When they reached Grundy's Plaza, Charlie was somewhat shocked, to say the least.
The building was rather small for an apartment building. It'd make more sense to call it a hotel, from the size of it. It was only three floors, and there didn't look to be that many apartments on each floor.
"This is where you lived before?" Charlie asked, surprised.
John chuckled, nodding. "Yeah. That right there is everyone's first reaction." He looked up at the place with fondness. "Well, let's get inside, introduce you to everyone."
Walking up the steps to the entrance, he opened up the door to allow Charlie to go inside first.
When Charlie stepped inside, she was slightly surprised to find that despite the outside looking rather dreary, the inside was actually well maintained.
"Why the quality difference between the inside and the outside?" She asked, looking at the walls of the lobby, which looked to be recently polished.
"The place is meant to be a safe haven. Some dickhead rolls through town and gets the bright idea to try and take over, assuming they won't immediately get slammed by me or the police force, they won't go for the place that looks like a complete shitshow." John explained as he walked through the doors behind her.
Charlie nodded her head in understanding. "That makes sense." She admitted.
John looked down at Charlie with a smile, before he gestured towards the steps. "Chances are, most people are in Andre's place. Apartment three." He said, gesturing to the apartment at the top of the steps. "He's almost always home."
"Then let's go!" Charlie said, excited to meet the man who had helped John for the past four years.
"Alright, alright!" John shook his head with a chuckle as he began making his way up the stairs, Charlie following close behind.
Charlie honestly couldn't help the excitement within her. John seemed like a stroke of luck within Hell. A truly kind soul among the millions of damned within the rings.
But to know there wasn't just an entire building, but an entire city of people like John… it was an extremely uplifting prospect.
John, for his part, was excited as well, but for a different reason. He was excited for Charlie to meet the others in this place he had come to call home. Most importantly, he wanted her to meet Andre.
Andre had acted as a leader of sorts to everyone settled within Grundy's Plaza. He was someone to look towards, and everyone respected him.
He would kindly refuse the title of leader every time it was offered, but it didn't stop anybody from considering him as such anyway.
John always felt of him as sort of a surrogate father. Andre always reminded him of his grandfather.
As the two reached the top of the steps and stood in front of room three, John wasted no time in knocking on the door.
"Hey, Andre!" John called out to the occupant inside the room.
The sound of shuffling feet could be heard coming from inside, before the door opened.
A hellhound of similar height to Charlie stood on the other side. Her fur was a snow colored white, and her eyes were a blood red, conversely of which were filled with kindness instead of malice. She was wearing a black shirt with a skull on the front of it, and she had a pair of blue jeans that were in pretty pristine condition, all things considered.
"John!" The hellhound greeted, her lips curling into a smile as she realized who was in front of her. "It's good to see you!"
John smiled back as the hellhound moved to wrap her arms around him. "It's good to see you too, Arya." He greeted, hugging the hellhound back. "If you're here, I take it you and Madrox have Beartrap here?"
Arya shook her head. "He's upstairs. We have Ralphie watching him."
"Razor?" John asked with a smile. "He's finally back?"
Arya nodded. "I'm so glad to have my baby boy back!" She exclaimed with a smile, before she looked up at John in confusion. "I didn't know you were coming today."
"I told Andre to keep it a surprise when I called him." John explained with a chuckle. "Speaking of, is he in?"
Arya nodded. "Yeah. He's helping Madro fix up the engine to Ralphie's bike." She explained to John, before moving out of the way of the door and gesturing inside. "Come in, come in! They'll be happy to see you!"
John smiled. "I hope so. I have a friend with me, by the way." He said as he walked inside, turning to look down at Arya.
"Oh? Who-" Arya began, but she almost immediately stopped when she spotted Charlie as she followed John inside. "Oh… Oh Satan."
"Hi." Charlie waved somewhat nervously as Arya stared at her. "I'm Charlie."
Arya nodded, a smile working its way onto her face. "I know who you are, your highness." She revealed, before turning to look at John. "So, how'd you manage to wrangle the princess of Hell?"
Both Charlie and John blushed at the insinuation.
"Oh, we're not-"
"It's not like that-"
"I was going to introduce her-"
"I just wanted to-"
"She's got a-"
"I've got a-"
Arya interrupted their nervous rambles with amused giggles. "I'm only playing, you two."
