Chapter 2: Making Friends

Gabriel had travelled from her father's ring to her own, the ring of justice. It was the early morning and she was in her office and at her desk, awaiting her morning briefing. It was rare that she had to wait for things like this, usually things would be ready for her before she even asked for it, she wasn't really bothered though; at times like this her mind would wander, depressing thoughts would fill her head. She looked at the ring on her finger, the divine link to the ring she ruled over. Did she still deserve this ring? Her mind moved to the exterminations. Were they truly the only way to keep heaven safe as her father said?

She caught herself torturing herself again, she needed a distraction of some kind, she turned to the television in her office, something she only really used to keep up with Heaven's news. She picked up a remote and turned the TV on, she began to change through the channels, looking for something interesting, most of the channels were channels from Heaven, everything was fragilely perfect as usual. She kept flicking until something caught her eye, she had reached the Hell channels, Michael had taken great care to ensure that any reference to the exterminations was censored for the masses of Heaven so that knowledge of it didn't reach them and the illusion wouldn't be shattered, Gabriel was one of the very few people who could view Hell television uncensored.

"Welcome to the Hazbin Hotel!" Said a demon girl with an eyepatch on the TV, "the path to redemption starts here!"

Gabriel raised her head, hearing the word 'redemption' piqued her interest.

"Enjoy custom rooms, all inclusive meals, and free room service!" The demon-girl said.

Another, shorter demon girl came on screen, she only had one eye, red hair and was wearing a maid's dress, "We have the cleanest rooms!" She said enthusiastically.

The first demon-girl came back on screen, as well as various other members of staff of the Hotel.

"So come and stay at the Hazbin Hotel, where extermination ends here!"

The commercial ended and the logo for six-six-six news came on screen, the logo faded to a studio where a blonde woman was sitting next to a man in a gas-mask.

"Good morning," Katie wouldn't get to finish her line, as Gabriel turned the TV off. She needed silence to think. A smile was beginning to crawl up her face, she could barely believe it, this was it. This was the hope she was looking for. People in Hell were trying to make themselves better, a soul had never been redeemed but if one could, it would change everything, the exterminations could finally end. For the first time in months Gabriel felt pure joy, her worries began to fade away as hope once again came into her heart.

A man without a name was in a long dark room, lit by candles alone, the walls were covered by portraits of great heroes of hell, who had all been previously taught how to fight by the same person as the man, he was kneeling in the middle of it. A tall slender woman with light ash blonde hair, black horns and pale skin approached him, she was Lilith, once she was the Queen of Hell and Dark Lady of Eden.

"You have been taught well," said Lilith, "when I found you, you were powerless to fight against those who have wronged us. Now, you have the strength necessary to take what is yours, words of your deeds and your name shall echo through-ought all of Heaven and Hell. Your name will be loved. Your name will be feared."

"And what shall be my name?" The man asked.

Lilith spoke, "I name you…"

Hereticus woke up in the hotel, it took him a moment to remember where he was, he stared at the ceiling blankly for a moment, reminiscing and ruminating about the memory that his mind had forced forward, it was a reminder of who he was and why he was here in the city.

His train of thought was interrupted by the sounds of mumbling and something light hitting the floor in the corner of the room, he looked over to the source of the noise, the maid was facing away from him and was stabbing her pin into the floor, making some sort of mumble as she did so.

He took a moment to remember her name and called out to her.

"Nifty? What are you doing?" He asked.

Nifty looked up at him like a predator hearing a sudden noise, her single eye locking onto his face, "Oh!" She exclaimed "I saw a bug in your room, I have to kill it!"

She laughed maniacally as she returned to her bug-hunting. Hereticus decided it was best not to ask too many questions. He got to his feet and grabbed the clothes that he had placed on the counter, he walked into the bathroom and took a shower and got dressed, he found that there was toothpaste and a toothbrush waiting for him, which he used to clean his sharp triangular teeth. He never really liked the way his teeth looked, everyone down here had similar teeth, but what he wouldn't give to have human teeth again. He sighed, he was torturing himself once again, he couldn't change the way he looked, nobody could down here, it was best not to focus on things like this.

