Chapter 4: The Hotel
Indigo wasn't sure what to make of the Hazbin Hotel.
Angel Dust gave her the tour that lasted nearly four hours. Nearly 13 floors tall, red bricks and dark beams, and yellow glass windows with stained-glass patterns representing either an eye or an apple. Attached to the outer walls were a dangling carousel, some weird smiling narwhal submarine, the baby of a pirate ship and the first half of the Titanic, a locomotive roller coaster, and a radio tower with an ON AIR sign.
The floors were carpeted, the kitchen would bring a Michelin chef to tears, the library was filled to the ceiling with books, and all the bedrooms were enchanted to match the patron's individuality.
It didn't take long for Indigo to realize why the hotel meant for redemption didn't have many patrons besides Angel Dust and now her. Nearly all the rooms Charlie had renovated for her project were too much. A therapy room and Charlie's office made sense, but a spa, an art room, a mental escape room, a theater room, an alternative ballroom, and all the misplaced workshop rooms? Even the candle making workshop room made no sense to Indigo and she used to have fun making scented candles at summer camp!
The saddest part for Indigo was seeing the wasteland of a garden and empty pool behind the hotel. Due to her obsession with butterflies, gardening was Indigo's third greatest thing after art and ice skating. Clearly, Charlie had been budgeting on her indoor program that she neglected the outdoor program.
The most disgusting part? They showed her a rerun of Charlie's ghastly interview when she first premiered the hotel after the last extermination, complete with her song and Angel Dust's involvement in a turf war.
Charlie turned off the TV and chuckled nervously at Indigo. "So… what do you think?"
Indigo bit her lips hard against one another, clawed her hands against the couch, and failed to hide her twitching eye.
"No need to botch it up, we already know we failed," Vaggie muttered.
"No, just… no…" Indigo shook her head. "That's… I'm really sorry…"
"Just say it," Charlie encouraged.
"Miss Charlie, that's… not exactly the best advertisement or layout I've seen coming from a charity…" Indigo had never been the best at insensitivity. She really struggled to keep herself aware of others' potential reactions to her thoughts. She didn't want to offend Miss Charlie. Honestly, Indigo was amazed that the daughter of the Devil himself wanted to redeem demons, but at the same time, thanks to that tour, the rerun of the ruined interview, and, well, the interactions with demons so far, Indigo saw that Miss Charlie really had no grasp on handling a non-profit. "How long has it been since you kickstarted the project?"
"It's nearly been a year." Charlie rubbed her arm and looked away in embarrassment. Indigo bit her lip, holding in the screams. Seeing her desire to scream, Angel Dust passed her a pillow. Indigo screamed in the pillow and coughed, hiccupping some morpho butterflies when she was done.
"Let me guess. You never gave anyone a shitty review?" The spider demon took the pillow from her.
"I don't want to upset you, Miss Charlie, I REALLY don't want to!" Indigo said.
"It's OK, Indigo! It's part of the rehabilitation process. Constructive feedback!" Charlie smiled and gave her a thumbs up.
Indigo clasped her hands together, took a deep breath, and quickly answered: "The program's a mess. The advertising is poor. There's no target audience. There's no fundraisers, events, or anything to bring awareness. There's no donations or merchandising. The employees are basically just volunteering. And your hotel's garden is probably the worst thing I've seen all day besides Vaggie trying to kill me. I'm starting to think that the only reason the hotel's still here after nearly a year of vacancy is because of your title and Mister Alastor's funding. Don't get me wrong, I DO think your goal is amazing. I just don't think it's well-planned out."
Charlie lost her smile. Vaggie just looked at her girlfriend with an expression that basically screamed 'I told you not to do that back then'. Angel Dust just stared at Indigo, impressed by her statement. Alastor had his usual smile as he listened in.
"Not even the list of ideas I had back at the interview?" Charlie meekly handed Indigo the sheet she had used back at her interview. Indigo's hands clenched at the paper, ruffling it.
"Please tell me you're joking, Miss Charlie," Indigo begged. "Please tell me that besides that Disney musical parody you pulled off, you weren't going to mention unicorn kisses and dolphin highfives. Or show your drawings… None of these animals do any of those things!"
"Unicorns do not exist, dearie!" Alastor chuckled.
