Chapter 3: The Young Demon
It was nearly bordering midnight when Angel Dust and Alastor finally reached the Hazbin Hotel.
Angel Dust tried his best to respect Alastor's five foot rule, but with the way the Overlord held him closely to help him walk, Angel Dust couldn't help but lean on him. Alastor's coat warmed his tired body coated with makeup that failed to hide his bruises and bleeding cuts. The boots on his wobbling legs were the only clothing he had undamaged.
Today had been a nightmare. After finding out his stunt after Extermination day and how he volunteered for Charlie's project, Valentino doubled his workload. More shoots, more clients, more violent kinks, and more sessions with the pimp. Valentino had even ensured that the most paying customers were among the most violent, causing Angel Dust to miss out his 10pm curfew, or worse, pulling all-nighters to come back just for a quick nap, drink, and go back to work.
His 10:30pm session was a nightmare. A party of six, all canine demons, wanting to do an orgy. As if the clawing and biting was bad enough, Angel Dust had dared to hold back his services when he found out that the adult clients had dragged a kid in the party. Angel Dust got beaten for refusing their desire to use him to teach these sorts of things to a child. With odd coincidences, the jackasses had a radio in the room. Even with the session being across Pentagram City, the device was enough for the Radio Demon to pick up the frequency of Angel's screams. Five seconds later, Alastor had teleported into the apartment through the radio. Fifteen minutes later, he turned the clients into evening snacks and scared off the child, the last one being unintentional. Eventually, after letting Angel Dust breathe, Alastor helped him walk back to the hotel, using his shadow magic to have them move without being noticed.
Angel Dust assumed that Alastor did it to preserve his reputation. He already denied the spider demon's services, why would he want to be caught helping him from his clients? Probably didn't want any crazy demons to think that an Overlord like him would play knights in shining armor with Valentino's top whore.
"We have arrived, my dear! I should hope that after a decent bath and good night's sleep, you will remember to follow Charlie's curfew!" Alastor gleefully told Angel when they finally reached the entrance to the hotel's driveway.
"Hey, I told ya! I can't control when Valentino gives me work! If he says that I have to suck dicks until 5am before shoots, that's how it is!" Angel protested, his ribs aching.
"Why not put in a word with…" Alastor interrupted his own words when somebody immediately ran out the driveway. The figure didn't notice them and kept running, holding onto his carboard box and tin mug as he ran off. The two demons looked suspiciously as the demon disappeared into the streets.
"Odd. People usually run away when I'm in the room, not when I have yet to arrive." Alastor tilted his head. "I've never encountered potential victims with thyme cologne nearly reminding me of my mother's herbs."
Angel Dust widened his eyes. He immediately headed to the front entrance. "I know that kid. That's Kyle Ketamine. He got on Valentino's bad side when a blowjob caused some of my colleagues to go cold turkey. Unable to work for weeks. And the kid did it by accident."
"A great cessation for your colleagues!" Alastor laughed. "I wonder if your status as the hotel's star patron scared him away, and if it is, I applaud you for the entertainment!"
Angel Dust frowned at the smile plastered demon. "The kid's homeless, Al. No one wants to hire him or fuck with him. Sometimes when I walk in-between calls, I find him begging on the streets, and with the way Val sucks me dry, I can't even give him a dollar. The kid doesn't have enough to buy a candy bar, Al. A candy bar." Angel Dust sighed. "It's almost like how the streets are clear when you come up, but everyone runs away from the kid because of his bad breath."
Angel Dust opened the door for them in the same sneakiness he applies whenever returning from work late. Snores echoed all over the lobby. Alastor walked ahead and dragged the body of an unconscious Husk from behind the bar. The cat demon had gone drunk again. Rolling his eyes in amusement, Alastor snapped his fingers. A glass of water appeared in his hands and Alastor didn't hesitate to splash the cat's face with it. Husk woke up with a hiss.
"The Hell is wrong with you?" He exclaimed. "I was napping!"
"Napping on Malbec?" Alastor chuckled.