He came out of the bathroom to find Nifty had disappeared; she was probably off torturing some insects. He checked his watch, finding that it was eight in the morning, it'd seemed like he'd slept in. He headed out of his room and down the carpeted corridor, he moved towards an elevator with copper-coloured doors, only to find that a note was stuck onto the doors with tape, "Out of Order," said the sign in big bold capital letters, clearly drawn with a marker pen. He sighed, and went down the flight of stairs, it'd be good exercise for him anyway, it would definitely get him wide awake.

He reached the lobby and stood a few steps from the ground floor, he found Husk at the bar as well as one of the other guests, Angel Dust who was lying flat on his belly on one of the sofas, kicking his feet in the air and enjoying some maple syrup pancakes, he would stab a fork through the pancakes, pulling out a chuck of gooey food. He placed the fork in his mouth and pulled the fork out, the pancakes getting caught by his mouth. He chewed the pancakes slowly with a sultry expression on his face.

"Mm! Yummy!" Angel exclaimed loudly with a suggestive way of saying it, clearly trying to get the attention of Husk, who rolled his eyes at Angel.

Hereticus made his way down the stairs and towards the kitchen, he could smell a sweet scent from the kitchen, making his mouth water. As he made his way over to the kitchen, he felt his foot hit something, he looked down to see Nifty looking up at him with her singular beady eye, she was holding a tray with a plate of pancakes and a glass of orange juice.

"Hey! It's you!" She said, she lifted the tray a few feet towards him for him to take. He bent down and took the tray.

"Thank you, Nifty." He said, but Nifty was already zooming back to the kitchen before he could get his words out.

He sat down in one of the lounge chairs opposite Angel, who at this point had made his way over to the bar, ready for his morning vodka, an unwise choice, Hereticus thought.

He turned on the small television, its design made it look like it had come straight from the early 50s, he began eating his pancakes as he watched six-six-six news.

"Good morning, I'm Katie Killjoy!" Said a familiar yet unpleasant voice.

"And I'm Tom Trench!" Said another slightly less unpleasant voice.

"In recent technological news, Vox-Tech industries has designed new revolutionary ringtones designed to be as pleasing to the ear as possible!" said Trench.

Hereticus knew what was going on here. This was an advertisement thinly veiled as a news report. Vox had a tight grip over the television industry, he'd taken great lengths to ensure that he had full control of all media, the only medium the Vees hadn't taken control of was radio. Six-six-six news was just an advertisement for whatever Vox wanted to promote on that specific day, it was his way of making people worry about things that don't matter so that he could sell them things that didn't make them happier.

Hereticus turned off the TV, he didn't know why he turned it on, he shouldn't have expected anything good to be on anyway.

He'd finish his pancakes and get to his feet, walking towards the door, Charlie would suddenly step in front of him.

"Hey uh, Hereticus?" she asked, sounding as if she didn't want to be a bother.

"Yes, Charlie?" asked Hereticus, who was still heading towards the door.

"Activities start at nine and I was wondering if you'd be joining us!" Charlie said with energy but a hint of nervousness in her voice.

Hereticus looked at her and then spoke,

"I'm sorry, Charlie, like I said last night, I'm needed elsewhere." He said, putting on a sympathetic smile to hide his annoyance from her.

"Oh, uh, okay!" Charlie said, "please just make sure you join us for at least some of the activities."

Charlie pointed to a bulletin board on the right, Hereticus turned his head to look at it, seeing a piece of paper with times and today's activities Charlie spoke of written on it, "9PM - story-time, 12PM – Group lunch, 6PM – Board games.

This was how Charlie was hoping to get people into Heaven? With board games and group lunches? Hereticus felt like saying something but he didn't have time to start an argument.

"Sure." He said, half-heartedly.

He walked out of the door, Charlie's gaze followed him, she felt disheartened seeing him express such little care for the hotel.

