Chapter Text
The first thing she saw when she woke up was a stained white ceiling.
The first thing she smelled was smoke and cheap shampoo.
The first thing she heard was the languid breathing of her bed warmer.
The first thing she tasted was the vodka and fruit juice from last night’s cocktails.
The first thing she felt was cheap linen on her naked body.
“Hehe.” She laughed softly to no one in particular before she began to sit up. Because once again, the never ending, extensive, agonizing ache in her bones wasn’t what woke her up.
“Third day in a row.” She whispered as she slowly left the bed, taking care not to awaken her partner.
The first thing she did was sneak into the small bathroom that the room came with and gave herself a once over in the crooked mirror.
Her skin was a muddy brown she DID NOT care for, her lighter skin tone made the black bags under her eyes all the more obvious, parts of the skin on her arms and chest was still a bit shiny from when her partner got overexcited and started burning her skin, there were subtle, pink stains on her lips from her drinks last night, her makeup was a mess, and her multi-colored hair was sticking up everywhere and frizzing unevenly.
“Great, I only look ok today.” She rolled her eyes as she wet a towel and wiped her lips.
It was probably a bad idea to talk out loud when she was trying not to wake up her lover, and it was probably a bad idea to check her appearance before grabbing her things and leaving, but Velvette had done whatever the hell she wanted to when she was alive, and she was going to keep doing whatever the hell she wanted now.
But after spending probably too many seconds weighing the pros and cons, Velvette decided against giving herself a full touchup. She didn’t have the time. So she finished cleaning herself off, ran her fingers through her hair a few times, and carefully reentered the room.
As quietly and quickly as she could, she redressed herself in her short black dress and sparkly cerulean jacket, both of which were made of a cheaper material than she was used to, but she didn’t really have the luxury of luxury right now. She then fumbled around in her jacket pockets to make sure she had everything.
Phone? Check. Charger? Check. Wallet? Check. Notebook? Check. Drugs? Check.
She smiled, used a hair tie to tie her hair up in a messy ponytail, and very slowly made her way to the bedside. She paused to make sure her lover really was out cold before she grabbed the few, half-full bags of cocaine and ecstasy on the nightstand, closed them, and stuffed them in her pocket.
A small spark of guilt flared up in her chest before she quenched it.
“You saw how much of that shit she had last night, she isn’t even close to hurting for it.” Velvette told herself, managing to stop herself from thinking out loud for the first time that day.
One final check through her pockets just in case, then she slowly opened the door and left the motel room.
(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)
“Fuck.” She exclaimed with a soft click of her tongue.
She started to realize she had forgotten something as soon as she saw the hairy Sinner sitting on the side of the street.
“It’s Sunday.” She groaned as she approached, turning her head to look at the small bar, a yellow neon sign the only thing advertising it. The blinds were closed and she knew instinctively that the door was locked.
“I lost track of time too.” The other Sinner grumbled in a deep, gravely voice.
Velvette turned to look at him; his demon form was actually really similar to an Earth anteater. His face ended in a long, thin snout with big pure-red eyes at the base, his hands ended in long, red claws that were usually clinking against his flask, and he was absolutely covered in bushy, black fur that was bunched up under his ratty, dark green clothes, making him look strangely lumpy. An especially large mop of fur peaked out from under his green newsboy cap, hanging over his eyes slightly.
“Fuck!” Velvette screamed louder, her head tilted upwards. She stomped over to Stick’s side and threw herself downward, pouting petulantly. “We are in Hell! Fucking Hell! Why, the fuck, DOES MORTER CLOSE THE HOLE ON SUNDAYS?!”
She slammed her fist against the curb, winced, and continued to swear more under her breath. Mostly about Morter, the bartender and owner of The Hole, a cheap, small bar where she had spend a ridiculous amount of her time and money at during her short tenure in the fiery pit.
As she’d already mentioned, the owner had weird habits given her bar’s location, but she was usually willing to ignore them if they didn’t interfere with her life.
Upending her plans of a cheap breakfast and an early morning drink definitely counted under that category of interference.
“Eh, she’s crackers.” Stick offered in lieu of a proper explanation, gesturing dismissively. “You’d think after almost twenty years down here, she’d give up on being a good Catholic.”
Velvette scoffed and watched as Stick pulled out a black flask and took a swig.
