Chapter 4: Are You Sorry?

Hereticus got ready for the day and made his way to the lounge, once he was there, he took a look around, he was the only one other than Husk who was awake, he made his way to the bar taking a seat on one of the stools.

"What'll it be?" Husk asked.

"Do you have any tea?" Hereticus asked Husk, who looked at him with a confused expression, he wondered if he'd hear Hereticus right, he began pouring him a drink.

"Bit odd to be asking for tea at a bar," said Husk.

"I don't drink," Replied Hereticus.

Husk passed Hereticus a mug filled with tea, he paid for his drink and began drinking from it, there was a moment of silence between the two before Hereticus spoke.

"So, why are you working in this hotel?" He asked.

"Alastor." Husk said as if it was a matter of fact, Hereticus was silent for a moment, hearing Alastor's name brought him back to the encounter he had just had with him, when he got the opportunity to, he'd confront Alastor on it, but doing so in the Hotel would be a poor decision, he could expose his secrets himself.

"What do you mean?" Hereticus asked Husk, curious as to what he meant.

"Alastor owns my soul and made me come here, it's as simple as that." Husk said in a cold, quick fashion.

"Oh…" Hereticus said, "sorry to hear that."

"Why does it bother you so much?" Husk asked, "you're an overlord too, surely you own at least a few souls too."

"Actually, I don't," responded Hereticus, "I've never really liked making deals like that, they're the weak man's shortcut to acquire power, I got mine through time, effort and training, the people I rule over swear fealty to me, nothing more, they're free to live their lives how they please."

Husk gave Hereticus a look of discernment, as if he was trying to figure out what he had just been told was true, eventually he just shrugged his shoulders.

"Alright, weird way of being an overlord, but if that's how you choose to do things that's your way I suppose," Husk said as he picked up a glass from under the counter and began cleaning it, "I imagine it's difficult keeping people in line like that."

"It is sometimes, but most of the time people are less likely to turn against you," Hereticus said, "When you own a person's soul, they'll look for every opportunity to get away from you, but when you inspire genuine loyalty in someone, they'll follow you into the toughest of battles."

"Pretty unique way of lookin' at things," Husk said, giving him a side-eye glance and a slight smile.

Suddenly Angel sat in the stool next to Hereticus, he looked absolutely exhausted despite just waking up.

"Give me the usual." He said as he wiped his hand over his face, Husk poured angel a glass of whiskey, though with a reluctant expression on his face.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Hereticus asked.

"Great!" Angel let out in a sarcastic fashion, "first Husk and now you're here to tell me how to spend my mornings, why don't you just leave me in peace?"

Angel picked up his glass and walked over to the lounge, he planted himself on a sofa and started drinking his whiskey.

"What's up with him?" Hereticus asked Husk.

"He gets antsy about this sort of stuff, usually he's always puttin' on that sultry act of his, but in the mornin', he's just pissed, in more ways than one."

"Why's that?" Hereticus asked.

"Let's just say work's tough for 'im," Husk replied as Hereticus finished his tea.

Suddenly, Nifty jumped up over the counter, holding a tray in her hands.

"Breakfast!" She shouted excitedly as she dropped the tray onto the counter in front of Hereticus, there was a bowl of Fizzar-O-lis and milk on the tray, as well as a spoon.

"See you around, Husk," Hereticus said as he picked up the tray and walked over to the lounge, Husk just nodded to him as a farewell.

Hereticus took on a sofa in the lounge, where Angel was sitting in a relaxed position, drinking. Hereticus ate his bowl of cereal as Angel drank.

"So, what's your deal then?" Angel asked, Hereticus was silent for a moment as he processed Angel's question, he just gave Angel a confused look, "all you do is wake up, eat your breakfast, leave, come back and then go to your room, every single day for weeks on end. What's the deal big guy?"

"I guess I'm just busy most of the time." Hereticus said as he shrugged.

"Charlie says you're spending the day here, she wants us to get to know each other, she reckons some ice breaker questions will really get us to like each other," he said, laughing to himself.

"Worth a shot I suppose," Hereticus said.

"You really think that's gonna work?" Angel asked.

In truth, Hereticus didn't think it'd help, it'd only make things more awkward, but it was worth it if it would make Charlie happy.

"Can you describe yourself in three words?" Hereticus asked, ignoring Angel's question.

"Horny pornstar spider, and you?" Angel said as he smirked.

"Supreme inventor, admiral and artificer!" Said a third snaky voice as Pentious rounded the corner with energy in his movements and voice.

"That's four words, dummy" said Angel, trying to be clever, Pentious' face reddened as Angel pointed this out.

"Ah! Yes! Well! It would be difficult to limit my abilities to just three words, you see!" Pentious replied.

