Chapter 50: Wings of Hell (Indigo's Debut)
If Indigo didn't feel like she'd screwed up, then the radio in Mimzy's club playing Ella Fitzgerald's 'My Melancholy Baby' didn't help.
Come to me, my melancholy baby.
Cuddle up and don't be blue.
All your fears are foolish fancy, maybe.
You know, dear, that I'm in love with you.
Every cloud must have a silver lining.
Wait until the sun shines through.
Indigo groaned.
The day before yesterday was the worst day of her afterlife. Yesterday was basically a shutdown of insanity. Today, she felt like she royally fucked up.
She couldn't even understand what Angel Dust had exclaimed in Italian last night after she asked him the question. Was it bad that she didn't want to return to the Hazbin Hotel?
How could she anyway? She screwed up. Committed sins not because she couldn't help herself, but because of the situations forcing her to. A cheap excuse. Twice now, she nearly killed significant people of the two demons who gave a rat's ass about her. All for a hunger she didn't desire. Those demons could have died, and it was because of her. And Bael's torture? The icing on the cupcake. He made Paimon less threatening than a cake crumb.
Your existence is a mistake, Ines Coeurdor.
What if Gustav and Addison were right? Would it have been easier for everyone if she were gone?
"Your whisky, Your Highness." Mimzy gave August his second refill. He gulped it down in a second.
"FUUUUUUUUUCK!" He hammered his glass against the bar counter. "I'm not drunk enough yet!"
Indigo rolled her eyes.
Alastor had offered Indigo the option of coming with him during his errand at the Gluttony Section, but Indigo had experienced a shutdown. Rather than let her cooped up in her room, Alastor managed to get Rosie and Mimzy to babysit her. But when Indigo did nothing else but eat what was necessary, Rosie suggested that Mimzy took Indigo to her club while it was closed. Why? Indigo didn't know… Or cared.
Indigo wanted to take August's example and drink her feelings away. If only she knew where Mimzy hid the snake wine. Indigo was a monster despite the 60 times Mimzy told her she was fine after Extermination Day. If Mimzy really had any envy in her heart, she probably squashed it. Definitely for the best.
"Will you quit bein' all mopey, sugar? I told you I'm good!" Mimzy gave Indigo a glass of water.
"The fuck's she talking about?" August rubbed his temple.
"Missy here nearly got me croaked on Extermination Day. And she croaked some angels."
"MIMZY!" Indigo snapped.
"Oh, get over yourself!" August bent over the bar and grabbed the nearest bottle of Irish whisky. "A thousand angels and demons died, and you're whiny that you killed some?" He raised his arms up in the air. "It's Hell, Indigo! Everyone's gonna get killed or kill someone else at some point! Even I killed some here and there, and I'm a PACIFIST!"
August leaned back too far and fell off his stool. He did manage to catch the whisky bottle. Sloppily, his hands uncorked the bottle and poured everything down the drain.
"Oh, for Mammon's sake! That was my best whisky!" Mimzy exclaimed.
"I'll take him outside." Indigo struggled to lift him up. She opted for the lazy approach, grabbing his legs and dragging him out of the club. A good kick was strong enough to break a nearby fire hydrant. It was a strange sight for some of the local cannibals, seeing a random sinner splashing the Prince of Envy with a hydrant's water.
"Hot! Hot! Hot!" August ran about. "Why the motherfucking shit is this water boiling?"
Oh, right. Indigo forgot. Those who succumbed to envy were biblically claimed to drown in a cold ocean within Leviathan's stomach. August was nice and all, but Indigo just got the wakeup call that he was still a prince. An unfortunately sheltered one at that.
Indigo slapped him on the face.
"For fuck's sake, man, get a hold of yourself!" She snapped. "You're a Deadly Sin's legacy, and you're acting like a common hormonal loser!"
"Isn't that what you were doing seconds ago?" August rubbed the area she'd slapped.
"Yeah, but when I do it, it makes sense!" Indigo pointed at herself. "I literally died like, what, 49 episodes ago?"
"What does that mean?" August wobbled, but Indigo caught him.
