Chapter 1: They Are Your Children
Notes:
The original note that I had written here for Chapter One got deleted thanks to me messing up pressing buttons so quick rundown of what I remember writing because this note was real long.
- Charlie and Vaggie were never dating.
- Heaven is a mirror opposite of Hell, and both are made like a DNA strand having 7 rings and 9 circles in a ring.
- I'm not going to have a normal update schedule.Thank yall for reading!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Adam tapped his pointer finger against the table, a small pout showing on the LED mask covering his face. It had been an awful extermination—not that he would tell his girls that, they all believe they did a great job. That was how it should be, but Sera would be talking his ear off about the stats of the extermination falling below quota with how many of those bastards were filling Hell. Sinners were awful awful creatures, and arguably the worst thing that ever came from Adam himself. A cherub brought Adam a plate of ribs as he threw up a hand to motion to the small creature, the guard of the embassy that was there to make sure that demons wouldn’t pass through the portal that connected Heaven and Hell. They just needed to figure out the right words and they’d be in Heaven.
No creature in Hell deserved to be in Heaven. None. Especially that traitor that created the place, Lucifer. Speaking of Lucifer, where was the bastard? Adam’s restless tapping got faster before he heard a “Hello” from a distinctly not-Lucifer voice from Hell’s side of the embassy. Well, he couldn’t act surprised, Lucifer had been a coward for so long it wasn’t surprising that he hadn’t shown up himself, so he motioned for the cherub who turned on the lights for the Hell embassy, turning on Adam’s projection as Adam leaned back in his chair, taking a rib in his hand and gnawing on it with a smirk on his face.
“‘Sup.”
A squeak from the girl paired with a “holy shit” in response whilst taking a small tumble backwards. The girl was almost a mirror copy of Lucifer, blonde hair that was done up in a loose ponytail that tied it back near the bottom of her ton of hair, red and yellow eyes, creamy white skin with large doll-like blush spots on her cheeks, the main differences that would be able to be pointed out is the small puppy-dog-like nose and goat ears that flipped up and down in anxiety. Another thing that was different from Lucifer was the fact that she was fuckin hot. She had a nice rack, at least a C cup, a gentle curve between her waist and hips that was subtle but not unnoticeable. Her outfit clearly was not tailored to make her look as sexy as she could be, the red suit clearly too small for her to the point he could see the suspenders and gold shirt that was tucked into her pants that hovered just above the heeled boots she wore that were something Adam had thought phased out with the Victorian era ending.
The girl pushed herself up, dusting herself off and correcting her hair into the proper positioning by running her fingers through it before beginning to speak again. “Hi! I’m Charlie!” Charlie, yes. He knew that name. It was what the daughter of his ex-wife and the traitor started going by some time a while ago, Adam hadn’t really paid attention. It never connected to Adam that he might have to meet the girl after hearing Lucifer rant about how stupid his daughter could be. It had been seven years since their last meeting before Lucifer just sent the paperwork in to address the numbers of the extermination without a meeting. It was fine, Adam didn’t particularly miss it, but this was a meeting he had been hoping to rub in Lucifer’s face. “My dad asked me if I could meet you.”
“I know,” Adam said, leaning back, inspecting the rib in his hand before eating it by pushing it through his mask. (The simple answer was a spell was placed on his mask so he could and he preferred to eat without his mask on because the feeling of the mask buzzing to get the food through was quite lethargic, but the look that Charlie gave him when he ate it was totally worth it.)
“Well…” Another rib in, paired with a grimace from the princess as she tried to find the words to address Adam. Oh, oh this would be fun. “Nice to meet you!” Her voice was cheery, so unbelievably so. She had to be hiding something behind that unending smile.
“Tooootally,” Adam said, leaning on the palms of his hands towards Charlie, scanning her for any underlying movements that gave away she didn’t mean it. Well, she didn’t. No demon was particularly happy to meet the leader of the exorcist army. “Nice to meet you too!” Adam reached out his hand to let Charlie grab it, her face lighting up as she tried, but her hand phased through it causing her to stumble rewarding her with a hearty laugh from Adam. “Oh! Oh my gosh! Lute! Lute, did you see that?”
Adam turned to an exorcist in the corner, her hands folded behind her back and back straight. Lute’s LED mask had one eye with a circle that had an ex almost scribbled through it and a mouth that looked sewn shut. Her uniform was in the grayscale—nothing much to look at but was meant to mimic the imps in Hell. It created a divide between imps and sinners, and that was exactly what Heaven had wanted. Imps were bred to be fighters. Sinners and imps would be a dangerous team.
Lute nodded. “Good one, sir.”
Adam let out another laugh, leaning back in his chair again. “Good shit.”
Charlie looked absolutely bamboozled, her brow furrowing. She pushed against the table as if to make sure that was solid before looking back at Adam. “So—you’re not here?”
“No, no, sweet cheeks. You expect me to go down there? ” A laugh. “No, I mean, I love the vibe, totally, I love your tunes. But! It’s such a bummer, man! Everything down there is just so— eugh —ya get me? Ew.” The exorcist’s leader let out a chuckle.
“Well, either way, I’m glad you asked to meet with me. I have this—” Charlie began, getting cut off by Adam putting a finger to her lip, his visage slightly glitching as he did so. Charlie’s face contorted in a way that Adam had to hold back a laugh as she tried to figure out how Adam was able to interact with her physically.
“Did your traitor daddy not tell ya that I didn’t ask for you?” Adam asked, slowly removing his hand away from Charlie’s lips before continuing what he had to say. “Figures he wouldn’t tell you what this meeting was for, he probably wanted you to have a hard time.”
“I—uh—oh.” Charlie’s face dropped for a moment, utter despair before turning back into a smile again, placing her hands on the table and leaning towards Adam. “Well! Either way I’d be able to take this chance to talk to you about a project of mine!” Charlie reached into her coat jacket, Adam watching out of the corner of his eye Lute stiffening and putting her hand on the hilt of her sword just in case the demon princess was going to try something.
Adam pulled her hand out of her jacket, an eyebrow quirked. “Well tell me that at least ya got the paperwork I need to give my boss to say things got done in this meeting for the reason we’re here. I would prefer not to get an earful from her because you slacked off.”
“I was—I was supposed to bring paperwork? Of what kind? Can I have my pets bring them?” Charlie asked, her arm sitting limply in Adam’s hand, not making any attempt at pulling away.
“Figures.” Adam laughed, dropping Charlie’s wrist. “Your daddy didn’t tell you that this meeting is to talk about the numbers of the extermination. To make sure both of us are playin’ by the rules.”
“Well! Good for both of us, that’s exactly what I wanted to talk about!”
“Both of us playing by the rules? ‘Cause, sugartits, if you’re tryna wiggle out of one of the rules I’m gonna have to stop you right there.”
“No no no—the extermination. I want to be able to put an end to it.”
Charlie gave Adam an expectant look, Adam staring back at her before breaking out in laughter after processing what she meant. “Oh! Oh good one! Fuckin—you think we can end the extermination?” Adam ran his hand down the surface of his mask and rubbed the edges of the eyes on his mask as if clearing it of tears. “You’re a fuckin idiot, ya know. We ain’t gonna just— hah —end the extermination because some bimbo bitch says we should.”
“Wait—what? Why not? I’m sure we can find a more— humane way of handling Hell’s overpopulation. And! And and and! I have the perfect thing to do just that!” Charlie said, fishing into her blazer yet again. Adam took a deep breath in. She was so utterly persistent. Alright, he’ll take the bait, but he would not be letting her win this. He wouldn’t lose to the demon daughter of his worst enemy.
“Okay, pitch it to me, babes,” Adam said, getting a soda from the cherub popping it open with a large fizz. “I am going to tell ya this, I’m not gonna tell ya anything but it’s not going to work.”
Charlie held the papers in her hands, beaming at Adam making the first man grimace slightly. How could she look so genuinely happy? What kind of acting classes did the traitor and his ex-wife put her in to make her such a good liar? The Father and Mother of Lies wouldn’t be able to raise someone who would be able to tell the truth. Right? No one in Hell could be this happy.
“Sooooo, my project that I keep getting interrupted every time I’ve told you about it is a hotel! A hotel to redeem sinners!” Charlie flipped through the papers, some falling out of her hands making her scramble to grab them as they flew in a circle to the floor.
“Doin great, babes,” Adam said with a chuckle, sipping on his drink. Charlie rolled her eyes and let out a small “har har” before standing up again.
She spun the papers towards Adam to show some kindergarten level crayon drawings of a hotel with drawings of sinners near the entrance and a rainbow above the hotel. Adam had to do everything in his power not to rip it out of her hand while laughing at it. This was such a funny bit, but he had to let her get to the punch line. “It’s called the Hazbin Hotel. Don’t let the name fool you, all the sinners in the hotel have made great strides forwards and are becoming much better people but if I can get Heaven’s backing I can figure out what makes a soul ready to cross over to Heaven and then once we have proof—”
“Woah woah woah. Stop right there, princess. You want Heaven to back something that you came up with that has no proof of whether it’d work or not? Don’t you think that’s well…” Adam looked up at the ceiling while pushing himself further into his seat. “...stupid? I mean, don’t get me wrong, whatever floats your boat! But if you’re going to try to get the Almighty on your side, shouldn’t you like, I dunno, get some hard and solid proof?”
Charlie took a deep breath, small horns poking out of the top of her head, closing her eyes and then picking herself back up, horns shrinking down again. “Look, doesn’t the Almighty already know everything? Shouldn’t we just ask Him if it’s possible? Would that be evidence enough?”
“Well, yeah. Obviously. He knows everything. But he hasn’t been around or his mouthpieces for over a thousand years. So, I don’t think there’s any luck for you, babe,” Adam said, rocking the tab on the soda can back and forth to hear the clinking noise that came from it and to break it off of the bottle.
“Well surely you have access to Him! You’re the leader of Heaven’s army!” Charlie said, hands balling into fists as she took a stance that made her almost excited at the idea of who Adam was. …it was weird.
“Oh, no. I don’t. Never have. You’d think he’d give direct access to the first man, the man he created, the first dick—”
“Wait. Slow down. You’re Adam? …oh my Grandfather that explains so much.” Charlie looked like she had an out-of-this world epiphany as she said the sentence out loud, before getting a mischievous smile. “Alright, Adam—”
“Call me the dick master,” Adam said, throwing up the rocker hand.
“...Adam, now that I know who you are, let me try a different approach.”
Adam let out a yawn, giving Charlie an unimpressed look, before looking at the clock. He’d been here for a half an hour. Not too long, considering his and Lucifer’s meetings would be hours on end of trying to bore each other. He could humor Charlie and not get in trouble for it… and it would keep him from Sera for longer. “Alright, what’s your different approach?”
“Redemption should be something you want.”
“And why’s that?”
“They areeee your children.”
A beat.
Lights started flickering, Adam slowly rising from his chair and the exorcist in the corner almost looked panicked but stood her ground. Charlie’s eyes went wide as she watched Adam get to his full height, her face going from having a gentle red undertone to her white face to a pale blue. She took a step back, obviously noticing she had made a mistake.
Adam grabbed Charlie’s wrist, pulling her roughly close to him, the glow of his mask entrancing. “They are not my children,” he growled out, the tone taking Charlie aback and almost making her lose the footing she had holding her up against Adam’s grip. Charlie’s breathing got faster, trying to pull herself from Adam who in response held her arm tighter. His tone went from low and gravelly to a yell the moment he spoke again, his mask glitching out mid-sentence. “THeY wiLL nEvER—” A static buzz. “Be mY cHILdrEn Af TeR thEY endeD uP hErE!”
Charlie’s heart was racing, trying desperately to get out of Adam’s grip before he chucked her at the wall, knocking the air out of her and causing her to land on her knees and then to her hands. She let out a yelp, moving quickly to scramble away from Adam. Adam stalked towards her, mask still glitching and wings spread wide making him larger. Adam grabbed her chin and forced her to look up at him. “Never rrrr suGgest that—at they are in ANY— eeeee way connect—ected to me!”
Charlie nodded in tears. “Yeh—yes, sir.”
“Good. This—iss meeting is oh—over.” Adam straightened up and let the visage of him and Lute in the room disappear, leaving Charlie alone in her tears.
“Adam, sir—” Lute began, trying to get Adam to look at her, removing her helmet and putting it on her hip, her white hair falling down neatly. She was a pretty angel—but stood out if she were to be put next to any non-exorcist angel with her soft gray skin and black halo. She had the most brilliant golden eyes that matched the color of Adam’s eyes. A cruel way of the Seraphim reminding him that he was in charge of the fates of the exorcists.
“Not a word, lieutenant,” Adam growled, not looking at Lute as he took off the faceplate of the mask and tossed it in the trash can on his way out of the meeting room. His brown hair flopped out of the helmet’s front revealing his face—a face that was arguably very plain. The one thing that made him stand out was his gold eyes. “That bitch will think twice before connecting me to the monsters of Hell.”
Lute sighed as she rubbed her temples. “Sir, you did not inform the princess of the six months cut off.” Adam let out a huff, pulling off the rest of his helmet and opening a portal to the Chastity Ring, walking through it and into his office where he started digging through a drawer for a new faceplate for his mask. “Do we go back and inform her?”
“ No. Lute, cut that shit out. We’ll figure it out later. Schedule another for like a week. Lucifer better show up instead of his bimbo daughter,” Adam said. “Sera is going to want to talk to me and Uriel might join. I don’t feel like having my mask off for that so help me find a faceplate before I end up having Sera waltz in because the cherub asshole told her we left.”
Lute shook her head slightly while letting out a breath. “Yes, sir.” Lute moved to go to a drawer adjacent from Adam, shuffling through the items before finding a new faceplate, grabbing Adam’s helmet and attaching the faceplate and its cords to the mask. “...are you okay, sir?”
“Do I look okay?” Adam barked out, grabbing the helmet from Lute and placing it back on his head. There was a safety to his mask that most didn’t fully understand. A safety in hiding. A moment of silence passed before he spoke again. “Thanks, Lute. Please just—hold down the fort. This might take a while. Don’t count on me bein’ back for a couple of hours.”
“Don’t let Sera or Uriel get to you, sir. You know they won’t do anything against you. You’re their poster boy,” Lute said, wracking her brain to find something more comforting. But, there wasn’t. Sera and Uriel were both leagues above Adam in their standing and anything said went. It didn’t matter what she said, there was still the level of inferiority Adam had to them. There were only two ways Adam was ever treated: like a god from those who didn’t want to piss off the Seraphim Sisters or like a pawn in a large game of chess by the Seraphim Sisters. It was not something that would help Adam’s sense of self-worth, and Lute knew that it crumbled daily. He bolstered his bodily looks yet kept himself hidden. He said he never did anything wrong, yet, he was scared for his girls on the daily if he does.
“Yeah, whatever, Lute. Just make sure the girls are training. We’ll need to make up for the halved time they aren’t trained for the next extermination since we didn’t meet the quota. Just tell them that we’re doubling the amount of exterminations to give them more bloodshed or some shit like that,” Adam said, waving a hand as he opened another portal, this time to Humility. “I’ll meet ya later at the show.”
“Yes, sir,” Lute said with a small bow of her head, watching as the man and his golden wings disappeared through the portal and the portal fizzled out.
Adam trusted Lute—more than any other angel in Heaven. She was the only surviving angel from the first generation of the exorcists. The only one that didn’t die that first round of gradations. Uriel had been so furious at the turn out of the exorcists training, destroying all of the exorcists without a trace. Adam sighed, folding his wings closer to himself to blanket himself from the idea of what Uriel would do to his girls if they weren’t able to fix the fall short of this year’s Extermination.
After several turns in the building of the Seraph, he finally found Sera’s office. He knocked on the door with three raps before just pushing his way in. Sera was sitting at her desk, her wings folded neatly into her back, hiding them from sight. It wasn’t uncommon for angels to hide their wings in private, so what took Adam aback was that Sera wasn’t alone. Her wings flipped out as she stood up, Uriel standing next to her. Uriel was the Seraph of Balance… and the creator of his girls. She had light blue curly hair that was pulled back into a ponytail and mimicked the movements of holy fire. Her eyes were silver and skin an almost pure white with gray freckles scattered all over her face. Her dress was traditional Heavenly garbs… similar to what Adam wore himself.
“Adam. Did you bring the paperwork with you?” Sera asked, looking at Adam, her white irises almost piercing the air. She had dark gray skin with white freckles under her eyes and white hair that was curled to a level of perfection Adam didn't much care about. Her dress was simple and long with angelic symbols and her stature that far exceeded Adam's. The only feature Adam genuinely thought made up for her bitchy attitude was the large rack she had.
“No. The bitch that came to the meeting didn't bring the papers. I got Lute schedulin’ a new meeting,” Adam said flippantly, leaning against the door, looking at his fingers as if checking out his nails despite the fact he was wearing gloves. “I can get the papers to you both… next week. Right? Right. Okay, I'm going to leave now and I'll see you hot ladies later.”
“Adam, stop there, please.” Sera held up her hand, Adam grimacing slightly. Yeah, he wouldn't get out of this one. He should have figured that, but he found no harm in trying to walk out on the higher angels. “Are you saying Lucifer sent someone in his spot again? Without the proper paperwork?”
“Yeah, I am. I think I said that clear enough. I mean, I can't believe you're still calling the bitch by his name. He's a traitor and you and Uri over there were the ones who cast him down to his proper place in Hell.” Adam used his head to motion to Uriel without breaking eye contact with Sera.
“He is still a man,” Sera said with a soft shake of her head. “A rose by any other name is still a rose, is it not?”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say. I'm not in the mood for your metaphors and shit like that. I need to get to training my girls so we can go back to Hell in June and—”
“You're cutting the Extermination dates down by six months? Does this mean you are doing a biannual schedule?” Uriel asked, finally speaking up, tilting her head slightly and moving towards Adam, scanning him up and down.
“Yes, Uri. Listen, you put me in charge of the Extermination and exorcists and so I'm making choices—”
“Choices that are beyond the power we have given you, Adam. You are to discuss choices like this with Sera and I before making the choices. We may have raised you to the power level of an archangel, but if necessary we will take that away and place Abel in your place as the leader of the exorcist army,” Uriel said, shaking her head and walking towards Sera's desk and shuffling through the papers.
“Hold on—say that again? Abel? My son? The kid who doesn't like the look of a sword let alone the idea of leading an army? You're sayin—Oh my gosh that's almost laughable,” Adam said as he face-palmed, giving Uriel a small glare. “Aren't you supposed to know what's best for Heaven 'n shit?”
“Adam, you're stepping out of line. Back down,” Sera said, placing her hands on her desk and giving Adam a stare that told him everything. But he wouldn't back down that easily.
“No. No. You put Abel in my place and that kid's dead. The only reason we haven't had more exorcists killed during the Exterminations is ‘cause the sinners down there are too scared to try the angelic weapons that are left down there. Abel would get hurt. He's too much of an idiot to—”
“ Enough , Adam. Your concerns are heard. Though, I would suggest you remember your place. You are at your level of power on a contingency, do not step out of line,” Uriel demanded, spreading her wings as a sign to Adam. He was close to plummeting. “What are the numbers of the Extermination this year?”
“Below quota, I know that. That's why I'm—”
“Below quota? Adam, are you not training these exorcists to work at the speed they are supposed to?”
Adam clenched his fists, nails digging into his palms. “It's not my fault the fuckers on Earth are all getting progressively worse! Hell is doubling in sinners almost monthly! It doesn't help that you halved my girls last year. We still have several exorcists who are training and not ready for the field! And we still killed more of those demon fuckers than we did last year! What do you want me to do? Be perfect?”
Sera looked at Adam, pity in her eyes. “Adam, stand down. You will train your girls and go to the meeting with Lucifer next week. We expect the quota to be met in June if not exceeded. No decision will be made on the behalf of Heaven by you.”
Adam folded his arms to his chest, looking away from Sera. “Yeah, fine. Whatever. I don't care. Can I go now?”
“You may.”
“One more thing, Adam.” Uriel crossed the room and grabbed Adam by the chin with her thumb and pointer finger, making him look up at her. “Never ever talk back to either of us like that again if you desire to keep your halo.”
Adam let silence fill the air, not making a movement before breaking and pulling himself out of her grasp. “Yes, ma'am.”
Charlie was shaking like a chihuahua when she opened the door to the hotel, eyes puffy and hair a mess. She was greeted with a hug from her best friend, Vaggie who immediately held her back to look at her. Vaggie was a moth demon—the only part of her that necessarily showed that she was a moth, being the shape of her hair that had a constant shape of a month's wings. Her hair was in a ponytail the majority of the time, held up by a bow that curled into an antenna-like shape. She had soft gray skin and large pink eyes. Well, eye. Vaggie had lost her eye fighting off an exorcist in an attempt for her life to be spared and lost her eye in the process. Charlie had found her cowering behind a dumpster in an alley.
“Oh my God, hun! Why do you look like you've been crying?” Vaggie asked, wiping Charlie's cheek of tears that still speckled her cheeks. Before Charlie could answer, Vaggie took Charlie's hand and pulled her towards the living room. “We made something that will cheer you up!” Charlie couldn't even protest that she just wanted a few moments alone so she could put herself together before seeing all the tenants of the hotel because Vaggie was so quick to sit Charlie on the couch and turn on the TV.
When the TV turned on, Vaggie was seen, in a get-up that was 1920s-esc, which meant… Charlie looked towards Alastor. Alastor was staring forward, almost not paying attention to anything. He had red and black hair with deer ears and skin that was a brownish-gray. He wore an outfit of the 1920s that was popular to show black men gaining a separation from white men. (Charlie had done several studies on human habits, and that was interesting to her.) He must have had a hand in making the commercial and Charlie felt her heart swell. She knew how much Alastor hated the TV and preferred radio, and as he was the “Radio Demon,” she fully understood where his preference stemmed from. Vaggie's voice was heard on the TV, making Charlie turn her head and ripping her out of her thoughts.
TV Vaggie didn't even finish her sentence before the sound of circus music came from Charlie's phone signaling that Lucifer was calling her. Charlie looked at her phone and then the TV. “Sorry, guys, I have to take this. It's my dad and that's kind of important. I'm sure we'll have sinners flooding the hotel as soon as the commercial is finished. I'll pay for it to air again, I promise I'll watch it!”
Charlie exited the room, Vaggie giving her a sad look as she left, Charlie picking up her phone.
“Heyyyyy, Dad.”
“Charlieeee! …Could you do me another favor?” Lucifer’s voice rang through the phone for the second time in the past two days, more than Charlie had ever had with a call.
“If it's to go to another meeting with the leader of the exorcist army again—no. I'm sorry, Dad, but I can't deal with that—that—that asshole again! Not to mention you didn't even send me with the proper paperwork or tell me what the meetings are for.” Charlie let out a pained sigh, looking at her arm, a bit of sting still present where Adam grabbed her.
“Paperwork? What paper—oh my Father in Heaven, I am so sorry! It completely slipped my mind that the Extermination just happened and that they would need that!” Lucifer said, papers being flipped around rather fast on Lucifer’s desk from the sounds of it. “He’s scheduled another meeting for next week and I’d prefer him not to rub it in my face that I’m no longer in contact with your mother and I know he will. He’s an asshole like that. And don’t you want to make a difference in Hell? This will be your only way to get into contact with Heaven.”
“Dad, no.”
“Please, Charlie! I’ll do anything for you!”
Charlie rubbed her temples with her pointer finger and her thumb, her mind thinking about the things she could have her dad do for her. She could use some books on therapy from the human world which her dad did have contact with a demon who could get them…
“Fine.”
“Oh my Father! Thank you, Charlie, you have—”
“I have two conditions though. One, you send me the papers I need for the meeting. Second, you get me in contact with Dantalion.”
“Dantalion? Alright. I’ll send you the papers now—”
Charlie heard a buzz, the papers appearing in her hands, a small smile appearing on her face.
“As for Dantalion, I’ll need a moment. He’s a very busy doctor—”
“Librarian.”
“Right! But just maybe you’ll need to remind me if I don’t finish it after the meeting which is…” More paper fwipping. “Next week, same time as this week’s.”
“I’ll be there.”
Notes:
"Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated." -Coretta Scott King
Chapter 2: The Deal That Starts Everything
Summary:
Charlie and Adam's second meeting... goes semi-smoothly.
After a... dream, Charlie goes to see an old friend... and ex.
Lucifer is concerned for his daughter.
Notes:
Hiya, I'm back with Chapter Two, and Chapter One got such good feedback, it gave me such a full of dopamine response.
Alright: Trigger warning in this chapter is romanticized sexual assault. There's a small bit of smut and this is part of it. I do not romanticize SA myself and I do not support romanticize SA. Anything that happens canonically to Claimed between Charlie and Adam is 100% consensual. Please, please click off if you don't like this.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Charlie gripped the papers in her hands, a soft purple under her eyes and the paper nearly folding in on itself. She had stayed up almost the entire week studying and memorizing the paperwork just in case Adam wanted to tell her she was useless or test her to make sure she learned from the last time they had a meeting. It wasn’t something that she was too fond of—the last meeting, that was. Charlie pictured Adam’s wings spread out as he towered above her, a face of pure and utter rage that… glitched. It told Charlie one thing for certain: Adam had a face under that LED horned face. A part of her half believed that exorcists were just made like that—horns and all. But, she supposed that wouldn’t make sense walking around Heaven with horns.
Charlie’s mind wandered, signing the paper that let her into the rest of the building absentmindedly. She wondered what Adam looked like under his mask. Did he have dark hair? Or light? Did he have a beard of any sort or did he have smooth skin? What did the first man look like? Though, with how rude he was, she could see him looking like one of the aristocrats she often interacted with. But that wouldn’t account for how crass he was. He did like rock music because normally, people who didn’t like rock or didn’t listen to it often didn’t throw up the rocker symbol in casual conversation. Perhaps he was a rockstar—did they have those in Heaven? Did he have his own band?
Charlie shook her head as she walked into the meeting room, this time not greeting the angel she would know to be in the room before finding a light switch and turning it on. “I’m back!” Charlie said, cheerily, tilting her head to the side with a big smile and hands held up at her chest. Adam was mid eating a rib, which must be his favorite food since he had had the food the last time they met. Disgust crossed his face, Adam placing the rib down and rubbing his eyes despite the mask as if he was dreaming.
“You? Again? Fuck, Lute, you see her or is Lucifer pulling my leg?” Adam asked, pointing at Charlie while looking at the exorcist who had been in the corner the last meeting. At least, Charlie assumed it was the same exorcist since Adam called her the same name he called the angel in the corner last time. Though, it could just be a ranking title. Charlie realized really quickly she knew next to nothing about the exorcists despite their constant attack on her home and her people. She should probably look more into the exorcist angels—if they had any information on them in the libraries.
“I see her, sir,” the exorcist said with a nod. Ah, same exorcist. That was the same voice as the last one. Charlie examined her. Lute was in a defensive pose, hand on the hilt of her sword as if Charlie would attack at any moment. This was the closest Charlie had ever been to an exorcist.
“Yeah, I’m here in place of my dad again, he asked me to, and I asked for the paperwork so I also have that for you~” Charlie hummed, placing the paperwork down in front of Adam who grabbed the papers, looking over them with a skeptical eye. He frowned a bit, furrowing his brow as he flipped through. Charlie didn’t like the silence that happened while Adam was reading, so she decided she would relay the information out loud. “You and your army’s work has grown about 15% since last year, from around 150 million to 172.5 million sinners killed. Hell’s growth has been growing at an exponential rate so while you did grow in the amount of sinners you killed, Hell will be able to gain back the loss within the next two years, with about 4 million sinners spawning in Hell every month since last January and the number is still rapidly growing, likely it will get to over 6 million in a month within the next two years. With that growth, the projected amount of sinners will be too many to handle for your forces to even put a dent in in about five years. I think that proves we should and need to find alternatives before Hell can no longer hold the sinners. Not to mention, we still have several million sinners from almost a millennia of time. You still struggle at putting a dent in Hell’s population as it is. I believe we can find a mutually useful deal that will be able to handle Hell’s overpopulation.”
Adam sat the paper on the table, looking at Charlie. “So you can do something. Good job! Being something other than a basic bitch,” Adam said, paired with a laugh, causing Charlie to grimace. “…Alright, princess. Could you just—sum that up for me. I nearly dozed off after your first sentence, that shit was so boring.”
“Your exterminations aren’t putting a dent in Hell’s population and within the next two years we need to find an alternative before you’re only able to kill 1% of the population,” Charlie said, giving Adam an unimpressed look. “What are you reading the paperwork for if you don’t—”
“Alright, stop. An alternative? Why in God’s name would we need an alternative?”
“Because Hell is growing too fast!” Charlie pretty much shouted, slamming her hands down on the table. “The Pride Ring is running out of room on the top circle which is where the sinners are confined to. You’ll never be able to help with the overpopulation—”
“Hold on. Overpopulation? Are you telling me your daddy didn’t tell you about this meeting’s meaning last meeting and he didn’t tell you the real reason why the exterminations were set in place?” Adam ran his hand down his faceplate as he laughed. “There’s no way you think that Heaven actually cares that Hell is getting cramped. No, no no. Absolutely not. No one cares.”
“Then—then why is the Extermination in place?”
Adam tapped the table, his face twisting up as if he was thinking about the answer before he looked at Charlie with a large smirk. “You.”
Charlie felt her heart drop to her feet, her throat drying up. “Wha—what?”
“You. Did I say it correctly? Yeah, I think I did. You were born despite all the odds, against all the curses that were put on your parents so they wouldn’t be able to make an heir. Not to mention, your dear mommy decided once you were born, she’d be able to start a crusade. She started building an army. To take out Heaven. For you. So, yeah. Overpopulation is the least of your—”
A scream cut Adam off. Not one of fear—one of pain. Anguish. One of hurt. His eyes widened as he looked down at Charlie who was in the fetal position, hands in her head, nails digging into her scalp and tears running down her cheeks in droves. ”I KILLED THEM!” Charlie repeated that so many times she lost count until she felt Adam’s hands around her wrists, pulling them out of her head and forcing her to stand up.
“That’s fucking enough,” Adam said. “Yeah. You did. But you didn’t choose to be born, did you? So why are you crying like you can change that you were born?”
Charlie tugged against Adam’s, tears still streaming down her cheeks but the screaming stopped. “Let go of me!”
“If I let go of you, are you going to keep hurting yourself over this stupid shit?” Adam asked, forcing Charlie to look at her fingers that were tinged with her blood. Charlie’s eyes widened slightly, face paling as she looked at her fingers, her body relaxing for a moment before she started shaking.