“Please tell me that’s not Beezlejuice.” She pleaded, scrunching up her face. She had had the drink a few times already, but, like many Sinners, she had absolutely no tolerance for its strength.
“Scotch actually.” The other Sinner responded as he wiped a bit of the amber liquid off his snout.
She grimaced and looked away, deciding against bartering with Stick for a swig of it. She had figured out a rough outline of her tolerance by now and scotch made in Hell typically got her blitzed pretty quickly.
………but then an unpleasant ache ran halfway up the bones in her right arm. She inhaled sharply through her teeth, leaned forward, and grabbed the flask.
She was hoping to drain it, maybe that would be enough, but after a few heavy gulps, Stick tried to snatch it back. The short, impromptu game of tug-of-war spilled a lot of alcohol onto the street, but eventually Stick slashed at her wrist and pulled it away. The anteater stood up to his full height, only slightly taller than Velvette, and backed away, gripping his flask strongly as he screwed the cap back on.
“Fuck you, you old boozer.” She spat, her eyes squinted in pain and bemusement. She had caught a glimpse of the puddles at her feet and, while she had never been the best at math, something clearly wasn’t adding up. “How much does that thing hold?!”
“Infinite, I think.” He shrugged, looking down at his flask like it was the most beautiful thing in the world. “Just needed a drop and it filled to the brim, haven’t needed to refill it since.”
“Infin-how the fuck did you get that?!” Velvette stood up, incensed and slightly desperate, though the way she bared her teeth and leaned forward only showed an excess of the former.
The effect wasn’t exactly ruined, but it was certainly diluted by her steadily gushing wrist, her other hand firmly gripping and being stained by what she was ninety percent sure was a nicked artery.
“Was in my pocket when I Fell down here.” Stick replied with a chuckle, almost putting the flask back in his pocket before he hesitated and suddenly threw it across the street.
Velvette gasped and watched as the object bounced against the asphalt once, twice………………then stopped inches above the ground.
Her mouth had barely fallen open when she watched it quickly zoom back to the anteater, who grabbed it with an outstretched hand and clinked his fingers against it like he did so many times in the back of The Hole.
She had never paid him much attention, only learning his name recently, and assumed he clinked on his flask to ask for a refill. Now her best guess was that he just had a tic.
“And if you try to run with it, I’ll just take it back!” He said with a laugh as he slipped it back into his pocket. He stretched, then looked at her and grimaced before he began to turn around and leave.
“Also, you better twist your head back, you took shitty enough today.”
She looked down, and groaned when she realized she was looking down at her shoulder. She grabbed her head with her one uninjured hand and twisted her head so she was facing forward again.
For the millionth time, she had focused too much on what she was looking at and when her eyes followed it, her head swiveled to accommodate her vision.
“Disgusting.” She whispered with a shudder, abhorring that bullshit part of her hellish form. She didn’t even die of a broken…………….
“No. Don’t think about that.” Was the next thought in her mind, and as the rage that was keeping her mind clear began to dull, a pleasant, familiar haze began to come over her.
“Just let the buzz wash it all away.” She thought with a genuine smile.
(~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~)
She wasn’t sure how long it had been, at least a couple of hours, or maybe it was a bit longer? Or shorter?
“Fuck.” The doll muttered as she laid her head against the brick wall of The Hole, looking up at the red pentagram shining down on the city.
“I wonder if I’m ever going to get used to that?” She mused as she stared at the glowing pattern of lines. She then glanced down at her right arm and took in how, despite the dried blood on her hand, her wrist had already half-healed and there was only a dark scab where the cut had been.
“Or that.”
According to the very, VERY few Sinners who still had half an ounce of decency left, there was almost nothing that could really hurt her now. Any injury, no matter what it was, would take a few hours to a week.
Now that she was in Hell, there were only two things that could actually kill her permanently and were actually feasible. Either she pissed off an Overlord enough that they used their powers, whatever they were, to destroy her soul, which she definitely wasn’t stupid enough to do. Or, she was hit or stabbed by something made out of Angelic Steel.
“Fortunately, I haven’t seen anything like that.” She smirked, before her smile fell slightly.
She felt like she was forgetting something important, something about Angelic Steel.
“Eh, whatever.” She shrugged as she shifted, sitting up straighter. “I’m immortal now, I’ll figure it out eventually.”
