My eyes slowly flicker open, still fuzzy with sleep. A few pieces of my still-wet brown hair brush across my face, blocking my field of view. I comb them out of the way and wriggle out of bed, the towel that was wrapped around my body falling to the floor. I sigh and look around for my clothes.

As I'm searching the ground for my dress, totally bare-ass naked, someone abruptly knocks on the door with a clearly impatient attitude. The knocking continues, only to become more and more impatient by the second. Taking a deep sigh, I rub my eyes, and feel a soft fabric underneath my foot. I look down to see my dress, lying in a crumpled, sad heap on the floor.

I pick it up and slide it on before meandering over to the door, shoulders noticably hunched over with tiredness. The knocking stops as I crack open the door a bit, just to see who it is.

My heart beats a little faster, and my cheeks flush, but I try to hide the wave of discomfort that shivers beneath my skin.

"Hello," I say quietly, yet polietly. "Who are you? Do you need something?"

The person standing in the hallway is a dark clothed figure. Their entire body is covered a silky looking black jump suit that tightly hugs their figure, and by the way their body curves, I judge that it is a woman.

She says nothing, but raises a finger to her lips. Then she waves her hand in a manner that means she wants me to come closer.

I frown, biting the inside of my lip. My stomach queases with stress. She possibly wants to tell me something, or even show me something. So I put my trust in the ninja-looking figure; I open the door further, lean out, then glance around. The hallway is empty.

I make eye contact with the figure. Her eyes are tired and dull, the mask only making them appear darker.

They look a lot like Vaggie's eyes.

Just then, I notice the figure's arm twitch in the slightest bit. It is behind her back, seemingly idle, but not quite. I look down to observe, and she must see me do so, because her posture straightens. I look back up and make eye contact with her.

I'm going to get kidnapped.

The nameless girl blinks, then, in one swift motion, the same arm that was behind her back whips around and claps over my nose and mouth, as if to keep me quiet.

My lips feel something soft, like cotton, and I see the white fabric in her hand. My heart beats even faster as I take a breath; it smells like chemicals. I try to hold my breath, but it's too late. Before I can even think, my sight glazes over, my thoughts slow, and my body goes numb.

And then I can't see anything.

ᯬ

I can feel my arm cramping up as I come to.

My head is pounding and my neck feels tight and hot, as if I slept on it wrong. I cough a little, because my lungs sting and my chest feels heavy. I sit up and comb my hair back so that I can see where I am and, if needed, look for an escape.

I'm in a big, pale blue room, sitting on a big, fluffy, white bed. The lighting of the room is soft on the eyes, but it looks odd, like the light is coming up from below. Upon further examination, I don't see any ceiling lights anywhere, so the light must be coming from somewhere else. There is a thin white sheet over me, and I push it down to my feet to feel the cold air on my legs. I am still wearing my dress, which is a good sign. If it was Alastor (or some girl working for him, more likely than not) who kidnapped me, at least they didn't undress me like last time. I shiver at the thought.

I am alone, for now. The air is calm and comfortably chilly, and it smells clean, like a fresh car or just-washed linens. It's a good smell, and it suits the appearance of the room very well. I swing my legs over the bed and place my feet on the floor. They immediately recoil, because the floor is freezing cold.

I glance down to look and see that the bed is sitting on a floor of tiles propped up over a shallow blue pool.

My eyes widen with fascination. I step down onto the tile, forgetting about the coldness on my bare feet. The tile only reaches about three feet out from the bed to the pool's edge. I bend down to my knees and hold my hands on the edge of the tile, keeping me from falling in and getting soaked. The water is crystal clear blue, and looks like it's glowing. I want to touch it. So bad.

I look at the door again. It is closed. I look back at the water, which is stiller than a painting. My fingers unclench from the tiles and reach down to the surface of the water.

My finger just barely dips into the cold liquid, causing a small ripple that looks unnaturally violent in the pool. I watch the ripple fade away into nothing.

Then there is a knock on the door, catching me by surprise, thus causing me to jump. My hand instinctively jerks back from the water as I look up at the door with a sharp inhale.

There is a silence. "Come in," I say to fill the dead air. I quickly get up to my feet and straighten out my dress before folding my hands together behind my back (because people find that respectful and, you know, better safe than sorry).

The door opens silently. The air remains unchanged. I hold my breath.

Vaggie appears from the other side. Her hair is down, flat over her face, and she is wearing a dark greyish blue sweatshirt with the usual white crosses over her chest and long, striped pink stockings. She gives me a small smile, so faint that it is almost imperceptible.

"Oh, hey," I say quietly, both relieved and shocked by her appearance.

"Hey, Dani," she replies, her voice flat, yet strong, like usual. She steps further into the room and closes the door softly behind her. "I know this is weird. How are you feeling?"

I watch her movements carefully. I like Vaggie and all, but I'm a little sketched out with her presence, for obvious reasons. I mean, I was kidnapped. Again. Can you blame me for being uncomfortable? I didn't think so. "I'm fine, I guess, considering the odd circumstances. And how are you?"

She makes a face of confusion at my polite question, like a frown and a smile mashed together. "I'm okay, actually. Could use a drink or two, but that can wait."

"Right, right." I scoot closer to the bed until I'm close enough to sit on it. "How did I get here?" I ask after crossing my legs over the mattress.

"I kidnapped you."

My eyebrows raise. "You did."

"Yep."

