Chapter 24: Overture
Before we begin, we will finally begin the events of the series. When I started writing this chapter, I felt very anxious and nervous. And warnings: As I said before, most if not all chapters will be mainly from Anya's perspective, but there will be a few paragraphs from the perspective of some characters as well. And I warn you again that many heavy details of the series will be left as implicit here, because besides the fact that I don't know much about certain topics, they are still difficult for me to write and develop,which can end in a way that I end up romanticizing them by accident. With that, we can finally start reading.
Anya lay in her bathtub, remembering yesterday's events. It was her first birthday, and although she had kind of lied about her age to everyone, she felt happy that everyone had thrown her a celebration. Anya believed that this new week would be full of surprises, and she was very excited to start her newest journey in the underworld, and help everyone at the hotel in her own way.
After a while, she came out of the bathroom and got dressed, and headed towards the door of her room. As soon as she walked out into the hallway, the little girl started looking around, expecting a sudden appearance from Alastor or something like that.
She still remembered when Vaggie had broken the radio he had given her as a gift. Anya had kept the pieces in her bed yesterday, and when she woke up, they were nowhere to be found. She didn't know where the pieces were, but she decided to ask some of the hotel staff later.
As soon as she went down the stairs and reached the lobby, something caught her eye in one of the windows by the door. She ran over there and seeing that she was too short to reach it, she decided to open it and peek through the door.
As soon as she did, Anya noticed that there was smoke and flames coming from various places in the city. That left her confused. What was going on? Was there another territorial war between the people there? It was then that something pulled her back and closed the door.
Looking up, she realized it was Charlie, who had a sad expression on his face. - "Sorry, Anya. But you weren't supposed to see this." - She murmured sadly. The child was confused. What wasn't she supposed to see? Curious, she then asked:
"Miss Charlie, what happened out there? Was it a war or something?"
Anya could see in Charlie's thoughts that she didn't want to let her know about the Extermination, which made her even more curious. - "Please, Anya really wants to know." - She begged.
It was then that another person appeared behind the two of them. - "My dear, Anya is right. She has the right to know about the Extermination since she now lives here. If you want, I can explain it to her myself."
Charlie quickly raised her hands in protest and declared with a nervous smile. - "No, it's okay, Al. Let me explain it to her myself, okay?" - and with that, she turned to Anya, her expression sad.
"Anya, come with me. There's something that needs to be explained to you." - With that, the princess began walking towards the stairs, with the little girl following close behind.
Charlie opened the door to her room, as Anya once again entered there. She saw the princess pick up a book and walk towards the window, where there was a sofa to sit or lie down. Through the same window, the child had a wider view of the burning city.
She ran over there, climbed up and observed all the chaos that was happening outside. That's when she heard a slight cough from Charlie, which made her turn her gaze to her.
"Anyway, Anya. This book tells the whole story of Hell. I didn't want to do this, but Alastor is right. Sooner or later, you would have to know the truth. Are you ready?"
Anya looked at the book and then at Charlie, and then nodded, determination and courage on her face. - "Anya is prepared, Miss Charlie."
With that, the princess opened the book and began to read the story to the little girl.
As she read, Anya allowed herself to wander into Charlie's thoughts as she followed the story her was telling. It was different from the few she had heard, especially in the thoughts of people in her world. And the little girl had to admit, it was very sad and at the same time, full of hope in the end.
As soon as she finished, the princess closed the book and raised a key in her left hand, while looking at the window and muttering. - "Don't worry, Mom. I'll make you proud."
It was then that Anya realized something: she hadn't asked about Charlie's parents before. She didn't even know who they were. But then, another voice entered the room, taking them both by surprise.
"Charlie?" - with the fright, the key transformed into KeeKee and flew out of Charlie's hands. This puzzled the child briefly, before she looked back at the person inside the room.
"Aah! Oh, shit. Did you hear all that?" - Charlie asked, a little embarrassed. The person, who turned out to be Vaggie, came a little closer and answered, while pointing to the door. - "Uh, yeah. I was right there."
