Chapter 8: The Pests
Angel Dust hoped to not have to deal with Valentino today.
The Porn Studios had strict rules for all the employees, especially the ones directly involved in the depravity. The major one? Never provoke Valentino.
Never hold his money back.
Never go against his word.
Never displease him.
NEVER give him 'no' as an answer.
And Valentino was an easy-to-anger Overlord. The only way to cease employment with him would be if your soul contract with him stopped giving him profits and pleasure. He was kind of 'all-take-and-no-give' kind of guy who would flip the tables and guilt trip your obedience to his non-existent generosity. The only other way out were the exterminations.
Angel Dust grew to hate his job at Valentino for the past decades, but he wasn't suicidal enough to let an angel kill him. Not to mention that with Indigo Caligo at the hotel, he couldn't risk things.
That was his main goal when he returned to the studio: perform, fuck, and earn Big V the profits. Really please him so that he doesn't recall the problem with Debauchery Avenue or realize that his bug infestation problem was caused by Angel's new friend. Angel Dust was rather self-centered, but with the little money he had, he had to see what he could spend for himself and Fat Nuggets and share with Cherri.
Now he had Indigo to worry about.
She needed more clothes, a Hellphone, and the usual things a girl needs. Unless Alastor and Charlie had started paying her for the garden, she still needed cash on hand.
He got dumbly lucky. Because of the bug infestation's on the Porn Studios, Valentino had to suspend all film shootings, leaving the actors to either perform at clubs or serve clients. Angel Dust saw the damage when he arrivedonly to go in a van with the other whores.
Indigo's butterflies had done a horrible job.
The Porn Studios was in ruins. All the pink glass walls from the thirteen floors had been pierced through, as if bullets rather than butterflies had gone through the glass. The pole and string lights on the roof were more chewed on than an apple core. The three Xs lost their coloring, and the billboard slut was ripped apart, leaving only her dismembered arm to wield the HOT GIRLS sign, now saying NOT ILS because the butterflies had even destroyed the neon signs. The PORN STUDIOS sign with the puckered lips now said TORN DIOS with a pouting upper lip.
The worst part was the bodies.
Valentino had too many employees to count. The ones leaving on the vans were dismayed when they saw the security guards dragging the bodies. Angel Dust was horrified by the sight. Indigo had told him that the butterflies she had unleashed on Valentino and his goons were literal tear-suckers. And from what Angel Dust saw, the Julia Dryas iulia had feasted and multiplied from the tears of Valentino's employees, leaving withered bodies with chewed skin and dried out blood under their eyeball-less sacks.
And how they feasted! From what Angel Dust learned, the casualties included 45 porn stars, 10 of Valentino's goons, 3 cameramen, 5 makeup artists, and 2 clerks, and 1 janitor. A porn star made the average maximum of 700 souls daily. Valentino would be endlessly angry that in less than one day, he basically lost 31,500 souls.
On the plus side, that meant that the boss would be too busy fixing his studios and searching the city for sluts. Which meant that Angel Dust and his colleagues primarily went to 30 different strip clubs and he served at least 50 clients until finally going to Club 666 around 5pm. With the schedule he had, he hoped to get back to the hotel before curfew. And hopefully, find something nice for Indigo.
After some pole dancing and stripping on stage and serving clients in the VIP rooms, Angel Dust had been ready to change… until about 4:55pm, his colleague Nate revealed that Valentino was bringing more customers to the club to 'make up on lost money'. That meant he'd be stuck at the club for a while.
Angel Dust changed outfits and adjusted his makeup. His hips were too sore and his face ached. Usually, he'd drown his sorrows in drugs, but he made the mental reminder that he'd been ditching his indulgences for a reason. He stuck to drinking water and hangover meds to deal with his pain. As he applied his mascara on, a knock came on his dressing room. Before he could say anything, Nate the ladybug demon came in.
"Old junk from our dead colleagues are being piled in a room for free pickings," Nate told Angel Dust.
The spider demon snorted. "Ya think I want to walk around smelling like the sweat, cum, and piss of our dead coworkers?" He snarked.
