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“Alright everyone, for today’s activity, we are going to be making… FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS!!!” Charlie announced, standing in the middle of the foyer with her box of supplies
The various sinners glanced up at the announcement, Husk, who was at the bar, Nifty, who was dusting, as well as Angel and Cherri, lounging next to each other on the couch.
Suddenly, Charlie felt a strange pang to her head and her vision went a little fuzzy.
“Mm, cool.” Angel said, voice a little distant
He must’ve noticed the lack of enthusiastic response because he glanced up again.
“Hey, Charlie, you good?” Angel said
Charlie didn’t respond. Something was making her feel incredibly woozy, and her vision was darkening at the corners.
“Charlie?” Angel got up, though she barely could process it “Hey! Something’s wrong with Charlie!”
“Shit!” Husk exclaimed, quickly setting down the glass he was polishing “Vaggie’s gonna kill-”
Then everything went dark.
Of course, to everyone else, it looked like Charlie disappeared into thin air.
“What the fuck just happened?” Vaggie called from the top of the stairs
“Fuck, we’re so dead.” Angel muttered
—
James couldn’t believe he’d been talked into this. Go to a party with your twin sister so your parents could go out for dinner! (even though he was 15 and old enough to stay home by himself) Go into the basement with her two friends, Abby and Melody, and Abby’s boyfriend. Summon a demon for some fucking reason! Tonight was going absolutely great.
Not.
He sat nervously in the dim candlelight, sitting in a circle around the sloppy pentagram Melody had drawn on the floor. With the quality of that thing, he’d be surprised if they even managed to summon a demon in the first place. Obviously, he didn’t want to, but still, he would admit he’d be a bit impressed if this dumbfuck of an idea actually worked.
“Oh spirits!” Abby called out “Come to us, show us what the future has in store for us, we call upon you!”
James cringed a little, but nothing happened.
“Well, that was a dud. C’mon, let’s go back upstairs, I wanna play beer pong.” Abby’s boyfriend, James was pretty sure his name was Xavier, muttered
Suddenly, the candles flickered, and went out, leaving them in complete darkness.
James pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight, panicking. He needed to find the stairs and get out, now.
Smoke poured out of the center of the pentagram, and there was a flash of light. There, in the middle of the pentagram, sat a very confused looking, white-skinned young woman who was wearing a red suit and holding a box.
“What happened?” she muttered “Angel? Husk? Vaggie?”
The woman glanced up and flinched “Holy shit!”
James dropped his phone and sprinted up the stairs, into the loud party, shutting the door behind him. He’d play beer pong with the guys, drink enough to forget this shit ever happened, everyone else be damned.
—
Sydney watched her brother stumble up the stairs, and rolled her eyes. She couldn’t believe it, they’d summoned an actual demon, and her brother wasn’t going to take this once in a lifetime opportunity? Sucked to be him, she supposed.
The demon itself didn't look much like a demon. More of a young woman in clown makeup, with blond hair and a red suit, who looked more terrified than Sydney’s brother sprinting up the stairs. She also had in her arms a cardboard box full of something Sydney couldn’t make out in the darkness, and would not stop cursing for the life of it.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!” the demon exclaimed “What the fuck is going on?”
“We summoned you, demon, to tell us our futures.” Melody said “God, I can’t believe it actually worked!”
The demon froze, staring at Melody, with wide, glowing yellow eyes “Wait… summoned me? That explains everything! Oh, this is so cool! I’ve never actually met living humans before! My name’s Charlie, princess of hell and founder of the Hazbin Hotel, where I help redeem sinners, and you four probably need some redeeming!” she gasped “And I don’t exactly know how to get back so this’ll be the perfect time! We can do trust falls and make friendship bracelets, it’s going to be so much fun!”
Sydney gritted her teeth, staring at the demon. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
—
“What do you mean she just vanished?” Vaggie demanded
“I don’t know, okay!” Angel exclaimed “One moment she was just standing there with her box, saying that we were going to make friendship bracelets, and then she froze up, and then she stumbled forwards a bit, and she wouldn’t respond, and then she just vanished!”
