Chapter 11: Be careful with what you say
A/N: Alright, alright, so you wanna see Jenny interact with Alastor some more huh? Ok, but kinda like the title implies be careful what you wish for!
Jenny tries to clean up the hotel and ends up being alone with the Radio Demon.
What could possibly go wrong?
Disclaimer: I don't own Hazbin Hotel or Helluva Boss, I just own Jenny.
Enjoy!
/
Showing off your talents to others was like a double edge sword. On the one hand, you could catch the attention of the right people who would help you go further with your skills. On the other, you attract the princess of Hell's attention and she'll hound you down with the hopes of singing again.
Take a wild guess which side Jenny fell on?
"No"
"Please?"
"I said no"
"But you have such a pretty voice! Why would you hide that from everyone?"
"It's not hiding it's just not important. I'm here to help with the hotel, not run a Broadway musical"
Charlie huffed and crossed her arms. Ever since she heard Jenny sing, she was trying to get the human to show off her gift. She knew about Jenny giving up her dream thanks to David and she wanted to change that! It wasn't too late to make your dreams come true!
"That's the goal of this hotel: to get a second chance! This could be your chance to make your dreams come true!" she insisted.
"My dream is to return home alive" Jenny said flatly.
Charlie pouted as she followed the human down the hallway.
"What about all that stuff you told Angel? You kept saying you can learn from your mistakes to make your future better! You learned that becoming a teacher didn't make you happy so now you need to use that knowledge to follow your dreams!"
Jenny resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She should have known not to spill her guts in front of the bubbly princess.
"How about we focus on one dream at a time? My dream isn't on the line because I decided to fight with a news anchor on live television"
Charlie got in front of her and grabbed her shoulders. Her cheerful expression was suddenly gone as she looked at the human.
"I get it, Jenny. I really do" she said.
"I've had people tell my dreams are stupid and unreal to the point where I wanted to give up on them. But I didn't because it was my life and my dreams made me happy. If others couldn't see that, then clearly, they've never had dreams before. I know I'm being pushy and annoying about this but I don't want to see someone go through what I did"
It sunk into Jenny that despite Charlie being super cheerful, she had others threaten to take that smile away. She was laughed at, ridiculed, told she would never make anything of her dreams, basically being told everything to break her down. Despite all of that, she ignored them and went on with her goal.
When she heard Jenny's dreams being shattered thanks to David, it struck a nerve in her. She didn't want to see someone suffer the same pain as she did.
"You deserve to have your dreams come true"
Jenny sighed quietly. Charlie really knew how to pack a punch.
She gave the princess a small smile.
"Let's focus one dream at a time. Once we get this hotel running, then we can talk about this, deal?"
Satisfied with her answer, Charlie smiled again.
"Deal!"
She grabbed the human and dragged her down the hallway.
"So, I thought of some cute ideas for the rooms! I was thinking of decorating them with rainbows, pink fluffy clouds and they're all in glitter!"
Jenny sighed.
'Easy, Jenny. She's still the princess of Hell and will devour your soul with that sweet, cheerful smile on her face'
/
After convincing Charlie that decorating the rooms wasn't the right time, it was decided that taking care of the lobby was the best way to go. Mainly because it got blown up when Sir Pentious decided to pick a fight with Alastor.
Jenny was hoping that everyone else would pitch in to help with the cleaning but alas, everyone was out doing things in town.
Charlie was going to help out but she found out that Angel was doing things he wasn't supposed to do so she had to run out to grab him.
So that just left Jenny all by herself.
"Fuck my life" she muttered.
She knew the cleaning wasn't going to get done by itself so she decided to just do it.
Putting her fake hair in a messy bun (while making sure her exposing skin was covered in make-up), she started by getting rid of all the junk that was scattered around the room.
"Stupid Steampunk snake. Should have made a pair of boots from his skin" she grumbled.
She threw out what was broken and made a list of what needed to be replaced. By the looks of it, pretty much all of the furniture and carpets needed to be redone thanks to the smoke and broken glass from the front door.