"So? Wash it up!" Nate shrugged. "Besides, Tally said that pawnshops go crazy for stuff worn by Valentino's whores. Ya remember Gigi?"
Angel Dust grimaced. Gigi had died at the last extermination. So broken from her career and Valentino's treatment, the goat demoness had run out of the studios and gladly welcomed the first Exorcist to stab her. Valentino was more furious that he lost his money than Gigi.
"Tally sold Gigi's makeup kit and bras after the last extermination to some pawnshop. She kept the 170 souls to herself."
Angel Dust nearly landed face first on his vanity mirror. "170 souls? For a fucking makeup kit and bras? Are ya messing with me?"
"If ya don't believe me, check the room across from the vending machine on this floor." Nate pointed at their left. "The others are doing what they can't to get stuff. The boss thinks were just getting free stuff for our closets. Ya think I'm gonna give him the cash I'll make by selling Andy's old costumes?" To that, Nate made a run for it.
Angel Dust tapped his fingers on the counter. With 170 souls just to himself, he could get supplies for Fat Nuggets and his usual hygiene necessities. But the more he thought of it, the more he realized that with that amount of money, Indigo would have actual money in Hell. Not just money given to her freely by Charlie or Alastor for the garden.
He checked his phone. He was due to perform on stage at 7pm. Serve clients until 8:30pm and get a break until the 9pm performance. It was now 6:42pm. If he tried going now, he could salvage some old accessories from his dead co-workers before using his next break to catch outfits.
He made his way out of the dressing room. Hellhound bouncers, cameramen, and sluts moved around, giving a chance to casually move out to the direction Nate had pointed. Swaying his hips as he walked kept the bouncers busy from wondering where he was going. Angel Dust spotted the vending machine. Sure enough, the open door across from it had sluts running in and out of it. Nate themselves was walking away with corsets and high heels. Others tried to get as much as they could out of makeup kits and costumes.
Just as Angel Dust rubbed his hands and started making his way to the door, he felt a furred, clawed hand on his shoulder. The Hellhound bouncer, one foot taller than Angel Dust, spun him around.
"Big V wants ta see ya, Angel."
Big V wants ta see ya.
That sentence only meant one thing in particular: if the boss called you, you either had to give him his money and get 'rewarded' with his dick, or face whatever shitty reason caused him to get angry, get more work, and comfort him with his dick.
The Hellhound allowed Angel Dust to fetch the money for Valentino. The goods sealed in an envelope and tucked within Angel Dust's fluffy chest, he followed the Hellhound up the elevator to Valentino's private quarters in Club 666. Contrary to common belief, the fish tank ceiling that used to be there was no thicker than the average restaurant fish tank. After the place had been rebuilt following its destruction, Valentino had the fish tank replaced with a thick glass floor. Customers would be too busy watching the performers on stage to care who Valentino fucked with above them.
Once the elevator door opened, the Hellhound left Angel Dust to fend for himself. Much to his dismay, Valentino was with Velvet and Vox, all three sitting on maroon-colored couches. Velvet was too busy liking stuff on social media, sending people on crazy sprees for the latest trends. Vox, meanwhile, angrily hung up the phone.
"Those jackasses! Killjoy and Trench underwent some shitty trauma, they wet themselves and are now too chicken to go back to work!" Vox exclaimed. "Now I got to put Harriet Hustler and Blair Beth as substitutes! Who manages to fucking traumatize the most insensitive Republican I could potential put as the lead news reporters of 666 News?"
"Who cares, Vox? You got your idiots to deal with! I could reach bankruptcy!" Valentino slapped Vox behind his massive TV head. Angel Dust did what he could to hid his sympathy. Out of the monstrous Three Vs, the cruel TV demon was the only deemed decent, what with Valentino treating his 'business partner slash friend slash boyfriend' like great trash. And Velvet was too crazy. If she wasn't constantly making trends explode or fall, she was busy ensuring that the records made her the most popular girl in Hell's Top Ten Popular Girls, obviously being second to the queen herself.
