Quick note, FF sucks with formatting. I copy and paste and sometimes it comes out weird on here in the doc. So I apologize in advance if for some reason there should be a space somewhere where there isn't, or something isn't correctly formatted with italics or something. Anyways, hope you enjoy!


After having a really unsatisfying breakfast of flavorless cheerios, Beca raced downstairs so she could attend her first day of her assignment. She had a mentor with her — Jesse Swanson — who was showing her the ropes around the area. Not only did he show her a bit around town, but ultimately how she must execute her job.

There were taxis all around, but seemingly no one drove cars. He explained they don't gain currency like money, and that everything they have to offer that normally you'd have to purchase in the real world — is free to ask for. You can only take what is needed though, he emphasized. He stated a lot of people in the bad place were greedy and gluttonous, but often times those traits faded as everything became available to them anyways.

In the middle of soundchecking a wedding venue that seemed to be in what reminded Beca of an average gym pool area — she had a question.

"So are there like, laws here?" She glanced over at Jesse, seeing he was unwinding some cables and fidgeting with some extension cords. His brows furrowed in thought for a moment, contemplating his answer.

"Yes and no," Beca nodded while she adjusted some knobs on a mixer. He wiped his hands together, hoisting up a large speaker with a huff.

"Obviously there's order, no one can kill each other — we're all dead already," He plugged some cables in as he spoke.

"But we don't mistreat one another either. We do have authoritative figures, like Satan and her lower tier colleagues." He shrugged.

"Everyone kinda just lives their afterlife, and hangs out. I know it's Hell," He raised his hands as he said Hell, as if he was reading a broadway marquee. He dropped them.

"But it's not the most unbearable place. Sometimes even the most ugly and blasphemous demon could be the sweetest neighbor that likes to garden. You never really know." She nodded then, still not really understanding but it wasn't the most understanding place to be anyways.

"Before I forget," Jesse dug into his bag before handing her what felt like a cheap piece of plastic.

"Your complimentary cellphone!" He made fake cheering noises before chuckling at himself. Beca raised a brow as she inspected it.

It was like a solid brick, with an external keyboard that distantly reminded her of the old BlackBerry phones. But glancing closely, it stated 'BlueBerry' as its self proclaimed brand. She grimaced.

"Yeah it's no iPhone, but it's all we got down here." She gave him a look before sliding it into her back pocket.

Once all of the speakers were set up, she began to sound-check some standard wedding love songs. They were coming in great with the speakers, and Jesse gave her a thumbs up.

"Now, guests will be arriving in about an hour. So here's the rundown on DJing a wedding," She could almost laugh at how serious he took this job. But after explaining just how many dead people, and demons get married here — it seems to be quite the work.

He also explained he doesn't only do weddings, but that he just enjoys mentoring.

"I know, it's lame —"

"No, no — it's cool. Like," The brunette leaned on one of the tables, grabbing her water bottle and taking a quick sip. It's still warm as fuck out.

"You get to help people move on, and it's never the same routine." She shrugged before taking another drink.

"It's a fulfilling assignment for sure. But damn," He fixed Beca with a tired stare.

"It gets boring hearing the same songs over and over again." Beca nodded, drumming her fingers idly.

"No one has custom mixes?"

"Huh?"

"Like mashups? Layering multiple songs into each other," She clasped her fingers together as if to show what she meant physically. He brought a finger to his chin in thought before shaking his head.

"Nope, we usually just fade from 'Marry You' by Bruno Mars into something else, probably like 'Red Solo Cup' or some other song about alcohol."

"Like 'Shots'?" He nodded vigorously.

"You get it. You're a natural!" He stood up giving Beca a big smile, then into a stretch before groaning.

"Man lifting all that equipment around really messes up your back I'll tell ya what." Beca grimaced at that. She doesn't know how she'll lug this shit around when Jesse isn't there. She took another quick swig of her water.