“I—I didn’t realize—”
“Obviously you didn’t. You were already screaming. A little blood is the least of your worries in that stupid head of yours, right? Sit your ass down and we’ll figure out an alternative for the actual problem, if we can’t come to a mutual agreement, then the Extermination will be simply doubled annually to account for the growth of Hell.”
Charlie obliged, taking a seat at the table, fidgeting with her hands. “I can’t have you double the Exterminations. My people already live in fear for their lives to end permanently one time of the year. I can’t force them to live with it more than that.”
“Well that ain’t your choice, now is it, Princess? I’ll tell ya this—your redemption idea won’t work. No proof, nothing we can do for you. You got any other ideas?” Adam asked, threading his fingers together, putting his chin on his hands.
“I can give you something of importance or I’ll personally make sure that the denizens of Hell don’t rise up. If I make them satisfied—”
“I have an idea. I’ll hold off the Extermination and you keep the sinners at ease. If this is broken at your end, my army is allowed to purge all the sinners. No sinner will be allowed to live. And I get your soul. If I break the deal and reinstate the Extermination you will be allowed to train all of your sinners and attempt to fight back. I’m sure you’re smart enough to figure out angels’ weaknesses if it comes down to it.”
Charlie flipped over the words in her mind, thinking over them carefully, accounting for the negatives and positives in every scenario. Charlie would have thought that Adam wouldn’t put such a good incentive for if he broke his side of the deal and she would need to barter. Charlie knew this was too good of a deal to pass up—and keeping sinners not rising up would be easy if Charlie told her parents that her soul was on the line. That, though, was the downside. Charlie was entirely sure if she had a soul to give. She was pretty sure that hellborne didn’t get souls—not that it wasn’t surprising, but it did mean she couldn’t make this deal. If she did it would be untruthful—something that almost went 100% against who she was. She wasn’t below lying, and she had, but not about something that is life or death for so many people, and if she lied making the deal, it would be equal to breaking her end of the bargain, which would make her have to agree to a purging of all the sinners in Hell. That was why she couldn’t say yes right away.
“I don’t know if I have a soul I can offer. As far as I’m aware, Hellborne don’t have souls,” Charlie said, wringing her hands with her eyes looking down at them as she did so. She chewed on her bottom lip, casting her eyes briefly up to Adam to see if she could tell the emotions he was feeling. The man just tapped his chin before motioning to Lute and whispering something to her that Charlie wasn’t able to make out. Lute gave Adam a small nod before disappearing out of the room.
“Give me a second, I’m checking that,” Adam said, leaning back and pulling out a phone. Silence rushed over the room as Lute came back into the room and Adam began talking to someone on the phone. It was surreal, watching Adam talk into the phone but only silence coming from his mouth. It was like turning a movie on mute, only the difference was Adam was physically in front of her… in a way. He was a 3D object pacing around the princess as he talked on the phone. He seemed to be getting frustrated, his hand running down his mask in frustration, the golden sharp toothed smile he typically had curved down in a frown. Eventually though he hung up the phone, sliding it into a pocket that seemed to disappear the moment his phone was hidden. Lute walked up to Adam, looking slightly concerned before Adam lifted a hand to stop her and made a shoo-ing motion. Lute rolled her eyes and left the room, this time not returning as Adam began to say something, a bright light flashing causing Charlie to wince.
“Alright, the big guy who handles souls after death told me hellborns do have souls, it’s just a common belief they don’t so that sinners don’t try to mess around with hellborn souls. Sinners are fucked up enough to do such a thing,” Adam said, swinging his hand dismissively. “Meaning, you have a soul. One you can make deals with and offer as you so please.”
Charlie furrowed her brow. There was a person who handled souls after death? Did he make the judgement calls? Was there a way for Charlie herself to get in contact with him? Did he know how judgement was made? Charlie shook herself out of her thoughts and nodded. “Then I agree to the terms of your deal.”
Adam’s grin grew into something vicious, him putting his hand out. “Then put ‘er there, princess. Yes, I am really here right now, that’s what that little flash was. Can’t make any deals without being in person, now can I?”
Charlie nodded, a soft orange glow of her magic wrapping around her and her blood red horns growing out of her head as her hair began to flow like a fire behind her as she offered her hand to Adam, taking his. Adam’s wings spread wide, a gold and orange light emitting from their hands, fighting for control over the other’s light. The entire room became blinding for one moment, Adam pulling Charlie in seconds after, his mouth hovering next to her ear.
“Little reminder, princess, if you fuck this up, you belong to me.”
Charlie gulped, her eyes getting wide and mouth going dry, ear flipping with anxiety and perhaps something else. Not something that Charlie could necessarily pin down at the moment as she froze in place. Adam pulled away and gave Charlie a look. “Same time next week.” He then whispered under his breath, disappearing from the room, leaving Charlie staring at the spot he had been standing, hand to the ear he had whispered in.
Charlie let out a yelp as she looked out her window, scrambling to her feet to go figure out what was going on. It was a large group of sinners—most she didn’t recognize—all holding weapons and raising their fists to the sky, the sinners that had wings flying towards the sky where the orb that lit up the sky in representation of Heaven hung.
Fuck.
Fuck fuck fuck!
She had just made the deal with Adam and the sinners were already trying to take down Heaven. It was wrong. No, they would all end up dead; and it would all be her fault. She scrambled to the doors of the hotel, pushing them open to address her people before the sinners flying towards Heaven were knocked down from the sky with a golden flash, red blood falling on the group like rainfall. Charlie’s eyes went wide. No no—she had failed her people. She was too late.
“Guess who it is?!” came the all-too-familiar voice of the exorcist leader, Adam. His golden wings spread wide and his eyes immediately landing on Charlie who attempted to cower back into the hotel, but not before Adam had grabbed her, pulling him flushed into him. Adam was bigger than her—bigger than she remembered. “You failed at keeping your end of the bargain, princess~”
Charlie’s head spun as exorcists flew down, mercilessly killing the sinners who had tried to rise up against them. “I—I’m sorry—” Charlie tried to get out, only to be shut down by Adam’s hand wrapping completely around her neck to quiet her.
“You will speak only when I permit it, you got that? You belong to me. ” Adam’s hand tightened around Charlie’s throat until she gave him a nod. “Now that you belong to me, I need to claim you. I can think of a really good way of doing that…” Adam unbuttoned Charlie’s pants with ease, his hand slipping into her underwear, the blackened skin that Adam had making Charlie’s head spin round. She hated to admit it, but this was so incredibly attractive. It was hot. That thought in itself was concerning. She opened her mouth to tell Adam no, only for her throat to be squeezed again, causing her mouth to shut.
Adam’s fingers found Charlie’s clit, rubbing relentlessly, causing Charlie’s legs to turn to rubber, whimpers and whines coming from her lips as Adam worked expertly. Charlie’s legs squeezed around Adam’s hand as if trying to leave no room for Adam to work. “You need to stop—” Charlie wheezed out, not getting any punishment for speaking this time around… at least for the first few seconds until Adam plunged a finger into Charlie’s cunt.
“I need to stop? Stop using my own property? No. ” Adam’s finger stretched Charlie and it was only one finger at the moment. And then a second finger joined not long after, making Charlie release a yelp. She squirmed against him, but moans and whimpers didn’t stop coming. She liked what was happening to her. That was the worst part of this whole thing.
A loud ringing came into Charlie’s ears, Adam’s fingers no longer working on her and seemingly gone. The ringing continued and it almost reminded her of her…
It was her phone.
Charlie rubbed her eyes, sitting up and looking around. It had been a dream. She looked at her phone, the phone buzzing against her desk in the way it did whenever she put it on vibrate. The name that was across her phone being “Dad.” She looked at the time after, seeing that it was 3am. What in the world was Lucifer calling her for at 3am? It certainly wasn't something Charlie would handle right at this moment. She pressed the power button on her phone, turning the buzzing off but making it seem like she had just slept through the buzzing. Charlie looked down at herself, her pajama pants soaked through. This had been the third day of waking up like this to a dream like that. While it wasn't the ideal sexual fantasy, Charlie did have an attraction to anything seen as taboo. It didn't help that she did find Adam extremely attractive—or at least, what her head imagined him being and looking like attractive. The mystery of the man made her brain spin in circles trying to figure him out. Despite how much he had talked to her, his personality and who he was was still shrouded in mystery. That in itself was just as attractive as anything else.
She ran her hands through her hair before standing up to clean herself up, her succubus tail swinging back and forth as she did so. Her succubus tail only showed itself when she willed it to or she was very horny. She mentally went down the list of people she could contact to try to get off to. She needed something so she wouldn't be downtrodden later. As a succubus, she gained energy from sexual acts. Which ultimately meant when she got like this, she needed something, and after a dream like that she knew her toys wouldn't do a thing. The princess needed dick.
Finally, her mind landed on her ex: Prince Seviathan Von Eldritch, the heir to Envy and Princess Leviathan's nephew. She took in a deep breath and nodded. Yeah, he would be the only one who'd understand her full predicament and she didn't feel like getting fully ready and finding a one night stand at a bar. She opened her phone, seeing that her dad had tried calling twice more, but she mostly ignored it. She'd get to him in the morning. She even set an alarm to remind her to call him back before dialing Seviathan's number and waiting for him to pick up. When he did, though, he sounded like he had just woken up.
“Lottie? What's up?” Seviathan asked, a yawn paired with the question.
“Hey, Sevvy, would you—uh—would you be fine with a hook up tonight?” Charlie asked, mind reeling at figuring out how to ask him.
“Aren't we exes, Lots? Won't people talk? And I know your dad doesn't like me—” Seviathan said, a shuffling heard on his end of the phone.
“What my dad thinks about you doesn't matter. I'm three hundred years old, it's not a big deal. He's got no control over me, especially after what he asked of me recently,” Charlie said, holding the phone to her ear with her shoulder as she flipped through her closet for a jacket. “I'll explain more if you want it when I get to your house. Please?”
“Alright, Lottie. Just—sneak in through my balcony. I'll leave the door unlocked. Don't get caught by cameras. We made our breakup open to the public a year ago, and you know how the news is,” Seviathan said. “They'll make up some shit about how we lied and slash or how we're getting back together. I know that's not what you want. You made that very clear to me.”
“Thank you, Sevvy. I'll be over in twenty. See you then,” Charlie said, hanging up the phone and finishing getting a discreet outfit on so she can sneak around without being recognized as Princess Charlotte Morningstar. She pulled her hair into a messy bun and pulled her hood over her head, opening a portal to a secluded part of Envy near the Von Eldritch manor. She poked her head out of the manor, looking both ways before taken the well worn path she knew to the back of the manor, slipping beyond the sleeping hellhound guards with practiced elegance.
When she could see Seviathan’s balcony, she pressed herself to the wall, grabbing onto the mossy bricks, climbing up before swinging her legs over the ledge, entering the man’s room, peeking around. “Sev, I’m here.”
“Lottie, over here,” Seviathan’s voice came—and Charlie was right. He still looked tired, his hair that typically was slicked back so neatly messy and his hat sitting on his dresser. He was in his boxers, his thin structure open for Charlie to see. Charlie remembered the time that she had been attracted to the man, and the times the had made genuine love to each other, but those times were long gone after what had happened. She fell out of love suddenly, and she was happy they were at least on speaking terms now. Friends with benefits at the most, but they’d never be lovers again.
Charlie threw herself at him, pulling him into a kiss, pushing her tongue into her mouth. They made out for a few minutes, intertwining themselves together before Seviathan pulled away and made Charlie sit down. “You told me you’d explain. Why are you here, Lots? And why the fuck at three thirty in the morning?”
Charlie let out a huff of pent up sexual frustration, folding her arms over her chest. “I had a wet dream and I need to get a release.”
“It’s clearly more than that, you don’t have wet dreams so crazy you need me and not to just go pick up a demon from a bar who’d fuck your brains out. I’ve known you for your whole life, I know you,” Seviathan said, flicking Charlie’s forehead and sitting in a chair across from her.
Charlie winced, glaring at the fish demon. “Fine, fine. I found a guy I’m attracted to. He’s great and all and fucking hot, and I’d love to have him fuck my brains out but he’s just—out of my league.”
“Out of your league? Charlotte. You’re the fucking Princess of Hell. You can bag any demon you want. Sure, some demons would be controversial… and if you ever got with my sister one of you two would end up dead because if you’re marrying into the Von Eldritches you’re going to marry me, but any demon you could pull with a blink of the eye.”
“Okay, first of all, Sev, I’m sorry but I hate your sister. She’s a lying bitch who tried and succeeded to ruin our relationship and we still can’t hang out in the open as friends without her loud mouth complaining about our friendship. She also is the reason my dad fucking hates you. So nice try, but I’ll never be marrying into the Von Eldritches. And second of all, it’s a little more difficult than that,” Charlie said with a humph. “This guy hates me.”
“Is that why you find him attractive?” Seviathan asked, leaning forward with his arms resting on his knees.
“Oh fuck you,” Charlie shot.
“Isn’t that why you’re here?”
“Fine. Yes. It’s so attractive. He’s strong. He was able to sling my body across the room so easily.”
“He flung you across a room?!”
“Yes but that’s besides the point—”
“I think that’s a great point to tell you you shouldn’t be attracted to the man.”
“When has that ever stopped me?” Charlie asked, raising her eyebrows and folding her arms. “I thought you knew me well enough. Not to mention, I’m sure a bit of time with me, I can fix him.”
Sev let out a groan, running his fingers through his hair and giving Charlie a “I’m severely concerned for your mental health” look before shrugging. “You can’t fix men who are willing to do that. But with that, I’m guessing you want me to be rough with you tonight?”
“Please?” Charlie asked, giving Seviathan a puppy-dog like look.
“Safe word?” Seviathan asked.
“Yellow.”
“Alright.”
“YOU GAVE UP YOUR SOUL?” Lucifer’s voice came through Charlie’s phone the moment she heard him pick up.
“No—Dad no I didn’t. But it is held on a contingency that Hell’s denizens don’t try to rise up against Heaven. My soul is all mine unless sinners try to take over Heaven. AND! And I got Adam to agree to not do the extermination,” Charlie said, a bit of pride slipping into her voice as she paced in the bathroom attached to Seviathan’s room as the demon prince slept soundly in the other room.
“So you made a choice that voids my deal with Heaven and puts you in direct danger of the most fucked up man in existence?” Lucifer scolded slightly, making Charlie let out a groan, running her hand down her face. “And I know he’s just your type. Fucked up men who would kill you if they got the chance and hurt you—”
“Dad, stop it,” Charlie hissed. She had already had this conversation once tonight, she didn’t feel like being scolded for being attracted to a dangerous man again. “It’s not like I’m going to fall in love with him. He’s a douchebag with a horrible sense of humor. So what if I find him attractive? I’d never date him.”
“Don’t lie to me, Charlotte. You’ve definitely thought about it.”
“I have not! Plus… Dad… I actually wanted to ask you… why did you lie to me?” Charlie asked, her voice taken a more sullen tone. Silence followed. “The extermination wasn’t set in place because Hell is overpopulated. It’s in place because Mom tried to rise up. Because I was born.”
“Heaven is run by a bunch of idiots, Charlie. I did what I needed to keep you safe. I did not lie to you, it was already a—”
“You told me repeatedly that the angels come down yearly to make room for more sinners because you’re forbidden from opening the other rings to sinners. Or can you open the other rings? How much can I believe what you’ve told me in the past about my people?”
“Charlie—our people are awful. They don’t deserve your good graces or anyone else’s. If they die that’s on them. They ended up in Hell.”
“Well, so did you. I’m done with this conversation. I have a friend sleeping in the next room and would prefer to not wake him up,” Charlie said, rubbing her temples.
“...I love you, Charlie.”
“Goodbye, Dad.”
Charlie hung up and sent the hotel group chat a message, telling them she would not be coming back to the hotel. Seviathan wouldn’t be mad about a day with her and she knew that. She just needed away for a short time. She could probably get Sev’s opinions on how she should make attempts at redeeming sinners. He was just as skeptical as every other demon in Hell of what she was doing, but at least he was tactical about telling her she was going to fuck up. Everyone else just laughed at her and Sev would be a breath of fresh air compared to the disrespect she got on a daily basis walking around the Pride Ring. She didn’t care to stand up for herself—it was fine. She’d earn their respect when she is able to prove redemption was possible.
Because it is.
And she’d prove that to all of Hell.
Notes:
Next Chapter: Sera isn't too happy about Adam's little deal with Charlie.
Chapter 3: Adam
Summary:
{Enter Emily stage right}
Notes:
No trigger warnings today!
I genuinely would've had this chapter done last week had I not been hit by a little thing called depression but I'm glad I waited to write it, the story did get more fluid story beats and it doesn't sound like a foreign language, which it did when I was writing last week.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“None of them are right! None of them!” Uriel groaned, hands slamming down on her endless papers of designs of what looked like angels. “None of them will work!” Uriel swiped the papers off the table, letting out a frustrated growl. They had failed her, none able to get through her tests successfully. They needed to be able to pass her test to be able to kill demons. Lilith, the mother of all demons, the bitch was trying to take Heaven down and Uriel had gotten Adam to give what he believed would hurt Lilith the most—an extermination of souls. She made him the commander of the unmade army and forced Lucifer to sign the paper in agreement. The antichrist was the only problem… she was protected by the only part of the deal that Lucifer demanded. That would be dealt with later on. Right now, the unmade army of exorcists needed to be made.
“Uriel,” came a voice that had layers—one that sounded feminine, another male, and the last something androgynous. Uriel looked up, her eyes scanning the angel in front of her. They were a principality—the only principality that had been informed of what was going on, as they were the only principality that was willing to be killed and reborn for the cause. “One of the exorcist prototypes has made through your test.”
Uriel’s eyes widened. “Which prototype?”
“P-974, ma’am,” the principality said with a small nod.
Uriel shuffled through the papers on her desk before finding the design labelled P-974, a design Adam himself had made that had been redrawn for accuracy. It was a thin woman, with gray skin and a black halo. The wings were smaller than typically necessary to get an angel off the ground, but would suffice. Everything about the design was in the grayscale, and Uriel furrowed her brow. There would be no way an angel like this would fit in. Not that it mattered, these exorcists were meant to be expendable. Making friends with the Risen Ones would cause duress.
“Tell Adam to meet me in the testing facility,” Uriel said, shooing the principality away with a flick of her wrist, examining the paper more thoroughly. The exorcist design Adam had come up with reminded her of… Akeldama. The oldest daughter of the Eden couple. It seemed Adam wanted something he was familiar with.
…or he knew what Akeldama had been capable of in life and knew she would be the best base for a killing machine.
Either way, it didn’t matter much, the design was the only one to care for. Uriel folded the paper neatly, holding it in her left hand while her other hand made a move to blow the papers of the failed exorcist designs in the trash before teleporting herself to the exorcist testing room. She looked over the faux angels that lined against the wall, the failures. A thousand failures—well, 999 failures. Only one was worthy of her time.
“Urie!” Adam called to Uriel, causing the seraphim to turn her head. “Hey! Uh—is something… wrong here?” The smaller angel was meek in front of her, but not in front of other angels. Other angels he was above. He was not above her; he knew that.
“Nothing is wrong, Adam. In fact, we have found the only design to finish my test and thus will be the only design to live and be used as a base for all other exorcists,” Uriel said.
“...the other designs—” Adam’s face paled. “What if I give them more training? We have more levels? Leagues? Or or—”
“The decision has been made, Adam, no use in trying to save creatures without souls,” Uriel said, her tone condescending. Adam took in a deep breath and nodded, casting his eyes to the ground. “Follow me.”
They walked down the line, the test products standing at attention, some bruised and battered, gold blood scattering the ground. Adam kept his eyes on the ground, trying to not meet the eyes of the people next to him. Next time, he wouldn’t be getting to know any of the angels made for his army before they passed Uriel’s tests. Because now he knew so many of them, but only one of them would walk out of here in one piece. They walked for a while before stopping near the end of the line, prompting Adam to look up.
“P-974, step forward,” Uriel commanded, a smaller angel obeying. She was the smallest angel of the entire group of prototypes, her head held high. It took Adam a moment until he realized… it was his design. “You are the only exorcist prototype who managed to pass all my tests, and do so without getting a scratch on you.” Adam held his breath as Uriel brought her hand up, snapping. Every prototype that wasn’t 974 abruptly disappeared, leaving behind only the puddles of blood on the ground from their failed attempts at the test. Adam winced and the exorcist stiffened ever so slightly.
Uriel looked at the small angel, scanning her. “Let me add some finishing touches. Close your eyes.” 974 complied, closing her eyes as Uriel rested a hand over her eyes, light glow coming from Uriel’s hands before she removed it and pulled the exorcist’s wing out. “Adam, unfold your wing.” Adam nodded, one of his wings out stretching. Uriel ran her fingers along the exorcist’s wings making a mirror copy of the pattern of Adam’s wings onto the exorcist’s wing in the grayscale, doing the same with the other wing. Uriel backed up and nodded. “Adam, give her a name.”
“...me? Name her?” Adam asked. The last time he had named something…
“Name her. Just like your time in Eden.”
Adam let out a sigh, looking at the exorcist. Uriel had given her bright golden eyes. Ones just like his own. Almost cruel, likely it was to be cruel. His mind reeled at what to name the girl that Eve had not named one of their daughters and his kids had not named their daughters. Then he started playing with words he knew related to militaristic roles.
“Lute. Her name is Lute.”
“Lute?”
“My lieutenant. Lute.”
Uriel sighed. “Very well. Let us begin the process of making more exorcists. Lute, follow me. Adam, go back to your day.”
As the meeting ended, Lute walked up to Adam, hands on her hips and a look that told Adam he had fucked up. Her mask showed a frown so tight he knew that she was giving him a look of judgement. Adam folded the papers that Charlie had gave him, slipping them into a pocket that hid itself as he did so. He didn’t look at Lute as her eyes bore into the side of his head like lasers. “Alright, what the fuck are you giving me that look for?” Adam groaned, not looking at Lute as she silently judged him. As silence filled the air Adam spun to look at her. “You got something to say, bitch, or are you just going to stand there acting like I can read your mind?”
“You acted out of character and out of rash decisions, sir. The demon of Hell deserve to die and you know how—” Lute was cut off by Adam, who put his wing in front of her face suddenly, startling her and causing her to lose track of her train of thought.
“Enough, Lute. It is not your place to speak against my decisions,” Adam huffed out, eyes narrowing on the angel. “Is this entire thing about the deal? Or about the fact I made sure the bitch stopped hurting herself? Because I didn’t want to hear her scream about her killing her people?” Adam nearly scoffed. “People who don’t even deserve her screams. Fuckin awful people don’t deserve screams like that—” Adam let out a huff, feeling Lute’s eyes drilling into him.
“Sir, you not only stopped her hurting herself but you also made a deal with her beyond the role that the seraphim have given you,” Lute said. “We came here to tell the princess that the extermination will be doubled, not make a deal to stop the extermination. What happens when Sera finds out? And what will you do if—”
“I don’t care what the fuck Uriel has to say she is not erasing any of my girls!” Adam shot, making Lute freeze. “There’s a reason each part of the deal was laid out as it was. I’m not dumb enough to think that doubling the Extermination will be enough to clean up the numbers the fucking princess laid out. Don’t question my choices, Lute. You know me better than that.”
“I do know you better than that, sir. That is why I am confused. Why are you acting on something that could ruin all of the hard work training the girls? You’ve had to stop naming girls after things that actually sound like names and started naming them after fucking body parts and sex jokes! You love those girls and—”
“And if I fall short both all the girls and my son will be in danger. Hellians are already getting frisky. Did you know that a sinner actually killed Queef? That sinner didn’t die. The girls who had been with Queef fucking told me the sinner nearly killed all of them too. If I let them keep going down there, sinners are going to learn! Sinners—sinners are going to rise up harsher if we keep the Extermination going.”
Lute blinked, her brow furrowing, an uncomfortable silence falling over the two exorcists. It took a few moments before Lute spoke up. “...you mean that… you mean that sinners know how to kill us now?” Adam gave Lute a solemn nod. The words sat in the air like daggers, their weight and danger blaringly loud. “...our numbers would struggle. There would be no way to meet quota if exorcists are being killed during the Extermination. We wouldn’t have enough time… oh good Father this would be awful.”
“Now you know. There’s so many more reasons why we can’t follow through the Extermination order and keep the haughty bitches happy. This deal keeps it so Hell doesn’t start rising up, and if they do, my ex and the traitor get the one thing they care about taken from them. The one thing they were able to create despite it being against the Father’s laws,” Adam said, slamming his fist on the table. “It doesn’t matter when or how, if they break their side of the deal, the antichrist princess is going to die.”
Lute nodded, closing her eyes for a moment. “Yes, sir. Would you like me to go with you to see the seraphim?”
“Absolutely not. I don’t want them to threaten you. I know Uriel will. I’ll handle this on my own. They’ll listen if given all the details. Go get stuff for you and the girls to have a movie night. Relax. We’ll keep training up but cut back on it so you guys can be actual people,” Adam said, opening a portal for Lute to cross through. “And get changed before going out, your uniform doesn’t need to be what you’re always wearing.” Lute gave a nod, stepping through, the portal fizzling out. He was about to make a portal to the seraphim building when he felt the feathers of his wings prickle and raise.
“...and we’ll all go to get ice cream after the class—Adam! What are you doing here?” came a cheery voice that Adam didn’t want to hear right now with the sound of a dropping notebook. “Oh~ Are you trying to sneak into my class for the dominions?” A face popped in front of his, the face upside down. She had dark gray skin with white freckles and light blue eyes, white pupils and a dusty purple sclera. She used the horns of Adam’s mask to keep her held in the right position to look into his eyes as she was upside down.
“No, Em, not here for your class, I had to do something for Sera,” Adam said, grabbing Emily by her waist and sitting her down on the table and giving her an unimpressed look before grabbing the notebook that was flipped upside down, pages scrunched into the center of the book. “What’s this class you’re teachin’?” Adam handed Emily her notebook, his eyebrows raised.
“Wellllll~ Sera said since we’re getting more Risen Ones to Heaven and it’s my job to keep them happy, Sera said she doesn’t want me to do it alone, so I’m going to teach dominions on how to make sure the optimal happiness is happening at all times! Speaking of which—I haven’t seen you out of your house in a week. Are you okay? Happy? Taking care of yourself?” Emily said, quickly changing to topic from answering the question to interrogating Adam, circling him like a vulture, checking for any imperfection in the way he typically held himself.
“I’m fine, Em. I have a meeting to go to for poster boy shit, hey how about this. You and me go get dinner tonight? End it with ice cream with your favorite rainbow sprinkles?” Adam asked, a smirk on his face, elbowing Emily. “Hmmm?”
A golden flush went across Emily’s face and to her ears. “Adammm! You know Sera hates the idea of us dating!”
“And? Sera wants you to make everyone happy, doesn’t she? You’d be makin me real happy coming with me to dinner. Not to mention, it doesn’t have to be a date unless you want it to be. Or you want to be called my girlfriend,” Adam joked.
“Adam!” Emily squealed, pushed her notebook into his face, knocking him back slightly causing them both to break out into a fit of laughter. She let out a sigh. “Fine. Moses’ Red Sea Diner?”
“Sounds fuckin perfect. See ya at five, babes,” Adam said, giving Emily a small two-fingered salute before flying towards the seraphim building. He brushed himself off as he entered the building, his head held high and wings spread out just enough to expand his size but not too large he would make it impossible to pass him. He had made the deal tight enough that the seraphim can't tell him the Extermination was still a go and he would be replaced by Abel. He pulled the papers out of his pocket, unfolding them and pulling them taut before entering Sera's office and slamming the paper down on her desk. “Got the papers both of you wanted. Oh. And I made a deal with the princess.”
“Excuse me you what?” Sera asked, shooting up from her chair, her wings spread wide to make her larger than she was with eyes opening where the jewels on her halo were and on her chest where the pattern on her dress was along with eyes on each curl, an intimidation tactic that wouldn't work on Adam today. Not at all. “Adam you were specifically told not to do that! No choices on behalf of Heaven! And I do believe Lucifer was supposed to be at the meeting, as you had said last week.”
Adam frowned a bit, looking at his nails as if bored before rubbing them against his jacket to shine them. He looked up at Sera with a smirk. “Well one of us had to make a smart decision and I just know you don't like doing that. Hell's population won't be quelled by the Exterminations anymore. So it was either have the Exterminations fail to meet quota consistently no matter how many times we try it in a year or make a deal that keeps the sinners at bay. I chose option B.”
Sera frowned, furrowing her browser as she stared at Adam, waiting for the cocky smile to disappear and crack under pressure. But, when it didn't, she let her hidden eyes close, standing up straight. “It was beyond your authority, Adam. I want you to hand me your halo.”
Adam let out a chortle and snort, looking at Sera. “See, you can't do that. If I'm not running the Exorcists and making sure they're staying out of trouble and making sure sweet little Princess Charlie Morningstar is keeping her end of the bargain, who will?”
“We will void any contract you made with the princess and instate a quarterly Extermination—” Sera began being cut off by a sharp intake of air from Adam.
“Mmmm—noooo. That's not gonna work, Sera, babes. See, part of the deal is that if it's broken, Hell is allowed to fight back. And if Hell fights backkk… Heaven could be in some deep shit, especially if you're giving a half a million girls only three months to train! Can you imagine? A loss that catastrophic? Imagine what your girlfriend would say!” Adam cackled. “So maybe, just maybe, you listen to me for once? Hmmm? Let me make the choices for the sake of keeping Heaven safe because I'm pretty sure that as your commander and chief of the Heavenly army, it is one of my duties to make sure whatever battle we take on we win, and if we won't figure out how to cut the losses.”
“First of all, Uriel is not my girlfriend, she is my partner in seraphim duties. We are the Seraphim Sisters to all of Heaven,” Sera chastised, Adam’s smile growing wider.
“Seraphim aren’t actually sisters, and I know that, most of the denizens of Heaven know that, Sera. If I recall, all of Heaven’s leadership was created, not born. Creation by name and not birth does not make you siblings, does it? Especially being created as the age you’ll stay forever,” Adam said. “You and Urie are rather fuckin close, I’d almost think you two are…” Adam scissored his fingers together, Sera’s face dropping in disgust an anger.