As Hereticus finished his breakfast, there was a sudden knock on the door, Charlie raced from the kitchen to the door, opening it and letting Gabriel in, who'd been visiting the Hotel every other day or so since Hereticus had arrived, it was never pleasant to see her, Hereticus thought, he wasn't angry at her for taking his arm, but she had things to be sorry to all of Hell for.

"Wonder what's on TV," said Angel as he turned on the TV, disinterested in Gabriel's arrival, they heard the six-six-six news musical jingle as a report came on screen.

"Good morning sinners, I'm Katie Killjoy,"

"And I'm Tom Trench!"

"This morning's top story is the recent reports from witnesses of the deaths of multiple exorcists," said Tom.

"That's right folks," Said Katie, "recently, the bodies of these exorcists were found stripped of their armour, and witnesses report that a large demon attacked them last extermination, though were unable to give an exact description, it's a complete guessing game who the mysterious angel-slayer is!"

"Think tanks are discussing the possible candidates" Said Tom, "they include powerful overlords such as Alastor the Radio Demon, Vox and Carmilla Carmine."

"Tune in for more updates later" Katie said, "but for now-"

Hereticus and Gabriel zoned out from watching the television, they both reflected on the moment that they had fought, when Hereticus was in his true form.

Gabriel had flown her way down to the centre of the pentagram, where the life signatures of several exorcists had flatlined, she was in the middle of a millennia old colosseum, strown about the arena floor were the bodies of the exorcists, their throats gashed open, spears impaling their chests, some of them were decapitated. In the middle of the colosseum was a demon facing away from Gabriel, it exceeded her in height, it's held in its left arm one of the great-swords of the exorcists, though for a being of its size it was more comparable to a long sword, it was impaling the body of the exorcist it had once belonged to. The demon turned to face her, its fiery blue eyes locked with hers, they were filled with a look of rage and hatred.

It gripped the sword with both hands, and used it as a lever to throw the body at Gabriel, who quickly held her right arm towards the sky, the ring on her finger glowed as a twinblade was summoned from it and appeared in her right hand, she cut the body in half as it reached her, the two halves flying to the side and past her, but this had only been a distraction, for Gabriel saw that the demon was now charging towards her, thrusting it's sword at her as it did so. Gabriel's eyes widened as she was caught off guard, she flapped her wings and she flew upwards to avoid the attack. The demon still had its eyes locked on her and released its right arm from the sword, it's eyes and the vine-like scar on its body glowed an electric blue as a yellow lightning bolt appeared in its free hand, which it used to throw at Gabriel, who was caught off guard by the attack and was sent falling to the ground as she was hit by the attack.

She hit the floor and saw a blade being swung downwards at her like a cleaver falling to chop meat, she quickly rolled to the left and got to a crouching position, where she brought up her twinblade to defend herself, the demon's sword clashed with hers, their swords were locked for a moment before Gabriel saw an opportunity.

She swept her legs underneath the demon's, causing it to fall to the floor. Gabriel got to her feet quickly, but before she could swing, she saw that the demon had gotten to its feet too, it took a step backwards to get away from her, now the roles were swapped, she was on the offensive. Gabriel unleashed a flurry of swings from her twinblade, but the demon skilfully deflected each attack. It suddenly moved itself to Gabriel's side where it performed a wide swipe, Gabriel could barely keep up with the surprising speed of the attack, she ducked under the swipe, the top of her hair was blown to the right be the gust generated by the swipe.

Gabriel got to a standing position and prepared herself for the next attack, the demon reeled its sword over its shoulder and performed a diagonal thrust downwards, she brought her twinblade up to block the attack, again, their swords were locked, but this time she was ready.

Gabriel focused all her force into the point of contact and pushed the demon backwards who was sent back, it released the blade and dropped it to the floor. She took the opportunity to end the fight quickly, she swung her blade towards the Demon, towards the point between its torso and its right shoulder.

Hereticus felt an immense pain as a moment of clarity came to him, he had been so drunk with bloodlust and hatred that his mind had been solely focused on the battle, he screamed in agony as blood gushed from where his arm had been. The angel approached him as she prepared to put him out of his misery, but he wouldn't fall that easily. Did she think that just because he'd lost an arm this fight was over? In that moment, something came to him, he needed a weapon and he needed it now. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, he emptied his mind and focused the power of his soul to his surroundings, sparks appeared on the floor and a spiral of wind formed around him, the angel hesitated as she noticed the sudden changes in her surroundings, she took a step back, seeing that the fight was not yet over.

The silver armour of the corpses around them began to melt as they moved in a spiral towards Hereticus, the storm picked up in intensity and the silver was picked up into the air, accelerating as it got to the eye of the storm. The liquid solidified as the shape of a right arm was formed, a mighty weapon that would serve him well.

