Chapter Four: Memories
The rest of the day went fairly smoothly for the hotel residents. Charlie insisted on not ruining the good mood with any world shattering reveals, so the upcoming war was left out of discussion, but Emily decision to stay was met with positive reception. Alastor briefly appeared to welcome the new employee, only to disappear once again. Charlie repeatedly tried to contact her mother, but there was never any response. Vaggie explained to Emily that Lilith had been of sight for seven years, which was upsetting to hear.
"Charlie basically modeled herself after he mom, so for the queen to just drop everyone in Hell without explanation, it hurts to see what that did my girl." Vaggie wasn't kidding. Come dinner, and an uncomfortable incident where Emily got hooked on fried chicken and made a total mess, Charlie had withdrawn into herself, so Vaggie gave her fellow angel the room across the one she shared with Charlie, and they went upstairs to bed.
Emily remained downstairs debating her taste in wine with Husk, only Rose' thank you and goodnight, and sharing stories about Molly with Angel, but the day came to end, so she decided to enjoy her first night of sleep in nearly two thousand years. It was easy and peaceful with no dreams, and when the morning arrived Emily arose felling more eager and refreshed than since before Charlie's first time in Lesser Heaven.
Her old home was still in her mind, but the night had offered time for reflection. Once Hell was no longer under the control of the corrupt Overlords, and the sins in full support of Lucifer, then Emily could turn her focus on liberating her other friends and family. A few loud knocks broke her chain of thought, and and flick of two wings pushed Emily to her door. Pulling it open caused her mouth to go dry when she saw Charlie.
With the messy bed hair and cute red pajamas, Emily found her friend to be too cute to describe, but on the other side of the hallway, the door to Charlie's room was open which gave Emily a brief view of Vaggie in a white nightgown that showed of a tantalizing amount of skin. Forcing her attention back on Charlie, which wasn't much easier to keep one's thoughts pure, Emily just missed what her new paramour had said.
"I'm sorry, run that by me again?"
"I just wanted to thank you doing so much for us, so I decided to take you out to get some clothes, beauty products, anything to make your extended stay at the hotel more comfortable."
"Oh I'm sure that's not necessary-"
"No no, I won't hear it. You put so much on the line for us, it's only fair we repay you by helping your settling in Hell be as smooth as can be." The constant enthusiasm and kindness Charlie gave off was infectious, so Emily happily went along and met with her boss/friend and Vaggie in the main lobby, but when Charlie pulled the doors open, she gasped at the sight of a new sinner standing just outside the entrance.
This new sinner was very short, just a few inches taller than Niffty, with blueish-green skin and dark hair that was navy in color save for light blue streaks. His eyes were pink, covered by thick gold goggles and his dress was a gray lab coat akin to Odette's. Both hands and feet were had thick black gloves and boots, and an top of his head a strange thin growth stretched out of his and grew bulbous at the end. The newcomer's gaping mouth was opening and closing, so the ladies made out his sharp white teeth.
"Shoot I'm so sorry, please let me help you? Charlie offered her hand to him.
"NO, I mean, no thank you." He answered flinching at her outstretched hand. Puling himself up, the young sounding, amphibian looking guy brushed his clothes off with a grunt, so Charlie quickly went with her usual pitch.
"Well I'm still sorry regardless, and if you're here to see the hotel, then I promise no more doors will burst open on you. Can I get a name maybe?"
"Baxter, and I understand when an accident occurs. After the last extermination attempt, the Overlords are going ballistic, so if this establishment may be willing to offer asylum alongside 'redemption' then-"
"That's perfect. Welcome to the Hazbin Hotel, my name is Charlie and these are two employees Vaggie and Emily,"
"Hey."
"Hi there, nice to meet you"
"and we offer a series of amenities for those staying here such as free room and board, provided that you make an effort to engage in the hotels activities and obey a few important guidelines." It took roughly twenty minutes for Charlie to go over the full orientation with Baxter, who never took well anyone remotely close to his personal space, or the idea of repeated contact with other demons unless absolutely necessary.
"I think Baxter might be down here because he does not like anyone, at all." Vaggie brought up after Charlie handed Baxter his room key.
"Yeah I can tell he was really eager to avoid talking to others as much as he possibly could, but that's something we can start working on later." Overhearing the conversation Emily had an idea that might help Baxter with his stay.
"Maybe start him off small. Choice a specific resident who can interact with him one on one, then start incorporating Baxter in activities that involve another person, and slowly increase the size over time." Emily's idea was received very positively with the other two, who made a note to have Baxter talk about the kind of people he'd be willing to tolerate.
An hour later the trio went inside a large mall, which existed in Hell apparently, stopping by various stores to pick up material to make Emily's work clothes and going to Stylish Occult for some casual outfits, most of which weren't the kind that an angel was used to wearing. Thankfully Vaggie picked out some midnight blue and white dresses that Emily found very pleasing to her eyes.