While Charlie was playing show-and-tell Hereticus was keeping the city running. He made his way towards the centre of the city where his company's skyscraper resided, it was a tall immense tower made of concrete, steel and glass, it was fifty stories tall, giving the Vox-Tech tower nearby a run for its money, which stood at sixty stories. He walked into his company building, the glass revolving door had the words "Blue Energy" printed on them in electric blue lettering, with the company's logo next to it, a diagram of an atom with a lightning bolt in place of its central nucleus. Where Vox had a grip on the television industry and Carmine had gained her power by selling weapons Hereticus had got his foothold in Hell by managing a significant part of the energy industry.

He made his way into the lobby and towards an elevator, it's chrome-coloured doors reflecting his appearance back to him. He got inside the elevator; he pressed the button that said "50," and he was taken to the top floor. He walked out of the elevator and towards his office, the wooden door had a plaque on it that read "Chief Executive Officer". The office was immaculately clean, at the far end from the door was a window-wall for him to look out and see the city below, not that there was much nice to see. In the farm corners of the room were two potted plants, native to Hell, such as a grab-snatcher from Lust, a large carnivorous plant similar to a Venus-fly trap, and a lava-thorn from Wrath, a red leafless prickly bush.

Hereticus took a seat in a comfortable black leather chair at a red wooden desk, the varnish reflected light from the sky outside. He turned on his computer and logged in, answering e-mails and beginning his day of work, if he was lucky, he'd be able to finish up sooner rather than later, then his real work could begin.

Charlie was sat in a circle in the lounge with Pentious and Vaggie, Angel wasn't there, he'd been called to the studio he worked at for some last-minute re-shoots. Charlie was saddened when Angel had to leave, it was no secret what horrible things Valentino made him do, why Angel drank and got high whenever he could. She wished that Hereticus and Angel were here to tell stories of their past, rather than it just being her, Vaggie and Pentious, Husk and Alastor were there but they weren't exactly the most open to talking about their past and it was difficult to keep Nifty on the same train of thought.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door of the hotel, Charlie's head pivoted around her neck to face the door, an excited smile on her face. She rushed over to the door and opened it.

"Welcome to the Hazbin Hotel!" She said as she looked up to see who it was before speaking, only to go silent when she saw a tall, slender woman with golden hair, white skin and snow-white wings. The angel smiled sweetly at her cousin; this was the first time they had ever met.

"Greetings, Princess of Hell," said Gabriel as she politely bowed her head. "I am Gabriel, Archangel of Justice, may I come in?"

Charlie was shocked yet excited to see Gabriel before her, it was a surprise to see an angel here at the hotel, let alone an archangel; in Charlie's meeting with Adam, he had made it clear he had no intention of supporting her cause.

Charlie wordlessly welcomed Gabriel in by holding her palm flat and bending it towards the corridor behind her, her grin widening as she did so. Gabriel ducked her head to get through the door, she looked up and around to see the hotel's lobby properly, it was a quaint place, Gabriel though, very unusually designed but it certainly had character.

Gabriel now looked down to Charlie, who had put her hands to her cheek in excitement.

"Princess of Hell," began Gabriel.

"Oh please! Call me Charlie!" Responded Charlie eagerly.

"Of course," responded Gabriel with an amused smile, "Charlie, I am here because I too wish to end the exterminations, I've come to see your work in action, I wish to bring the matter of redemption to the Council of Archangels and I want to gather evidence that supports the idea."

Charlie was elated to hear this; she could barely contain her excitement hearing it, she was raising the heels of her feet up and down. Gabriel took note of Charlie's excitement, it was truly lovely to see someone so excited in the Dark Realm, it proved to her that even in the darkest places there was always hope.

Charlie calmed herself and breathed deeply before looking back to Gabriel.

"Okay! Well, we've just started one of our activities, you're perfectly welcome to join us!" Charlie said eagerly.

"I think I'll do just that," Gabriel said.

Gabriel followed Charlie into the lounge, sitting in the circle with her, Vaggie and Pentious.

"Everyone, this is Gabriel, Archangel of Justice," Charlie said as the rest of them introduced themselves.