When Valentino finally saw him, Angel Dust held the envelope full of money. He bent down on his knees and held it out. Valentino snatched the envelope and started counting it. Angel Dust stayed quiet. He didn't dare to look at his pimp.
"Wanna tell me what happened at Debauchery Avenue, Angel cakes?" Valentino coldly.
He could just lie. He could just say it wasn't his fault. But did he want to deal with Valentino's wrath?
Angel Dust thought of Indigo. He thought of Valentino hurting her.
"It was my fault, Daddy," he said. "I served the johns as scheduled and I didn't wanna suck their dicks when they wanted to extend their time with me. The princess, like she cared or something, sent the Radio Demon to fetch me because I broke my curfew. It's my fault she sent him to take me back to the hotel, Daddy."
He didn't bite his lips. He didn't look at them and kept his head down, but the glass floor reflected their expressions. Velvet still stared at her phone. Valentino looked colder than stone. Vox had a lustful, longing look in his pixelized eyes.
Angel Dust hid his disgust well. That look wasn't directed at him. Vox was lustful and longing for the demon who got Angel Dust in his mess. Angel Dust knew nothing of politics, but after joining the hotel, he became more aware of Alastor's intense rivalry with Vox. It got worse when he accidentally discovered that Vox, of all the demons, had an insane crush on Alastor. Granted, could anyone blame Vox? If personalities were part of a check box, Valentino would have checked all the nastiest listed attributes: his on-and-off relationship with Vox was beyond toxic, the TV demon constantly got his screen broken, and Valentino always played reverse psychology to pin the blame on Vox. All Overlords were monsters, but at least Alastor was polite, gallant, entertaining, and for fuck's sake, handsome. And he made carnage hot. From personal experience since Alastor first came to the hotel, Angel Dust could understand how hard it was to NOT be charmed by Alastor. The difference between Angel Dust and Vox is that Angel Dust was aware of his nonexistent chances of earning Alastor's affection: Angel Dust was a whore indentured to Valentino, no influential power or wealth, and he respected Alastor's orientation. Vox was an Overlord just like Alastor, matched in power, influence, and wealth, but the idea of having Alastor was more like 'throw Valentino to the exterminators and remake the media empire of Hell with Alastor as his trophy husband'. Vox was more open-minded than Valentino on orientations, but that didn't stop him from having wet dreams, imagining the Radio Demon losing his strict suit for a modern one, maybe even get him to wear more revealing things… Angel Dust always shuddered at the idea of Vox turning Alastor into his own version of Lorraine from the human movie, BACK TO THE FUTURE 2.
Valentino put the money in his collared coat. "Angel cakes, you know I don't like losing money."
Angel Dust didn't budge.
"And I lost a lot of money."
The spider demon didn't lift his head up. He kept his expression neutral.
"But you actually brought your dues today, unlike the others." Angel Dust reminded himself to throw up once he left. Valentino's empty tone of approval was always disgusting. "And you're actually behaving for once! Ya see that, Voxy? No 'buts', no protesting, and no client complaining!" When Angel Dust heard Valentino's heels walking towards him, he expected to be thrown onto the glass table and be 'rewarded' with the Overlords gang banging on him.
He didn't expect Valentino to lift his chin up and place a 10 souls bill in his fluffy chest.
"For the good work, babe." Angel Dust hated the kiss he then got from Valentino. "You may go get ready for your performance."
"Yes, Mistah Valentino!" Fake smile, get up, keep your head down, and slowly go for the door. Walking too fast would have made them suspicious.
"How are things at the hotel, Angie?"
Angel Dust stopped to look behind him. Valentino and Vox looked curiously at Velvet, who looked away from her phone and at the porn star. Out of the three of them, she was the psychotic doll in trending tea parties. Anything she put on trend caused mayhem. If she suddenly declared cats wielding axes to be trending, EVERY demon in Hell would start making videos of cats wielding axes and post them on Velvetube or Velvetok. EVERYONE listened when she put something on trend. The only time anyone would stop listening to her declarations would be the latest post on the app NV.
After all, who's gonna judge Leviathan, the King of the Envy Ring himself, if he gives a 5-pentagram star rating on killer sharks breakdancing? NO ONE!