The mentor looked around momentarily, starting to see some demons and ghouls arrive. He snapped his fingers a few times before yelling.

"Show time Becaw! Get your butt to work!" With some panic in her eyes, he lowered his gaze a bit with his hands, trying to calm her down.

"Don't worry, I'll be around the corner if you need me, kay?" He gave her a double thumbs up as he made his way to the refreshment table. With a dry swallow, she hurried to her station.

It wasn't hard work or anything, or complicated at that. She was in her element, actually – although this was considerably different and she did her very best not to be frightened by the ghoulie face features (No nose, sunken eyes, and rotted teeth), it was still stuff she was used to.

After manually taking requests, she set up a solid set list of songs so she could take a small break.

She found herself conversing with Jesse again. She learned he loved movies, nerd stuff, and cooking, which — good for him she guesses? He seems like a nice guy, which made her wonder what he did to get him down here. Anyone could have done anything to get down here, although she wasn't too sure why she was down here. Maybe he was similar. She chose not to ask, might be too personal.

After her quick break, she resumed her spot at the deck. It was quite an atmosphere, all the dead souls dancing and smiling — those who had facial muscles that is — and in a way, still living.

Particularly adjusting a song that had just a little too much bass in it, her fingers twisted and turned a knob or two, making sure it sounded right in her headphones. But there was something she could feel on her. Someone's eyes, she could feel someone watching her. And it better not be Jesse.

She continued to adjust the track a bit, making sure it sounded great before flitting her eyes around the venue.

A lot of demons and ghouls proceeded to dance and grab refreshments, talking amongst themselves, but off to the side of her line of view was someone who looked very familiar — and human.

She tried for a moment — as she locked eyes with them — to place where she's seen that fiery hair.

But as she noticed the woman begin to grin and twiddle her fingers into a little wave, Beca felt her cheeks grow hot, and quickly snapped her eyes back to her turntables.

She pretended that she had to do this and that on the device — but she really didn't need to, the songs were playing and sounded fine, but she was panicking and trying to avoid eye contact with the stranger.

Too bad she couldn't avoid conversation, because she gave in and looked back up only to see the familiar woman walking towards her. And suddenly, her palms were even more sweaty, and her mouth even more dry.

"Hi there." Beca cleared her throat, glancing over to see the redhead standing close to her booth, her hands clasped behind her back and a toothy smile on her face.

And although it was really warm out, she didn't see a single droplet of sweat on the other girl.

"Hey." Beca slung her headphones around her neck, beginning to rifle through some songs on the laptop to try and look busy.

"I don't think I've seen you around before," Swallowing the lump in her throat, she didn't want to seem rude so she quickly gave her a few moments of eye contact before swapping back to her screen.

"And I know everybody around here."

"Oh?"

She heard the redhead hum in reply. Deciding she should probably give her more attention, she let the tracks auto play before grabbing her water she set down on the floor. As she took a sip, she scanned the woman over top the water bottle.

She was wearing a pair of jeans along with a thin light yellow long sleeve shirt — again, how is she not sweltering right now?

Her blue eyes shimmered, still sporting a grin, although hiding her teeth this time.

The woman extended her hand.

"I'm Chloe." Staring at the outstretched hand, she wiped her own on her pants before taking it, and shaking it timidly. And her hand was soft, but it was almost like touching a hot stove.

"Beca — sorry," She winced, realizing how gross and clammy her hands were.

"I'm not really used to the heat down here." Chloe beamed back at her, a small nod tailing after.

"Mm yeah, I can tell." Beca watched the other girl wink, and she tried to suppress the warm feeling that spiraled up her ears. She gave her a tight lipped smile in reply.

"I don't know if this is offensive or not," The brunette started after a moment. She twisted the corner of her mouth in curiosity. "But can I ask how come you don't look like…" Beca let her eyes wander around the area, upon ghoulies and demons. She quirked her head once, hoping the ginger would catch her drift.

