Synopsis: Vaggie meets Lucifer, she would rather not.
Vaggie's sweat ran cold. Charlie and she were in a limousine on their way to have dinner with Charlie's parents at her palace at Charlie's request, located in one of the most exclusive areas of Pentagram City.
Vaggie just couldn't keep up with herself. Her mind jumped crazy to every possible scenario in which things went wrong. Was she well dressed? Had she washed herself properly? Could she do it herself without doing anything stupid that would put her or Charlie to shame?
"Hey, easy there," Charlie said. Even though her girlfriend hadn't said a word since they'd been on their way. "My parents will love you, just wait and you'll see." Vaggie continued without answering, but it was not necessary, having spent years with a person like Vaggie, had helped Charlie master the art of interpreting silence, being more attentive to visual cues and body language.
But in this case, the most prominent clue to Vaggie's emotional state was her tense body, and how Vaggie had a habit of dissociating under large amounts of stress.
"Even if they don't like you, it won't change my opinion of you, or how I see you." Charlie said, in the softest tone she could find, as she placed her hand on Vaggie's chest, and she could feel her alarming throbbing.
"Hell, it's worse than I imagined." She thought she, she looked at her hand for a moment, and back at Vaggie's face, but her touch had no effect.
From inside they could hear how heavy gates were opened, announcing that they were about to arrive.
"I just want you to know that I will be with you all the time."
Charlie actually abandoned Vaggie as soon as they entered the mansion.
Neither of them expected to meet Lilith, waiting for them directly at the door of the house, to personally guide them through the mansion. And since they came in, Charlie's mother did nothing but hoard her daughter every second.
"Oh, I can't remember when was the last time we got together as a family!" Lilith said as they walked through the mansion, while she reminisced about old anecdotes of her and occasionally squeezing her cheeks. Vaggie just followed beside her without muttering a word like a ghost.
"I must say, you look radiant like the explosions at the end of the purge."
"Mother!" She cried out in a whisper, with a slight blush on her face, which luckily for her was not easily noticeable on her red cheeks.
"Please, daughter, it's just the three of us."
"Or rather the four of us, my dear." Lucifer corrected, making an appearance. As soon as he entered the room, the air grew heavier for Vaggie, as if she was struggling to breathe. The sight of him was slightly dizzy in the presence of the king of hell. "We have a guest after all."
"And I can't wait to meet her." Lilith complemented. "But all in her due time. Now that I remember, there is a little something that I have wanted to give you for a while. Why do not you come with me?" Said to Charlie
"B-but mother, what about them?" Charlie questioned, turning to see Vaggie and Lucifer.
Charlie saw how the two looked at each other with disguised intensity, and although she didn't want to admit it, she knew they weren't analyzing each other out of curiosity.
"Let them get ahead of us to the dining room. So your father can get to know Vagatha. We will be back with them in just a moment. "
Charlie gulped. They weren't going to be back with them for a while. And as her mother led her away from the two of them, Vaggie looked at Charlie for the first time since they entered. Even if she went for a second, she could appreciate the look of fear that she carried with her.
The two looked at each other, yelling with their eyes "Do something!" But there was nothing they could do once the doors closed where Charlie and Lilith had gone.
"Oh my, I don't know about you, but I'm starving." Lucifer broke the silence. "Let us proceed, my servants have finished setting the table." Lucifer said turning around the door he came, and despite his calm, collected tone, Vaggie knew very well that he wasn't suggesting, he was ordering.
The mansion reminded her to some extent of Charlie's hotel, which she made sense out of it, Charlie's parents were the true owners of the hotel she was only borrowing. But despite her familiar appearance, she also generated repudiation and rejection. Such an unknown and new environment inflicted an ache on her, a stabbing ache in some part of her body that she was never able to catch on where it was.
They continued their walk without a word until they came to a huge dining room that opened overhead. A huge ebony wood table with carvings of the Magne family on it, giant chandeliers hanging directly above them, a fireplace on the wall, with dissected heads of various creatures of the underworld potted in a frame on one wall, on the other, paintings of various demons that Vaggie had a dislike to acknowledge.