“Adam! You are being very crude. I demand you quiet down and listen to me,” Sera said, voice bolstered, nails digging into her desk. Adam shrugged and nodded, Sera taking in a deep breath, standing up straight, and smoothing down imaginary wrinkles began to speak again in a calmer tone, but nonetheless firm. “Tell me the details to this… deal you made with the princess.”
Adam’s smile almost got wider, before he changed his position, his hands behind his back. He paced back and forth, moving his hands as he spoke to emphasize points. “Well… the Extermination is called off. In repayment for that, the princess is to keep Hellians at bay. Any rising up and her end of the deal is broken. If she breaks her side of the deal, her soul belongs to me and Hell will get a mass wipe out. No sinner left alive. But, if my side of the deal is broken and Extermination is put in place, Hell is allowed to fight back. They already have a demon down there who knows the secret to killing angels, it’s only a matter of finding them.”
“...well thought out,” Sera said, voice soft as she thought over all the options of what would or could happen. “And how are you going to keep Princess Morningstar in check?”
“Weekly meetings. Reminders that her soul is on the line, and that if she fucks up…” Adam laughed, “Surely the antichrist knows that her soul is better in Hell than in Heaven with her destiny?”
Sera let out a sigh, rubbing her forehead before nodding. “Alright, Adam. I will give you grace until Hell breaks their side of the bargain. After the complete group of sinners are Exterminated, you will hand your halo over and take a role as a normal Risen One, your role being given to Abel, unless you prove that Hell will stay at bay for two years. Understood?”
“Aye aye, Captain Seraphim,” Adam said with a salute. “I promise you, I don’t fuck up so this’ll be a breeze.”
“Leave my office, Adam,” Sera said with a sigh, waving Adam off who stomped out triumphantly.
Emily giggled as Adam sat her on his chest, her wings hidden in her back and halo sat on the dresser next to Adam’s. “Again! I want to do more!” Emily giggled, her hands running through Adam’s hair as she sweetly looked down at him. Emily was gorgeous when she was naked—light seraphim markings similar to tattoos lining her body in the shape of different constellations. There were three seraphim—the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars—and the one who looked down at him was by far his favorite. Where on a human they might have hair, like leg hair or arm hair, she had a soft bit of down. It made her skin softer than it was typically when she hadn’t plucked—the heavenborne equivalent of human’s shaving.
“Chillax, babes, you have way to much fuck libido for me. Give me like thirty minutes at the very least to get it back up,” Adam said with a shake of his head. “You sure you don’t want to be my girlfriend, Ems?”
“You know I can’t be your girlfriend, Adam,” Emily said. “As fun as our time is together, we just don’t work as a couple. We tried before, I don’t want to try again and mess up again. We have such different views on things, and I know the big reason you want to be my boyfriend is to feel like you have someone to protect. I want you to actually fall for someone. Or to at the very least be able to say you love me. Love love me, before we try to do anything that would tie us to each other. And well… I know how you feel about what Sera cares about.”
Adam let out a huff. “I do care about you, Ems. And I wouldn’t mind having you in my bed every morning, and I know I can fall for you.”
“Then fall for me, Adam. We’ve known each other since you appeared in Heaven. Why haven’t you fallen?” Emily asked gently, putting a hand on Adam’s face. “I care about you too, Adam. And I love you. But I can’t have you settle for me.”
Adam sat up abruptly, setting Emily on the bed before she ended up getting thrown off. “Settle? Settle? Ems, you’re the literal best option in Heaven. I would not be settling!”
“What about the gray-haired angel you’re always with? I don’t believe I’ve ever talked to her—”
“Lute? Oh pffft no. She’s basically my best friend… and a lesbian. I love her but definitely in a paternal sort of way, if you get my drift. You might actually like her better than me—” Adam coughed. “...I know she would absolutely devour you. You’re like everything she likes mashed into an angel. I’ll have to set ya both up sometime.”
“Really?” Emily asked, tilting her head.
“Yeah, and I hear she’s a fuckin beast in bed. Never seen a girl who stayed over with her come out of her place the next day with the ability to walk,” Adam said with a laugh. “Those poor women. But you have such a high ability to handle whatever the fuck I give you, I’m sure you’d give her a run for her money. I’ll send her to Lost Lamb Pizzeria and you can talk to her there. Ask her out on a date or something. Let her fuck your little brains out.”
“You sure? If I start dating her, I can’t have these nights where you’re making me all lustful.”
“Yeah, yeah. I don’t just say shit like this to disappoint. But for tonight, all eyes on the dickmaster, baby,” Adam said, pulling Emily into a kiss, pinning her down to the bed. When he pulled away, a string of drool connected their mouths. Emily looked so utterly beautiful when she was pinned down.
So that begs the question.
Why couldn’t he just fall for her?
The thing with Adam was: he wanted to love. So desperately he wanted to fall in love. But no matter how many girls he tried to date, no matter how many girls confessed their love for him, he just couldn’t get his heart to feel that way. He was a womanizer—there was no girl he couldn’t get to fold if he wanted her to. Hell, he had had so many of his exorcists ask him for a time with him romantically—not just sexual—and no matter how many times he complied, his heart just didn’t let it’s walls down. There was just no woman who could get him to bend to their will. It was like when Eve gave up being with him his heart gave up trying. He once thought he was growing feelings for Lute, but the moment she told him that she was lesbian, those feelings shattered. Disappeared and didn’t return. Adam was respectful to whoever said they didn’t like men—it was understandable. Men sucked ass. Who cared who you liked anyways? Not like it was gonna change any time soon. Fuck, Adam watch Abel realize he was gay and start dating the fuckin weirdo St. Peter. It was just… why when everyone he cared about was finding love could he not?
…he missed Eve. But she wasn’t coming back and that was that. He just needed someone who could break his walls. It couldn’t be impossible, could it? This time with Emily, he imagined Eve with her soft blonde hair and bright green eyes paired with the pastel green wings that Eve had gained when she was put into Heaven. It was all he could do since he knew at no point would Emily be his—it didn’t matter how much he tried, he couldn’t see her as more than a friend. Maybe a close friend. Or a best friend. But not his lover. While Lilith had been Adam’s first wife, Eve was his first love. It was strange thinking about Eve—the second wife who left him. Almost right after she entered Heaven too.
He hadn’t seen her in well over a millennia.
But he supposed that was a normal thing when someone is avoiding you.
Adam’s phone rang loudly, causing Adam to let out a groan, slamming his hand on the phone and sliding it to answer with a groan as he rolled out of bed to make sure Emily could keep sleeping, pushing himself to the bathroom. “Mmm hey, who the fuck is calling me at five in the morning?” Adam whined out with a yawn, rubbing his eyes as he turned on the faucet to hide his voice. He was bothered to say the least—and he half expected Emily to get out of bed wondering why he was awake.
“It went through! How wonderful! Good morning, Adam. I do believe it is morning for you, yes?” came a deep, almost eerie voice.
“What the fuck, Azrael? Why, of all people, are you calling me?” Adam asked, leaning against the counter, letting out a huff. Azrael was… interesting to say the very least.
“Why, that is simple, Adam, dearest! I need you to come to Purgatory!” Azrael said, his voice gaining a pitchiness that made Adam’s head ring. “You see, my kind sir, I did you a favor. I told you if hellborne had souls and you got your answer, did you not? I need your help watching over the child souls! See, I would do it, but unfortunately, kids don’t like me very much.”
“I wonder why,” Adam commented sarcastically. “You look like a rotting corpse you’re going to scare fuckin kids, dipshit. Maybe wear a mask that makes you look less scary when trying to deal with kids. Your smile is genuinely unnerving, man.”
“Ah! Speaking of masks—don’t bring yours! The kids might believe you to be a demon and not an angel and I can’t have that! Little souls that are meant to be reincarnated don’t need an unhealthy fear of things with horns! There are many wonderful things with horns! I would not say your helmet is one of them.”
“Wow. Thanks. Rude.” Adam took in a deep breath. “How about I come in tonight? I need some sleep, I was up the majority of the night and I have other duties to attend to with fuckin Lute.”
“I expect to see you at noon!”
“I said tonight , not noon—Rae, what the fuck?”
“Noon or I will not attempt to figure out how to get Exorcists their own souls! My Mother is a very busy woman, you know.”
Adam ran his hand through his hair. “I don’t even know who the fuck your mother is, so no, I don’t. I just know she gives souls out willy nilly. But fine. Since you’re helping with that too. Can I go back to sleep now?”
“One more thing!” Azrael’s tone switched to something more somber. “Don’t go messing with things you can’t control, First Man. You will go down a scary road that is unnecessary.”
“What?” Adam asked. “What the fuck is that suppose to mean?”
“Don’t lose your heart to the devil, Adam.”
Beep beep beep.
“Fuck! Azrael! Hung up on me after that bullshit!” Adam let out a breath, looking in the mirror. “What the fuck does he mean don’t lose my heart to the devil? Does he mean Lucifer? Because fucking dammit, why would Lucifer have anything to do with his heart? Lucifer hasn’t talked to him in seven years and it was still going strong.
Small arms slinked around his waist, feathery hair pushed into Adam’s back. “Adam, come back to bed. What are you doing up?” Emily’s voice was soft and tired, her form actively falling asleep pressed against him. Adam’s face softened, picking Emily up bridal style, putting her head on his shoulder.
“What are you doing up, Ems? I was just headin back to bed, babes,” Adam assured her, placing her down on the bed and rewrapping her in the blankets.
“I was worried about you,” Emily said weakly. “You sounded upset.”
“I’m a little upset with something, but it’s nothing the dickmaster can’t handle. Go back to sleep, Ems.”
“Alright, I care about you, Adam.”
“I care about you too.”
Notes:
I made some art for this fic and because I don't feel like figuring out putting art in AO3, I made a Tumblr blog for Claimed! Questions can be asked to character's directly paired with doodles of them, I'll spill some lore that will be shown in Heaven or Hell, questions can be asked to me as the writer (that will likely get responded to with a comic because I need practice).
Tumblr is here > https://www.tumblr.com/claimedverse?source=share
Chapter 4: Charlie plays matchmaker.
Chapter 4: Random Plan
Summary:
Eden flashback, toddler Charlie, and Charlie gets an idea.
Notes:
I want this small arc to be here so that I can set up Hell's side plots since I already set up Heaven's side plots. They're here so that if I get stuck on pushing the main plot along too fast I can have some focus outside - so yeah, pretty much filler episodes. It'll help pacing, I promise.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Adam blinked, his eyes opening to the newly created world. He patted himself, brows furrowing as he ran his hands over his body, confusion spelling over the first man's face.
“Father! Look! He's awoken!” declared a primarily male voice, but it sounded distinctly young. It was something, Adam thought, that he could tell the age of the person through the voice. It sounded, to him, like someone who would be his age.
“Yes, my star, the creation is awake,” came a significantly older voice, and when Adam's eyes landed on the beings that spoke of him. Adam's eyes searched the surroundings more until he saw someone who looked like him, but distinctly different. On her chest were large… orbs. Adam wasn't sure what to call them, but they counteracted his very flat bosom. Her body had more curves than him, much rounder in shape than he was, as his body was very boxy. She had hair the color of the orb in the sky—which in his mind he knew was called the sun, but he didn't necessarily know how he knew this; he just did. Her eyes… were so bright. Violet. Violet eyes. That was the color of her eyes. Adam felt his heart flutter as she picked up a hand and waved at him, him waving back awkwardly.
“My star, give them both names,” the older man—whom Adam had dubbed in his mind “Father.” Father was tall and boxy in shape. His limbs were slightly longer than the proportions on his own body, but he looked magical in a sense. Certainly, he stood out from the environment around him. His hair was a brilliant white, cascading over his shoulders and his eyes… there were four of them. Both a brilliant glowing white that shed into the dark gray skin the man had. His outfit was a garb that Adam couldn't quite put his finger on. Somewhere in his brain, it was called a suit. He wore a large jacket that hung over his shoulders like a cape, the inside of the jacket smiling and moving like the galaxy had been trapped in the fabric. To top the outfit off was a halo, almost like a crown, sitting around Father's head.
The younger of the two, whom Adam dubbed “the Morningstar,” nodded, looking at Adam and pointing. “His name shall be Adam, first man!” The young angel turned towards Adam's companion. “And she shall be Lilith, the first woman!” The Morningstar looked similar to Lilith, but different in a few lights. His hair was a softer golden, and his eyes were a brilliant ocean blue. His wings were golden, with three on each side of the body. The outer part of the Morningstar's wings were white and his garb was like a cloak. He was… simply majestic. Beautiful.
The Morningstar walked up to Adam, reaching out his hand. “I'm Lucifer!”
“Mama! Tell me the story about the snake and the tree again! Pleasseee!” Charlotte said, pressing her hands against her mother’s knees, trying to lift herself onto Lilith’s lap. “Please please please!”
Lilith let out a small chuckle. “I have a better idea, Charlotte, dear. I have a story you’ve never been told yet~” Charlotte’s eyes grew wide as saucers, nodding her head vigorously as Lilith picked her up and set the girl on her knee. “This story is of a princess who was told that one day, she would be a scary monster.”
“The princess was born to a good king and queen of a large kingdom, but to keep the kingdom from growing, another smaller but significantly more powerful kingdom decided it didn’t want the large kingdom growing, so they forced the good king to make a deal that he would let the small kingdom wipe out a large amount of the people of the large kingdom…”
“Noooo!” Charlotte cried out. “Don’t kill the large kingdom!”
“Shhhh… I have more to tell you, Charlotte.”
“The good king agreed to the deal on one condition, his daughter would never be hurt by the small kingdom. The small kingdom obliged, and a yearly wipe out happened in the large kingdom. The princess grew and as she grew, she grew anxious with the wipe out of her people. She decided that the small kingdom needed to be taken out. She took herself to a witch, asking the witch to teach her magic. The witch taught the princess for months, and the princess, because she wasn’t able to get to the small kingdom went to the middle kingdom, asking them what side they were on and killing any person who was for the small kingdom, creating an army with the people left in the middle kingdom before going to war against the small kingdom. The princess was able to create a large enough and powerful enough army to make the small kingdom fall, combining the two kingdoms so no more harm would be done.”
Charlotte clapped sleepily, “Happy endinggg…”
“Yes, a very happy ending, my sweet stardrop~” Lilith hummed, tucking Charlotte into her bed.
“The antichrist as a princess? What’s next, you’re going to tell her the story as different types of fish?” came Lucifer’s voice from the door, his body leaning against the doorway, his foot balancing against the wall and shoulder doing the same.
“She is a princess, is she not? It will be the easiest for her brain to latch and hold on to,” Lilith said, gently pushing her husband away from Charlotte’s door. “When she is older she will be the one to combine Earth, Heaven, and Hell. As long as she doesn’t skip using… her powers.”
“You really want to trust her with our daughter’s well being?”
“Do we have any other choice, Lucifer?”
Lucifer let out a sigh and shook his head. “No other choice unless we want Charlotte to meet an awful end by the hands of the seraphim.”
“Then we have to teach her she needs to go to her.”
“Fine.”
Charlie’s finger tapped against the table as her brain reeled. The dreams hadn’t gotten better—no they had gotten worse. Every day that pulled her closer to her third meeting with Adam became a night that was harder to sleep through. She was debating inviting Seviathan to come to the hotel under the guise that he’d be working for her, but helping her keep her energy up along with it. It would be nice to have someone who knew everything about her, too. Vaggie, as much as Charlie confided in her, didn’t know how Charlie’s lovelife went. Seviathan, however, did.
“Alright, toots, ya gonna tell me what has ya stressed out or are ya gonna keep tappin’ ya finger and letting yer ear become a fan?” came the New York accent of Angel Dust. Charlie turned around to see the spider demon, his eyebrow quirked, and his primary arms folded over his chest with his secondary arms resting on his hips.
“Angel! I was just… thinking about things. Likeee how we should have a doorman! I have a list of good people—”
“Yer a bad li’a, Char,” Angel said, seating himself next to the princess, threading his primary arms’ fingers together. “Let me guess… Alasta did somethin to throw ya through a loop again? …no, not it. Vagg’s had anotha nightmar’ an kept ya up? …no, okay. Nift was spyin on ya sleep? …nope. Alright. Anythin’ to do with tha sinnas in tha hotel? No. Brilliant. Alright, Charlie. Is it relationship problems?”
Angel watched Charlie’s face after every guess, and as her expression didn’t change immediately after he said what the problem could be, he moved on, but the moment he said relationship problems, Charlie’s face lit up cherry red. There it was. He had found the culprit. When the smile crept onto Angel’s face, Charlie panicked. “Angel—no, it’s not at all! I just—family is difficult, you know? Nothing at all to worry about relationship wise! I’m just a little tired and busy with the hotel!”
“Yea, let’s stop lyin’ ta me, Charlie,” Angel said, an unimpressed look on his face. “Who’s it about? Ya got a crush?” Angel’s face lit up as Charlie’s turned an even brighter red. “Ah-hah! Ya do! Who’s tha lucky bastard to have caught tha Princess of Hell’s eye?”
Charlie’s mind reeled before she stood up suddenly, her chair nearly falling backwards. “We’re going to do a speed dating activity!”
“What.”
“We’re going to get some ads out and we’ll have Alastor let out some broadcasts and get as many people as possible. I’ll make sure you don’t have work—”
“Woah woah woah, Charlie. Yer not messin with mah boss,” Angel said, suddenly becoming serious, almost catching Charlie off guard, but not enough to throw Charlie off her game.
“No, no. I’ll have Vaggie and Alastor deal with making sure people’s schedules are free. I’ll set up a website for signing up, I’ve done that for fun before so it shouldn’t take too long, I’ll get my Uncle Mam to push it out to the sinners and we’ll get the speed dating set up! This will make it so people can connect and so that we can tell everyone just how great the hotel is! This will do so well! I’ll get my friend to help set up, he’s the nephew of Leviathan, so naturally he’d be good at looking for things everyone is going to enjoy! Tell everyone the plans for the day is called off—we’re going to spend the next three days setting up, I have a meeting on Saturday and then we can do it on Sunday!”
“Wait wait—Char, slow down—” Angel said, throwing his hands up. “We can’t do this like this— ”
“Sorry! I have to start doing the necessary work to get this set up!” Charlie said with a clap, slipping out of the room, leaving behind a half eaten breakfast, and a very confused spider demon.
Charlie looked at Alastor, her hands gripped around her papers that were littered with sketches she had lined out her plan with and had paired with a song about how good of an opportunity it would be for the hotel to get some positive interaction through the speed-dating idea. Alastor stared at her, the consistent buzz of his radio the only thing playing in the surrounding. The longer Alastor let the silence last, the faster Charlie’s heartbeat sped up.
“...well?” Charlie questioned, breaking the silence, the tension getting thick enough to cut through it with a knife. Alastor gave Charlie a glance, giving her a frog blink before finally breaking his silence with a hum.
“Hmmmm…” Alastor folded his hands over his microphone, leaning forward to see if he could get Charlie to break a sweat. “Very well then. I will find Vagatha and head to dear Angel Dust's work to assure he has time to help with this idea. Are you absolutely certain this idea of yours will work, Charlotte?”
“Charlie, please, Alastor,” Charlie said, sucking in her breath. “And I am abso-LUTELY positive that this will all turn out just splendidly. Justttt… gotta make sure to have it all pulled together properly! Ahaha—” Charlie's smile tightened. ”Please?”
“But of course, Charlie, dear, if I were to leave you on your own to do a job such as this, what kind of benefactor would I be if I simply let you run this place to ruins!” Alastor let out a laugh paired with a laugh track from his radio. “No no no! That just wouldn't do! Let me get more details out of dear Angel on his boss, if you'll excuse me.”
“O-oh! Alright! Thank you for your help, Al!” Charlie cheered, her grip on her papers getting tighter slightly without her noticing. Alastor didn't respond, just fading into the shadows and out of Charlie's view.
Before appearing in front of Angel Dust.
“Angel! What a mighty pleasure!” Alastor said, cheering coming from his radio. “I came here on a mission from the princess. She asked me to deal with your boss—”
“Woah woah woah. No. I already told Char, that's a bad idea!” Angel said.
“Is ‘bad ideas’ not her middle name?” Alastor said with a chuckle. “You see, I need to support her in any way I can. My support is the only way she won't drown. Now, who particularly is your boss?”
“Alright, Al. No. I don't want anyone ta deal with mah boss,” Angel said. “Not ta mention, Char is the princess of Hell. Why would she need ya?”
Alastor's eye twitched slightly, before he put his hand to his heart. “Why Angel, you wound me! Charlotte is a mess, quite frankly and I know you have seen it. Without someone with a proper head on their shoulders this ridiculous place would be destroyed by some rowdy sinners by now.”
“Isn't that Vaggs?”
“No, no! That person is me! Now, I asked you a question. Please answer my question~” Alastor hummed.
“Does tha word ‘no’ mean nothin’ to ya?” Angel said, poking Alastor's chest, causing the overlord to take a step back from Angel. “I don't want any of this. Charlie's puttin her hands inta a bowl with blades. It'll get things worse fa me and Char could get in my boss's shit-list. She's strong, I just—don't want girlie ta get hurt.”
“That's why Vagatha and I will be dealing with your boss and not Charlie! She will not get in any mess, and Vagatha and I are the sole protectors of the hotel!” Alastor swung his arms out to motion to the building. “It wouldn't be very entertaining to support the hotel if there was no hotel to support, now would it?”
“Fine. Fine. But next time Char asks, I don't want mah boss ta get involved,” Angel said, his lips turned up in a small pout.
“Mmmm… alrighty. But, if she asks, my loyalties lie with her and not you, dear Angel. I can only hold her off so much, she's rather persistent,” Alastor said with a flick of his wrist backwards.
“Mah boss is Valentino—one a tha Vees. Just—don't piss ‘im off too much,” Angel said, folding his arms and looking away.
Alastor let out a laugh. “Oh this will be fun!”
“Wait—Alasta, what? Fun?”
Alastor didn't respond, simply disappearing into the shadows to find Vaggie.
“Sevvy! Sev—can I ask a favor of you?” Charlie recited, pacing back and forth in her bathroom, waving her arms around as she spoke. “Nonono—I can't call him by a nickname. I need to make this seem like an official favor—an order! Then Helsa can't say anything to mess it up. I might be able to get Sev to stay at the hotel—”
Charlie let out a huff, playing with her hair. She hadn't wanted to bother Seviathan since the first night she did, despite her need for sexual release. None of the sinners she found in bars or local casinos could get her off no matter the form she took. She had to be careful to not take on the form of herself, it would cause bad press. She'd often go out as a small goat sinner named Circe. It'd take multiple men to give Charlie half the joy that Seviathan gave her. Every single orgasm had to be faked. It was an embarrassment. While she wasn't in love with Seviathan, she did trust him and he knew her body better than any man in Hell. He also knew her predicament. A predicament she wasn't allowed to get public—this was her way of coping. She couldn't actually do anything with Adam, it'd be ridiculous. He was a horny pig who made crude jokes—sure, she couldn't say anything bad about the horny part because that was just her. Her sexual fantasies always contained Adam some way or some how. But that was just it—fantasies were meant to be fantasies. They weren't meant to come to fruition. Not to mention, Adam wouldn't view her as anything more than an object. That's what Lilith had said. Her mother was never wrong. She trusted her.
…it was still okay to trust her, right? After the lie about why the exterminations had started, right?
Charlie shook her head to get the thoughts out of her head. Her mother was trustworthy. Adam was just… trying to push her to the edge. He didn't want to see her win, so obviously he'd do something like that. Obviously he would want her on the ground pulling her hair out in pain. She was just a demon to him. Just something to make fun of.
And he was just an angel.
Charlie shook her head again. No, focus. Now was not time to lose focus because of—oh what had Auntie Bel called it? ADD—no, that was wrong. There was an extra letter. Great, she was getting off focus again. Charlie took in a deep breath. Seviathan. Ask him to work for the hotel.
…and be her friend with benefits.
This was fine.
She could do this. She just needed to tell the tenants she was leaving for a moment before she brought Seviathan in. Then she'd explain he'd be the advent supervisor and greeter. Husk was great and Alastor had brought him in to be the doorman, but… he wasn't the most cheerful or people-y of persons so he could stay the bartender as his official title. Seviathan would be useful for everyone. Less of the tenants waking up to her coming in from the horrible nights she tried hooking up. Angel was starting to think she needed tips. She didn't but it was getting frustrating.
Finally, she exited her bathroom, pulling on her suit, letting out a small grunt as she struggled to do the buttons. She could buy a new suit soon—but she didn't necessarily like the idea of not wearing this specific suit. It was from her dad and yeah, sure, it was like 3 sizes too small for her, but because it was her Dad's it was something she held onto for the sentimental part of it. It was the only thing Lucifer had given her that wasn't a rubber duck—not that she didn't love the ducks—it was just the fact she only needed so many rubber ducks until people considered her as much a ducky fanatic as her dad, and she wasn't one. She loved ducks—but just the same amount as she loved every other animal that existed.
She swung down the stairs, calling out, “I’m going to run an errand, I’ll be back anywhere between an hour and three! Love you all!” Charlie got a few voices making noises in reply, nothing that she was able to connect words to, but accepted it as she left for Seviathan’s.
Alastor looked up at the Triple V Tower, or more commonly just referred to as the Vee Tower. Next to him stood a smaller moth demon, Vagatha as he called her, Vaggie as everyone else referred to her. Her eye scanned the building, hand gripped tightly around her spear that typically hid as a pen she kept attached to her uniform. She was in the mood to hurt something, why she was, Alastor wasn’t entirely sure, but he did know it would be amusing if she did. He had yet to see her in action.
“I don’t believe it is a good idea to keep your spear out, Vagatha,” Alastor hummed, eyeing her up and down. “We don’t want them attacking us on sight. They might assume you to be dangerous.”
“One, call me Vaggie, and two, I am dangerous,” Vaggie snipped back. “Just because you haven’t seen me fight, it doesn’t mean that I’m not dangerous. Need I remind you, I survived an exorcist?”
“No need to remind me, I haven’t forgotten. You walk around with an angelic weapon attached to you constantly, now turn it back into a pen and let us go in,” Alastor said, a soft glare pointedly at Vaggie who gave out a huff in response, shrinking the spear and attaching it to her shirt. They walked into the tower, immediately stopped by the receptionist.
“Name and reason for visiting the Triple V Tower?” droned out the sheep demon at the desk, her eyes lifting up the view the two intruders.
Vaggie opened her mouth to speak, but Alastor was faster. “I am Alastor, the Radio Demon, and my companion here is Vagatha. We are here on duty from the princess, Charlotte Morningstar, to speak to the overlord of adult moving pictures, Valentino.”
“...the Porn Overlord, you mean?” the receptionist asked, raising her eyebrows.
“I said what I meant, miss,” Alastor said, staring forward.
“Alright, whatever. Let me tell Mr. Valentino,” the sheep said, pressing a button on an object Alastor didn’t know and didn’t care to know what it was. “Mr. Valentino, sir, I have two visitors for you in the front office saying they’re on an errand for… Princess Charlotte Morningstar. Shall I send them in?” A muffled response. “Okay. Mr. Radio and Miss Agatha, please take a seat, Mr. Valentino will be coming up here to talk to you.” Vaggie gave Alastor a glance, but obliged, taking a seat, and started clicking her pen in anxiety.
She wanted Charlie—she hadn’t been without the blonde’s presence for so long and she had secrets that having Charlie nearby just would make it so that there was no risk in revealing them. With Charlie around, she felt safe. Without her, it was like being naked and vulnerable. She’d be fine, Alastor wasn’t bright enough to solve it, but it didn’t mean her heart didn’t speed up every time other demons even glanced her way.
“Hola, my dearies~” came a distinctly latino accent. Vaggie wasn’t sure where this specific latino would come from, perhaps Pureto Rico. It didn’t matter much, a larger moth demon with four arms was standing in front of both Alastor and her. “Oh-ho-ho, isn’t it the Radio Demon~ I should tell Vox that you’re here, I’m sure he’d be more than happy to beat you in a fight again~”
“I won that fight,” Alastor said cooly, “But I am here on official business, so I am afraid I cannot entertain Vox and his little obsession with me. You see, the princess needs you to give your adult moving picture star, Angel Dust, a few days free. Until Monday, and then he can be all yours again.”
Valentino let out a laugh like it was the funniest thing he had heard in a long time, causing Vaggie to stand up, her hand gripped around it just in case. Very quickly, his laughing stopped. “Oh. Oh you’re serious. I’m sorry, but I can’t do that, even for the princessa. You see, letting my top earner take that long of a break would mean less money being pushed out, and I don’t know if you understand this, but I need the money. He’s just a few mildly interesting holes without me anyways.”
“Aye, this is under the order of Princess Charlie. She is your princess, and you must listen,” Vaggie said, her spear now in Valentino’s face. Valentino pushed the blade out of the way of his face, raising his eyebrows.
“Oi, honey, no blade in the building unless it’s a kink,” Valentino cooed. “Now, unless the princessa wants to come tell me this information herself, then no. I will not.”
“I find the orders of the princess to come here and make sure that Angel got these days off to be final and I will not be leaving until it is agreed to,” Alastor said with a hum, his shadow opening blue eyes and sneaking up to behind Alastor, eyeing Valentino like a meal. “This is Ombre, my shadow. See, he has the ability to ruin every single one of the technological items in this building and I can assure you, that will set you back much longer than a few days with the dear, Angel. You don’t speak of him very kindly either, so I would suppose that killing you would also be better in the long run of things, and my dear Vaggatha will kill you if she feels that’s what she needs to do.”
Vaggie gave a nod when Valentino’s eyes trained on her, her knuckles turning white from how tightly she gripped the spear in her hand, aiming it at the overlord. Valentino rolled his eyes, looking at the two, unimpressed with their antics. “Fine, but be warned he won’t be back all day Monday, or Tuesday for that matter of fact.”
“Works for me, if you change your mind, don’t expect your technology to work, unless it’s a radio,” Alastor said, lowering Vaggie’s spear for her and then motioning for her to leave with him. “Do enjoy the rest of your debauchery filled day~”
Seviathan had been introduced to the hotel tenants and accepted easily into the group. He was rather easy to get along with despite him keeping up appearances of being a diplomatic person, a constant smile plastered across his face, but not in the way that was like Alastor’s. He was more expressive than Alastor. About as charismatic. It certainly helped having Seviathan around as Charlie’s dreams were happening more frequently through the night.
