Standing dumbfounded next to the bed in his new room at the Hazbin Hotel, Kevin Angelus Collins watched as Vaggie gave him a look and closed the door.
“What?” was all Kevin could get out as the door clicked shut.
Vaggie had just answered many of the burning questions that had been living rent-free in his head from the night before, but in their place, countless new questions took root.
She’d just admitted to him that she was more scared by her decision to open up her relationship with Charlie than she’d realized, and recognized that it was mostly about making Charlie happy.
In response, he’d done the right thing and offered her a way out.
All she had to say was she couldn’t do this, and he’d leave.
But while he waited fearfully those agonizing few seconds, his heart had begun to pound against his rib cage like a war drum, threatening to shatter the brief happiness he had found in Charlie’s arms the night before in the elevator.
Fears that were quelled a bit when she assured him that her concerns were more about finding her place in this new dynamic than worried that Kevin would take Charlie away from her.
Furthermore, she acknowledged she wasn’t as strong as she thought she was, and she would be putting a great deal of trust into Kevin to keep her from falling, just as she had been doing for Charlie.
He did his best to assure her that he would do everything possible to be her armor as well and to never give her reason to question her decision.
To do that to the best of his ability, he knew he would need to get to know her a whole lot more.
An idea was already forming.
Until then, and with her insistence, Kevin was going to let himself relax and look forward to the night ahead, when he would finally have Charlie Morningstar all to himself.
No missions, no monsters, no unexpected shit, and he let out a small laugh when he realized that the first real sense of peace came in Hell, of all places.
With a spring in his step, he headed to the bathroom to prepare for his first day as the head of security at the Hazbin Hotel.
After a quick wash of his face and combing his hair back, he looked himself over in the mirror.
His hair would need to be trimmed soon, and the stubble on his face itched—a sensation he’d all but forgotten about as it had never itched once while in Heaven.
Moving his face left and right to get a better view of himself, he mused silently.
I guess Heaven removes all discomforts along with memories.
Just like Charlie, he felt complete now that his memories were fully restored — every moment, every emotion returned to him at once.
But where Charlie carried the memories of a life lived on Earth and an eternity spent in Hell, Kevin held something different — a human life followed by years in Heaven, giving him a perspective on the divine that Charlie, born of Hell’s royal bloodline, had never been able to access from the inside.
He looked forward to sitting with her and sharing what he knew, hoping an angel’s firsthand experience of Heaven’s inner workings might open new doors for her people’s redemption.
What surprised him more, though, was what those same memories were doing to his own faith — now free of Heaven’s magic, he found himself questioning the written religion he’d once accepted without hesitation, wondering if the eternal peace Heaven promised came wrapped in more shackles than anyone was meant to notice.
Heaven.
Being an angel.
Since the day his memories were restored, he’d been so focused on infiltrating Adam’s army and getting back to Charlie that he’d acted on autopilot and never took time to really look in the mirror and see himself for what he was now.
No, it just never occurred to him to take a moment and scrutinize his new ‘identity’.
An identity that included, of all things, wings.
Taking a step back to see more of himself in the mirror, he concentrated and watched his wings shimmer into existence.
They unfolded from behind his back and spread out, filling the small bathroom from door to shower stall.
Flexing his shoulders, he ruffled them and felt childhood joy fill his soul.
Every child dreamed of flying, didn’t they?
Their brilliant white tones were stunning and beautiful, but his analytical mind noticed how they clashed with his black military outfit, trimmed in red lines along his collar and sleeves, and he wondered if his wings could be dyed in the same way one dyes their hair.
He’d have to ask Vaggie later about it, as she shared that particular feature with him, being an angel as well.
Too bad Charlie didn’t have wings; the three of them taking a long flight together sounded really romantic to him, especially if Vaggie was serious about them sharing some nights together.
Now, that was yet another thing that they would all have to discuss, but if the idea made Charlie happy, he’d be all for it.
But all of that was in the future.
Now it was time to get to work just as she’d commanded.
He had helped in the construction of the hotel and knew the layout, but she’d been in charge of the security measures being installed, something that might have fallen to Alastor if he’d chosen to share in the workload rather than just send his minions.
Instead, he had been nursing his wounds for the entire month, only to reappear the day before he and Charlie shared their story.
It was just another aspect of why Kevin did not like the Radio Demon.
As he had originally planned to leave after explaining his and Charlie’s past, he had left the design of the hotel’s security up to Vaggie, only adding in suggestions and assistance when asked.
Which mostly came from Charlie.
Now, since the purview of security fell to him, and since he didn’t know Vaggie’s style, the first day would be spent looking for areas that were weak and buffing them up, and adding more cameras in spots he had already seen that were lacking.
Charlie’s stories taught him that increasing the number of cameras could potentially annoy Alastor, which was information that made him smile slyly.
Then he’d discuss with Vaggie about hiring sentries to scout the perimeter until they were sure Heaven was done with their executions.
The last thing that would be checked off was the coding of all the bedroom locks.
Charlie had been unusually adamant that no room would be coded until they were ready to start receiving guests, only saying that she had something magical in mind for it.
Straightening the hem of his outfit and taking note as he walked to the door that he would need to go shopping soon, both for supplies and to get a feel for Pentagram City, he opened the door and stepped into the hallway.
He’d already taken a cursory glance of this floor when he went to bed the night before, and since he was one floor down from Charlie and Vaggie’s—and soon to be his—suite, heading up to check the roof and then the rest of the suite floor would be his first set of stops.
He’d not taken three steps when the door across from his room popped open, and Niffty’s small head peered out.
She had a rag in one hand and a spray bottle in the other.
Her large cyclops eye blinked at him.
