Second Circle, Pride Ring, Hell

10AM, Helluva hospital

"Ge….tha…broad…"

All Loona could see was darkness. All she could hear is distorted and muffled voices around her. The bar materialised in front of her. She was on the floor, bleeding. This was it. This was…
She woke up with a loud gasp, looking around the room frantically. After a few more moments of her brain catching up, she relaxed slightly, seeing that it was just a nightmare. Letting out a big sigh and deep grumble from her throat, she rubbed her head. This shit shouldn't have traumatised her. She was tough. She was cold. She was…

"Hey…hey…it's okay. You're safe."

That voice. She remembered it from earlier. Her head violently snapped to the side, seeing the origins of the voice. It was the human from earlier. That lowlife, disgusting hu…

The one who saved her. The one who she could tell was genuinely concerned about her current situation and health.

She quelled her angry thoughts, letting out another big sigh and staring at him, her expression both wary and puzzled.

"I'm…still in the hospital?"

He gave a quick nod in response, leaning forward slightly in the chair that he was currently occupying. He cupped both of his hands together and started to speak again. "Yeah. The doctor wanted to keep you in a bit longer to do some further checks. From what they've told me, you'll be able to go home today."

Home? That word hit her like a ton of bricks. She audibly gulped, causing him to raise an eyebrow.

"What? Do you not have a home or…" He stood up, walking over to her slowly. This caused her to snarl slightly. She never liked anyone getting too close, especially a human that she didn't even know. He seemed to take the hint and stood in place, halting his movements, his arms by his sides as he continued to look at her.

Loona let out another grumble, sitting up slightly, wincing from the sting of the injuries. "Y…Yes, I do. But…I'm not exactly….welcome there, right now…"

The human raised an eyebrow at her. It took him a moment to process what she could be implying and he gave a simple nod in response. "I see…sorry to hear that. Do you…have any family you can contact? Even if you're not welcome there, surely they want to know that you're safe?"

Safe? Hah. That was a good one, she thought to herself. Blitzo was too worried about his deal with Stolas going bad that he'd worry about he…

No. That wasn't right. She knew that was unfair to think, even if he was a bumbling idiot at times. She knew he cared, in his own special Blitzo type of way. She didn't exactly help him with her shit behaviour at times. She was worthless and she knew it. She let out a loud sigh and responded.

"Yeah…I do. My da…adoptive father. He's my boss where I work, too. He's the reason why I was even at that shit bar in the first place…" She looked down at the floor and growled slightly, before looking back at him, her expression returning to neutral. "But, you still haven't answered what I asked yesterday when you brought me here. You're human. How are you down here? You're not dead…I can smell it on you. And you've not even changed into a sinner…"

He walked back to the chair and sat down, looking up at her as he once again leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "I had no idea up until the other day…and I still don't know the full details as to why I'm down here while still being human and very much alive. All I know is that it has to do with a certain demon's grimoire and a spell that he was practising. It somehow went wrong and sucked me down here in my sleep. I woke up in an alley, confused as all heck."

Wait…a grimoire? It couldn't be…

Her eyes focused on him intensely, staring deep into his blue eyes. "Was it by any chance…owned by a demon called Stolas? A lanky, twig like owl?"

He looked confused before his eyebrow raised in shock. "Err…yeah…how do you know that?"

She sighed. Should have guessed it was due to the owl's fuck up. She always knew that he was a complete fool, despite apparently being "royalty". Load of shit, she thought.

"He's demon royalty. A member of the ARS Goetia family. Royals who are seen as powerful and immortal. His grimoire is the entire reason why the business that I work for can do its thing. My boss, Blitzo, has a deal with him to use it for our business. Every month, he goes and-"

The human held up a hand, cutting her off. She shot him a curious glance, waiting until he spoke.

"Sorry to cut you off, but did you say Blitzo? As in, an imp who goes by Blitz without the o, the one with a flintlock type of pistol who runs an assassination business called IMP? The same business that uses Stolas's grimoire to…"

How did he know this? She stayed quiet as he spoke again.

"…assassinate humans up in my world?"

She nodded. He suddenly shot up from his chair, causing her to wince slightly.

"…How do you know all this?"

Another loud sigh escapes her. Guess she couldn't exactly lie about it. What would be the point? She readied herself.

"….My adoptive father is Blitzo, and yes, we call him Blitz too. The same imp who you spoke about. The same one who I work for at the company you just mentioned. He has a deal with Stolas to use the grimoire for our work and, in return, he fucks him every month."