"Things at the hotel are fine, Miss Velvet."
"Nowhere close to redeeming yourself?"
"No, miss."
"No other patrons besides you?"
He didn't like where this was going. "I'm still the only patron in the hotel, miss."
"And you'd TELL US if there were newcomers, right?" She growled.
"Seriously, Vel?" Vox rolled his eyes. "It's nearly been a damn year! Besides this slut who only goes there for no rent, no one goes there! The princess is never gonna convince anyone to join her playtime project."
"Yeah, why all the fuss, babydoll?" Valentino purred. All three male demons widened their eyes when Velvet suddenly crushed her phone in her fists.
"Let me explain something to ALL THREE of you." Her eyes twitched. "I don't believe in her project, but I believe in possibilities. The same way that there can be any random nobody out in the streets with the possibility of, I don't know, becoming an Overlord, there's always the possibility that the stupid hotel will get more patrons. And if there's a possibility in more patrons, there's always the microscopic possibility that ONE, just ONE, demon actually succeeds." Velvet got up and rotated her head at Angel Dust. "What do you think could POSSIBLY happen, Angie, if ONE soul manages to get redeemed?"
"More… demons might come?" Angel Dust suggested cautiously.
"Exactly! And if more demons possibly come over, WE lose our business!" She pointed at Vox. "Your talk show hosts? Cameramen? Actors? IT? Engineers? Your multimedia company? YOUR VIEWERS? GONE!" Vox gasped and she then pointed at Valentino. "Your whores? Your goons? Your studios? Your movies? YOUR CLIENTS? GONE!" Valentino suddenly gritted his teeth. She then pointed at herself. "My networks? My authority? My followers? MY POPULARITY? GONE!"
Angel Dust was surprised. Out of all the powerful demons he knew out there who seriously doubted the potential success of the Hazbin Hotel, Velvet was the first one to fully reveal how threatened she felt.
"You won't need to worry, miss," Angel Dust said. "Just the presence of the Radio Demon in the hotel scares sinners away. No one's gonna come with him around."
"Maybe. But who knows, right? I wouldn't know if the princess had a new way of convincing demons to come." Velvet, in her paranoia, turned to Valentino. "Ask him, Val. Ask your prized whore. He'd tell us if the hotel has newcomers, right?"
Valentino looked at his business partner, then at his abused boyfriend, and finally, Angel Dust. "Well, Angel Dust. You heard her. You'd tell us if the hotel had newcomers, right?"
Angel Dust got lucky. Before he could even think of an answer, the sounds of glass breaking and people screaming echoed all over Club 666. They all looked down and saw the clouds fluttering around the customers. The glass floor underneath them broke. Angel Dust and the three Overlords fell. Only Valentino had the quick reflexes of catching his whore and partners with three arms while using his spare claws to grip on the curtains, landing safely on the carpeted floor.
"LAPIS LOCUSTIA!"
"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
Angel Dust widened his eyes in horror. A whole swarm of locust-headed butterflies were attacking the club. Their wings had the same pattern as lapis lazuli gemstones. The swarm kept devouring the furniture to multiply their numbers and attack not just Valentino's employees but his customers as well. To Angel Dust's horror, if one butterfly attacked a demon, a hundred more joined in to devour the flesh.
"Lapis Locustia!" Vox exclaimed. "They were the initial prototypes for the locust plague Heaven sent on Egypt before the Exodus! They're flesh-eating!"
"WHY DOES THIS SHIT HAPPEN TO ME?" Valentino stomped his foot.
It got even more disturbing when one of the customers, a Gorgon demoness, ran at them with butterflies chewing on her snake hair. Quickly thinking, Valentino pulled out his gun from his hat and shot her in the head. The butterflies didn't even fly off, but one of them crawled right into her mouth. She fell before Angel Dust's feet, begging for help as the bug suddenly flew out, carrying her heart and an unknown organ attached to the heart. The unknown organ glowed blue, green, and purple. The butterflies stopped eating the Gorgon demoness to watch their buddy suck the purple glow out of the organ, discard said organ, and finally devour the heart. In a few seconds, the demoness became a shriveled corpse darker than ash.