I'm not surprised, only more uncomfortable. I mean, the girl who shoved chemicals in my face looked a lot like Vaggie, if I'm remembering correctly. It's just the fact that she's in here, a small, ill-lit room with me, alone. A little nerve-wracking, I have to admit.

I clear my throat and look down at my hand, which is rubbing the bed sheets down in front of me until they look flat. When a new wrinkle or bubble appears, I squish it. "Why?"

"That's what I came in here to tell you," she says, stepping closer to me. There is a small strip of more tiled flooring that connects the door to the bed for easier access. She isn't wearing any shoes; I noticed because no sound comes from her steps besides the slight shift of her cotton stockings, which is barely audible. "By the way, you're in my safe space right now. This room? Nobody knows about it. Well, except for Charlie, but that's not the point. Nobody but you and I can hear this conversation."

"Not even Alastor?"

"Not even a chance."

"Alright, great. Now back to the point at hand. Are you going to tell me why you shoved chemicals in my face?" I ask, my voice hinted with a snarky undertone. I know I sound rude, but at this point, I really don't care.

Vaggie crosses her arms over her chest and sticks her hip out a bit. Her hostile body language leads me to think that she doesn't really want to talk. Which is probably true. "Charlie and I needed to talk to you without Alastor knowing. You got yourself into some sticky shit here, Dani. Someone as naive as you shouldn't be dealing with this without our step-by-step guidance."

I unconsciously frown. That was kind of insulting. "Alright then."

Vaggie silently looks at me for a moment. Then she nods dismissively before continuing, "We think Alastor wants to and take over Charlie's position as owner of the hotel. He has helped us in the past with things we thought we couldn't handle on our own, such as public opinion. Believe it or not, the crack-whore fuck faced demons of Hell didn't like Charlie's idea of a happy rehabilitation center. Needless to say, his assistance hasn't always gone as well as we had hoped, but I don't really see why he thinks he should fuck with Charlie. I mean, her dad is Lucifer, for fuck's sake."

My heart nearly skips a beat. "Lucifer?" I repeat with such lustful interest that I begin to hate my own sick mind. "Lucifer as in Satan? The devil?"

"Yes, the devil. Something interesting about that?" Vaggie asks.

I shake my head, but I do so too quickly. Vaggie gives me a funny look, but luckily, moves past it as though nothing odd had been said. "We wanted to talk to you about everything and, I don't know, put our heads together to come up with something, I guess. It was mostly Charlie's idea, and I really wish she would get here already-" The door bangs open again, cutting Vaggie off mid-sentence.

As she swivels around to see what the noise is, Charlie bursts in, out of breath. "Sorry," she says quickly. "I'm sorry. Was I interrupting anything important?" She brushes a small piece of loose hair behind her ear with one hand and closes the door with the other.

"Just covering the basics," Vaggie informs her. I notice how her posture relaxes when Charlie enters.

Charlie grins at Vaggie, then her face falls when she sees me. "Oh my god, Dani! I'm so sorry we had to kidnap you. It was the only way to get you here without it being obvious that we needed you to come see us.... I know how dead you would be if Alastor found out, trust me. I've been in your position before. He plays people more than a violinist plays his instrument at an concert."

I giggle a little bit. "It's fine. I'm just glad it was you guys and not Alastor again."

"What do you mean, Alastor again?" Vaggie asks with a slight frown.

I look at the bed, then at my hand. It looks unnaturally pale in the blue light from the pool. "Well, he kidnapped me once and I was afraid he'd done it again. His intentions were not all that great last time, so, you know, I was just a bit worried. But when I noticed that I wasn't tied down and my clothes were still on-" my breath hitches a little bit. I clear my throat and begin to feel myself shaking, from both embarrassment and the cold air. My voice lowers as I continue to finish my sentence, "-I, uh, guessed that it wasn't him this time."

There is a short, awkward silence. Charlie is the first to talk again. "I'm sorry. I really am. I didn't mean to scare you like that."

I shrug. When I look back up from my hands, I see Charlie staring at me with a look of pure sympathy. Vaggie's frown has faded a bit.

"Fucking sicko," Vaggie hisses. "I can't wait to slit his neck and shove my fist so far down into his flesh that he shits bricks."

"Hey," Charlie warns. "I called dibs, remember."

"Anybody fucks with you," Vaggie says at Charlie with a pointed glare. "They fuck with me."

I run my hands through my hair and look to the side, where the pool is sitting stiller than before. Like a sheet of crystalline glass.

"Life is pretty fucked up," I whisper to the water.

"What was that?" Charlie asks. I turn to make eye contact with her. She looks as bright and curious as ever.

"Oh. I said that life is pretty fucked up. Because it is. All of this you die once but then you don't really die because hahaha just kidding you can actually die again in the afterlife is such bullshit." I say.

"That's how they make us suffer," Vaggie says. "It's the circle of life. Get with the program."

Charlie sighs. Then she steps forward and takes my hands in hers. My eyes flicker up to meet hers, and they are met with a smile so kind that my heart nearly melts. How could such a sweet girl like Charlie be called a demon?

"Don't worry, Dani," she says. "We'll get through this. Together."

I force a smile. I know I should feel safe here, with Vaggie and Charlie. But there is a feeling, like a gentle breeze, running across my spine, like a threat or a warning. Or a reminder, like a silent whisp of air to remind me that the storm is coming.

The quiet before the storm.

hey guys! i can't say sorry enough for not writing as much :( i have been pretty stressed out lately and all, but i'm working on it.
hope you liked the chapter! i'll be posting another one ASAP