"That I'm gonna be hormonal my entire afterlife!" Indigo pushed him onto the nearest bench. "I STILL don't know how or why I died, I still don't know what I did in life that made me come here, but now? I can probably list all the fucking crap I've been through in less than one month, which I bet most people here have done in ten years, and none of them make me feel like a good person!" August tried to stand up, but she forced him to sit down. "Bottling my emotions? Not working! I haven't secreted a single bug out of me since Extermination Day! Why is that, anyway? I'm probably fired from my gardening job at the hotel, which apparently caused a bunch of people to sign up! I don't know what I did wrong, but for some reason, Paimon has it in his mind that he can make me a 'Royal Favorite' just because I hang out with his granddaughter!"
"I thought you two were an item?"
"Why do people say that?" Indigo leaned against a lamppost. "My God, I need to call her to make sure she's OK! And anyway, you're totally wrong. We're not an item! I mean, she's just the main friend I've had who doesn't live in the same hotel or tower as me! Like, the one person outside of home you can trust with a secret you can't tell anyone but your family! And sure, I attacked her mom twice, but she hit Octavia first, so it's only fair. And she really has the sweetest smile ever… But don't tell Alastor I said that! OH MY GOSH, WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?"
"Uh… everything?" August offered.
"YES!" Indigo clapped her hands. "It totally makes sense!" She started walking around the bench in circles. By now, her venting made August sober. "OH MY GOD, AUGUST? THE MOTHERFUCKING FROGMOUTH WAS RIGHT?"
"What the Hell is a frogmouth?"
"Ugliest bird ever!" Indigo pulled August up and pulled him around. Her rapid talking scared off some cannibals passing by. "That's what he meant! The frogmouth said I was lying to myself, which made me weak, and nothing is set in stone for me!" Indigo didn't notice her jaywalking nearly got her hit by a car. August lifted her up and ran for the sidewalk.
"I die, I get mopey because I miss my dad back on Earth! I try redemption just so I can see my grandparents in Heaven, because it's not like I have biological relatives down in Hell! But everything happens, and just like that, meaningful people are in my afterlife! Maybe I was denying it, probably because I thought I'd be betraying my living dad! But August, he said it out loud! He tried to pull a Fantine! Alastor and Angel are by Hell dads! And I still love my Earth Dad, so it's not cheating!"
"Yes, daddy issues are common in Hell." August made sure they took a left turn to avoid a turf war.
"And it's not like him GIVING up on redemption! More like, I'm not READY! It's not a sin to not be ready to redeem yourself if you're not ready to say goodbye to those you love!" Indigo took a big huff and puff of air. "Oh, look! A vending machine with snake wine!"
Indigo's eye twitched when she realized the lack of cash on her. Infuriated, she kicked the machine, and stomped on it. August noticed the bystanders leaving nervously the moment Indigo punched the vending machine's glass.
"Yeah, no!" August pulled Indigo away from the machine.
"Hey! I didn't even get a can!" Indigo whined.
"The fuck would you even want to drink when you're rambling like an addict on Gorgon Crack, yet you aren't even high?" August looked up, seeing the Hazbin Hotel uphill at the other side of the city. "Why are there hills here? This is why Envy-Carlo's flat!" He rolled his eyes. "Let's just go to the hotel… Trixie will get worried."
It took about ten minutes of pulling her away from the vending machine and 5 minutes to reach another block before August let his doppelganger go. Sighing in exasperation, August summoned a cigarette and started smoking.
Indigo tilted her head, confused.
The cigarette lacked any envy in it…
"What?" August puffed out a smoke cloud.
"Is that the enviest cigarette lately?" Indigo asked. "I mean, you being the CEO of the app providing envious things…"
August flicked the cigarette into the nearest trash can.
"I can't feast on envy."
Indigo stopped walking. So did August when he sensed her.