Hereticus was in cannibal town. He'd finished everything he needed to do for the day and had decided to make progress on unifying the Pentagram. The people of cannibal town didn't take kindly to those that didn't adopt their 'aesthetic,' eating any who entered the town who didn't dress appropriately, Hereticus decided to avoid this by wearing an oxford blue trench coat with white stripes, a black bowtie, trousers and a bowler hat that matched his coat. He didn't really mind dressing like this, in fact, cannibal town was just an excuse for him to dress this way, although, he couldn't really pull off the look like Alastor did, but he did so competently enough.

He made his way to Rosie's emporium, he took a look at his watch, it was six in the afternoon and Rosie would be closing up soon, he hastily speedwalked his way toward the emporium, he made his way inside, a bell chimed as he entered through the door, the interior was decorated by pink marble tiles and red walls, there were hangers with clothes similar to the ones those in cannibal town were wearing and there were display cases all over the shop displaying various meats, beef, pork, venison, imp, sinner, the list went on and on. Hereticus felt a slight tinge of disgust seeing the meat.

"Now hold on Dear!" Said a woman in the far corner of the room, she had her back turned from the door and was finishing hanging up some clothes. She turned to the door with a smile.

"Oh, Hereticus, is that you?" Rosie asked with a friendly and inviting voice. Rosie, despite being a cannibal, was one of the more pleasant overlords in the city, she'd be a good place to start for starting an alliance. Hereticus and Rosie had known each other vaguely, chance meetings with each other had given them an impression of each other.

"Rosie, a pleasure to meet you as always." Hereticus said with a genuine smile. "Are you busy? I wish to speak with you."

"Oh, just closing up, meet me in my office and we can discuss things once I'm done." Rosie said.

"Of course," Hereticus said as he wiped his feet on the door mat, it had the words "nice to meat you" written on it. He moved towards her office in the very back of the shop, he moved inside and sat in a cushioned chair in front of Rosie's desk. The room had a nice soft pink carpet and square windows on all sides except the way in which he had come in, the walls were lined with pink wallpaper with a repeating rose pattern on it. Rosie came into the room with a tray, there was a tea-set with two teacups and some biscuits, Rosie had taken the care to make sure that Hereticus was comfortable and made sure that the biscuits were not human flavoured, she poured tea into both cups and took a seat in her own chair, passing Hereticus his own cup afterwards.

"Now, what is it you wanted to discuss?" Rosie asked as she folded her legs, put herself in a relaxed position and faced Hereticus, taking a sip of tea as she did so.

"As you know, I'm very adamant on the importance of the overlords coming together, it is more important than every that we cease our pointless bickering and focus our efforts on our shared enemy." Hereticus said, conviction in his voice.

Rosie sighed and took one of the biscuits, she dipped it into her tea and took a bite from it before speaking, "I'd love to join you, my friend, but I'm afraid what you're asking for is unrealistic, there is far too much bad blood between each of the overlords, and the Vees!" She rolled her eyes just speaking of them, "don't get me started on the Vees!"

Hereticus continued speaking, not taking a moment to sip his tea, "all it takes is a spark, once the other overlords see some of us working together, they'll begin to take the prospect of a united pentagram more seriously, seeing a new power on the rise, the smaller overlords will quickly fall in line and join us."

"Like I said, bad blood," replied Rosie, "take me for example, me and my neighbours can't get a wink of sleep because of that Missi Zilla, just listen." She said, putting a finger to her lips.

Hereticus went quiet, he could hear the thumping of muffled music a few streets down in Klub Kaiju.

"She keeps blaring that funky music of hers all night long, keeps us all up, I'd be willing to unite with you but not with her." Rosie continued.

"If I could get Missi to turn the music down, would you be open to the idea of joining with her?" Hereticus asked

Rosie shrugged, "Sure," she said "but good luck with that, I don't think the girl would be open to the idea."

"Thank you, Rosie," Hereticus said, appreciative of her openness to the idea. He quickly finished his tea and got to his feet, "thanks for the tea," he said as he left.

