Chapter 3

Hungry.

So so hungry.

It never ended.

No matter how much filled his bottomless guts, he was never satiated. Never satisfied. Nothing could fill it, for it could not be filled. All of the garbage, corpses, waste and chemicals that poured into his cavernous maw simply seemed to fade into nothingness.

He was much the same in life.

In death, he was only more so.

He could hear talking above him. Steps frantically clanging against the metal catwalk that hung above him, far from the waste pipes that fed him.

He could hear screams. Of terror? Of ecstacy? He didn't know.

He could possibly reach up to see, if he tried. He would do that sometimes, if he needed a cigarette.

But it was rare he had the chance.

Everything died down. No more noise.

But then a lone voice called out from the darkness.

"Parles-tu francais?

!

From the bowels of his gullet, he rumbled the flesh of his cavernous throat to emit a response.

And after a few moments, he spoke.

"Oui".

The first thing that Chay noticed about Olivia was a minor shyness.

The young Goetian carefullly walked up to to her as she and Shakie hopped off of the barstools. She clutched the grimoire to her chest like a precious pillow and her eyes were cast down to the floor, occasionally flitting side to side.

The girl was clearly nervous, and probably not terribly good with crowds of people. Chay could kind of relate.

"Misses Ong?", the girl asked as her eyes finally focused on Chay.

Chay nodded. "That would be me."

"Good, I was hoping I got the right person. I'm not very good around Sinners...ahem."

The throat-clearing was a nervous tic. It had been a long time since Chay had encountered someone who felt intimidated by her.

The girl straightened herself up. "My name is Octavia. I'm the daughter of Stolas and an heir to the Goetia family. I think I spoke with one of your associates a short time ago?"

Chay pursed her lips (or at least what passed for lips on a skull) as she went over the last few months in her head.

Then it hit her.

"By proxy, yes. You called Loona to tell us about our meeting with Colonel Estes."

The owl girl's eyes brightened. "So you do remember!"

"Yes." Chay answered with a grimace. "Though I wish I could forget that entire affair."

"Oh.", the owl girl replied somewhat sullen. "Did something happen?"

"Nothing that you did.", Chay replied. "It's just….you've met the guy, right?"

Octavia's eyes brightened again.

"Oh!"

Only to then dim.

"Oh."

Before nearly blinking out entirely in realization.

"Oooh."

"Exactly.", Chay replied. "The man is simply insufferable."

"I have...choicer words to describe him, but yes.", Via responded. "I have no idea what my Mum sees in him...but I've long since given up on trying to understand her..."

Shakie raised a curious eyebrow. "Are you two talking about the guy who owns the Western Park at Loo Loo Land?

"He was originally the co-owner.", Chay answered. "Then the founder stole some property from Via's father. Speaking of which…"

She turned back to Via. "I'm going to guess that you have a job for me?"

Via hugged the book to her chest.

"Y-yeah...I do, actually. I'm not really sure what the proper protocol on this kind of thing is. I didn't know what your number was-"

Shakie wrapped her arm around the bird girl's shoulders. "Baby, relax! I promise you that Chay won't bite."

-Ugh, that fucking phrase again.

Chay made sure to say it in her head. She didn't want to freak the poor girl out any further.

"I promise you, this is nowhere near the most unorthodox way I've been given a case.", Chay reassured Octavia. "I've been at this for over thirty years. It would take a lot more blowjobs and vomit strangulation to equal the shit I've seen."

The poor owl girl's eyes widened. "Whaaaaaat?" she drawed out in horror.

-Shit, I did it anyway.

"Wait, what I mean to say is...shit, I'm not very good at this."

Shakie shook her head, grinning. "What I think she's trying to say is that you don't have anything to worry about. She'll take the job."

"Yes! That! I meant that!", Chay said trying to catch up. "I mean...there is the matter of my fee."

Octavia straightened out her feathers. "I can pay, no worries there."