As she was cleaning, she looked at some of the portraits that were on the walls. Pretty much all of them were photos of Charlie and her family. It seemed before she decided to turn this place into a hotel, the princess lived here. There was one portrait that caught her attention. It was a family photo of Charlie with her parents.
"So, this is what the rulers of Hell look like" she muttered to herself.
They weren't what Jenny expected. They almost looked normal and not demonic like people tended to depict them in books and film. But then again, no living human had ever seen them and lived to tell the tale so how would anyone know what they looked like?
That's when Jenny realized something: did Lucifer know that a human was within Hell? She quickly shook that thought away. Nah, there was no way. If he knew, he would have been at the Hotel demanding Charlie to turn her in. There was no way he would have known she was here.
'Just keep your head down and don't make a scene. You won't be spotted if you keep a low profile' she told herself.
It flew over her head that it was too late to keep low since she chewed out everyone on live tv and sang in the streets.
She saw another picture hanging over the fireplace that was tilted. It seemed it got knocked around when Sir Pentious blew up the lobby doors.
Grabbing a stool, she stood on it and tried to fix the picture. She didn't like to see Charlie's things get ruined.
The picture was up higher than she thought so she stood on her tip toes. That was a stupid move since it made the stool wobble a bit but she didn't pay attention. She finally got the picture evened and smiled in satisfaction. That smile quickly vanished when the stool buckled under her and caused her to lose her footing.
"Shit!"
She fell off and was about to fall to the ground when a hand grabbed her and held her up.
"Careful, dear. Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself"
Jenny felt her heart drop when she heard that voice. Looking up, she saw Alastor starting down at her with that large, creepy grin of his.
She jumped away from him and fixed her hoodie.
"T-thanks"
She went over to the stool and picked it up. Seemed like it too needed to be replaced.
"Whatever are you doing?" Alastor asked.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Jenny replied.
"Breaking furniture?"
"See? You already know!" Jenny said with a fake smile.
Her smile quickly vanished. She walked past him quickly, hoping to get away from him.
"I'm trying to clean up the lobby area since Angel decided to make new friends"
Alastor followed after her much to her dismay.
"Why bother? It's not your responsibility to keep this place clean"
Jenny whipped around and glared at the Overlord.
"Because Charlie is nice enough to let me live here. I'm not going to let my home look like a shit hole"
She turned around went back to throwing out the broken stool.
"As much as I'd love to talk, I'm busy so you're just gonna have to find someone else to bug"
She walked past him and went back to cleaning the lobby. She went over to a toppled bookshelf and tried to lift it up. It was a lot heavier than she thought it would be but she willed herself to lift it on her own. She almost went flying when Alastor grabbed the other end of the bookshelf and helped her stand it up.
"You know, you would get things done a lot faster if you used your powers" he said. He summoned some of his shadows to prove his point.
Jenny huffed and put her hands on her hips.
"Not everyone is gifted with extra arms like Angel or summoning help like you" she retorted.
Alastor hummed in thought.
"I suppose. Your talents seem to lean more towards that sharp tongue of yours. I'm curious to see if you'll chop heads with whatever comes out of that mouth of yours"
"Stick around and you might" Jenny said flatly.
She walked over to the other end of the room to give herself distance. Vaggie told her to stay away from him so she was doing what she could.
Alastor surprisingly helped her out with the cleaning. If it was help her out or make her feel uncomfortable, he was succeeding on both ends.
"Nice to see that Husker's bar is still in one piece. Wouldn't want to see him upset" Alastor laughed.
"I doubt he's capable of feeling anything other than anger, but hey kinda hard to tell from all that swearing he does" Jenny said.
"And was it really a great idea to create a bar in the front half of the hotel? That should be more towards the back so that way others will want to come into the Hotel"
"I seriously doubt the layout of this place will make a difference. As I told Charlie there's no way a Sinner can change after death" Alastor said.
Jenny stopped what she was doing and looked at the Overlord with disgust. It really annoyed her that he wanted to help but at the same time he didn't. He just wanted to see this place fail so he could be entertained.
"Why are you even bothering helping her if you're not going to put any effort into this place? You're just wasting your time"
Alastor grinned darkly as he slowly walked over to her.