"Any time dear!" Rosie shouted behind him.

Hereticus walked out of Rosie's emporium and down the street towards Klub Kaiju, the Pride Ring's sun was beginning to set, he crossed the border between Cannibal Town and Missi's territory, the sounds of muffled techno music getting louder as he approached. After walking through a few streets, he rounded a corner to see a large concrete building with brutalist architecture, there was evidence that it was once a warehouse that Missi had turned into her own personal nightclub. The exterior of the building was covered in pieces of graffiti Missi had allowed to stay and there were large, green neon capital letters on the outside reading "Klub Kaiju." Missi had turned what was once a boring, bland and hard to look at warehouse into the liveliest and most vibrant nightclub in pentagram city.

He walked up to the front entrance, where a hellhound bouncer stood, a tall and broad man with the face of a rottweiler, he towered over Hereticus, although he looked half asleep, his eyes were closing and opening and it looked like he was struggling to stand. The bouncer looked Hereticus up and down and nodded sleepily, letting him in.

Hereticus made his way inside, hearing the music clearly now, red and green strobe lights jumped up and down the walls, there was a sea of people ahead of Hereticus, he saw one of Pentious' egg-boys being carried in a wave by them.

"Hardcore!" The egg-boy shouted, "Hardcore! Hardcore-to-the-mega!"

The egg-boy was carried along by the crowd, out of Hereticus' view. He made his way through the crowd, shuffling past people in order to get to the main dancefloor. After struggling to get through the crowd, he saw the dancefloor open up suddenly as Missi stood under the disco ball, dancing with a wide grin on her face. She stomped her right foot to the beat of the music, causing the ground to shake and some of the people dancing to be knocked over, they didn't really seem to mind though, it just added to the vibe, every time they'd be knocked to the floor, they'd let out amused laughs.

Hereticus approached Missi and stopped a safe distance away from her in order to avoid being crushed.

"Missi!" He shouted, the music drowning out his voice.

"Missi!" He repeated, louder, this time Missi looked down to him. She shouted something, Hereticus couldn't hear what she was saying.

"What?" Hereticus shouted over the music.

He could see Missi laugh, after which, she motioned her head in a way that said 'follow me.'

Missi led Hereticus through a large door with a neon sign that read "VIP room," the room had sofas in the centre as well as a glass table. Along the walls was a mini-fridge, mini for Missi, that is, in reality, it was about a foot taller than Hereticus. Missi reached inside the fridge and pulled out two bottles of beelzejuice, handing one to Hereticus.

"Hey, Harry, how you doing?" She asked with her grin still on.

"I'm sorry, Harry?" Hereticus asked with a confused look on his face.

"Yeah, Harry, short for… never mind," she said shaking her head dismissively.

"I'm good, you?" He asked Missi as he uncapped the bottle and took a small swig from the bottle.

"Yeah, yeah, doing great." She said, tearing the bottle cap off. "Look, let's cut to the chase, alright? I know why you're here."

"You do?" Hereticus asked.

"Yeah, and I'm in." She said with the smile on her face. Hereticus blinked, he had a confused look on his face, which Missi caught on to, "you know, uniting the Pentagram and all that, I'm in, I really digged what you were saying in the meeting, been fighting each other for too long, I don't really have any beef with anyone anyway so I don't see I don't see why we shouldn't."

"That's great, brilliant in fact!" Hereticus said "I just got talking with Rosie and- "

"Oh. Right. Her," Interrupted Missi as if only just remembering Rosie's existence, "well that explains your odd choice of clothes, but yeah, no, can't work with her."

"Why not?" Hereticus asked.

"Because her neighbours keep eating my ravers, I'm not teaming up with her." Missi answered.

"Look, why don't we just go and talk to her, figure something out, she's not all too happy about the noise either." Hereticus said.

"The noise?" Missi asked, "Oh yeah, been meaning to get these walls soundproofed, yeah I'll do that if she stops eating my customers."

"Alright, let's go talk to Rosie and ask her to stop eating people from your club." Hereticus said.