"Sorry. I get pre-tty worked up after an extermination happens. The story helps..." - the princess explained, as she lookedfor the book andfor Anya, who smiled kindly at her.
Vaggie gave a light laugh and answered. - "I know. Don't worry, I enjoy your theatrics. Are you okay?" - she asked, as she sat down next to Charlie. - "I'm fine. Just... thinking, ya' know? Family stuff."
"Did you hear from your mom yet?" - Vaggie asked, worried. The princess shook her head from side to side, in dismay. - "Oof... how long has it been now?"
Before she could answer, she remembered that the child was still there. And then, Charlie let out a sigh and put her hand on the side of the little girl's face. - "Anyway, Anya. That was the whole story. You can go now. Vaggie and I need to talk in private now. See you later, okay?" - she declared, with a sad smile on her face.
Anya wanted to stay and hear more of the conversation, but she nodded in understanding and got off the couch. - "See you later, Miss Charlie and Miss Vaggie." - She bowed slightly, before walking towards the now open door and starting to walk down the hallway.
It was then that at a certain point, she bumped into something and when she looked up, she realized it was Alastor. Scared, the little girl took five steps back, fearing that he would kill her for touching him, even without wanting to.
"So, Anya. How was the explanation?" - He asked, moving his head slightly to the side. Anya began to tremble briefly, before answering. - "It was... it was normal, Sir Alastor. Miss Charlie... explained everything she could to Anya. And then, Miss Vaggie showed up... and Anya had to leave so the two of them could talk in pri-private."
After a few seconds of silence, the Radio Demon smiled even wider as he briefly closed his eyes. - "Alright then. I see I didn't have to explain everything to you, dear." - Then, he grabbed the back of the little girl's clothes and lifted her up towards his face.
Anya was briefly paralyzed with fear, as she stared at him. - "Well, let's go then. I have a meeting scheduled with everyone here at the hotel, and that includes you, little girl." - with that said, Alastor turned and began walking down the hallway, while still carrying the little girl in his left hand.
The child was on the floor, watching the commercial that everyone in the hotel had recorded and narrated by Alastor, including her. In the commercial, she was seen playing with her chimera doll, sitting on the couch next to Angel Dust. The moment she saw the camera, she smiled and waved friendly, while the angry spider gave her the middle finger.
After the commercial ended, the Radio Demon turned off the television, and asked Charlie and Vaggie. - "So, what do you think?"
Not wanting to contradict him, the little girl briefly clapped her hands as she replied. - "Anya loved it." - While the two women showed different reactions to her.
"I'm sorry. What the fuck was that?" - Vaggie asked, annoyed. Wanting to calm things down, Charlie started to give her opinion. - "Uh, yeah. One note, Alastor, I mean, first off, thank you so much for making this seriously amazing, but um, maybe the tone is a bit... off?" - the last part made Alastor briefly irritated.
Anya stepped back a little, startled, as the princess continued. - "We want people to want to come here. This makes it look, um..." - her smile fell, as she thought about what to say, until her girlfriend said it bluntly. - "Bad. The word you're looking for is bad."
"Funny. I was going for hilarious." - The Radio Demon stated bluntly. - "It didn't explain anything about how we're trying to save demons from extermination, which is the whole fucking point." - Vaggie replied, a little frustrated. Anya just looked between them, sweating coldly. At least Alastor wasn't angry anymore, for now.
"Vaggie is right Alastor, the commercial was to let sinners know we are trying to help them." - Charlie declared, as she explained.
The Radio Demon then began to ramble, as he paced back and forth. - "Well, my dear, I haven't been active in Hell for some time and everyone remembers me from my radio show, the proper medium to express oneself." - and then, he turned back and pointed at the television with his staff. - "But, you insisted on this noisy picture box advertisement. So, I had a little fun with it."
"Oh, fun? You had a little fun with it?" -With that, Vaggie got up from the sofa and began to argue with Alastor. Meanwhile, Anya decided to move away from there and go back to drawing on the papers that were on the floor.