She hummed a bit as she continued to ride out her buzz, which had lost some intensity, but was still potent enough for her to be happy. She stared out at the street in front of her, watching the Sinners as they went about their lives, most of them not even noticing her.
Usually the idea of being ignored pissed her off, but she actually wasn’t that bothered about it right now. Part of the reason was that she felt much more mellow and happy with alcohol in her system, but she mostly just………liked looking at people.
She had a little game that she had come up with when she was young where she would choose a person walking down the street and try to imagine the perfect outfit for them before they left her sight. It was a test of her creativity and quick thinking and most of what she thought up wouldn’t sell, but it was still fun.
Now that she was in a place where everyone looked truly unique, it was even more entertaining.
Within five minutes, she had seen a giant, black, multi-eyed leech slither its way down the sidewalk. Then she saw a woman who looked pretty human, with the exception of her blue scales and long tail covered in black spikes. Then there was a man in a black suit who just looked like a typical demon, crimson skin, horns, and all that jazz.
She had managed to think up a nice blue top hat and bow tie for the leech, had imagined a basic idea for the color palette of a dress for the reptilian woman, and had made a few minor changes to the lapels and hem of the man’s suit before they all respectively left her eyesight.
“Damn.” Velvette giggled to herself. “That scotch really does pack a punch, I’d usually do better than that.”
She kept laughing at the thought for a while afterwards, having trouble stopping herself. At this moment, there was nothing that was funnier than how legless she was after just a few gulps of scotch.
“Excuse me? Miss?”
She stopped laughing, but ignored the voice, knowing she must have overheard something else.
“Excuse me? Miss?”
She shook her head and almost looked up, but decided against it.
“Miss?!” The voice was louder and she felt someone’s shadow block the light of the pentagram.
“What?!” She asked after a beat, rolling her eyes as she sat up straighter. “What could I possibly be doing to bother………….you?”
Velvette trailed off as she finally deigned to look at who had gotten her attention.
It was a woman, dressed in a dark red jacket with black pants and a white undershirt, and she was……………..beautiful.
She couldn’t see a lot of her skin, but what she did see was a bright unblemished porcelain that almost shined with an otherworldly quality. Her blond hair was long and even tied up it went down to her waist. It looked so soft, even from a distance of several feet away. Her face was really cute, with red cheeks like a doll and a black nose like an animal. Her big eyes were a deep red and pale yellow, and she felt a spark of pride as she realized they were looking at her in awe, but it was much diminished than how she’d normally feel due to the sight in front of her.
As hard as it was, Velvette tore her gaze away to look at the rest of this woman, and swallowed as she saw her figure. Her eyes especially lingered on the ridiculously long legs, and she fought to bring her gaze back to the woman’s face.
“I, uh, hi.” The designer said softly with a smile, trying not to wince at how tongue-tied she had suddenly become.
She tried desperately to think of something else to say, not noticing that the woman opposite her seemed to be shaking herself out of a stupor of her own.
“Ummmm, hi!” She replied cheerily with a wave, returning Velvette’s smile with a small one of her own. “I’m Charlie.”
“I’m Vel………” The Sinner almost replied before she paused and shook her head. “I’m A’Nette.”
Charlie’s expression changed momentarily, furrowing with confusion, before she shook it off and regained her smile.
Velvette quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
“Sooooooooo.” Charlie began, drawing out the word as she walked a little closer to the Sinner. “I was just wondering if you were ok, not to be rude or bother you or anything but………….you are covered in blood.”
“Oh, this?” Velvette scoffed as she looked down at her arm. “Nah, I’m fine, just got scraped up earlier. It’s basically done healing by now.”
“That’s great!”
“Uh, yeah, guess it is.” Velvette agreed hesitantly, a bit confused by this Charlie’s exuberant reaction. The blond didn’t know her, why would she care?
“Umm, A’Nette?” Charlie was looking at her with a smile that almost seemed a bit strained. “Can I ask you something? It might be a bit personnel, so I’d understand if you don’t want to answer, though.” The demonic girl looked to the ground and rubbed her neck slightly, evidently nervous.
“This is pretty suspicious.” Velvette thought as she narrowed her eyes at the woman. Then her eyes softened slightly as she saw how genuine Charlie looked.