The blunt admission seemed to catch the human slightly off guard, making him blush for a moment before he shook his head to clear himself of the disturbing image of an imp and owl demon going to town on one another. He looked back at her.

"…No shit. I…you're the daughter of-"

She growled lowly. "Adopted."

He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, looking away for a moment, clearly taken back by her sudden change in tone. He'd hit a nerve with that one. He cleared his throat and corrected himself.

"Sorry. You're the adopted daughter of Blitzo? No way…you're the one he mentioned when I started there."

"Why are you so surprised?..." She then realised what he said. "Wait…he mentioned me? And you…started there? What do you mean?" She looked at him curiously, her previous angry expression switching to mild confusion.

"Because he eh…employed me, when I got here."

She was even more confused now. She sat up, the confusion and shock on her face present. "What?"

He continued, leaning against the wall. "Yeah. When I ended up down here in that alley, he came across me as I was getting my bearings. At first, he was both confused and wary. He even pointed his gun at me. That flintlock style pistol that I mentioned."

She knew what gun he meant. The same one that Blitzo…Blitz, always used. She'd only just noticed that she'd been referring to him with his actual name. She needed to try and remember that the o was silent now.

Not that it mattered. She just couldn't be bothered with him getting pissy if she went back to calling him that once she got out of this damn hospital.

The human continued once again, coughing to get her attention back. "Anyway, as I was saying…after a quick stare down, and after I pulled out my pistol that I had with me when I was still in my world, he shot me a grin and commended me for having the guts to stare him down and even pull out my own weapon against him. Even though he shares obvious disdain for humans, he saw an opportunity to get more clients interested, if they knew his business had something as rare as a human working for them against my own kind. That was a few weeks ago. When he told Stolas about the details of it all, my arrival and that I was working for his business now, he didn't believe him. He wanted to see me for himself. So, he did…we met and I explained my situation. It then clicked in his head how unlikely it was that my arrival was completely random…so he revealed that he'd recently been trying a new spell with his grimoire. At the time, he didn't think anything had happened. Seemed he was wrong. That was the spell that somehow sucked me down here. And, from what he told me…I'm stuck here now."

She was flabbergasted and quite frankly in pure shock as she heard all of this. Then, one important thing came to mind.

"Wait wait….if you're telling me the truth, how did I not know about you when you started at IMP? I was wo…"

Wait. No. If this human was telling the truth and it was a few weeks ago…that's when she was off work and she had been since. She was ill after being forced to take her hellbies shot and she became depressed. It was after the whole thing with Vortex. Where she made a fool of herself at Verosika's spring break gig up in the human world. So…Blitz had just refused to tell her about this human?

She needed to talk to him about that once she saw him again. She snarled at the thought before letting go of the burst of anger.

"So…if that's true….can't Stolas just summon another portal to get you back up to the human world? We use them all the time to get up there and do our work.."

He sighed and shook his head, looking at the floor. "No. I tested it with Blitz and Stolas. I can go back up to Earth but I can only stay there for a few hours at most. When that time is up…I wake back up down here."

Now that baffled her.

"What? How is that even possible?"

He gave an idle shrug, much to her annoyance. "That's why I said earlier that I don't know all of the details. All that Stolas knows is that my soul is somehow now tethered to hell. I'm not dead, but I can't leave this place. Not for long, anyway. So, for now…Blitz managed to get me a temporary place to stay. An apartment not too far from the IMP office. Come to think of it…I don't know how I didn't piece together that it was you when I found you outside that bar. There're pictures of you and him in the office…I guess I just forgot or it didn't click."

All of this was too much for Loona's tired and mentally drained brain. She let out an exhausted and heavy sigh, closing her eyes.

"…I'm going to rest some more. This shit's too much for me right now."

She didn't hear him if he responded. She zoned out and kept her eyes closed. She could tell he was still in the room, though. He hadn't left. It wasn't long before she heard his voice echo across the room again.

"I'm sorry for what happened to you."

Her eyes snapped open, her throat feeling dry. She wanted to believe him when he said that. Even his scent still gave off his genuine concern, but her trust issues made it hard to think about it too deeply. She opted for an exhausted sigh as she closed her eyes once again.

"Yeah." There was nothing else said between the two. Within minutes, she'd fallen asleep again, the darkness consuming her once again.

4 hours later

"….You…fou…her…thi…?"

Once again, she was awakened by distorted and muffled voices in the room. She opened her eyes, feeling groggier than she did before. How long had she even been out for?

She slowly sat up, hearing the newest voice in the room gasp. Her hearing had fully settled now, so she could finally make out the words.

"Loony! My precious baby! Are you okay?!"