"I don't mean because my dad raised me a vegetarian. I LITERALLY can't…" August shrugged. "I don't really talk about it… But I'm pretty sure everyone thinks I'm weak because… I was born unable to do the one thing the Von Ouroboros family is feared for… It's not easy working for Envy when…"
"You can be seen as useless?" Both of them sat down on a bench after entering a park. Indigo clasped her hands together. "August, I barely know you… But you work harder than most of the demons I've met… Does it matter that much to your family if you can't, you know, do the one thing they're all good at?"
"With my mother's side? Yeah." August's hands shook. "When it's my dad, Lizzie, Lucille, and Loki, it's fine. They were married into the family, but they don't need to feast because their acts of envy made them feared throughout human history. All my cousins… they could eat envy… And Leviathan plucked out each one that was useless to him…" Now August's body shook. "My dad let me move to the Pride Ring… My family's awful, Indigo… I'm the weak one, and I have to do everything…"
August hugged himself and broke in tears. His glasses had to be lifted up so he could wipe his tears. Indigo sighed.
In her own spiraling, it never occurred to her that nearly every day, someone was experiencing far worse things than you.
Could she fully understand it? No. The same way none could really understand hers.
But that was the point in good people, right? They didn't have to understand another's pain. Being there was enough of a start, right?
Demons started running back indoors when the sky showed signs of drizzle. The drops tapped lightly on the sidewalks. Her skin didn't burn, so it wasn't acid rain.
Then she did what she almost never did in previous chapters.
Indigo: Sadness on these brimstone streets,
Agony in the hearts of all these freaks…
She leaned against the bench.
Indigo: Don't need to tell me twice,
But this afterlife reeks…
Some random sinner started playing a bandola from a fire escape. August noticed an imp casually drumming on some trash cans. He noticed, but Indigo didn't, that she was unintentionally causing a blues street performance.
Indigo: Mi familia knows I'm dead,
And I'll never see the light of Heaven.
Trapped in this maze that's Hell,
I don't know why truth's a burden.
A cat sinner played the saxophone. Four fish demons started vocalizing from a broken bar window.
"What the fuck?" August decided to record this weird situation on his phone.
Indigo: I guess I might tell it well.
They clipped my wings of Hell…
Fish demons: WIIIIIIIIINGS OOOOOOF HEEEEEEEEEEELLLL…
"Uno, dos, tres, cuatro!" The trash-drumming imp slightly increased the tempo. Indigo waltzed off the bench, uncaringly snapping her fingers.
Indigo: I ain't an angel,
But I sure fell to Hell!
But don't we all?
Devils have one heck of a ball.
Not today, but maybe later, could be swell
If I unclipped my wings of hell!
The fish demons snapped their fingers… Flippers… Whatever they had… They started jazz dancing out of the bar and onto the open street.
Fish demons: Big Daddy clipped those wings!
Oh, what a way to pull my soul's strings!
I ain't trapped by no deal!
But I still am an angel's meal!
Indigo: OOOOOH, OOOH, OOH…
August couldn't believe what he was recording. Or even seeing. Indigo was either zoned out or she had no idea that she basically led a street performance. By now, the saxophone and bandola players were playing next to the drumming imp. Demons opened their windows. Some stepped out of buildings with umbrellas. By now, August wasn't the only one recording this.
Indigo: My heart don't feel so well.
But who gives a shit, we're in Hell!
Fish demons: Baby bug, drop that frown!
Indigo performed a perfect spin. Under the streetlights, her smile shined.
Indigo: But like I've been told since comin' in this place,
I'm not fully dressed without a smile!
SOOOO… Get ready bitches, now I'm in town!
"Wait, what?" August frowned.
Typical for Hell's weirdness, the setting suddenly became neon colored. The streetlights became literal spotlights on Indigo. The music shifted from blues to epic jazz. Indigo performed a flawless axel and posed.
Indigo: III'LL UNCLIIIIP MYYY WIIIINGS!
My wings of HEEEEEELL!
Time to show Daddy something ENTERTAINIIIIING!
Butterflies flew out of Indigo's hair, the bugs morphing into background dancers. After one salchow, Indigo landed right into the fish demons hands. Blue and purple fireworks exploded as she finished her song.
Indigo: As I unclip! My WIIIINNNGS of HEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLL!
