Chapter Text
Prologue
ʚ♡ɞ
It was stressful, coming back to the hotel and seeing an even bigger wave of sinners begging to be redeemed after Vox’s suicidal attempt to try and kill himself and Alastor. Honestly it was still a rough pill to swallow. The memories were still very fresh and Alastor couldn’t help but to pick at the scab of it. Making herself remember the look on Vox's face, the way he looked at her, pure hate in his eyes as tears rolled down his face. It disturbed her.
Sighing, she moved to the kitchen, pouring herself a cup of coffee. She didn’t even bother to put any sugar or creamer into it. She preferred it black anyways. It was bitter and grainy that way, the texture of the black coffee against her tongue helped distract her and keep her awake.
She needed to be awake. Even if her eyelids protested, heavily pleading just for a short nap she refused to allow her body to submit to sleep. There was an overlord meeting today, she had to be there, even if she had to see Valentino- The fucking sex pervert who whenever she saw him she gagged a bit in her mouth; even if she had to see Rosie- Whom was mad at her, pissed off by the fact she was able to worm her way out of their deal; even if she had to see Carmilla- Who Alastor actually didn’t mind all that much, but they butted heads often, causing overlord meetings to often be dreadful.
Honestly Alastor didn’t want to go. There wasn’t a cell in her dead body that wanted to go to this meeting. But being a no show would be a stain on her reputation. A stain she couldn’t risk having right now.
For all she knew most of hell saw her as weak. She’d been captured, humiliated, almost evaporated, and before all of that… Missing. A good portion of hell didn’t even know her name since they came along after her disappearance.
It made her shudder, the weakness she felt made her feel pathetic. But she couldn’t tell if it was that or the exhaustion making her weak. At this point it didn’t matter.
The sooner she left, the sooner she could return.
Finishing her cup of coffee she set the cup down on a random table for Niffty to collect. She glanced at a clock nearby, starting to make her way through the hotel’s lobby. Her ears perked up when she heard the princess's voice.
“Oh, Alastor! Alastor!” Charlie’s voice grated against Alastor’s ears. She was so loud and for what? Alastor could hear her perfectly fine but Charlie still chose to be a nuisance. Regardless Alastor’s smile remained as she turned her head to look back at the blonde.
“Charlie! Good day to you princess! What do I owe the pleasure of my dear?” Alastor tilted her head as she did a little curtsy, simply to give respect to the princess.
Charlie fiddled with her hands, a nervous tick she did when she was about to ask alastor of something bigger than what she usually did. “Well I- uhm..! I was hoping you’d be willing to go through all of our new residents papers and well, ensure all of their information is actually correct and that they are actually here to be redeemed! B-but please don’t confront them. You have a habit of… Scaring our residents!” She splayed her hands out, smiling awkwardly at Alastor.
The Deer hummed, her eyebrows furrowing a bit. “Charlie, my dear, I thought you had technology to do that do you not? I am not using one of those… Computers dear!” Alastor shook her head, ears pinning to her skull as she questioned Charlie.
“Ah, well– funny thing about that! Is that they broke… And I was hoping you’d be willing to do it by hand… We have all the files we need in a storage room. My dad also has all the information of sinners in a room by it- you’d have to ask for the key though! But I thought maybe it would be something you could do…” She began to rock on her heels as she looked up at Alastor, seeing as Alastor’s eyes narrowed more.
A heavy sigh released from Alastor's lips. More work was the last thing she really wanted to hear. And having to interact with Lucifier exhausted her from the mere thought of it. “I will get around to it eventually. I unfortunately have a meeting today though so perhaps when I get back I can get started on that. Until then I assume you’re going to try and fix that… Technological issue?” Venom dripped from her voice as soon as she said the word ‘technological’. Instantly the mere word reminded her of Vox.
The tears rolling down his face, that psychotic and obsessed look in his eyes. The bright light of the ‘might of lilith’. It flashed in her memory as if she was right there again, laying on the ground helplessly trying to crawl away.
Her memory was taunting her- reminding her of how weak she is. She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard Charlie's loud voice again.
“That’s great Alastor! Thank you so much! I don’t know what we’d do without you here!” Her smile grew to be twice as big as before, her pupils expanding like puppies, making Alastor let out a little chuckle.
“I am at your service, Princess.” She smiled, waving at Charlie as she began to walk past the princess to leave.
“Alastor!” Charlie called out one last time, Alastors neck craning to look at her.
“Say Hi to Rosie for me.”
“... I most certainly will.”