The deranged butterfly screeched in pain. The butterflies stopped their devouring and the demons paused in their agony to watch it hiss… and… grow. Its small body twisted to be more humanoid. Its shell was replaced by an amethyst body armor. Its antennas became a black buzzcut. The blue wings it had became brown, with white circles bearing black and orange auras; heck, the shapes of the wings looked less like butterfly wings and more like the hybrid wings of said insect and an Exorcist. Half of its humanoid face was hidden by its sapphire domino mask, fashioned like the head of its victim. Its sharp teeth were revealed. In its hands appeared a macahuitl.
Angel Dust only knew about the Aztecs' weapon for war and sacrifice because his father once bought one from a black market auction back in the 40s, long before they all died.
"Oh…" The bug-turned-abomination-warrior spoke. "I'M ALIVE! I'M A PROPER WARRIOR FOR HER MAJESTY! WOW!" It checked itself and its wings. "I'm an Erebia medusa?"
One of Valentino's bouncers tried to pounce on him from behind to protect the Overlords… and Angel Dust. The butterfly warrior swung its macahuitl out of reflexes. The weapon's blades glowed white before the weapon impaled the Hellhound's stomach. When the demon stopped breathing, moving, and existing, that's when everyone realized how much trouble they were in.
"Oh… This is awesome!" The warrior squealed in delight and showed off its glowing weapon to the other butterflies. "Hey, guys! We literally become warriors for her Majesty by sucking a demon's essence and the correct sin, we get new wings from the demon's human birthplace with masks that match their faces, and we get these weapons that exterminate them like the ones the Exorcists have! So what the Hell are you waiting for? DIG IN!"
Angel Dust didn't dare waste a moment. He ran for it, as did some others while the butterflies immediately began attacking demons from within. He didn't want to think of who he heard screaming. A customer getting his heart ripped out? A whore shriveling to nothing? A butterfly turning into a giant warrior with a mask of its victim, wings from butterflies of the victim's human home, and an Aztec weapon that somehow had the same powers of an angelic weapon?
Indigo, what did you do?
Once he got to the street, he was ambushed by a swarm of Lapis Locustia butterflies.
Minutes later
Indigo nervously tapped her foot.
They had gotten together for dinner. To distract Indigo from her worries of Angel Dust's tardiness, Alastor had encouraged her to help him with preparing dinner. That eased Indigo a bit. Cooking was something Ines had always enjoyed doing with her father and grandparents. It's what happened when your family had roots from Colombia and France, the Alsace-Lorraine region for the latter. Still, Ines' abuela had won when it came to having her recipes cooked. Her grand-père's knowledge in quiches, tartes flambées, crepes, steak and frites, and even homemade Yule logs were amazing, but her abuela's cooking was the best. End of story.
It was amazing that she had found just the right ingredients she needed to prepare cuchuco and arroz con coco. It was even nice of Mister Alastor to suggest putting it as a side for the smoked salmon he was cooking.
When Queenie informed Capone that 'their boss' was cooking, Capone couldn't resist taking a meal break once he heard that arroz con coco was part of the menu. Vaggie had sat across from them to keep an eye on them. Indigo had her eyes fixed on the door, hoping Angel would step in while everyone sat down.
"This smells good!" Capone licked his lips with his caiman tongue. "My mamá would love it just by smelling it!"
"With the antioxidants, fiber, vitamins, and healthy minerals in a coconut and how rice fights digestive problems, the boss sure knows healthy eating." Queenie praised before noticing Vaggie's scowl. "Hey, Miss Moody Manager! Unlike what you think, there's more to succubus than crash diets and wet pussies! Fuck Christ, I actually did my research in healthy eating! You think I just drink milk and cum to stay fit!"
The dining room door burst open. A flock of Lapis Locustia carried Angel Dust and dropped him onto the available chair. He looked woozy and his face was green.
"Angel! Are you OK?" Charlie rushed to him.
