Chapter 10

Running.

She didn't know how far, or how fast.

All she knew is that as soon as she woke up, all under heaven was chaos. And she was running.

She heard screams. She heard gunshots. She saw the flashing of blades and the white of concussive explosions.

The place that she had landed into was the most nightmarish Naraka that she could possibly have imagined. The twisted obscenity of a madman's vision that vaguely resembled a city. A city like the ones she had emptied out with her comrades as she herded their decadent inhabitants into the fields at gunpoint.

All around her swarmed grotesque demons and monstrosities, all of whom were runnning from winged creatures that sought to impale or slice with their glittering weapons. She saw so many flee from them, and even more fall to them.

She kept running. Her lungs were on fire with exhaustion. She felt like her heart would give out.

If she even still had one.

She felt herself run and stumble out of the city's limits, down a paved road and into a blasted desert.

She saw what looked like a cave, just in the distance. She could catch her bearings there if she could make it.

But then she felt her foot trip over some sort of remains...a bone, perhaps.

And then she hit the ground.

"But seriously, how exactly are we going to convince Carmine to help us?", Chay asked.

"Why, that's the best part!", Alastor answered. "We don't have to!"

Chay raised a curious eyebrow. "Why? She's the top arms dealer in the Pride ring. I highly doubt she'd just roll out the red carpet if we showed up uninvited."

"Whose talking about invitations, Miss Ong?", said Alastor. "I told you: I'm an Overlord. I can simply introduce you to her in person!"

"When?"

"Why, this very afternoon! That is, if you don't have plans…"

"I...I don't-"

Chay sighed and looked over at Vaggie. "Look, I'll trust you and Charlie's judgement on this. You know him better than I do."

"Honestly, I don't blame you for being skeptical, but…", Vaggie shrugged her shoulders. "He's actually telling the truth."

"Carmilla actually helped us fortify the Hotel for the Extermination last year.", Charlie interjected. "Honestly, if you have to get involved with another Overlord after Rosie...she's probably the one you'd want."

"At the very least, this pistol of yours does need a little maintenance.", Alastor said. "So why not take it straight to the source? It's not like you can't afford it..."

Chay rubbed the bridge of her non-existent nose, juggling this information in her mind. She was running on a timetable, and that time was running increasingly short. The Extermination wasn't just a general threat, but could be a direct risk to Ella (if she was still alive, that is).

-Think, Chay. You're supposed to do your best work in a crunch. At least that's what you keep telling yourself…

To everyone's surprise, it was Via's turn to inject herself into the conversation.

"This Carmine person. Do they perhaps make custom sniper rifles?"

That got everybody's attention.

"You uh...you planning something there, Feathers?", Angel Dust asked somewhat hesitantly.

"What?...Do you mean...No!", Via replied as she shook her head vigorously. "No, of course not! I'm asking because the guy who tried to kill my father used a Carmine-crafted rifle."

She reached up and gripped the beanie on her head. "Ugh, it was a couple of years ago during the Harvest Moon Festival down in the Wrath ring. He has to go down there every year to preside over the festivities, you see, and apparently the assassin had gone undercover at one of the ranches. The only reason he failed was because my dad's boyfriend and one of his co-workers managed to catch him before he pulled the trigger."

"Didn't he end up in the hospital later?", Lucius asked.

She loosened her grip. "Yeah, the same guy kidnapped my dad and put him in hospital for a week. He used Carmine crafted weapons for that as well."

Via sipped her soup. "But, you know...that was after the divorce, so it was a while ago."

Every single person at the table fell deathly silent, their jaws agape with astonishment. Only Alastor seemed to not react at all.

Chay was rendered speechless. Jesus, this poor girl.

An exasperated Angel Dust gave voice to her thoughts. "For Fuck's sake, will somebody give that poor kid a hug?!"

Via's eyes flitted around the table. "What? I hardly think about it anymore."

Shakie's enormous eyes looked like they were fit to burst with tears. She slowly raised up her hand and softly laid it on Via's shoulder.

Whatever condolences or comfort she wanted to offer were silenced by the sound of someone tumbling down the stairs, followed by Lester charging into the room, his hellphone clutched in his hands.

"Lenny?", Charlie asked furtively.

The squat Sinner ran over to where Charlie and Vaggie were sitting. He held up his hellphone, screen outward.

"MMM!", he grunted excitedly.

"Y-yeah. That's the phone I gave you. What about it?"

Lester looked at the hellphone's screen, before shoving it back into Charlie's face.

"Mmm! Mmm!", he said again.

"Lenny, we talked about this.", Vaggie said with a sigh. "We can't read your mind. You need to spit it out. Come on, deep breaths OK?"

Lester took a deep, loud breath, before slowly exhaling.

"Ella.", he blurted out. "She tried to contact me."

Chay jumped up from her seat, nearly knocking her plate off of the table. She walked around the table as the Princess and Moth-demon looked at Lester's phone.

Charlie's finger scrolled through the messages. "Is this who you're referring to? This 'SOL686' person?"

Vaggie looked over Charlie's shoulder. "Looks like this was about an hour ago…"

"One hour and 6.3 minutes.", Lester hurriedly spoke. "She called me Lenny."

Vaggie frowned. "Now, Lester, don't forget what I warned you about-"

"-phishing scams. Yes, I do recall. But this must be her. She named herself 'SOL'. That means 'Sister of Lester'. She also used my favorite number. It must be her."

