Chapter 12: Waiting for the Return

After countless hours learning about the history of Hell, Overlords and other things that weren't worth remembering now, Anya was finally released from Alastor's room, who had wished her a good night's sleep before closing the door.

She sighed and started walking towards her room. Her eyes were almost closing, she was so sleepy now.

As soon as she arrived, the child opened the door and walked in, without bothering to close the door. She walked unsteadily to her bed and threw herself down, closing her eyes instantly and falling asleep.

But it wasn't long before Charlie came into the room to wake her up again. - "Uuh, good morning, Anya. I came to call you for breakfast."

Anya grunted lightly, as she forced herself to look at the princess, trying to keep her eyes open wide enough. - "Anya is very tired. Anya hasn't slept all night." - she mumbled, in a sleepy tone.

Charlie looked confused and worried, and asked. - "You didn't sleep at all last night? Like, did you have a nightmare or something?"

The little girl shook her head in denial and mumbled. - "Anya just couldn't sleep." - She didn't want to tell the truth, that she spent the whole night talking to Alastor. He had fortunately promised not to tell her secret to anyone, in exchange for her not telling the others about their conversation at the end, besides stopping spying on her with his shadow (which no longer made a difference to him, as he already had the information he had sought from her).

After a few seconds, Charlie nodded in understanding. - "I see. So, I'll call you when it's lunch time, okay?" - she stated, before leaving and closing the door.

With that, Anya closed her eyes again and waited until lunchtime to go downstairs.

After a few hours, the child finally woke up. She slid out of bed and forced herself into the bathroom to take a shower. Then she put on another set of clothes and headed toward the bedroom door.

She went downstairs and headed to the dining room, where Niffty was cooking lunch. - "Oh, good afternoon, Anya. Charlie told me you didn't sleep all night. Are you okay?" - the girl in red asked, curious.

Anya just forced herself to smile and stated. - "Yes, Anya is fine, Niffty. How long until lunch is ready?" -"Ah, there's still an hour left. You can wait a little longer if you want." - the little cyclops replied, before going back to cooking.

With that, the little girl nodded and walked to the lounge, where she sat down on one of the sofas and sighed tediously.

She spotted Husk at the bar again, and so she decided to go over to him. As soon as she sat down on the stool, Anya greeted him.

"Hello, Mr. Husk. How are you?" - she asked cheerfully. And to no surprise, the feline asked. - "Something happened last night that you didn't sleep, didn't it?" -With that, her smile began to fall and she rested her arms and head on the counter.

"Yes..." - the girl replied, knowing he would read her without her having to say much. Husk observed her a little longer and guessed. - "It was something to do with Alastor, wasn't it?"

Anya just sighed in response, as her tired expression showed slight fear at the mention of Alastor's name.

"Hmpf, I imagine he talked a lot with you all night, didn't he? And I imagine you can't tell what you two talked about, can you?" - the feline deduced, followed by another sigh from her.

In his thoughts, Anya could see that he imagined that Alastor could somehow have also discovered that she could read minds, given that he wouldn't have called her to his room without any plausible reason.

Husk looked at her and thought again that Anya was probably reading his thoughts again, and asked her to signal with her thumb, which she did.

With that, the feline approached and began to lightly rub her hair, while thinking that it would be more frustrating for the child now that the Radio Demon would have fun tormenting her even more with his darkest and scariest thoughts.

Anya just closed her eyes, focusing on Husk's physical contact, as she muttered. - "Anya is very tired."

Husk sighed and smiled lightly as he commented. - "I see. Lunch will probably be ready soon, and then you can eat a little before you go do whatever it is you're doing."

The little girl even heard her stomach growling at that exact moment, making the feline laugh lightly at that and said. - "Looks like I was right." - that made Anya laugh with him, too.

At that moment, Niffty entered the room and announced. - "Lunch is ready." - This made Anya lift her head from the counter and look at the little cyclops. The feline signaled for her to go eat, and with that, the little girl got off the stool and ran towards the kitchen.

After lunch, the child went to her room to brush her teeth and picked up her chimera doll, and went back to Angel Dust's room to visit Fat Nuggets again.

"Hi, Nuggsie. Anya brought my doll to introduce you to." - She announced happily, as she held the doll in front of Nuggets.

She saw the little pig come closer and sniff the chimera doll briefly, before reading his mind and asking how she had gotten smiled and walked towards Angel's bed, placing her doll on it and helping Fat Nuggets climb back onto it.

As soon as she got up too, she picked up the chimera doll again and began to tell her story. - "Anya was in a very horrible place. There were people there who wouldn't let Anya play, and then one day, Anya ran away from there and went to an orphanage. Two families adopted Anya, but later they gave Anya back. And then, Anya went to another orphanage, where the same thing happened."

And then, she held up her chimera doll. - "And it was in this very orphanage that Anya got the doll. Anya can finally have a toy for the first time." - she finished her story, as she looked at the doll in her hands.

The girl smiled briefly, before adding a note. - "So much so that when Anya came here, Anya had to lose it for Anya to save herself. But then, Mr. Dust went to the streets to find her and he and Niffty worked together on a secret mission to surprise Anya, and they succeeded." - she then hugged the chimera doll, with a smile on her face.

And then a thought came to her mind. - "What time does Mr. Dust get back from work? Do you know, Nuggsie?" - she asked, hoping that Nuggets knew or something. But unfortunately, not even he knew and from what he revealed, Angel Dust always came at random times when he was not at the hotel.

Anya sighed and threw herself on the bed, while shelooked up at the ceiling of the room. - "Anya misses Mr. Dust." - she muttered sadly. Fat Nuggets approached her and snuggled up next to her, sharing the same thought as hers.

