-Location: Happy Hotel-
[No One's POV]

James can be seen in his bed, still wearing his clothes from the earlier day. He then is seen slowly waking up, his eyes opening as he looks around. He sits up, yawns, and stretches. He then rubs his head in slight pain.

"Jesus Almighty, what happened?" the human asks as he gets off his bed.

"I, uh, think we lost control."

"We?" James questions. "What do you me- Oh. Right. Yesterday. Well, that happened."

"It did, and I don't think anyone was ready for the amount of power we received upon transforming. It was really something else."

"You can say that again," James says, stretching again. "It felt intoxicating to say the least."

Then James realized something.

"Shit! Charlie! I have to make sure she's okay! As well as Vagatha!"

The human man, not listening to Zarathos telling him to calm down, rushes out of his room and down to the lobby to first check on Vaggie in case Charlie was still in her bed sleeping.

Upon arriving in the hotel lobby, James sees Angel Dust and Husk at the bar with Nifty speeding around them, obviously curious about what the two taller demons were talking about. Vaggie was at a table, doing paperwork and Charlie was seen talking with Alastor. Upon seeing everyone okay, the host of the Spirit of Vengeance sighed in relief. He walked up to Charlie and Alastor, going to see if the princess was okay.

"Hey, Charlie," James greets the demoness. "Glad to see you okay."

"James! You're awake!" Charlie exclaims with a cheerful smile. "And yeah, I'm okay. And it's all thanks to you!"

"Thanks," James says and turns to Alastor, scowling. "Alastor."

"James," the Radio Demon greets back. "Y'know, Charlie here told me about what had happened and even dear Vaggie filled me in on what Charlie missed, and I must say it's amazing."

Alastor then brought James in for a side hug, gripping his other arm as his hand went behind the human's back.

"Pleasure to meet Hell's own personal bounty hunter! A pleasure indeed!" the Deer Demon exclaimed as he waved his hand in the air, giving dramatic effect to match his tone of voice.

"Yeah," James says, peeling away from Alastor's grasp, "bet it is."

He turns to Charlie.

"You sure you're okay?" he asks her.

"I promise you, I'm fine James," Charlie tells the human.

"Just making sure," James says and turns to Alastor. "And how are YOU, may I ask?"

"I'm doing splendid!" the red suited demon states. "Thanks for asking."

"Yeah, no prob," James says and Alastor walks away.

"Why don't you like Alastor?" Charlie asks the human man next to her.

"Pardon?"

"Why don't you like Alastor?" Charlie repeats. "You obviously don't like him, so I would like to know why."

James stays silent, not responding to Charlie's question.

"Do you have ANY idea on why you don't like him?" the princess asks.

"Yes," the Ghost Rider says. "He reminds me of someone. Of HIM."

"Him?" Charlie questions. "Who's "him"?"

"Can... can we talk about this in private?" James asks Charlie. "It's personal."

"Sure," Charlie said. "Follow me."

Charlie leads James to a separate room, but as they leave Vaggie sees them walking out of the lobby.

"What are you up to?" the Moth Demon asks and gets up from her seat, going to follow the two.

Charlie and James walk to an empty room and Charlie sits down on a couch, motioning for her human friend to sit next to her. James sits down next to her and Charlie speaks.

"So... who is this "him"?"

James stayed silent for a moment before speaking.

"His name is Mephistopheles, or Mephisto for short," James says after his silence. "He's a demon, an Overlord to be exact. I made a deal with him and sold him my soul, and now I'm like this."

James lifts his right hand up to show Charlie that it was turned into a flaming skeleton hand. He then turns it back to normal and puts it down, staring at anywhere but Charlie.

"Mephistopheles... his name sounds familiar," Charlie states.

"That's because he works with your father," James tells the demoness nect to him. "They work so close, in fact, that people sometimes confuse Mephisto for being the Devil, not your father."

"Why did you sell your soul?" Charlie asked. "For power? Money? Fame?"