"Never… fly… over town… with bugs!" He then leaned onto his chair and mumbled inaudibly. Queenie walked over and leaned over him.
"First time sending your swarms to fetch people, boss?" Queenie asked Indigo.
"Yes…" She admitted awkwardly.
"You might need to better control the swarm. He's talking about how they tossed him around when they flew over Pentagram City. He almost fell into oncoming traffic." Queenie took Vaggie's untouched bowl of arroz con coco and stuffed Angel Dust's mouth with a spoonful. He lost his sickly coloring.
"It's good!" He licked his lips.
"How… how was work, Angel Dust?" Indigo hesitated to ask.
He stared at her. Indigo cringed at the glare.
Angel Dust had disappointment in his eyes. Disappointment aimed at her. She knew that look all too well. It was the kind of look that followed being called by Ines' full name (embarrassing middle name included) when she did a mistake by accident, like when she nearly messed up the glass case of her grand-père's prized golden sickle when she was 5 or accidentally lost her abuela's emerald flor de mayo necklace in the garden when she and Dimitri played dress up when they were eight. Sure, the relics were recovered and in proper shape, but could you imagine your family's disappointment when you almost caused them to lose A, the buried golden sickle of some druid the grandfather stumbled upon while farming in Alsace and it was the only valuable thing he still had on him when he immigrated to the United States, and B, the necklace was your great-grandmother's wedding gift from your great-grandfather and one of the few things they could bring with them from the Andes, not sell away to survive during the Great Depression, and finally pass it on to your grandmother?
Angel Dust shook his head and ate. "Not a lot of work due to… accidents," he said carefully. "And… Velvet is getting suspicious." Angel Dust then went on to tell about what happened in Valentino's private quarters. Unknown to Indigo, he hid the part about the butterflies' transformation via demon devouring. And that they carried their own angelic weapons. "And I got sick from the flight."
Indigo sighed and slumped on her chair. "Am I in trouble?"
"No, of course not!" Miss Charlie said. "We just… need to be more careful. Besides, Velvet might have overreacted."
"Have you even MET Velvet, Charlie?" Angel Dust raised his hands in the air.
"He's not fully wrong, princess." Queenie sat down to cut herself some salmon. "Sure, your project's not working right now, but have you considered that if it did work right now, and like, imagine if a demon did ascend by next January, it could tamper with other demons' businesses?"
Miss Charlie looked at Vaggie, who was just as surprised as her. "Well, I…"
"Oy, I could imagine how the shit could go down!" Capone drank his cuchuco right out of the bowl. Queenie grimaced when he burped. "The Overlords would lose all their customers and indentured employees!"
"Mafia gangs could get angry that there aren't any demons left to purchase their black-market goods," Queenie added.
"No more turf wars will make the news media pissed and in need of new stories! Maybe the Ars Goetia will decide to become hippies and that's the first step in the hierarchy going nuts!"
"And if Hellborns from across the rings get redeemed, how will it damage the economy? The trades?" Queenie looked at Miss Charlie. "Princess, have you even considered that if these impacts happen, you could be facing the combined anger of the Deadly Sins? They don't really like your father. They wouldn't hesitate to reorganize the rings!" That's when Queenie freaked out. "Great Satan, let's hope that the Great Underdweller doesn't get involved!"
Indigo felt herself freaking out. "More water, anyone?" Butterflies popped out of her hair as she lamely held up the water.
They just stared at her.
I really have a long way to go, do I? Indigo mentally groaned.
Around the same time
The young angel did her best to discreetly fly into the sky of the Pride Ring.
The superiors had given her permission to deliver a package to Hell at the begging of her guardians. They could do that without Hell's knowledge, if the Sacrificers had family among the sinners.
Heaven called them Sacrificers. Hell called them Exorcists.
The young angel turned off the glow her body released as she flew through the clouds. She couldn't be detected. Angels couldn't reveal their faces in Hell. That's why Sacrificers always suited grey armors and helmets during the exterminations. The holy iron made Hell's resources unable to identify them. Not just to protect angels, but to protect any relative an angel might have in Hell.