A while passed, until Niffty entered Dust's room to ask Anya for dinner. The girl said goodbye to Fat Nuggets once again, and followed the little cyclops into the dining room again.

And once again, Anya was picky about what to eat, as there were carrots in the food, which she reminded them she hated eating with that, her plate had its food separated from the others.

She heard Vaggie lightly scolding her for not eating vegetables on her plate, which the child had to say that the problem was only with the carrots, the rest of the food, she was willing to eat, as long as it was the way she liked it.

Charlie had to calm Vaggie down, fearing that she would become too aggressive with Anya. In the end, Husk ended up handing the little girl a milkshake he had made for dessert.

After that, the girl went back to her room to take another shower before going to bed. But this time, she had different plans.

She put on her penguin pajamas and waited for everyone in the hotel to fall asleep. After that, she quietly left her room, carrying her penguin plush and her chimera doll, and walked through the hallways until she reached the top of the stairs.

After carefully descending the stairs, Anya headed to the lobby and sat on one of the chairs, next to her two sat there for a long time, staring at the hotel door, anticipation on her face.

There was a certain moment when she got bored and went out briefly to get some papers so she could draw on the floor.

Once she ran out of ideas for what else to draw, Anya lay on her back on the floor, staring at the ceiling. She even explored the lobby and lounge further, to see more details that she hadn't stopped to see before.

The girl then took the opportunity to raid the kitchen and grab some food, when she felt hungry.

Anya didn't know how many hours had passed, and at times like these, she wished there was at least a television to watch something. Thinking about it, she didn't even know if there was a television in the hotel, and if there was, where would it be?

In the end, she gave a sigh of withdrawal and picked up her toys and started climbing theupstairs, when she heard the hotel doors opening behind her.

She looked back and smiled, and then she dropped her toys and quickly ran downstairs again and ran until she threw herself and hugged someone.

"Aaah, Mr. Dust! Anya missed you so much! Why did it take Mr. Dust so long to get back to the hotel?"

She felt the second pair of arms over her, as she heard the voice. - "Eh, Anya? What are you doing awake? I thought you were already asleep or something."

Anya looked up and saw Angel Dust's surprised expression, showing that he hadn't expected to see her awake there.

She made puppy dog eyes and declared. - "Anya missed Mr. Dust so much, Anya couldn't sleep. Where was Mr. Dust, that didn't come back sooner?" - She could see in his thoughts that he was at job with a bunch of people who in his mind, were terribly scary.

Angel looked around, feeling uncomfortable about how to answer her. - "It's just that I... had to work overtime, you know? Unforeseen events happen in jobs. I'm sure you'll go through this in the near future, girl." - she heard him add a mental note of "as long as you don't get a job where everyone treats you like shit and hurts you when things go wrong.".

Anya began to feel sorry for Dust, imagining the literal hell he lived in this so-called job.

And then, Angel Dust smiled at her and asked. - "But enough about that, okay? How about going to bed, Anya? It's not good for a child to stay up so late."

The little girl then nodded, with an uncomfortable smile, as she allowed the spider to guide her to the stairs, help her collect the penguin plush and the chimera doll and climb until they reached the top of the stairs.

Anya walked into her room, with Angel following close behind her with the toys in his arms. She climbed onto her bed, as he handed her the toys.

The girl watched him briefly as he said. - "Well... good night, Anya. See you in the morning." - and walked towards the door and left.

Anya continued to think a little more about what she saw in Dust's mind just now. If it was such a horrible job, why didn't he just leave it and look for a better job?Who were those people in his mind? Did they treat him badly enough that Dust saw them as monsters? And what was this job that Angel went to almost every day?

The child decided not to think too much about it for now, and settled down to sleep, hoping to be able to talk and spend time with Angel Dust in the morning.

Angel Dust walked into his room, his expression tired and bored. His expression changed to a slight smile when Fat Nuggets walked towards him excitedly.

"Aaw, hey Baby Nuggs. Daddy missed you so much." - He carried him, his mood improving more and more. - "Tell me, was Anya a good companion for you, in my absence?" -the little pig grunted excitedly in response.

"Ooh, good to know. I see my two favorite people are really into each other." - Angel declared, as he hugged Nuggets, until he noticed something on top of the vanity.

He extended one of his four free hands and looked towards it. - "Oh, these are some of Anya's drawings. She must have done them while I was away, I guess."

Angel Dust sat on his bed as he looked and flipped through each drawing, while Fat Nuggets also looked with him. Most of the drawings mainly involved Nuggets and spider found it a little strange that the child knew many things about the two of them that hse had never experienced before.

When he got to the last drawing, he felt his heart warm at what he saw: the drawing had him in the middle with Anya and Fat Nuggets hugging him on either side, while a red line forming a large heart surrounded them.

Angel smiled and felt tears starting to well up in his eyes. Fat Nuggets noticed this and became worried, starting to get closer to his face. The spider noticed this and wiped his face.

"Oh, it's nothing, Nuggsie. I just thought it was very... I don't know how to say it." - He clarified, as he looked back at the drawing.

That feeling that someone else cared about him left him touched. And given the meaning of the drawing, it showed how much Anya also saw him as something close to a best friend or even a father figure that she never had.

He put the drawings back on the vanity, and lay down on his bed, feeling better than before, as Nuggets made himself comfortable and laid down next to him.

02/06/2025: Another chapter completed. Yes, things will start to get complicated soon, and this was just the brief preview. It was also the first time I added a paragraph that didn't tell from Anya's perspective (and I confess I cried a little while writing this), and yes, other characters will have it in some chapters as well. Stay tuned for the next chapter until then.