Chloe just gave her another bright smile. It made her knees a bit weak.

"Not offensive, don't worry," Chloe gave her another quick wink before continuing. "But I just prefer to stay in my human state, I think it's less intimidating."

"As opposed to?"

"Looking all undead." Beca hummed. Would she eventually look that way? Her eyes went wide in thought before the other girl reached out and grasped her wrist.

"You won't look like that, don't worry. It's mostly something the older souls go through, some weird seventeen hundreds trend." And it was comforting how she spoke, almost like all of this was super normal and chill. She talked as if looking all ghoulish was a simple fad amongst the underworld that passed with time. The soft touch on her skin was definitely not chill, though.

"What if I wanted to look like that?" Beca asked, feigning seriousness. The redhead giggled, Beca watching the crinkles around her eyes move as she did so. The warmth from her hand spread to her chest on its own accord.

"I'm sure you'd still be very cute,"

Beca swallowed hard at that.

"Totes not my personal style though." She added. And then Beca remembered where she saw her, why she seemed so familiar. That show from the other night, the broadcasted one.

Oh fuck.

"You're Satan." And suddenly, her palms were even more sweaty than before. Was she scared? She wasn't sure. The other girl's eyes shined with mischief.

"Don't wear it out," She finally let her grasp fall from Beca's wrist, and she could still feel the warm outline of her fingers there even after it was gone.

"But it's just Chloe. Satan's too," She moved her hands about as if she was trying to physically find the words. "Harsh, you know?" Beca bit her cheek with a nod. There was a small pause.

"So Beca," Her name rolling off of her tongue made her stomach flutter. She took one more shaky drink of her water.

"What do you think about the afterlife so far?" Beca took a moment to look around, spotting Jesse across the way in a pleasant conversation with a demon. She decided to fiddle with her computer a bit more to seem busy.

"I'm not sure," She shrugged. "It's not too bad." She wasn't sure what to say, especially not to the mayor of Hell town. But she supposed it could have been way worse. She heard the other girl hum again.

"Who's your mentor?" Beca turned a few knobs on her deck in thought for a second.

"Jesse something, forgot his last name." She saw Chloe scrunch her nose up in her peripherals. Beca noticed just a light cringe on the other girl's face, and wondered if she didn't like Jesse very much.

"Jesse Swanson?"

"Sounds about right."

"Speaking of the Devil!" Beca turned to see the boy, arms clad with many different snacks and drinks.

"Isn't someone else supposed to say that and not the person we were talking about?"

"Not when the Devil herself is a part of the conversation," He stated matter of factly. "It's called ajoke, Becaw." He set his array of food items down before clapping his hands away from any crumbs on them. He gave Chloe a smile.

"Our favorite person in all the land," He placed his hands on his hips. "To what do we owe the pleasure, M'hades?" Jesse performed a small curtsy before grinning back up at the other girl.

"Satan, dude — wait, what?" She wasn't trying to say Satan, she was trying to say, "Satan— why can't I say Satan?" After Chloe finished chuckling at Jesse's jokes, she turned to the brunette now, eyeing her.

"Ooh let's play charades!" Jesse suggested with all too much excitement. Chloe's eyes brightened at the idea before she clapped a few times.

"Yes! Okay, how many letters?" Beca rolled her eyes, inhaling and then puffing her cheeks out.

She held out five fingers.

"Five! Syllables?" The redhead asked.

She held up two fingers. This is so ridiculous, Satan Chrysler. She can't even think the words!

"Two syllables, five letters…" Chloe looked to Jesse then, tapping on her bottom lip in thought. He scratched his head.

"Rhymes with?" He asked after a moment. Beca sighed.

"Cheeses."

Simultaneously, both of them 'oh'ed for a solid minute or so before chuckling together.