"I remember when I first fell, everything was strange and overwhelming. If it wasn't for Charlie I doubt I'd still be here today, or stuck as some Overlord's enforcer." The praise was more than enough to make Charlie blush and try to dismiss that it was all her. Emily personally agreed and tugged of the him of a dark blue skirt that only came down to right above her knees. It wasn't as form fitting as Vaggie's, but the skirt and sleeveless white top were far more liberating than her old outfit.
During lunch Charlie emerged from another store and stepped behind Emily to pull her periwinkle hair up and tie it up with a black bow akin to Vaggie's.
"I'm not stealing your look am I?"
"Nah it looks good on you, plus some demons can be a bit grabby, so a ponytail is easier to cut off quickly if you need to." Emily couldn't tell is she was joking, so she opted to focus on eating the large meal that Charlie had ordered. Four minutes later her whole place was completely clean, but the table was a mess of crumbs and used napkins.
"I don't think I've seen anyone scarf down that so much food so quickly." Vaggie said under breathe, but Emily got that she'd made a mess and started to clean up and rattling as apologies. Her friends laughed it off and Charlie suggested stopping by the grocery store to pick up extra food for the hotel pantry.
With lunch finished, it was to go a meeting that involved Charlie's friends that she hadn't been in contact with in almost a hundred years. Emily clarified her age to see if Charlie and Vaggie would give theirs. The princess had no problem admitting to being 375 years old, but it took some prompting to get Vaggie give hers an long as the other two swore to keep it secret.
"I was created the same day as Lute, roughly twelve hundred year ago. Birthdays aren't a big deal for exorcists so I never gave my age when Charlie wanted to know my birthday." Vaggie had a faraway look in her eyes, clearly struggling with painful memories. It was upsetting to Emily to have reminded a friend of her past suffering.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't trying remind you of anything really painful. I only want to get to know you both better. Besides Molly, you two are my closest friends."
"I get you're both curious, it's just that there's a lot of shit that I regret as an exorcist, so please give me a while to come around, alright?" Charlie and Emily agreed and squeezed a somewhat protesting Vaggie in a big three way hug. Charlie then began to go into her own history, regarding a place called 'Demon High'.
"I had a very close social circle back then, there was myself, my ex-boyfriend Seviathan, my former best friend Baphoma, and a sort of sister figure in Alecto. The four of us did everything we could together, at least until the night that prom came." Vaggie reached out and took Charlie's hand in her own, while Emily tried to keep her own longing to be included in a relationship like theirs to herself.
"After the party was finished, Sev took me out to his car, but Baphoma was waiting for us. She confessed her feelings to Sev and told him about my plans to create the Happy Hotel and redeem sinners. I confided in Alecto about the plan, and she promised to keep it secret, only to turn around and tell the whole school about how 'asinine' it was. How I was a traitor to the hellborn which I technically was.
"Now that was dishonest of her. Did she think that the hellborn had less of a chance of getting into Heaven than sinners? Emily asked, not understanding Alecto's reasoning.
"I don't know, she simply stopped being my friend and cut me off completely, but at first Sev had my back. He defended my idea and told Baphoma that I was his girl and no else compared. I hated seeing my old bestie have her heart ripped apart like that, even if she wanted to take my prom date form me. Baphoma swore she'd get back at me and ran off, then Sev drove us to the edge of the Pentagram, on a high hill to the east."
Vaggie was getting notably uncomfortable as the story progressed, and Emily couldn't blame her. The angels close to Charlie were trying to keep their possessive feelings under control, but failed when she spoke the next part.
"I was so hurt by what the did I could barely stand it. Sev was so sweet at first, but then he started to get very … handsy. I thought he was just playing around but he would not stop even when I asked him to. Sev then tried to take my dress off and I said I couldn't, that I wasn't ready and not in the mood. When he forcefully kissed me I had enough so I kicked him in the groin, jumped out the car and called Mom to pick me up. She showed up instantly thanks to magic and took me home where I could just cry and vent till I fell asleep. I never spoke to any of them after that night."
When Charlie finished her story, she then noticed just how overwhelmingly angry they both had become. Vaggie had pulled an angelic spear out and was going over the various different internal organs she'd remove and sell off to the cheapest bidder. Emily's face was like gray stone, her eyes sharper than steel, and she spoke in a clipped, barely restrained voice.
"I will tear his loins off with my bare hands, rip his jaw off, then force feed that bastard's cock and ball and every other part of his body down his damn throat."
"Whoa easy you two. Sev isn't at this meeting. I'm going to try and reconnect with the other two, but I want nothing to do with Sev or the rest of the Von Eldritch family. He wasn't invited, so turn down the murderousness okay?" That didn't do much to help douse the anger of infuriated angels, but at least they were no longer reciting how they would crucify he old ex.
After traversing across the pentagram for roughly two hours, Charlie and her angels had gone mostly undisturbed thanks to Charlie's royal status and Vaggie's nonstop death stare. That hadn't stopped sinners and hellborn of all varieties looking at Emily like they wanted to either kill, assault, or do any number of unspeakable things to the still very innocent young angel. The only hangup was that when the hotel girls arrived at a large black chateau, the guard at the gate saw no reason to allow the seraphim passage.
