Chapter 31: The Forgotten Angel (Garden Party Arc, Part 1)
Monday, December 20th. Day of the Hazbin Hotel's garden party.
Indigo and Octavia finally pinpointed the infamous last resort bunker of the Apocatombs.
With Indigo absenting herself from the garden party after the hectic week, Stolas had given Octavia the choice of spending time with her friend. Thanks to Indigo's newest door locking system, dummies crafted with Octavia's taxidermy skills, and Scrunchy entertaining the guests, the girls chose to explore the legendary bunker where Hell's nobility once hid during Exterminations.
It wasn't that challenging to find. Centered in the heart of the Apocatombs' specific pentagram-based pattern, the bunker had one unshifting circular hallway. The dried blood stains on the walls mixed with the putrid odor in the air. Skeletons bearing Exterminator helmets hung from the ceiling. At the end of the circular hallway, a circular door was blocked by a stone crucifix. Rather than Jesus pined on the crucifix, an Exterminator was nailed on the stone crucifix. Unlike on the walls, the dried blood on the Exterminator looked purposely painted.
"M… Maybe this wasn't such a good idea…" Octavia hugged Indigo's arm. She looked at her unfazed friend. "How is this not freaking you out?"
"I've spent too much time with demons." Indigo gently pulled away from Octavia and walked towards the crucified Exterminator. She knelt on her knees and…
"Je vous salue, Marie, pleine de graces, le Seigneur est avec vous…"
"You can't be serious…"
Indigo continued her French prayer. "Vous êtes bénie entre toutes les femmes, et Jésus le fruit de vos entrailles, est béni…"
"Thou art a wonderful preacher!"
Indigo looked up.
The Exterminator's head tilted. The face flickered…
The fingers wiggled despite the nails piercing the palms.
"What draws thee to thy doom?" The helmet's face flickered at each word.
Octavia pulled Indigo away from the Exterminator and Indigo pulled her sickle out of her hair. "OH MY GOD, THE EXTERMINATOR IS ALIVE!" Octavia panicked. "IT'S ALIVE! KILL IT! KILL IT!"
"Octavia!" Indigo snapped. "I'm not gonna kill anyone! Th…" She paused and looked at the crucified angel. "Huh… what are your pronouns?"
"How judicious of thee…" The Exterminator tilted their head. The smile on their helmet suddenly shifted to a surprised expression. "What simular of our holy relics do thou possess?" The Exterminator's helmet glitched again. Out of the blue, they dropped most of their Shakespearean dialogue. "Alright, can one of thee take off my helmet? It is breaking that neck of mine!"
Indigo took a cautious step.
"Don't!" Octavia pulled Indigo back. "They'll hurt you if you do, even if you have a holy weapon!"
"But they might know about the bunker!" Indigo protested.
"Not if you're gonna get skinned!"
Indigo and Octavia looked at the Exterminator again.
"They are going to kill us the moment we help them!"
"Thou find me so ungrateful, you vile creature?" The Exterminator asked.
"Please, you freaks are heartless!" Octavia snapped at the Exterminator's helmet. "I know enough! Every year, there's always one shitty idiot who goes out and thinks that if they play along with the Exterminators, they get a free ticket away from permanent death! And you still kill them! You're all a bunch of bitchy, cisgendered straight…"
"JUST TAKE OFF MY HELMET!" The Exterminator yelled.
"OK! Fucking Satan!" Octavia snapped her fingers. Purple magic lifted the helmet away. The girls quickly covered their eyes from the large shine of holy light… until it dimmed.
Uncovering their eyes, they saw the crucified Exterminator's face. Indigo was startled. She'd heard a lot of theories of Exterminators being LED-faced robotic monsters from Heaven. She never anticipated that underneath the monstrous helmet that scared millions of demons was… a human face.
Glowing in pastel green and blue hues like a baby's nursery.
The endless years crucified underground and with her helmet on had messed up the Exterminator's hijab.
Indigo walked over and readjusted the fabric on the Exterminator's head.
"Well NOW I feel stupid!" Octavia grumbled.
"At least your praying companion took liberties in making me comfortable," the Exterminator commented. Indigo had to restrain Octavia to keep her from punching the crucified angel.
"Look… We really don't trust you for valid reasons, and you have yours," Indigo said. "So, I'm going to pretend that things are going well so we don't… make a mess." She inhaled and curtsied before the crucified woman. "Hi. My name is Indigo Caligo. I'm a sinner. This is my friend Octavia. We found the Apocatombs last week and we were trying to check out the bunker… that your door so happens to guard, now that I think about it. We didn't expect an Exterminator as a doorknocker. Did Lucifer and His Queen do this to you? To keep the angels away?"