"Because it's amusing to see such gullible creatures cling to the idea of hope only for it to be ripped out from under them" he said.
"Nothing's more entertaining that the looks on their faces when they realized no matter how hard they try, nothing is going to change down here"
He cackled a little at the thought of it. Jenny glared daggers at him. He was such a prick! He didn't care about Charlie's dream at all. He just wanted free entertainment. He didn't care if this Hotel went up in flames so long as he got a laugh out of it.
He wanted a laugh? Fine! Time to show off that sharp tongue of hers.
Putting on a fake smile, she chuckled a little.
"I gotta admit, that does sound a little funny" she said.
Alastor raised an amused eyebrow.
"Oh?"
Jenny nodded as she slowly walked towards him.
"Oh yeah and kinda ironic when you think about it. This hotel flops and everyone who stayed here will realize how hopeless it was-even the staff. Why, you'd become your own punchline"
As she talked, Alastor's smile grew smaller and smaller till it was thin grin. Jenny ignored him and kept talking.
"Everyone in Pentagram City will see how silly it was to open a hotel that redeems Sinners and will laugh at the washout Overlord who foolishly agreed to help with said project. All his reputation will go down the drain because he wanted a good laugh only to see he became the joke himself"
She got up to him and gave him a shit eating grin.
"Isn't that just funny?"
Alastor's hand flew up in a flash and grabbed her face hard. His nails digging into her skin. He leaned forward and got close to her face. Dark symbols appeared around him as his eyes glowed red.
"Word of advice, dear. Be very careful what you say down here"
Shadows formed around him as he spoke.
"You just never know what's going to set someone off"
Jenny actually looked fearful as she looked up at the Overlord. She really fucked up now.
"What are you doing?!"
Both turned to see Vaggie standing at the doorway looking livid. Alastor dismissed his shadows and went back to his creepy cheerful self.
"Just helping Miss. Firecracker with the cleaning when I noticed she had dust on her face"
He turned to her to give her a warning look.
"She seems to be quite the klutz"
Jenny gulped and pulled herself away. As she did, Alastor nicked her face with his nails and cut her skin.
"See?"
Vaggie rushed over to her and wrapped her arm around her like a protective cocoon.
"I think you've done enough. I'll take it from here" she said.
To prove her point, she pulled out her spear to show she meant business.
Alastor just laughed and walked away.
"Very well. I need to clean myself up anyway"
He stopped by the stairs and turned around to look at Jenny.
"Remember what I said, dear. It'll help you later"
With that, he went upstairs, humming a cheerful tune.
Vaggie quickly dropped her spear looked at Jenny. The poor thing was holding her cheek trying to stop the blood from dripping down her face. Vaggie used the back of her glove to wipe it off.
"What happened?"
Jenny went to say something, but found the words caught in her throat. Tears filled her eyes as she silently cried. Vaggie pulled her into a hug and rubbed her back.
"You're ok. I won't let him hurt you"
Vaggie's words simply fell on deaf ears. Jenny realized nowhere was safe, not even this hotel.
/
Upstairs, Alastor hummed a jazzy tune as he walked towards his room. He was pissed off that Jenny made a fool of him, but at the same time he was also impressed. Very few had the guts to mock him and get away with it.
He was right. That mouth of hers was going to cut someone. Too bad it was her.
Looking at his fingers, he noticed a bit of blood was on it from when he scratched Jenny's face. Being the cannibal that he was, he licked the blood from his fingers like it was nothing. The taste on his tongue did not disappoint. He couldn't wait to see her break the more he messed with her. It was always so much fun to watch others lose themselves over time.
It was a shame he wasn't smart enough to realize she would be the one to break him instead.
/
A/N: I cannot tell you how much this chapter made me sweat lol. I really, really hope this is how Alastor is going to be like in the show cause man is he hard to write!
I don't know if Sinner's bleed in Hell but from what I saw in the Alastor comic they do, so we'll just act like Jenny bleeding is normal.
Jenny has balls calling out Alastor on why he's helping with the hotel. And to be fair she does have a point. If the hotel tanks, his reputation is ruined and he'll become his own joke.
Please review and tell me what you think!
Take care!