An Arrangement was Made

Chapter 10: First Full Day

It was the next day. Adam hadn't woken up until the early afternoon and he was still tired. Several days with no sleep had really done a number on him and he felt like shit. The nightmares didn't help. He couldn't remember what they were, but they certainly weren't pleasant whatever they were.

He looked out at the state of his new room. It seemed even more gaudy now that he was waking up in it. He had half a mind to tear everything down and throw it out, but that seemed like so much work. His head hurt.

He laid in bed for a good 15 minutes staring at the ceiling before he finally got up. He brushed the wrinkles out of his cloak and readjusted his mask before going to the door. A note had been slipped under it. He picked it up.

"Hi Adam! We had pizza for dinner last night. I was going to call you but I didn't want to wake you up. We saved some leftovers in the fridge for you. They'll have your name on them. Hope you slept well!
-Charlie :3"

Adam wasn't sure how to feel about that. Probably best to not think about it too hard. He dropped the note on his bedside table and left the room. He listened carefully to make certain no one was sneaking up on him. The less he could interact with the other people living here, the better. From the research he'd done before arriving here, not a single one was worth knowing.

Vaggie was the only one here who wasn't irredeemable. She put her mercy in the wrong place, but she wasn't evil. He had hoped that a few years in hell would remind her why all sinners must die, but it had backfired. Fine by him. She wanted to stay in hell? Then she deserved to be here just as much as any other sinner. Enablers were almost just as bad as perpetrators in his opinion, especially when they're supposed to be the ones delivering justice. Still though, he hoped that perhaps he could still help her return to the light. He had to hope that. Life would be very lonely here if he didn't have at least one angel around.

Adam didn't run into anyone on the way to the kitchen. He didn't hear anyone in there, so he entered. The mess from last night had been cleaned competently enough. There were some minor scorch marks on the counter and wall, but they could be easily painted over. The oven was a very different story. What used to be a white appliance was now charred entirely black. The glass was cracked and there were dents from where fire extinguisher shrapnel had exploded. There was an apple shaped, pale green sticky note on the top that read "Out of order. Will buy new one. Sorry." written in swirly, feminine handwriting that clearly belonged to Charlie. There was a face doodled next to it that was just a couple dots and a cat-like mouth with a tongue sticking out next to the apology.

Cute.

What a fucking loser.

He found the pizza in the bottom at the back of one of the drawers. It took him fucking forever to find it. Who the hell puts fresh leftovers that out of sight? It would've been a lot harder if the fridge were fully stocked. Whoever was in charge of shopping really needed to go. All that was in there was some limp vegetables, lunch meat of questionable age, other people's leftovers, and some yogurt.

"Vaggie..." He muttered under his breath. He had forgotten how petty she could be. She been cartoonishly petty towards the other girls when she had first arrived in heaven. She and Lute had that in common. He thought he had taught her better than that, but it looks like she just learned to hide that part of herself better. That would be an issue. Oh well, he got through Lute's rebellious phase, he could get through hers.

There were three pieces left for him. That wasn't quite enough, but this was hell pizza. In heaven, almost everything was good for you or at least neutral. He expected the food down here would be more fattening and overall less nutritious. He took the entire reasealable freezer bag with him. He didn't bother to heat it up. In order to do that, he'd have to get out a plate, which meant doing dishes and using the microwave. He'd never used one of those things before and frankly, he didn't like the idea of them. Ovens made sense to him. He'd watched those things evolve from stone enclosures with fire underneath them into what they were today. They were still recognizable. Microwaves though? They used fucking invisible waves to cook shit. That was something he didn't understand or like and he wasn't planning on learning anything new right now. Pizza was plenty good cold anyway, sometimes even better.