An Arrangement was Made

Chapter 1: He Doesn't Know Yet

It was a normal day. Just like any other day. Adam had slept in, ordered delivery for breakfast, and spent his morning watching "To Catch a Predator." He often spent a couple weeks preparing for an extermination by memorizing the faces of predators caught in Chris's sting operations so that he could be on the lookout for them if they died before extermination day.

"TAZE HIM! TAZE HIM!" A particularly dumb predator had run the second they saw Chris Hanson and had been tackled by the police. Adam's excitement was quickly killed when he heard the man's prison sentence was barely even a year.

"God fucking Christ, what the hell are they thinking down there?" He pulled out his phone to check if the predator was dead yet. To his disappointment, the idiot was still alive. Him being homeless was pretty good though. His spirits were lifted when he saw that one of the other creeps he had been watching had finally passed away. He added their name and face to his list of sinners to pay "special attention" to.

Adam got a notification. It was a text from Emily. That was weird. He and Emily didn't talk very often anymore. Not since that damned princess had shown up preaching about "redemption" and a whole bunch of other bullshit. Adam had tried to explain to Emily that Charlie was full of shit, but she hadn't been willing to listen to him. He opened up his texts and looked at the message.

"Meet me at the embassy. I want to talk to you." Finally, she was going to apologize!

"Looks like the kid has finally come to her senses!" If she had called to meet him in person, it probably meant there was going to be food involved! This was looking to be a good day.

Adam grabbed his guitar, never left home without it, and flew over to the embassy. He waved at a few fans that passed by him. Normally he would stop to chat, maybe give them his signature, but that could wait for now. Emily had pastries waiting for him. Or maybe flan? Whatever it was, it was going to be delicious and probably best eaten fresh.

He landed on the embassy's balcony and went in through the open doors. Was he supposed to go through the doors? Yeah but doors are for fucking babies. Besides that, Adam's the first fucking man dammit. He goes wherever the hell he pleases how he pleases. He slid down the stair railing to the third floor where Emily was waiting for him. She waved at him.

"Adam! Hello!"

"Hey sweetie. What did you want to talk about?" He played dumb. That was what you were supposed to say in a conversation right? Listen? The rules of etiquette were dumb. Stupid things were always changing and they never made any sense. BUT apologies were hard, so for Emily's sake he could indulge them a little.

"Well uh..." Her face went blank. "I forgot what I was going to say." Adam snorted with barely held back laughter.

"Was it 'I'm sorry?'" He asked. Emily looked up at him with a confused look.

"What do I have to be sorry for?"

"You called me here to apologize. You know, for believing a demon over me and being rude and all that." He stated this as if it were an irrefutable fact. Emily wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion until it seemed like a realization dawned on her.
"Ooooooooooooooohhhhhhh. No. Not exactly?" She smiled sheepishly. Adam turned to leave.

"Wait, wait Adam! This is important."

"I don't care!" He shouted down the stairs at her.

"Adam!" She groaned and sighed. Sera had told her that she should be the one to break the news to Adam, but clearly this wasn't working. She went back into her office where her sister was waiting for her.

"Sera, I don't think it will make a difference which one of us tells him right now. He's still mad at me for...I don't even know what. Honestly, it might be better to hear it coming from you." Sera set down the glass of tea she was drinking.

"Fine, I will deal with him."

Sera teleported Adam into the room while he was mid flight. He promptly crashed into the wall before he could orient himself.

"Sera, what the fuck?!" He got to his feet, rubbing the painful spot on his feet. The office was nothing special. It had the same blue wallpaper and golden pillars of the heaven embassy down in hell. Honestly the rooms were practically identical except this one had girly white chairs. The high Seraphim, Sera aka his boss, was sitting at the head of the table. Emily was at her right side and on her left was...Charlie?! Adam was immediately on edge.

"What is this?" He looked to Sera. He guessed that it probably had something to do with his promise to take the extermination to Charlie's hotel first.

"Take a seat." Sera gestured to seat directly in front of him. Adam begrudgingly did as he was told. Adam noticed that Charlie was looking far more awkward than normal. She wouldn't look at him. Adam had a bad feeling about this. You could cut the tension in the room with a knife. Sera was the first to break the silence.

"We have come to a compromise."

"Why on earth would we ever compromise with hell? With her?" He gestured to Charlie. "Did you forget who's daughter this is?"

"Let me finish." Adam held his tongue. He had no choice. Free will had come from the fruit of Knowledge, something that Adam had not partaken in. He had not been given free will until he entered heaven, and even then it was limited. He could never truly choose anything contrary to heaven's will, no matter how much he might want to, but for now that was fine with him. They hadn't made him do anything he disliked since his earthly life.

"The point of the exterminations," Sera continued, "Was to ensure that hell never rebelled against us. I believe we may have found a better solution."

"What was wrong with mine?" Adam felt threatened. This was bad. He had only used the 'hell might rebel against us' argument as a way to put his exterminations into place. He knew that no one would ever approve the true reason for their birth.

"Nothing at all. No one's saying there was anything wrong with the exterminations." While that was technically true, that only applied to right now in the moment. Both Charlie and Emily thought the exterminations were unnecessarily cruel. He knew Emily felt this way because she had not seen the true extent of the evil of humans, but Charlie felt this way because she was completely delusional.

"This is not a choice between good and bad, this is a choice between better and best. We have decided to arrange a marriage between Princess Charlotte Morningstar and one of our own."

Adam smirked. "Who's the unlucky guy?" There was a short moment of silence before Emily broke the news to him.


"You are."