The storm cleared and Hereticus got to his feet, he felt his new arm, he felt the cool air pass over it, it was as good as new, as if he'd never lost it.

He looked towards the angel, their eyes locking, his hate filled look was replaced with an expression of determination. He would not die here.

The angel looked at him with a bewildered expression, nonetheless, she had to destroy him. She got into a fighting stance with her twinblade in front of her, ready to defend herself if necessary. Hereticus raised his fists and positioned his feet properly. There was a moment of calmness as the two stared at each other.

Suddenly, they both charged at each other, Gabriel thrusted her sword forwards but felt herself being pulled towards the demon, who had grabbed the blade with his new arm, with his free hand he threw an uppercut into her jaw, sending her back a few feet. Hereticus did not follow up the attack, unlike before, he was fighting to survive, not to kill, he instead waited for Gabriel's attack.

Gabriel reeled her sword back as she prepared for a swing, but suddenly stopped when she heard the distant ringing of a bell. The extermination was over, and so was this battle.

Gabriel used her wings to fly into the air, a gold-ringed portal opened up above her and Hereticus got a brief glimpse of Heaven before the portal closed the moment Gabriel passed through it.

"Hey!" Angel said as he clicked his fingers in front of Hereticus' face, "what's up with you? You've been staring into space for nearly a minute now."

"Nothing." Hereticus said as his mind refocused on the present, in the time that he'd been ruminating nearly everyone in the hotel was in the lounge, Angel, Pentious and his egg boys, Husk, Nifty, Charlie, Vaggie, Gabriel, Alastor and Seviathan were all there.

"Is everybody ready for the sorry circle?" Charlie asked with excitement in her voice

"Sorry circle?" Angel asked with a confused tone in his voice.

"Everybody needs to take a seat and tell everyone else about one bad thing they've done in that they're sorry about, it doesn't necessarily have to be about something you did to another person in the circle." Charlie said with energy in her voice.

"Brilliant!" Gabriel said with approval in her voice.

"Brilliant." Husk said with a sarcastic tone.

They all sat on the sofas in the lounge in a more or less 'circle' shape, they all got comfortable and sat in awkward silence for a moment, each person looking around the circle to everyone else.

"Okay, who wants to go first?" Charlie asked, the room fell silent as nobody volunteered. "Alright, I'll go first," Charlie said, she cleared her throat and continued speaking, "I'm sorry that the hotel could be in a… better state, what with the elevator not working, and one of the ovens being broken and with some of the wallpaper falling off," Charlie continued listing various problems with the hotel, none of which were actually her own fault but she perceived as being her fault.

"Okay, Charlie, that's enough," Vaggie interrupted Charlie as she put a hand on Charlie's knee and smiled patiently at her.

"Right, thanks Vaggie." Charlie responded with a grateful smile.

It was Vaggie's turn to apologise, she was silent for a moment as she thought through her words for a bit, apologising wasn't easy for her, eventually she reluctantly began speaking.

"I'm sorry that I can be a bit rude to you guys from time to time," she said, "even if it is justified," she said under her breathe.

"That's barely an apology." Angel said rudely.

"Well let's see you do better." Vaggie snapped back.

"Alright, I'm so sorry for not being the son my dad wanted." Angel said with sarcasm in his voice. There was a moment of silence as everyone wasn't really sure how to respond, fortunately, the silence was broken by Nifty.

"I'm sorry that I still haven't caught all the bugs in the hotel yet!" she said with her usual energy, her eye then darted to the corner of the room and her pupil constricted as she saw something in the corner of the room, "there's one now!" she shouted as she pointed to an insect in the corner, in the blink of an eye she was already chasing after it, laughing maniacally as she scurried about the room.

"I'm sorry that I don't show enough appreciation for my egg boys," said Pentious.

"Gee! Thanks boss!" Egg boy number one said.

"Yeah! That's really nice of you, boss!" Said number two.

"Real nice!" Number three repeated.

"I'm sorry that I threatened to turn your little henchmen into omelettes" Alastor said with an uncaring voice.

The group looked at Husk, he was sitting next to Alastor and it was his turn, Husk groaned in frustration before speaking.

"Sorry if I'm a little hard on you guys." He said quickly, he didn't want to add anything else.

"I'm sorry that my sister-" Seviathan blurted out, before stopping himself, "never mind, forget I said anything," he said, trying to quickly change the subject.

"What about Helsa?" Charlie asked with concern in her voice.

"Nothing!" Seviathan nearly shouted, anger in his voice, there was a moment of silence as Charlie was shocked backwards by Seviathan's outburst.

