Author note: Welcome back! I hope you're all doing well, readers. Finally starting the main series (yay). I don't plan on writing down the song lyrics word for word, as I don't think it does the song justice, but I'll note the important parts. Time for more craziness to ensue, I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 13: Meeting with Heaven
Taylor arose feeling optimistic about their prospects. The hotel commercial was ready, they had broken more soul contracts without garnering attention, and there were several days before they had to meet with their fiendish patron. With a pep in their step, they put on dark slacks, a white button up dress shirt, a blue blazer, and black running sneakers. As they teased their hair into a presentable side part, they took note of their eyes. They still yearned for the hazel tones they had before but had grown to admire the fiery orbs they had now. Taking a deep breath, they looked back at the whirlwind of events of the past week. It was all going to be worth it since they knew if they worked hard and did well in their redemption program, then they could get redeemed and out from under their patron's thumb. 'They're the reason I'm here, but I'll claw my way out of their grasp.' They resolved. They picked up their phone, wallet, and key and headed downstairs.
Taylor found Vaggie in the lobby, who invited them up to the penthouse to go get Charlie. There, the two saw Charlie telling herself a story from a tome about her parent's fall from Heaven and the beginnings of the yearly Exterminations. Taylor watched with awe as the story came to life with colorful projections and was thoroughly immersed in the tale Charlie was telling. When she finished, she sniffled, promised her mother to help her kingdom, and noticed her audience at the door.
"Oh, shit! Did you hear all that?"
The two nodded. Taylor smiled and spoke encouragingly.
"That was a wonderful story, you had me spellbound."
The blonde demoness blushed and explained that the story helped her after Exterminations. Sensing more was amiss, Vaggie asked if she was alright. Charlie admitted that she was thinking of her family, to which Vaggie asked if she'd been in contact with her mother. Taylor had a flashback of their last interaction with their mother at the restaurant, with the feeling of betrayal all that they felt toward them. Shaking their head to refocus, they heard Charlie answer that it had been seven years since they'd last talked, but not to worry since it must be for a reason.
"I just hope what I'm doing here will work." Charlie said uncertainly.
"You got all of us here to help you." Taylor said inspiringly. "Plus, you already got two residents, soon enough the hotel will be bursting at the seams!" They waved their hands dramatically. "And by then you have shown all those naysayers that it's possible!"
That seemed to bring Charlie's trademark smile back. Taylor moved on and told Charlie that the commercial was ready, causing Charlie to jolt up in excitement. With inhuman strength, Taylor and Vaggie were pulled down to the parlor where the television stood. Taylor fished around in their pocket for the thumb drive with the commercial saved on it but came up empty. Confused, they concluded that they'd left it upstairs and rushed back to their room to check. After a sweeping search came up empty, Taylor retraced their steps from last night and went to the bar space. Husk was looking hungover and surly as Taylor scanned the counter. Their hopes plummeted when they saw the drive in pieces.
"What happened? Why is this smashed?" they asked Husk, exasperated.
"Beats me, I'm not responsible for keeping your shit safe." He said gruffly.
Taylor was taken aback at Husk's attitude but moved back to the parlor where Vaggie and Charlie waited eagerly.
"Hey, guys, turns out my drive got damaged last night so we will have to go up to the computer space and watch it there." They said apologetically. The trio moved over, and Taylor booted up the computer and editing software.
"Wow, this computer is a fossil." Vaggie noted.
"Tell me about it. It's the only one Alastor would produce to help get this done." Taylor agreed.
"Alastor provided this computer?" Vaggie asked suspiciously.
"Yeah, who else? Okay, let me open it up and I'll show you." Taylor clicked around and started to panic when the file was gone. "Where is it? It was here last night!"
Static filled the room as Alastor manifested from the shadows.
"Oh dear! I'm afraid I wanted to see the finished product last night and I must have deleted the file and all the data by mistake!" He walked over to the group and shrugged. "So sorry, and after all that work you put in!" While his tone was apologetic, a gleeful grin was plastered on his face. Taylor shot up indignantly and tried to go after the smiling demon, but Charlie held them back. Alastor just looked on with a self-satisfied smirk.
