Chapter Text
You look, over the pages of the pristine white book cradled carefully in your hand. The children had been loving this story so much that in their cross-legged state they had propped their elbows up onto their knees and were leaning forward making sure they wouldn’t miss a single word. You smile brightly, Heaven was such a beautiful home, yes, unfortunately, you’d died long ago at the hands of another...the thought saddened you every time you reflected on it.
It had been quite the surprise when you arrived in Heaven, it was nothing like you’d pictured it, in fact, it was very much like home but prettier, and well looked after. You were given your Angel name, even though you had your own, your Angel name was more for...roll call if you will. Your Angel name was Seraphina but most of your friends and even the kids called you Sera. Most Angels didn’t really have jobs, some were assigned jobs based on what they were good at when they were alive, due to your kindness you looked after the children, and then there are the Exterminators...
They creeped you out to be entirely honest, you see most Angels just look like their human selves with a few eccentricities, for example, some Angels had wings, like you, some had halos, some had both but that was a rare combination, and some had white X shaped pupils and dark black irises and so on. But then there were the Exterminators and none of them looked human, this was usually due to the fact that they thought too much about the right-hand path that they themselves became a little monstrous without meaning to and without hurting anyone.
But those were the Angels that were sent down to Hell once every year to ‘cleanse it’ so to speak, apparently, Hell had been getting overcrowded, the Exterminators were the only ones God felt comfortable sending down there. The reason being is that the rest of us were a healthy balance of good and bad, light and dark, yin and yang. You simply can’t have one without the other! Hence our strange appearances we weren’t exactly colourful by any means but that’s the whole point. Therefore, we were easily susceptible to change, easily manipulated, or in some cases easily provoked to fall.
And yes, Angels falling happened, not a lot but sometimes the odd Angel here and there would somehow teeter too far to the left-hand path and that would be it they would fall. You shake your attention back to the present it was almost dinner time for the kids you close the book and stand from your comfortable seat on the garden bench the kids were a chorus of disappointed sounds and you simply grin in amusement “Oh, I know but I can always read some more later right now you all need to hurry inside and eat!”
They all run into the big white building behind the garden, that was where all the children stayed until their parents arrived...if they arrived and if they didn’t other Angels had the option of taking them it, it was a bit like an orphanage now that you thought about it but they never stayed their long most of the time they were taken home within a few days. It was sweet to see and sometimes it was hard to let them go.
Rosa makes her way over to you, she was a short girl, when she was alive her hair had been a fiery red but now it was a deep inky black and she, like you, had paperwhite skin “The Exterminators are back” she says, her eyes were looking beyond the gates. Yes, indeed they were back covered in blood and smiling manically, reminding you of someone however vaguely...You could almost picture them but their name slipped your mind.
That irritated you a first but as the days had gone by, you’d slowly come to terms with the fact that you may never remember this person, you knew they were your killer but details about your death and the lead up to it had become foggy, to say the least. “Another year has gone by so quickly” you reply she nods, there’s a brief uneasy pause between you before she shakes her head “I better go and see how the kids are getting on, why don’t you take a break?” She suggests with a serene smile, you grin back “alright” you reply before waving her goodbye.
Rosa had been one of your closest friends since you’d arrived in Heaven, but as you both couldn’t really remember too much of your past lives you felt you were unable to really connect with her. The friendship between you both somehow felt stagnant and unchanging, never moving forward. You shake the thought away feeling somewhat ridiculous, the more you thought about things being unchanging the more you wondered about your life. You knew you had died young, but did you have plans?
Were you married? Did you have children? Did you want any? What kind of person had you been? Though you vaguely remember being a very kind person, you could even go so far as to say you might have been a bit gullible, perhaps a bit too nice. You’d wandered to the back of the garden toward the waterfall by now, you could hear the water crashing down just a little ahead of you, the smell of saltwater drifting on the light breeze brought you back to your senses.
Your long, wavy, ebony hair was dancing in the light breeze, you look up through thick long lashes to watch birds sore with stark black X shaped pupils and white irises, you spread your wings out behind you stretching them, you had quite dark wings that appeared to shimmer in the sunlight like that of a raven or a crow. The silence, the peace and tranquillity is soon disrupted as you’re approached by two Exterminators, did you know that when they spoke their lips and teeth never moved but instead their teeth lit up a bright white whenever sound left their mouths? It was pretty unnerving, to say the least.