She pretended to be oblivious to the whole discussion, until she heard the thoughts of Angel Dust, who was on the other sofa, and glanced at him briefly, at which point he raised one of his four hands.
"What?" - Vaggie asked, still annoyed. Smiling broadly, the spider began to declare. - "If you're filming a commercial, can I suggest you take better advantage of the talented celebrity you have right here?" - He straightened up on the sofa, picked up a bottle with one of his hands and pointed to himself, while smiling.
"Angel, you're a porn star." - the girl pointed out, discouraged. - "A famous porn star. I'll have the horniest sinners knocking these walls down to get in." - he pointed out, While still smiling.
Both of them didn't seem to mind having a child there listening to their conversation, as Anya was very focused on her drawings, or so they thought.
In the middle of his suggestion, the tip of one of Anya's colored pencils broke off when she heard Angel Dust's absurd idea: he wanted to film an adult commercial with Alastor, of all saw the Radio Demon teleport next to the sofa where the spider was.
The girl felt her body stiffen and began to tremble in fear, imagining that Alastor was going to kill Angel right there,for his audacity and lack of common sense.
But surprisingly, Alastor just laughed sarcastically and replied, still looking at Dust. - "Never going to happen!"
Anya let out a silent sigh of relief, but she froze when she heard the Radio Demon's thought. - "What, you thought I was going to kill him, right here and now? Convince him to stop harassing me, and he'll stay alive for you, Anya."
She glanced at him briefly, as she simply picked up another colored pencil and began frantically scribbling on the paper, before looking back down at the paper, wanting to avoid looking at him any longer.
She knew Angel Dust had a habit of flirting with guys, she had seen it in his thoughts, but apparently he didn't seem to care who it was, if he found the guy attractive enough, he would flirt anyway. And that had certainly gotten him into trouble on a few occasions.
Anya then remembered drawing one of his thoughts before, and that was when she realized that she had drawn both Husk and Alastor in the drawing. From the looks of it, he seemed to have feelings for those two, or at most, it was just other guys he flirted with anyway.
While still listening to the spider talking about himself after another comment from Charlie, she heard Charlie's phone ringing, and she picked it up and left the room, saying she would be back soon.
Anya was tempted to spy on Charlie, but everyone there would notice. Maybe she could read Charlie's thoughts later, when she got back. And of course, she would have to write this information down in the notepad Alastor had given her last week.
She then heard Angel ask if Alastor was so powerful, why didn't he make people appear and stay at the hotel. And the little girl looked at him, curious.
"Oh, trust me..." - the Radio Demon declared amiably, before smiling in a mischievously creepy look with dark magic. - "I can."
Anya gave a brief start and a soft scream, before getting up and running towards the sofa in front of her and throwing herself at the spider, startled and whimpering in felt that Angel was caught off guard, and then he wrapped his arms around her, while stroking her hair to calm her down. The little girl felt him pulling her into his fluffy chest, which made her calm down and feel safe.
Husk's voice was heard on the other side, complaining that he was forced to stay at the hotel, while Niffty happily said that she liked being forced. She also heard Angel flirting with Husk at that moment, much to the feline's annoyance.
But with her there, the flirting was somewhat toned down.
She heard Husk mentally thank her for being there, as it made Angel's comments less inconvenient in her presence.
She heard Vaggie saying that they couldn't force the sinners to stay at the hotel and that it had to be their Dust then pointed out that he had chosen to stay and that this was all bullshit and that they were literally in felt his grip on her arms loosen briefly.
"Well, Maybe it doesn't have to be. Just because nobody has made it out before doesn't mean it's not possible." -Vaggie approached, and then Angel got up from the couch, still carrying the little girl, and put a hand on Vaggie's shoulder, giving her a deadpan expression while the latter makes the same one. - "Hey, whatever means I can keep crashing here rent-free. Crack is expensive."
He felt the grip tighten on his body, and saw Anya looking at him sadly. Then, he squeezed her cheeks with the first pair of arms and mumbled with puffed out cheeks. - "Aww, don't be like that, Anya. You are now also part of the main reasons I am here."