“Heh, hi, Angel!”
“Hi, Niffty.”
Returning her greeting, he couldn’t help but smile at her.
She was a curious demon, small in stature but one of the fastest he’d seen since coming to Hell, and her ability to scale walls while cleaning, hanging from the tall ceilings, dusting, or chasing bugs was legitimately frightening.
There was more than one occasion when he wondered how effective she would have been hunting on Earth, as her natural form and genial manner while cleaning was almost as scary as Charlie was in her demon form when she was angry.
Giving her a polite nod, he reminded her, “Please.
Call me Kevin, okay?
So you don’t confuse me with Angel Dust?” Giving her a wink, he added, “Or try to stab me?”
“I wouldn’t.” Huffing playfully, she turned slightly, shifted the rag to her other hand so she could close the door behind her.
“You’re Charlie’s boyfriend, and…” Turning her cyclops eye up, she scrutinized him closely, as if examining a tender cut of meat.
“A good boy.” Pausing, she gave a playful pout, “So I guess you’re safe from me.”
“Uh, okay?” Blinking at her, he figured she was having fun with him, but from the sixty-percent comment Vaggie made last night, he also knew it was wise not to accept her at face value.
Shaking off the notion, he asked, “How’s the cleaning going?”
“Good!” Niffty grinned widely, “I got this floor about finished.
Just gotta touch up the hallway and vents, then I’ll head down to start the laundry.”
“You cleaned every room already?”
“Yup!
Been up since 4.
Place isn’t gonna clean itself.”
“Why do the rooms when we haven’t booked any up yet?”
Her eye narrowing, and her voice lowering, Niffty answered ominously, “Dust doesn’t rest, Kevin.”
“Riiiigght,” he drew out slowly.
Just then, he remembered something he wanted to talk to her about, but before he could speak, she giggled at his look and started quickly down the hallway.
“Niffty!” Calling after her, his words went unheard.
She had gone into a blur, moving around and dusting and snapping up roaches that scurried at her approach.
She zipped up the walls, seeking out anything that looked like it needed dusting and making sure everything was in place.
“Niffty?”
He wanted to talk to her and share something he’d been meaning to tell her for weeks.
He hadn’t had the chance before — at the time, she, like everyone else, still had questions about him.
While they accepted his help with the rebuild because Charlie demanded it and they all acted cordially, there was a definite air of suspicion and more than a few chilled looks.
Now, with her quite focused on her work, his calls went unheeded.
“Niffty?”
She was moving too swiftly, almost impossibly so, occasionally grabbing a bug, stabbing it with her needle knife, and pocketing it.
But either she didn’t hear him or wasn’t listening to him.
She was immersed in her own world.
Looking around, then looking at his own room, he got an idea.
“Ahem.
Niffty?” Calling out, thinking this would be a good way to get her attention, he declared, “You missed a spot.”
It was as if the air had been sucked out of the hallway.
The shadows, held to the corners, seemed to expand outward, filling the hall with an oppressive darkness as she halted abruptly.
Her head turned slowly and choppy as if a second hand on a clock ticked each second away until it had turned 180 degrees on her tiny neck.
Her one pupil had seemingly shrunk to a tiny speck in her large sclera, and the voice that came out was dark and accusatory: “What—did—you—say?”
“Umm?” Unaware his feet were moving, Kevin backed towards the wall at the end of the hallway, which had one large rectangular window that spanned from waist high to just below the ceiling.
A window that was not designed to open.
As head of security, he knew this was good, but as the focus of the small demon’s sudden apparent rage, he was actively considering drawing his halo and making an axe to smash through and fly off as fast as he could.
Swallowing hard, he watched her body change.
He’d seen Charlie change many times, but they loved and trusted each other, and he was able to see the beauty in her demon form.
While he’d love to call Niffty a friend, he had no idea what she would do in her enraged state.
While Charlie’s change was surreal and amazing to see, watching this little demon’s form alter—the radical change in appearance—was truly frightening to bear witness to.
She was growing taller, her limbs thinning out as they extended, and her single eye was glowing with a scarlet pulse of energy.
Her hair spread out around her, moving as if she were swimming underwater, and he had to admit how similar it was to Charlie when she changed and let her full demon form out.
Suddenly, with a skin-crawling screech that echoed off the walls, she barreled down the hallway towards him.
Her limbs were long and stringy, clipping along the carpet with the semblance of a spider, if the spider had manicured claws.
Eyes darting around him, Angel saw no option other than to draw his halo weapon and wondered if his first day as Charlie’s boyfriend was going to start with the massacre of one of her friends.
Reaching up, he grasped the ring of his halo, but paused when she came to a screeching halt, her eye darting to his room.
Quickly, her demonic form dissipated like smoke, returning her to her normal self.
With a look of contriteness, she blushed and said, “Oh, right!
Your room.
I’m so sorry, Kevin.
I can’t believe I forgot to clean your room!”
Before Kevin could say anything, she brushed past him and opened the door.
One hand on the frame, she turned back with a wide, toothy grin that showed every single one of her teeth.
“I’ll have this cleaned up for you in no time!” The grin twisted, her voice dropping an octave.
“Buh-bye!” The door clicked shut in his face.
Kevin stood there a moment, frozen, before slowly lowering and dragging his hand across his chest, wiping the sudden sweat from his fingers.
A shivering breath escaped him as he stared at the closed door.
“Okay.” He drew the word out until his nerves stopped firing.
“I guess we’ll have our talk… another time.”
He turned and walked — faster than was dignified — toward the first stairwell, shaking his head as Vaggie’s voice replayed in his memory.
He scoffed under his breath.
Sixty percent, my ass.
That little demon is not harmless.