Everyone (except August): WIIIIINNGS OOOOOFFFF HEEEEEEEEELLL!
Everything shifted back to normal. Indigo's butterfly projections disappeared. All the performers breathed to catch their breaths. The sky stopped raining. Everyone just stared.
Indigo looked around in confusion.
August sighed: "Bitch really zoned out…"
"Wow…" A random sinner said drily.
Indigo tensed.
"That was FUCKING AMAZING!"
August stopped recording. The applauses and whistling were echoing in that particular block of Pentagram City that night. The moment the fish demons helped her down, Indigo was swarmed by demons pestering her with questions.
"You're so amazing!"
"Do you have a Sinstagram?"
"You sing like an angel!"
"You're awesome!"
"Please! Please! Can I have your autograph?"
"Are you a pop star?"
"Can I be your boyfriend?"
"OK, back off people!" August pulled Indigo away from the crowds. "Nothing to see here!"
Much later
They finally reached the hill leading to the Hazbin Hotel.
"Nothing to see here," August muttered over his phone. "What is there not to fucking see?"
"Again, I'm sorry!" Indigo put her hands together.
"Girl, what's with you apologizing? You did nothing wrong!" August waved at his phone. "I can't believe you caused a bunch of sin polls to rise with just a few lyrics, showmanship, and the spins!"
Indigo bit her lip. "Is it bad that I did that?"
"Are you kidding? It's exactly what I was trying to tell the other Sins today! Raise the sin polls' quality value by exposing demons to models! You know, like, how Elvis Presley leveled up the pride polls because everyone who heard him or watched him was like 'Elvis makes me so proud of being American!' Or Verosika Mayday, everyone's like 'She brings the lust, makes me want to have sex with consent!'"
Indigo grimaced. "Should I comment on that one?"
"Don't worry. Asmodeus ain't like Valentino! Lust as a consensual art has more quality than quantities of commercial sex! But I'm serious! All demons have been depressed by the last Extermination, the drainage of sin polls makes them not want to do anything! Or enjoy anything!" August ran fast enough to block Indigo's path towards the hotel. "Indigo, you gotta perform!"
"WHAT?" Indigo exclaimed.
"You gotta help me! You managed to do in three minutes what I had to accumulate in three days! You're the kind of role model these demons need! You're the example I need to earn the other Deadly Sins' respect, or at the very least to keep my relatives off my back! The past 48 hours have been killing me!"
"August, you're a nice guy and I am open to being your friend, but… I'm the last person you want as a role model!" Indigo gently pushed him away and resumed her walk. "And… What happened out there… I don't know why I did it! I'm not comfortable performing in front of other people… Last time I did that on Earth, a girl pushed me down the stairs before I could perform!"
"Yes, envious competitor sabotage! It happens to everyone!"
He dropped on his knees.
"Oh boy…" Indigo saw his desperate eyes behind those glasses.
"I'M BEGGING YOU!" He sobbed, without the tears. "HELP ME! I'M A DEADLY SIN, I CAN REPAY YOUR HELP WITH ANYTHING YOU DESIRE! Well, except my non-platonic love, infinite riches, phenomenal cosmic powers, and a time machine. BUT I CAN GIVE YOU ANYTHING ELSE! A DEBT FROM A SIN IS ETERNALLY BIDING!"
Two cars drove past them, one crashing into the fence.
The Ruggiero twins ran out of the first car, with Molly shooting some Tommy guns at the goons chasing them. Vaggie and two unfamiliar winged sinners engaged in combat with the goons, having the upper advantage with holy weapons.
"What the… I WAS GONE FOR TWO WEEKS!" Indigo yelled over the noise.
"Eh. I was here nearly six hours ago!" August wiped his glasses. "Uh, huh… Golden teeth… Valentino's goons. Valentino decided last minute that he wanted your dad to work the night, but Angel Dust had already left, so Valentino sent his men to drag him back to work." He rolled his eyes. "For an Overlord with the shittiest contributions to the envy polls, he's got a predictable tantrum record!"
Indigo's eyes burned.
