Charlie briskly walked down the hallway until she reached the golden double doors that had a bright red apple perched on top. She banged on the door until Lucifer swung open the doors.
"Whoa whoa! Where's the fire, Char char?" He said this but realized that Charlie was in no mood for jokes. He could see sparks fly from her ears and her horns barely peeking from above her golden hair.
"You threw Alastor across the room?!" She was clutching her fists tightly until she could feel her claws biting into her palms. Lucifer sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Figures he would come crying to you about it. Come on in." Lucifer stepped aside as Charlie practically stomped in.
"Actually no, Dad. I had to basically drag it out of him. Why do you hate him so much? I mean I know he's a demon and all but this is hell. What has he done to you?" Charlie sat down in one of his black velvet that was next to his shelves of rubber ducks. She never could understand his obsession with them. Lucifer sat down in the matching chair across from her.
"Well for one he's manipulative and he gets his rocks off on watching people suffer. Wait, that's two things-" Lucifer held up two fingers and stared at them.
"Dad have you even considered the fact that maybe Alastor could be on his way to being redeemed?" Lucifer started cackling so hard that tears formed in his eyes. He did a double take in Charlie's direction as he flicked a tear from his eye.
"Oh shit you were serious? Charlie," He got up and walked over to the portrait of Charlie, himself and her mother. They were all scrunched up together and all smiling. One happy family. "I believe in what you are doing, truly I do. I believe some sinners can be redeemed but not all of them. And that includes Alastor. In my millions of years being in charge of this realm, I've very rarely come across someone as evil as him." Charlie shot up and walked over to him, making him turn around to face her.
"Dad, I understand he's done some terrible things. So has all of the other residents in this hotel, yet they are on the way to saving themselves! I don't understand why Alastor couldn't even be considered to be a possibility. I-" Charlie bit her lip, deciding if she should continue. "I really think that he's changing. I...I don't want to give up on him." Charlie felt so defeated. She had to yet again try and argue her case to her father. This time though it felt more personal. She thought back to all of the small moment's she's recently had with Alastor and couldn't stop herself from getting her hopes up on his salvation. If he could be saved anyone could!
"Charlie, you've got the biggest heart I've ever seen. You get that from your mother." Lucifer smiled sadly as he grabbed his daughters hands. "You see the good in the most despicable sinners which I admire more than you know. But...I just don't want to see you get hurt. I really believe he's using you for some plan he's got and I-I refuse to stand by and watch it happen."
Charlie let go of his hands and turned away, not wanting him to see her tear up. Alastor has definitely been one to sneak around and tend to things secretly but surely all of his good deeds for her wasn't the same thing? His 'helpfulness' for the last year had loop holes, she knew that. She couldn't help but notice though that recently he's been different. The way he looks at her when he doesn't think she's paying attention. How he suddenly gets bashful when she gets too close to him. Something has changed with him and she didn't want to believe that it was all fake. She could feel a sharp pain in her heart just by the thought of it.
"You may not believe in Alastor, but I do." She said calmly. She could hear her father take in a breath to start a rebuttle.
"If he does anything to jeopardize this hotel, please trust that I will take care of it. But until I see any evidence that he's plotting something, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. I'm not asking you to do the same. What I am asking though is that you don't go around and do some bullshit vigilante justice on the residents of my hotel. My friends." Charlie walked to the door and left before Lucifer could get another word in.
Charlie returned back to her room, her blood pressure still somewhat high. Her head hurt all over, desperately needing a bubble bath to try and relax. She hadn't had any time to herself recently, so she took advantage of it now. She stripped her clothes off and strolled over to her bathroom. She had a decently sized bathtub that could submerge her easily. She drew her bath and made sure the water was as hot as it could go. Since this was hell, even the cold water wasn't really cold though. Once the water was at a decent level, she slowly sank into the warmness and began to put her strawberries and cream bubble bath soap in it. She let out a sigh of relaxation as she let all of her body be underwater. The bubbles started to surface to the top and it looked like she was surrounded by fluffy clouds. She smiled and wondered if this was what it was like in heaven. Completely relaxed and surrounded by blemish free white.