“God wishes for you to come with us, he has a special task for you to undertake, you will be provided with clothing for your lengthy stay, so please come with us Sera” dread coursed through you, you weren’t even sure you wanted to ask where you were going “where are we going?” You ask timidly, yet following them regardless if God asks something important of you it’s usually flattering but this didn’t seem like a job you really wanted to undertake.
They don’t reply they just continue grinning as they lead you from the gates “What about the kids? Rosa can’t look after them herself she’ll need help” You say firmly, though these particular Angels scared you, and pretty much every other Angel in Heaven, you never let them terrify you to the point of being quiet. Especially when it came to things that mattered.
“All of your questions will be answered when we arrive, please for your safety, sanity and protection put this blindfold on and don’t take it off until we say so” they reply oddly in unison you swallow thickly as they tie a white, thick piece of cloth around your eyes cutting off all sight. You had to rely on your other senses, cool air was whipping past you at an alarming rate, the smell in the air was awful almost as if there were rotting flesh nearby, and there was an assault of noise breaching your ears.
But as you all land their hands take yours in uncomfortably tight grips, and they lead you somewhere, there’s some strange mumbling going on, and the place you’re in now is a little warmer, you can feel the cloth around your eyes loosening before being removed completely, and you’re almost afraid to open your eyes and when you do it’s clear that you had a reason to be worried.
You bite down on your tongue to silence the scream that threatened to leave your lips, this is what demons looked like?! They had it worse than you guys and the Exterminators put together, but at least they had colour, the only colourful things in Heaven was Heaven itself, its landscape that is. You were looking at a small group of six demons.
One was very pale, with blonde hair, two bright red spots on her cheeks, in a lovely suit with suspenders and a small smile playing on her lips, really, she looked like the only approachable one. Another had grey-ish skin, with white hair, a bright pink X over one eye, a pink bow on the back of her head, a white dress that stopped mid-thigh, with two grey-black X’s on the front, a black bra underneath and practically on show, two different coloured stockings one striped the other not. Overall, she looked moody.
The next was an incredibly tall arachnid, though he...she?...they confused you a little they were mostly white with pink accents, four arms, long legs, a pink and white outfit and a fluffed up bust? They had two odd coloured eyes his right eye was the most ‘normal’ looking with a white sclera, pink iris and black pupil and the other had a black sclera with a pink iris. Interesting...
Next was a winged cat, grumpy looking, red bowtie at his neck, cheap beer in his clawed hands, dressed in a slightly roughed up suit. Next to him was a 3ft demon with one wide eye, dressed in a white pink and yellow dress, with cute short pink hair. She looked excitable and lastly another rather tall demon...this one put you on edge he was dressed smartly in a mostly red suit, with black suit pant that had red cuffs, a red shirt with a black cross on the front, a red striped coat that flared out at the waist and was jagged at the bottom.
He had khaki skin, a large, face splitting smile showing off yellow pointed teeth, a monocle over one eye, both of his eyes had a dark red sclera and a brighter red iris with a normal black pupil. He had a red hair cut just above his shoulders with ears sticking up at the top and the ends were black, and two deer antlers. He wouldn’t stop smiling and he omitted this powerful energy like a static...you wonder why that is. The Exterminators either side of you decided that now was the time to speak and explain “Seraphina, God has chosen you to be part of a year-long experiment, during which time you shall be in the care of these six demons if any harm is to come to you on purpose or otherwise the experiment will end and you will be returned home the wishes of one demon here will be denied in consequence to such actions, however, if the year passes and they keep their word to protect you, you and you alone get to decide if demons should be allowed to be redemption or not and all you must say is that you forgive them for their sins” they pause to let the overwhelming amount of information sink in.
You could feel your heart pounding against your chest, you didn’t want to be left here with these demons, you didn’t even know them! You turn to face the Exterminators that had brought you here “Aren’t normal Angels susceptible to being manipulated into falling?” You ask feeling confused, this was the whole reason why you lot didn’t come down here, you weren’t even allowed to watch them from the fountain in the garden, it was forbidden! “You have been granted a year’s exemption, Seraphina, you will return in a years’ time after the Extermination” they wave their hands at you to prevent any more questions before leaving you alone.
