An Arrangement was Made

Chapter 5: Our Relationship Has To Change

Vaggie stumbled half blind into an alleyway. She collapsed behind a dumpster. She laid there looking up at the sky waiting for the pain to subside. She looked at her hand now stained with golden glowing blood. Huh. She had always wondered what angelic blood looked like. This was one crummy way to satiate her curiosity.What the hell was she going to do now? She couldn't get back to heaven without her wings. Even if she did she'd be turned away at the gate for not having a halo. And even if St. Peter recognized her as an angel and let her in, Adam and Lute would still just throw her back down.She wished she could say "it could be worse" to try and cheer herself up, but she wasn't ignorant. She knew that things very much could and probably would get worse. She wasn't going to die from her injuries, angels can't die and everyone knew that, which meant that if a sinner like the kind Adam had told her about found her, she was in deep shit.She was almost starting to regret sparing that sinner kid. What if they weren't actually a kid? Maybe they were just so short they looked like a kid. She dismissed the thought from her mind. If she had nothing else, she could at least take comfort in knowing that she had done the right thing. Probably.Vaggie heard the sound of fireworks going off in the distance. Extermination day was over. Sinners would be emerging from their homes soon. Vaggie needed to find shelter and fast. But she was so...so... so.....tired.............Vaggie jolted awake when she heard footsteps approaching her. A tall blonde girl in a red suit was kneeling in front of her. The girl wrapped a bandage around her eye socket and tried to give her a reassuring smile. Vaggie didn't quite catch what she said, but it sounded friendly.The woman helped her to her feet and put Vaggie's arm across her shoulders to help her walk. The girl had the unmistakable smell of a hellborn. That put Vaggie's fears of being kidnapped and tortured to rest. It didn't kill them, but it seemed less likely. Vaggie didn't know much about the hellborn, but it was a safer bet to go with a hellborn than a sinner. She knew that sinners for certain were bad. This girl had the potential to actually be decent.The demoness had taken her to a beat up old building. The red wallpaper was ripped up, the carpets were stained, there was a leak in one of the pipes that dripped down the from the ceiling boards. There was a weird musty smell that emanate from...well everywhere actually. The sparse furniture that was scattered around looked like hand-me-downs of hand-me-downs of furniture that had been left by the side of the road.Charlie, as she soon learned her name, patched her the rest of the way up, fed her, and gave her a room to stay in. Over the next few weeks, she had gone out of her way to make sure that Vaggie was comfortable while she recovered. Charlie was a miracle made flesh. How Vaggie happened to be found by one of the few demons who didn't recognize an exorcist uniform astounded her. If it had been anyone else...Though Charlie expected nothing in return for her service, Vaggie felt beyond indebted. She owed Charlie her life and so much more than that. She vowed that she would find a way to reciprocate everything. No matter how foolish, no matter how hopeless, no matter how far, Vaggie was determined to follow Charlie to the ends of existence until she made it up to her. Later she promised to go far past that debt.

-

Vaggie was pacing around the entryway. She was horribly stressed. Charlie had barely spoken to anyone since she got home last night. Charlie wasn't acting like herself and it worried her.

She knew that Charlie had been having meetings with...someone, but she had been really cagey about the whole thing. It was really out of character. Charlie was normally a huge over-sharer.

Vaggie worried that this was Alastor's work. She hadn't trusted the freak for a singular second since he showed up and she certainly didn't trust him now. The demon in question was sitting smugly in one of the chairs near the door. Smiling his usual shit eating grin acting like he was so much better and smarter than everyone.

"Do you have something to do with this?" She finally asked.

"Hm?" Goofyahhnoise.mp4 is playing.

"Charlie has been acting weird ever since the trial, we've all seen it! But she's been especially weird in the past day. Do you have something to do with this?" She demanded. Alastor set his tea down and stood.

"Of course not my dear. I would never dream of hurting Charlie."

"That is the weakest lie you have ever told me."

"Hm." The hum came out as almost a laugh. "I really don't have anything to do with this. Not this time. Heartbreak does funny things to people sometimes."

"Heartbreak?" Vaggie's eyes widened slightly, just enough for Alastor to notice.

"Of course deary. You repeatedly lied to her, for how long again was it? Two years? Three?"

"I meant to tell her!"

"But you didn't, so that doesn't really matter does it?"

Alastor was right. She had concealed her identity from Charlie for a whole three years. Why had she been so stupid?! Charlie was the kindest and most forgiving person she had ever met. Even among the angels of heaven, very few even came close to being as wonderfully kind as Charlie. Why hadn't she trusted her with this information?! Were...were they over? Vaggie hadn't considered that Charlie might want to break up with her. I mean come on, this was Charlie they were talking about. Surely she wouldn't break up with her for having been an exorcist. She wasn't like that anymore. She had changed.

"I should go talk to her." Alastor gave her an unreadable look that Vaggie didn't like as she passed him. He disappeared into the shadows to go do who knows what.


Vaggie approached the room that she and Charlie used to share. She knocked on the door.

"Charlie? Can I come in?"

"If you want to." Was her response. Vaggie took a deep breath and entered the room. The usually spotless room was littered with crumpled papers. Charlie was writing, or maybe drawing, something at her desk near the window. Vaggie closed the door behind her. She sat down on the side of the bed that used to be hers and sighed. She looked at her partner. How was she supposed to start?

"You seem stressed."

"Well of course I'm stressed." She locked eyes with Vaggie briefly before returning her gaze back down to her page. "There's... there's a lot happening right now and I don't know how to feel about it. It seems like even the solutions right now aren't great."

"Yeah..." Vaggie looked out the tall window next to the bed. It overlooked one of the prettier sections of the city. There weren't any fires going today. It looked almost peaceful out there. It reminded her of the view she had back in heaven. If Adam had his way, it would all be ash in a week.

Charlie gazed at Vaggie with horrid longing. There was something ever so slightly different about how the light dripped on her creamy gray skin. The way it lit her up like she was the only living thing in the room. How had Charlie never noticed it before? Vaggie had always been the brightest person in the room. She had always thought it was her love for her that made her stand out against everyone else, but no. It was more than that. That was angelic blood at work drawing the light towards her. It was so incredibly subtle but once you noticed it, it was hard to ignore.