"You're an asshole…" Husk muttered and sat up. "As if your smelly herb joke wasn't enough…"
"Smelly herb joke?" Angel Dust crossed his arms. "Oh, about that! We just caught a homeless kid running out of the hotel. You probably don't know him. Kyle Ketamine…"
"The thyme kid?" That regained Husk's full attention.
"You know of the young one, Husker?" Alastor asked.
"The fuck I do. He begs by the casino dumpsters. The second somebody gives him a penny, another bitch beats him for it." The cat demon grumbled and got up. "It's disgusting. I lose track of how many kids end up here. Not kids like manchild Angel…" Husk's comment earned a pout from Angel. "Actual kids under human drinking age."
"Yes, well, as tragic as it is for children to die without pursuing fulfilling lives, any sin will land them here!"
A small snore caught their attention. The three demons noticed the bodily mass on the couch by the chimney. Suspicious as to who else could have broken into the hotel, they silently walked to the couch. The floorboards didn't even creak. They found a demon sleeping on the couch.
An owl butterfly demon.
Really blue.
Female.
And, to their startlement, a new arrival who died too young.
"Oh my god…" Angel Dust gasped quietly. "She's not even older than Kyle Ketamine… Now I get why he took off. He must have led her here…" This was new to Angel Dust. It would probably cause Charlie to flip. The idea that a sinner in the streets led a new arrival to her hotel.
Husk sniffed. "Damn. She just fell a few hours ago. It's a miracle she's alive."
"She looks so… sweet."
"Not all kids are sweet, Angel."
"Not that kind of sweet. It's like… it's like looking at Vaggie if she smiled more and…" Angel Dust stopped when he heard the owl butterfly demon whimpering and shifting in her sleep. In her unconscious state, she shed tears and looked unhappy. Husk silently freaked out when her few tears turned into hatching caterpillars. Alastor flicked his wrist and small shadows circled over the young demon's head. Her unhappy expression turned into a calmer one.
"While I am curious to find out what possible sin she committed, I suggest things are taken slowly. Husker, my good fellow, tuck her into the first room you find until we situate her tomorrow. The spell I cast will give her only sleep with no troubling thoughts," Alastor said. Husk nodded and gently picked up the young demon. He muttered something about her being lighter than a bug while carrying her up the stairs. Angel Dust watched Alastor as he picked up one of the caterpillars. Upon resting on the Radio Demon's palm, it transformed into a yellow butterfly with black stripes.
"An eastern tiger swallowtail…" Alastor looked curiously at the butterfly. "I used to see them fly around and about in my familial garden. I've never seen a demon bring to life invertebrates through the act of crying. Not really to my tastes. Like I always say, no one's fully dressed without smiling."
"I'm worried, Al," Angel Dust admitted, actually ignoring the pain he endured all day.
"Yes, I don't know how tears can become eggs…" Alastor opened a window and let the butterfly down on the porch.
"Al, I'm more worried that a kid landed in Hell and got to the hotel in just a few hours after dying!" Angel Dust shook his head. "I doubt she even knows it's a hotel for so-called redemption. And you saw how upset she looked. Al… I don't think this kid really knows why she's in Hell."
"Perhaps an accidental mistake she is unaware of."
"Alastor, even if you're some shitty Overlord, we're both sinners. We never do accidental mistakes! Sure, the occasional bad choices, but there's never accident! Do you have any idea of the amount of kids I met who fell in Hell for the past 10 years because of the same stories? It's always 'I murdered my bully', 'I joined a gang', 'I have sex', 'I stole my mom's credit card', or 'I jaywalked'. The kid shakes in her sleep like she never took a human life! Alastor, I'm serious, on my own career, that I. Don't. Think. She. Did. Anything. Wrong."
Alastor tilted his head. "What an unexpected side of faith in you, Angel Dust! And I thought it was down to zero like all the demons in Hell! But no matter! Before you can climb stairs, you need wood to build them!" Alastor clasped his hands. "Perhaps we can properly welcome the child to Hell with a nice breakfast!"
