Chapter 18: Getting Ready to Go

Anya was back in her room, remembering what happened hours ago. Once she was sure Angel Dust was okay, she started showing him the drawings she made, with the help of Fat Nuggets, which made the spider feel good.

He complimented the drawings and even showed her the other drawings he had kept when he came back the other day. That made the little girl smile, showing how much value Angel had shown in keeping her drawings.

Moments later, at dinner time, the spider offered to make the food, which surprised Anya a lot, as she didn't know that he also liked to cook.

And for the first time, she had tried Italian food, which she also ended up loving. Of course, he was careful not to specifically put carrots on her plate,knowing that she didn't like to eat this.

After dinner, Anya then walked towards her room, but as soon as she went upstairs, something crossed her mind and she quickly started heading towards a room she least liked to go to.

As soon as she arrived, the child began to knock on the door, which was opened without anyone on the other side. - "Come in, dear." - said the voice from inside.

This time, she entered a little more calmly, and went to the other side of the room, where it looked like some kind of swamp scene. And there he was, the Radio Demon, having dinner... a dead and still raw deer. The girl felt nauseous, but held back the urge to vomit right there, because she didn't want to give him a reason to anger him.

"So... did you find out anything useful or something, Anya?" - Alastor asked, before taking another bite of his dinner.

Anya looked around uncomfortably. Aside from Dust's thoughts, she hadn't seen much of the others at the momentand something told her that this information wouldn't interest him anyway.- "Eh... Anya didn't see much useful information at the moment. But look, Anya had an idea. Anya can write down on a pad of paper or something any useful information to send to Sir Alastor. What do you think about the idea, sir?"

She saw the Radio Demon think about this, and then he snapped his fingers and a small, old-fashioned notepad was summoned and he grabbed it out of the air. - "This might help you, child. And you don't have to worry about coming to show me all the time, my shadows will always bring it to me when you're sleeping and return it to you in the morning."

He then handed the notepad to her, and the child watched. The girl even considered asking about the shadows still spying on her or something, since he had promised to stop, but decided not to broach the subject. It was already clear that with Alastor, nothing could be expected.

And here she was now, on her bed, staring at the notepad in her hands. Anya began to consider what kind of information she had to get. After all, the Radio Demon had his shadows to spy on everyone in the hotel, but he also wanted to know each of their thoughts.

She felt bad about doing this to everyone, but there was no way out of this anymore. Whether she wanted to or not, she would have to do this favor and hope that she wouldn't owe Alastor anything anymore... at least for now.

She put the notepad away in some drawers of the commode on the left side of her bed and turned off the lamp, and got ready to sleep hugging her chimera doll.

Anya was at the bar the next day, drinking a strawberry smoothie made by Husk. And once again, they were both talking to each other through thoughts and nods.

"You'll have to write down everything we'll all be thinking now, won't you?"- he asked her in his thoughts, followed by the little girl's sad nod. - "Anya feels bad doing this to you all..."

She felt his fingers lightly caressing her hair again, comforting her. - "I know that. But don't worry, I'll help with this, after all, I want you to finish this as soon as possible and be at peace. It's a lot for a child like you to deal with."

The child began to feel tears streaming down her face, realizing how much this would start to wear her down in a short time. But the feline was right, she had to do it as soon as possible to finish that deal.

At this moment, Niffty appeared, jumping onto the stool, shouting at them with a smile. - "Good morning, you two!"

Anya quickly wiped the tears from her face, and smiled at the girl in red. - "Good morning, Niffty." - She replied, in a slightly nervous tone.

"Are you excited to go out, Anya?" - she asked eagerly. That took the little girl by surprise. Was she going out again?

"Anya's not sure if Mr. Dust will..." - she tried to answer, remembering the last time she left the hotel. But Niffty then interrupted her. - "Oh, but Angel will also go with us. We talked yesterday, and we agreed on a really cool place, where we can both have fun and buy some stuff!"

The child found herself surprised again by this. - "Wait, he's going with us?" - she asked, receiving an excited nod from the red cyclops. - "Yeah, he said it would be for safety or something. And also, because he wanted to buy some other things, too."

"Oooh... Anya gets it." - Anya replied, looking back at Husk. - "Well, as long as you're careful yourself and they're both careful with you, it's all good, Anya." - He replied to her, in his thoughts.

She nodded slightly in response, before feeling a tug on her hand. - "Then let's hurry up so we can go, Anya!" - Niffty exclaimed, as she ran towards the stairs and pulled the little girl with her, until they reached her room.

Anya found herself having her hair done by Niffty, after she helped her take a shower. After setting out her clothes to wear, she began to look at herself in the bedroom mirror again.

"Aww, you look so cute in that outfit, Anya. I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun today." - The red cyclops declared with a smile. With that, they both left Anya's room and headed to the lobby, where they saw that Angel Dust was waiting for her.

"So, ready to go, girls?" - he asked, with a smile on his face. They both nodded in response to him. Before they left, the child received another thought from Husk, telling her to be careful, this time.

She waved back at him before heading outside. One thing was for sure, she had to be more careful this time, not only to not worry Angel again but also to avoid problems, especially with Vaggie and Alastor, as she didn't want to deal with possible scoldings and yet another deal to deal with.

Unsurprisingly, she felt Angel place his hat on her head when they were understood that it was to prevent her from being discovered by the others in the city. And with that, Anya began following Niffty and Dust wherever they were going, promising herself that she would be more careful not to get hurt or kidnapped this time.

02/24/2025: And here is another new chapter. Manage to finish after lunch. I will start writing the next chapter and post it later. See you in a few days and I hope you enjoy.