Indigo, in her sudden stress, suddenly ripped the rectangular paper into a square and rapidly folded it into a paper butterfly. Rapid origami was one of her odd ways of handling stress. The yellow paper bug immediately came to life and fluttered around. "That's exactly what I told my best friend Dimitri until they told me that narwhals were basically sea unicorns! Long story short, anything Dimitri did involving a marine mammal got them banned from every aquarium in the East Coast since fifth grade!" She shook her head. "I'm not going to make it, am I?"
"Angel hasn't made it…" Vaggie began.
"Please don't change the topic. And please don't insult Angel Dust. He didn't bully me the moment I got here," Indigo calmly told Vaggie.
Vaggie gasped in shock. Angel Dust snorted in amusement.
"Yes, Miss Vagatha. You still have to apologize to our newest patron!" Alastor joined in. "Didn't your mother ever tell you that you shouldn't hit children with sticks for no reason?"
Vaggie just glared back at Indigo, her white hair agitating. Indigo gulped in fear, wanting to sink into the couch. If she had to guess, Vaggie didn't seem to get along with the two male demons in the room AND she really didn't like Indigo. Well, that's what Indigo thought. Charlie just patted Vaggie to calm her down. One thing was for sure, Vaggie was definitely NOT going to apologize.
"You know, Alastor's done some pretty decent promos on his radio show," Angel Dust quickly changed the topic. Indigo shot him a quick smile to thank him for his intervention. "But, ya know, when the host usually broadcasts his daily butchery…"
"Artistic retribution carnage, my effeminate fellow," Alastor corrected.
"Whatever ya wanna call a cannibal overlord who scares off people." Angel Dust shrugged. The red deer demon merely shrugged in amusement.
"How come you haven't tried to do a TV commercial?" Indigo's question caused Alastor to suddenly punch the wall with one hand. He didn't flinch from his upright position or lose his gentlemanly smile, but his punch was strong enough to leave a dent on the wall.
"Yeah, don't mention TVs, kiddo," Angel Dust warned. "Smiles' ain't on good terms with Vox of the Three Vs."
"The Three Vs?"
"Vox, Velvet, and Valentino. The latter is Angel Dust's boss," Charlie began. "They…"
Indigo freaked out. Butterflies started popping off the carpet as she ran into the broom closet. (Why they even had a broom closet in Charlie's was a mystery.) She hugged herself and shook in fear. When Angel Dust opened the closet, butterflies were flying everywhere. He took a deep breath and rubbed his temples with his upper hands.
"Kiddo… I'm gonna ask as calmly as I fucking can… Please tell me, with a mere yes or no, if you're behind the bug infestation that trashed his studio and caused me to have the day off today." He took a deep breath.
"I didn't trash his studio. What are you talking about?" Indigo poked her head out of the closet. "I didn't even put my foot there!"
Angel Dust crossed his arms. "Ya sicked your bugs on them, didn't you? Employee updates kept saying that orange bugs were feasting on their eyeballs."
Indigo fell out of the closet. She just lied there, blinking blanking until it kicked in.
The Dryas iulia.
The few eggs that became the flock she had unleashed last night so she and Kyle Ketamine could escape. Enough to attack a small group people. Then she remembered how the butterflies currently in the hotel had multiplied just from eating…
"What have I done?" She sat up. "I just thought they'd keep him busy! Not devour his studio!"
"What were you doing near my boss?" Angel Dust exclaimed. "Didn't your buddy Kyle Ketamine tell ya how dangerous my boss is?"
"Since he dragged me to hide behind an alley dumpster when he heard your boss' car pull up, it's safe to tell he did. Which reminds me!" Indigo got up and pointed at Angel Dust. "You got your 11pm appointment killed when your boss' henchmen didn't find you on Debauchery Avenue, and your boss is repulsive, with his sex tracking skills and his acephobia, ARE YOU EVEN SURPRISED I OPENED A JAR OF TEAR-SUCKING BUTTERFLIES ON HIM?" As she vented at Angel Dust, a small group of black butterflies with red and white tips flew out of her blue hair in the eruptive pattern of lava. One of them landed on top of Angel Dust's head and the hyperventilating Indigo saw that. "AW, COME ON!"
"What, it's cute!" Angel Dust let the butterfly perch on his finger and he teasingly put it on Alastor's bowtie. "Check it out, Smiles! A new bowtie!"