It was beginning to wear the poor girl out, her naps during the day becoming frequent and choices having to be made on her behalf by Seviathan, who was rather lucky to have the title of advent supervisor or else none of the hotel would have listened to him. Charlie was falling asleep during almost every meeting, and the tenants were starting to notice. She was typically more full of energy but she needed the energy from sex—it’s where the majority of her energy came from. It wasn’t much of a choice for her whether to be celibate or not, and with Seviathan working on keeping the plan she had wanted afloat, she had decided to let him sleep through the night, much to her own struggle.
Soon enough they’d do the activity and she could be back to having her candy-high level energy.
Soon couldn’t come fast enough.
Notes:
I will add the link to the twt acct I was inspired for my take on God from.
Also, sorry about the shorter chapter. I didn't meet the quota I wanted to but I genuinely couldn't figure out what else to add.
Next Chapter: Purgatory
Update: You can find the God I used as reference here > https://x.com/tianangredelao1/status/1765955396957859953?t=FcbQtwtOBe2F9WgPvvpibw&s=19
Chapter 5: Purgatory
Notes:
TW: This chapter does contain sensitive content regarding child abuse, gore relating to children and their deaths and descriptions of children's bodies after death. Please, take a break from reading at any time if it becomes too much or skip this chapter. I will happily summarize the chapter for anyone who cannot stomach this chapter.
This chapter took so stinking long because I wrote like a good 100 words before getting hit with a really bad depressive episode. I did tear up several times while writing this chapter, and it is longer than a typical chapter from me. I hope you all enjoy. Do keep in mind that all biblical stories contained in this is purely fiction, not at all to be taken from a biblically accurate standpoint. Biblical lore is something I like to pour time and energy into, so I do try to keep it as close as possible while still containing elements of being a work of fiction.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
“My dear children,” Father said, his hands outstretched to Adam and Lilith, helping them stand up. “I have created you in my image, with perfect bodies and perfect minds. I give you but two commandments: While you are allowed to have every fruit in this garden, there is but one fruit that will corrupt your minds. The tree in the very center of the garden with the glowing fruit, the fruit of knowledge. Do not partake in that fruit, my children. My second commandment, I say unto you, my children, is be fruitful, go forth and multiply.”
Lilith and Adam looked at each other, one of the orders taking root in their mind while the other stayed a mystery to what he meant. “Yes, Father,” Adam said with a nod, speaking first. If he did not know, he would learn. He could learn with ease, that’s what he had been doing for the past… however long he had existed. A year? That seemed right. That’s what the Morningstar had said. “A year goes by rather fast, doesn’t it, Father?”
Lilith begrudgingly nodded. “Yes, Father.” Adam had learned really quickly that Lilith didn’t like to be told what to do, throwing rocks at Adam when he tried to. Adam listened to Father, while Lilith was more disobedient. She was still one of the most perfect things in the garden to exist, even surrounded by animals who didn’t throw rocks at him when he said something wrong. Lilith really enjoyed hanging out with the Morningstar—sometimes Adam could feel himself getting jealous. Father had said he made her for him, and him for her. It was something very quickly Adam learned about himself—he didn’t like sharing. Lilith counted in this. He didn’t want to share her, but if he told her he didn’t like how much time she spent with the Morningstar, she would retaliate by spending more time with him. There was never any winning with this woman, but they loved each other, so that’s what mattered to Adam.
At least, that’s what Father said. They loved each other. If Lilith created an insistence on not listening, Adam would simply find a way to get her to do what he wanted her doing.
“Adam.”
A beat.
“Adam.”
Another.
“Adam!”
“Huh? Hah? What’s goin’ on?” Adam asked, shaking his head to focus on who was talking to him. In front of him sat a pretty angel with blonde hair that curled around her large bat ears. She had white fur and the biggest eyes that Adam had ever seen, and when he met her, he knew he wanted to see how she fared in bed—and if those big eyes would break down his walls. So far, not working. Not to mention, after this failure of a date, she’s not gonna want to go on a date again. They never did. Bitches expected perfect, especially from him. He was supposed to be the image of perfection—what the Risen Ones strived for. His eyes trained on the angel, her small pout prominent. “Sorry, bout that, babes. I had a long night doin’— important shit.”
“Important enough to completely space out everything I’m saying? I thought you would be more responsible than this! You’re the first man, surely you would know when to go to bed to—”
Adam watched as the girl ranted her frustrations. Yeah, this date wasn’t fun anymore. Bye, girlie who I can’t even remember the name of. “Oh, damn. Look at the time—I forgot the higher ups gave me a meetin’ I need to attend. I did try to push it out, you’re so fuckin fun to talk to, babes, but I can’t disappoint my boss. So, like, ya have my number. If ya want to set up a date, I’m totally down to clown, just text me and I’ll make a reservation at a place of your choice. Alrighty, see ya later, bitch!” Adam did a two finger salute, taking off into the sky. He needed to get to Purgatory anyways, getting past the cherubs was always an asshole of a task.
“You don’t need to go to Purgatory, it is to be guarded and not entered,” and other shit like that was always what Adam was greeted with. If it happens this time around he might actually need to ask for help from Azrael, which ew, but also Adam wasn’t in a very good mood. He wasn’t able to fall back to sleep after Azrael’s call, and he had continually had to think about the warning Azrael had given: Don’t lose your heart to the Devil. The fuck did that mean? He opened a portal to Diligence, the bottom Ring of Heaven.
It was almost immediately that Adam had to dodge trees and moving rocks. The thing with every ring is that they all had their own terrain, and Diligence just had to have the hardest to navigate terrain of all of the rings. He flew up until he could just see the tops of the mountains. He began shivering, his hands tightening into fists and then loosening just so he didn’t lose feeling in them. When he had the mountain he needed to get to in sight, he dove down, closing his wings around his body almost like a torpedo, spreading his wings out right before he hit the tree line. He slowed down his flight, landing softly on the ground before he pulled his wings into hiding before hiking up to the cave he needed to get into to get to Purgatory.
Adam walked up to the cave, peeking around to see if the cherubs were in sight, and when he saw none, he started towards entering the cave.
“Hey! Hey, mister! You’re not allowed to go in there!” came an annoyingly high voice. A cherub. Adam let out a huff, his eyes landing on the small angel. This cherub looked almost like a child—a human child—but lacked features like a nose and ears that would set a human child apart. “Without the proper authorization, you’re not to enter this cave! My friends and I have been entrusted to guard this cave’s entrance.”
Adam’s lips turned up into a frown as his eyes landed on the two other cherubs, both of the others looking like goats. Adam’s mind went to the goat ears that the princess had, his head wandering to if she had a goat tail that she hid. He let out a chuckle to himself. Princess trying to be all brave and scary just to have a small fluffy goat tail. It was an amusing thought. “I’m an archangel, sweetpeas. I got all the authorization I need. I mean, ain’t purgatory run by an archangel?”
The purple goat cherub (sheep?) let out a gasp. “You’re not supposed to know where this place leaves, sir! Not even archangels are allowed beyond this point without proper authorization.”
“Oh come on! I’m Adam! I’m the first man! Ya just need to let me in, Rae asked me to help with some bullshit tasks,” Adam flicked his wrist slightly. “What ‘bout this? You don’t give me shit, let me in so I can go see Rae, and I’ll give you all free front row tickets to my concert!” Adam wiggled his brows, holding his arms out in a manner that said he was being gracious.
“No, no, sorry! We can’t do that!” declared the yellow sheep-goat something or other cherub. “As amazing as that sound—we can’t let you do that. We have a role to play and a cave to protect.”
“...you guys are really annoying, ya know? Fuck, man! I knew this would be like a feat. Glad I left that bitch at the diner. Hope I left enough money to pay the bill.” Adam rubbed his temples. “Y’all would be really good at doin’ something stupid like granting prayers to save some weirdo wretches on Earth or somethin’ like that.”
“That’s actually—”
“A really good idea!”
“This is exactly what we needed, sir!”
Adam stared at the cherubs with a face of confusion. “What.”
“We’ve been trying to find something to make us special!” the baby-like cherub said.
“This is the perfect opportunity!” the yellow goat chirped after.
“Thank you, sir,” the purple goat said with a nod before they all flew off.
“...those poor fuckers are so going to be fired,” Adam said with a laugh before finally slipping into the cave.
Adam looked around Purgatory, the grassy fields like a slice of Earth suspended in midair surrounded by nothing but inky darkness. Yet, somehow, everything could still be seen. He had taken off his helmet before entering the portal as Azrael had instructed. Purgatory was significantly colder than what Adam was used to, but that was purely because he stayed inside when he was in the Chastity Ring, which just so happened to be the arctic tundra of all the rings. It wasn’t a mystery why Uriel decided to put the exorcist headquarters there, but Father dammit, it was a pain in the ass to get any time outside with the girls. Purgatory though was like a graveyard on a cool fall night. The entire place was built off of death anyways.
“Hey, Rae! I’m here!” Adam called out, cupping his hands around his mouth to make himself louder. He glanced around before he felt the hair on the back of his neck begin to prickle. Oh. Oh brother. Adam looked around, taking a step backwards, his foot slipping on what seemed to be a drop off he had not noticed before, sending him backwards with a flurry of swears and ancient profanities.
“How was the fall?” came Azrael’s voice from directly above Adam. Adam rubbed his eyes, looking up at the face that was undeniably the angel of death’s face. “I can’t imagine that is the most productive way to get around!”
“Oh fuckin shut it,” Adam said, glaring at the angel, rolling over and getting up. Azrael looked just as torn up and awful as he did the last time Adam saw him. The grayish-blue skin that looked like it should be attached to a corpse, the clothes that were too big for the guy and were torn up and dirty, the lack of eyes that transcended what a typical shadow looked like, and the worst part… his smile. His smile shouldn’t fit comfortably on his face, it was far too large for that. Along with it, he had no spot to be able to separate his teeth, creating an uncanny feeling. The man spoke through his teeth as well, which didn’t make it any better. Azrael’s movements were smooth, more smooth than any creature or being should move. Everything about Azrael’s appearance was uncanny.
“But am I lying, dear First Man?” Azrael asked, his head continually looking at Adam no matter how much Adam tried to not make eye contact with him.
“Yeah, it’s not fuckin productive at all, I coulda injured myself,” Adam said, flaring out his wings, almost trying to look more threatening to his peer. “Just—tell me what the fuck ya need me to do.”
Finally, Azrael no longer was looking at Adam, instead walking through the grass, motioning for Adam to follow. “One thing, dear sir, I would like to ask that you refrain from your typical manner of speech around these children. Most have gone through significantly traumatizing experiences and you are quite rash.”
“Rash smrash, it’s just how I speak. Ya just want me to change how I speak because some kids—” Adam stopped speaking when his eyes landed on the children, his heart jumping to his throat. They were almost all in terrible condition. One kid had glass sticking out of their eye and cheek. Another was almost stripped naked with their ribs showing. Another sickly pale with no hair. This was the first time Adam had seen the souls that stayed in Purgatory and seeing kids like that and worse made his skin crawl. “What. The. Hell. Rae, why are they like this? They’re only children.”
“They have not lived long enough to be judged,” Azrael hummed, his head tilting to the side. “So I must wait for my sister to come retrieve their souls to be brought back to Earth. Though, due to the state of things, she is often swamped with new souls.”
“Well tell your sister to hurry up! These kids look terrified,” Adam shot, going towards the children, getting down to their level. “Hey, kiddos. C’mere. I won’t hurt you.”
The kid with glass in his face ran up to Adam, wrapping his arms around the larger male. The kid looked up at Adam with teary eyes. “Am I dead? Did I die in the car crash? Are my parents still alive?” Adam felt his insides twist painfully. Drunk driving was most likely the reason this poor kid died so young. He hated the thought of it—hated the thought of sending the kid back to the place he died. The fucker who caused the car wreck probably didn’t even die. Shocker, the kid was punished for someone else’s sins. Everything was awful about that. If Adam knew who the fucker was, he’d kill them multiple times. Kids were the most innocent beings on the fucked up Earth.
…Roo was the entire reason Earth was like that. Adam’s hatred for the woman, the Root of all Evil, was an even deeper root than the one that she had grown into the hearts of the people on Earth.
“What was that?” Eve asked, pushing herself up from her perch on a rock, one hand resting on her stomach that was swollen with another child of Adam’s, pushing aside the cloth curtain that kept light out of the room when Eve was exhausted.
“What was what?” Adam questioned, setting down his whittling knife and wood that he was carving into a new bow.
“I heard a scream from the wheat field,” Eve said, motioning to the field that was carefully and tediously maintained. “It sounded like one of our sons.”
Adam pushed himself up and nodded. “I believe that Abel and Cain went to make offerings to the Father. I will go see if there was an animal attack. They know how to protect themselves, but praying with an animal stalking would be something that could catch them off guard.”
“Please make sure our boys are okay,” Eve said softly, running her hand down Adam’s cheek gently and kissing him gently. Adam gave Eve a small nod, placing a kiss on her forehead before going towards the wheat fields where the entire air had gone eerily still.
“Abel! Cain! Are you both okay?” Adam called out, getting no response. His adrenaline began to spike, his hand gripping tightly around the knife he kept on his belt. “Abel. Cain. This better not be a joke.” Adam made his form smaller, creeping towards where the offerings were made, a clearing in the middle of the field to protect everyone from being snuck up on by a wild animal. He pushed the wheat to the side, peering through it.
What he saw made his blood run cold.
Abel was on the ground, his blonde hair tinged with the brilliant red of blood, his brown eyes still open but void of all light. Over him loomed what looked like a wolf… but certainly wasn’t. It was significantly larger than a typical wolf, with what looked like clothes ripped and still attempting to hang onto the thing’s body, it stood bipedal with black hair covering its entire body. Adam took a sharp breath in, readying himself to attack which caused the thing to turn its head and met his eyes.
Those were Cain’s eyes.
That was his son.
A growl from Cain triggered Adam to go into action, drawing his knife and lunging towards Cain. Cain quickly dodged, swiveling on his new paws, baring his teeth on his maw at Adam. Adam had to grind it into himself that what he was fighting was not his son. No matter what, those eyes no longer belonged to his son. Cain no longer was his son. Cain needed to die. Adam and Cain danced around each other, Cain landing hits against Adam and Adam doing the same to Cain, creating a blood-stained ground in a painting of pain. Adam finally lodged his knife in Cain’s shoulder, causing the monster to rear his ugly head and howl in pain. Adam was launched across the clearing as Cain ran out of the clearing towards the dense woods nearby.
Adam’s breathing became laboured as adrenaline left his body. He ignored every bone in his body begging for rest, crawling over to Abel, holding the boy to his chest. “H—hey, Abel. Hey. Your mother has your after worship snack so you don’t go to bed on an empty stomach. Come on, just talk to me. Tell me you were just acting. I know—I know you like putting on performances. Come on. Please. I can’t—I can’t tell Eve that I lost you both. She’ll be mortified.” Adam choked back sobs that threatened to spill. You’re a man. You’re the only one Eve will have when she cries. Cry and you won’t be strong enough for her. Adam gently ran his hand over Abel’s face, closing his eyes so those empty eyes that were once so full of life didn’t stare at him as if telling him that he was too late at saving his eldest son. Too late to save him from the monster Cain had become. He should have caught it. He should have known. But he loved Cain too much to notice these fall shorts in the boy’s mood and didn’t watch him close enough.
He’d never love another monster.
Never again.
“Well isn’t this just adorable?” came a sickenly sweet voice. “Look at that, a father and a son together for the last time~”
Adam’s fingers curled around Abel’s arms, holding his body close protectively. “I don’t plan on ever listening to you or your advice, Root of Evil.”
“Call me Roo, it’s so much simpler,” the woman laughed, her red eyes training on Abel. “Poor kid got brutalized. Jealousy can do so many bad things.”
“What are you talking about? I want you to leave.”
“Oh, Adam, you wound me! I know you may not listen to me, but do you think that I would fail at getting to your children?” Roo let out a laugh, almost innocent but it made Adam’s blood boil. “Cain listened to me so easily when I promised him attention. You didn’t give him the attention he wanted or needed, so listening to me was the easy alternative. You are truly an awful father.”
“Shut up. Shut up, shut up, you stupid woman! Shove it where the sun doesn’t shine!” Adam spat at Roo, his body shaking violently as he did everything in his power to not launch himself at the woman. He couldn’t leave Abel’s body unattended. “I am doing my best! I love them all—I give them as much attention as I can!”
“Then why did he listen to me? Cain was jealous of his younger brother, and I gave him the attention he desired! It was so easy to push that level of envy he had to the very edge~” Roo hummed, her eyes gleaming with sadistic glee. “A sacrifice to God. I told him if he wanted to be like his brother, he should bring a supple offering to God. A sacrifice made out of jealousy is not a sacrifice worthy of God. When God denied the sacrifice…” Roo’s eyes trailed to Abel’s face. “...it was Abel’s fault and not his.”
Adam felt goosebumps rise on his body. He felt so vulnerable. “Leave. I don’t want to hear any more.”
“Are you certain you don’t want to know what happened to your oldest?” Roo asked, tilting her head, taunting him.
“I. Said. Leave. ”
Roo sighed and shrugged, a smile never leaving her face. “Oh well,” she hummed. “I guess you’ll never know just how badly he was cursed for making this sacrifice~”
Adam swallowed his pride, looking Roo in the eyes. “How badly was Cain cursed?”
Roo gave him a triumphant smile, her shark-like teeth glinting as she stood almost taller, leering over Adam. “He was cursed to forever be hunted. He was made an immortal, to live until the Garden of Eden is set back in place on Earth, or Earth is destroyed. Whichever comes first! However, whoever hurts him or his descendants will be hurt ten fold whatever they did to him.”
“...descendants?”
“That’s right! He dragged his children— your grandchildren —and his wife down with him.”
“...Akeldama… the twins…. Nonono—you can’t do that!” Adam cried out, throwing a rock at Roo, who simply disappeared and reappeared in a thing of shadows.
“I didn’t do anything!” Roo laughed. “These are the consequences of Cain’s actions! The consequences of listening to me! The consequences of me being released to Earth because you and Eve partook of the Fruit! Knowledge of me existing is what brought me in, and now I cannot be removed. I’ll always be here. There will be moments when you listen to me, all of your kids and all of your descendants will listen.”
Adam’s face darkened. “I’ve heard enough.”
Roo laughed. “You’ll never be able to get rid of me. You’ll see.” With that, she disappeared, leaving Adam with only the light of the moon and his dead son in his arms.
Eve is going to hate him. He couldn’t save them.
This was Lucifer’s fault. Lucifer had given the fruit to Eve—and Adam had taken the fruit knowing that he wasn’t going to let Eve do the act on her own.
And now their two eldest sons were dead.
Adam could feel himself choke up as the memory rushed in, complete with a flurry of anger and disgust. Oh, how he wished he could go back in time and stop Eve from listening to Lucifer—tell her something like “don’t listen to any talking serpent” or anything like that. Then these poor kids wouldn’t need to suffer. The poor boy in his arms with glass in his face would never have to suffer the glass in his face. The kids that were starving would never starve. The kids that had bruises all over their bodies… they’d never have to worry about feeling those bruises.
Hell wouldn’t exist.
The antichrist wouldn’t exist.
Adam’s mind paused for a moment, picturing the blonde haired girl and her little puppy dog nose. She seemed so innocent… but she couldn’t be. She was the antichrist. She had Lucifer’s eyes. She looked nothing like Lilith, Adam mused. That could be the curse Lilith got—her only child to not even look like her own. It was laughable. Betray the laws the Heaven put in place and have nothing in common with the very thing that betrayed the laws. She even tried to speed up the process of what her daughter was destined to do—to rise up against Heaven. Adam could only see one end for the girl—a brutal death. Maybe painless, but that would be if Michael was merciful. Michael was a good man, but his destiny intertwined with the princess’. Michael kept to himself, quiet and reserved. But, any time Adam visited Michael, he couldn’t help but notice the sword that hung on Michael’s office wall, made specifically to shed the blood of the antichrist.
It was kinda funny that the antichrist also happened to be his niece in a sense of the word. Though, Michael had never thrown a fit about killing his family. Lucifer would’ve died if he wasn’t God’s favorite, and Michael would’ve done it too.
“Uhm… sir…” came the meek voice of a little girl, her eyes large and looking up at him. “Are you an angel?”
“Yeah,” Adam said. “I’m an angel. Look at this—I got the wings and the halo and all the cool sh—stuff.” Adam spread out his wings, gently taking the girl’s hand and leading her hand to his feathers, showing her how to pet with a gentleness and ease of a man who was always around kids. The other kids looked at the girl and then at Adam, slowly joining her one by one until several little hands touched his wings, small giggles and coos coming from them as they messed with his feathers.
One kid, though, kept his distance. His eyes were trained on the ground as he threaded his fingers through the grass, despite the spot he was sitting being practically dead. He looked the healthiest of all the children around him, but Adam felt an urge to talk to him. “Alright, kiddos, one moment.” The kids pulled their hands off of the first man’s wings as he stood up, their eyes becoming saucers at his full height. Adam walked over to the boy that stayed alone, kneeling down next to him. “Hey, kiddo. You wanna try to touch my wing?” Adam showed the kid one of his wings in hopes that the kid would accept the offer.
“Are you really an angel?” the kid asked, not even looking up. “Is this not a nightmare?”
Adam took in a sharp breath, folding his wings in tightly as if to protect himself from what he was about to say. “I am an angel. This is not a nightmare, kiddo. You died.”
“This isn’t like the Heaven my mama talked about,” the kid said softly, a pang of guilt hitting Adam. Everything this kid said only made him feel worse. He shouldn’t need to go back to the place he died. “I guess being dead would explain this.” The kid pulled up his shirt, nasty stab wounds covering his stomach, almost showing the entirety of the kid’s insides.
Adam’s face paled. Oh Father what the fuck did that to such a small kid? This kid had to be no older than six. The angel gently pushed the shirt down into place, Adam suddenly processing what the kid was wearing. Pajamas. Lightning McQueen pajamas. This kid had been murdered when he still had a day to get to. School—friends—family—a life cut terribly short. That was the same for every kid here, but this kid thought he was in Heaven. This would be a terrible Heaven.
“My mama said that I was possessed. She said Lucifer had gotten to me,” the kid said softly. “Her and her new husband said I was going to hurt someone if I kept living. My sister tried to help me leave, but the night we were prepared to go to our grandparents house I heard her scream. She died before me. I watched as they took her apart and buried her in the backyard. I don’t know where she is now because I was next. I pretended to be asleep, but every stab it was hard to keep quiet. But I did it. I think my sister would be proud.”
Adam gently cupped the kid’s cheeks, his eyes filled with sorrow and pity.
…and rage.
“You did good, kid. You did real good. You’ll be able to get into Heaven, I promise. This ain’t Heaven, this is purgatory. This is where everyone comes to wait to go to Heaven. You won’t have to have that big gash in your belly much longer, I promise,” Adam said gently, pulling the kid into a hug. “I promise you, you’ll never have to see your Mama again either. You and Lucifer are not together at all. I promise. If anything, she got possessed. You’re a strong kid, ya know that? Maybe one day when you’re in Heaven I’ll teach you how to use a sword. Then you’ll be able to fight back any demons trying to prove your mama right, because she’ll never be right.”
“Thank you, mister…” the kid trailed off. “What’s your name, Mr. Angel?”
“Adam,” the archangel said. “The name’s Adam.”
“Can I call you Uncle Adam?” the kid said, tilting his head.
“Yeah, kid. Yeah, I’m Uncle Adam,” Adam said. “What’s your name?”
“I’m… I don’t know. I can’t remember.”
“I’ll call ya Mikey. How ya like that?”
The kid nodded enthusiastically. “I like that a lot.”
Other kids walked up to Adam, closing in on him. They started asking for names for themselves too, Adam giving them all names that he thought could be popular enough to be a name on Earth in current times.
“Alright!” came an adult’s voice—one Adam didn’t recognize. “Who’s ready for their second chance!” Adam looked at the source of the voice. It was a smaller woman, with wings for ears and wings that sat on her tailbone instead of the typical spot of wings sitting on her upper back. She wore a simple dress with a corset that sucked in a lot of her stomach—but to Adam, it was obvious she had a muffin top when the corset was not involved. She had red hair that curled delicately, framing her round face. She had completely dusty blue eyes with white pupils and a halo that looked like it directly attached to her head.
The kids rushed up to her, taking seats in front of her like they were in kindergarten and she was the teacher. Azrael appeared from behind her, holding his scythe out to the kids. “Okay, young ones, I need you all to touch the blade of my scythe so that you will become your purest forms.”
Adam furrowed his brow, but watched carefully as one by one the kids touched the blade. Every time they touched the blade, their forms would disappear, turning into a small ball of light that the girl would scoop up and put into her bag. Once the kids were gone, Adam felt his heart drop to his feet. This meant they’d go back. This meant they’d have to risk being brainwashed by Roo once again. They should just be allowed entry to Heaven. That would be the most logical of answers. Azrael himself said it, these kids went through trauma. They didn’t need any more of that—they needed to be eternally safe under guard of the High Seraphim. This fate seemed so much crueler than anything else the judgement could do—right next to sending the kids down to Hell.
“You must be Adam,” the girl said, holding her hand out to Adam. “I’m Muzari.”
Adam took Muzari’s hand, giving it a firm shake. “Mind if I call ya Ari? I prefer to call people by nicknames. It just rolls off the tongue better.”
“Ari works fine,” Muzari said, flying up to be eye level with Adam. “What if I called you Addy? I mean, I would say it’s only fair if you get to call me a nickname.”
“Yeah, yeah. Sure, whatever. I don’t care what ya do, just don’t talk shit about me,” Adam said, rolling his eyes slightly. Whatever the bitch wanted to do. “By the way, like, why have I never seen you before?”
Muzari rang her hands together with a small laugh. “My job is kinda full time. Just like my brother’s. Azzy reaps and I sow. Every new creature—in Heaven, Hell, and on Earth all have souls. Except for one creature which I’m more than certain you know what the creature is. I give life.”
“...so you could give my girls souls?”
“Not without Mother’s permission.”
…
Who was Mother?
Adam closed his eyes, running his fingers through the hair of Eve, who rested against his chest, her smaller body fitting comfortably against his own. She was light as a feather, her breathing gentle as a soft wind picked up. He spread his wings out as he got comfortable again, adjusting enough to not bother the sleeping woman on his chest. He looked down at her, a soft smile playing on his face. Beautiful. He pushed some of her hair out of her face, and froze as he saw the woman’s face. This wasn’t Eve. This was the princess. She looked so peaceful, gently curled up with her chest rising and falling slowly. Her hand curled up at his shirt, holding onto as if Adam was going to let her go.
Azrael’s words came into his mind, almost as the archangel had shouted them at him, “Don’t lose your heart to the Devil.” Adam froze.
…was Charlie the Devil?
Adam felt his blood run cold. He wanted to move. Every part of his body wanted to move, but the moment his eyes landed on Charlie his body felt a strange calm. She was peaceful. She could not hurt him. She would not hurt him. Darkness began to envelope the place he was sitting, his grip instinctively tightening around Charlie. Two red eyes appeared out of the shadows, looking at Adam straight on before he could hear a voice that sounded like one combined together.
“Are you scared of love, Adam?”
Adam shot up, sweating and gasping for air. He pat his chest, feeling the lack of Charlie against him. He grabbed his halo, letting it sit above his head again, rushing to the bathroom and splashing water on his face before looking in the mirror.
“Roo.”
Notes:
Ahaha- that was a lot. I bet yall can't guess which part kept making me have to pause writing thanks to tearing up.
The boy in Purgatory is actually loosely based on an actual true crime story. If you're interested, Lori Vallow is who you'd look up. There's a good podcast called Mother Doomsday about her. The kid is based on the story, he is a product of my own imagination, though. Please keep that in mind.
Chapter 6: The 3rd "Date"
Summary:
Eden flashback, Seviathan wakes up Charlie, Adam and Charlie's 3rd meeting.
Notes:
I got a beta~ He's so good~ Made me laugh so hard with his comments on the chapter that my roommates had to ask if I was okay.
I was gonna rewrite Chapter 5 to smooth out the speed of the chapter but ended up getting inspiration from the first paragraph for what I'd do for this chapter, so I said fuck it, I'm leaving it as is and using it. I stopped worrying about my typical length (I have a quota of 5k a chapter for myself since it's a happy medium with normal books and it feels like the right amount for not too long but not too short because I know too long will get me burned out as a writer but too short would get me bored as a reader.)
TLDR: This chapter is inspired by my own writing and is more evenly paced than the last chapters.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Time had passed carelessly in Eden, the sun setting and moon rising too many times for Adam to count. He sat on the ground, his fingers threading through a bear cub’s fur as its large paws rested on his leg. Its fur was soft, the bear looking like a fluffy mass on his lap, its big brown eyes looking up at him, curiously watching the man. Adam quite liked it when the animals would stand by him or lay on him, it was a nice feeling. It made Adam feel needed—especially since Lilith had made it plenty clear she did not need him to be happy. She opted to spend time with the Morningstar more and more, enjoying the stories that he would tell her. Adam didn’t really like the time she spent with the Morningstar, especially when that time was without him. More often than not, she wandered off to speak with the angel without warning Adam, and it was becoming tiring. Adam would wander Eden looking for her for hours, only to push himself down into the grass and amuse himself with the newest animal that the angels had created, ones that Father had made him name—saying if he was to be the strongest creature on Earth, he should be the one to name them. Dinosaurs were his favorite, the big razor toothed lizard type creatures. Father said he had created them for him—claiming that the scarier the animal was the more intrigued Adam should be by them with his design. While in the beginning Adam was more intrigued by the animals that were softer and smaller, Father said he had made the larger and scarier animals for him, and Adam did not want to disappoint Father.
“Adam?”
The voice was not familiar—it was a woman’s voice, not at all Lilith’s even though it did make Adam jump to just make sure he wasn’t wrong. No, the one who addressed him was a seraphim, just like the Morningstar. She had brilliant white hair that curled in loops. She looked at Adam with pity in her eyes, her wings pressing against her body, slightly bristling as Adam looked up at her, bear cub now in his arms as he got up to greet her, his body now more toned and bulkier than when he had been created—just as it was meant to be. He was meant to gain strength, strength to protect his wife, whether she wanted to be protected or not. “I’m here!” Adam responded when he was at his full height, looking at the Seraphim with those damning curious gold eyes. Gold will need to stay out of future humans—they seemed more like a curse than anything.