"For my sister, actually," James states. "I understand where you would think that I would sell my soul for something like that, but I'm not selfish. And even if I did ask for money, I think I would've just gave the money to someone who needed it more. I'm not one of those people."

"You have a sister?" Charlie asks.

"Yeah. A twin actually," James states and takes out his phone, going to his photos and bringing the screen up to Charlie. "Her name's Marcy Ryder. I think she would like you, and vice-versa."

Charlie took the phone from James' hand and stared at the photo. It was of a girl with long, dark blonde hair with chocolate brown eyes and olive skin. She wore a happy smile as she hugged what seemed to be a much younger James who wore his own smile. He wore a sky blue long-sleeved collared shirt, red dress pants, a red and blue tie, and dress shoes. The girl wore a beautiful blue dress with heels. They both seemed happy, seemingly at what Charlie heard to be called Homecoming.

"Is this her?" Charlie asks.

"Yeah," James says. "But this is the latest pic of us I have, though."

"Why is this the latest picture you have?"

"Because I haven't been able to get a picture with her for about four years now," James states. "I've been in Juvie for three years and I've been on the road, traveling the world for another year."

"Why weren't you with your family?" Charlie asked. "If you got out of Juvie, then wouldn't you want to spend as much time with your family as possible to make up all the time you've spent away from them locked up?"

"I wanted to. More than anything... but I couldn't," James says as he looks down. "I was too much of a threat, so when an offer to leave the detention center without anyone knowing about it I took it. Of course I had to do something, but my freedom was given to me... and I used that freedom to run and hide from anyone that I held close to me. Trust me, I wanted more than anything than to be with my family, hold my sister in my arms and hear her beautiful voice without a piece of glass between us, muffling it... but I had no choice. I didn't want her, my dad, or my mom hurt because of me and my stupid decision."

"And that decision was to make a deal with Mephisto?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah."

"What... why did you make the deal?" Charlie asks.

"It was to save my sister," the human says. "She was shot after me and her got mixed up in a deal between two gangs... and it was my fault she got shot. If I didn't make the stupid mistake of shouting, she wouldn't have got shot and I wouldn't have had to make that damn deal! I... I...."

James was crying by now. Crying so hard that he choked on his own words. He could no longer hold in all the tears he's collected through the years anymore. Charlie, seemingly panicked at what was happening, thought about what to do and then quickly hugged James, engulfing him in a warm hug that cought the human off guard. He froze, stiff at the sudden touch, but quickly melted into the princess' warmth and hugged her back. The hug was a bit awkward thought, due to James being three or more inches taller than the daughter of Lucifer but they made due. James' head was on Charlie's shoulder, making it wet from all the human's crying. Charlie made sure to do her best to comfort her friend, rubbing his back calmingly and soothingly which calmed the human down easily. His earlier breathing was broken and choked due to his tears, but now it seemed even and calm, now controlled.

"I... thanks, Charlie," James says as he pulls away, wiping his eyes clear. "I n-needed that."

"It's no problem, Jamie," Charlie says, but realizes what she called the human. "Gah! I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean to call you that! It just... it just came out."

"It's fine, Charlie," James says with a smile. "You can call me Jamie if you want. It was an honor that my family held, but I think I'll let you slide on it."

Charlie smiled a wide, toothy smile. She was happy that she had gotten closer to James, even if it was through a talk about what James hated. It was nice really, and talking to James seemed easy. It felt like a connection of sorts. Not a romantic connection but like one a family would have with one another. And it wasn't just Charlie who enjoyed the talk, but James enjoyed it as well. It felt good to get all that off his chest and actually let out his pain. Having Charlie there to comfort him made it even better.

Outside the room Vaggie is seen standing against the wall, trying her best not to cry. Hearing everything that James went through, even if it was only just a piece of it, made her feel bad for how she's treated the human the past few days that they've known each other. Maybe... just maybe... she'll try to be better. After all it would be what Charlie would want. But is it really just because of Charlie?