"Sorry…" He said, "I didn't mean to shout at you." Seviathan said with regret in his voice.

"It's alright." said Charlie with a forgiving tone.

Everyone looked to Hereticus, they sat in silence as if waiting for him to say something.

"What?" He asked with a confused look on his face.

"It's your turn." Said Vaggie.

Hereticus sat silently thinking, he had regrets he wanted to apologise for but he didn't want to share them with the people in the room, his mind wandered to his old friends, he wished he could've saved them and he was sorry that he wasn't strong enough to help them then.

"I'm good, thanks." Hereticus said.

"But-" Charlie began to say.

"I said I'm good, I don't really have much to be sorry for."

"That's a complete lie," said Husk, "we're all down here for a reason."

Hereticus sighed, he tried to move his mind away from his past.

"I'm sorry for not spending a lot of time in the hotel." Hereticus said, he was only really half-sorry, after all, he had good reasons to be absent.

"That's good," said Charlie with a smile on her face.

It was now Gabriel's turn to apologise for something, she sat there silently for a moment, trying to think of something she was sorry for.

"Oh dear," She said with an awkward smile on her face, "my mind's gone completely blank, I can't think of anything to apologise for!"

Hereticus' blood boiled, frustration and anger began to take hold of him.

"I'll give you a reminder," He blurted out as his emotion took charge, everyone in the room went deathly quiet, nobody dared so much as move in fear of incurring Hereticus' wrath, "how about you apologise for taking Eden and Limbo from us, if it wasn't for you people wouldn't be fading away, I saw a man a few weeks back die before my very eyes as his soul left his body."

There was a moment of silence as Hereticus' anger began to fade, he realised he'd said a little more than he should have, he'd made his feelings apparent to everyone, there was no use in trying to hide them much longer, he might as well get all his thoughts out.

"I don't even know why you let her in here," he said, turning to Charlie, "she's probably here to sabotage this whole thing, I don't know why you've put trust in her."

"Hey! That's not true," Charlie said, "you've got no reason to think Gabriel's a bad person." Charlie said with a less than cheerful voice.

"Bullshit!" Hereticus said with an angered tone, "she's a murderer! A warmonger! She'd killed millions and she's part of the tyrannical council that keeps control over us!"

Gabriel held back tears, ultimately, what Hereticus was saying was true, yes, she had her reasons, but she had helped in the invasion of the rings of Eden and Limbo, she held her own share of the responsibility for the plight of Hell. She forced the tears back and forced herself to calm down.

"It wasn't me who started those wars," Gabriel said defensively, "The war for Eden was started by Hell when they tried to invade Heaven."

"And what about the Thousand Year War of Limbo?" Hereticus asked, "If I remember my history correctly, we found spies of yours, you were preparing to invade us."

"They were there for a good reason," answered Gabriel.

"And what would that be?" Hereticus asked, Gabriel was silent for a moment.

"I can't tell you that," she answered hesitantly.

"There we go, you can't tell us because Heaven isn't the noble bastion of virtue it once was, admit it, you're just as eager to subjugate and rule as anyone down here, you should be down here with us, you're all just a bunch of killers and murderers."

"That's enough!" Vaggie, the whole room was silent and Hereticus and Gabriel ceased their argument. After a brief moment of silence Gabriel sighed and spoke with a calmer tone.

"I'm sorry for what I've done," she said, "I'm here because I want to make things better and to make up for how bad things have gotten."

"I'm unconvinced," replied Hereticus with a calm tone, "I hope you back your words up with action."

"Aren't you going to apologise too?" Charlie asked.

"No. I meant every word I said." Answered Hereticus with an unwavering voice. The atmosphere of the room felt even thicker than before, there was complete silence until Angel finally broke the silence.

"So, we done here?" He asked, "I've got a video shoot in half an hour."

"Yes, Angel, that's everyone." Charlie answered, "that's all for now."

"Great!" Angel exclaimed as he got to his feet, "I'll be off then."

Angel walked away from the lobby and out of the hotel door in a confident stride, however, Hereticus picked up a fearful look in Angel's eye, for whatever reason he was only pretending to want to go to the studio. Slowly but surely everyone else silently left the lobby, until Hereticus, Charlie, Vaggie and Gabriel were the only to remain.

Hereticus shot Gabriel a look of disgust before he got to his feet and walked towards the front door, his hand was on the doorknob when he heard someone get to their feet and walk towards him.

"I'm sorry about-" said Gabriel from behind him, Hereticus turned to face her and looked her in the eyes. Gabriel hesitated to speak before finally getting her words out, "I'm sorry about the arm." She said with a sincere voice.

"Think nothing of it." Hereticus said out of pleasantry rather than actual forgiveness as he turned the doorknob and walked out of the hotel.