"Uh… Indigo?"
Indigo stormed towards the goons' car. As if it the van wasn't heavier than a paper fan, Indigo lifted it up by the bumper and smashed it on the goon Vaggie was tackling.
"INDIGO?" Vaggie realized who helped her out when Indigo spun an axel and crushed the goon's neck. Snatching Vaggie's spear, she aimed the handle onto the next goon's throat. When another tried to sneak up on Indigo, Vaggie pushed him onto the spear's tip.
August whistled at the double goon shish kebab.
Angel Dust lifted Indigo as far up as he could. Another goon met a vicious kick from her in the groin. Angel shot him in the spleen.
August moved to have a better view of the front door. Charlie and Trixie ran out, interrupted by the chaos.
"INDIGO!" Charlie panicked.
Enraged as ever, Indigo threw each of the goons into the van. Her fingers crushed the doors together. Her feet stomped on the hood, crumbling it. It kept on until she reduced the van and the goons in it into a crunched up ball of tinfoil that she kicked down the hill. Buildings were knocked down downtown.
"I CAN'T SPEND A WEEK WITHOUT BITCHES ATTACKING ANYONE, CAN I?" Indigo groaned. Red blood coated her blue locks. Her hands were cracked from her roughhousing.
Wait… She was back after two weeks…
And she pretty much turned a bunch of strangers into a pork bun!
Indigo turned, expecting anger.
Charlie was the first to hug her.
"INDIGO! YOU'RE OK!" Charlie broke into tears. "YOU SURVIVED!"
"Uh…" In the hug, Indigo was confused.
Then it was Vaggie hugging her, and berating her.
"Are you insane? Don't do that! You could have been hurt!"
"Uh, you're…"
Nifty scurried out, dusting Indigo with her feather duster. "OH MY GOSH, YOU'RE SO DIRTY! WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN UP TO?"
"KID!" Husk ruffled Indigo's hair. "You made it!"
"Wait… You guys have been worried? About me?"
"Kid, you missed out on a lot. Don't get me wrong. Your bugs are still irritating."
"We missed you so much!" Nifty rinsed the blood off Indigo's hair.
"Alright, move!" Angel Dust grabbed each demon with his arms and pulled them away. "Kid, this still doesn't change that you're grounded!"
Indigo smiled and gave the spider demon a massive hug. "Worth it…"
It took a few seconds for Angel's eyes to gleam and for him to return her hug with a warmer hug.
August smiled at the scene.
"Ya feel better, boss?" Trixie elbowed him.
"Yeah. Let's go home." The Sin and the imp made their way out, discreet enough to not interrupt the emotional reunion. They weren't the only ones moving away in the shadows.
While the original gang was reuniting with the butterfly demoness and Angel Dust led his sister inside the hotel, Katherine and Ximena hid above the main entrance's tent-like roof to observe.
Hard not to recognize her on the spot when the ex-Exorcists saw her mirror appearance to the Prince of Envy.
Were demons really that clueless?
Meanwhile
Velvette and Vox received yet another dreaded visit from a Deadly Sin's heir to check on the sin polls. Fortunately, Valentino was in his room and not here to make a scene. It gave Velvette the room to properly pitch her love potion concept to the Princess of Sloth.
A transparent heart-shaped flask bearing a pink liquid. A black skull corked the flask perfectly.
"Yeah, no…" Sahara handed the flask back to the Overlord.
"But it's a love potion!" Velvette insisted. "What screams sloth more than drugging people?"
"Your colleagues porn movies." Vox chuckled a bit at the Sin's comment.
The drinks finally came in for the Overlords and their royal guest: martini for Velvette, whiskey for Vox, and Heavy Huckleberry Juice for Sahara. The sharks swimming around the walls short-circuited the moment Sahara stared at them. Their blue scales shifted to pink. Pink bubbles floated in the tank as the sharks slept.