The two looked equally embarrassed as they realized that their outbursts did not help their case. John rolled his eyes at being tricked while Charlie just chose to stay silent. "Why, Arya?"
Arya laughed. "Oh please, you know I was gonna take that chance! I did it with Verosika, didn't I?"
John deadpanned at her words. "Yeah, how did that turn out?" He remarked rather aggressively.
Arya suddenly straightened up, as if she realized that mentioning the famous pop star was a bad idea. "I'm… I'm sorry, John. I know you two were close."
"Didn't stop her from pulling the stunt she did, now did it?" John asked with a raised eyebrow, and Charlie looked at John in concern at his a few seconds, John let out a sigh. "Look, can we get off that topic?"
Arya nodded. "Sure, John." She said, giving the large demon a sympathetic gaze, before smiling. "Let's go see Andre. I know he'll be happy to see you."
John let out a small smile at that. "And I'll be glad to see him too." He said as he walked past the snow colored hellhound, glancing back towards Charlie as he did so. "Come on, Charlie."
Charlie followed John further into the apartment, and they could hear voices growing more and more audible as they did so.
"How did he manage to do this, anyway?" A rather gruff voice could be heard from further down the hall.
"You and I both know he don't know shit about bikes, as much as he likes them. Probably never oiled it." A more level voice replied.
Charlie found herself curious as to which one was Andre.
She followed John into a room at the end of the hallway, and she was surprised to find that it had been turned into a workshop of sorts. Tools littered the walls, tables, and even the floor of the room, as well as stations like a vice, a welder, and other things of that nature.
To the left, at a table which had what was very clearly a motorcycle atop it, were two demons. A large hellhound, standing at least at eight feet, just as tall as Angel, and an imp, who for his species was rather tall, at five foot, though he was still the shortest person there.
John couldn't help the wide smile on his face as he let out a joyful yell. "Andre!"
The Hellhound's head snapped towards him, and Charlie could see the one blue eye that stared at John, while the poor demon's other eye was a milky white, a scar running across his eye.
In spite of his fearsome appearance, the Hellhound seemed almost giddy at the site of the behemoth accompanying Charlie. "Johnny!"
John laughed as the hellhound immediately left the table as the imp turned his attention away from the engine, watching as Andre walked up to John pulled the demon into a bear hug. "You're giving me a hug like you ain't seen me in months!" The spiky demon remarked as he looked down at the hellhound.
"I thought you'd be gone for a lot longer when you told me about going to check out that new hotel." Andre replied as he released John from the hug. "I'm sorry if I thought I wouldn't see you for a while."
John chuckled as he let out a shrug. "Hey, on the bright side, you all will be moving there soon, so it's not like you won't see me on a regular basis."
Andre nodded, letting out a chuckle of his own. "That's true." He admitted. "So, you're here to pick up a few things?"
John nodded his head in confirmation. "Yeah. I also wanted to bring a friend to meet you." He said, turning and gesturing towards Charlie.
Andre's eyes widened when he recognized the princess, who could only give a small wave as she looked up at the hellhound.
"Hi."
Andre stared at the princess, before he let out a loud laugh. "Wow! You brought the princess of Hell?"
Charlie blushed slightly at the attention, but she smiled nonetheless. "John told me a lot about this place. I wanted to see what it was like." She told him.
John couldn't help but snort. "Yeah, you didn't lose a bet." He remarked sarcastically.
Charlie blushed once more in embarrassment at being called out. "Okay, so I might've lost a bet with John."
The imp let out a chuckle as he moved to join the others. "Yeah, never make a bet with the big guy. You will lose." He remarked as he looked at the princess, offering his hand. "I'm Madrox. People around here call me Madro."
Charlie smiled at the greeting, gladly shaking the imp's hand. "I'm Charlie."
Madrox let out a chuckle. "I know who you are, Princess. Nice to meet you though."
Charlie nodded. "Likewise."
Madrox turned to look at John. "So, how've you been doing this week, big fella?"
John smiled. "Pretty good. Went down to Lu Lu World yesterday." He revealed, turning to look at Andre. "You'll never guess who I saw."