The two demons kept talking, leaving the swallowtail to fly outside and towards the window leading to the room where Husk tucked its creator to bed.
In the morning
Ines groaned. Her eyes fluttered open. Everything was so dark, she couldn't see the bedroom features. She just felt the soft, cushy bed she was in. So cushy, she actually slept well.
Ines yawned and stretched. "My God… I had a horrible nightmare… I must have fallen asleep in the car and Dad put me to bed…"
Dad.
What time was it? Mr. Coeurdor always woke up his daughter before dropping her off at school on his way to the bookshop. She wasn't ready! Ines kicked the sheets off of her and ran to the open bathroom door, ignoring the fluttering around her.
"Shoot, where's that light switch?" She finally found it on the left side. When the lights turned on, she realized she wasn't in her room.
She noticed the presence of a thousand eastern tiger swallowtails in the bedroom and bathroom.
And to make matters worse, she saw her reflection on the bathroom mirror.
Meanwhile, in the dining room
The dining room was bustling with activity.
As it had been predicted last night, Charlie was beaming with energy once Alastor and Angel Dust revealed the late arrival of the young demon. She scrambled through papers for speeches and had Nifty decorate the dining room with balloons and a WELCOME banner with painted smiling suns. Nifty seemed just as eager as Charlie. Only the men seemed to be calm-minded, with Alastor and Angel Dust preparing breakfast and Husk setting the table while hiding alcohol bottles underneath his spot. As for Vaggie, she was the only one majorly suspicious.
"It's for rehabilitation purposes, Charlie, not to welcome random psychos!" Vaggie said.
"But Vaggie, we might be welcoming the second patron after Angel! And if this is a new demon, it might really bring hope to newcomers that they can be redeemed!" Charlie said.
"You're probably just pissed that it's a butterfly demon and not a moth demon," Angel Dust teased. He placed a small basket of freshly baked focaccia on the table. He grabbed a piece and tossed it for his precious piglet, Fat Nuggets, to catch.
"I fail to understand your insinuation with species difference," Alastor mused. The Radio Demon properly arranged his dishes on the table: warm grits, bacon, and French toast complete with a pitcher of chicory coffee.
"It's one of those weird species difference shits." Angel shrugged. "Evolutionary shit or whatnot. You know, like a frog topping a caecilian, a gator being better than a caiman, or in this case, a butterfly pitted against a moth."
"My problem isn't with butterflies, Angel!" Vaggie snapped. "It's about…" But Angel Dust kept talking to Alastor.
"Weird story. Big Vee's a moth. Never really ashamed of it. But he gets ticked off pretty easy on the 'moth vs butterfly' subject." He pondered. "Come to think of it, I don't think I've really seen any butterfly demons among sinners."
"They're pretty rare," Charlie paused. Then it hit her. "Hang on. It's nearly 8. Angel, how come you're not at work?"
Angel Dust grimaced. "Aw, man! Thanks, toots! Now I'm gonna remember the shit awaiting me when I go back to work! But yeah, studio's closed today. Apparently, the boss has a bug infestation."
"Well, I suppose we can say that our indecent moth got bugged out," Alastor's shameless joke earned a lot of eyes rolling. Angel Dust giggled quietly, unaware of his own blushing. "But enough of negative thoughts. Let us be ready to welcome the newest arrival! I dare imagine the surprise in her voice!"
A feminine scream echoed across the hotel walls. All the windows exploded and the broken shards assembled into mini butterflies. Not organic butterflies. Butterflies made of actual glass, like tiny living sculptures that started cutting through things with their wings. They flew around, destroying the banner and popping balloons. Alastor snapped his fingers, summoning his staff. He stomped it on the ground and the microphone's eye released a beam, petrifying the glass butterflies. With a motion of his staff, Alastor sent the flying glass insects pack to their respective displays, transforming them to their original status as stained glass windows.
"What… the Hell was that?" Vaggie demanded.