“I’m glad I found you, Adam. I am Sera, the high seraphim,” Sera said, her hands folding over each other, the angelic being giving Adam a soft nod. “My partner, Uriel, is on her way. We have news to share with you.” Adam’s face lit up, a grin appeared on his face, bouncing a small bit. It was sad, in thought, of the excitement that Adam was feeling for what Sera was going to share with him.
“That’s amazing! I’m honored to meet more angelic beings! Where is Father?” Adam inquired, softly tilting his head, the smile never leaving his face as he repositioned the cub in his arms so that the cub’s legs weren’t dangling since he sensed it would be a moment before he’d be sitting down again.
Sera grimaced a bit, changing her face’s direction so as to not let the first man see her distaste in his softness towards the animal. Her mind swirled in what to tell Adam in response to his question without lying to the poor man. She couldn’t and didn’t want to be a bad example to the man. He was still a child—just in a mature body. Almost a hundred years in the garden and nothing had changed, it was ridiculous. Father had told her to be patient, and she was patient, but time had passed and the man hadn’t learned how to be a man. He couldn’t even get Lilith to listen to him, it was an embarrassment to all the angels who had involved themselves in designing him. By now, the man should be replaced. Remade until he reached perfection, but saying anything against Father’s will could force her out of her place in Heaven, something she was not willing to risk. “Father could not make it today, I am afraid.” Sera’s voice was soft, gentle and almost unassuming. The man nodded, accepting the angel’s admission. “Walk with me, would you?” Another nod. Sera began guiding Adam around a path towards a waterfall, Adam falling into her pace rather quickly, a rare feat for anyone of his height next to her. If anything, Adam was physically fit. His emotions could use some work, but that would be something she would work on further now that she had been given lead in this passion project of Father.
As they took a turn around the waterfall, they came to view another seraphim, her wings spread out and eyes trained on a patch of grass that was wilting quickly under her scrutiny, as if something had touched it that shouldn’t have and now it was suffering the consequences. Adam reeled back slightly, his skin crawling with unease as he looked back and forth between the two women, something telling him to run. To go anywhere but in front of them, and he was very close to listening to the intuition, a lump growing in his throat, tears stinging his eyes as his entire body told him he was about to be threatened.
“Uriel, are you going to tell him or will I?” Sera questioned the other woman, getting a small sigh in return before the seraphim turned around and looked at Adam.
“You did not tell him during your travel time to arrive here?” Uriel asked, not looking at Sera once. Adam suddenly wished he were the grass that had wilted. Somehow, it felt like the grass had it much easier than he did, standing in silence with the unnecessarily strong want to escape from the two, with both of their sets of eyes trained on him, tearing him apart from the inside out.
“I did not. I assumed it’d be better to tell him not too long before we do as we planned.”
“Then I shall tell him,” Uriel hummed, getting closer to Adam but not lowering herself to be at his level. “Adam, when have you last seen Lilith?”
Adam’s heart dropped. Oh no. No. This was about Lilith. Had Lilith gotten hurt and he wasn’t there to protect her? Was he getting punished for not protecting her? Surely that wouldn’t be fair—she had run away from him. He was nothing but gracious to her as far as he was aware. He was a good husband! Father told him so! Father would not lie.
…would He?
No, no he wouldn’t. Father was the epitome of perfection. He had told Adam that he was made in His image—perfection. Adam too would be perfect, that was the jist of Adam’s creation. Created in His image, therefore he was perfect. There would be nothing that Adam could have done different for a different outcome or change the situation he was in now. “I have lost track of time, she has been gone for so long. But she has never failed to return to me so I haven’t been worried. Should I be worried?”
Uriel closed her eyes, running her hand down the skirt of her dress, taking in a deep breath before speaking. “Lilith will not be returning to you. She has made a grave mistake while influenced by someone who will not come in contact with the Garden again. I apologize, but your marriage with her has been made null and void.”
Adam’s eyes went wide, an awful, painful, twisting feeling filling his heart that quickly spread to the rest of his body causing bubbles of tears to stream down his cheeks. “What? Lil—Lilipad wouldn’t do that. She will come back. She always does.”
Sera gave Adam a look of contempt, tilting his face up by the chin with her pointer finger and thumb. “Pathetic. You are a man—act as you should. Men do not cry. You will not cry, am I understood?” Adam nodded, quickly wiping the tears off his face with his forearms with a little maneuvering of the bear he never bothered to set down. “Good. Now, we will make you another wife. You will have her obey you, and you will not lose sight of her. We will make her out of your rib so there is acknowledgement that she is less than you, she needs you. She will keep you company so you do not get lonely and will care for you as a woman should. Do you understand this?”
Adam nodded again, mulling over the facts placed in front of him. Lilith was never meant to be his equal? That… was not something he had put together. Father had treated them as equals, and had given them the same commandments, one of them Adam was still unsure of how to follow through and no one gave him further directions on what he was supposed to do. He was immortal, though, so he’d have time to learn and keep both commandments.
…Did Lilith give up on that commandment? Did that result in her suffering in some way? Adam pushed the thought from his head. He was asking too many questions and he knew that Father always had answers. If Father wanted them to learn at a faster pace, he would’ve given them hints. “How will you create her out of my rib?”
“Putting you to sleep, my child,” Uriel said, motioning for him to set down the cub that made Adam feel vulnerable. The bear happily trotted away, giving Adam a look that said, “See you soon” before disappearing into the forested part of the Garden. Uriel put her hand over Adam’s eyes, a drowsiness washing over him that he had not been expecting in the middle of the day, and with the help of Uriel, laid in the grass before all the light of the Garden disappeared and darkness welcomed him with open arms.
“Lottie?” came Seviathan’s voice, knocking on Charlie’s door, earning a groan from the princess. “Lotts, I know you’re tired, but you need to get up.” Seviathan pushed the door open, glancing around the hotel tenants. It had been… difficult, to say the least, getting the hotel tenants to keep their eyes off of Seviathan whenever he was next to Charlie like he was some creep. He wasn’t, and it made his skin crawl that anyone would make a suggestion as such. They hadn’t said it out loud—but the looks they gave him said more than enough at the fact they thought Charlie was unsafe around him. It would only prove them right if they saw him enter Charlie’s room without an invitation. He wasn’t being creepy, he was waking the princess up because he knew she needed to wake up. Not like they knew her the way he did. He had been her boyfriend for a good fifty-three years and her friend even longer. They were supposed to get married—but that kept getting pushed out thanks to Charlie’s struggle at getting ahold of her parents. If Helsa hadn’t stepped in, he’d be Charlie’s husband and she wouldn’t need the people in the hotel. Seviathan could’ve sworn he saw the moth sinner giving Charlie the “I’m in love with you” eyes and it disgusted him. If he played along, though, Charlie would likely take him back. Then, she wouldn’t need this silly project to feel useful—she’d be with him and he’d make sure she always had the things that would make her happy. The hotel was not going to make her happy—it’s caused her so much stress.
Charlie stirred in her covers, pulling them over her head with a whine. “Five more minutes!” Seviathan let a smile creep on his face. She was perfection. Despite her messy hair that curled ever so slightly when she didn’t straighten it, her sleeping in a position that should not be comfortable for anyone, and the way her hooves stuck out the bottom of her blanket, she was perfect. Seviathan had never met a girl that had lived up to her standards—lived up to her as a person, demon, or creature otherwise.
“Aht, aht,” Seviathan clicked his tongue, walking over to Charlie’s curtains and pulling them open, letting the red light of Hell’s daytime flood in, earning him another groan. Seviathan chuckled, walking over to Charlie, and sitting on her bed, crossing his legs. “Lottie, you need to get up. You have a meeting today, remember. It’s in an hour, I let you sleep as long as you could but—” Seviathan got cut off as he got startled by Charlie shooting up, staring at him with eyes as wide as saucers.
“Seviathan! An hour?! I’m not at all going to have enough time to get ready!” Charlie cried out, scrambling into her slippers and around the room. She gathered her clothes, pulling them on as Seviathan just sat on her bed watching her. She was a ball of chaos as she pulled out her makeup. “I didn’t even wash my makeup off last night! Do you know how difficult it is to clean off makeup that’s stayed on your face overnight? And put on makeup after? I’d need at least an hour for that alone!”
“Love, you hardly wear makeup anyways, I’m sure an hour is far too long for just your makeup.”
“You don’t wear makeup! You’re just naturally beautiful!” Charlie said, splashing her face with water after wandering into the bathroom and then putting face wash over her entire face.
“You’re naturally beautiful too, Lottie. You barely put any makeup on and I think you’re the most beautiful creature in this hellhole of a world,” Seviathan said, leaning back on the palms of his hands as the frantic girl scrubbed her face. Once she was certain all her old makeup was off, she threw herself into her chair at her vanity, digging through her makeup so that she could find everything she needed.
“Flattery can only get you so far with me,” Charlie said, glancing at Seviathan, face gently getting covered in a light amount of white foundation. “I know there’s still feelings you have for me, but you also know you don’t have a chance. Fifty years crumbled the moment you believed Helsa over me.”
“Fifty-three years, four months and three days, but hey, who’s counting,” Seviathan remarked with a chuckle. “I don’t have to be in love with you to compliment you, little dove.”
“I don’t even remember how long we were together down to the day! I can make a guess!”
“I have an excellent memory.”
“You can’t even remember your own birthday.”
“It’s an irrelevant memory.”
“And yet how long we dated is?”
“I have happy memories with you.”
Charlie let out a sigh, shaking her head as she finished her makeup by putting on her favorite black lipstick. “Watch the hotel for me, ‘kay? Make sure Angel and Vaggie don’t fight—Alastor shouldn’t be an issue, he just may stalk you a little to make sure you’re not making a mess of things—Niffty should be fine, just don’t let her in the kitchen and Husk—”
“I know, little dove, you’ve explained this all to me before. Go to your meeting, love. I have this whole running a hotel deal handled. Text me on your way back, I’ll make sure lunch is prepared for you,” Seviathan hummed, standing up and leading Charlie out of her room.
“Thank you, Sevvy,” Charlie said, quickly planting a kiss on Seviathan’s cheek before rushing out of the hotel. Charlie hadn’t meant anything by it, but the moment Charlie was around the corner, Seviathan had a giant smile smeared across his face and his hand resting gently on his cheek where her lips had been. He looked in a mirror across the small hallway, a smile creeping on his lips as he saw Charlie’s black lipstick on his cheek.
It had been too long.
Charlie weaved through the sinners on the street, grateful for Seviathan waking her up. She would have checked her phone on her own within five minutes of the meeting—waking up with an hour to the meeting gave her a half an hour to get ready, and a half an hour to get to the embassy. It didn’t typically take that time for her to move around Hell, her walking speed faster than most demons, but problems were inevitable and if she had her way. She would’ve had Razzle or Dazzle set up the limo to drive her, but with the fact that the Pride Ring was preparing for her speed dating activity and more sinners had signed up for it than she was expecting—more likely than not that sinners saw this as a perfect way to get a quick hookup, not that it mattered much, as she was going to get traction for the hotel. Positive traction. So, she didn’t want to risk hitting any of the demons wandering around the street, and if they were patient with the sinners, getting to the embassy would take much longer in the limo than on foot.
“Princess Charlie!”
Fuck. Charlie spun towards the voice, her eyes landing on a demon with a cameraman behind her and a microphone. “Hiya! Yes, I’m Princess Charlie, but I don’t have time to do an impromptu interview—I’m already late for a very important meeting. Some other time!” Charlie promised, putting her arms up to try to keep her distance from the reporter, walking backwards before bumping into a slimy demon, her eyes going wide as she looked at the slug demon she ran into. She peeled herself away from the demon, green slime sticking to her causing her to grimace. So much for looking put together.
“Hey, babes, watch where you’re goin’. Pretty little thing might get a bite taken out of her~” the demon cooed, running a finger under her chin. Charlie pulled away, making a face that said nothing but disgusted.
“Eheheh—noooo thank you!” Charlie said, quickly making her way around the demon. Nothing could be worse than that, at least.
She spoke too soon, within a few minutes rain began to trickle down from the sky before pouring down violently.
On the bright side, at least she wasn’t covered in goo anymore.
Adam tapped his fingers on the table, a small pout on his face. Charlie hadn’t been like her father in regards to showing up an hour late to the meeting and the fact that thirty minutes had passed since the meeting was supposed to start made Adam’s skin crawl. Yeah, sure, he was used to sitting in the quiet building for hours on end without so much to do as eat or make plans with some bitch he found on Chastinder, but he thought maybe the girl version of Lucifer would be a little better than that. Oh, who was he kidding? It’s the traitor’s daughter he’s thinking about. She had to have learned her personality from somewhere and he seemed like the perfect person to learn false kindness from. Lulling Adam into a sense of false security before attacking—ridiculous. The thought hit Adam that he didn’t secure a deal that Charlie couldn’t rise against Heaven. Fuck.
She was the antichrist! She just needed to fight Heaven on her own and she wouldn’t be breaking any part of the deal—Father fucking dammit. Adam was an idiot. If the girl was able to find her full power, she’d be able to knock a seraphim out of the air. Heaven would be sorely unsafe. Okay, new thing on the to-do list: Make sure Princess Charlie’s powers are and remain weak. Or make it so she has no reason to want to rise up. How could he do that? Seduce her? Seducing her should be easy. Alright, she needs to be seduced. That was easy for him—there wasn’t a girl who could get enough of the dickmaster.
The door slammed open, causing Adam to jump, the princess of Hell at the door panting and sopping wet. Her horns were out, succubus tail flicking back and forth in irritation, and eyes red with white irises. She stood up, brushing off anything on her suit, her horns retreating and tail hiding with them, eyes bleeding back into their normal color. “I am so sorry about my tardiness,” Charlie said, taking her suit jacket off and hanging it on a chair closest to the door. “I had a very difficult time getting here.” Charlie kept explaining why she was late, but Adam mostly tuned it out, his eyes trailing down to her breasts. He had been right—at least a C cup, but with the jacket off, they could be slightly bigger. Her suspenders pushed them down ever so slightly—it was a miracle they were able to fit into that suit. Like, damn. The buttons on the suit should’ve been struggling. You know, maybe seducing her wouldn’t be half bad.
It took Adam a moment before he was brought back to reality, watching Charlie squeezing out her hair of water that burned the floor when it hit the ground—acid rain? She had said something about it, surely. She stared at him expectantly, a tight smile on her face. “Nice tits.”
Her face lit up red paired with a mix of blubbering words. Fuck, that was adorable. “Excuse me?” Ah, finally, she managed words.
“You heard me. Nice tits. Your suit doesn’t do them any justice. Like, fuck, babes. You should wear like one of those skin-tight ‘fuck me’ dresses. You’d look incredibly hot. I don’t think a single man would ignore you wearing one of those. Like—man your tits look nice.”
Charlie rocked back and forth on her heels, rocking her arms at her side, not meeting Adam’s eyes, her face red as a cherry and as cute as a puppy. Adam really wanted to go over and squish her face. Maybe she’d make those silly noises again. Adam was about to listen to the thoughts before Charlie began speaking, causing Adam to force himself back into his seat. “Well—uh. This is our third meeting. Our first one about the deal we made, so I assume we need to figure out how we’re going to set up this meeting. I had made some plans last night but uh—” Charlie looked at her blazer. “—those papers are clean gone.”
“We could fuck.”
Charlie choked on air, coughing violently. “Excuse me?!”
“I always fuck on the third date. This is the third meeting, so like the third date. Getting down and dirty would be fun—and then you’d have a real reason to be all wet.” Adam leaned towards Charlie, resting his chin on his fingers after folding them together, giving her a suggestive smirk. “What do you say?”
Charlie stared at him like she was a deer in headlights, the red in her eyes almost the same color of the red on her face. A few moments of silence passed, Adam leaning forward even further, wiggling his eyebrows. Charlie took a step back, holding up her hand. “N—no. No no. Nooo fucking. No sex. None of that.” Charlie waved her hands frantically as if trying to get the very thought of having sex with Adam out of her head. Rude. Adam is amazing at sex, in fantasies and out.
“Fuckin’ buzzkill,” Adam groaned, leaning back in his seat and folding his arms. “I don’t call myself the fuckin’ dickmaster for nothing, ya know! You think Heaven is soooo great, try being in bed with me! I ain’t seen any bitch walk out of my room without a fuckin’ limp. I’m fuckin amazing—”
“Well—Adam. As much as I appreciate your… gracious offer, we are still here to conduct a meeting. This is not a date, let alone a third date—this is a meeting, and I, personally, would prefer if any… ‘dates’... were to happen, it would be outside of a work environment,” Charlie said, using hand gestures to push for any meaning that Adam might not already pick up on in Charlie’s already animation levels of expression in her tone.
“So, what you’re saying is: take you to dinner first? Alright. I’m fine with that. Tomorrow night?”
“What? No! I mean—I’d absolutely adore dinner but—tomorrow I’m kind of busy—I set up this entire thing that a large mass of sinners are attending—it’s a speed dating thing—”
“Sounds fun. I’ll join. Then I can make sure you keeping sinners at bay is true. Then, after, you can show me to your room, and I can show you Heaven.”
“Okay, just a few things. One—” Charlie put out her pointer finger as she started counting. “You’re very much— not a sinner. This activity is for sinners. Two—” A second finger. “I can’t risk you killing any of my possible tenants. And three—” A third finger. “I am not going to have sex with you!”
“I can look like a sinner, babes. Halos can be taken off for comfort. Wings can be hidden the same. You know how uncomfortable it’d be to sleep with these things? They feel like a part of your body until they’re pushed a certain amount away from your head. Though, being away from the halo for too long can like—fuck with your head. I’d just keep it in my pocket. My wings can also fold in, nice and comfortable, like this.” Adam’s wings retreated into his back, large gaping holes in his robe now where his wings escaped. “The wonderful thing about a mask, too…” Adam tapped the side of his mask, the gold changing to red. “I can make it whatever color I want. So, problem number one, fixed. Problem two is simply fixed by our deal. I fuck with your—quite frankly disgusting—people, and y’all getta rise up all ya fuckin’ want and like, I don’t want that. As for the third problem… we’ll just see about that.”
“Okay, so I will allow you to come—BUT, I will not at all, in any way shape or form, be getting in bed with you. I suppose that would solve the issue with you needing to see that I’m not making sinners rise up,” Charlie said, running her hand through her mop of hair. Huh. She had curly hair. It felt wrong knowing that and only seeing it straight. Why on God’s name would she keep her hair straight? Adam almost felt offended by the thought that the girl didn’t like her curly hair—Eve had had the same soft curls that shaped her face so nicely.
“C’mere,” Adam commanded Charlie, motioning with his hand to get closer to him. Charlie’s brows furrowed but she obeyed. Adam pulled a part of Charlie’s hair forward and over her shoulders, picking a small bit of hair and curling it around his pointer finger, his eyes trained on the color. He pinched the hair to a pause around his finger, holding it for a moment before pulling his finger out, the hair holding the curl he had made. “Why don’t you keep your hair curled?”
Charlie let out an awkward laugh, rubbing the back of her neck. “Well—I—I just don’t have a lot of similarities to my mom and so like—I just straighten my hair so I’m more like her. I grew my hair out long because of her—I really want to be like her.”
Adam stared at Charlie, an unimpressed look spelled across his face paired with slow blinking. “You want to be like your mom. That’s literally the only fuckin’ reason you have to straighten your hair? That’s pitiful. You know how damaging that can be for hair? Like, your hair is gonna be so mad at you if you don’t take care of your curls.”
“Well—uh—I use a special shampoo from my Auntie Belphegor. It’s made so that it can straighten my hair without heat and I’ve been using it for like—as long as I can remember. I didn’t shower before I came here because I slept in too long.” Charlie let out a small laugh, shyly tapping her fingers together.
“Still don’t see it as a good reason to keep your hair straight. Straight hair is so fuckin’ basic. Some of the prettiest women I’ve ever met have curly hair. Maybe ya should stop tryna be your mom and try to—I dunno—be you.”
Charlie blinked. “I haven’t ever thought of it like that.”
“Of course ya haven’t. You’re a bimbo bitch with, like, no idea how the world works.”
“I don’t like being insulted.”
“And I don’t like women turning me down.”
“Maybe then you should learn to think with your head and not your dick.”
“But my dick is so smart!”
Silence passed between the two, Charlie staring at Adam with a face of disgust while the first man gave her the largest shit-eating grin he could manage. Charlie took a deep breath. “Tomorrow. Noon. Outside the Hazbin Hotel. I expect you to be there on time or it’ll start without you. Understood?”
“Heh, you didn’t deny it.”
“Oh shut up.”
“Mmm… nah. But, I’ll be there, princess.” Adam took a mental note of the way her face twisted up with blush after he called her princess. She liked it, and he could use that to his advantage.
“Well, if this is all we need to do, I will be taking my leave,” Charlie said, with a small breath out, spinning on her heels, pulling her hair up and over her shoulder to put it back in it’s typical ponytail.
“Hold it.” Charlie froze as Adam told her to stop. “You have a goat tail?”
Charlie let out a small yelp, throwing her hair back to cascading down her back. “Nuh—no! Nope. Not at all. No goat tail. You must be crazy.” Adam wasn’t impressed, and the mistake of letting him see her tail had already been made.
“Let me touch.”
“Absolutely not!”
“It looked soft.”
Charlie’s face screwed up as if she tasted something sour, grabbing her blazer and stormed out of the room. Adam let out a strangled sigh, looking at Lute who had kept her presence unknown from Charlie the majority of the meeting. “Why did you think she was going to let you touch her tail, sir?”
“Because I wanted to!” Adam folded his arms, sinking into his seat more, his wings circling him like a blanket. “Bitch denied me sex, that was the least she could do.”
Lute let out a soft sigh. “What if she has a partner, sir?”
Adam sat up quickly, thinking about it. Well, that would pose a problem. He couldn’t seduce a girl with a partner—that would be wrong. But then again…. “Nah. I doubt it. Girlie doesn’t give me the vibe that she would be dating anyone. Plus, who genuinely wants to date a girl who can’t tell left from right?”
Notes:
"Just because there's a goalie don't mean you can't score!" -Adam, probably.
(My beta said this and I nearly died)
Chapter 7: Speed Dating
Summary:
Sev and Charlie's past, Sev and the tenants aren't friends, and the speed dating activity could've gone worse.
Notes:
Hi! Hello! Nice to see you all again, I'm back. I would've had this chapter out like... two weeks ago but I kinda got kicked out of my living space, had to make a 4 hour move last minute and won't be getting wifi till next month so I wrote this all on my phone. I hope you enjoy anyways, the banter was really fun to write.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Seviathan took a deep breath in, smoothing his hair back as he exaimined himself in the mirror. Good Satan he looked like a mess, but Charlie never did care about looks, did she? When his suit got ruined at prom she laughed—the most glorious laugh that a girl could have. She was perfection, and that’s what he wanted. No girl would ever be the Charlotte Mae Morningstar, and none would live up to her. She was unique and sweet—a commodity in Hell. One that he would not be letting her slip through his fingers. Sure, they had gone on dates, but Charlie had told him on multiple occassions that nothing was official. Today, he wanted to change that. He wanted to make sure no one else would get a grip on the girl—and there was only one way to do that.
With a deep breath in, he grabbed the boquet and headed towards his limo that waited outside the Von Eldritch manor. Before he was able to enter the limo, though, his sister put a hand against the door. “You’re really going to ask the clutz that is Charlotte to be your girlfriend? Just because Dad told you to? You deserve better.” Seviathan stood up, straightening his suit and eyed the princess of Envy up and down. He was the younger of them, but still a very similar looking version of him. She was his twin—but very different. He cared about her, but not enough to change his mind about keeping Lottie to himself. Helsa Von Eldritch was tall, just a few centimeters shorter than Seviathan himself, who stood at 7’ (213cm), both of their hair consisting of tentacles, the main difference being that Seviathan's pushed back and Helsa's fell down in what could almost be mistaken for curls.
Seviathan looked at Helsa closely, eyeing her movements and her positioning. She stood firm, palm against the door, and stance wide enough to stand her ground but also close enough together to pretend she wasn't trying to delay this. Seviathan's mouth turned into a frown, brows furrowing, his eyes trailing to meet his sister's eyes. “The clutz named Charlotte Morningstar is more a woman than any demon in Hell will ever be. She's dainty, delicate, and sweet. She needs someone to protect her from the cruel place that Hell is, and that someone is me. I'm sorry if you think Lottie is so perfect that you have to tear her down to prove your point.” Helsa's eyes widened, offense spelled across her face. She opened her mouth to respond to Seviathan, only for his finger to be pressed against her lips, a grimace crossing her face. “Aht aht. I know how your pretty little mind works, Helsy. You're my sister, afterall.” Seviathan pushed the dumbfounded girl away, climbing into the limo. “Bye bye, Helsa!”
The limo sped off, Helsa left fuming on the side of the sidewalk, her tentacles curling up in anger. Seviathan let out a chuckle, leaning back in the seat. “To the Pride Ring,” he commanded the baphomet demon driving the limo, before paying special care to the boutique he had for Charlie. Nothing could be imperfect for the girl—no wilted leaves, petals, or flowers covering another. Seviathan gently went through the flowers, thinning out the imperfections, fitting them together, and scraping any hidden thorns. He had gotten coral and blue roses—coral was a color that looked splendid on Charlie, and blue was his own main color. He knew that someone like Charlie deserved something different—unique. Not like what the other girls would get from the basic boys. No, no. Getting her blood red roses seemed wrong. It was too basic. Too common. Charlie was anything but common. She deserved things that were a commodity—things that were rare to be seen. He had never seen coral or blue roses, let alone seeing them together.
It took about a half an hour to get from Envy and Pride, even using the special elevator that was made for royalty to get through the rings. Seviathan watched out the window, tapping his finger against the door handle—out of anxiety or out of impatience, he wasn't going to be someone to admit either. Especially since he'll be dating Charlie, Princess of Hell, and potentially courting her, he needed to be the image of perfection. He needed to have the whole of Hell see him as a worthy prince—a worthy potential king. Lucifer would want to step down eventually—especially with his relationship with the queen. Seviathan's father, Fredrick, had informed him of the strain that took hold of the Morningstar family. It wasn't something Charlie ever talked about—probably for good reason. She might be insecure about it. That was no matter, though. He could be her shoulder to cry on and the person to talk to as she needed it.
As the limo pulled up to the Morningstar Manor, Seviathan stiffened slightly, quickly running his hands through his hair to make sure it looked perfect, slapping any tentacle that tried to slip forward, and adjusted his hat. He said a few mantras to encourage himself before shaking off all doubts because why would Charlie say no to him? All other men would not compare to him. She had known him longer than all of them—no other demon would see her for the beauty she truly possessed—no other demon would treat her properly and he knew it. He stepped out of the limo as Charlie was led out of the manor by her two goat companions who acted as her bodyguards. Seviathan's eyes widened slightly. She was beautiful. Perfection given an immortal body. She wore a black dress that had a square neckline that dipped low, with a white shirt underneath that frilled around her neck and wrists. She wore Mary Jane heels with white socks that covered her ankles and curled into small waves. Her red eyes stared at him wide and doe-like. Seviathan stood still for a moment, stunned by them, an unspoken spell cast on Seviathan. “I—uh—these are for you.” Seviathan held out the flowers for Charlie to grab.
Charlie's hands grazed his briefly as she took the flowers, words she said not fully locking into Seviathan's brain as he saw Charlie smell the flowers and look up at him through her lashes. Damn her for making Seviathan's picture perfect image falter just because of how she looked at him. Seviathan took a deep breath in, tugging his suit down so as to get rid of any wrinkles, a smile plastering across his face, all fang. “Lottie, little dove!” Seviathan puller a small box out of his suit. “I have to ask you a question.”
“Oh?” Charlie asked, tilting her head like a confused puppy, holding the flowers close to her heart with both arms. “What is it, Sev?”
A final breath. No going back now, Seviathan. “I don't want to be just friends any minute longer. Seeing you on any other man's arm makes me want to come swoop you into my arms and to make sure they don't try that again. I want to be with you, romantically. For real. Not just some… dates between friends. Actually courting you. If you… If you'll let me.”
Charlie's face became pink, her face hiding in the petals of the roses. “I'd love to.” Her voice came out soft, but by Satan did Seviathan hear it. Oh by Satan did he hear it. Seviathan gently pulled the roses from Charlie's hands, handing them to the closest goat companion and taking Charlie's cheeks in her hands as he bent down and kissed her.
Seviathan poured his coffee, letting the steam roll off as he did so, his eyes semi-looking at the mug that he had borrowed from Charlie with a rainbow and the phrase “Inside Every Demon is a Rainbow” across the bottom, and semi-watching his surroundings. The kitchen was beginning to slowly fill with the few tenants that lived in the hotel. Alastor was the first one in the kitchen, standing in the corner, his hands folded over the radio microphone on a cane. His eyes stayed attached to Seviathan no matter the move that Seviathan took. It was ridiculous, really. The deer demon seemed too focused on him and making sure he didn't mess anything up that would affect Charlie and her dream. Seviathan sat the coffee back in the coffee maker, sitting himself down at the table in the center of the room. “So, are you just going to stare at me like I'm planning some big thing to ruin this entire thing despite me planning everything while Lott—Charlie gets some much needed rest?”
A radio static laugh accompanied by a radio laugh track.
“You really are in your head, aren't you?” Alastor said, walking past Seviathan, tapping his head with the microphone, the deer's smile not fading at all. “Why would I waste my time with such a character? You seem to watch yourself well enough.”
“Oh wow, impressive. Blaming me for your creepiness and insulting me while you're at it. You know that's rude, right? I'm a prince. I can have you punished.”
More static paired with a loud pop that caused Seviathan to plug his ears.
“Satan dammit! What the fuck?”
“Punish me? Charlotte would not allow that, surely you know. If you try, I will make sure everyone hear your screams, little fish,” Alastor hissed, his smile now looking forced, small stress lines appearing under his eyes. “Now, I need my coffee. I'm told I am not pleasant to be around while I'm not running on my coffee.”
Seviathan flinched slightly at Alastor's words before letting out a laugh. “You think Charlie would let you hurt me? Buddy, I've known her longer than you've existed! She'll be on my side!”
“I have helped her with her dream and am funding this hotel. Without me, her dream will go to crumbles on the ground.”
“You're not important at all. If she needs funding, I can fund her.”
“So am I just hearin’ an argument ova who's gon be Char's suga daddy?”
The two men's heads swiveled towards the voice, eyes falling upon the spider demon, looking stressed and tired. He had yet to change out of his pajamas—something that was out of character for the demon. Alastor grimaced, disgusted by the the idea of being anyone's sugar daddy and Seviathan look disgusted by the idea he'd be anything less than someone who would give out of the kindness of his heart.