"Yeah, the guy upstairs doesn't like us using his name — total asshole." Chloe said, her curls shaking as she spoke. Beca exhaled. She was being filtered verbally from saying Satan, which is going to be an embarrassing habit to break. Not the weirdest thing she's ran into though.

"One of our tech guys set it up, saves us from potential lawsuits, you know?" And all Beca could do was nod — even though no, she did not know. She didn't really understand anything that she's experienced down there so far.

The redhead turned to Jesse, giving him a small smile.

"But I was just introducing myself to Beca here," She glanced back over to her now, giving her a look that made the brunette's cheeks pink with heat.

"But I don't want to distract her too much."

'You're actually distracting me a lot…' Beca thought.

"Well, she is on the clock, as they would say when we were alive!" Jesse jokes and Beca has to force herself to laugh to distract herself from how hot she suddenly felt.

"I'll leave you to it then," Chloe says with a chuckle. "See you around Beca!" The redhead says, disappearing back into the wedding crowd.

"You okay? You look like you might pass out." Jesse says with a bit of concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Do you guys have bathrooms here?" Beca replies.

"Yeah, just past the punch station and to the right in the back," Jesse says pointing toward the back of the crowd.

"Okay thanks, I'm just gonna go splash some water on my face real quick. I'll be back." Beca explains as she turns to leave.

"Oh, and Beca," Jesse says lightly touching her elbow. "Don't try the punch unless you like Absinthe. That's about all that's in there."

"Got it. Okay." Beca says as she steps down from the DJ stand and begins to make her way across the auditorium.

She keeps her head low and weaves her way to the back of the crowd where she almost runs into a ghoul holding a tray of flutes with yellow liquid in them. He looks down at her, a light smile gracing his sunken face. Beca tries not to flinch at it, only somewhat succeeding, but he didn't catch it.

"Care for a lemonade miss?" He says, taking one off the tray and holding it out for her.

"Oh, sure, thanks." She says taking the flute quickly and continuing to move towards the bathroom.

When she enters the bathroom she heads into a stall, breathing heavily, and locks the door.

"Fuck." She whispers to herself.

She can feel the panic rising in her chest and she does her best to try and ground herself in this moment. She continues to breathe heavily and takes a sip of her lemonade to distract herself from spiraling. It tastes like water that's got one of those electrolyte packets in it. A bit grainy, and super watered down, but the glass feels cool against her fingers and she can't help but sink down into that feeling.

It's the only relief she's felt since she's arrived.

Was she sure she'd get used to everything? Surely she'd have to, but it just all seemed too overwhelming. She wonders briefly if her mentor had experienced the same thing she was.

After about a minute, she heard the door swing open and footsteps leading to the sink. Whatever song Jesse was playing now was being hummed by the person who had entered the bathroom and Beca tried desperately to calm herself down enough to stay quiet. Beca peeked through the crack of the stall to see what this girl was doing and if it was going to be a while.

Upon seeing a flash of red hair, she leans back from the door, hitting her elbow on the toilet paper dispenser.

Her eyes widen as water pools at her eyes — her fucking funny bone of all things — the pain shooting up tingles through her arm. She huffs while she tries to keep quiet, but she knows she's being awkward and loud.

"Beca?" The voice calls and in that moment she knows she can't hide anymore.

"Are you okay in there?"

"Oh yeah! I'm fine!" The brunette says trying to hide the panic from her voice and unpleasant shocks of pain that still trickled up and down her arm.

"You don't sound fine —" The redhead pries, Beca hearing her shoes clack against the tile, assuming she was walking over to her stall.

"Oh no, I can assure you that I am doing great!" Beca says almost too cheerily, silently cursing herself after it leaves her mouth. Struggling to rub her armandhold her drink up, she could see a single blue eye staring at her through the crack of the stall.

"Can you open the door?" Chloe says, her voice brought down to a lower volume. The immediate answer wasno, if it were anyone else. But who knows what the Satan would do to her if she rubbed her the wrong way. Beca wasn't sure this whole sunshine thing was a facade or not.