"The newbie's powers, I think." Angel Dust checked on Fat Nuggets before the piglet scurried under the table. "When we found her last night, she cried in her sleep. She literally cries hatching caterpillar eggs."
"Perhaps one of us should gently escort her downstairs?" Alastor suggested. "While I am one for entertainment, the sounds of a crying youth is not one of my favorite tracks."
"I'll go!" Nifty immediately offered. She ran for the doors leading to the hallway. Before she could reach the doorknob, the door exploded open. Thousands of eastern tiger swallowtails and glass shard butterflies flew into the dining room, overwhelming the demons. Nifty shrieked at the sight of the flock and ran behind Husk.
"SWARM!" She yelped.
"But Nifty, Vaggie and I are bug demons!" Angel Dust was confused. "And that's a freaking swarm of butterflies!"
"If you'd seen her back when sinners dragged the 2005 locust infestation, you'd shut the Hell up!" Husk used his tail to swat the butterflies away. They just kept flying around them in a frenzy and more seemed to come. They almost felt trapped inside the eye of a fluttering butterfly cyclone.
"We need to find her! The butterflies are reacting to her fear!" Charlie tried to wave away the demons.
"What makes you say that?" Vaggie asked.
"I don't know how to explain it, but sometimes sinners' emotions affect wildlife! Especially if the sinner has a connection with nature or is really scared about being in Hell! We need to find her and calm her down!"
"Anyone seen Fat Nuggets?" Angel Dust panicked when he realized that he hadn't kept track of his piglet. He freaked out. "Fat Nuggets! Where are you? Fat Nuggets! Baby boy!"
Impossible to explain, the storm suddenly ceased. The room reappeared and the numbers decreased, but now there were still hundreds of butterflies remaining. They just landed and stood still on every potential surfaces, almost waiting like ticking time bombs.
"Fat Nuggets?" Angel Dust asked.
"He's OK…"
Vaggie pulled out her spear when the frightened voice spoke up. Fag Nuggets' freaked out oinking came from underneath the table. Figuring out that the sinner was hiding with his pig, Angel Dust began to grab hold of the tablecloth. However, Vaggie immediately poked her spear under the table, scaring the demon out of hiding. The young owl butterfly demon was hugging Fat Nuggets tightly.
"Vagina, are you insane?" Angel Dust held Vaggie back. "You're scaring her!"
"I don't trust her!" Vaggie snapped.
"You don't trust anyone! And keep your joystick away from my Nugs!" Angel Dust pushed her. The young demoness ran to a corner and hid behind a folding screen with paintings of the Forbidden Tree. She still held onto Fat Nuggets as she cried. The butterflies got agitated, only this time, they all fluttered at Vaggie. She freaked out when all the insects started pecking at her. And the more the newcomer cried, the more eggs hatched into caterpillars evolving into butterflies assaulting Vaggie. The worse part was the loud echo of voices in the dining room.
Vagatha is threatened by the butterfly.
Vagatha doesn't have the deer's powers.
Vagatha doesn't have the princess' positivity.
Vagatha doesn't have the spider's beauty.
Vagatha doesn't have the cat's wings.
Vagatha doesn't have the cyclops' energy.
Vagatha is envious. Vagatha is envious. Vagatha is envious. Vagatha is envious. Vagatha is envious.
Vaggie screamed and cried. Everyone watched her pull her own hair and struggle to cover her ears. The butterflies circled around her, their wings glowing purple. They kept repeating 'Vagatha is envious' like children singing mockingly at their targets.
"Stop it! She didn't do anything wrong!" The scream came from the young demoness behind the folding screen.
"Send your fucking bugs away!" Husk squashed one to death with a bottle.
"I can't!" The young demoness cried. "I don't want to be here! I don't want to be in Hell! I just want to go back home to my Dad!"
Charlie took some steps towards the folding screen, but Angel Dust stopped her. He sighed and cautiously looked behind the screen. The blue-colored demoness was curled in a ball, not paying attention to the squealing piglet she held on to like a teddy bear. Her eyes and those of her dress glowed purple, but despite the overwhelming power, she looked at Angel Dust's direction. Like she knew he was in front of her.