As she began to let her mind wonder, she heard a distant knock on her bedroom door. She lifted her head up, wondering who it could be. It very well could be her father, not wanting her to get the last word in their little argument. She waited to see if they would just go away but to her dismay, the knocks continued but louder and quicker. She groaned as she got out of the tub and wrapped herself in her pink bathrobe. She walked over to the door, leaving a trail of water behind her.
"Alastor?" She was shocked that he didn't wait for her to let him in. He borderline shoved her aside as he made his way though. He walked over to the piano, his palms spread on top. His back was to her and she could see from his shoulder blades that he was breathing heavier than usual.
"Alastor? Is everything ok?" She approached him carefully as she placed a soft hand on his back. He spun around in the blink of an eye and grabbed her wrist almost painfully. She yelped in surprise and looked at his face for the first time.
He looked like he had been beaten.
His smile was still present, but it looked almost manic. It wasn't his 'put together' smile at all. Charlie felt her stomach turn at the condition of his clothes. His jacket was open and his undershirt had a few buttons missing at the top. A dark stain was present on his shirt, which from the smell of him she assumed to be vomit. A small bit of his chest was exposed and it gleamed in sweat. He was still breathing hard as if he ran from heaven to here as fast as he could. She tried to take her hand back from his grasp but he had an iron clad hold on it.
"Alastor say something!" Charlie was terrified in this moment because he didn't look like Alastor anymore. He looked like a shell of what used to be him. She wanted to show how he looked to everyone who ever called him crazy. He was sane compared to what he was looking and acting right now. He resembled more of a rabid wolf than his usual composed self. He searched her face as if the key to the universe was held somewhere on it. His pupils dilated and borderline vibrating.
"Somethings wrong." He managed to choke out. His radio filter was gone so his voice sounded more like an injured human than anything. It sounded nothing like Alastor. Charlie guided him gently to her bed where he slowly sat down. She knelt in front of him, his hold still on her wrist.
"Alastor what's wrong? What happened to you?" She knew this had nothing to do with her father since she had been with him for the last hour. Who else had the power to turn Alastor into this?
"My chest. It stings." Alastor began to double over, his head almost touching her own. She looked back down to his chest and noticed the tiniest bit of black poking from the top of his dress shirt.
"May I?" Charlie asked gently. Alastor barely nodded as his grip on her loosened enough to where she was free. She moved at a glacier pace as she reached up and began to finish unbuttoning his shirt, exposing his chest. What she saw made her gasp, covering her mouth with both hands. His angelic wound was back and it looked infected. A substance like black tar was seeping out of his gash, which explained what the stain was on his shirt. Golden veins protruded from all sides of it and if she looked closely she could see them throbbing. She reached forward and barely touched one of the veins and Alastor howled in pain, leaning back to where he was lying on the bed.
"Alastor!" She screamed as she got on the bed with him, laying beside him and trying to move his hair from his clammy forehead. He moved his head over to her and his eyes grew a bit wider as he looked into her own.
"Alastor please say something!" Charlie was on the verge of a panic attack. It was obvious that she wasn't able to heal the wound properly to begin with and it's had a week to fester and basically poison him. His chest was rising and falling rapidly as he began to nearly hyperventilate. She placed a hand on the side of his face when in one fluid motion he moved. It was so quick that it didn't even register what had happened until she opened her eyes and saw that Alastor had moved on top of her. He straddled her hips and had both of her hands held together above her head with one of his own. His other hand was holding him up, placed right beside Charlie's left breast. Her bathrobe was starting to hike up at the bottom and her chest was nearly visible. She felt her heart began to beat rapidly when she looked at Alastor's face.
His smile was ear to ear and he was looking at her like a starved man looking at a buffet.
"Apologies Charlie. But you look simply delicious."