Beca hesitates but eventually with a sigh, she unlocks the door and pulls it open to reveal a concerned Chloe.

"What's going on?" Chloe says looking at the brunette as she closes the door behind her.

Beca slowly looks up from the floor and feels like Chloe brought ten times more heat into the stall with her. They're now standing less than a foot apart and Beca just feels so warm. She opens her mouth to say something and then Chloe speaks again.

"Rough first day?"

"It was fine, actually." Beca says with a sigh. "I am just trying to adjust, this place is…" She searched her mind for a polite word.

"Different?" The redhead supplies.

"Really fucking hot actually, but yeah, different." Chloe chuckles before nodding with a sympathetic smile.

"It'll get better, promise. Once you meet some friends and get used to everyday life, it's not so bad." The redhead explains with a wave of her hand.

Beca nods and stares back down at her lemonade which she begins swirling in her flute.

"You tried the lemonade?" Chloe asks, following Beca's eye line.

"Yeah, I dunno, some guy — ghoul? — just handed it to me." The brunette explains, briefly glancing at the yellow cup Chloe was holding. "It's alright."

"Want me to show you how to make it taste better?" Chloe says reaching into the small purse she has around her shoulder. She had a mischievous glint in her eyes as she rifled through her items.

Beca quirks an eyebrow at the redhead as she pulls out a flask with a small 'aha!' and hands it to Beca. The brunette shuffles awkwardly in the small stall.

"Is this like, allowed?" She found herself asking before she grimaced into an embarrassed smile. She realized how silly that sounded.

"Nevermind, sorry, forgot the whole —"

"Satan thing. Totes cool. But," She gently bumped Beca's hand that held the flask.

"Something tells me that you'll be fine. I won't tell anyone." With a wink thrown her way, Beca swallowed before splashing a moderate amount of — whatever the hell that was — into her glass, and taking a quick swig. She lets out a disgruntled noise, smacking her tongue around in her mouth.

"Oh Satan, what the hell was that?"

"Prison vodka."

"What vodka?" Chloe waved down her hands, grasping the flask and shoving it back in her purse.

"Just a nickname, no worries." And with that, the redhead left her stall. Beca's mouth left agape, she let her mind race for a second. Taking a much smaller drink of the beverage, she leaned against the cool surface of the stall's wall.

That girl was weird. But for some reason, completely engraved in her head.

DJing a wedding wasn't the worst thing she could get stuck with doing. If she thought really hard about it, she could rationalize that the work she had been assigned helps souls become happier in their afterlife. Even if all of the overplayed wedding songs made her teeth hurt — at least she wasn't burning within the fiery pits of hell. (She was still trying to figure out where those pits actually were.)

Lugging all of the audio equipment into cases and bags, she had a question.

"Hey Jesse?" She was slightly out of breath when she asked. He hummed across from her, wrapping some cords up.

"What do you do around here when you're not working?" Looking up at him, she saw the boy pause in thought, idly twisting the audio equipment and filing the spirals of cords away.

"Like, at home?"

"No like, what do people do for fun in hell?"

"Down here there's always something going on," He twisted the screw that held a speaker stand up. "We like to party, get white-girl wasted and stuff." Jesse brought a speaker down before repeating his actions to the other one. He shrugged.

"We like alcohol, drugs, getting rowdy and what-not. Room temperature beer and sniffing sharpies might be some of our only options," He gave her a small smile, both speakers now piled away and taken down.

"But it grows on you."

Beca let that simmer while they finished packing up. Her first day on the job went pretty well, but as she slipped her shoes off by the door of her apartment, she once again tried to turn the AC up, but it wouldn't budge. Maybe she should get that Satan girl to make some changes around here.

Who was she kidding though, she hoped she never had to run into her again. Not because she was awful to be around, she just made Beca feel a hundred degrees hotter — like actually. It was like she was some sort of human sized heater, and it almost made Beca go blind with first degree burns, or whatever — you know what she means.