"I wish it was to chase my compatriots, but it wasn't." the Exterminator grumbled. "Question: is it still 1250?"
Indigo grimaced. "Oh… How do I… It's December 2021."
The pastel green eyes of the Exterminator widened. She bit her lip. "I was crucified… underground… in Hell… for nearly 800 years." She sighed. "Of course, the others would abandon me…"
"Maybe they thought you retired?" Indigo weekly suggested.
"No, I'm pretty sure those bastards left her behind," Octavia said harshly.
"Well, WE don't know that!" Indigo protested.
"Indigo!" Octavia clasped her hands together and took a deep, impatient breath. "She's been down here since the Seventh Crusade and the Apocatombs have been abandoned for a fucking amount of time! Nearly all Exterminators are branded as bitchy, cisgendered, straight male Christians, why do you think they abandoned her?"
"Actually, the yearly recruits equally divide the genders, but your nocturnal, vile friend is correct." The Exterminator coughed. "Heaven is one bureaucratic nightmare in multi-culturalism. Always 'My religion is better than yours' and whatnot. Believe me, it's a nightmare being an Exterminator during holy wars!"
"So why the shit are you one?" Octavia demanded.
"It's not like I asked!" The crucified angel snapped. "I was minding my own business, giving water to the sheep and I realized that my daughter was playing too far! I noticed a horse galloping too quickly towards her… I managed to push her away… The European Crusader couldn't care less and allowed his horse to stomp on my skull. I found myself in Heaven… And the first thing they did at my welcoming ceremony was to shove me some armor and get me to training… They had us train on a daily basis and had us all go down to Hell to do the cleansing…"
At some point, Indigo and Octavia had sat down on the dirty ground. They still listened to the traumatized angel. "I've only been on two Exterminations… They were both horrifying…" She bit her lip. "The first-timers were traumatized."
"First-timers?" Indigo asked. "You mean… new Exterminators like you?"
The crucified angel nodded sadly. "True, but first-timers are primarily first-generation angels. Those that sacrificed their lives for the greater good. Soldiers that selflessly saved human lives. Wealthy people who sacrifice their resources for those that need it. People who did whatever it took to protect those that mattered the most…"
"You can't be serious." Octavia shook her head. "What kind of reward is that? You save your kid's life, get killed by a crusader's horse, and the Angels repay you by telling you 'go kill thousands of demons for us'?"
"You think that's bad? What's worse are the legacies." The crucified angel scowled.
"Legacies?"
"Mortal descendants of the First Exterminators. The VERY first angels that started slaying demons around the pagan days. The First Exterminators were once humans who risked their lives to assist Allah's Angels. Commoners who used their skillset and wits to slay the strongest of demons. One of them found the secret to crafting the very weapons that permanently kill demons. No angel taught him, he literally created the first holy weapons!
"When those warriors ascended, their children reproduced on Earth. They brought to their communities valiant people who were naturally kind, giving, and selfless. Always ready to put others' lives before theirs. On Earth, they were Samaritans, but once they Ascended, they became the elite of the Exterminators. They just had… the natural gift of slaying demons, and when the clock stroke to announce the day… Once in Hell, the legacies turned into bloodthirsty machines. Unlike us, they weren't picky about their demonic preys, it was first come, first serve. A first-timer like me could kill 60 demons one day, a 100 minimum. Legacies kill 60 000 individually, but a million if the family hunts together.
"The afterlife of an Exterminator is not as paradisal as it may seem on New Year's Eve. We couldn't even request to resign our duties for more palatable ones. Renouncing angelic duties means renouncing your afterlife… Renouncing your angel wings and falling to Hell."
"But… you still have your wings." Indigo stared at the black wings nailed to the crucifix. "You didn't resign…"
"Of course I didn't!" The Exterminator snapped. "My job's not the ideal one in the Silver City, but I stuck with it. I wanted to see if my family would ascend and join me. I would have tried to convince the superiors to not make my daughter a legacy… I was warned! I should have listened, but I didn't. I… I tracked the sinner who was once my murderer. He was stalking demonic nobility towards this underground maze…"
"The crusader must have thought he'd be safe if he followed the royalty," Octavia guessed.