After a few seconds pause, during which Charlie was looking at her expectedly, Velvette decided to see where this woman was going with this.
“Ok.” She replied evenly, subtly moving her left arm behind her back so it was hidden from view.
With a small mental command, hundreds of long, silver sewing needles tied together with a small red ribbon appeared in her left hand. She didn’t move to look at it or do anything overly suspicious, she just felt its weight and shifted her fingers to grasp the bundle better.
“How long have you been in Hell?”
Velvette’s face went blank and she blinked.
“I’m sorry?” She asked, relaxing her grip on her bundle of needles.
“Well, you are a Sinner, right?” Charlie asked slowly, sounding pretty unsure of herself. She then shook her head slightly. “I mean, you have to be, you don’t look like any kind of Hellborn. I just wanted to ask when you first arrived down here. Again, no pressure, you don’t have to answer.” She added with a surrendering gesture of her hands up.
After a pause, Velvette blinked, slowly shifted her legs, and contemplated leaving now. There was no point in telling Charlie anything, it would just be giving information away for free. It could even mess up her plans for later. It would really be stupid of her to do so just because she was charmed by a pretty girl who seemed genuinely interested in her.
And yet………………………
“Less than two months.” She said out loud with a shrug.
“There! Still answered the question without giving too much away. Man, I’m good.” She beamed internally.
Charlie beamed very externally at the information however, in a way that made Velvette regret telling her.
“Great! I had a feeling you were!” The demon took a few steps forward and leaned in slightly, though she was still far enough that she hadn’t cornered the other woman in. “Since you’re new around here, I’m guessing you’ll be more open to…….trying something new?”
She met the woman’s hopeful smile and practical vibrating in anticipation with a narrowing of the eyes and a click of the tongue.
“To tell you the truth, I’d be a bit more open if you didn’t beat around the bush.” She admitted with a smile, shifting her legs yet again.
“Oh, well, ok then.” Charlie laughed nervously. She took a deep breath, clasped her hands together, and gave her audience of one a warm smile.
“What if I told you that there was something beyond the everyday vices of Hell? Something better that you could work towards instead of wasting your afterlife on the same things that got you sent down here? Something that would be great for both of us?”
The demon never stopped smiling and spoke clearly and earnestly, clearly meaning every word she said.
At the first question, Velvette narrowed her eyes.
At the second, she gritted her teeth and clutched her makeshift weapon until the shafts left marks on her palm.
At the third, she stood up and got ready to stab the other woman.
“No.” She said clearly, leaning on the wall behind her for a second before she quickly pushed off it. “The answer is no.”
“What?” Charlie asked in a whisper, looking surprised and then dejected. “But……why?“
The demon ran her hand through her hair, looking at the ground in sadness and confusion.
“Usually you’d at least let me get through the whole idea before you laugh me off.” She muttered to herself.
Velvette heard it, but ignored it, and took an admittedly shaky step towards the taller girl, baring her teeth at the woman who had shifted her vision back to the Sinner and looked a bit unsettled at her audience’s expression.
“I, have heard, that spiel, ten times since I ended up here. No matter who makes me the offer, I reject it. I may not be in the best way right now, but I am still not desperate enough to sell my Soul!”
“No! No no no no no!” Charlie replied quickly, waving her hands frantically. “That is not what I’m suggesting AT ALL! All I was going to ask was for you to come back to my house and try this plan I put together! It’s really not that difficult, you’d just have to talk through a few things, fulfill a few goals, nothing that would bother you, in fact, it would help you in the long run!”
The demon smiled at the end of her spiel, Velvette tilted her head and looked at her blankly.
“A few goals?” She asked quietly, clicking her tongue in thought. “Like……a quota?”
Charlie looked a bit confused by the wording and took a step back.
“Uhhh, I guess you could put it that way.”
Suddenly, Velvette saw red that had nothing to do with Charlie’s outfit.
She growled, took out her bundle of needles, and grabbed the other woman by the neck, pulling her in so their eyes were inches apart. She held the handful of sharp points to Charlie’s neck, so close that they almost pierced her skin. The rage she felt at that moment was met with confusion and a significant amount of fear reflected in those red and yellow eyes.