Anya laughed with him in response, as she heard Charlie yell from the other side and call for Vaggie. She decided to ignore it, as Angel sat down back on the sofa and placed her next to him and went back to taking a sip of his drink.
Then she turned and briefly peeked at the conversation between the two women, along with the spider and the Radio Demon. And at that exact moment, she saw the princess begin to sing, while Vaggie tried to talk to her.
At that moment, she heard Angel comment that Charlie had left the hotel to sing in the city streets. The doors were open and Anya, Alastor, Niffty and KeeKee watched the princess leave singing.
As much as she wanted to follow Charlie around town, Anya wasn't allowed to leave the hotel alone. So, she let out a sigh and then went back to her papers to continue her drawings.
Before Anya knew it, everyone was gathered in the lounge, while Vaggie stood in front of them, a worried expression on her face and voice.
"Okay, so, Charlie is dealing with somethingveryimportant, so while she's gone, we are making a new commercial. One that represents her vision and what we're doing here. So, we need a ?"
In response, Alastor snapped his fingers and an old-fashioned camera appeared in Vaggie's hands. - "A video camera?" - and again, he snapped his fingers again and the camera disappeared and was replaced by a video camera.
"Alright! Let's do this!" -Vaggie declared excitedly. In response, Anya raised her arms up and screamed. - "YAY!"
Out of nowhere, she felt something being placed on her head, and realized that it was Angel's hat again. The child then let out a sigh of frustration, because even in the filming, she had to keep her identity hidden.
Vaggie began filming the first take, where Husk and Angel Dust acted out together at the bar. -."And… Action!"
Husk began to read his script, his expression and tone of voice discouraging. - "Welcome to the Hazbin Hotel. Can I help you with anything?" - with that, Angel began to speak, in a flirtatious tone. - "I've been a bad boy, and I need a big, strong daddy to put me in my place…on the path to redemption!"
Far away, Anya sighed in frustration and pulled the hat down to cover her face, seeing how poorly acted it all was. She continued to listen to the dialogue, and just wanted to disappear because it was so embarrassing.
That's when Vaggie's discouraged voice was heard. - "Cut! Okay, Angel, I need you to be less horny if possible, and Husk, can you maybe not have the script in front of your face?"
"I ain't no actor! I can't memorize this shit!" - Husk exclaimed, irritated. With that, Angel approached him, with a provocative expression and commented. - "Well, we could improvise this shit, baby cakes." - he then imitated a cat's growl.
Irritated, Husk just put his hand on the spider's face and pushed him hard off the counter, making him fall away - "Whoops." - he said, in a dry tone, before going back to drinking.
"Mr. Dust!" - the little girl's voice was heard as she ran to check on the fallen spider, while Vaggie just grumbled at the feline. - "Husk, come on."
Anya was dusting off her dress while Vaggie positioned herself so she could film her. - "Okay, Anya. You say, "You're going to love your stay at our hotel",okay?" - she declared, followed by the child's excited nod.
With that, she turned on the camera and started filming. Anya then adjusted the hat, took a deep breath and said the line in a very loud voice. The girl cut the footage and said, - "Look, Anya. You don't have to shout, just say it calmly and softly, understand?"
She nodded in understanding, and the camera turned back on. Anya then repeated the line as she walked forward, but ended up tripping and falling to the ground, hitting her face hard,as the hat fell from her head.
She then lifted her head from the floor and began to cry loudly, causing Vaggie to shrink back and approach her, looking nervous. - "Calm down, it's okay, Anya. It'll pass, you don't have to cry, okay?"
At that moment, Angel approached and asked in an incredulous tone of voice. - "What do you think you're doing?" - "I'm trying to calm her down, isn't that how you do it when a child starts crying?!" - she questioned, desperate, while gesturing to the little girl.
"But that's not how you calm a child down, Vaggie! Ugh, let me take care of this." - the spider let out a sigh and then took Anya in his arms and walked away, going towards Husk to help him calm down her.