"I caught up…" The Exterminator snorted. "The royals killed him and all the peasants that dared to follow them. They left the bodies as baits for us while they fled… They didn't think the crusader would follow them that far. His death got me too close to the bunker… The next thing I knew, I was smelling poppies before I passed out."
"They knocked you out with Belphegor's poppies." Indigo grimaced. She was starting to remember Sahara Wishazel and how the Sloth Ring princess had put a whole mall into slumber thanks to poppies.
"They thought I would have woken up before the clock struck… I was actually awake a couple hours after the poppies struck, but I played dead." She wiggled her fingers, feet, and wing tips. "Still felt the nails go through me… Then I don't know… I just… Fell asleep… I heard angels can fall into eternal slumber until a prayer wakes them…"
"I'm really sorry! It didn't occur me that, you know…" Indigo began to plead.
"You're forgiven. Not a lot of people understand that not Exterminators also include non-Christians."
Indigo wasn't sure to think. Hell viewed Exterminators as monsters. Exterminators viewed demons as pests. Yet… there was a charade of self-righteousness cloaking the reality behind Heaven's best of the best.
Against all rational thinking and Octavia's complaints, Indigo started pulling the nails off the Exterminator. Feet first, followed by wings, and ending in the hands. Each small nail weighed more than a cheese wheel. Blood coated each nail in three layers. Each pulled nail burned Indigo's fingertips.
Once all the nails were pulled out, the angel landed face first. Her wings fluttered weakly. Octavia dragged Indigo away as the Exterminator dragged herself up. Her armor bugging her, she started kicking off the black boots and lifting off her robe and chainmail. To the girls' surprise, she also slipped off the black wings. Standing before them without the grey armor of nightmares was a skeletal woman in a light blue dress. Islamic patterns glowed in white lights on her dress's sleeves.
The Exterminator tried to fly. Her wings weakly fluttered before giving in. The holes from the nails exposed the bones of her wings, hands, and legs.
"Well that's just great!" The Exterminator got angry.
"Let me guess! You're going to kill us after all!" Octavia pulled Indigo behind her.
"Not everything's about you!" The Exterminator's feather's agitated. "Are you looking at me properly? I look like a spartoi! I've been crucified underground for centuries, I had no access to food or water, by now Heaven has forgotten me, and demons must have evolved long enough to overpower a relic like me! Besides, unlike what you think, I actually appreciate your friend Indigo's action. Most demons would have left me to rot or killed me, but she was compassionate. Also, even if somebody else had released me, I couldn't leave this spot. Have you seen the blood on the walls?"
Indigo looked at the walls. "Uh, yeah… Was that… the blood of your allies?" Then she saw it. Colors matching the blood layers on the nails. Using her vision, she saw it.
The sinful colors of the blood stains furthest from them. Those closest to her, whoever, were pure white.
Why was she hearing wailing?
Sheep bleating in the blood's white aura…
Sheep's…
"Oh crap! Lamb's blood and demon blood!"
"What?" Octavia frowned.
"Lamb's blood and demon blood!" Indigo grabbed Octavia. "That's why she can't leave!"
"I don't follow!"
"Think, Octavia!" Indigo snapped her fingers. "It's like how the Lapis Locustia where a prototype for the locusts of the Plagues of Egypt! Before the tenth plague started, the Israelites had to coat their doors with lamb's blood so the Angel of Death would spare their firstborn sons. Angels can't be killed like we can, but they can be repelled! That must be why there was lamb's blood! The nails repelled her from pushing herself out and the walls would keep her from fleeing the Apocatombs!"
"And if angels came from the other side… Lucifer made sure to coat lamb's blood near the bunker to repel them. They can't go anywhere near the blood!" Octavia caught up. "But… what about the demon's blood?"
"A mockery of our loyalty." The Exterminator lamely sat down. "In Heaven, to reject your holy duties means failing as an angel. In Heaven, the only way to quit a job you don't like… Is to fall. Lucifer put a layer of demon's blood over the lamb's blood as a mocking warning." She pointed at the blood. "If I can't resist… If I try to trespass the lamb's blood… I'm rejecting my duties…"
"You'd fall…" Indigo realized. "Getting you out… Means transforming you into a demon."
Octavia smirked. "So… let me get this straight. She's completely weakened, she'll turn from a ruthless killing machine into an ordinary sinner if she exits the line around the bunker… and I happen to be an Ars Goetia with a lot of jarred blood at home."
Indigo crossed her arms. "We aren't imprisoning her, Octavia. AND you aren't turning her into taxidermy," she said crossly.