"No thank you. I have no taste in insectivore dishes. And red admirals would ruin my delicious venison!" Alastor brought the butterfly back to Indigo. She had her arms crossed. "If anything, dearie, you merely protected yourself. There's nothing more untasteful than those who prey on others in such a manner. And our effeminate fellow's employer has a reputation for strengthening his empire with the tears of his contracted souls. All you did was feed your creations with a well-deserving retribution on the cockroach!"
"Val's a moth demon, Smiles."
"The kind that's enjoyable to squish, my effeminate fellow. Needless to emphasize, our young friend is safe with us… as long as there is no fraternizing between our young friend and the degenerate triumvirate!" In his smile and over-the-top friendliness, there was a coating of warning in Alastor's dialogue.
Indigo sighed in relief. The butterflies scattered as she calmed down. "I'll avoid them like the plague!" She promised.
"Great!" Charlie clasped her hands. "So, maybe summon your butterflies back?"
Indigo tilted her head. "Miss Charlie… You realize that I can't control those butterflies, right?"
"She's gotta point, Sunshine," Angel Dust agreed. "The kiddo only landed in Hell yesterday. It's not like she can snap them ta show up the way Smiles snaps Eldritch tentacles or voodoo shadows. And where do ya want her to stash them? Nifty's gonna have nightmares!"
Indigo then heard Kyle Ketamine talking in the back of her mind. If you tell them you just died and would gladly clean the rooms until you have enough to pay your own rent, I'm sure they wouldn't mind. The chances of Indigo making a salary were slim to none, but she had to think of something. Something that would both keep her useful at the hotel AND fix her swarm problem. But stuffing butterflies in a room seemed too sad to her.
She then thought of the ugly garden outside.
"You know… I did do a lot of gardening back when I… you know, wasn't here…" Indigo rubbed her hands, nervous that the demons would get angry. "Maybe… I could do something about your garden at the back of the hotel. It would give more space for my butterflies, and, I don't know, maybe slightly help with the hotel's natural landscaping."
The four other demons looked at Indigo with pensive expressions.
"Well, we've definitely been meaning to fix the garden," Charlie said. "I've been rather carried away with focusing on renovating the building for the rooms and all…"
"A neater garden could help, Charlie!" Angel Dust encouraged. "Think of it. Nifty hates it whenever Fat Nuggets drags mud from the back. And Alastor could go for some freshly grown veggies…"
"Are you insinuating that I don't know where I shop my cooking ingredients?" Alastor asked.
"You'd probably save money."
"Plants are unpredictable, Angel," Vaggie warned.
"Maybe if I knew more about Hell's flora, I could try to look for seeds from the less harmful plants," Indigo said. "And butterflies are pollinators that drink nectar, they'd stop eating the furniture…"
"We're doing it!" Charlie and Vaggie suddenly exclaimed, though Indigo wasn't sure if they meant the garden regrowth or the idea of saving the hotel's furniture from becoming a bug's buffet.
Indigo sighed in relief. She would be staying here a bit longer.
Later
Going back to the hotel's garden made Indigo start thinking that whatever she might have done to be in Hell, it earned her the punishment of a ghastly garden.
If an airplane went over the hotel, passengers would have realized that the garden was designed in the shape of an apple. People in the streets would have seen a tall silver fence with spiked pickets, the tips being sharp blades. Some believed that Lucifer himself had used the discarded spears of exterminators to create that fence, to remind sinners that they ought to do better than trespass the property of the Fallen Angel, but this was an obvious misanthropic tale, the fence was rusty and worn out, a dumpster even leaned on it! The stone pavement matched that of the driveway and grey moss covered the steps. Fashioned like the Biblical snake was the dried up, empty pool with ivy growing around it. Planted around the fence were withered apple trees, thorn bushes that bore no roses, rotten wood benches, and a fountain of a snake overrun by flies.
"I hate Hell…" Indigo muttered.
"We haven't done much," Charlie admitted. "But maybe with some mowing…"
"Just let her tear down the garden, Charlie." Angel Dust sighed. He'd brought Fat Nuggets with him, but to avoid Nifty's wrath, he carried him in his arms. "What do you think, Indigo? What do you want to do?"
"I don't know! Cut the trees, weed this whole place up, rip off the fence, or do anything that will give out some kind of blank space!"