Vaggie just let out a frustrated sigh and muttered to herself as she brought a hand to her forehead. - "Shit, I'm terrible at dealing with kids."
Next was Niffty, who was trying to stab for a bug with a huge needle. Anya saw Vaggie say what the red cyclops should say and after she said ready, Vaggie turned on the camera, but instantly, Niffty was paralyzed, while still looking at the camera.
That caused a kind of discomfort in Anya. She knew Niffty was scary, but not to that extent. After a few seconds of discomfort, Vaggie turned off the camera and the girl in red came to her senses. - "How was that?" - she asked, excited.
"Well, Niffty, you actually have to say the line, so let's roll again." - Vaggie explained, annoyed, leaving Niffty upset, but excited to try again.
But as soon as the camera turned back on, the same thing happened to Niffty again. After a few seconds of frustrating silence, Angel, who had taken a look earlier, approached again and whispered to Vaggie. - "You're doing great, Vagina."
Annoyed, the girl cut the footage and stood up. - "Cut! Alright, uhh… maybe we can try to… fix it in post." - "Do you even know what that means?" - the spider asked, receiving an angrily response from Vaggie. - "I'll figure it out!"
With that, Niffty approached a distressed Anya and asked. - "So, how did I do, Anya?" - looking at her straight in the eyes, the child gave a frightened scream and ran towards Angel Dust, hiding behind his legs to hide from the red cyclops.
In her room, the child was reviewing her notepad again. She had added two notes two days ago, but so far, nothing more had been heard. She put it back in the commode drawer and closed it, then threw herself on the bed and hugged her chimera doll.
Before she could close her eyes in frustration, she was suddenly transported back to the lounge, along with everyone else, and had her outfit changed into a Roaring Twenties style. She didn't even need to connect the dots to know that it was Alastor's doing.
She then heard Vaggie declare, with determination in her voice, as she had her outfit changed into the same style. - "Alright everyone, let's make a fucking commercial."
Hours later, everyone was sitting in the lounge, tired after filming. The child was drawing everyone's thoughts again, blissfully unaware of what she was doing, except for Husk and Alastor.
At that moment, she saw Vaggie leave the room and run towards the front door. Moments later, she returned with Charlie, while declaring that Alastor had found a way, while he agreed and laughed.
As soon as she sat down on the couch with Vaggie, the princess then asked, surprised. - "Wait, the commercial? You all made a new one?"
"Yeah, one of my best performances if I do say so myself." - Angel Dust replied, with a smile. Anya then got up from the floor and raised her hands up, while exalting. - "Anya also participated for the first time."
Charlie then felt tears emerging in her eyes, while smiling, excited. - "That's... that's amazing." - but out of nowhere, the spider put his finger on her lips, while speaking in an irritated tone. - "Sshh, it's starting."
At this point, everyone started watching the recorded commercial. But out of nowhere, the TV cuts to a breaking news report, causing Vaggie, Charlie and Angel to get annoyed and angrily complain, while Niffty claps and giggles. Anya, for her part, just made a sour face and let her shoulders slump in frustration.
In it, journalists Katie Killjoy and Tom Trench announced the following news:
"Breaking news in Hell today! We have just received word from the Heaven Embassy that the next Extermination is happening sooner than ever before. Do you know what that means, Tom?" - "No, what does that mean, Katie?" - "It means we're all royally fucked!"
The screen then cut to the Clock Tower, cutting to 176 days until the next Extermination, as screams were heard from the Sinners.
"Wait, what? Why?!" - Angel Dust asked, confused and incredulous. Everyone was in shock with the news, except for the smiling Niffty and Alastor. Anya felt like her heart was going to jump out of her mouth at the news. She glanced briefly at Charlie and as she read her thoughts, she felt her blood drain from her face as she realized what had happened.
03/17/2025: And finally, here is the first episode of the first season. My heart can't stop pounding with anticipation. It was very exciting to write this chapter. The next one will be out on Friday, since I'll be working this week. I hope you like it and let me know what you think in the comments.