"OK. So you strip her of her angel wings, turn her into a demon, and drag her to the garden party? You want to explain to Charlie that not only did we bring an angel to her property, but we also stripped her of her holiness. Associating with an Exterminator could get you executed, and at worse, you might ruin her life."
Indigo raised her hand.
"You can always win a war within a city and glorify it on manuscripts, but in the end, you can't change the fact that the streets you travel are soaked with the blood of millions," the Exterminator pointed out. "Quick question: is Jerusalem still standing?"
"Well, unless Earth turned into a dystopia after I died, which was literally last month, it's still standing…" Indigo hesitated. "Honestly, you don't want to know what you missed out on."
Octavia snapped her finger. "Indy! One situation at a time!"
"You're right…" Indigo lowered her head in apology. "We didn't ask your name."
Octavia pulled her beanie over her eyes in frustration.
"The angels named me Anqa, but my real name is…" After Anqa said 'real name is', a chaotic chorus of vocal choirs, prayer chants, and mosque calls cried out of her mouth. The girls covered their ears from the angelic, cacophonic voice. They uncovered their ears when Anqa stopped talking.
"You girls sure came a long way," she said. "Perhaps we should bring this inside the bunker." Anqa walked towards the door. However, she tripped on the ground the moment she took a step. "I hate my life."
Indigo lifted her up in her arms and finally tossed Anqa over her shoulders like a flour bag. A loose feather from the angel's wings made her sneeze.
"You are unusually strong for a well-fit girl," Anqa bluntly commented. "Opening the door shouldn't be a hustle for you. All you need to do is spin the crucifix seven times clockwise, thirteen times counterclockwise, and hit your head against it…"
Octavia snapped her fingers. The Ars Goetia seal that Indigo saw plastered on Stolas' front door glowed in purple lights on the crucifix. The crucifix darkened, red and purple cracks growing and expanding on the door's lock. The walls shook and the door rumbled…
Indigo pulled Octavia away just before the door exploded. Rocks and dust burst towards them. Out of instinct, Anqa shielded the girls with her wings. In her weakened state, her wings took a big hit. When the dust cleared, the door and lock were no more. The circular doorway was now open for them to enter. Indigo still carried Anqa and the three stepped inside the Apocatombs' heart.
A large, 777-feet deep sinkhole awaited. The jagged rocks on the surfaces and the smell of water underneath were very natural, but the presence of structured, manmade levels was clear. The newcomers cautiously took the steps downwards. No railing could protect them if they fell off the stone stairs and into the purple water underneath. Each of the seven ruins were in dusty, cobweb-covered crumble. Lucifer and the nobles and the nobles had ripped off everything. All that was left of the famous bunker hidden in the Apocatombs were wall mosaics of the deadly sins, piles of Exterminator skeletons stashed unceremoniously on the sixth floors, and a floor grate making up the entire seventh floor just above the purple waters.
Indigo helped Anqa sit down and lean against a wall. From the sixth floor, the smell of the water was atrocious. It smelled… sticky and cold. Imagine taking all of the world's gelatinous substances, throwing them into a bathtub of icy water, and having to mix it all with your bare hands until your flesh ripped off from your bones. To make matters worse, Octavia nearly threw up when she saw that the bones soaking in the purple waters weren't those of angels…
"I never thought I'd smell Envy Ring water again…" Anqa shuddered.
"You've been in the Envy Ring during Exterminations?" Octavia asked.
"Are you insane, you fowl?" Anqa freaked out despite her condition. "The Envy Ring is the one ring in all of Hell we do not dare to enter! But we heard the stories… The archangels themselves warned us to never go there. The envious and envied are favored by the Great Underdweller… just to enter his stomach once properly marinated. The non-envious and non-envied are slain by his monsters. We can traverse the rings during the cleanse, but we won't enter that ring even if our angel wings depended on it. Leviathan has no mercy for our kind." Anqa shuddered.
"I guess even Heaven fears him," Octavia commented.
"Suppose you were a canary, and the First Fallen Angel and the Great Underdweller were a snake and a crocodile respectively. Which one would scare you the most as the one to feast on…"
Indigo had stopped paying to the conversation. The mere mention of Leviathan had reduced her to a frozen ball. The ground under her butt began to freeze.
"Maybe, with enough yarn and the right tools, I can weave a carpet. A really grand carpet," Anqa said.
"To fly away?" Octavia rolled her eyes.