Just then, Nifty's scream echoed from within the building. Butterflies and caterpillars emerged from the building and swarmed towards the garden. The group jumped back to the staircase when the caterpillars lined up and crawled together, chewing through the grass and weeds. The swallowtails formed clouds that uprooted the apple trees and thorn bushes and dumped them into a pile. Somehow, one of the butterflies managed to torch the pile of wood with a lighter.
"That's actually disturbing," Angel Dust admitted.
"Butterflies setting a bonfire or that the swarm is tearing up the garden?" Indigo was just as disturbed. The morpho butterflies, little in numbers, easily ripped off the pool tiles and tossed them into the bonfire.
Only Alastor looked ecstatic. He was visibly entertained by the beautiful insects tearing apart nature like metaphorical cannibals. As the bugs did their business, one caterpillar rapidly chewed through the snake fountain in the rapidity of a tornado. When the dust cleared, the snake had been replaced by a sculpture of Fat Nuggets.
"AWWWW!" Angel Dust squealed and ran at the newly designed fountain. "I approve this! I APPROVE THIS! WE'RE KEEPING THIS! I WILL KILL ANYONE WHO SAYS OTHERWISE!"
"I'll keep your word on it!" Alastor chuckled.
"This is amazing!" Charlie beamed. "We just saved a month of demolition!" When the caterpillars and butterflies stopped demolishing everything, leaving an empty space of flat dirt in a rectangular shape, Charlie hopped onto the soil surface. "Maybe a design where people would see the words 'HAZBIN HOTEL'…"
"Hey, Charlie, take a chill pill!" Angel Dust whistled as he took pictures of the new fountain with his cell phone. "Indigo's the new hotel gardener. Besides, lettered landscapes are super tacky."
"I'm gonna agree with him on that one." Vaggie nodded.
Indigo paced around the soil a bit. What could she do with such a landscape? She had to keep it simple. One of the butterflies dropped a stick while dumping off some branches in the mini bonfire. Indigo used it to do a sketch of the rectangular space she now had. Keep the fountain at the center. Think of Miss Charlie's ridiculous song. Perhaps plant seven trees to frame the new garden and have seven different colored plants circle the fountain. Do something about the stoned floor.
The other demons looked over her sketch-on-the-soil.
"My, we have both a gardener and an illustrator!" Alastor applauded. "Charlie dear, have you seen the way our newest arrival has metaphorical referenced the seven deadly sins in her earthly draft?"
"Seven virtues, since this is a hotel aiming to redemption," Indigo said.
"Humility, Patience, Temperance, Charity, Chastity, Diligence, and Kindness! Indigo, you're brilliant!" Charlie hugged Indigo. Indigo gasped for air when Charlie let her go.
"I can't feel my bones…" Indigo whimpered. Angel Dust shook her by the shoulders. Indigo groaned when she felt her limbs again. "Thank you…"
"The Seven Virtues contradict the Seven Deadly sins in order," Charlie randomly pulled out a piece of paper and pencil from her hand. "Coincidentally, the Rings of Hell are…"
"For Satan's sake, Charlie!" Angel Dust snatched the materials from Charlie, stunning her. The spider demon rolled his eyes and turned to the butterfly demon. "What do you have in mind for the 'flowers of the seven virtues?" He gagged. "Sounds like a shitty perfume."
Indigo chuckled. "Hm… brooms for Humility, alliums for Patience, azaleas for Temperance, balms for Charity, lotuses for Chastity, magnolias for Diligence, and Speedwell for Kindness. And scratch my idea of putting trees around the fence, I'm going to go for mistletoe."
"Ooh! For early Christmas decorations?" Angel Dust smirked as he jotted down the notes.
"No, to ward off evil." The other demons blinked at her. "What? My grandpa was superstitious. He carried a bunch of mistletoe in his pocket to push away evil. My dad and I always hung dried up mistletoe patches on the windows, especially after my grandpa died from cancer…" A sad expression appeared on Indigo's face.
"Everything OK?" Angel Dust asked.
Indigo responded by going back inside, leaving the four demons confused.