“That is not at all what we were speaking of, dear Angel,” Alastor said, voice smooth despite the fact he certainly thought what Angel said was in bad taste.
“I was just calling him out on being creepy and he insulted me which led to well, what you heard. Not at all about being…” Seviathan wrinkled his nose slightly. “...Charlie's sugar daddies.”
“Well ya both are arguin’ about fundin’ tha hotel like eitha of yer money matta in tha long run. Char's got princess money. But, in tha end, Alasta would win cause he has Nifft and Husk,” Angel said, pulling bread out of a bag and tossing it in the toaster. “Makes ya both kinda look pathetic.”
The men both made a face that said they were offended. Angel turned to look at them, raising an eyebrow. “What. Yall act like I'm not right, cause, like, I'm right.”
Seviathan opened his mouth to make a comeback when he heard Charlie's telltale humming, his eyes turning towards the kitchen entrance as Charlie spun into the kitchen. She wasn't in her typical suit—or pajamas for that matter of fact. She was fully dressed and ready for the day, but she looked different. She wore a long sleeved shirt that folded up slightly at the wrists and was gold and white striped. She wore black jean shorts that she tucked her shirt into, pulling the shirt tightly against her body, leaving little room for the imagination. She had knee high high-heeled boots with socks that poked right above the edge of the boots. Charlie's hair was put up in a ponytail with a bow that was most definitely borrowed from Vaggie, the ribbon trailing down her back.
Fuck.
She was stunning in casual clothes.
Seviathan face got a light graze of blush, his eyes quickly going to Alastor to make sure the deer demon wasn't checking Charlie out, but rather, the overlord's eyes ended up locking with his own. Creepy fucker. Seviathan would've called Alastor out on it again, but this was the first time Seviathan had seen Charlie this cheery since he had been invited in the hotel (and the first time he had seen her wear something her size). “You look pretty, Lottie.”
Charlie beamed. “Thank you, Sev!”
Angel shot Seviathan a look, again raising an eyebrow before looking Charlie up and down. If Seviathan didn't know any better, he'd assume the spider had something for the princess. Luckily for him, the said spider was gay. But, oogling at Charlie was still not something he should be doing. Seviathan gritted his teeth to not say anything about it to not bring Charlie's mood down. “Who you tryna impress today?” Angel asked with a cocky smirk. “Oh! Oh I know! Is your little crush comin’ to tha speed datin’ thing?”
“Crush?”
Both Vaggie and Seviathan asked in unison as the kitchen began to get packed. Seviathan and Vaggie both gave each other a look, slight contempt to each other prominent.
“Angel, I already told you! It's not a crush!” Charlie said, voice still very much sing-song. “I don't have a crush!”
“Sexually attracted maybe,” Seviathan said with a chuckle, sipping on his coffee, watching as Charlie’s face lit up all shades of red. Satan, he wanted to kiss her.
“Ya came up with tha entire speed datin’ thing ta get outta talkin about tha crush, pretty sure there's somethin’ maur there,” Angel said, leaning against the counter on his elbows, buttering his freshly out of the toaster bread.
“Wait wait wait—when did you all learn this?” Vaggie asked, looking at Seviathan and Angel.
“Toots was stressed and I tried nailin down what it was and that's what she had a reaction ta,” Angel said with a shrug.
“She called me at 3 in the morning because she was in distress over the person. I don't think it's romantic because why would anyone be attracted to someone who—”
Seviathan was promptly shut up by Charlie shoving a muffin in his mouth. “Thattt’s enough. Thank you all, for your… emotions towards whether or not I have a crush on someone, but I don't need to have… anyone talking about my lovelife at the breakfast table! We need to set up for the speed dating activity anyways! Husk is already gathering the items for the activities lined up and putting them in place on the different spots designated for the activities and Niffty is setting the activities up! I'm making them breakfast, so let's hurry so we can help and they can eat! Deal? Deal!” Charlie clapped and let out a hum, working on throwing together some breakfast for the two sinners.
Seviathan coughed on the muffin, biting on a part of it and taking the part that didn't fit in his mouth out, looking unimpressed at the princess who was scrambling. She had never been this rude to him before, and Seviathan blamed it on the sinners that surrounded them.
Bad influences on Charlie's innocence.
That's what they were.
Niffty, the small flea demon scuttled up to Alastor, boxes in her arms of leftover decorations from Charlie's over-shopping. “I got everything set up so it looks really really pretty!” Niffty cooed, holding up the box for Alastor to grab away from her. Alastor let out a laugh, making a flick of his wrist, shadows consuming the box taking it somewhere out of the way. Niffty clapped with a small thanks to Alastor before going off to steal cookies from the snack table. Alastor's eyes scanned the surroundings as sinners, rather rambunctiously, showed up. There wasn't going to be a large turnout, but there would be enough to leave a mess. Alastor politely declined Charlie's offer for him to participate in the activities. He told Charlie it was too frivolous and was nothing he was interested in, opting to rather oversee that no ruckus would be put up. It would be an embarrassment if the hotel got wrecked because of one of Charlie's crazy ideas. On the thought of Charlie, Alastor's eyes floated around to spot her. When he did, he saw her rolling her hands over themselves—a telltale sign the girl was anxious. Her lips were pulled back into a taut frown and eyebrows furrowed together as she watched the crowd's steady growth. Alastor let out a sigh and traveled along the ground to Charlie in a shadow, appearing next to making the girl jump, gasping and grabbing hold of her shirt right next to her heart.
“Oh my Grandfather! Thank the Heaven's it's just you, Alastor! You scared me!” Charlie said, letting out a relieved breath, her body relaxing.
“I would think you'd be used to my sneaking up on you by now!” Alastor laughed, leaning against Charlie's shoulder as if she were made to rest on. “You seem anxious, my dear. Are you having doubts on this ridiculous idea?”
Charlie blinked slightly, staring at Alastor, tilting her head slightly. “Oh—well—ehm—” Charlie faked a cough and rubbed her arm slightly. “I'm just—”
“Heyyyy, princess!”
Charlie’s face lit up, her body turning with her head as she spotted someone Alastor didn't quite recognize. “Adam! You made it! I mean—this will make everything a lot easier.”
“Toots, I told you I was gonna come, why you acting like I'm not a man of my word? Now, who's this man cosplaying a used tampon? You looked uncomfortable.” Adam poked Charlie's cheeks, resting his arm on her head as he leaned over to look at her.
“The name is Alastor,” Alastor said, sending Adam an unimpressed look. “I'm sure you've heard of the great Radio Demon before?”
“Radio Demon? Man and I thought you'd be the Gold Grill Demon. Fuck you probably should get a toothbrush, man. But, no. I ain't ever heard of the Radio Demon before so maybe not as great as ya think,” Adam laughed, poking the overlord in the chest.
Alastor plucked Adam's finger off his chest, grimacing. “Your poor attempt at insulting me is quite frankly disappointing, especially because you chose to approach the princess in such a crass manner.”
“Oh please. Me and her are tight! Like this!” Adam crossed his fingers and squeezed them together.
“Well according to the silence of said princess and her positively bright red face, I would say, that's inaccurate,” Alastor said, his nose crinkling and hand motioning to Charlie who was at a standstill, staring forward like a deer in headlights.
Adam let out a chuckle, pushing himself away from Charlie slightly, scanning her look. “Fuck, princess. Without that ill-fitting suit you look hot. You should show off your legs more, ya know?”
Charlie let out a squeak, swiftly changing her positioning as Adam went to touch her poorly hidden goat tail, slapping his hand away. “No. No tail. I told you this last time!”
Alastor cocked an eyebrow. “Tail? I don't believe I knew you had a tail, Charlotte.”
“I don't typically tell—” Charlie cut herself off jumping away from Adam's hand again. “Adam! I am not letting you touch my tail! Stop trying!” Adam let out a small pout, folding his arms.
“When are you gonna stop telling me no and start telling me yes?” Adam questioned, poking Charlie’s forehead.
“I do believe that is enough,” Alastor said, stepping between the two. “The princess must make her announcements to begin the activities and if you’re here, I’m sure you plan on participating! Am I mistaken?”
Adam gave Alastor a glare before letting out a sigh. “Whatever ra-deer-o demon.” Adam put on a cocky smirk before walking off, glancing at Charlie every so often. Alastor glared at the man before turning to Charlie, pushing her towards the large box for her speech, handing her his microphone.
“Knock ‘em dead, Charlotte!” Alastor said with a reaffirming pat on Charlie’s shoulder, pushing her into the center of the box, giving her two thumbs up as she looked for reassurance.
Charlie nodded and then looked at the crowd. “Alright!” Her voice echoed across the sinner filled field, eyes landing on Charlie causing her to shrink slightly before her eyes landed on Adam. This would be his first taste of her in her turf. He was in her playing field and because he was here, she couldn’t fumble this now. She just couldn’t. Another deep inhale before she stood up straight, her hands gripping Alastor like it was her life support. “Welcome to Hazbin Hotel’s speed dating activity! Today there are several activities in which you will get to participate and get to know other sinners around you! We have dancing, crafts, food, and karaoke! My wonderful patron of the hotel, Alastor—” Charlie motioned to Alastor who stood with his hands folded behind his back. “—along with the Prince of Envy and heir to Envy’s throne, Seviathan—” Charlie motioned to Seviathan seemed to not be prepared for that as his introduction, “—and my dear friend Vaggie—” One final motion towards the moth demon who stood alert. “—will all be going around making sure all you lovely people are having a good time and not trying to kill each other. I, myself, will be walking around and telling you about the cause of this wonderful place and how we’re able to hold this amazing activity! All of you should’ve been handed a number upon signing in. Each of the activity has a corresponding number and is ran by a handful of amazing workers from the Morningstar Castle! Please be polite and respectful to them or I will personally see to it that you are escorted off of property. With that, please disperse and make sure to have a splendid time!”
Adam scrunched his nose inside his mask as the sinner who he was paired with for this moment. She was a butterfly demon—or so she said. Introduced herself as Vex. She like some kinda food, something or other. Adam really didn’t care. He was waiting for Charlie to come over and start ranting about her hotel and he could sweep her off her feet after the little rant and she’d finally let him bang her. Father in Heaven, those thighs needed to be shown off more often. The angel didn’t like being surrounded by this filth, but he had a goal in mind. Seducing Charlie really shouldn’t be this difficult, considering the girl consistently blushed at his reactions and he was pretty much irresistible to any woman. So why in the world was Charlie turning him down? Consistently? There was no way she wasn’t attracted to him. There was absolutely no way the Princess could resist him for much longer.
Adam listened to the sinner go on for a bit, his eyes trailing around until they landed on Charlie. A shark demon giving Charlie a look that only said he had an appetite and he wanted goat for dinner. Charlie was telling the demon something about the hotel, surely, not catching onto the demon’s looks. Adam kept eyes on the two, stringing together the beads to the craft that sat in his hands. The beads were almost too small for his hands. He had chosen what his mind deemed the prettiest of the beads. A yellow, white, and red. He worked slowly, his eyes flipping back and forth until he saw the shark demon’s hand reach for Charlie. Adam was quick to react, dropping his craft to speed towards the shark and Charlie, abruptly placing himself between Charlie and the demon causing Charlie to let out a yelp.
“Hey, I don’t think she asked for your hands on her,” Adam said, his hand around the shark’s wrist’s, eyes narrowed and voice biting.
“Adam! What are you—”
“He was trying to grab your ass, be thankful, princess,” Adam said, not changing his position, keeping his eyes on the demon.
“Oh-ho! Big tough guy, aren’t cha? Ya wanna go? I got guns bigger than your head!” the shark challenged, Adam tightening his grip in response.
“What is going on here?” came a voice, approaching the group. It was the fucker Charlie had introduced as Seviathan. “I do believe we said for anyone here, violence was not allowed.”
Adam physically cringed at the sound of his voice. The man sounded like some British aristocrat that couldn't decide whether they wanted to be snotty or annoying and ended up being both. “This isn't violence,” Adam shot, glaring at the newcomer. “Not to mention, don't you think that little Princess Morningstar would step in if she thought things were getting dangerous for people here?”
Charlie opened her mouth to speak, Seviathan cutting her off. “Lottie sometimes doesn't stand up for herself, I am simply making sure that she remains safe.”
Adam let out a snort. “Oh that's rich! Coming from someone who looks like they bathe in money.”
“Oh please, maybe lay off the cheap cologne. It doesn't make you smell any less of body oder.”
Adam dropped the shark that was now scuttling away, sizing up the royal prick. “At least I don't smell of calamari.”
“Well, I'm sure—”
“THAT'S ENOUGH!” Charlie interjected, sleek red horns appearing out of her head and a dull orange surrounding her. “Sevvy, please, for the love of Grandfather, go handle something else. Adam—go back to the activity. You probably left some poor person alone.”
“Fuckin—Princess, you know the only reason I'm here is you!” Adam groaned, running his hand down his faceplate.
“Wait wait wait. Lottie. Dove. Sweet princess. Is this the man that threw you across a room?” Seviathan asked, motioning to Adam.
“What? Is that all you've told him about me?” Adam questioned.
At this point, Charlie was beginning to look overwhelmed, taking a step back from the two men, putting her hands up to keep space between herself and them.
“Well I think it's a pretty important detail, don't you think?” Seviathan shot at Adam.
“Weird, I've never heard anything about you. I don't think that's a good thing.”
“Alrighty,” came Alastor's radio filtered voice, cracking and sizzling as he formed out of the shadows. “The final activities are ready to be closed up, my dear princess, I need you to make the closing remarks.”
Charlie let out a sigh of relief. “More than happy to, Alastor.” Charlie took her leave, going towards the podium where she started the activities.
Alastor turned his attention to the two men, who seemed more than bothered by Alastor's interruption. “Two men, fighting for the princess’ hand! Oh, how if the situation were different, Charlotte might find it such a romantic thing. Two worthy men, fighting over her. Truly something that would be contained in her frivolous romance books. But the situation is not different. You both are actively arguing in a place in which Charlie has tried to make a safe space to declare her hopes and aspirations for redemption! Surely, if either of you cared, you would simply try to get along.”
“What? This guy? Fighting for Lottie? He's got no chance in Satan's red Hell to be able to win her over!” Seviathan said.
“At least I know she prefers to be called Charlie and not some silly fuckin nickname like Lottie that doesn't match who she is!” Adam shot back.
“Enough, the both of you, gentlemen,” Alastor said, narrowing his eyes on the two. “Charlie has never made any attempt to show interest in finding romance while attempting this ridiculous idea of hers, so fighting for her hand and who knows her better won't get either of you anywhere. If you two are to continue making utter fools of yourselves, I will escort you both off of the hotel premise. Am I making myself clear?”
“Seriously? After all the work—”
“Alright. Fine. I'll stop. But this fucker is not coming close to me when I go to talk to Charlie after this. I don't want his fuckin blabbering like I'm some danger to her. I just fuckin stopped her from being harassed and this is the response I get?”
“Your frustrations are heard,” Alastor hummed. “I will take Seviathan to… some place else. Please, do enjoy your stay.” Alastor's voice held something menacing underneath. Something murderous. Something Adam had heard before.
…the tone that Cain talked about Abel in.
Adam shook his head, refusing to let the memories resurface. No. Charlie was almost done with her speech, now is not the time to go down memory lane. Adam flicked his eyes up to look at Charlie, climbing down from her spot on the podium and someone who looked vaguely familiar helping her down. Adam let out a grumble as he connected the dots on who it was. Did everything have to be in his way on getting the hot blonde girl in bed with him? Fucking hell, what a nightmare. Adam rolled his eyes before walking up to Charlie, putting a smile on his face as if he were carefree. “Hey, princess! So I told you that we'd see about the 3rd issue…” Charlie's face went bright red.
Fuck. He was getting hard just seeing her get flustered.
“Well. I—uh—same answer as before!” Charlie chirped, clapping her hands together, and tilting her head.
The girl next to Charlie, whom Adam had now connected to be his ex-commander Vajjie, narrowed her good eye at him. Adam gave her a smirk, daring her to say something. Vajjie looked away from him, folding her arms. So, her identity was a secret. That would be useful. “Hey. So who's sugartits you're with? Or should I say…” Adam cast his eyes to Vajjie's chest. “...no-tits.”
“¡Te voy a despellejar vivo, pedazo de mierda de caballo mal empaquetado!¹” Vaggie declared, spinning towards Adam, spear immediately held to his neck. Adam laughed, pushing Vaggie's spear away.
“Big talk for someone the size of a chihuahua. How about you go run off before you make a move you regret? ¿Sound good to you, perrito²?” Adam taunted with the small amount of Spanish he did know. He didn't understand what Vajjie said, but he did know the tone of her voice was a clear threat.
“Adam! Vaggie! Can we… maybe potentially not get into a fight?” Charlie chided, as if soft parenting the two adults. Vaggie let our a huff, nodding her head and storming off. Charlie let out a small whine, turning towards Vaggie as the woman sashayed away, and Adam finally saw his chance to strike.
He wrapped his arms around her, hugging the princess from behind. “Well now that we're alone, I'm more than happy to show you Heaven~” Adam whispered, voice gruff but gentle in Charlie's ear, causing the girl to shiver. Charlie was stunned, but not for long.
She pulled away, pushing Adam off of her despite him not having a strong grip on her in general. “No! No! Absolutely not! Not after every argument you've started and certainly not after insulting Vaggie! I can't believe you'd think that after the amount of insults I've seen you throw around while this activity was going on and suddenly I should be crumbling at your feet begging for you to rail me? No! No that's not how this works. You can't just put on a seductive voice and get me to forgive you! Go home, Adam. I'll see you on Saturday.”
Adam stood dumbfounded as Charlie spun on her heel, storming away from Adam, huffing dramatically, arms crossed as she entered into the hotel.
…well fuck.
Notes:
Literal. Nightmares. Of writing this chapter on my phone. Had to track down on Reddit how to turn off the "can't find issues, the document is too long" thing and I was only barely through the flashback when I wrote it. Chapter 8 may be a bit longer on the up and comse since I still don't have wifi and have to write this all on my phone, but next chapter has my favorite flashback I've written so far.
1 = "I'll skin you alive, you piece of poorly packaged horse shit!" (I don't know Spanish, this is Google Translate)
2 = "little dog," basically Adam is trying to call Vaggie a bitch.
Chapter 8: A Seraphim's Secret
Summary:
Questioning the Father, a meeting between Lute and Adam, a Seraphim's ceremony, and secrets.
Notes:
Hi! Hi—I'm back. This chapter is focused on worldbuilding and foreshadowing. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter but I still lack a laptop so chapters are still gonna take me a bit to get out! Enjoy!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Sera’s heart twisted violently in her chest, a frown prominent on her face as she paced around wondering what she would do with the poor man in Eden. By all means, Lilith should be deconstructed for listening to Lucifer—Lucifer was a whole different problem and should be punished according to his crimes. Yet, somehow, the Lord had not come out of his office to address the problem as he should—merely saying that Lucifer and Lilith were both banned from entering the Garden. It was severely detrimental to His image! He represented justice and perfect fairness, yet he did not give the two traitors the proper punishment. Lucifer was still enjoying the good graces of Heaven and it just wasn’t right. He had been doubting many of Father’s plans continuously—even daring to say things such as if he had been the one to form the Earth, animals, and humans, they would turn out better. Lucifer had some twisted vendetta against Adam, and it was a surprise how well Lucifer acted like he had enjoyed Adam’s presence and talk of frivolous things such as the different types of birds or what animals went to sleep for winter.
She pushed her hair back, straightening her posture and putting on the face of an angel that wasn’t worried for everything that the Lord had worked hard for, so hard that he had needed to rest for a day—a year to what humans felt. It was unique, how the Lord had made time pass on Earth. But it was no worries, the Lord said the times would begin to line up the longer the Earth existed. Sera knew she couldn’t do any better than the Lord could, and he surely knew what he was doing, but it still didn’t rest easy with Sera’s soul. Sera decided, internally after a moment of thinking of everything she could do, to approach Father to inquire of his thought process. Being like Him was something all angels should want to do—and she wouldn’t be questioning His actions. She'd merely be intrigued by what he was planning and ask about that. It didn’t go against the Father, and it kept her from being hypocritical—neither a good thing for an angel, let alone an angel of her status.
Sera took a deep breath in, pushing her hair back right below her halo as she walked through the halls of the building, her eyes watching the doors she passed until she got to the largest door at the end of the hall, intricate carvings of how the Earth had turned out with angels etched into the sides, guarding over Earth. The duty the Father had entrusted her and Uriel with. The duty that could make or break her. Another deep breath and Sera knocker. Three raps in rapid concession. The door opened on its own, a small creak of imperfection alerted Sera, her eyes falling on the door, her brows furrowing before shaking her head and pushing into the office.
“Father?” Sera questioned as her hand wrapped around the edge of the door, peeking in, her eyes searching the office for the God of All. Her eyes landed on him, his eyes looking tired as he looked out onto Heaven through his large glass window that was what replaced the wall. Her brows furrowed as she looked at the Lord, biting her lip softly as she approached him.
“Sera! My dearest daughter! What troubles you, my child?” the Lord questioned, turning to Sera and putting his hands on her cheeks, tracing the markings gently with a gentle hum.
“Father, I desire to know what your plans are for Eden? As I am now in charge of the project, I would like to know in what order you desire things,” Sera said, her hand hovering over the Lord's that was on her cheek before placing her hand on it after a moment's hesitation.
The Lord let out a small sigh, pulling away from Sera before looking out the window again, watching as unsuspecting angels went about their day, peaceful and happy. “Things will fall into place as they should, my dear. The sun will rise on the day everything seems to fall apart and it will set to close the day out too.” The Lord gave Sera a gentle smile, her eyes glancing away.
“Father, Lucifer has disrupted the flow of knowledge on Earth, has disrupted the life that exists on Earth. Lilith has been cast out of the garden due to his silly mistake, surely there is a consequence for him. He still wanders Heaven without regret and still stands by his disruptive choices,” Sera said, her eyes looking towards Heaven, training on the golden winged angel that Lucifer was, walking with his friends and family, unaware of the words spoken of him so nearby.
“My daughter, why do you question me?” the Lord questioned, eyes training on Sera, voice gentle with a disappointed undertone.
“Father, I merely wonder what you see to get from letting Lilith and Lucifer live,” Sera said, her voice straining slightly to keep from breaking, her hands squeezing each other as if it meant that she would never be in a place such as Lucifer.
“You have no need to lie to me, child,” God said, placing a hand on Sera’s cheek and forcing her to look at him ever so gently. “I know the inner wonderings of your mind. I was seeing if you would be honest with me. Questioning is fine, you are not perfect and you do not know all. Knowledge is power, my dear, and where there is a lack, there are questions.”
Sera opened her mouth to respond, voice failing her as she struggled to find the words before she shook her head. “I do not understand, Father.”
“It’s all by design. Nothing that has or is going to happen has not been seen by me. It could go several ways, but all ways lead to what I desire, and for what I desire, I need both Lilith and Lucifer to be alive. Eden was not made to be a permanent home, my dear.”
“Sir, what is this?” Lute questioned, holding up the napkin Adam was doodling on, quirking an eyebrow at the doodles of the demon princess with another 3 demons skewered next to her.
“Bitch, I wasn't finished with that!” Adam said, grabbing the napkin from Lute’s hand with a pout and a raspberry, going back to scribbling on the napkin. “I can't get the princess to sleep with me and if these three fuckers were dead I could've seduced her so much easier. Fuckin’ fish turd was the worst of them.” Adam scribbled violently over the fish demon on the napkin until the napkin ripped. “Dammit!”
“I thought this was supposed to be a breakfast where you didn't focus on your duties,” Lute said, snatching the napkin and pen from Adam and tossing the napkin in the trash, raising her eyebrows at the pouting golden face. Adam sank into his seat, folding his arms.
“This goes beyond ‘duties,’ Lute. I don't think you understand. I can't get this woman obsessed with me!” Adam sat up straight, resting his elbows on the table as if he's sharing the most vital details to making humankind. “Like she's obviously attracted to me—but she just refuses! How? All humans came from these balls! I'm practically the guy who invented every kinky thing in existence! I'm the dickmaster! How can she keep telling me no?!”
“Did you consider the idea that maybe you're wrong and she doesn't have any interest in you?” Lute asked, folding her arms and leaning back to scan the man.
“No way. That's literally impossible! She gets red about every remark I make about her and she gets all flustered and stutters!” Adam said, spinning his hands together in frustration.
“And what about those three people are keeping her from saying yes?”
“They're too close to her! Obviously they all think I'm a bad influence!”
“Are you jealous?”
A beat.
“What.”
“Are you jealous, Adam?”
“Why would I be jealous over some ugly looking individuals who got—eugh!”
Lute sighed and shook her head, her eyes raking over the pathetic mess of a man, obviously hung up over a girl who he refused to admit he was hung up over. She sat back down at the table after standing for a bit, letting an uncomfortable silence settle between them. Lute spun a small spoon in her coffee as she mixed caramel flavored creamer into it, her eyes never leaving Adam. Adam let out a disgruntled groan to tell Lute he didn't want her eyes tearing him apart any longer. His arms were wrapped around himself as if that would protect the thoughts that stemmed from his heart to be read by the person he was the closest to in Heaven. Lute's mouth pulled into a tight frown before she looked at her coffee and spoke.
“I'm going to attend to Sister Emily as she performs sacred rituals in the Humility Chapel. She insisted someone be there to make sure there are no interruptions to her actions.” Lute's voice was soft, her coffee beginning to cool as she continued to stir in more creamer, the brown turning into a color almost white and would be far too sweet for the woman the moment she realized her mistake. “I would like to request your presence, sir.”
Adam's eyebrows furrowed, looking at the woman, taking his own turn to pick apart his partner, squinting at her to try to see why she was acting foreign in her skin. “Lute. What the fuck. Are you… nervous? About spending time guarding a door?”
“I wouldn't say that, sir,” Lute said, scowling at him slightly before taking a sip of her coffee that she immediately spit out. “Oh my Father, that was way too sweet!”
Adam tilted his head at a 45° angle, like a confused animal trying to make sense of a situation that they had never been a witness to. Adam let out a small hmph, picking up Lute's coffee, chucking it into the trash, and then going to the barista at the counter of the coffee shop, getting Lute her favorite, and setting it in front of her. “Alright. Don't add any shit to this, It wouldn't be fair to waste another coffee. Now how about you tell me what you're thinkin’, hm, toots?”
Lute nodded at Adam in thanks, drinking the coffee and not meeting his eyes. “If I explain, you have to explain too.”
Adam reeled back as if disgusted by the idea. “Fine. Don't tell me anything. I can't help ya if ya don't talk, ya know that, right, bitch?”
Lute rolled her eyes. “Will you accompany me or not to help Emily? A simple yes or no will do.”
“Fine, but if Emily gets upset that I'm crashing your guys’ date, that's on you and not me,” Adam begrudged with a pout, sticking his tongue out at the exorcist angel. Lute rolled her eyes, sipping on her coffee as silence filled the space between them, unspoken words hanging between them as they both acknowledged the situation they were getting themselves into.
Adam could understand getting nervous about being around a seraphim ceremony. The seraphim population had dwindled after Lucifer's fall, the Morningstar Brothers leaving their place as six-winged angels, opting to be considered archangels such as Adam with two wings. The only seraphims that stayed after the fall of Lucifer being Uriel, the Seraphim of Strength, and Sera, the Seraphim of Divine Protection. The first to have stepped down from their position was Michael, understandable but gravely disappointing. After Michael, the siblings stepped down one after the other, refusing to stay in a position that would be without their brother, thus lowering their stations and power. Due to the smaller number of seraphim angels, the Seraphim Sisters became a common term for the divine three of Sera, Uriel, and Emily. The Sun Seraphim, Moon Seraphim, and Star Seraphim. They were required to balance the safety and joy of nine rings of Heaven with only three people. A seraphim's ceremony could be anything from direct communion with the Great I Am to bless the people of Heaven to healing a wounded guardian angel.
Either way, the safety of these ceremonies could mean life or death to Heaven.
So, yeah, Lute had every right to be nervous for the first time ever being called to watch over one.
“Did Em tell ya what ritual ceremony thing whatever the fuck she's doing?” Adam asked, leaning towards Lute with an eyebrow raised. Lute's lips pressed into a flat smile, taking in a breath.
“I should've asked. No. She didn't, she just said when to be there,” Lute said, shaking her head.
“And what time is that?”
“10 o'clock sharp.”
“Then let's start heading out.”
Adam pushed up, his chair screeching out as he stood up, cleaning up anything left from his breakfast. “Leave this soon? It should only take fifteen minutes to arrive at—” Lute began before Adam gave her a look that told her to be quiet. She looked around, her body stiffening. Adam put his hand on Lute's shoulder, guiding her out of the coffee shop.
“Em didn't tell ya, did she?” Adam's voice was low, his eyes on the path they were walking.
“Tell me what, sir?”
Adam let out a sigh, spreading his wings. “Follow me, lieutenant.” With a whoosh from his wings pushing him into the sky, Adam took off through the sky, letting Lute catch up. She may be smaller, but her flight was faster than his. The positives to having wings larger than needed—something Uriel had told him specifically wouldn't be good for exorcists. Adam chuckled to himself as he watched the woman catch up to him. Adam smiled, pointing his finger forward to open a portal, diving through it before landing on a cliff, his feet dragging a bit as his boots dragged along, pushing up dust. Lute landed next to him in a much more graceful manner, minimal dust blowing up as her feet touched the ground.
She looked around, a soft frown on her face as she processed their surroundings. “Where are we?”
“The Seraphim Chapel entrance,” Adam said, his hands running down the mountain's side before closing his hand into a fist before punching the mountain. Lute opened her mouth to ask Adam what he was doing before she felt the ground shift beneath her feet, her footing suddenly no longer steady. Rocks bounced as the mountain opened to reveal a hidden corridor.
“How long has this been here…?” Lute asked, taking a step towards the entrance. Adam pushed ahead of her, grabbing a torch off the wall and walking down the stairs.
“You really think a ceremony that needs protection would be done in a public chapel? No. Especially with so little Seraphim, anything precious needs hidden. I guess Emily assumed I had already told you of this place.” Adam handed Lute the torch, pulling off his helmet, and teleporting it to someplace else. His eyes emitted a soft golden glow as he took the torch back and guided Lute down the corridor in silence.