"Look will you can contact Baphoma and tell her that I have these two come with me or no deal. Emily has information I know she'll want to hear." The guardsman still wasn't convinced, but he complied when someone did call in and give the go ahead for the whole party to enter.
"Do you think Baphoma will genuinely want to listen? Even if it has been a century, demons will hold a grudge." Vaggie questioned but Charlie countered that Adam held a grudge for 10,000 years, plus demons were more than capable of forgiving. Vaggie had good reason to agree to that, but still kept close to her girlfriend's right, while Emily stayed to her crush's left.
Crossing over the sparse and barren yard brought them to a pair of onyx double doors with ruby doorhandles and a gold doorbell. Charlie pressed the doorbell, then a tall skeletal looking butler with glowing green eyes opened the entrance and gathered the the trio through a expansive hallway into another room where a large long table stretched over several yards to opposite sides of the dining hall.
Seated at the center right in front of where Charlie's group had came in, where two interesting looking demons in the middle of a tense discussion. Neither noticed the new entries until Charlie cleared her throat which made the two go silent. The smaller one glanced up and her amber eyes surrounded by black sclera narrowed in disgust. The other demon looked over her shoulder, the snakes growing form the scalp and neck also raising ten thin heads and hissing at once.
"Well shit, you actually came over. Talk about having a steel pussy. But maybe it's thanks to those demon hunters you've got clinging to your sides." The built green scaled snake haired demon spoke in a raspy voice like nails on a chalkboard, and her eyes burned with simmering violet intensity. As for the demon on the other side of the table, she was very much smaller and had black fur covering most of her body, four curved horns coming out of her head, and a long tail wrapped around her waist like a belt.
"Maybe the princess doesn't think we can be trusted. To be fair, she's mostly right." The horned demon's higher voice was laden with contempt, and the two stood up with goat girl hooping over the table, landing on a pair of small gold hooves.
"Look girls, I know where we ended up was a very sour note. I understand if you both have you're problems with me, but I've come with very important information that affects all of Hell. Sinners and hellborn could be in incredibly serious danger if the sins don't stand with my father on this." The snake demon was silent, until she let loose a long frustrated growl and held out both arms to her sides and nodded.
"Fine, what's the issue, and how does it affect my people and your precious little sinners." The way the term sinners was spoken made it sound almost like a swear. Emily recalled how in Pentagram City, she only saw sinners for the most part. The hellborn were constantly ducking and dodging other demons, and it made her wonder if there was any hellborn Overlords.
Charlie gave her former classmates an abridged version of the story Lucifer had informed them of, omitting the part where Emily was a seraph and that it was her efforts that got the king of Hell to tell Charlie anything, as well as Sir Pentious getting into Lesser Heaven. Personally Emily was grateful, given how much Big Green might to want to treat her the same way the demons outside did, given that Emily was once a seraph serving under those who oppressed demonkind in the first place.
"You're seriously telling me that the Elders have a master who is intending to wage full on war with Hell, and the only way that we can win is if everyone submits to Lucifer and follows his orders? To be frank it sounds a little convenient Charlie."
"Baphoma I-"
"NO don't start trying to give the big pitch about how you care about everyone, how you're just sticking up for us, like we don't know any better. We rule Hell the way we wish to, and you turn up the ugly mutt face and act so saintly, like you already get it and it's only a matter of time until we do." Baphoma, the goat girl, paused for breathe while Alecto, big green, placed a hand on the goats shoulder.
"Look Charlie, you gave us the message, and we have no interest in anything else you're offering, so you and this little harem of killers can leave now." Charlie looked devastated, but before she turned away, someone else spoke up.
"What is wrong with you two? What is it about Charlie you don't like so much? She's smart, kind, and fun to be around. Charlie puts everything she has into helping her people, and came all this way to warn her old friends of coming danger, but then you dismiss her flippantly because what, she thinks differently? It amazes me how someone so loving can be treated like garbage by those who once meant the world to her." Now Emily was out of breathe, and she could feel her friends staring in quiet shock.
"Well that's cute. You in love with Charlie, huh? I mean she's just so charming and sweet, and everyone fawns over her. At least they did until it was made clear how much of a stuck up pussy she actually was. Redeeming sinners is bullshit, and the Morningstar's don't even have anything to do with the lower rings. If the seraphs are planning to invade, then the Pride Ring will the perfect meat-shield for Hell's actual people to prepare and counterattack. But thanks for the heads-up I suppose?"
Baphoma's second rant now done, both demons turned to leave and Baphoma called for her butler Liche to escort the three out. Alector looked over her shoulder at Charlie, but shook her head and the snakes hissed again. Charie had to lean on Vaggie after being to viscously torn down by Baphoma, and the ex-exorcist kept a tight grip around her girl's waist. When Emily tried to speak to them, Vaggie's good eye was giving her a dark, angry look that cut Emily to her soul.
Liche let them out and Emily broke into a quick sprint, ignoring Charlie's call and unfurled all three set s of wings, lifting her feet of the ground and up in the air. She didn't know where to go, just that her fractured heart had to be kept far away from both of them, until Emily could find somewhere to put it back together.