"Look, I view you guys as equally disposable as the next Overlords, but the crisis and my parents' divorce is forcing me to do all the work." Sahara also spit her juice back in her glass. "Your whole 'The Vees Are Awesome' shindig? Never really cared about it as long as your products encouraged demons to sloth around. Do everything on their phones rather than in person. Watch porn rather than sleep with their partner. Just imitate whatever you wear so they don't decide what their style is. Sinners easily selling your souls to you without so much as reading the fine print. Every Overlord does it, so I never cared. But the lack of GREAT Sloth? SOOOOO LAME!" Sahara slouched on her seat and rested her legs against the table.
"A great remark, your Majesty." Vox sipped his whisky. "What advice could you provide for us?"
"Ugh! I'm not doing your work for you! That's what your slaves are for!" Sahara rolled her eyes. "But a love potion? SUPER unoriginal! My mom already has 66 varieties of aphrodisiacs that fabricated since the Trojan War, and she and Asmodeus were very clear! No love potions!"
"Isn't a love potion an aphrodisiac in the first place?" Velvette questioned.
"No. An aphrodisiac is ideal for increasing orgy vibes. Love potions provide nonconsensual, emotional love. Again. REALLY LAME, but Asmodeus was clear. No mass manufacturing of products encouraging fake emotions. I know, it's stupid. He's the Sin of Lust, yet he gives a shit about consent!"
Vox and Velvette glanced at one another. The Princess of Sloth was quite the slacker when it came to her royal duties unless actual entertainment was involved. The best dose of entertainment she got for herself so far in spreading her designated sin was by hypnotizing Vox's sharks.
Velvette looked back at the sharks.
Hypnosis…
Vox used his left eye often to hypnotize people…
"Your Majesty, what if such a potion wasn't used for mass production, but for a singular target?"
"Velvette…"
Velvette kicked him under the table. She clasped her hand.
"Vox and I have been having a little chat between ourselves. With Valentino's challenging situation and the questionable purchase the Prince of Greed made just before the Extermination, we thought of a backup plan in case Valentino… needed to be disposed of."
Sahara dragged her feet off the table.
"Vox and I have a… backup candidate, to replace Val in our team. A certain candidate who could fix our two biggest problems: the sin polls, and the Hazbin Hotel."
Sahara sat up straight.
"Alastor," Sahara smirked. "Damian owes me BIG!"
Vox clawed through the table surface.
"What? It was obvious!" Sahara listed with her pink-polished fingers. "Decades worth of rivalry? His refusal to join forces with you? Your latest case of forcing him to sniff GHB? Where you go shot in the back? Yeah, I know!"
Sahara made her seat spin, jumped off it, and landed her feet on the ground.
"That's Sloth at its finest! Brainwashing the competition into allying with you! Leaving them helpless as you drain them of their resources! He would slack off forever while you, Vox, control all of Hell's media! I'll get in trouble, but it's brilliant!"
"YES!" Vox and Velvette cheered.
"BUT!" Sahara turned to face them. "It's not a guaranteed win. The catch with love potions? They get less effective if the victim loves something. Or someone. I can provide you with an easy-level potion, like, next week, but you might need a stronger level if it doesn't work on Alastor, like, five seconds after exposure."
Vox scoffed. "Your Majesty, it's Alastor! He loves nothing and no one!"
Meanwhile, at the Gluttony Sector
Alastor waited as patiently as he could in the embassy's lobby. The meeting had gone fine.
But was it enough to convince her?
The hexagon elevator doors opened. Her hellhound companion came out. Still uncomfortable around dogs, Alastor hid his grimace.
"Greetings again, good fellow!" Alastor stood up and greeted the grey hellhound. "I hope my appointment didn't inconvenience her."
"Nah, man," the hellhound shrugged. "She's just been on edge lately." The hellhound handed the yellow folder bearing documents. "You'll hold onto your forms for now. A quick background check on the kid, and she will get back to you by next week."
"Thank you." Alastor took the folder. "Do have a pleasant day."
Alastor turned towards the yellow doors.
"Hey, radio dude."
Alastor tensed, offended by the insult towards his title. The hellhound's following words did help him relax.
"Bee really sensed it. Your vibe about the kid. I think your adoption forms will be certified sooner than you hope."