"Taylor, it's okay! He said sorry and learning forgiveness is important for your redemption." Charlie grunted out as she held Taylor aloft. Once Taylor stopped flailing, Charlie released them. "Looks like you'll have to start over. But it's fine, we can handle a delay." She said gently.
Alastor chuckled as he leaned on his cane.
"Ah, but what kind of professional would I be if I didn't have a backup plan? While our little firebrand was working on their version, I made one of my own, just in case!" Alastor replied with a background of oohs playing.
Charlie seemed to brighten a bit at the news.
"Great! Let's go downstairs and see Alastor's version." Taylor gritted their teeth, seething, as Charlie put a hand on their shoulder. "I'm sorry Taylor, I know you put in a lot of work into it."
"Yeah, yeah, thanks. Let's just go." Taylor sulked as they all made their way back to the parlor in silence.
In short, the commercial was a joke. It made fun of the hotel, its goals, and didn't show anything positive or helpful to encourage Sinners to come. Vaggie had summed it up perfectly as she questioned if he was being serious, while Charlie tried to issue constructive criticism about the tone. Taylor was still fuming about the whole thing but kept their comments to themselves. Alastor blamed being away from Hell and that they had preferred a radio broadcast instead of a TV advertisement in the first place.
While Angel, Vaggie, and the others argued on how to make a commercial that Sinners would want to see, Charlie received a call and moved to the other room and talked quietly. Taylor took notice and moved away from the clamoring demons, trying to listen in to Charlie's conversation. Taylor heard a male voice on the other line as Charlie started talked excitedly. She suddenly hung up the phone and called Vaggie over, and upon seeing Taylor nearby included them in the news. Charlie announced that she was going to a meeting with Heaven in her dad's place, and therein saw her chance to promote her Redemption plan. Vaggie tried to reason with Charlie, but the blonde was overtaken by the prospect of pitching her idea that she wouldn't listen.
"I'll go with you, Charlie" Taylor resolutely, making the blonde demon squee in glee. Before they knew it, they were yanked out the door while Charlie sang about her plan to get Heaven to listen. Taylor kept up as Charlie praised the great things and places about Hell, all while avoiding the corpses, mayhem, and biting remarks the skeptical Sinners gave. Taylor and Charlie traveled through the city center, the Cannibal Colony, and the Vees studio, before they arrived at the Heaven Embassy.
The Embassy lobby was spacious with high ceilings, stained glass windows, and firm looking couches that looked like pews. The place was empty, with an eerie silence that made things spooky. Both went up to the desk and Charlie rang the bell, causing a scroll and quill to appear with a poof. Awkwardly laughing, Charlie signed them in as the scroll disappeared and an elevator door to their left opened up to a dark room. The two demons walked over as Taylor held out their hand and produced a flame, illuminating the area. They noticed a large table and chairs, indicating a conference room. The room seemed empty, with Charlie calling out to check if anyone was around. A light turned on, startling Charlie as two figures looked over at the two demons from across the room. Taylor extinguished the flame as they took in the angels.
The larger one was wearing a mask with horns with a golden spiked halo. They wore a golden and white cloak with a letter A on the front and had large golden wings and black clawed hands. Their golden eyes and mouth markings gazed on in a holier-than-thou expression. The smaller angel looked like an Exorcist with black and white wings, a gray tunic dress, black pants, and white gloves and boots. Their mask had long horns with two white pupils with an X on one side. They stared back with a look of contempt at the two of them. 'I have a feeling we're going to get along swimmingly.' Taylor thought sarcastically.
"'Sup?" The larger demon hailed.
Charlie stammered as she regained her footing and introduced herself and Taylor as stand-in representatives for Hell in this meeting. The larger angel greeted them politely and extended a hand to Charlie. But when Charlie tried to grasp it, her hand went through it like it was a hologram. The large angel leaned back and laughed boisterously as they mocked Charlie for falling for his trick. Taylor was miffed at the rudeness but kept quiet for now. Charlie laughed back awkwardly, then collected herself and tried to introduce her Redemption idea, only to be interrupted by the large angel wanting to get to know them before talking shop. They even offered them a plate of ribs. Trying to shield Charlie from further pranks, Taylor piped up and refused the offer, stating that the ribs were clearly holograms too since he was holding the plate.