“I. Am. Going. To. Set. This. Straight. One. Last. Time.” The Sinner gritted out through her teeth, glaring daggers. “I don’t care what your boss offers, I don’t care what he says, I don’t care what you say, I will NEVER SIGN WITH HIM!”
Charlie gulped and almost nodded, but remembered the needles under her neck and thankfully stopped herself.
“I would rather sign with Valentino and have to strip on a pole. I would rather sign with Rosie and get my face gnawed off every day by cannibals. I would rather sign with the Radio Demon and do whatever fucked up shit he’d make me do. I would rather sign with LITERALLY ANYONE BUT IVORY! I know what he does to the Souls under him! I know what he’d use me for! And even if he weren’t the small-time Overlord that he is, even if he were the last authority in Hell, that would still be true! HE WILL NEVER OWN ME!”
She threw the other woman backwards and began to walk away, not looking back as the taller girl righted herself.
“Tell your boss to go fuck himself and go to double-Hell.” She said shortly as she briskly walked away.
She needed to get as far away from this bitch as possible.
She walked down several different streets of Hell, frequently looking back to make sure she wasn’t being followed. She didn’t see anyone, but she still made random turns onto different streets every so often, hoping to shake off anyone she didn’t see. She didn’t show it, but the encounter really disturbed her.
She had thought Ivory had finally given up on owning her and then he sends a gorgeous girl to try and honey trap her into selling her Soul? Not just a gorgeous girl, a tall blonde with a dazzling smile? The fact that he somehow knew her tastes honestly had scared her more than anything else.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the mix of inebriation and fear finally got to Velvette and she virtually collapsed against a white building.
“How did he know?” She whispered to herself. “How the hell did he know what I’d like? It can’t be a coincidence, it just can’t. But how? I’ve been so careful, I haven’t……….”
She trailed off as she remembered words whispered in dark rooms, her naked form pressed up against another women’s, claws or hands being threaded through her hair. Talking about superficial things that didn’t really matter, like the weather, favorite drinks, and what they found sexy about each other.
“FUCK!” She screamed at the sky before her face took on an expression of disgust. “You idiot. You blabbed everything about what you liked, SEVERAL FUCKING TIMES, because you were relaxed and felt safe with them. The moment you were off the scene, Ivory probably got it off them.”
She slapped herself hard across the face.
“You idiot. How fucking hard is it to trust no one?”
She stayed there for several minutes, just muttering to herself, worrying about what else she may have let slip and whether this could derail her plan. Eventually, she took a deep breath and tried to stand up to leave, succeeding after a few tries.
“Ok, you’ve had your freak-out. Now get somewhere secure and figure out what’s next. Project strength, weakness is death.”
After she briefly debated the options in her head and deciding to see if her partner from the motel had left yet, Velvette stood up and began to walk down the street.
Then she caught a glimpse of a reflection in a store window and froze.
Without meaning to, her head swiveled at a sharp ninety degree angle to the building she had leaned up against. She brought her hands up and twisted her head back, almost absentmindedly, before slowly backing away from the building until the whole thing was in her view.
It was a massive, cathedral-esque monument with white walls and a gold roof that shined as if it were actually made of the mineral. Large stained-glass windows were also gold and blocked any view of what was inside. It was completely untouched by the ash and dust that stained everything to some degree in Hell, which would’ve made it even more beautiful if the contrast wasn’t so vast that it was unsettling.
But the thing that really stole the show was the massive gold clock tower on the top, almost certainly made of gold with a large point at the top surrounded by a glittering halo of pure light. The clock under it, made with clear resemblance to the pentagram of Hell, ticked on dutifully, showing that it was almost noon.
But the two things under the actual clock were what Velvette focused on; a small flip calendar and a massive hourglass that took up most of the body of the clock tower.
The top part of the hourglass was nearly empty with the bottom almost being entirely full while still having more sand slowly trickle in.
The calendar clearly read out: 004.
Suddenly, she remembered what she had forgotten about Angelic Steel. She had forgotten that Exorcist Angels used them during a yearly purge of Sinners, which she had had the misfortune to arrive just a few months beforehand.
She had thought she’d had more time, she’d thought she would be able to drown some of her sorrows before she’d have to worry about anything like this happening. She thought that there’d be more time.
But time had run out, she only had four days to find some kind of shelter from the Extermination, and she had no idea what she was going to do.