"That's a bit of a stretch, Lester. For all we know it could just mean 'Shit Out of Luck' and...your 'favorite number'? Really?"

"I like the number 686. It looks like a snowman with over-sized gorilla arms. It's funny to me."

Chay raised a bony eyebrow. "But wouldn't that make one of the arms backwards?"

"Yes. That it why it is funny.", he replied matter-of-factly.

"...Huh." Lester's mind was intruiging and confusing puzzle. It was oddly endearing.

But there was another angle here.

"These hellphones...these are all Voxtech products, aren't they?"

"That's Voxtek. With a 'k', my dear.", Alastor corrected.

"How would you even know the difference? And don't you hate him anyway?"

The Radio Demon snickered. "Of course I do! But I'm also a stickler for spelling."

"That still doesn't answer my-"

"Clock's ticking, Miss Ong."

"Whatever. Vox makes this shit, right?"

"Indeed he does! Which is the reason I've never cared for those noisy picture phones."

Chay sighed. Danny-boy had implied that Vox was somehow connected to all of this. If Ella really was trying to contact Lester through his hellphone, and Voxtek was its manufacturer…

There was no way to avoid it. She was on a collision course with the Vees. Again.

"Fine. When can we leave?"

Chay did have to admit: Alastor's portals were incredibly convenient.

"So, what kind of meeting is this, exactly?", she asked as they both stepped out into the street, their swirling transportation quickly closing behind them.

"Oh, I'd like to say that this is some sort of major annual event where all of the sovereign Overlords of Hell meet to discuss mutual cooperation.", Alastor replied. "But it's not. It's just a repeat of the one we had last year before the Extermination began. Let me ask you, my dear: how much do you know of the events of last year?"

"You mean regarding the Extermination?", Chay asked in turn. "Not much outside of Imp City. All I heard was stuff I could glean from ILF contacts. What I do know, however, was that the body count was unusually high."

"Not just high, my dear. It was a record breaker. And the record it broke was made the year before last."

The day before Charlie founded the Hotel, the Exterminators had managed to exterminate over 16% of the Pride Circle's population. Imp City had lost over 3,000 inhabitants, and PC's body count was even higher.

"But last year? The Exterminators managed to wipe out 20% of the Pride Circle's denizens. That includes your Imp friends, Miss Ong."

Alastor relayed all of this information to her without so much as flinching. That damned grin of his barely moved.

"And yet the Hotel survived intact.", Chay replied.

"Not at all!", he cheerfully answered. "The building suffered extensive damage. The ocean liner, for example, was originally a pirate freighter! The locomotive near the awning? It was a different model entirely!"

"And your radio tower?"

"Totally vaporized!", he answered. "It's quite the exciting tale, but a long and convoluted one that Charlie could tell you better."

"Sounds like a first for you.", Chay said.

"Well, there were other parts that I wasn't there for involving some ridiculous meeting she was supposed to have at the Heaven embassy...And here we are!"

Chay had been so engrossed in her conversation that she had not realized that they had arrived at their destination. The building itself was fairly gray and unremarkable (at least for Pentagram City), with the line of glass elevators lining its facade being its only distinctive feature. The building had no other apparent means of entry, at least from the street.

"Now, Miss Ong, I fear I must ask for your patience as I'm afraid this meeting is strictly for Overlords only."

-This fucking asshole.

Chay was incredulous. "You want me to stand out here for who knows how long?"

"Oh, not at all! If this meeting is anything like the last one, it'll be approximately fifteen minutes before everyone starts screaming at each other and we are adjourned. So...I'd give it about twenty minutes, tops. Toodles!"

Before Chay could so much as utter a whisper of objection, Alastor cheerfully skipped into one of the open elevators. He waved to her as she angrily watched the platform take him up to the top floor.

She sighed as she shoved her hands into her coat pockets. Even Winters in Hell could be unbearably chilly.

Her thoughts wandered, trying to make sense of the events of the day. A stolen moon rock, a possible angle on Ella's disappearance, Gish showing up randomly out of nowhere, and an assassin trying to kill Lucius.

Honestly, she just wanted to go back to bed. She wanted to go out with Shakie and Angel Dust. She wanted to talk with Charlie more.

She wanted to make her home at the Hotel. Admitting that to herself had been difficult. She liked Imp City. She liked everyone she knew there. She'd dedicated years of her afterlife to the cause of Imp liberation.

But she needed this. She needed this shot at redemption, at being in a place that could nurture her better nature.

She couldn't go back to the pain. The misery and the nihilism. She needed to feel…

...what do I want to feel?

Love? Is that what I want?

She had spent so much of her life in hunger, in want. She had nothing to nurture her but hatred, in both life and in death. After her grandparents died she had nothing.

Nothing but the Khmer Rouge.

Nothing but Brother Number One.

No. I'm not going back. Not to that.

She had felt love. Love of friends.

Love from Shakie.

Did she love Shakie?

She wasn't sure if she was capable of such an emotion. At least not to that extent.

Her hellphone buzzed. She took it out of her pocket and touched the screen.

A message addressed to her and Lucius showed up from Fyewackett.

:| Danny-boy talked. Awaiting further instructions. |:

CHAPTER 10 END