"Sounds good to me," Missi said as she quickly finished her bottle and walked out of the VIP room and towards the exit of the club, Hereticus followed behind her, putting his half-drunk bottle of the table.

They proceeded out of the club; Missi gave the bouncer a glance and told him she'd be back soon.

"Sure, thing-" he'd say, before being interrupted by a cough.

"You, okay Dell?" Missi asked her bouncer.

"Yeah, yeah, just got the sniffles." Del said sleepily.

They made their way through the streets and towards Cannibal Town, they stopped just outside of Rosie's Emporium, Missi was too big to go inside the building, so Hereticus brought Rosie outside.

Rosie looked at Missi with a polite smile, in truth she wasn't all too happy to see her there, Missi had made a lot of noise just walking there.

"Well, hello, Missi," said Rosie, trying to keep up her polite façade.

"Sup, Rose." Said Missi.

"It's Rosie."

"Okay, Rosie, jeez." Missi said.

"Now," Hereticus said as he clasped his hands together, "let's try and get this sorted, shall we?"

"Yeah," said Missi, almost immediately afterwards, "look, Rosie, you've got to stop eating people from my club, alright?"

Rosie found Missi to be quite rude and condescending.

"Well, you need to stop them from coming into this town, waking everybody up with their noise and defacing our homes, oh, and you need to turn down that music."

"Missi says she's going to soundproof the walls, so that's taken care of," Said Hereticus, "as for the ravers, why not put a fence up?"

"Oh, and if they do get into your town," Missi said, interrupting once more, "for the love of Satan, just kick 'em out, alright?"

Rosie had a flustered expression; she took a deep breathe to calm herself and then spoke.

"Alright, fine, I'll have a fence put up, as for kicking them out, it's not exactly my fault if they come in once the fence is up."

Missi paused for a moment as she thought.

"Alright, fair enough, sounds good enough to me." She spoke.

"So, it's settled?" Asked Hereticus.

"Yeah." Said Missi.

"Settled." Replied Rosie.

Missi clasped her claws together.

"Alright, see you two around, look forward to working with ya." Said Missi, as she walked back to her club, waving goodbye.

"See you around Rosie, you too Harry!"

"That's not my-" began Hereticus, before deciding to leave it.

"Well…" Said Hereticus "I think that went well enough."

Rosie had a slight frown of her face, now that Missi was gone, she had dropped her act.

"It could've gone better," she said, "but, I do appreciate your help Hereticus, thank you."

"No problem, I'll be back over the next few days to make sure everything goes alright." Said Hereticus.

"Good, I'd like a mediator like you close by for now, if I'm being honest, I don't entirely trust Missi to keep her word."

"She will, she's a good person, she just likes loud music." Hereticus said

Rosie would laugh.

"Well, I suppose you're right," she said, now putting on a genuine smile.

Hereticus said goodbye to Rosie and now walked back towards the hotel, going down the same way Missi went, he'd suddenly spot her unmistakable figure illuminated by the street lights, she was bent down and holding someone, another person next to her.

Hereticus approached the trio, finding that Missi was holding the bouncer from earlier, who's eyes seemed to be fading of colour and was unresponsive to his surroundings, staring blankly and vacantly ahead, not even acknowledging Missi.

"Come on, Del!" She said with a commanding voice as she snapped her fingers.

Hereticus looked to the third person, a slim young man who had a greyish green skin tone and sea green slicked back hair and his teeth were the colour of emeralds. Overall, he looked very well kept.

"What's wrong with him?" The young man asked Missi.

"He's…" Missi tried say, unable to get the words out, she was only now realising what was wrong with Del.

"He's fading." Said Hereticus with a grim tone in his voice.

"Fading?" The young man asked as if he'd never heard the word before.

"He's dying." Hereticus said, simplifying the process.

The young man looked at the hellhound with a sorrowful expression on his face, he briefly glanced at Hereticus and Missi and then back to the hellhound.

"What can we do?" He asked.

"There's nothing we can do," said Hereticus as if it was a matter of fact.

The young man was silent for a moment before speaking.