Oh...oh no...this cannot be happening! Oh, please no! You collapse to your knees in shock your black dress collecting dust from the floor, you could hear shuffling behind you and a hand is suddenly placed on your shoulder making you jump a small startled and high-pitched sound escapes your lips. The pale hand belonged to the blonde more approachable looking demon, her expression was sympathetic “I’m sorry you’ve been thrust into all of this, I’m sure you just wanted a peaceful afterlife, right?” Her voice was kind and smooth not at all like you’d pictured it.
She offers you a hand to help you to your feet which you tentatively take. You nod your head “Yes, you’re quite right, I wouldn’t have minded much if he had asked me but then again what should I have expected?” You reply sullenly, you were slightly annoyed that he hadn’t spoken to you about it, or even just asked if you wanted to. The girl smiles almost sheepishly “Well, I should probably introduce myself, my name’s Charlie, and this is Vaggie, Angel, Alastor, Niffty and Husk” she introduces herself and the others pointing as she went.
They don’t seem half as cheerful as she is but then again, I don’t blame them they are in Hell after all. You take a deep breath; this is going to be a long year “Well, Angel’s don’t use their human names, so I’m Seraphina, I realize that might be a mouthful so you can call me Sera everyone does” you reply. Glancing at Charlie she smiles “It’s nice to meet you Sera, we hope we can at least make this year worth your time, right guys?” She turns to look at the others and for the most part, all she receives are non-committal hums and grunts.
However, Vaggie and Niffty walk over nodding their heads, Vaggie offers you a very small sympathetic close-lipped smile and Niffty’s bouncing up and down in excitement “I have so many questions for you!” She squeals, this makes you slightly nervous Charlie chuckles “we shouldn’t bombard her with questions but maybe we could discuss some of this over dinner, does that sound okay?” She asks turning to you fully you wring your hands together nervously before nodding timidly.
Alastor, the red deer looking demon, bows dramatically at the waist “Say no more, my charming demon belle, leave the cooking to me, my dear” he says rather obnoxiously before leaving the room through two doors on the left of what looked like a lobby. Next to you a few steps away was a bar and on the right-hand side was a hallway and some paintings, you recognize Lucifer in one of them. That explained a lot so he was Charlie’s father.
Directly in front of you were the lobby stairs that split off to two different hallways one on the left and another on the right and behind you was the entrance to the hotel “This is a hotel?” You question with a confused lilt; you were wondering why the princess of hell was slumming it with other demons in what looked to be a dilapidated hotel in some desperate need of re-decorating. Charlie nods beside you her eyes also traversing the filthy lobby, the brightly lit chandelier up above was creating dust moats in the air.
“Yes, it’s a little project of mine, I named it the Happy Hotel, created to, hopefully, rehabilitate sinners which would solve the overpopulation problem down here removing the need to exterminate anyone” she explains, ah so she wants to make a rehabilitation hotel in the hopes that they could come to heaven...you guess that’s why you’re here, to see if they’re capable of such profound change. You hear snickering to your left to see the effeminate spider known as ‘Angel’ sat on one of the bar stools pulling an unamused face, and it’s clear that he doesn’t believe in the idea.
Vaggie is huffing and puffing next to you becoming a ball of infuriated energy “If you have something to say then spit it out!” She yells angrily, you flinch you had no idea that you’d be able to feel a demon’s energy and capability through one small outburst of anger but alas you could no wonder Angels aren’t allowed down here. Angel rolls his eyes and crosses both sets of his arms leaning against the bar in a way that looked incredibly uncomfortable “This isn’t going to work, Angels aren’t going to want us fuck ups up there with them, am I right, toots?” He turns to you with this question and honestly, you’d be lying if you said they’d be okay with it.
A lot of them were up there because of natural causes but there were few, like yourself, were up there for less savoury reasons you sigh and a look of triumph crashes over Angel’s features as his holds up his first set of arms in a gesture that said ‘I told you so’ you turn to Charlie and Vaggie “Look I can’t guarantee that every Angel is going to be on board with this idea, some of us had our lives taken away very early on, I can’t even begin to tell you how many child victims are up there let alone victims like myself, so although this idea of yours is lovely, you’re all going to have to really want it for it to be even remotely possible” you explain carefully.
Vaggie’s face drops at the thought of there being that many children up in Heaven but she nods as does Charlie. The kitchen doors open and Alastor makes all of you jump by calling you to the table you follow behind Charlie whose arm is linked with Vaggie’s, in your lifetime this would have been considered wrong but you’ve since seen the world change and you couldn’t be happier for them. They all sit at the table; dinner had already been placed on the tabletop.