Glancing around her apartment she sighed. Looking at the same beige walls isn't something she was looking forward to. Was there someone she could call? Were there any pamphlets? Welcome to Hell, come and see the sights!

She pulled her phone out of her pocket, furrowing as she fiddled with it.

In her contacts app, there seemed to be a few already preloaded on there. Jesse, which he probably put on there himself — an emergency number marked as '666', and another number saved asUpstairs. She scraped her tongue against her front teeth in thought before clicking on Jesse's name. Her thumbs quickly tapped out a message before she hit send.

6:43pm, Me: wtf do i do when im not at work, dude?

She moved her way over to her couch, plopping down and flipping the TV on. She automatically had it switched to the George Lopez Show reruns, lowering the volume almost all the way as she waited for a response.

6:50, Jesse: Hey Becaw! Good to see you're still alive! Ha, get it? Anyway, I can come pick you up in like an hour and we can go hit the most popular club in the town!

Beca scratched her forehead before replying.

6:52, Me: yeah okay sure. what about like, clothes and shit?

6:53, Jesse: Usually that stuff syncs up after your first day. Go check your closet and drawers! See you in an hr

Furrowing her brows, she moved towards her bedroom. She started at the drawers first, beginning to realize her clothes from her life before were filed neatly before her.

This place was like fucking Hogwarts or some shit. With a shocked chuckle, she grabbed a few options before throwing them on her bed so she could look at them better.

She wondered what a club in Hell was like, maybe she could make some connections and play some mixes at it or something.

The office cubicle was slightly less scorching, Dax the demon finally getting that tech guy over to fix the air conditioning. Amy gently scratched her horns on her head, looking around herself before lowering them to her nose and sniffing. Scrunching her face, she began filing through her paperwork. A lot of it was just newly deceased humans teetering on the edge of heaven and hell, some of it letters from people upstairs, some of it for Satan or her lower colleagues.

With a sigh, Amy leaned back in her chair, ripping letter after letter, stamping here and stamping there. It's what she did most days when she worked at the gates. Although sometimes she wishes she could do something else for eternity — who doesn't though?

After rifling through a solid stack, she noticed a letter that caught her eye. It was within a golden envelope, a wax seal with the emblem of The Higher Ups. Swallowing thickly, she quickly thinks she forgot to pay her taxes, but quickly shakes that off. Taxes didn't exist anymore.

Popping it open, it reveals a thick letter, along the paper is a golden trim, an expensive looking font all throughout it.

Dear Hell's Gates,

We have written to inform you that we have found incredulous discrepancies within your filing system and interview processes —

Amy choked on her spit, her chair squeaking as she sat up straighter.

The biggest problem at hand being a certain Rebeca A. Mitchell. Rebeca J. Mitchell arrived within Heaven's gates a few days ago. Please see the attached file below for your records.

We advise you to correct this error immediately — else we will take sufficient action within our next inspection.

Regards,

Higher Ups Assistant Correspondence Coordinator — Aubrey Posen

With a shaky hand, Amy grasped the packet that was attached to the letter. Rebeca J. Mitchell was a serial killer who hated kittens, and regularly spit on babies. Furrowing her brows, she rolled over to a cabinet and let her finger slide through the alphabetical files under M.

"Mitchell, Mitchell," She whispered to herself in between anxious breaths. Finding 'Rebeca A. Mitchell', she grabbed the file quickly and opened it up.

"Rebeca A. Mitchell," She let her finger glide across the page as she read.

"Likes sweet coffee, and secretly cares more than she lets on," Amy's eyes widened, her beefy five layer burrito suddenly not sitting right in her stomach.

"— and enjoys… assisting her elderly…" Amy drops the file onto the floor, slinking back into her chair. She lets a few panicked pants out.

"Grandmother."