Minutes later
All it took was five minutes for Husk to leave the bar slash front desk to go to the bathroom and he found the lobby overrun by butterflies. Nifty was frantically shooing as many as she could with her feather duster. Angel Dust, in the meantime, was cuddling with Fat Nuggets on an armchair while Indigo Caligo just lied down on the couch, probably moody.
"Do I even wanna know how Al fucked up?" The winged cat demon asked.
"What? What makes ya think Smiles did anything?" Angel Dust asked him. "Alastor did nothing wrong! If anything, he's probably the only one with a freakin sense of decency! Why would he do something wrong? You sure you're not drunk, Husky?"
Angel Dust had rambled so quickly, he might as well be jittery from caffeine. Husk just stared at him while Indigo didn't flinch from her depressed mood. Nifty opened the front door and chased the butterflies outside.
"Thank goodness I chased them out!" The tiny cyclops demon sped to join the others. She then saw Indigo's mood. "What's wrong? I saw you being so excited about fixing Miss Charlie's garden! I could see it from the windows I was cleaning! Why are you so blue? I know! I'll go make some apple cider with ice cubes!"
"Non-alcoholic cider, Nifty!" Husk shouted at Nifty as she took off. "I don't want the princess and her bitchy moss broad throwing shit at me for giving alcohol to a minor!"
"Will do, Husk!"
Nifty slammed the door behind her. As if they knew she had gone to the kitchen, the butterflies flew back inside the lobby.
"Seriously, what happened?" Husk asked Angel Dust. "I thought ya managed to calm the kid down… or at the very least, keep the other one from poking her spear at her!"
"I don't know, Husky. She got moody when she started talking about her grandpa," Angel Dust said quietly. He let go of Fat Nuggets. The piglet trotted to Indigo and rubbed his small head against her dangling foot. Indigo let out a small smile and picked up the piglet. She sat up properly so Fat Nuggets could cuddle on her lap. Husk noticed Angel Dust's soft smile as the kid cooed at Fat Nuggets, teasing it as a 'silly piggy'.
Husk was confused. It had been nearly half a day since the kid was first found sleeping on that same sofa and Angel Dust hadn't unleashed a single sexual flirtation on Husk or Alastor since then. He wasn't even rubbing off for brownie points how unusually nice he was being to the kid.
Either the porn star had impressive manipulation skills to appeal to the princess, or maybe, if Husk wasn't too drunk to believe it, Angel Dust had a sudden inexplicable fondness for the younger demon.
"You know, if the idea upsets ya, you could do something else for the fence," Angel Dust told Indigo. "Doesn't need to be mistletoe."
"She wants to decorate the garden for Christmas?" Husk muttered.
"Husky!" Angel Dust hissed in a warning tone. "She just had an idea for the garden which happens to remind her of her grandpa! Would it hurt ya to be sensitive?" Angel Dust turned to Indigo as she gave belly rubs to Fat Nuggets. "Ya know, I liked that story about your grandpa carrying mistletoe in his pockets."
The feathers on Husk's wings and tail ruffled. He rolled his eyes in frustration. "Oh please, do not fucking tell me you're related to this guy I heard of! His last name was literally 'heart of gold' in French!"
Indigo blinked at Husk. "Wait… You heard of my grandpa? Martin Coeurdor?"
"Fuck!" Husk banged his head against the bar. "What the Hell did ya do to get here? Martin Coeurdor's granddaughter… IN HELL!"
"Wait! Husk, how do you know of my grandpa?" Indigo let go of Fat Nuggets.
"We're you guys friends or something?" Angel Dust asked.
"Obviously not, but I heard of him by reputation," Husker talked, uncorking a bottle of Malbec for him to drink. "The guy was a stubborn saint. French man who fought in the French Resistance while he was 20 or some shit. Carried mistletoe in his pockets for superstitions. They say the guy was so fucking good, he kept bringing fugitives to the French-Swiss borders even when he got his leg shot off. Once the war was over, he immigrated to the US, moved to Jackson Heights in New York. By the time I was drafted in the 70s, I heard he moved to Maryland with his wife or something. Got a job in the VA."
"VA?"
"Veteran Affairs," Indigo explained. She looked at Husk. "You didn't, like, you know…"
"Alcohol poisoning." Husk waved his Malbec bottle in the air before drinking again.
"Of course…" Indigo sighed.
"Not all veterans go to Heaven, kid," Husk pointed out. "Your grandpa is one of the few boy scouts who earned it."