Angel was sat to the left of Husk and next to him was Alastor, then there was Niffty next to him and then Charlie and Vaggie, your seat was somewhat opposite Alastor, when you sit he catches your white eyes with his deep red ones and smile sinisterly and yet he manages to make it look normal, you couldn’t shake this feeling that he looked oddly familiar, yet you’re sure you’d never seen him before, you think you’d remember such a meeting. You all start eating and Niffty starts firing off questions about Heaven left and right.
Most of which you’re able to answer and some you can’t for example you really couldn’t remember exactly how many Angels there were in Heaven. Charlie was more interested in what Heaven looked like as was Vaggie and the others didn’t seem too terribly interested in the topic at all and all the while even though you were skilfully answering questions you just couldn’t stop wracking your brain for this one memory, you just know you’ve seen him before. When the questions suddenly stop you take that as an opportunity to ask you look directly in front of you at the demon in question and struggle to suppress a shiver when you see that his eyes were already on you, you swallow thickly “Have we met before?” You ask suddenly you barely catch the widening of his eyes before he quickly recovers from the shock of the sudden question.
He grins “Why how strange, I was just thinking the same thing, my dear, but alas I cannot seem to drum up any memory of a prior meeting” he places his elbows on the table and interlocks his fingers resting his chin on them his creepy smile still in place and his eyes show no signs of shifting you break the eye contact feeling uneasy, if he felt the same way then surely you must have met before. You dig your fork into your pasta in thought.
You look back up at him and huff loudly “This is making me crazy; I swear I know you!” You exclaim he laughs, and it makes your entire body freeze in horror you recognized that laugh:
Alastor hovered over you grinning that manic smile, you should have known this was too good to be true. Your blood was staining his white shirt, your arms were tied painfully tight behind your back and your ankles were tied with rope as well. There was a thin piece of cloth covering your mouth barely keeping you quiet and tears were streaming down your cheeks, making dirt cling to them.
He places two fingers under your chin forcing you to look at him, his brown eyes bore into your green ones his smile never faltering “Now, now, my dear, no need to look so glum, if it’s any consolation I really do appreciate the help you so graciously gave me the other night, and I must say it’s because of that, that I almost reconsidered this plan but I simply couldn’t deny myself the thrill of keeping you all to myself" his whispered words force a shudder to rattle your bones pulling a pathetic whimper from you.
He makes what should have been soothing sounds meant to quiet someone in distress it only made you cry harder “Come now, darling, I would very much prefer to see you smile one last time, after all, you’re never fully dressed without one!” He laughs lifting up a sharp knife causing your breath to catch painfully in your throat and as he swings it down toward your chest you scream as loud as you possibly can in the hopes it would distract you from the inevitable pain...but it didn’t you felt it all, you’re body fought through consciousness even as he pulled your heart from its place only then did your eyes eventually close and death finally embraced you, offering you the well-deserved rest you were in such desperate need of.
You can feel tears trailing down your cheeks, “Sera, are you okay?” Charlie asks you could feel your will draining from your body as the adrenalin starts to kick in “I do know you” you say emotionlessly and with conviction Alastor sits up a little straighter in his seat looking mildly interested his eyebrows slightly raised “Oh?” He replies as if humouring you. You look up at him with blank eyes “I’m surprised you don’t recognize me but then again it was quite some time ago when you took out my heart after I saved your life.”
There was utter shocked silence at the table and Alastor seemed to be sifting through memories before utter joy takes over his features a light gasp leaves his lips as he mumbles your name, not your Angel name, but your actual name the one you went by when you were alive. You bite your tongue you were riding a thin line between exploding in anger and breaking down into uncontrollable sobs, you couldn’t understand why he looked so happy to see you.
He’d taken everything! “Oh my how could I possibly have forgotten such a magical evening, my dear, I must say I was rather hoping to see you again at some point but I suppose considering you hadn’t actually realized that I was a serial killer, then a good deed still counted as good, as much as I had been hoping to see you here” He grins and there’s a very faint sadistic blush dusting his cheeks “ah no matter you’re here now, my what a lovely reunion this is, you know I kept it, dear?” He says vaguely causing your eyebrows to draw down in confusion.
Everyone else at the table was painfully quiet “Kept what?” You ask cautiously, you weren’t sure if you even wanted to know at this point “Why your heart, my dear, I wouldn’t dare throw something so precious away so I kept it” you jump up from your seat in absolute disgust Angel looks about ready to throw up “Okay I thought Val was bad that’s just fucked up” he mutters under his breath Husk and the others look absolutely mortified all except Vaggie, she looked enraged as she stands from her seat as well.