Andre raised an eyebrow at John's words, as Arya walked into the room, walking around John and Charlie to stand next to Madrox. "Who?"
John grinned. "Vortex."
All of their eyes widened in surprise, before they turned to looks of glee.
"Really?!" Andre asked in excitement. "My boy's back?!"
"How is the boy?" Madrox asked with a smile.
"He's in Imp City now." John revealed. "He's a bodyguard for she who shall not be named. He seemed like he was doing pretty good for himself."
Arya had a fond smile. "I'm glad to hear that. I miss him."
Charlie looked between the four, confused, before turning to John. "Um, who's Vortex?"
"Vortex is my son." Andre answered, turning to look at Charlie. "You'll know him pretty easily. Outside of our eye color, we look almost exactly the same."
"Except Tex is about seven feet, your eight." John commented.
"But the eye is usually a dead giveaway." Madrox remarked, looking at Charlie. "Andre didn't lose an eye, in case you thought he did."
Andre shook his head. "That's true. My eyesight's perfectly fine, as a matter of fact." He informed the princess, to her shock.
"But, your eye is scarred over." Charlie replied, tilting her head in confusion.
John chuckled next to her. "It's a really weird birthmark. And it runs in the family. Tex is the same way." He revealed. "Something about the formation of the skin is messed up around the eye, and so it cracks and scars like that."
"It's because that eye is slightly bigger than normal." Arya clarified." The eye socket and the eye itself are bigger, but the skin tries to form as if it were a normal eyeball."
"That… doesn't seem like a birthmark. At all." Charlie noted, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
The others shrugged.
"Honestly, it's not." Andre admitted. "It's a genetic deformation more than anything, but Johnny here called it a birthmark a few days after he started living with us, and it kind of just stuck." He said with a shrug.
Madrox nodded. "Yeah… it was easier and quicker than saying genetic deformity."
"Plus it's less insulting." Arya remarked. "At least to Tex."
The others nodded in agreement.
"So," John said, turning to look at Andre. "Is Viv not here? She's usually hanging out in her room."
Andre laughed. "Oh, she's here. She just pulled an all-nighter last night."
It took a few seconds for the words to register, before John was guffawing in laughter. "She's still passed out, isn't she?"
"Like a log." Madrox remarked with a laugh. "We had to shut her door so we could focus on this engine."
John nodded. "Speaking of, I heard Razor is back in town?" He asked, to which the three nodded.
"He's upstairs with Benny." Madrox confirmed Arya's earlier information. "Little guy is missing you bad. You oughta go up and see him."
John nodded. "No problem." He turned to look towards Charlie. "I'm gonna go up and see Beartrap for a bit. Why don't you stay here and get to know some of your future Hotel guests?"
Charlie smiled. "Sure." She said with a nod, turning to look at the others. "If it's alright with you."
"Ain't no problem to me." Andre said with a shake of his head, smiling as he looked at Madrox and Arya. "Is it alright with you two?"
Both hellhound and imp nodded.
"For sure." Madrox said. "I'd love to know how Johnny managed to wrangle the Princess of Hell."
Charlie blushed at the words, while John simply groaned. "Very funny, Madrox." He deadpanned. "She's taken anyway."
He'd learned his lesson with Arya.
For now.
"Well, I'd like to get to know Charlie." Arya said, smiling at her fellow hellborn. "Instead of just the Princess that everyone knows."
Charlie smiled appreciatively. "Thanks."
"Alright." John nodded. "Well, I'm gonna go up and see Beartrap and Razor. I'll probably be back down in a bit." He said, turning to look at Charlie as he turned towards the door. "I'll be in apartment 12 on the next floor up if you need me."
Charlie nodded. "Okay. I'll see you in a bit, John."
With a nod, John turned towards the hallway, leading to the door to the apartment, leaving Charlie alone with Andre, Arya, and Madrox as he left.
Charlie turned towards the others.
"So, Charlie." Andre said as he moved toward the hall, intent on going to the living room as the others followed. Tell us about yourself."
A/N: Won't lie, this chapter was a little rushed. I wanted to get this one out due to how long you all waited. I had hit a bit of writers block on this chapter for a while, but I finally got out of my funk. Next chapter should be a little bit longer.