"Lame! Lighten up, will you? Should be easy for you, candle dick!" The larger angel whined. Taylor glared back, not wanting to make things hostile for Charlie's sake. The angel then started going into a rant about his sex life while demolishing the plate of ribs and how not enough people gave him due respect for being the first man. Taylor perked up at that statement.
"Wait a minute, first man? Does that make you Adam, like from Adam and Eve?"
"I know, I'm awesome. Every other dick descends from these nuts!" indicating proudly to his crotch. Taylor was disgusted by the fact that they were even distantly related to this pig. To get back at them for ridiculing Charlie, they acted unimpressed to bruise the potential sore spot that was the angel's ego.
"Good job, you are one half of the source of humanity. Does that make you a one-hit wonder or do you have anything else to crow about?"
Adam leaned forward; his tone accusatory. "You must be new, so I'll clue you in. I'm the head of the Exorcist army, lighter head!"
Taylor didn't know that fact, which explained a lot about him.
"Taylor, knock it off." Charlie pleaded. Taylor raised their hands innocently.
"It was a legit question." Turning to Adam, they asked smugly, "so how is Eve these days, or did she leave you too?"
Flinching at the comment, Adam fired back. "That's none of your business, bastard! You should be thanking me, seeing that I made it possible for you to exist!" His tone turned derisive as he smirked. "But look at you now, a lowly demon! I'll bet you dicked around your whole life making mistakes and it got you sent down here for eternity! What a loser!"
At first Taylor just wanted to mess around with the jerkish angel to get back for bullying Charlie, but at the mention of it being their fault they were in Hell, their temper flared up and they started to get hot as their anger flared. Charlie sensed the mood shift but before they could act, Taylor had moved towards Adam, who looked self-congratulatory in his seat. Before Taylor got close, the other angel appeared in front of them, stopping their approach. The angel and demon glared viciously at each other as the angel spat venomously,
"Know your place, filthy Sinner. Stand down or I won't wait until the next Extermination to end your pathetic existence."
"Taylor, that's enough." Charlie ordered firmly from behind them. Hearing the disappointment behind her tone, Taylor disengaged and moved back to sit next to Charlie.
"Ha, she's got you whipped! Great job, Danger Tits!" Adam laughed as he high fived his companion again.
Charlie cleared her throat as she tried to get the meeting back on track. Charlie played up to Adam's ego as she buttered him up to love the prospect of being a pioneer for a new project that would be monumental. He seemed to get into the idea of putting his name on things, which encouraged Charlie to tell him that he could be the one to solve the biggest problem in Hell.
"Ohh, herpes. Yeah, that's a bitch." He guessed.
"No, our other biggest problem" Charlie tried to correct him.
"Oh, um, ugly people? Math! Oh, global warming! No, wait, that's Earth's problem…" He continued to guess increasingly more absurd and personal problems before Taylor couldn't take it anymore.
"The problem of overpopulation in Hell, Adam!" Taylor shouted, annoyed.
"Ohh! Well, that's not a problem, we got that covered!"
After asking his companion, Lute, how many demons she'd killed at the last Extermination, Adam congratulated her kill count of 275 Sinners. Charlie was horrified, asking if they realized that these souls were human, just like the ones in Heaven. Adam feigned sympathy before laughing in their faces. Lute added that the souls in Hell deserved damnation because of their mistakes.
Taylor stood up in protest.
"Yes, Sinners made mistakes, but everyone makes mistakes."
Lute stared back coldly and declared that angels never made mistakes; Adam agreed, proclaiming that he had never made a mistake.
Lute walked over to the demons coolly, stating that Charlie's father bargained for a pardon from Extermination for all Hellborn, but that Sinners were fair game. Lute looked purposefully at Taylor as she said the last part, with Taylor baring their teeth in response.