“You fucking moron! Don’t you realize that the fate of this idea lives and dies with her if there’s even so much as one demon she can’t or won’t forgive, then that’s it the whole point of the hotel becomes nothing but an idea, you do realize you’ve ruined everyone’s chances of getting into Heaven by not only acting like an absolute creep but by simply taking the life of someone who was kind enough to save yours!?” She yells in disbelief.
He doesn’t reply he simply smiles before standing himself. He looked far different than what he had looked like when he was alive, he’d been quite the attractive ‘gentleman’ back then even if he had seemed a little emotionally unavailable that never stopped any of his fans. Of course, you had also listened to him on the radio on the odd occasion that how you’d recognized him at the time.
Charlie stands from her seat as well “We’ve got an entire year to make this better I’m sure that Alastor can make it up to her in that time frame, right Al?” She sounds almost desperate and, honestly, your heart breaks for her it couldn’t be easy trying to pitch an idea like this to demons especially demons that simply do not wish to change and it was probably even harder for her to pitch it to her grandfather whom she’d never met before but you simply couldn’t see yourself forgiving him ever.
You turn to her with a frown “I wish they had sent you another Angel, Charlie, you seem like a very kind girl and I have no doubt that what you’re trying to do is coming from a very kind place but I can’t see myself forgiving him ever, I’m sorry but I just can’t” she frowns but her eyes held understanding she nods “well, at least let me show you to a nice room, you’ve got a year to stay here the least I can do is make you comfortable.”
You nod and Vaggie rushes to join you both as you exit the kitchen Vaggie pats your shoulder rather awkwardly “I’m really sorry about...well yeah...no one should go through that especially after saving someone else’s life” you give her a small smile you were starting to like these two and it was making you wonder what she had done that was so wrong she ended up down here but part of you just didn’t want to know.
They show you to clean room it needed to be decorated but it had the necessities a bathroom, a bed, a wardrobe and a vanity. There were two rather large windows in the opposite wall to the door and that had old tattered drapes. The carpet was old and slightly dusty but the linen on the bed was clean and fresh obviously new you turn to Charlie “Thank you” you say quietly, you felt awful to put a stop to her dreams so early but you couldn’t forgive him, the others you could easily forgive without so much as a second thought but him not at all. She smiles it doesn’t quite reach her eyes which held a disappointment “It’s okay, we’ll see you in the morning, we hope you have a nice sleep, goodnight Sera.”
You nod once “Goodnight” you mumble as the walk out the door and close it behind them you lock the door after them. You had a feeling you wouldn’t get much sleep tonight or any other night this year, in fact. You wander over to the bed and sit on the edge, hands clutching as the cool linen beneath you, what a day it had been it had started off so normally who would have thought it would have ended like this? You shake your head before climbing under the duvet and attempting to dream of home, instead of the horror you were living in right now.
Meanwhile, Alastor had retreated back to his room a while ago, he couldn’t believe he would be able to see you again for a whole year. You hadn’t changed much which was lovely, you still had long dark hair and a timid personality even when you were alive, you’d been so shy, especially around and it had become obvious to him that after taking him in, looking after him, healing him that you had started to develop a somewhat harmless crush.
And any other time he would usually ignore it, not even giving it a second thought he’d gotten so well known that there had been many women who had been in the same boat and he didn’t spare them a second glance let alone a thought, but somehow you alone had managed to capture his interest, at the time he hadn’t liked that. He’d become suddenly jealous at the thought of any other men capturing your attention.
He’s sure that he doesn’t need to explain that jealousy and serial killers don’t mix well that much was evident, honestly, had he actually accepted his feelings for you he could only assume that everything would have been so much worse, but now it was okay. Now he could accept them, he’d have to try much harder to get your attention but he didn’t mind. He could only hope that even a small part of you still held some feeling for that hadn’t been tainted by your new hate of him, he was almost sure that there was but perhaps you simply couldn’t remember it.
He was determined to make you remember though, he simply needed to remember all of the information that you had confided in him, he crosses his legs delicately at the knee in his high back chair resting his arms on the arms of his chair. He had a whole year to win you over and he was confident that he could do it, if he’d been able to do it when he was alive without even trying then it should be easy if put the effort in, right?
He’d make his little Angel...somehow...