Caught In The In-Between

A happy day in Hell?

It was just another normal day in hell. The screams of the innocent pierced my ears as I sat on a rooftop. As fun as turf wars were when overlords disappeared, it got...boring. Repetitive. I watched a girl skip down the street, singing about a happy day in hell. What was she on? I rolled my eyes then had about .3 seconds to dodge a bomb. Ah, fun...

I dodged and then heard a slightly obnoxious Australian laugh. "Aye! Spirit, what are you doing up there all alone, you loser?" A voice calls up to me. I looked down over the railing to see a... semi-friend, Cherry Bomb, tossing a bomb up and catching it repeatedly. "Try not to kill me again, would you, CB?" I sneered at her and she rolled her eyes, laughing. "Loosen up, Spir. If I wanted you dead, you'd be already." She says as I hopped down. 

"Where's Angie?" I ask and she shrugs. "That loser has been hanging around some kind of rehab hotel." She says, tossing another bomb. "That's lame. Who wants redemption." I say, dodging bullets. "It's because the owner is giving him a room. No problem with faking being good for free lodging that's not being shot up." She says and i mhm and backflip, grabbing one of her bombs from her and yeeting it when I landed.

"Whoa, sick moves Spir. When were you gonna tell me you were flexible?" She jokes and I snort. "Not for you to find out, C. I'm not straight for a reason." I say and she chuckles. "Fair. Wanna sing Angie's song with me while we wait for the loser?" She asks and I nod, pulling out a sword and she grins and plays her beat on a speaker attached to her hip.

A.D finally shows up to sing his final part and C rolls her eyes. "Took ya long enough, Ang." She says as he pulled guns out. "yeah yeah. Charlie has us doing 'team building'. She's drivin me nuts." He says, shooting people, as i run through, only doing severe damage, and never killing.  "Who's this Charlie I keep hearing about. Is it that girl that was singing in the streets earlier?" I asked and A.D nods. "She's the big man's daughter. She thinks she can redeem sinners so they can get into heaven..." He says and I looked at him like he was crazy. "Morningstar?" I say and he nodded. I was stunned. Long enough to get knocked out.

I didn't know how long it'd been when I woke up. "Are you sure we didn't get him killed?" I heard Angie ask. "Calm down. If he was dead, he wouldn't be here." A female voice said. She sounded annoyed. I groaned soft and she sighed. "See, he's waking now." She said as I blinked slow. AD helped me slowly sit up. "Sorry Spirit. That was my bad. I distracted you." He says and i rubbed my head. "It's fine, Ang. I signed up for it." I groan, my own accent coming out. I can't remember much from being human. The only part that told me anything about where I came from or who i was was my accent. It was scottish. 

"Still...You're my friend." He says. The blonde girl I had seen singing earlier, now watching us, seemed to perk up when he said friend. "You have a friend Angel?" she asksand he sighed deeply. "Yeah. Spirit and I go way back. Even before me and Cherry. He found me my first day here." He says. "Well, welcome to my hotel, friend of Angel! I'm Charlie!" She says excited. "Yeah...hi, morningstar." I say and the grey girl with white hair set a hand on Charlie's shoulder when her face dropped. "Don't take it personal, he's only really had Cherry and I." Angel said, a bit empathetic. Charlie regained her hopeful demeanor. "Well, if you need a place to stay, our hotel is open to any friend of Angel's! There are, just ya know...a few ru-" Her cheery demeanor was interuppted by a knock on the door. We all looked toward it and she approached. 

When she answered it, my eyes widened and I hid. Angie looked at me with a questioning look and I shook my head. Not right now. "Shut that door!" the grey girl yelled and i look at her. She seemed to notice me hiding and had a look that said she'd ask later. Charlie did shut the door though. "That's the radio demon! Don't you know who he is?!" She said and Charlie nodded. "Of course I do." She says "You can let him in if you don't make deals." The grey girl says and Charlie reopened the door. He stepped in and I tried to hide farther. AD and the girl looked at each other. They could tell I was very uncomfortable. The girl tried to slip me away when Alastor wasn't looking. 

"Okay, what's your deal." She asks me. "I'm Vaggie by the way." She says. I took a deep breath now that the air didn't feel heavy. "It's not like I have a deal with him or anything. My eyes aren't black....Let's just say... We used to be close. Not anymore. He changed. He became powerful....terrifying." I shudder. "He almost even killed me when he went on that overlord rampage." I say and she sighs. "I see...Well...just...I won't let him hurt you. Charlie and Angel would kill me if I didn't protect people." She says and I look away. "Thank you. I don't say that often. I just feel uneasy with him around." I say and she nods.

When we get back, Charlie was introducing people and Alastor was bringing his own people in. I saw Nifty, who after introducing herself, ran and attached herself to my leg. I saw Husker, who seemed surprised to see me alive. I shook my head and he looked away, dealing with Alastor. "Hi sir! Nifty had a hard time finding you!" Nifty says to me as I pick her up. This caused Alastor to stop his introduction and look our way. Vaggie narrowed her eyes at him and put an arm in front of me as he took a step closer. He seemed shocked by this action. "Oh, are we not on good terms anymore, Whiskey?" He asks, almost condescending. "No. And don't call me that." I say, looking at Nifty. Angel looked between Alastor and I, and Charlie seemed confused by the weight of tenseness in the room. 

"What's going on...." Angel finally breaks the silence. "Oh, Whiskey and I used to be quite close comrades. We often did radio together! We lived together too. He helped me in deals, that's why his eyes are red and orange...." Alastor spills and i sneered. "I said stop calling me that. And that was hundreds of years and exterminations ago. Before you changed." I say. Angel seemed shocked by this and Charlie hmphs, adamant. "Well, that's a good thing that's what this hotel is for. Redemption! You said your name was Spirit right?" She asks me and I petted Nifty's hair. 

"Spirits actually. Like alcohol." I say and she nods. "Well Spirits, as it's your first day in the hotel, I won't make you do anything to make you uncomfortable, you can relax with whoever you please. And if it is your wishes that Alastor stay away from you until you are ready, I'm sure he can respect those wishes...right?" She looks at alastor a bit and everyone else looks at Alastor. "Ah, very well. If that is what the Matron of this hotel asks of me, I suppoe I have no choice but to agree." He says, leaning on his microphone cane.

"Very well! We'll work on some more team building tomorrow! For now, go get rest!" She says and Angel pulls me away, leaving Nifty. "What the hell was that?" He asks and I sigh. "I'm sorry Ang. He's been gone 7 years, I didn't think he'd come back." I say and he sits on his bed. "You owe me an explanation." He says and I sit beside him. I explained who alastor was and what he had done, and essentially what I had told Vaggie. "I don't want to get into too much detail right now." I say soft, looking down. "I'm sorry. I had no idea. But hey, cheer up, Spir. At least he's no Valentino." He says weak, smiling poorly. "Yeah, I guess. Don't worry. I'm still looking for you a way out of that." I say and he shrugs. "It is what it is." He says. "Let's get some rest. You can stay in here with me that way I can hear if that creep comes in." He lays down and I shrug, laying beside him. "Goodnight.......Salem." He says, closing his eyes. I look at him. He was one of the two people I ever told my real name. I smiled a bit weak. "Goodnight, Anthony." I whisper and close my own eyes, falling into a dreamless sleep.