Loony. Only one person called her that.

Blitz

The hellhound stared at him; a slight glare shot towards him. "What are you doing here?"

The fiery imp looked at her with a mixture of worry and shame. "Loony…I..I'm so sorry..I.."

She sighed, trying to get rid of the urge to sit up and smack him for what he said before all of this happened. She was too tired, both physically and emotionally. Her paw raised up in a slightly dismissive fashion, as if to say "it's whatever". He sighed in return and looked at the human.

"Hey…buddy. Thanks for err…saving her. I know that we get off on the wrong foot when you first got down here a few weeks back but….she's all I have. She's my daughter." Another grumble came from her, Blitz ignoring it or not hearing it. "She means everything to me. So…thank you. Seriously. I owe you one, Chris."

Chris? So that was his name.

The h…Chris…simply nodded and shot a quick smile his way. "Sure. And forget about how we met. It happens. I'm just glad that I found her before anything else happened to her."

Blitz gave a simple and quick nod. "You still haven't told me the full details."

She really didn't want to be reminded of this right now. "If you're going to tell him about it all, do it outside. I don't want to listen to it."

Both of them looked at her for a few seconds before both of them nodded and walked outside. She could hear them the talking but couldn't make out what was being said. She already knew anyway, of course. After a minute or two, only Blitz walked back in. She sat up and raised an eyebrow.

"Where's Chris?"

The imp walked back up to her bed, leaning over the side of it, his claws resting on the edge. "He's gone to get you some more water." He looked at her, sighing, his eyes slowly getting misty. "Loony…I'm sorry…if I'd have been there.."

She looked at him, her eyes narrowing. "But you weren't. You were the entire reason why I was even at that cesspool of a bar in the first place!" A snarl emitted from her as she continued, Blitz leaning back slightly from her outburst. "And you leave it up to a fucking human that shouldn't even be down here to save me?! The same human that you chose to keep a secret from me while I was off from work, ill, after that damn hellbies shot?!"

His expression turned from shock to hurt and a slight bit of anger. "You can't blame me for you going to that bar, Loony! I know that I shouldn't have yelled at you, but-"

She had enough. She snapped and threw a cup at him. It hit him in the eye, causing him to curse and flinch, a slight black eye now forming. Before he could respond, she continued to yell. "I don't want you here right now! Fuck off!"

She expected him to try and beg for forgiveness. To yell. But no. He didn't. Instead, much to her shock, a single tear rolled down from his eye and he turned around, walking out without saying another word. Once he'd left the room, she let out a heavy sigh and grumble, slapping her forehead with her claw.

"Well done, Loona…you overreacted again…just like you always fucking do…"

She knew he cared. She knew he was trying to apologise for the argument and for her getting hurt. But like she always did, she screamed at him. "I might as well have been killed by those shit stains. I'm no good to anyone.."

Before her thoughts could get even darker and more cynical about worth, she heard the door open. She thought it would be Blitz, coming back in to try and reconcile. No such luck.

"Hey…I just saw Blitz storming off. He didn't say a word to me. What happened?"

She looked up and saw Chris standing there with a cup of water, seemingly for her as Blitz said before he left, eying her with a confused and concerned expression. A deep sigh left her lips.

"We…I overreacted. Like I always fuckin' do…"

He didn't respond. He simply placed the water on the table next to her and sat down across from her on the chair. She looked at the water, grabbing it and easing her sore throat as she sipped it. She gave a simple nod at him. "Thanks…"

He gave a quick nod back. "Sure." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously, almost as if he wanted to say something. She caught on and looked at him.

"What? You want to say something?"

He coughed to clear his throat and looked back up at her. "Blitz asked me if I could let you stay at mine until you two have this all sorted out. He didn't feel like it was fair to make you stay at home with him while you two are still..you know. He trusted me to make sure you're okay and asked me to contact him if I needed help…"

This surprised her. Blitz letting her stay with a male without being overprotective. A fucking human to boot.

Maybe this entire scenario had affected him more than she thought it would…

Was she wary of staying with a stranger, human or demon? Very much so. However, it was either that or go back home and put up with Blitz's shit. And she did not have the ability to do that right now without killing him.

Deciding that she didn't really have much of a choice, she gave a slight nod. "Yeah…alright. You sure you're good with that?"

He gave her a small smile. "Yeah…I don't mind. You'll no doubt be let out later today, according to the doctor from yesterday, so we can head out back to my place whenever they give you the all clear."

Seems she'd be staying with a human for the foreseeable future. The one who was now her co-worker.

The one who saved her from her own demise.

What a fucking way to start the week.