"Don't touch me!" She shook her head. More caterpillars hatched from her tears.
Angel Dust held out his front hands. "May I please have my Fat Nuggets back?" He calmly asked her.
The young demoness looked down at the piglet. The eyes stopped glowing, revealing her black-and-blue heterochromia. She gently gave Angel Dust Fat Nuggets back. Angel Dust hugged Fat Nuggets, letting the pig lick his face. "Aw, where you scared, baby?" Angel Dust cooed the pig. "Did that meanie Vaggie scare you?
"Hey!" Vaggie snapped.
But Angel Dust just ignored her. He put his piglet down. The butterflies in the room stopped harassing Vaggie but they now fluttered over the folding screen. Angel Dust looked at the young demon hiding.
"You like piggies?" Angel Dust asked her.
She nodded, a bit more comfortable but still curling in a ball.
"You like Fat Nuggets?" Angel Dust pressed on. "He likes hugs, but just don't squeeze him hard. OK?"
More butterflies flew out of the room as the demoness calmed down.
"I know, you're scared. But we're not going to hurt you…"
"The giant moth freaked me out."
The shy voice of the demoness spoke up. Angel Dust blinked, both at how she really sounded innocent, and at what she said. He looked at Vaggie and then at the demoness. "Yeah, Vaggie's a bitch. She thought you were going to kill us…"
"I'm afraid of moths."
"Why the fuck are you afraid of moths? You're practically one!" Husk's dumb comment caused the folding screen to topple down. They finally had a better view of the indigo-haired demoness. Her eyes twitched.
"Who… suggested… that moths and butterflies are the same thing?" She asked. Nifty and Angel Dust both pointed at Husk. Figuring out that he probably didn't want the same treatment as Vaggie, Husk hit his own head with a Malbec bottle, knocking himself out. The owl butterfly demoness freaked out when she saw Husk fall on the ground. "OH MY GOD! WHAT HAVE I DONE? SOMEONE CALL A HOSPITAL!"
Alastor chuckled. "Nonsense! Our dear Husker has hit his head numerously and nothing has ever killed him! He'll be up and drinking like usual!" He snapped his fingers and the chairs pulled up. "I believe it's time for us all to enjoy breakfast before it gets cold! Little darling, why don't you pick a seat?"
"I'm having a nightmare…" She begged as she sat down by the table's corner. "Either I fainted in the car and I'm home or I'm in a hospital…" Her eyes widened. "Oh God, I'm a butterfly in Hell… I'm going to die next Monday, right? Butterflies only live a week!"
"Yeah, and I'm a spider demon. Yet here I am, seventy years or something after I kicked the bucket." Angel Dust sat next to her. "You live forever!"
"I don't want to live forever… I just want to go home."
This was a sad sight for Angel Dust. He'd seen plenty of kids die in seven decades. A lot of them had the same reactions: they wanted to go back home, they wanted their mommas or poppas, they didn't want to be in Hell, and the other shit. But with the butterfly demoness, it just looked… heartbreaking. Some sour bitches could have interpreted her behavior as a wolf in sheep's clothing, but he was understanding more sheep than wolf. She really did not want to be in Hell and if anything, her harmless personality was second to Charlie's. Heck, the kid acted like she didn't even know how she died in the first place.
"So… what's your name?" Charlie asked nicely.
"Which one? The human or the demon one?"
"Both… if you want."
The young demoness hesitated. "Well… I'm Indigo Caligo."
"What a brilliant name!" Alastor poured coffee in a mug for her. "Very fitting, indeed! We are quite pleased to have you in our fine establishment! Our effeminate fellow Angel Dust has introduced himself already. In order, we have Princess Charlie, her lover and confidante Vagatha, Nifty our sweet maid, and our drunk feline fellow is Husker! As for me, I am Alastor the Radio Demon!"
