The Angels from Hell

Ala

Used to navigating the halls of hell in pitch blackness, it wasn't hard for Ala to find Raina's room. On the way there, she kept expecting Lilea to say something. Something must have happened to her, something she didn't want tell Ala. It was easy to pretend not to like another manager bossing her around or a colleague that slept or fidgeted through meetings just waiting for the chance to escape but this was something new. Ala did not have experience with the kind of person that apologised or complimented her or seemed to care about the job at hand. Just before the silence between them became awkward, they reached the room and gently pushed the door open.

"Let's hurry," Lilea said. They snuck inside, closing the door hurriedly behind them. Lilea headed straight to the closet and began running her hands around the bottom of it.

"What are you doing?" Ala asked. Lilea glanced up and for a moment, Ala was sure that she was going to tell her to be quiet, but the moment passed. Lilea returned to the closet and let out a satisfied "ha" as one of the boards slid out. Plunging her arm into the gap below, she reemerged clutching a small, crudely cut wooden box. Holding it as if it might burn her, Lilea placed it down on the bed in the centre of the room. Ala reached out and flicked the box open.

Inside was a rack of vials. There were eight of them, four on each side, each one corked. Lilea slid one out of the rack and held it up. At first it looked empty but on closer inspection Ala saw a faint, red stain on the bottom.

"It's the same as the one my old colleague had," Lilea rotated the vial, the light from the window dancing off the glass. She ran her foot over the carpet. "After Raina was taken away screaming there was a drop of something on the ground. It was the same colour as this." Ala ran her fingers along the other vials and pulled one of them out. This one was half full of a viscous, red substance that glowed slightly even in room's bright light.

"Don't open it." Lilea snapped momentarily lifting her hand as if she was going to grab Ala's wrist again.

"I won't," Ala said softly, pulling her arm away from Lilea. "I recognise it."

"You do?" Lilea put her hand down. Ala detected a note of incredulity in her voice, and she couldn't suppress a slight smile. "Never in this quantity," Ala said, "but I've seen it, and you have too."

"I have?"

"That party where we met," Ala stared into the vial, tipping it to either side and watching the liquid move. "They were giving out shot glasses from a bowl of this, well, a drop of this. I never thought I'd see this much."

"You remember seeing me at that party," Ala looked away from the vial at Lilea. There was a note of hurt in her voice that seemed completely out of place.

"Yeah," Ala said, "a demon that well-dressed at a party like that one. I wouldn't forget," she considered that night. She remembered how despite all the panic she had felt running through the crowd looking for Marla, she had been momentarily distracted by the sight of someone that, with their white curls and red dressed, had not looked one bit like a demon. It had almost made Ala lose balance and instead she had run straight into her. "Sorry about knocking you over," Ala waved her hand apologetically, "rude of me. I had a lot on my mind that night."

"It's fine," Lilea said dismissively, "I barely remember that night."

"Sure," Ala doubted that. "Well, anyway," she drew the vial closer to her eyes, "this is M."

"M?" Lilea took the vial from Ala and peered at it.

"It's a drug," Ala pulled out other vials from the box, returning each when they turned out to be empty. "Short for Mortality. It's supposed to give you a buzz, make you feel like you're human or at least mortal. Heard it rather breaks up the monotony of living forever."

Lilea cocked her head to the side to closer examine the substance. "You ever taken it?"

"Don't see the point," Ala shrugged, "Everything always changes around me, my managers, the humans I watch. It doesn't feel monotonous." There was a murmur of conversation outside the door and Lilea shoved the glass vial deep into her pant pocket.

"We should go," Ala said as Lilea lowered the box and empty vials into the hole in the closet and returned the wooden panel over it. Lilea listened at the door until the distant hum of chatter disappeared.

"The only real question now is how do you make M?" Lilea said, one hand on the doorknob.

"I don't know," Ala said slowly, "but I don't think it can be good."