Suddenly Alastor shadow-teleported into the room. “Hmmm… have you considered the possibility she was summoned?”
“What?” Vaggie snapped
“It happens all the time, half-wit humans summon demons to complete tasks for them. It is not the most… pleasurable experience, and it usually only happens to the strongest hellborns, with the occasional powerful sinner being thrown into the mix, although if they were particularly sloppy there’s a chance that someone could summon someone as… you know… as Charlie.” Alastor smirked
“So, how do we get her back? Dunno why you guys keep skirting around the real question here.” Husk muttered
“She’ll have to figure out that part by herself!” Alastor grinned “Although I highly doubt she knows how to do that. It could be hours, days, weeks, even months before we see her again!”
Vaggie grabbed him by his shoulders and glared into his eyes “Alastor. How do we get Charlie back?”
“My, my, someone’s in quite the mood today. Our other option would be to find someone who had enough power to access the mortal realm.” His face fell about as flat as Alastor’s face could go, and he made a sound that sounded like a mix of static and a scoff “Like her father.”
Angel Dust’s eyes went wider “Shit, we’re double dead.”
—
“So anyways, then we rebuilt the hotel bigger and better than before while singing, and that’s how my friends and I saved hell from being exterminated forever!” Charlie smiled
“Uh huh” Abby muttered
Instead of the demon telling them their futures like it was supposed to, she insisted on making friendship bracelets and telling Abby and her friends all about her friends and some dumb story she probably made up.
“Now that we’re done making friendship bracelets, you guys got to wear them, so that way, when you die, I’ll be able to recognize you and give you a warm welcome to hell! I’ll be sure to tell my friend Emily about this too, she’s an angel, and she can welcome you to heaven since we’re all such great friends now!” Charlie exclaimed “Ooh! We should tell each other our biggest hopes and dreams, this is so much fun!”
“Yeah um-” Sydney started, but was interrupted by a swirling pillar of smoke appearing in the corner, soon replaced by a furious looking, winged beast with glowing red eyes, surrounded by flames.
Abby was pretty sure she wasn’t the only one who screamed.
“You FUCKERS dare summon MY DAUGHTER?!?” the beast boomed “You will face the WRATH of the king of hell if you DARE lay a finger on her!”
Charlie turned around, and smiled and waved “Hi dad! I’m fine, and I made a bunch of friends!”
The demon blinked, before reverting to what looked like just a much shorter version of Charlie as he glanced around “Really?”
“Yeah, we made friendship bracelets, and we had so much fun!” Charlie exclaimed
The demon looked around at the four teens skeptically, noticing their flat faces “Yeah, I’m sure.”
“Hold on, lemme introduce everyone, dad, this is Melody, Blake, Sydney, and Abby, and this is my dad guys!” Charlie said, motioning her hands wildly
“Lucifer, king of hell, nice to meet you.” the demon said awkwardly, gritting his teeth “Listen Char-Char, I know you’re having a great time… I think… but it’s time to go back. Your girlfriend’s freaking out and I highly doubt Mr. Deer-face can run the hotel by himself.”
“Aww, okay.” Charlie muttered “It was nice to meet you guys! Have a nice life and be good people! Bye!”
Abby couldn’t get a single sound out as Lucifer scooped up Charlie in his arms, stood in the middle of the pentagram, and disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving only a yellow rubber duck where he’d stood a moment ago, and the basement in dark silence.
Her boyfriend, Blake, was the first and only to speak “What the fuck just happened?”
—
“One Charlie!” Lucifer deposited her onto the floor, causing Charlie to drop the box and spill beads everywhere
Vaggie immediately ran up and hugged her “You’re okay! We were all so worried! What happened?”
“I… made friends with these 4 teenagers who summoned me and made friendship bracelets with them?” Charlie shrugged “It wasn’t bad, I actually kind of had fun!”
Angel snickered “Of course ya made friends. Now that that fiasco’s over, are we still making them bracelets?”
“Yes!” Charlie exclaimed, grinning
Now that everything was back to normal, it was once again another happy day in hell.