Fraz gently knocked on the door of the Problem Solverz headquarters. No answer.
"You gotta knock louder than that!" Festro banged his fist hard against the door, leaving a hole cracked in the middle. "Oops, well I'm not paying for this!"
"I know that crash anywhere!" Horace's voice was heard gasping in delight, then when he saw Festro, he looked sad. "Hey, Festro…"
"Well, I was going to at least pretend to look forward to seeing you, but if you can't bother to give me a smile, I won't smile at you either!" Festro growled.
"Sorry." Horace sighed. "I just thought you were Alfe."
"You see Alfe all the time." Festro crossed his arms. Horace then sniffled.
"He ran away weeks ago, and with our world changing we may never see him again!" Horace whimpered.
"Hey now, I didn't mean to make you cry." Festro loosened his arms and held his hands in front of him defensively.
"It's not your fault…" Horace assured quietly. "I just wish Alfe knew how much I appreciate him… How much Roba appreciates him."
"I… I wish I could have seen him. But I'll keep an eye out." Festro promised. "Come on, Fraz."
"What about?" Fraz told him.
"The new chapters can wait." Festro responded.
"Hey, I know a lot of authors." Fraz smiled. "Maybe I can find her while you look for your friend, what was her name again and what book did she write?"
"Charlie Morningstar's Dairy." Festro responded, showing the book.
"Dairy… You… You idiot!" Fraz gave Festro the stink eye. "You found someone's diary and didn't return it?!"
"What's a diary?" Festro scratched his forehead with his index finger.
"You're so stupid! A diary is what some call the journal in which they write their most personal thoughts! This Charlie person is probably worried sick about it! Worried about jerks like you or much worse people reading it!" Fraz exhaled. "Let's go find this poor lady and hopefully for your sake she won't suspect you read it."
"Sure thing." Festro grumbled.
Meanwhile at the Hazbin Hotel, Charlie put her clawed hand on one of her rosy cheeks as she stared out the window. Things have been peaceful for the first whole year as no exterminations happened this time, but most of the guests at her hotel had left due to being unsatisfied with not getting to heaven. It seemed they had missed the point and just wanted to go to heaven to see what would happen. Was it all even worth it? Heaven wasn't as great as Charlie had imagined, it was a big, bright, and beautiful place, but some of the angels were not as pure as they described themselves. Yes, Adam was gone, but what about his followers, what about Lute?
"You okay?" Charlie heard the voice of her girlfriend, Vaggie.
"I guess so… I'm just not sure this is going to work after all, you were right." Charlie curled up, her face buried in her knees. Vaggie put her hand on Charlie's shoulder.
"I'm not sure what will happen next, but I do know that your efforts won't be a waste." Vaggie gave her girlfriend a comforting smile, she could be very sweet when she wanted to be.
"I just wonder who will come knocking at my door next and when." Charlie's lips curled into a small, hopeful smile. As if on cue, the door knocked. Vaggie frowned, she had a bad feeling, she felt she knew exactly who would return after a year's absence.
"Charlie, be careful." Vaggie whispered, but Charlie slowly made it to the front door. "I knew he wouldn't leave us forever… Unfortunately."
Charlie opened the door, in front of her was not Alastor, but two of the oddest looking demons she had ever seen. One of them was short, teal, had a long pointy rodent nose, his features very similar to aliens she had heard about from former humans. Next to him was a large stocky purple walrus-like man with fangs, tusks, and claws, he was very hairy as well. The blue man looked nervous while the purple one looked like he felt very guilty.
"Here… I found your diary." Festro showed it to her.
"Thank you!" Charlie took it back and then shook Festro's hand. "I've been looking for this since I lost it months ago, I thought I'd never see it again!"
"No problem." Festro chuckled, sweating a little.
"You read it didn't you?" Vaggie guessed, covered her face with one hand.
"Uh… Hehehe." Festro frowned.
"It's okay." Charlie easily forgave him. "I've seen those who have done worse change into wonderful people." She wiped her eyes as she remembered Sir Pentious, she was distraught over losing him, she still hated the idea that he would either never exist again or he may be suffering somewhere even worse than Hell, both thoughts made her want to cry, but she had to focus, she had two potential guests.
"You okay?" Fraz frowned.
"Yeah, just got something in my eye." Charlie lied, then gave a large, mostly fake grin. "There, I got it out, welcome to the Hazbin Hotel!"
"Hazbin Hotel?" Fraz questioned.
"Thanks, but we just came to give you back your journal." Festro tried to refuse her offer as politely as he could.
"You don't have to stay here, but maybe consider it?" Charlie showed her sparkly pleading eyes.
"We would love to, really." Fraz lied, not fully trusting this demonic creature. "But we're looking for someone."
"Who?" Charlie asked.
"My old friend Alfe ran away from his family, I promised to help look for him." Festro explained.
"Well, I definitely don't want to keep you from finding him. Do you need me to help? I know this place like the back of my hand." Charlie waved one of her front hoof-like claws.
"Sure." Festro accepted.
"Oh brother." Fraz worriedly stated.
"Looks like you two are on the right track." Charlie cheered.
"Right track to what? Finding Alfe?" Festro gasped. "Are you psychic like Fred?!"
"No… I meant on the right track of redemp… Nevermind, I'd like to know who Fred is, he sounds very helpful." Charlie giggled.
"Yeah… Helpful and annoying…" Fraz added sarcastically. "Anyway, this is what Alfe looks like."
"He looks… Handsome." Charlie tried very hard not to insult Alfe's swollen face and butt-shaped head, especially in front of his worried friends, she brought her grin back and skipped off. "Let's go find our pal!"
"Right." Fraz and Festro agreed, though Fraz was still wary of Charlie, wondering if she was trying to trick him so she could jab him with her horns or bite him with her sharp teeth, but he was trying to focus, he had gotten himself into a situation he'd rather not be a part of but he was a little worried about Alfe and felt kind of bad for Horace. As the three searched for the giant brown fur monster, a cluster of purple glowing eyes glared at them from afar in the shadows.