Adam then yawned, mentioning that the meeting was almost over, and they should probably get down to business. Charlie scrambled as she got her papers ready and tried to explain her plan to cleanse demon's souls so they can go to Heaven and end the need for Exterminations. Adam quickly stopped her and began singing about how Sinners aren't meant to climb up to Heaven, as they were supposed to suffer in Hell until Exorcists killed them for good. Taylor and Charlie were tossed around as Adam projected scenes of Heaven's gates, a cauldron of meat and ribs, and the conference room again. Taylor and Charlie recoiled as the angel summoned a guitar axe for a solo piece and sang that killing demons was a form of entertainment for him and his soldiers. As the song continued, the angels slowly backed Taylor and Charlie up to the doors as they proudly proclaimed that the next Extermination would now be in six months. In their shock at the news, they were shoved out the door by Adam and Lute.
Taylor landed on their feet and ran back in time to hold the closing doors open with their body.
"You can't do this, you piece of shit!" Taylor yelled. They felt furious at the callousness and injustice as they started to strong arm the doors open.
"I do whatever the fuck I want, I'm the dick master!" Adam laughed maniacally. He got into a golfer's starting position to swing his guitar axe at the fire demon, but before he completed the swing, Taylor forced the doors fully open and brought their arms forward. They shot a stream of silver fire forward like a flamethrower, causing Adam to jump back as if he felt it, despite being a hologram. Soon the room behind them turned into a monochromatic inferno. Taylor lowered their arms, stopping the attack, as they gazed at the silver flames in shock and awe. Lute's eyes narrowed as she dashed forward and kicked Taylor in the chest, sending them flying and landing on their back. The doors closed as Lute stared back murderously and they could hear Adam freaking out about his robes and guitar.
Taylor glanced back and saw Charlie was still on the floor, slamming her fist down and cursing in frustration. Taylor picked themselves up, wincing as their chest and back ached, and walked over to Charlie to comfort them.
"What have I done?" She sniffled.
"Nothing, Charlie. I suspect they already had this planned out, seeing how much they seem to enjoy killing Sinners." Taylor crouched down and put a hand on Charlie's shoulder as she looked up tearfully. "We'll figure things out, I promise. Now c'mon, let's get back to everyone and come up with a plan." Taylor said gently.
"Okay." She said, defeated. The two demons dusted themselves off and walked out of the Embassy. As they walked, Taylor recalled the silver fire, and wondered,
'None of the books I've read mention silver fire, nor did my patron demonstrate that color flame. What could it mean?' They looked over at Charlie and debated asking her about it. But seeing her downtrodden spirits made them think otherwise. The two demons trudged the rest of the way back to the hotel in low spirits.
When they got through the front door, Vaggie cheerily asked how the meeting went to which Charlie awkwardly responded that they heard something. Vaggie nodded and then excitedly pulled Charlie along as she told her that they all spent the day making a new commercial for the hotel. Both demons were pleasantly surprised as they made their way to the parlor, where all were gathered around the television. Alastor joked that he pulled some limbs to get the commercial on the news channel, while Angel congratulated himself for a job well done. Charlie was touched, the dour mood dispelled. Taylor was proud that the hotel residents came through for Charlie. 'This is perfect, it's just what we needed.' they thought happily.
The commercial opened with the hotel front and the all the hotel residents standing in front in fancy clothes. Taylor noticed that Alastor was halfway out of the shot and the area around him was glitchy. Nifty looked catatonic as she stared stiffly. Vaggie began her first line as the commercial was cut off with a breaking news update. There were outbursts of protest from everyone except Alastor and Nifty as the news anchors announced that the next Extermination was to be six months from now. Taylor winced as the others turned to them and Charlie, shocked. 'We are royally fucked, aren't we?' They thought glumly.
"What the fuck was that, Lute? Why did that Hell fire hurt us?" Adam yelled angrily.
"Not entirely sure, sir, but it looked like Angelic fire, the kind we use to forge our weapons. But what's not clear is why a Sinner can produce that kind of blaze. I don't know of a Winner or Heavenborn that has that ability." Lute said indignantly. "But that isn't our only problem, sir. We found the body." On a projector screen, the image of an Exorcist's decapitated body lay in Hell. Lute insisted on going down immediately to wipe out all the Sinners in Hell, but Adam stopped her and said they needed to bide their time, so Hell's denizens don't catch on that angels weren't as invulnerable as they had projected. Adam smiled wickedly. "But in the meantime, we could have a little fun snuffing out that fire brat. I think I know just the guy to do it…" he laughed evilly.