"Uh… is that why you stood like a radio talk show host in the radio?" Indigo asked.
"Yeah, and don't trust anything that…" Vaggie began.
"You shouldn't cut in. I didn't hear Mr. Alastor's answer." Indigo's answer caught Vaggie by surprise.
"Yes, Vagatha, you are in the presence of an impressionable youth! You might corrupt her good manners by interrupting civilized conversations!" Alastor commented, almost too pleased by how the new arrival had politely put Vaggie to her place. "And yes, dearie, I sound like a radio show host because I AM a radio host! The best in Hell!"
"The only one in Hell," Vaggie muttered.
"Thus no other room to judge otherwise!" Alastor gave Indigo her mug of coffee. She eyed it suspiciously before giving in. She drank through it.
"So, Indigo…" Charlie tried to ask as gently as possibly. "How… old are you exactly? Angel Dust said you look too young to be in Hell."
"I turned sixteen… yesterday." Indigo's miserable response caused various reactions from the other demons: Charlie and Nifty gasped, Vaggie spit her coffee, Angel Dust twitched his eyes, Husk suddenly burst back to his feet, and Alastor let out a strange radio static noise.
"You FUCKING fell on your birthday? What the Hell did…" Husk began, only for Alastor to pour coffee on his fur.
"Let's not poke on sensitive subject matters, Husker!" Alastor warned. Husker mumbled something and grabbed some grits.
"I don't want to be in Hell…" Indigo muttered.
"You know, you are in a place seeking to rehabilitate demons to leave Hell…" Charlie began.
"You mean you can send me back home?" Indigo started to smile, revealing her fangs. "Thank you!"
"Uh… No, to send you to Heaven. Which you can totally do in our program."
Indigo lost her smile. "What? I don't want to go to Heaven!"
"The Silver City not tempting enough for you?" Husk asked.
"I just want to go back to my dad and live my life. I'm not ready to join my grandparents in Heaven!" Indigo clasped her hands before Charlie, begging. "Don't any of you have some kind of magic thingy that could bring me back to life?"
"I'm sorry, but sinners can't be brought back to life," Charlie shook her head.
"Besides, if I recall events correctly, the last and only time a demon tried reviving a sinner, the King of Hell himself was banned from encouraging the resurrection of the dead!" Alastor piped in. "Thus, the world was deprived of Atlantis!"
"Seriously? Zombies caused Atlantis to kick the bucket?" Husk frowned. "I thought it was some shitty tsunami…"
"Can we please get back on track?" Vaggie snapped.
"Guys, come on…" Charlie began.
The door closing got their attention. It finally made them realize that the distraught Indigo Caligo had quietly left the dining room, not making a scene that would cause butterflies to appear. Angel Dust glared in frustration at the other demons and went to grab a tray from the cabinet.
"Fucking bitches…" He put Indigo's abandoned coffee mug on the tray and refilled it with the warm liquid. "Al, can you pass the grits? I'm going to bring her a bowl."
Alastor merely snapped his fingers. Grits filled the bowl and the bowl placed itself next to the coffee mug on the tray. Angel Dust put a spoon on the tray. "Thanks."
"Angel Dust, you're being so altruistic!" Charlie beamed.
"Save the talk, toots, I'm not doing this shit for redemption points. Minus Smiles over here, you guys can't even hold your shit and be cautious with the kid. Come on, Fat Nuggets." Angel Dust carried the tray in his front hand and used the lower arms to open the door, slamming it behind him by kicking with his heels. Fat Nuggets followed him into the hallway. It wasn't hard to figure out which room the kid went. Caterpillars were forming a trail from a door and moving about the hallway. The cleaning was going to give Nifty a nightmare.
He slowly opened the door where the caterpillars were coming from. The bugs were relentlessly chewing on the furniture and curtains, a new caterpillar popping from another's mouth if the latter was chewing on velvet. Angel Dust found Indigo curled on the bed, caterpillar eggs acting as stains where she cried. Fat Nuggets oinked and hopped on the bed. Indigo bolted up when Fat Nuggets started eating the eggs.