That was one of the odd benefits of being a Sacrificer. If you had family in Hell, the others couldn't kill them. The young angel didn't quite care much of it for her part; her family on Earth was alive and didn't care an ounce for her. They didn't care when she died earlier this year.
She finally found where she was heading.
The Hazbin Hotel.
The angels had been shrugging it off when stories went around Heaven that the daughter of the Fallen One wanted to rehabilitate demons and have them ascend to end the purges. Was it possible? They didn't really know. Finding a redeemed sinner in Heaven was even rarer than finding out who Jack the Ripper was or if the chicken came before the egg or vice versa. Did they care? Again, no one knew how it could turn out. With the way the bureaucracy worked and how out of a thousand humans who died in one day, 5 would make it to Heaven while everyone else went to Hell just for jaywalking. Honestly, it still surprised her that they deemed her worthy to ascend. It still surprised her that ascended minors had to be placed with foster parents and that her guardians cared and supported her. She still couldn't believe that for her actions on Earth, she was a Sacrificer-in-training.
And in a month, it would be her first extermination…
She shrugged it off and flew to the window in question at the hotel. She smiled. The room was exactly like the description her guardians made of their granddaughter's bedroom on Earth.
She placed the package on the bed and flew out, hiding just by the window when the granddaughter came in.
At the same time
Indigo was sure she had heard somebody moving in her room when she got in.
"Is someone there?" She asked.
But the room was empty.
The only new thing was a blue package with an owl butterfly ribbon on it.
Curious, Indigo sat on her bed and touched the butterfly. The ribbon and package dissolved, leaving three items on Indigo's lap.
Indigo choked out a sob. Caterpillar eggs escaped her eyes. Two of the items she found on her lap were an emerald flor de mayo necklace and a golden sickle. She recognized the relics. They were exactly the same as her grandparents. They were still different, because the necklace's jeweled flowers looked brand new, causing the emeralds to shine in her room like stars, and the golden sickle glowed white when Indigo held it in her hands.
The last item was a small letter. Indigo cried more when she recognized the handwriting.
Ines,
We deeply mourn for your death. While we cannot tell you more, please understand that we did all we could to beg the superiors to look over your situation. They kept saying it was up to you.
We're really scared for you, dear. We thanked the Lord when we found out you were in Princess Charlotte's hotel. Please continue to be the good girl we cherish and love. We don't know if the project will work, but we pray that it succeeds. We want you in Heaven with us.
Please be very careful. Hell is already dangerous, but it will be more dangerous for you. Forgive us for not saying anything, but please be patient. We had these relics sent to you. They're ascended versions of the ones we had on Earth. Be VERY careful with your grand-père's sickle. Because of what he did on Earth, his family heirloom materialized into a weapon when he became an Exorcist. ONLY use it if you're in peril.
Stay in the hotel when the extermination occurs. Your grand-père can only be in Hell for 24 hours. He'll try to keep the hotel clear of any nearby demons and attempt to talk to you when things calm down before he must return. We beg you again, Ines, stay inside when he and the others come.
Whatever you do, do not tell the others until the day approaches that you got this package from us. Demons will panic if they learn that you are descended from an Exorcist.
And whatever happens, I beg you, do not try to find out about your mother. We will tell you as much we can…
Te amo más que a las estrellas del universo, mi pequeña mariposa.
Je t'aime tellement, mon petit coeur.
Please stay safe.
With loving sincerity,
Augustina and Martin Coeurdor
Indigo cried even more when she saw the dried up tear stains on the ending notes written in Spanish and French.
I love you more than the stars in the universe, my little butterfly.
I love you so much, my little heart.
When she heard something flapping away outside, she looked out the window. When she got close enough, she saw a winged silhouette flying up in the sky. Right towards a distant white sphere with a halo.
This was evidence enough.
Indigo's grandparents WERE in Heaven.
They were aware and devastated of her situation.
Apparently, Martin Coeurdor, Indigo's paternal grandfather and the family war hero that Husk praised yesterday, was an Exorcist.
Indigo's heart felt sick. She crumbled on the ground and cried herself to sleep about how alone she was in Hell.