"Are you sure?", Chay asked. "Considering you're sneaking around your father in order to do this…"

"I'm an adult now, Miss Ong.", she replied with an icy stare. "I've been receiving a royal stipend since I was 14, and I'm 18 now so you will receive your compensation."

Chay sighed and nodded. "Fine, then. So what's the job?"

While all of this was happening, The imps were still going over the blueprints of the Hotel.

...Except for Lucius, who was still frantically trying to get Sack-and-sugar on the phone.

'Frantically' being the operative concept in this situation.

And it wasn't his phone, it was Viola's.

"Where the fuck is she?", he said as he mashed his finger into the phone's screen.

Viola shook her head. "Yeah, keep pressing the button harder. That'll get her on the line quicker."

"I'm getting a ring!", Lu announced triumphantly.

The phone rang for a few seconds before finally, mercifully, the other line picked up.

"Comrade Viola?"

The Imp nearly burst into tears of joy. "Comrade! It's so good to hear your voice."

"General Secretary? What seems to be the trouble?"

"No trouble, comrade! None it all. I just need a status report on preparations."

"We still have close to 40 hours left before the Extermination."

"I'm aware of that, comrade. But you have only recently been re-absorbed into the organization."

"We still have no voted on that yet, comrade."

"That's not important right now. Status report?"

There was a mild sigh on the other end of the line.

"Very well. We have been giving supplies to the Imps who are in need, as well as offering shelter to those who have none. Furthermore, we have been distributing weapons among the militia, and are posting sentries outside of HQ."

"And our 'guests'?"

There was a brief silence on the other end.

"They are properly secured and guarded."

"...And?"

"And no, comrade, they still refuse to talk."

The Imp snorted angrily. "Goddammit, why not?!"

"They've been indoctrinated for a some time, comrade. Probably much longer than we may have anticipated. Such indoctrination cannot be broken over night."

"It's been weeks! And one of them…"

Lucius gulped. He still felt a lump in his throat whenever the thought crossed his mind.

"...One of them was a former leader of our organization."

"Perhaps you could ask comrade Fyewackett to assist us? I've been told that he is an expert interrogator."

"Not possible at the moment. He's currently occup-"

"Charlie, we're finished!", Fyewackett shouted from behind him as he rolled the blueprints back up. "We're ready to give our report."

Lucius sighed. "Scratch that. He'll be there before the end of the afternoon."

"We will prepare everything for him. I must return to helping my comrades organize the defenses, comrade General Secretary."

"Understood. Contact me again in the morning."

Lucius hung up and whipped around. "Comrade Fyewackket!"

The younger Imp looked up from his notebook. Vaggie and Charlie were looking over his shoulder at the notes he had scribbled down.

"His penmanship is quite good.", Charlie whispered in Vaggie's ears.

"Shhh, I know. Just lemme read.", Vaggie whispered back.

"Um…", Fye answered. "You can just ask me to lend it to you, you know."

Charlie gave her ever glowing smile. "That'd be great!"

Fye handed the notebook over to Charlie, who gleefully took it and started to flip through it.

"Ooooh, look! He drew little hearts here!", she squeed

"Yeah...but who's SM supposed to be?", Vaggie asked.

The flustered younger Imp didn't get a chance to respond, or a chance to snatch it back.

Lucius marched up to Fyewackett. "I have a small mission for you. Our comrades in the PC branch require your expertise."

"They also need help building their defenses?"

Lucius shook his head. "No, your other expertise."

"...Oh. Do I have to?"

"You want to further build bridges between our branches, right?"

The younger Imp sighed. "Indeed, comrade. I suppose I do."

"Perfect, then make sure you've cleared up your schedule for the rest of this afternoon."

Fyewackett laughed a little bit under his breath as he reached into his pocket for a cigarette.

"That won't be necessary.", he said giggling.

He struck a match and held it to the cigarette's tip.

"I'll only need an hour."

CHAPTER 3 END