"Hey!" Indigo picked the piglet up. "Don't eat those eggs!"
"Yeah, he eats anything he wants. Nearly gave me a heart attack last week when he tried eating one of Husky's broken bottles. Silly pig!" He took the pig from Indigo with his lower hands and put the tray of food in her hands. "You ate nothin' yet, so I brought you some grub!"
"I'm not hungry," Indigo said. A loud gurgling sound came from her stomach, starling them both. The eggs hatched and caterpillars scurried away.
"Either ya hungry or the butterflies in ya stomach are," Angel Dust chuckled.
"I don't find that funny… HIC!" Indigo hiccupped. A morpho butterfly flew out of her mouth. "SERIOUSLY?"
"What, it's cute!" Angel Dust patted her on the head. "At least it's pretty. Could you imagine if I started crying or hiccupping spiders? People would run for the hills!"
"But spiders are cute!"
"Seriously? You love butterflies but you got a phobia of moths and ya think spiders are cute? You're a really weird kid!" The spider demon laughed. He saw Indigo blush a bit. "But seriously, eat your grub. Good meals are hard to find in Hell and last thing you want is to be on Alastor's bad side if you diss his cooking!"
Indigo sighed. Angel Dust watched her take small bites from the grits. Her expression was sadly distorted, mixed between enjoying the grits and wanting to cry more. He scratched Fat Nuggets behind the ear. "You shouldn't mind the others much. They can act like bitches, but they're worried, ya know?"
"How should I?" Indigo pouted in between bites. "I don't even know what I did that got me in Hell… I just want to go back to my Dad…"
"Is he nice?"
"He's the best dad in the universe… He must be miserable without me…"
"Well, ya lucky you were raised well. Trust me, ya talking to a mafia kid from the 1940s and my Pops is a ton of shit. A nice kid like you…" He ruffled Indigo's hair.
"Stop that!" She laughed.
"What, when I do this?" Angel Dust used his spare arms to ruffle her hair, causing Indigo to laugh some more.
"I'm serious! It tickles!" Indigo pulled her head away from him. She kept eating and Angel Dust noticed the butterfly mark on her cheek.
"Did you get that when you first landed?" He pointed at the mark.
"My tattoo? No, I had it done… My aunt paid the tattoo artist during my Thanksgiving break. I don't know why it's purple. It used to be just black outlines."
"It's cute. You definitely got the butterfly demon shit going on… You know, minus the crying and hiccupping bugs…" Angel Dust chuckled.
Indigo chuckled a bit, but her misery was still present.
"Look, kid…" Angel Dust changed his seating position so he could properly look at her. "I really get that ya don't wanna be dead or in Hell. Believe me, ya don't have the attitude of some john and broad who landed here because of murder or some shit. And sinners can't go back upstairs. But, ya know, Charlie wasn't lying about offering redemption. Think about it. You're a nice kid, this should be easy peasy for ya, and if ya manage to go into Heaven, you could wait for your Pops there!"
Indigo looked at him. "You think that's possible?" She asked.
"Redemption or seeing your pops again?"
"Uh… both?" She put her empty bowl on the tray. Fat Nuggets had a go at trying to lick off the leftover scraps.
"The latter, totally, in Hell or Heaven. Redemption?" He waved his hands. "Very tempting, but let's be real. Redemption's fucking impossible for a porn star born into a mafia family and who died from angel dust overdose. Ya asking the wrong guy. I'm primarily here for the free food and room. But you? Charlie might have more luck redeeming ya if you barely sinned in ya life!"
"I don't know what I did wrong." Indigo shook her head.
"Could take time, kid. OK?" Angel Dust patted her on the shoulder. "Just… don't do any stupid shit and we've got your back, OK?"
He watched her ponder silently until she finally gave him a meek nod.
"OK! Now, let's get you familiar with this shithole and a better room to crash in! Nifty's gonna have nightmares!"