"I could make him remember a good memory as he passes on, do you think he'd like that?" He asked Missi, who was silent and only nodded.

The young man bent down and put his hand near the hellhound's forehead, a dim green light appeared in the space between them, the hellhound smiled briefly, before the light from his eyes fully faded.

Missi picked up Del's body, holding him in her arms.

"Damn shame…" She said, "he was a good guy, I'll have to be the one to tell his family."

Missi got to her feet and left without another word, carrying Del with her. They watched Missi leave and then the young man spoke.

"What was that? You called it fading," He asked.

"Hellborne demons are cut off from the tree of knowledge because of Adam's grip over Eden, as long as that continues every Hellborne demon will eventually fade, their souls will leave their body." Hereticus explained before asking, "How don't you know this?"

"I'm not exactly familiar with the problems that lower classes suffer from. I suppose you could say I've been a bit…" The young man said before pausing as he tried to find the right word, "Sheltered."

"What's your name?" Hereticus asked him.

"Seviathan von Eldritch" He answered.

Hereticus was surprised to hear this, he'd heard of the von Eldritch family, they were a noble family who ruled over the city of Innsmouth in the Envy ring.

"What's a von Eldritch doing in Pentagram City?" Hereticus asked.

"My father told me that I needed to 'find myself in the world,' whatever that means, so I've ended up here."

"I see, well, welcome to Pentagram City." He said, trying to sound positive, but the fading of the hellhound was still on his mind and was making it difficult to seem welcoming.

"Thanks," Seviathan said, before a look appeared on his face as if he just remembered something, "Hey, do you know a place where I could stay?"

"Actually, I'm headed to a hotel right now, if you're nice enough to the owner she'll probably let you stay for the night." Hereticus said as he began walking towards the Hotel.

"Excellent!" Said Seviathan as he followed along.

The pair made their way to the hotel and made their way inside, Hereticus' attention was drawn to the lounge where he heard voices, as he looked over, he saw a familiar face, although one he wasn't too happy to see.

Hereticus and Gabriel stared at each other for a moment, Hereticus felt anger run through him, before him was the woman who had taken his arm, although he was able to keep his stoic demeanour intact, with one glance they agreed to not divulge their previous encounter with the others.

His attention was suddenly drawn to Charlie who was standing just in front of him, she was already greeting Seviathan.

"Seviathan! It's been years, how have you been?" Charlie asked as if greeting an old friend.

"Good. Good!" Seviathan said with a hint of nervousness in his voice. "Hey Charlie, could I ask for a favour?"

"Sure, anything for an old friend." She spoke.

Hereticus saw a brief hurt look in Seviathan's eye when he heard the word 'friend.'

"I'm looking for a place to stay in the city and wondered if I could stay the night, at least until I find a new place to settle." Seviathan said.

"Sure thing!" Charlie said as she took a key from her pocket and handed it to him, "this is the key to the room right next to Hereticus'" She turned to Hereticus and asked, "Would you mind showing him his room?"

"Sure." Said Hereticus, "I need to go to bed anyway."

Charlie's smile briefly faltered once she heard that Hereticus wasn't staying up, she had hoped he would stay up to meet Gabriel.

"Oh, alright, see you in the morning!" She said, trying to sound chipper.

Hereticus led Seviathan up to his room, his mind was still focused on Gabriel, of all the places she could be she had to come to where he slept, he didn't like it one bit. He decided to take his mind off the ordeal by talking to Seviathan.

"You know Charlie?" He asked.

"Yeah…" He said as if reminiscing about his past, "we used to date."

Hereticus raised an eyebrow in surprise, curious about the whole thing.

"Why'd you break up?" He asked.

"We just grew apart, I suppose." Seviathan said as if wishing they could've remained together.

"She's got herself a girlfriend now, so don't get any ideas." Hereticus warned.

"I won't! I won't!" Seviathan said defensively.

They reached their rooms where the split with a brief, "goodnight," Hereticus entered his room and prepared for bed, anger still coursing through him at the thought of Gabriel, he slept with one eye open that night.