"Don't be silly. To cover the grate!" Anqa continued. "And maybe with some incense and scented lanterns, we can get rid of the smell." She snapped her fingers. "This place needs a theater!"
"A theater?" The girls asked.
"Well sure! Angels always host musical nights and theatrical plays on Heaven! I haven't listened to music in such a long time and the acoustic are so wonderful!" Anqa eyed Indigo. "You have the aura of a performer…"
"She doesn't dance!" Octavia snapped. "She's done enough of that!"
"Octavia, it's OK!" Indigo pulled her back.
"I don't like dancers anyway." Anqa tried to better lean against the rocky wall. "But your voice is very lovely. People don't need to look at an angel's face to listen to its melody. The voice knows how to lure people. A song can either lure a wounded soul into solace or a selfish heart to its fate. A muse sings inspirations and a siren sings temptations. A song can be easily controlled by vices and virtues as good and evil can wield a blade." She shrugged and put her arms behind her back. "Inspire me or tempt me, butterfly. If I die, I want to hear a song."
Indigo looked at Octavia, who merely shrugged and sat down. Well… at least nobody's on social media.
No risk of Angel Dust accidentally filming her. No Charlie trying to convince her to perform for the hotel's promotions. Alastor's radio jazz tunes filled her head. Mangrove skippers flew out of her. Eyes shut and foot tapping, Indigo failed to notice that some of her mangrove skippers turned into jazz instruments for several other skippers to play. Octavia dropped her jaw at the sudden jazz orchestra of tiny insects.
Indigo: So many go up,
While so many go down.
They play the dangerous game
And they still never got the crown!
Indigo, caught up in her performance, didn't feel the frost growing under her twirls. She didn't see the butterflies flying around her in wing formation while the skippers played their instruments. She didn't hear Octavia and Anqa dropping their jaws when the walls and ground of the bunker's sixth floor started to morph around, taking actual, sculpted shapes.
Indigo: Poor forgotten angels,
In need of a second chance!
Vile, forgotten angels,
Trapped in my eternal dance!
They tried to play with me,
But I got to pull their strings!
The saints don't forgive their pride,
So I got to eat their wings!
Creatures of vice and virtue,
They've got to pay my fee!
Forgotten angels danced with me!
Danced with a devil LIKE MEEEEEEEEEE!
The butterflies exploded in a rainbow explosion of miniature butterflies that flew around the bunker. Indigo opened her eyes and realized how the sixth floor had transformed into a rocky theatre. Octavia gave her an excited standing ovation. Anqa, on the other hand, looked like she had lost a couple wrinkles after drinking a sugary smoothie of entertainment. Indigo awkwardly bowed.
"Color me impressed…" Anqa clapped her hands. "You sing a lot better than most sin-devourers."
"Thanks… WAIT, WHAT?" Indigo panicked. Octavia summoned a purple fire from her right hand. Anqa held up two fingers to make a 'peace sign'.
"Before you ask, I started connecting the dots during the performance." Anqa tapped under her eyes with her fingers. "Hell gets darkened to purposely make it harder for us to hunt down demons during the cleanses. Our helmets came with night-vision magic, but we were trained with holy magic to look deep into the souls of sinners. We could see the sins of our preys pumping in the veins of their hearts and liver. We were required to target the most sinful, powerful demons. Well, us first-timers. Legacies weren't picky."
The angel pointed at Indigo. "Sin-devourers, on the other hand, don't have sins. You can express sins and fuel your powers with sins, but you can't feel the actual sins. When I look at your soul, I see a black cloud surrounding your white heart. Your liver is just a black hole. Then I saw how your swarm multiplied based on the levels of your emotions. The frost growing in your zone. The sins rising in your friend. I felt envy. You are terrified of Leviathan. You, my invertebrate introvert, are a sin- devourer of envy…"
"Yeah, and you're gonna die if you put a finger on her!" Octavia's fire grew.
"Why would I hurt a sin-devourer?"
"Lucifer made sin-devourers illegal! Especially those who feast on envy!"
"Funny fowl, sin-devourers existed long before Allah became a known concept to humans." Anqa insanely put her finger into Octavia's flames. She quickly summoned the fire away when Anqa's finger caused the purple hellish flames to turn white. "Fun fact: sin-devourers were quite popular for exorcising demons until we came in the picture and angels vilified sin-devourers as pagan witchcraft."
"So… I don't repulse you?" Indigo asked.
