Heaven, Hell, and Earth

Chapter 53

Vaggie stayed in bed all night but she had been unable to sleep at all. Everything that had happened recently was just overwhelming to her. Angel finally finding out her shameful secret and her learning Solomon's own secret. She honestly didn't know which was worse, and to top it all off, she couldn't stop asking herself what she was going to do now. What would she do once Angel told the others her vile and disgusting shame? What would they all think? And what was she to do with this information about Solomon? What did it mean? Should she tell the others about it? And what was going to happen to Solomon? Was he really dying?

Sometime early in the morning, she started to cry. She couldn't help it. It just felt like everything was falling apart. First her so-called brother comes back into her life, then her secret gets out, and now it looked like she was going to lose a father again. Why did life have to be so cruel?

"Vaggie?"

She heard a soft voice call out and an equally soft creaking of the door to her room. She quickly dried her eyes and sat up to find Charlie standing in the doorway, wearing her pajamas and a concerned expression.

"I got up to use the bathroom and on my way back I thought I heard you crying. Are you okay?" She asked.

Vaggie looked away from her. Not trusting herself to speak without breaking.

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine." Charlie said. "But I can stay here with you until I have to get ready for work."

Vaggie nodded and Charlie came closer to sit next to her in bed.

"We haven;t done this in a long time." Charlie smiled, trying to lighten the mood. "Remember? When we were really little and you'd wake up screaming from nightmares and I'd come in to stay with you until you felt better?"

"Yeah." Vaggie smiled back. "Doesn't seem so very long ago. Does it?"

"Nope. Seems like yesterday honestly."

"You know what else I remember?"

"What?"

"How jealous Alastor used to get about it. He'd always whine about how sleeping together was yours and his thing."

Charlie chuckled.

"Yes and then he got older, found out what sleeping together really meant and now he'll deny, deny, deny to his grave."

"I never understood what you saw in him. That guy's a total prick."

"Oh come on, you know love him."

"I do not! The grinning freak tormented me every chance he got, especially when we were kids. Did you know that he used to follow me around with scissors, saying he was going to clip my wings."

"He didn't mean it and they were safety scissors, they can barely cut paper let alone supernatural moth wings."

"Not the point. He mercilessly harassed me."

"He mercilessly teased you." Charlie corrected. "He mercilessly teased everybody. It's just how he is and you know he doesn't mean any real harm, at least not toward us. We're his family, you're like a little sister to him and he thinks sisters are for picking at."

"Well I will say this." She huffed. "He definitely acted more like a brother to me than my own brother did."

"See? Underneath all the antagonizing, the mischief, the terror, and the occasionally gross obsession with meat, there's a heart."

"A twisted and creepy heart."

"But still a heart nonetheless."

"Maybe." She sighed. "Charlie can I confide something in you?"