They stopped in front of double doors, etched carefully into the door was a piece of art with God the Father’s silhouette with two extra sets of arms as they held different parts of things held important to the creation of Earth. One hand with the moon, the side adjacent with the sun. The middle set of hands had a lion and fish. The bottom set had Adam and Eve. Adam took in a sharp breath, pushing the doors open without saying much more.
Emily stood in the middle of the room, her true Seraphim firm shown. Her three wings were attached to her head, a lack of her hair and rather her head was bald save for feathers that lightly scattered her head. Her garments were not her typical outfit, rather loose hanging traditional wraps that were held onto her body with a silver fabric belt that was tied into a box that hung at her side.
The room itself was like they had just stepped into a meadow with an altar next to Emily. White flowers littered the ground, the lighting of the room being from a faux nightsky that surrounded them thanks to a spell cast on the chapel.
“Your highness,” Adam said, putting his fist over his heart and bowing, eyeing Lute slightly to follow in his stead. “We are here to make sure your holy ceremony goes as required to ensure the safety, strength, and happiness of Heaven.”
Emily closed her eyes and nodded. “Please stand, Warriors of Light. Please remove your boots, you are standing on holy ground and it is to be experienced fully with no separation. If danger is to arrive, the area will increase your strength.”
Adam and Lute obeyed Emily's instructions, Lute scanning Adam's face for any sign of why he was acting like this. It was out of character for him to obey without making a joke or putting up a fuss. She put it in her head to ask Adam about it after this… “adventure.”
“Sister Emily, may I inquire of you what ceremony you will be performing?” Adam asked, his arms now folded behind his back and body straight as a board, attentive as a soldier.
“You may, Brother Adam. This is the ceremony to call upon the Father to request His presence in a time of need, to prolong the arrival of the Antichrist.”
Adam took in a sharp breath and nodded, his mind suddenly swimming with thoughts about the God that was missing and the blonde princess destined to try to destroy Heaven.
Destined to die trying.
“I see. Where would you like my partner and I to be stationed?”
Emily motioned to an exit on the opposite end of the room and the entrance doors. Adam nudged Lute towards the entrance doors and found his way to the exit doors, summoning his guitar-axe and standing alert in front of the doors, aiming his body towards the altar.
Emily's voice echoed as she began, words in a language foreign to even with a combining language common angels wouldn't be able to understand. Common angels. The only difference between Adam and common angels was Adam knew the language Emily was speaking in—Adamic. A lost language, but the one that was spoken in Eden. Emily's voice was melodic as she praised the Lord before changing to ask for his guidance and protection. Emily's hands flew through the air in a delicate dance, a silent offering of her devotion to God. Offering devotion for his protection. Specific words, though, caught Adam's ears. “May the sun rise and set for another thousand more years, the Morningstar not showing his face to announce the fall.”
Adam's stomach churned, his body stiffening as his mind went down a rabbit hole. The Morningstar showing his face to announce the fall? That didn't make sense. The Morningstar had fallen. Fuck, he was the reason stars “fell” to humans. He had adopted his title as his last name…
Adam's heart dropped to the pit of his stomach when he connected the dots. It wasn't “he.” The Morningstar that was meant to announce the fall was Charlie. But Emily didn't know that. Charlie was mostly a well kept secret from Heaven's tenants—and Emily. Sera had told Adam that Emily would insist on meeting the girl and thus learn about the Extermination, something that she would be sorely against despite its necessary place. So she didn't know who the Antichrist was. Adam wanted to stop her, wanted to correct her, to make sure the ceremony would go through with nothing wrong, but he couldn't open his mouth, jaw glued shut as he imagined Charlie facing the punishment God would place against her for being born. She had not made that choice. She didn't deserve punishment for a choice she had not yet made. Because of Emily's small slip-up during this particular type of ritual was likely the only reason Charlie was breathing now.
Adam's breath quickened as Emily's ceremony came to a close, a light flash that was nearly blinding filling the room and causing a ringing in Adam's ears temporarily. Red blood covered the altar, dripping onto the grass. Adam watched the blood, the movements of the liquid almost slow motion as he watched it fall and splash onto the ground, barely missing Emily's dress. Adam moved quickly, removing his cloak as he didn't have a rag to clean up the blood of whatever Emily had killed as an offering. As Adam began to clean up the altar, Emily tilted her head with her brows furrowed, her hidden form returning. “What are you doing, Adam?”
“I'm cleaning the altar so you—”
“Adam, the altar is clean.”
“What.” Adam pressed his hands into the blood on the altar, feeling the familiar liquid coat his palms before pulling his hands away to lack the red color on his hands. Adam took in a sharp breath. “Em, take care of Lute for me, wouldja? I need to go look at something.”
“Of course, Adam. Are you okay? Would you like me to wash your cloak?” Emily said, reaching to touch Adam's shoulder, him pulling away roughly.
“I'm fine, Em. I'll clean my cloak later.” Adam pulled the fabric onto him, frowning as he felt the liquid making it cling to his skin uncomfortably. “Just… don't come looking for me tonight, ‘kay?” Emily nodded in response as Adam summoned his mask and boots, taking off almost immediately once they were on properly.
It wasn't long before Adam made it to exactly where he needed to go.
Adam's heartbeat was nearly as loud as the thumping of his boots against the marble ground. He knew he wasn't permitted in this building, it had long been abandoned and forbidden. It was beautifully crafted, every wall having a mural of different important landmarks in Heaven's history, the newest being Lucifer's fall and the creation of Hell. Adam forced himself not to stare at the murals that told the story of Heaven. Some of the murals almost looked like someone had tried to tear them down, the boards curling in on themselves and doors hanging off their hinges to certain rooms—all previous seraphim offices. Michael. Raziel. Gabriel. Raphael. Jophiel. Zadkiel.
And the worst of all the rooms, Lucifer's. Adam allowed himself to stop and look at the room longer than the others, outlining the destruction that had been caused. Instruments laid strewn about, broken and unplayable. A violin's bow laid at the entrance, strings rolling up, desperately trying to stay attached to the splintering wood that was left of the bow. The violin could almost hardly be seen as what it once was, scattered so far across the room and separated from each other it was almost like no one ever wanted to see a whole violin even torn apart. Light filtered into the room through windows that were once whole and stained, showing what was once Lucifer's destiny that crumbled the moment he gave the Fruit to Eve. Symbolism and irony. Adam let out a small chuckle before moving on.
He came here for one reason, and he needed to stick to it. Distractions would mean losing vital time and potentially getting caught without finding answers. Without learning what could make or break his plan.
Adam's eyes finally landed on the doors that he wanted to find. It was the only door that wasn't vandalized and in a full shape. It was the most simple of what had once been of the doors, careful painting over carvings into the door of holy fire, made to look like it was licking at the door but leaving it untouched. The nameplate beside the doors labelled “GOD THE FATHER.” Adam pursed his lips, raising his fist to knock on the door before just pushing into the room.
The room looked like it could've been used yesterday, save for the dust that coated almost every surface. It was a lot more plain than what Adam thought would be the Father’s office. The walls were a pale cream color, almost white with a tinge of yellow. The far wall was made up of completely windows, a perfect view of an equally abandoned town that used to house the highest of angels and then the rest of Heaven's top ring. Adam placed his hand against the glass, feeling the cold seep into his palm, reminding him of the faux blood that he had felt. He pulled his hand away quickly, out of instinct, his eyes examining his palm for the blood.
Adam started grinding his teeth as he continued to see nothing. Nothing is there, grow the fuck up. You're a grown man. You were not made to feel fear. Adam thought to himself before turning to the desk, prying himself from the window, to pry himself from the destruction that shouldn't exist in Heaven. A comfortable secret from the rest of Heaven.
He needed to figure out the Father’s specific details on who and what the antichrist was. He had realized quickly after listening to Emily's ceremony, all he knew was that the Antichrist needed to die. But why? What was she going to do? What was her destiny?
Adam pulled open a drawer, flipping through folders until he found one specifically labeled “The Antichrist.” He pulled the folder out, flipping through papers, trying to find papers that weren't blacked out as if they were legal papers. Once he got to the back, he saw the neat handwriting of the Father, the first page with the title “My Granddaughter: Charlotte Mae Morningstar.”
“Mae,” Adam chuckled to himself. “Cute. Creative for a bastard traitor.” His eyes skimmed over the page, seeing if he could spot anything that hadn't already happened, that might give him a look into Charlie’s future.
Adam froze when he saw Roo's name scribbled next to Lucifer's name. His eyes widening slightly, trying to process what that meant. Roo? Adam didn't even bother to read the rest of the sentence, placing the paper down as he remembered Roo's taunting voice, remembering Roo's smug face whenever Adam gave into any temptation she presented him, no matter how slight it was.
Adam couldn't let Charlie get involved in Roo. Roo would ruin the innocence that the girl had. Roo would ruin Charlie's even vague thought that people could be good—the only thing that was keeping Charlie from rising up against Heaven as it was. Adam swallowed, closing his eyes and taking a deep inhale as he picked up the papers again before a different group of papers caught Adam's eyes. He parted with the Charlie papers, picking up the other papers, them looking almost like letters.
His eyes scanned them, swallowing every word that was laid out on the page, his eyebrows pushing in closer to each other more and more with every paragraph. His breathing caught up as he put together puzzle pieces of a puzzle he didn't know needed to put together.
The silence was broken by a voice that was painfully familiar. “Adam. What are you doing here?”
It was Uriel.
“I'm looking for answers, bitch, because you guys never tell me anything,” Adam said, placing the papers down and leaning towards Uriel, fingers curling ever so slightly.
“We're going back to the active Seraphim Hall where Sera and I will discuss what you will do to serve a consequence for coming to a strictly forbidden building.” Uriel's feathers were ruffled, her eyes looking at Adam like she was the predator and he was her prey. Adam pushed his wings out to increase his size.
“Punish me all you want, I will learn what you all keep from me.”
Sera's pen hit the wood of her desk with a rapid click click click. Sera rubbed her temples as if trying to clear a headache. “Uriel, dear, will you put tea together?” Uriel nodded, turning to exit the room, eyeing Adam as she left.
“You were rummaging through the Father’s papers and in a strictly forbidden building, breaking two major rules,” Sera sighed. “While I cannot take away your role as the leader of the Exorcist army, I can put you on temporary leave. You are going to—”
“You're not going to want to do that, Ser-bear,” Adam interrupted. “I have information regarding the Father’s disappearance and we'll, I'm not going to tell you all if you put me on leave from the only thing that makes me useful to you bitches.”
Uriel was at the door, her hands grabbed around a tray of tea and tea cups, her body frozen in place, eyes so wide she could probably see the past, present, and future with them. “You—you know where the Lord is?”
Sera's reaction was similar, her eyes wide and a single tear streaking down her cheek. “What is the information you have, Adam? What do you know?”
Adam smirked. “Well I don't know exactly where he is, but I can guess. And I won't be telling either of you two the information I have until I get a promise I won't be put on leave.”
Sera took in a deep breath, wiping her tears away mumbling something Adam couldn't quite understand. “I will not put you on leave, but you will need to participate in at the minimum of twenty-four hours of guardianship of humans on Earth on any day of your choice within this month to redeem you of this disobeying.”
Adam leaned back, tapping his chin as if he was really thinking if he argued to the terms, eating up the growing frustration on Uriel’s face before shrugging. “Twelve hours and you have a deal.”
Uriel's grip on the tray was so tight that Adam thought it was about to break, and he was directly in the spray zone. He could see the metal bending and before Sera could agree, Adam spoke up again. “I'm kidding.”
Adam took in a deep breath, letting tense silence filled the room.
“Did you guys know that the Lord had a wife?”
Notes:
Foreshadowing foreshadowing foreshadowing! Gah I also am so happy to finally reveal more on God's disappearance.
Next Chapter: A snake in the hotel
Chapter 9: Ultimatums
Summary:
A deal with the devil, a new member to the group, and trust exercises.
Notes:
Hi! Hello! Been a while, yes? *plops words onto table* Thank the gods for a beta reader or this chapter would be incomprehensible.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Humming floated through the empty cavern, fingers tracing the walls of what couldn't quite be placed as a solid but also not as any other state of matter. Eyes floated on the hair surrounding the woman. Her hair almost didn't seem to be attached to her, working more like smoke than actual hair. A red hat sat atop her head, wide brimmed and nearly covering all of her face when she tilted her head just ever so slightly down.
Her eyes were everywhere in Hell and on Earth, the ones that were in her hair simply acting as messengers. She watched as new sinners arrived, one man who killed his friend's large pig out of envy appearing in Hell as a pig, squealing out of fear of where his actions had gotten him. Oh, how amusing it was, to get the sinners who simply thought the belief of God and fake works of “kindness” would get them to Heaven. It was ridiculous, really. Ridiculous, but it certainly made for a show. The woman froze for a moment, eyes narrowing in on one spot where her summoning circle was being drawn out in the blood of the summoner.
Funny.
Not the fact she was being summoned, but who was summoning her.
Lucifer of all people was summoning her. A smile crept slowly onto her face, fangs glinting dangerously at the man who didn't know she was watching every move he made as he finished painting the circle. He began chanting the words in Latin that were required to fully and properly summon her. She didn't necessarily need to show up for Lucifer, he was the king of Hell, if he wanted something done, he could do it himself. But where would be the fun in that? Seeing what Lucifer needed would be absolutely delightsome, especially since he's expressed his hatred for her so incredibly much.
She waited for a few moments, making sure Lucifer got his anxiety up. A few more moments and she watched as Lucifer's face dropped in defeat, standing up to leave and that's when the woman decided to show up.
Red smoke filled the room suddenly, causing Lucifer to trip over himself out of surprise, breathing in the smoke and doubling over in a coughing fit. “Pleasure to see you again, Lucifer!~”
“Took you long enough, Roo,” Lucifer said, finishing his coughing fit pair with his wheezing.
“I'm sorry, my favorite show was on! Some Shakespeare obsessed freak decided he wanted to be the actual Macbeth and tried killing some random royalty! Some nuts. Hard to believe Shakespeare died almost two hundred something years ago—”
“I don't care about your ‘show,’ Roo,” Lucifer interjected. “I summoned you here for a reason.”
“Well then! You should've led with that!” Roo laughed, flinging her head back with laughter, holding her hand to her lips to fake being ladylike. “Perhaps I will listen to your needs, perhaps I won't. I don't know, there's got to be something in it for me.”
“Roo, you're the only person I can ask now. I've tried for eons and you're the closest person to God—” Lucifer began rambling, using his hands to express what he was trying to get across. “—well, closest to being a God—”
Roo, who was previously uninterested and staring at her nails jolted when Lucifer made that comment, her eyes narrowing on him. “Excuse me?”
Lucifer froze, realizing very quickly that what he had said was a mistake, but didn't fix it. He meant what he said. “You're the closest person in hell to being a god.”
Roo laughed. She laughed hard enough she was gripping her stomach, struggling to stay standing. “Oh my oh my oh my! Lucifer, you flirt!” Lucifer grimaced, taking a step back from Roo before she reached out and grabbed him by the chin, forcing him to look up at her. “I am not just simply close to being a God, Lucifer. I am a God. I am your Father's equal. I am his opposite in almost entirely everything. I could not be that if I were not a god.”
“Then you can help me,” Lucifer said. “Because only a God can grant my wish.”
“What is in it for me? Cause Lucifer, darling, you're forgetting something: I don't work for free~ And you still owe me from the last big favor you asked of me which was… eons ago? Such a shame, really. You look so desperate.”
Lucifer tensed, his facial expression darkening as he looked away, a tear streaking down his cheek. ”Please, Roo. I need this.”
Roo raised her eyebrows. “A tear? From the Prince of Pride? I'm shocked. Whatever you want you must be so in need of it.”
“Roo, what do you want from me? You've never asked for the favor that I owe you for the last time the Sins asked for your help, you have no right to hold that over my head!” Lucifer cried out, throwing the nearest item to him at Roo which just so happened to be the book that helped him summon her. Roo stepped to the side, letting it fly past, cutting the smoke of her hair in half.
“I have every right to hold it over your head if I so want to, I'm stronger than you and can do as I please. But, I suppose you're correct. Tell me, what does your heart desire? Once it is done, I'll tell you a price that I find suitable for the arrangement.”
Lucifer sighed, pulling out a small, handmade doll from his pockets and handing it to Roo. “I… I want…”
Roo looked at the doll, inspecting its stitching gingerly and the carefully handsewn outfit to match the style the doll gave off. “I know what you want, Lucifer. The price will be high.” Roo looked at Lucifer expectantly, but with little hope for an honest answer.
“I'm willing to do anything.”
Well, she's always happy for a pleasant surprise. Though, anything was a big word, and more likely than not, Lucifer wouldn't be too happy to do what she asks of him.
“Then consider it done. It'll take about a month. I'll bring you the finished product on January third, am I understood?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Roo waved her hand through the air, a paper appearing in front of Lucifer in gentle handwriting of a language that had not been used since his fall. Lucifer's brow furrowed, a fang hooking onto his lip as he tried to make heads or tails of the language he was so out of touch with. Eventually, he gave up and took the feather that was already dripping with golden ink that floated next to the contract and signed his name in flourishing letters. The scroll closed shut abruptly and disappeared in a fit of red smoke with Roo and the doll.
The knock was sharp and quick, showing up almost as fast as it disappeared. Charlie, half awake and holding papers for the next day’s therapy session—a group therapy activity to break up her typical one-on-one sessions. Charlie looked around the empty room, half-hoping that perhaps Husk or Alastor, the ones that almost never slept, would be around to grab the door, but when her hopes were met with a metal hammer, she let out a sigh and walked towards the door. It wouldn’t surprise Charlie if it was a mail-carrier for that ridiculous VoxTek, the company trying to get Charlie to accept some silly phone upgrades or “protection” for the hotel likely to get eyes on the tenants—specifically Charlie herself—so she had to politely decline every time.
Charlie opened the door with a yawn, stretching slightly. “If you’re from VoxTek, I don’t need a new phone or camera or air fryer or—”
“I’m afraid I am not from VoxTek, Misss Princesss,” came a slightly drawn out voice, one that Charlie pegged as slightly familiar before looking up to see a snake holding the brim of his hat with a tight, apologetic smile crossing his face. “I do apologize I’ve chosen to intrude on you so late into the night, I do asssume you were trying to get sssome resst. I have come to inquire about… your attempts at redemption?”
Any ounce of lack of sleep Charlie’s eyes had shown quickly disappeared, being replaced with a sparkle and a smile that spread from ear to ear. “Of course! Come in! Make yourself comfortable! Do you need anything to drink? We have water, tea, orange juice, apple juice, booze—”
“Tea, please, your highness, and may I make a request of five cups of water for my egg boys?” the snake inquired, motioning to where his tail met the ground and five eggs with suits, legs and faces stood in various positions, looking like toddlers after a long day at a carnival.
“Yes, yes! Of course! And Charlie is just fine, no need for any royal special names and stuff—I’ve always found it awkward!” Charlie laughed slightly, putting a kettle on to boil before getting the egg boys the waters that the sinner had asked for, balancing the five cups in her arms, her face tight in an expression to keep her focus as she handed the waters out. “I just realized! I haven’t asked your name! What is your name?”
“Sssir Pentiousss, Misss Princesss,” the sinner said with a small bow. “I would like to give a formal apology for… ruining your lovely wall last week.” The serpent straightened his jacket, looking to the side, refusing to make eye contact with Charlie. “I can asssure you, it will not be happening again.”
“Huh? Oh! That was you? I’m sorry, I don’t recall it,” Charlie responded, retrieving the kettle and pouring the scalding water into cup delicately decorated with stars and moons. They were a gift she had received from Dantalion, the librarian she had requested to have a meeting with, after she was told “important matters took him away from his library.”
Sir Pentious’ face dropped slightly, tilting his head down to hide the disappointment that spelled across his expression with the brim of his hat. “I sssuposse I am just not that memorable of a persson.”
Charlie jolted up, water scalding her skin, causing her to hiss out of surprise. “Ah! Oh my Grandfather! No! That’s not at all it!” Charlie tried to soothe whilst wiping herself dry with the nearest fabric which happened to be a blanket that hung onto the couches to give the room “personality.” (Seviathan’s words, not Charlie’s.)
“Oh! Princesss! Are you okay?” Pentious asked, patting himself down for his hankie.
“Just a little water, nothing I can’t handle,” Charlie assured, taking off her jacket and shaking it off, rearranging her hair to be sure to hide her tail.
“Are you certain?” Sir Pentious asked, finally retrieving his hankie out of one of his many pockets and offering it to Charlie who politely declined, putting her hand in the way of his and shaking her head.
“I’m hellborne, what may be completely harmful to a human per se, isn’t at all harmful to me,” Charlie said, waving Pentious off with a laugh. “Now, I must make sure you know I didn’t at all think of you as forgettable! I had a hell of a week last week and while it definitely wasn’t the best thing to acknowledge I don’t remember you breaking my wall, I also don’t remember most anything until the speed dating activity that happened! Last week was very overwhelming and I swear to my Grandfather, I slept more than actually walking around.”
“Well, actually, on the topic of the ssspeed dating activity, that is what brought me here!” Sir Pentious let out with a small nod. “I dissscovered thisss wonderful place thanks to that activity and desssire to sssee how everything is run.”
Charlie froze, her eyes going wide before her smile crept across her face slowly before it tried taking up the majority of the room on her face, fangs on full display. “Really?! It worked! Oh my Grandfather! It worked! Oh this is amazing! This might mean that we'll get more people here! Oh! Yesyesyesyesyes!” Charlie tugged Sir Pentious down and kissed him on the cheek before jumping up and down like an imp child on Sinsmas, twirling around on the tips of her shoes like a ballerina. She stopped to let out a breath. “Let's get you a room all set up and then we can have you start in with the group exercises tomorrow!”
“Well that would be just sssplendid, Misss Princesss!” Sir Pentious responded, standing up a bit straighter, adjusting his bow tie with a grin. “Come on my minionsss, it isss time to go to sssleep!” The five egg boys all saluted and waddled in pursuit of the now moving snake sinner, who was following the princess of Hell.
“I'll keep you on the bottom floor so you don't need to struggle up any stairs with your tail as of right now our elevator is…” Charlie turned her head as they walked past the boarded up old-exit to the elevator, wincing as she heard a twing of an old wire giving up. “...temporarily out of commission. I do want to warn you though, the only other guest on the first floor is Alastor, and he's a bit…. Territorial.”
Sir Pentious blinked and nodded. “I can assure you, I will—” A faint buzzing consumed the hall, steadily getting louder and louder, causing Sir Pentious to cut his speech off and Charlie to stop her movement, a small frown tugging onto her lips. A shadow slipped between Sir Pentious and Charlie, Alastor forming between them, his arm wrapping around Charlie but refusing to touch Pentious.
“Talking about me, are we, my dear?” Alastor asked, pointedly at Charlie while his eye tore apart Sir Pentious bit by bit. “Should you not be sleeping?” Alastor's gaze turned to the girl, his hand guiding her to turn around and out of the hallway.
“Well—I was about to—” Charlie said, side-stepping to avoid Alastor's attempt at having her leave the hallway. “But! A new guest is here and it would've been improper of me as the Princess of Hell and the owner of the Hazbin Hotel to leave him outside!”
Alastor's smile tightened, eyes narrowing in on the snake. “My dear, it is late, you have had a very exhausting last two weeks and don't you have a therapy lesson to teach tomorrow morning? Surely you do not want another fiasco where you are running out the door like a chicken with her head cut off!” A laugh. “I give you my word that our new guest will get the warmest of welcomes!”
Charlie's lips turned down in a taut frown, closing her eyes and letting out a sigh. “Yeah, I probably should get some sleep. I had Vaggie put together the lesson for tomorrow, but I still need to be there to help… I'm trusting you with this, Alastor. Don't scare him.” Charlie put her hands on her hips, giving Alastor a look that only that of a serious woman could produce.
Alastor's smile seemed to widen, reaching his ears and making the skin at the edge of his eyes crinkle with glee. “You can trust him in my care, Charlotte! Go get some rest, we all know the more unrested you are the less able to teach us your brilliant lessons you are~”
Charlie let out a squeak as Alastor's tentacles tugged on her wrist, pulling her towards her room. “I'm trusting you, Al! Please don't make it so my trust is misplaced!” Charlie said, briefly letting herself be dragged away.
Alastor laughed briefly, under his breath, turning towards the sinner as Charlie went out of sight. “I apologize! I have yet to introduce myself, though I would assume you already know who I am! Alastor, the Radio Demon!”
“We have met before, Missster Radio Demon, sssir. Lassst week. When you launched me out of my blimp,” Sir Pentious said slightly.
“Hm,” Alastor said, tapping his pointer finger to his chin. “It must've been a very forgettable experience.”
Sir Pentious’ face dropped before he took a deep breath in, trying to recall what Charlie had told him. He wasn't forgettable. “I am Sir Pent—”
Alastor held up a hand, dismissing him. “Casualties are unnecessary, I will not be interacting with a sinner who does not even stay in my memory after attempting to fight me.” Sir Pentious’ face dropped, but he took a deep breath in, continuing to follow Alastor.
“Well, Missster Alassstor,” Sir Pentious began, trying to figure out words to tell him that would not result in a thrashing. “I appreciate you taking me to a room as Misss Princesss wasss doing.”
“Ah yes, a room! I forget most measly sinners need to get a full night's sleep. Which brings me to: why did you come so late into the night? It is almost 3 o'clock in the morning and you seem to be chipper!” Alastor laughed, snapping his fingers to let a door open to one of the further rooms.
“Well, I sssimply could not sssleep until I came here. It has been on my mind sssince the dating activity the princesss put on. A chance for redemption ssseemsss… imposssible!” Sir Pentious explained, looking at his hands, fiddling with a watch on his left hand.
“That's because it is! Sinners that end up down here made their choices, and this is what they get for it!” Alastor let out another laugh, throwing his arms out to motion at the breaking down building. “Redemption for any demon is merely the false dreams of a naive girl who can't tell where reality ends and dreams begin. Surely that's understandable, no?”
Sir Pentious grimaced, stopping as Alastor stopped, motioning for the snake sinner and his eggs to enter the room. “I do not sssee the harm in trying, essspecially for someone so enthusssiassstic about the idea.”
“People down here don't change, surely of all people, you are aware of this,” Alastor hummed, grabbing Sir Pentious' wrist and holding it up to inspect the watch. “VoxTek watch. One that demons who are working for the company own. Ridiculous that you'd wear something so giving in a place that is filled with my radiowaves. I sensed it the moment you entered the hotel. Now, due to Charlotte’s ridiculous rule that I not make deals with guests, I give you an option: You give me all VoxTek items including this watch and you never bring them in again and we pretend like being redeemed was your true reason to be here, or I remove you from the hotel and you do not return and if you do I kill you.”
Sir Pentious started shaking, quivering in fear as the overlord gave him an ultimatum. The thing with giving up the VoxTek items to Alastor was the surety that would be failing his job. But either way, he failed. He failed because he didn't take into account that Alastor was the radio demon. That he could sense a change in the amount of technology that stayed in the hotel. But if he left the hotel now, Vox would have his head server on a silver platter in Cannibal Town. At the very least, if he stayed, he'd have guaranteed protection from both of the Overlord threats. Charlie was the Princess of Hell and with the hotel also promised protection from all things including Overlords and Exterminations.
The best and really the only option was to hand over all his items given via VoxTek. Sir Pentious sighed, unhooking the watch and pulling a few high tech spy cameras and handed them over to Alastor in a silent agreement of the first term. Alastor grinned maliciously, nodding his head letting the items light up in a green fire with a cackle. Alastor reached out to Sir Pentious, grabbing his chin. “Now that that's done, if you harm any of the tenants here or tell Vox anything that happens in this hotel, I will make sure your screams are heard by everyone in Hell, am I understood?”
Sir Pentious gulped and nodded as much as he could without moving Alastor's hand. “I underssstand.”
“That's good.” Alastor moved his hand away and started his trek back to his own room. “Oh! And you have my warmest welcome to the Hazbin Hotel!” With that, a shadow swallowed the deer demon, sucking him out of sight.
Sir Pentious moved his hand to his throat chin where Alastor had touched. “...oh dear.”
Vaggie clapped her hands decidedly, moving through the living room, pacing back and forth as the living room, the sinners watching her carefully. “Alrighty! Because Charlie has entrusted me with teaching the lesson today—” A small cheer from the princess. “—today we will be focusing on trust. None of you fuckers actually trust each other and that's more than obvious.”
“I beg to differ~” Angel purred, dragging his pointer finger along Husk's forearm. “I think I trust kitty plenty~” In response to this, Husk smacked Angel's hand away and tried scooting away from him.
“Well I don't trust you,” Husk countered, using his wing to separate himself from Angel.
Vaggie sighed, shaking her head. “And we especially need this since we got a new member to the hotel last night…” Vaggie motioned to Sir Pentious who waved slightly. “We are going to go by baby steps in activities to work on gaining each other's trust. Starting with introducing ourselves. I am Vaggie, I am a moth demon, and I have survived an exorcist which gave me this.” Vaggie pointed at the eyepatch that sat over the eye. “Turns out they like to play with their victims before finishing them off.”
“Sounds fun enough for me!” Alastor laughed.
“How about you go next, then, Alastor?” Vaggie suggested, leaning forward towards the overlord.
“Fine, I'll introduce myself but I have a very important meeting soon, so I cannot stay much longer.”
“Alright.”
“I am Alastor, the Radio Demon. I am an Overlord, and coming to help with this hotel has been my first thing I've done in seven years to make myself known to the public.”
“Seven years?” Charlie questioned, tilting her head to the side. “Why would you—”
“Oh dear! It appears I have spent up all my time here, I must go!” With that, Alastor was swallowed up by his shadow and teleported out of the hotel.
“He was running away from the question,” Seviathan huffed. “Clearly he needs these trust activities more than most of us.”
“He has good reason,” Husk said, tightening his wings into himself. “Secrets exist for a reason.”
“Oh? So you know?” Seviathan asked, leaning his elbows onto his knees as if getting ready for story time.
“I'll go next!” Charlie said, raising her hand to interrupt Seviathan's prodding of Husk. “I'm Charlie, I'm a hellborne goat demon—” Charlie's goat ears flicked. “—and I love dark romance!”
“Char? Love dark romance? Saprisin’. I thought that was mour like—Nift's thing,” Angel motioned to the bug demon who looked like she was ready to explode out of excitement, her arms bouncing up and down.
