit to tell the others… Just after I figure everything out." She then grinned. "I can even hide my envy spices here! I just need to figure out a better secret tunnel entrance. I wonder what happened to that horrible voice?"
At the same time
Nearly every river, lake, ocean, and pool in Hell started bubbling and blasting water like uncontrollable geysers. Demons ran as fast as they could away from the waters.
In the west side of the Pride Ring, the Three Vs looked baffled as demons ran away from an orgy pool party as the boiling water threatened to roast them. In Imp City, imps ran out of buildings when pipes started breaking from boiling water. All across Hell, the waters went crazy.
In the royal palace, 6 towns, 6 highways, and 6 left turns away from Pentagram City, the Devil himself woke up and yawned. He forced himself out of bed and followed his wife, who had opened the window and gone to the balcony to see the mayhem. The nobility was running around in a panic because their waters' steams nearly burned their skins down to the bone. It seemed like it stopped every 7 seconds before repeating over and over.
"Luci… Do you see what I'm seeing?" Lilith asked.
Lucifer yawned and tightened his nightrobe. "Waters boiling up nonstop…" He chuckled cruelly. "Looks like Levi got too close to speedwells again."
Lucifer never liked Leviathan. The seventh of the Deadly Sins was just too unpredictable and chaotic, thus why he had to be imprisoned within the same ring that he ruled. No traveling to the other rings. But that didn't stop the Great Underdweller from spreading his influence to do his job, from expanding envy to controlling the seas. The envy polls still had to be kept at the minimum, or it would boost that giant fish into surpassing Lucifer's power of pride.
He just HATED that primordial sin, thus why Lucifer found it hilarious that the Creator Of Envy himself would have an ugly allergy to speedwells. Obviously, Levi would disdain anything that contradicted envy, but a flower symbolizing kindness? Envy's virtual opposite? The flower of Saint Veronica and an ancient flower of healing? Lucifer had laughed the first time he saw Leviathan accidentally smell those small flowers and the monster had started sneezing uncontrollably. His sneezes always caused the waters of Hell to erupt and boil.
"So, he's sneezing. Big deal." He went back to bed.
Lilith sighed and closed the window. "I hope Charlie isn't having trouble…"
Lucifer silently grimaced. He hadn't spoken to Charlotte in months. Despite his words to her, she was too confident in her goals. It was nearly a year and there was no other patron besides Hell's number one pornstar. No one else was signing in and no one else was being redeemed. Lilith had insisted that allowing their daughter to pursue her silly fantasy would help her understand the unchangeable reality and give her the sensibility to come home, but Charlotte was more stubborn than the pharaoh when Moses had sent the plagues.
"She'll soon come to her senses…" Lucifer did his best to reassure his wife as she joined him back in bed. "Come the next extermination, she'll understand that no one has enough faith in her project to join. She'll give up by the time the new year's full moon."
"You think she will?"
"Lilith, it's Charlotte. Nothing will suddenly drop out of the sky to help her. Trust me, she'll have her wake-up call."
Tuesday morning… FINALLY!
As quiet as a morning in Hell could be, nearly everyone was sleeping soundly in their beds at the Hazbin Hotel. Vaggie and Charlie were snuggling against one another in their queen bed. Husk had fallen off his mattress and snored loudly on the floor, probably drunk. Nifty drooled a bit, sleeping in her futon. Angel Dust was deeply sleeping with Fat Nuggets curled up on his belly. Alastor was dreaming of eating Vox and Valentino alive…
And a loud bugle playing the typical American wake up echoed across all the levels of the Hazbin Hotel. Angel Dust bolted up when he felt Fat Nuggets jump off in fear. Nifty and Husk got up in a panic. Alastor quickly changed himself with a snap of his fingers. Vaggie and Charlie wasted no time and ran downstairs in their pajamas.
"A bugle! It's gotta be my dad!" Charlie panicked.
"WE DON'T HAVE ANYTHING READY!" Vaggie freaked out.
All the adult demons ran downstairs. The sound was coming from the dining room.
"Oh no… Summoning at breakfast! What am I going to do?" Charlie pulled her own hair.
Alastor sniffed the air. "Odd. The King of Hell always has strong aromas of apples at every breakfast."
They burst the door open. The dining table was full of freshly baked croissants, steaming coffee, arepas con queso, and store-bought donuts. Indigo stood on a chair, playing a loud bugle. She was already dressed-up, though she somehow got her hands on a kepi. Her eyes were twitching, and from the looks of it, she had at least 5 cups of coffee.
"Morning, everyone! Did you sleep well? I know I did! I woke up super early to make breakfast! Fun news, the garden is ready, and I can't wait for all of you to see it! Queenie helped me order the donuts and we're going to talk about the garden's opening night, I'm sure it's gonna attract a good amount of patrons, and I sound super hyper because I drank 5 cups of coffee to make sure I didn't fall asleep while cooking, I've been cooking since 4am, and fun fact, there's a janitor's closet full of World War Two kepi hats, and I found this lost spray paint bottle and good-conditioned shirt in the dumpster, so I drew a butterfly design on it, and I JUST DRANK SO MUCH COFFEE, I'M EXCITED!"
Mangrove skippers flew everywhere in the dining room. Half of them burped coffee-colored bubbles, but that wasn't the most obvious clue that Indigo had gone hyper on coffee and woken everyone up at 5am. Nifty slightly backed up and Husk just dropped himself back to sleep. Despite his smile, Alastor was just as shocked as Charlie was on Indigo's behavior. Vaggie was more freaked out than ever.
"Kid…" Angel Dust began before screaming so hard, his screams scared away some crows thirteen blocks away: "WHAT THE HELL?"