"So, porn star born in mafia," Indigo pointed at Angel Dust and then at Husk, "and an alcoholic veteran. Princess of Hell, her girlfriend, and a cannibal deer upstairs. What about Nifty? She's so sweet!"
"Tell that to the army fuckers she killed in the 40s!" Husk chuckled.
"Never knew ya knew Nifty before death, Husky," Angel Dust said.
"I did. She was assisting a teacher in the camp I guarded. I'd listen to them teach Japanese to kids, so I picked up on it. Came in handy when I covered her murder of the fuckers who tried to have their way with her. She wasn't much older than the kid here when she was finally released. Took on housecleaning gigs until someone blew up the house she was cleaning in the 50s." Husk saw the understanding look on Angel Dust and the devastated one on Indigo.
"Dang… Never imagined Nifty in one of those places…" Angel Dust leaned on his seat. "I mean, I dealt with my own shit, my family being Italians from New York, but still…" He shook his head. "So you speak French or something?" He asked Indigo.
She nodded. "And Spanish. My abuela… Martin's wife, had Colombian parents. She got him hooked on the works of Gabriel García Márquez…" Indigo chuckled. "But, yeah, my dad and I have French and Colombian ancestry. Well, I guess I did. I don't know if it counts."
Husk threw away the empty bottle. "And your mum?"
"What about her?"
Husk looked at the kid. She was devoid of expression, like the question had no meaning to her.
"You mentioned your pops a lot," Angel Dust had the same thought as Husk. "What about ya mom?"
"Walked out." Indigo shrugged. "I was never really curious about it. I don't care much about the nuclear family nonsense."
"So she left ya and ya pops? Dang, she sounds like a bitch!"
"I guess. I don't know, I never bother asking my dad because I didn't want to focus on someone who wasn't there for me. People did ask my family about her, but my dad just changed the conversation or my grandparents merely responded with 'We don't talk about She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'."
"How old were you? When the bitch left?" Husk grabbed another bottle.
"I didn't bother to ask." Indigo shrugged. "I guess she left the moment she had a chance after I was born. My grandparents always had this weird obsession of scrapbooking, but they don't have a single one showing her." She waved her hand in dismissal. "Look, it's not something that bugs. I had my dad. Now I have no one…"
Husk nodded. Nifty came in with the apple cider. Indigo Caligo was really a sad sight. Her mother abandoned her, her grandparents were most likely in Heaven, and now she was separated from her family. Dead on her birthday and she had no idea how she died.
Honestly, how much worse will things get?
Elsewhere in Hell
In the heart of his throne room, a demon relaxed on his throne. The imp standing at its feet trembled as his giant hand reached down and grabbed one of the glowing purple organs presented to him on a silver tray. The behemoth licked his sharp teeth with his forked tongue, vapor escaping from his mouth as he tossed the organ in his mouth. Sizzling sounds came from him as he relished the organ boiling in his stomach.
A knock came from the doors made of whale bones.
"Enter." His voice echoed in his cavernous throne room. He dismissed the imp, who kept his head down and left as soon as the newcomer stepped in. In the dark room, the only thing that could be seen from him, courtesy of the purple torches hanging from the pillars of whale skeletons, was his amethyst armor and bare arms loaded in scars.
"My favorite son-in-law," the demon on the throne mused. "How are you doing today?"
"Wondering what indecency my wife is up to," the newcomer said, bowing before the demon.
"Really? Don't tell me. Let me guess. Another fight with her siblings? I love it when my children get envious." The large demon clapped his hands.
"I don't know, Oh Great Underdweller. But I checked her bank account. She spent a purchase at the Immediate Murder Professional. You know, the agency I've occasionally donated to…" The newcomer was interrupted by the demon slamming his tail against the ground, avoiding him by a foot. Still, that massive tail could have crushed him.
"My dear fellow, you should know more than anyone about murders," the giant demon said warningly. "You committed the very first one after all! And you're telling me your wife, my youngest and least favorite daughter, hired a hit on a human?"
"Do you wish for me to be envious?"
"I wish for you to bring her to me for a little chat." His tail slithered closer to the throne's feet. "And keep your eye out on the Pride Ring for the sinner she placed a hit on." The demon's eyes glowed purple in the dark. "She's going to get hungry very soon."