“Do you have any suggestions? Do you need suggestions? Would you be interested in reading my fanfiction?” Niffty asked, scuttling over to Charlie and putting her hands on Charlie's knees.
Charlie let out a laugh. “We can talk more after the trust exercises. Alright?”
“Okay! Okay! I'll go next! I'm Niffty! I'm a flea demon and I love killing roaches!” Niffty practically shouted, bouncing up and down on what would've been her toes if she didn't have bug-like feet.
“I'll go next,” Angel said, raising one of his hands. “I'm Angel Dust, a spida demon, and I am a Hell-famous porn sta!”
“We all know you're a porn star, Angel,” Vaggie groaned.
“Ya didn't complain when Nift said she likes killin roaches an we all know that!”
“Well, she's…” Vaggie looked at Niffty who now had a sewing needle out the size of her running around trying to stab a roach skittering around. “...a different situation.”
“Ugh, fine. I was in tha mafia when I was alive,” Angel groaned.
“Interesting! If you're ever willing to tell stories I'd love to hear them!” Charlie said, leaning forward.
“Nah, I don't like rememberin mah life,” Angel said, shaking his head.
“Ohhh, alright,” Charlie said with a sad sigh.
“Okay, three of you left, who wants to go?” Vaggie said, looking at Husk, Seviathan, and Sir Pentious.
“I sssupossse I can go,” Sir Pentious said, raising his hand. “I am Sssir Pentiousss, I am a snake demon, and I have desssigned ssseveral of Misss Carmilla Carmine'sss weaponsss.”
“Carmilla Carmine? As in the Overlord Carmilla Carmine? As in the Overlord who deals in angelic weapons, Carmilla Carmine?” Vaggie asked, eye widening in shock.
“Yesss, that would be correct,” the snake confirmed.
“Holy hell. Of all people I really didn't think… you. You're just not very… uh… we're moving on. Husk, you next.”
“Fine. I'm Husk, I'm a cat with wings, and I know how to do magic tricks,” Husk said, looking away.
“Ohhhh! I really wanna see those!” Charlie said with a small clap.
“I guess that leaves me,” Seviathan said. “I am Seviathan, I am a hellborne fish demon, and I have written several romance novels.”
“You have?” was the consensus reply from the vast majority of demons in the room.
“What's so surprising about that?” Seviathan asked, furrowing his brow.
“No offense, buddy, but ya just don't seem like tha person ta like, uh… write sumthin’,” Angel said, keeping his voice light.
“Well for your information—”
“Moving on!” Vaggie said, clapping her hands. “We're all going to write a secret on a piece of paper, it's going to be anonymous, and we're all going to sit and listen and if Charlie has anything to add about bringing it up in a one-on-one session, then she will be the only one speaking. Is that understood?”
Everyone gave Vaggie a nod.
“Good.” Vaggie walked around the room, handing a piece of paper to each of the participants with pens, and then placed a small hat in the middle of the room. “Everyone put the paper into the hat when you're finished.”
Slowly, one by one, papers were put into the hat. Niffty was the fastest to put hers in, looking almost excited to share. Once the hat was filled, Vaggie walked around the circle letting every demon pull out a piece of paper.
“Okay, everyone. I am going to start with reading what I have, and we can simply nod or whatever but the only person allowed to speak right now is Charlie unless you are reading the paper. My paper says, ‘When I was alive I had a daughter who I abandoned. It has been a regret that's always haunted me.’”
“That sounds incredibly heavy, and whoever wrote it down, I want you to know that that regret means you're still human and have a chance to get better. If you're willing to tell me about this in one-on-one, I can try working through this with you,” Charlie said, softly, acknowledging just how vulnerable the person was to share that.
Vaggie nodded and motioned to Sir Pentious who was sitting the closest to her. “‘The lassst thing I remember before my death wasss getting what wasss called a ‘lobotomy.’”
A fit of giggles from Niffty, and a tight smile from Charlie. “Thank you for sharing, Niffty.”
“Lobotomy is a weird word! It felt weird after!” Niffty chirped.
Seviathan let out a sigh, opening his paper, his eyes flashing with recognition at the handwriting. “‘I feel guilty for keeping a secret from all the people closest to me but if I tell them, it could get them hurt.’”
Charlie spoke up, keeping her voice low. “If whoever wrote that would like to tell me that in confidence, I promise it won't get out.”
Niffty bounced a bit, holding out her paper. “‘I think I've fallen for someone in the hotel but I haven't been in love for so long I'm not sure if that's what I'm feeling!’”
“Love is such an interesting feeling. If you're interested in talking about it, I am so we can figure out how you feel,” Charlie said.
Husk cleared his voice when the room came to a standstill once again. “‘I know one of my friend's secrets and I can't tell them I know or it'd give away one of my biggest secrets.’”
“Secrets are meant to be kept quiet. If there's a reason it's being kept from you, it may be for the better. But, if you feel that secret is going to put you or them in danger, I suggest that you confront them,” Charlie advised.
Angel raised his eyebrows as he read his in his mind before reading it out loud. “‘I wouldn't consider myself a jealous person, but I get very jealous when other people touch the person I've fallen in love with. I want to sweep them away and keep them away from everyone.’”
“Jealousy is something that's important to work through, because a relationship founded on jealousy will never last,” Charlie said, matter-of-factly. “I'm open to talk about it whenever. Now, it's my turn.” Charlie cleared her voice and began to read. “‘I have been courting my fiance for over fifty years, how would I know if she said yes?’”
Charlie blinked.
Another time.
“Well, uh… can I talk to who wrote this in after this activity during the switch?” Charlie said.
Vaggie nodded. “Everyone take five and put the papers back in the hat. I'll burn them. If anyone recognized handwriting, no you didn't.”
Charlie moved herself outside, moving to the door. Sir Pentious joined her only moments later. “Sir Pentious! I kinda guessed it was you…” Charlie said, rubbing the back of her neck. “You have a fiance?”
“Yesss! Misss Cherri Bomb! The bessst fighter in all of Hell!”
“And how… how exactly have you been courting her?”
“By impresssing her with my weaponsss of war, of courssse! Ssshe will show off by dessstroying it!”
Charlie let out a sigh. “Pentious, I don't think she'll see that as courting her, and I don't believe she sees herself as your fiance. I think we need to get you both on the same playing field… romantically speaking.”
“Oh? You're not sssupposssed to fight the people you love?”
“No, no not at all. I'll help you try to actually court her, but right now, let's go join the group again and have some fun, okay?”
“Okay.”
Notes:
I am so sorry about the wait on this chapter. I am moving at the end of the month and ended up working at Wendy's for a month and a half and I literally quit on Monday because if I stayed any longer I'd end up in a psych ward and I'd prefer to not do that again. It's been a tiring time, but here's you obligatory 5k chapter. I liked writing Sir P, my personal favorite part to write was Alastor and Sir P but Roo and Lu come in a close second.
Next chapter: Sev is a bitch(tm)
Chapter 10: Forgive, Don't Forget
Summary:
The musing of the angels of Death and Life, Charlie and Adam's 4th meeting
Chapter Text
Purgatory | Night of the Seraphimic Ceremony
Azrael’s fingers tapped his desk, almost angrily. “Father still has not come back. The dawn of the Final Judgement arrives so soon, and he persists in ignoring the cries of his children. His judgement is to be passed, yet Father keeps the loop of souls continuing. As if the souls should just continue, as if the hellfire does not burn brighter. As if the Root of Evil does not stalk closer.” His fist met the desk with a thud. “Why does he ignore the cries of even the highest?”
Muzari’s brows furrowed, biting her lip softly. She pressed her palm into her brother’s shoulder, searching her mind for an answer to his question. Searching for something to cool the Angel of Death’s growing fury. “Why, brother, in your mind do you doubt the Father? Mother would pressure Him to do something if something were to happen to the souls she works so tirelessly to create.”
“Father has given the souls the ability to choose. One misstep that is not in the route Father has planned for will create a Hell that not even the highest of angels can quell…” Azrael said, peeling the Angel of Life’s hand off of his shoulders, his typical face-covering smile downturned into a grimace. “Muzari, sister, surely you understand that Father knows of all that will happen, but due to this awful thing he created called choice , he has made the ability for millions of butterfly effects to change the outcome of what he has tried so hard for.”
Muzari let out a small sigh, looking away from Azrael, face falling into a forlorn, lost expression. Her fingers grazed the seed bag that hung cross-body against her. “Azrael. I know our jobs are difficult, but life is worth more than the gripes we have against our Father. Souls in themself give the person the ability to choose. It’s our job to allow and deliver. We cannot question, or we will fail to do our job with due diligence.”
“Why, sister, do you consistently avoid talking about the faults of our Father’s ignorance because we work with souls?” Azrael said, grabbing Muzari’s shoulders roughly and directing him towards her. “Do you not grasp the concept that the souls we work with are in danger if the Father continues to ignore the Seraphimic Ceremonies?”
“Father is perfect, Azrael. His choices cannot be questioned,” Muzari scolded with a wobble in her voice. “He will step in if the souls were in danger of being destroyed.”
Azrael’s face twisted, nose scrunching and the faintest glint of red from the soleless emptiness was the angel’s face. “How can you not question when we can sense the evil creeping in? Purgatory has become vastly more dangerous for the innocent. Have you not sensed her? Have you not felt her ever-growing presence? Sister, have you not seen the spells I have set in protection weakening faster and faster every day?”
Muzari ripped herself from Azrael, her breathing getting heavier, back peddling away from her opposite. “Of course I do, Az. Of course I sense her! It’s suffocating! It’s awful! She creeps closer, as does the Day of Reckoning, and yet I stay optimistic that the Father will be on our side when there is no other choice!”
Azrael stared at Muzari for a moment, face almost going completely blank, an uneasy silence filling the space between them. Then, malicious and sharp, Azrael’s laughs filled the air, his hand falling over his face as if he were trying to muffle the hellish sound of the laugh he was responding to Muzari with. “Do you not hear yourself? No other choice??? Why in the name of Mother would Father change his mind if he cannot easily help now? The Earth he spent hundreds of years perfecting to hold Mother is dying. The people made to fill the Earth and bring Mother joy are becoming some of the worst people to ever walk the Earth. They become worse and worse daily, yet he does nothing. The amount of children that come through hurt and broken because the homes they were given were so toxic is far too many. Muzari! Earth is a lost cause, and Father knows this, yet he does nothing! These souls that are so precious, that create life, that create the way to continue living after death? They will be destroyed if he does nothing and he is more than aware of that. Surely you are aware of this!”
“You act as if I’m blind for choosing to believe that He will step in! Azrael! I am not blind to the struggles of the souls that enter in and out of Purgatory or how evil the Earth has become under the guidance of the Root of Evil, but you must understand that good comes from the worst parts of the Earth. The strongest and kindest souls grow up in the toughest places. Giving up because so many are bad means we are giving up the good. We must take them both together. It is why the souls receive their colors. It is why there are chances to be given second chances. There are reasons for everything and yet you seem to be so hellbent on believing your ways are the only way to go about things when it is very much not true!” Muzari scolded, eyes cold as she stared into Azrael’s face. “Father will do what is best, that is all we can hope for.”
“Muzari. Adam broke several laws against the Father today. He senses it just as much as we all do,” Azrael responded with a voice hushed, hands folding behind his back as he turned away from Muzari. “How… how can we trust if even the most faithful are going against the laws set in place?”
“Those were not laws set in place by the Father but by the Seraphim to hide the truth of Father’s disappearance and you know that,” Muzari said.
“The Seraphim are not aware of why or where the Father is. We are the only ones with that knowledge.”
“Yet they follow a code so strictly that often times I believe Father would never agree. If Earth is a lost cause, so is Heaven. I know Father will step in to protect a soul.”
Azrael’s head tilted, the smallest glimmer of what could be an eye looking at Muzari. “And how are you so sure of this?”
“He didn’t let Lilith’s soul get destroyed.”
The Embassy | Present Day
“Heyyyyy, nice to see ya again, princess,” Adam cooed as Charlie pushed open the door, a small smile painting her face as she saw him slouched back in his chair as if getting more comfortable, his wings flared out and the expression on his mask looking smug. He looked like he was planning something.
Charlie let out a small awkward chuckle. “It's nice to see you again, too, Adam,” Charlie said whilst rubbing the back of her neck. Charlie looked down at her hands, fidgeting with her fingers. Adam's eyes fell down to look at her hands. They were petite. Slender with long fingers, her nails were painted black, and compared to his own hands, he could probably hold both of her hands in only one of his. He had before, but that wasn't when he actually cared about how Charlie looked. She was so much smaller than him. God Almighty, that was hot.
“Nervous over how you told me off the last time we saw each other?” Adam asked, motioning to the way Charlie held herself. Smaller. Almost… Adam’s eyes fell onto the color of what she was wearing. It wasn’t her typical blood red. Yes, the outfit was still too small, but it was not the same. The color was more maroon than anything, Charlie’s hair a bit tousled and eyes didn’t contain their typical sparkle that set her further apart from Lucifer. No… no like this she looked more like him than she should. Not in the lying, manipulative way, but in the way that Lucifer carried a weight after his divorce. The way his shoulders were constantly tense and you could almost feel the sadness radiating off of him like a toxic waste.
It was exactly what he felt with Charlie standing in front of him. He had to dig his nails into his palms to keep himself from pulling her in and holding her. To keep him from telling her it was all going to be okay. Fuck, what was wrong with him? That was the Princess of Hell, not some poor pathetic girl who actually deserved these thoughts. Despite this, though, he watched the movements of the girl closer. How less grandiose they were. How… shy she was acting. She hadn’t even answered his question and it had been… Adam looked at the clock. Two minutes. She hadn’t made a sound for the last two minutes.
“Yeah, I shouldn’t have told you off—” Charlie said, weakly. Adam’s brows furrowed, a frown on his face. This wasn’t his Charlie.
“...cut the shit, Charlie,” Adam said, sitting up straighter, wings tightening up. “You’re not… you’re not fuckin actin yourself. You look like you want to shrivel up and die on the spot and you expect me to believe that’s because you told me I couldn’t fuck you after insultin’ no-tit bitch? Sit down and tell me the fuck is going on.”
Charlie froze, eyes going wide, body going stiff as if the words Adam said were going to physically cut through her. Her body shook as she took a seat, not bothering to pull the chair out further than completely necessary to fit in. “I—I would like to just get this meeting done.” She listened. But she didn’t.
Someone hurt her.
Someone hurt her and Adam wanted to hear their fucking screams.
“Babes. You’re shaking. I’m not blind. Of course you want to get this done, you look like the slightest bit of wind could break you. What. Fucking. Happen.” Adam said it more like a command than a question. Was it a shitty way of handling it with Charlie already fearing a backlash for failing to comply? Yes, it was one of the shittiest things Adam could do. But he’d be vindicated when he figured out who hurt her. He’d figure out how to get them hurt worse than whatever they did to the fragile girl sitting in front of him.
“Adam… please…”
Adam’s resolve shattered with those two words. Okay. Yeah. He went too far trying to command her like that. She was probably just fuckin traumatized by some guy and why would she trust the guy who held her soul above her head as blackmail? Fuck, he wouldn’t want to tell himself either. What hurt the worst, though, was the way her voice wobbled as she said his name. The way it was so weak it sounded like she was trying desperately to hold down tears.
“Fuck, okay, fine. So… do you have any way to like… prove we’re both doing as we said we would? Like, upholding our ends of the deal?” Adam said, brushing off himself, not daring to look at Charlie again in fear of his own anger at the unknown person.
Charlie let out a breath. “Well… I meant to go visit an Overlord who has information on the ongoings of all sinners in Hell and I wasn’t able to get a meeting with him… which is kind of typical but I’ll be meeting with him again soon.”
Charlie’s voice was noticeably brighter. Still sad, but brighter.
Still sad.
But brighter.
Adam had to yell at himself internally that this was still Lucifer’s daughter. This girl was still raised by the two best manipulators in all of creation. He shouldn’t be wanting to hold her and protect her. She didn’t need protecting, she needed to die. She was the antichrist meant to destroy all of Heaven for the Father’s sake!
“So… the answer is no?” Adam said, trying his best to try to look uninterested in the conversation.
“Yeah, I guess so. I’m trying. I really am… I just—it’s harder than it looks! You know how hard it can be to get meetings, surely! I mean, especially with big important people!”
Adam raised his eyebrow at that. “Are you not literally one of the top three biggest and most important people? Why the fuck are you not at the top of the waiting list for just existing as the princess of Hell? I mean, fuck, I ain’t that important in Heaven but get jumped ahead on waiting lists so ofter for being the First Man. Why don’t you get that respect?”
“Well—I never demand to see them. It’s optional, y’know? Like, ‘hey, I would like to meet with you! Please give me a time and day and I’ll be on time!’” Charlie said, making a small, dull colored rainbow from her hands.
“...what the fuck. So, what you’re saying is that people don’t care and even if it’s important you can’t put your foot down to tell them you need the meeting? Char, babes, that’s ridiculous. You’re a princess. Command some respect,” Adam said, an almost-pout on his face.
A small silence passed between the two.
“You wanted to know what happened before I came here?” Charlie asked lightly. Adam reeled back, slightly shocked. It was a topic change, but it was a damn good one because Adam did want to know.
“Yeah,” Adam let out reluctantly. “Yeah I did.”
Charlie took in a deep breath before she let out a jumbled story.
Charlie woke up entangled with Seviathan, legs threaded together and Seviathan’s face pressed into her hair, the soft heat of her breath grounding her for a moment. She laid there for a few moments before wiggling out of his grasp, trying to not wake the man as she went to get ready for the day. It went about as typical: a shower, brushing her teeth, getting on her suit, and then pulling her hair into her typical hairdo. By the time she was ready to do her makeup, Seviathan had woken up.
Seviathan came up behind Charlie, wrapping his arms around her waist and nuzzled his face into her neck. “Mmmm… Lottie come back to sleep,” Seviathan groaned. “It’s too early to be walking around and getting all dressed.”
Charlie let out a small laugh, pulling Seviathan’s arms off of her waist, earning herself a disgruntled hmph from the fish demon. “Sorry, Sev, but I need to make sure a few things are set up before I go to my meeting today.”
“Why can’t you skip the meeting? Or have someone else go in your spot? Stay with me,” Seviathan groaned, folding his arms and sitting on the bed in a bit of pout. Charlie took a deep breath in, shaking her head.
“Seviathan, we’ve already addressed that we are not partners. These meetings are important and you’re still acting like I owe you my attention—I don’t. This meeting means a lot, and I also know the person I am meeting with is willing to wait until I get there. So please, stop acting like we’re in a relationship anything more than friends with benefits.”
That triggered something inside of Seviathan, his eyes narrowing. “Oh? Oh? So all this help I’m giving you? All this time I’ve given you of time I could be doing my own duties as the heir to the Envy throne? And I get a ‘I don’t owe you my attention?’” Seviathan scoffed as Charlie froze up, eyes going wide at his retort.
“Sev—you know that’s not what I—” Charlie tried to get out, failing at finding the proper wording in time to keep Seviathan’s growing anger at bay.
“Not what you mean? What do you mean then? Am I just here to be your play toy? I’m here so you can fuck me, no strings attached because you can’t find a way to help yourself?” Seviathan asked, standing up and getting close to Charlie. “You do owe me. Why? Because I’m freely spending my time with you when I have a role as a royal I actually care to pay attention to. You don’t even care that you’re the princess of Hell. When’s the last time you’ve interacted with a hellborne that’s not me? It’s been a long fuckin’ time, that’s for sure. You know nothing about anything that goes on in Hell because you’re so determined to prove that you’re so smart by redeeming irredeemable beings! People in Hell don’t go to Heaven, Charlotte.”
Charlie sank into the chair that she sat in to do her makeup typically, trying to shrink as far as she could into the seat, as if it would eat her. Help her escape the scrutiny of the man standing above her. Her breath caught. “Sev, can we have this talk later? Please?”
Seviathan laughed. “No, no. Charlie. Lottie. Charlotte. Whatever the fuck I should be calling you. You’ve been an embarrassment for the whole of Hell. Maybe you should go to Heaven. Little Miss Goody Two Shoes who can’t figure out Hell is full of bad people! I mean, look at me! Look at me! I believed my sister over you and now I’m the bad guy in your story!”
“Seviathan, that’s not how it went,” Charlie gasped out, tears pricking at her eyes. “She framed me. Yes I got mad at you, and yes I’m not in love with you anymore, but that doesn’t mean… that doesn’t mean that I think of you as a bad guy! I never—”
Seviathan grabbed Charlie’s cheeks, causing her to let out a surprised bleat. “Shut. Up. You’ve always been nothing to Hell but a pretty face. I made you something. I still make you something. I still am that stepping stool to make you respectable. And yet, here you are, disrespected by all the sinners in Hell and you still can’t find a way to realize you’re nothing without me. Perfection is only perfection next to the imperfect. You look perfect. I act perfect. We were made for each other and you know that yet you’re out here galavanting around like someone who isn’t me could actually love you!”
Charlie was bawling now, gasping for air, her fingers wrapping around Seviathan’s, desperate to create a space between her face and his hand, but his hand wouldn’t budge. Seviathan’s eyes trailed down Charlie, judging every sob. Every tremor. Every movement. Grandfather, she probably looked ridiculous. Ridiculous might even be too weak of a word to portray how Charlie felt.
“Satan, you look pathetic, Lottie. Gasping for air between tears, trying to push my hand off of your face as if my touch is going to kill you. You claim to be the daughter of Lilith and Lucifer, yet you can’t even stop me. A lesser demon. Can’t even demand respect from a lesser demon. You’re a mess. I could handle everything for you. Let you live carefree and focus on everything related to this stupid fucking dream of yours and I could make sure you still look like a royal. But no. Never gonna happen, is it? Because ‘I’m just not attracted to you anymore!’ Fucking bullshit.”
Seviathan dropped Charlie’s face, “I’ll be back tonight and we can pretend like this never happened. Just like how you pretend that what we had was never real. Fifty two years together. Happy. And now you’re just a pathetic heap of a bitch. Can’t even form two full words because you probably think I’m going to hurt you. Which, by the way, I’d never fucking raise my hand to hurt you. I may be cruel right now, but that’s never something I’d do. Got that?”
Seviathan didn’t wait for an answer, grabbing his shirt off the dresser and pulling it on as he walked out the door. “See you tonight, Lotts.”
“Wait—Wait—Sev—!” Charlie called out, pushing herself up and out of her chair, attempting to launch herself towards the door, hitting the corner of her vanity, arm dragging on it for a few seconds, her suit tearing with a weak rippp sound. Charlie collapsed to the ground. “Fuck—-shit—no no no no—-” Charlie looked at the rip, fingers trying to figure out how to mend the suit. “Nononono—no not this suit—please not this one—” Charlie’s tears flowed faster, not even noticing the cut in her skin that let a small amount of blood dribble down her arm pathetically as she tried to figure out her suit coat.
Charlie sat there for Heaven knows how long, crying on the ground, arms wrapped around herself in an attempt to protect herself from words that already pierced her heart.
The next time she looked at the time, lips still quivering as she felt her energy to even continue crying dwindling, she had enough time to change, get her makeup on, and have Razzle and Dazzle drive her to her meeting. She just needed to pull herself together. She could do that. She went into her closet and found an old suit she hadn’t touched in years, switching out the ruined one for that and then putting her makeup on and leaving for her meeting with Adam, not bothering to grab food or say hello to the tenants that were walking around.
Adam stared at Charlie, eyes wide, and his entire body shaking from anger. Oh, how Adam wanted to rip those fish guts out and feed them to the first cannibal he could find. “...he called you fucking useless?”
“My point of telling that story was just to show you that it’s just—”
“No, no. Babes. That’s more than disrespect. He hurt you.”
Charlie winced. “He didn’t hurt me. He even said he wouldn’t do that.”
“Princess. He said he wouldn’t physically hurt you. And at that, he still grabbed your fucking face. You’re not a toy to be grabbed and thrown around as please. He just wants a trophy wife as if you're not here at this meeting doing the very thing he claimed you couldn’t care less about. He was guilt-tripping you.” Adam moved to sit next to Charlie.
“He got mad. He’ll apologize,” Charlie said.
“He won’t. People like that don’t apologize. Fuck, half the time I don’t apologize. Now, show me your arm,” Adam said. “The one that got hurt.”
“...what?”
“You said nothing about getting it bandaged. Show me your arm.”
Charlie let out a sigh, sliding her blazer off and then looking at her long sleeve button up. “If I take my shirt off, you won’t do anything weird, right?”
“I may be horny a lot, it doesn’t mean I do anything without consent. I’m not a damn monster or whatever you think about me,” Adam scolded. Charlie nodded, unbuttoning her shirt and slipping the arm that got wounded out of the shirt, but left her other arm in the shirt as if taking the shirt off any further would be too lewd of an act despite the fact that Adam already had a straight-shot view of her cleavage, held back by a sports bra. Adam bit his lip, shaking his head and focusing on the wound.
Charlie let Adam fuss over the wound, surprised at how gentle his hands traced over her skin as he applied gauze to it and put a large bandage with a smiley face on it over the already-closed scratch. “You know. I was always taught that you were a monster. I believed it. I mean, what kid doesn’t believe what their parents teach you? I was taught to hate you before I even knew what hate as a concept was. It’s funny. Because I think that can’t be true.”
“What? That you should hate me?” Adam asked, pulling Charlie’s sleeve back over her shoulder so she could put it back on properly.
“No. Well—yes but no. I mean you being a monster. Some sort of beast that's scary,” Charlie said softly, looking at Adam through her lashes while tilting her head down to pretend to look at her hands.
Fuck.
If the cleavage didn’t do it for Adam, that look certainly did.
“And what makes you think I’m not that monster that your parents described me as?” Adam asked, incredulously.
“Well, first off…” Charlie motioned to her bandaged arm. “Monsters don’t keep smiley faced bandaids in their cloak.”
“They were the only ones Em had left.”
“Monsters don’t bandage their enemy’s arms.”
“You weren’t going to do it yourself.”
“Monsters don’t stop their enemy’s panic attacks.”
“You still remember that?”
“And…” Charlie took a deep breath in. “Monsters don’t care in a way you’ve shown you do.”
Adam’s mind buffered, brows knitting together. “...what?”
“You’ve shown you care. I mean, getting mad over what Seviathan told me? Getting mad over me not being able to get a meeting with an Overlord? Both show that you care, and those are just things that have only happened today. You’re so hellbent on making sure I’m seen and you should hate me. I am the living embodiment of everything you’re against just because I exist. So, from what I’ve seen, you’re not a monster.”
Adam stayed silent, his head tilted at a 45 degree angle as he tried to process what Charlie was saying.
He cared.
About her.
Nope. No. Wrong. He simply liked to hear the screams of people who deserve it and someone telling someone who they claim to be in love with that they were useless and nothing without them was the perfect target. It wasn’t because he cared about Charlie. If Charlie got hurt, he’d have something to lose. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less.
…right?
Yeah.
Sure.
“You okay in there, soldier?" Charlie said, waving her hand in front of Adam’s mask.
“Yeah, I’m all good in here, highness,” Adam said, with a cough, leaning back in an attempt to be nonchalant. “Alive and well.”
Charlie laughed at that. Oh Father, that laugh. The way her face scrunched up and she covered her mouth in an attempt to be ladylike. Father in who-knows-where, gives him the strength to not kiss her. “Good, because I thought I broke you for a second. You spaced out. Must’ve seen some really pretty stars. I’ve never actually seen stars before. You’d think in a place where Heaven is literally our sun we’d see something, but we really don’t.”
“Princess, quick question.”
“Go on ahead.”
“Were you planning on getting back together with that fish dude?”
Charlie’s smile turned into a frown. “..why?”
“I just want to know. Like. Just in case I have to slap you out of doing something incredibly stupid like getting together with a guy who doesn’t deserve you at all. I mean if it stops him from like pressing you, you can just say you’re dating me!”
“What?”
“What.”
Adam and Charlie both stared at each other in an awkward silence for a moment.
“I’m going to pretend like you didn’t just offer to be my fake boyfriend to get me out of getting back together with my ex. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re jealous.” Charlie let out a little giggle and smirked at Adam in a joking manner.
“Me? Jealous of a fish who doesn’t know that his dick is probably better than his personality? Ha! Never.”
“Bold coming from the guy who just offered to be my boyfriend because I could go back home and get together with my ex.”
“Better than getting together with a guy who clearly doesn’t deserve you in any way, shape, or form.”
“And you do?”
Adam let out a hmph, folding his arms, and sinking into his chair. “This isn’t about me deserving you, this is about him deserving you.”
Charlie laughed again. Oh, how Adam would fight to keep that laugh protected. He felt the need to record it and play it on loop as his favorite music. “No, I’m not getting back together with him. I don’t plan on it and haven’t planned on it since we became friends again. He believed his sister over me on something fairly serious and I just… can’t love someone who can’t trust me on something like that.”
“What did his sister tell him?”
“She said I cheated on him…” Charlie held her breath. “With his best friend.”
“He dated you for fifty-two years and believed that after that long you’d cheat on him?”
“That’s what I said! We were engaged! Why would I cheat on him?” Charlie took in a deep breath. “When the ‘evidence’ she gave to Seviathan came out as fake, Seviathan came crawling back, begging for my forgiveness but… I couldn’t look at him the same. I guess that’s what happens when someone leaves you for the wolves. I’d also be lying if I said I’m ready to face him again.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I mean you’ve helped quite a—what? What do you mean I don’t have to?”
“You don’t have to face him yet. I mean, I kinda came here with the idea of asking you to come to Earth with me while I do some community service, and I was gonna say be ready by tomorrow, but if it’s really that nerve wrecking to go back, I’m willing to push my ‘banishment’ to Earth up to now. It’s twenty-four hours minimum, but we can extend it as long as you need. The best part about Earth is that you can’t be contacted from others outside of Earth the entire time you’re there.” Adam gave Charlie a lop-sided smile.
Charlie looked like she melted a bit at his words, her grin growing wide enough it gave her creases at the edge of her eyes. “I… I would like that a lot. Give me some time to have my pets run me an outfit that wouldn’t look like business casual?”
“Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. I got all the time in the world.”
Charlie pushed herself out of the room, pulling out her phone, quickly typing out a message.
To: Vaggie 🦋
From: Charlie
Time: 13:45
I won’t be coming home until tomorrow or the next day! You’re in charge until I’m back! (❁´◡`❁)
Notes:
I see smut in the near future...
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redzephyrwinds on Chapter 6 Tue 24 Jun 2025 02:22AM UTC
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