Lucifer pulled Vaggie a chair at one end of the table, as a sign of where he wanted her to sit, without much of a choice. She just obeyed. Lucifer went and sat at the other end, then snapped his fingers and immediately 6 Imps servants rushed in and served them plates, wine and silverware in seconds, as fast as they came, the Imps left.
He stared at her without saying anything, while he sniffed and slowly stirred his glass of wine. Instead of speaking to her, he just hummed a song, somehow familiar, but Vaggie couldn't bother herself to remember where it was from. Vaggie started tapping her fingertips against the table as she tried to get his attention.
As it turned out to be of no use, her patience ran out, the first thing Vaggie did was slap the table.
"Are you going to tell me what you want!?"
"If you insist, does she know?"
"Knows what?"
"Good, she doesn't know. Maybe that's for the best. Now tell me who sent you? " He asked leaning with his elbows on the table and his hands clasped. "Was it Uriel? Miguel? Rafael? That one was always such hopeful fool. Uhm, but he's also a loyalist. The only one daring to ignore the orders of the man above is Gabriel. "
Vaggie stayed cool at Lucifer's guesswork, at the time, she made sure no one noticed her absence until it was too late.
"No. No name makes you shudder. Nobody helped you." She said she as her eyes slowly widened as wide as they could. Ideas flew through her mind and her eyes began to bloodshot at the possibilities. Afraid of where she might be leading this, she Vaggie summoned her spear into her hand from under the table. "Deserter."
"Don't you dare call me that!" Vaggie exclaimed pointing her spear at Lucifer. "I know what you're up to, and I won't let you take advantage of Charlie's intentions for your wayward plans!
Lucifer only gave a small laugh. "And what plans to do? Kill me with your stick? " A flash of red flashed through Lucifer's eyes and Vaggie's spear flew out of her hands and was sucked away in a black vortex. "Even if you did, what would Charlotte think? Kill poor dear old pops, oh, she'd cry for days on end, while she drops one of her little numbers. Not counting the power vacuum my death would leave behind, the hordes of hungry crows that, well, you can imagine…" he said with a big mocking smile, damn, what she needed, a second Alastor.
"Just stay away, and I'll do the same. If you want to use Charlie, you'll have to get me out of the way first. "
"I have some ideas right now."
Suddenly, the large dining room table became so small that Vaggie and Lucifer were facing each other. They weren't in the dining room, and as much as Vaggie looked around her, she couldn't find any clue to her current location, everything was covered in a black aura.
With great force Lucifer grabbed Vaggie by the neck and pulled her even closer to him.
"From one angel to another." Lucifer began. "Let me tell you, we don't always rise."
"Who said I want to go to heaven? I will stay with Charlie, even after all sinners have gone to heaven. I believe in what she does, and as long as I am here, I will not let her fool her in any way."
"Fool her? Me? If I already did my work even before you showed up, who do you think planted the idea of helping these lost souls in her little head? The best deception is one that is not seen. "
Vaggie couldn't help swallowing a fist of saliva.
"There are worse places to fall than hell. Never forget."
Suddenly, they both heard the sound of the door opening, before Vaggie could react let alone say anything, they were both in their original positions as if nothing had happened.
It was Lilith and Charlie who entered, the latter had her red tuxedo with which she had come and now she was wearing a white dress with purple straps that led to a skirt of the same color and a black scarf tied around the neck of the dress.
"Sorry for the delay, dear. I had to make sure our daughter dressed beautifully. "
"Oh, did they come back so soon? We didn't even notice. Charlotte, my apple pie, you look splendid. "
Vaggie wanted to tell Charlie everything that happened, she looked at her mother, they made eye contact, and without saying a word, she could feel Lilith laughing inside her. She knew.
What should she do? Accusing them like a little girl?
She would have to think of something. As usual, and meanwhile, she would have her one eye on the back of her head.
Nothing new under hell.
Feels weird to update something instead of publishing something new.
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See you later.