"No. And now, I have a proposition that can work for all three of us." She pointed at the girls and back at herself. "Provide me with shelter, secrecy, and your songs until I replenish, and in return, I will provide secrecy and sustenance for the butterfly's thirst."
"Wait…" Indigo jumped off the stage. "You… can MAKE food… our of envy?"
"It's not as hard as making ambrosia and nectar. Just find me your most envious plants and I can start brewing. It shouldn't be that difficult for you to spot envious flowers."
Indigo fidgeted her fingers. This was a little bit too tempting…
My dad always said that you don't take shit from other demons, Charlie's voice echoed.
Then she remembered the gross kelp before Stella and Paimon got in the picture… Colchis Kelp!
"You know what, we need to think this over!" Indigo ran and grabbed Octavia by the wrist.
"Wait a minute!" Anqa got up. "I know that move! You demons are going to leave me here!"
"No, we're not! But tonight's LITERALLY not the best night for us to get caught out of my room! I promise, we'll talk more about it tomorrow!" Indigo dragged Octavia up the stairs. "I swear on my grandparents resting in Heaven!"
"Bold move! If you break a promise like that on your heavenly relatives, the Legacies will track you down!"
"We'll also bring you better food AND the flowers for the envy!"
"But!"
"No buts! Envy brew first, then your stuff! Adios! Au revoir!" Indigo pushed Octavia out of the bunker's doorway. "Come on, come on!"
The girls pushed the bunker closed and made a run for their afterlives. The tunnels guided them back to the entry leading to Indigo's room. After shutting the entrance with her bookshelves, the girls collapsed on her Indigo.
"What did we just do?" Octavia panicked. "Forget the hotel, Charlie and my dad are going to kill us once they find out we released an angel from Lucifer's bunker! We got a monster right under the hotel!"
"No, we don't!" Indigo rubbed her face.
"Oh, PLEASE tell me you were bluffing down there!" Octavia begged. "You aren't seriously going to feed and deal with her?"
"Octavia, I have no options! Alastor can't keep asking Rosie for envy spices!" Indigo sat up. "Think of it. Anqa can make an envy brew and you got Colchis Kelp from your dad's house. We just give it to her tomorrow, easy peasy, and once she gives us what we want, we give her what she wants."
"Indigo… Angels… want… DEMONS… dead!" Octavia articulated. "Forget dealing with a devil, dealing with an angel is worse! She made it clear she doesn't like demons, she called us names, she'll clearly start hunting us once she regains her strength, and when Hell's upper crust finds out…" Octavia hyperventilated. "God… If the Ars Goetia find out, they'll sick Bael onto us!"
Indigo took Octavia's hands in hers. "If they find out, you tell them I pressured you. That it's my fault."
"I'm not going to do that!" Octavia got up and paced in panic. "If they find out, Paimon will…" She stopped in her tracks. "Uh…"
"What?"
"My grandad… will do anything to keep this in the dark." Octavia spoke thoroughly. "If he finds out, he might use his tricks to keep our secret in the dark… and use it as blackmail."
Indigo froze, remembering the horrors of the Goetia court. "I don't want to go back…"
"Nope, nope!" Octavia shook her head. "This secret STAYS in this room and UNDER this fucking hotel! No one else knows except us! We go back tomorrow to deal with that feathered bastard!"
"But, you're a feathered bastard as well…" Indigo said. Octavia tilted her head. "But, yeah, let's not get your grandpa to find out."
"OK! Well, this trip has me parched! Let's go to the kitchen and grab something! I think my dad smuggled some snake wine just in case." Octavia headed for the bedroom door.
"Good idea! Everyone will be out for the garden party."
"Not to hurt Charlie's feelings, but I doubt the hotel will be crowded even after that one party commemorating your floral contributions."
The moment Octavia opened the bedroom door, she and Indigo were welcomed by the sight of dozens of demons checking the rooms on the floor. Nifty was running around like crazy, scurrying in between the rooms, dusting after the demons as they carried their muddy shoes in.
"Hi, Indigo!" Nifty shouted over the commotion.
"Nifty! Who are those people?" Indigo exclaimed.
"New patrons! The garden party was successful, and thanks to Scrunchy, Charlie got more demons signing up for the hotel's mission!" Nifty anxiously shouted. "I HAVE 66 ROOMS TO CLEAN NOW!"
Indigo slammed the door shut, panting heavily.
Octavia checked her phone's clock.
11:45pm.
"What the… We were in the bunker that long?" Octavia gasped. "What the fuck happened during that garden party?"