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A Little Help

Summary:

After Vaggie had refused to kill a young demon, Vaggie loses her title as an exorcist and becomes a fallen angel. Now that she's stuck in Hell and on her own with nothing but her own wounds, what is she going to do? Luckily, a certain princess can help her.

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Work Text:

Vaggie stumbled across the unfamiliar streets, clinging to the bright red walls as she tried to keep her balance. She had to get away from the open. She doesn't know what would happen if she stayed out in the street. Maybe the demons would come and rip her apart even more. Maybe she'd be kidnapped and tortured. Maybe she'd be taken and burned at the stake. Whatever it was, she didn't want to risk anything. She wasn't in Heaven anymore. She has to hide somewhere. Anywhere.

She blocked the socket from which her eye was torn out with her hand, trying to get the bleeding to stop. Her body felt lighter from the lack of wings, but she felt weaker and like she could collapse at any moment, the angelic spear she was holding weighing her down even more. Lucifer, everything hurts so much…

Her legs gave way, and she fell to the ground, panting as she tried to catch her breath. The bleeding from her back hadn't stopped, leaving traces of holy yellow blood from where she walked. Come on, get up, she thought, but no matter how hard she wanted to, she felt like she couldn't move. She breathed quickly and deeply from the pain in her eye and back, knowing that if she didn't fix this problem soon, she could bleed out.

But… What could she do? This was Hell. She didn't even know if they had hospitals. Or if anyone would come and help her. A demon would probably walk up to her now. Beat her, torture her, rape her. That's what Adam had always said. That if a demon catches you, they'll show no mercy. They'll make you their plaything and enjoy the pain they inflict on you.

It hit her that she couldn't do anything. She was going to be left to suffer. Left to bleed out on the hellish streets to suffer.

Vaggie doesn't know how long she lay there. There were moments when she lost consciousness or thought she was reborn into Heaven. But she'd wake up and realize that she was still lying there. But… maybe it wouldn't be so bad. So far, no demon has come to harm her yet. Maybe she could be okay for a while

She heard footsteps coming her way, but she couldn't bring herself to care right now. Let them do whatever they want. It didn't matter. She was going to suffer anyways. She peeked her eye open, looking up to see a tall figure in the shadows staring down at her with glowing red eyes. She doesn't know what it wants, but as the figure steps out into the light, it- she- leans down. She has a hand over her mouth and a horrified look in her eyes. “Oh my god,” she mumbles to herself. She leans down a bit more, her hand still over her mouth. “Are you alright?”

What? Why would a demon care about how she's doing? Vaggie looks her up and down, too scared to say anything.

“Oh! Here!” The blonde demon reaches out and grabs bandages out of her pocket and raps them around her hollow eye socket. Her hands were gentle, making sure not to cause any more harm to her already damaged face. It was surprising. Weren't all demons supposed to be violent bloodthirsty monsters? It's why the exorcist had to kill them every year. If they didn't, they would all just tear themselves apart when there became too many of them. But here a demon was, tending to her wound, and wondering if she was okay. “I hope this helps. Does it feel any better?”

Vaggie doesn't know what to say. She doesn't know if she can say anything right now. Instead, she gives her a simple warm smile. It's the least she could do right now.

The demon girl gives a soft smile back, looking away and tucking her hair like she was… embarrassed? Why? She doesn't think she did anything embarrassing...

“Oh, uhm, that's good. Here, let me help you up.” The blonde demon extends out a hand, and Vaggie takes it. The demon's hand is warm and contrasts against her own naturally cold hands. Vaggie stumbles a bit, and the blonde demon's hand slinks down to her waist to support her, with Vaggie’s own going around and holding onto her shoulders. She stumbles a bit more when standing up, but quickly finds her balance, her spear in her other hand. “I don’t know many places that can help, but I can take you back to my place. It's better than laying in the streets.” The blonde demon’s voice sounds very sincere, but Vaggie is still on the fence about her. Is this some elaborate plan to torture her? No matter how kind she seems, she’s still a demon. But, the potential of being helped is better than lying in an alleyway doing nothing. Instead, Vaggie swallows her fear and nods her head.

Instead of sticking to the sides like she had hoped, the blonde demon walks straight into the middle of the street, guiding her to wherever. Vaggie keeps her head down, trying to avoid looking at the other demons. Why would she walk in the middle of the street? Does she have a death wish? She clings to the blonde demon even more, though she doesn’t know what that would even do. The blonde demon doesn’t seem to care, and while a lot of the other demons seem to be opening their windows, collecting weapons, or going back to shouting at each other, they all steer clear of the blonde demon's path. Why? Was she some sort of powerful demon she didn’t know about? Whatever it was, she was at least happy that it meant that she would be left alone. She doesn’t know how many of these sinners can recognize her as a now fallen (she’s a fallen angel now? Oh God…), but they would see her as a frail and weak girl; easy pickings. She’s so relieved to have someone protecting her from that, even if she doesn’t know why.

The two don’t talk much on their walk. Vaggie is too tired to talk, but she notices that the blonde demon looking around at the rest of Hell with a somber look. Honestly, Vaggie couldn’t blame her. She has killed hundreds, if not thousands. And as much as it hurt, she’d just shove her guilt down and carry on with her job. After all, that’s what she was supposed to do. Protect Heaven from these sinners. She would go as quickly as she came, never giving a second glance at the carnage she’d caused or reveling in it like some of her sister angels. But now, being forced to stay and see what she’s caused, she can’t help but be filled with so much guilt. There are dead bodies everywhere, some of them looking like children, with angelic spears shoved into their backs and heads. She sees a woman crying while holding another young woman’s body. She sees destroyed buildings marked with the blood of demons. She sees demons dragging the bodies of others out of the street with somber looks on their faces. It feels like too much. She keeps her head down, trying to shove down her guilt like she’d done for so many years, but it was proving to be very difficult.

Eventually, after walking up a large hill (and Vaggie almost falling), they come across the blonde demon’s place. It’s a lot bigger than she thought it would be. She was imagining a run-down apartment, even a messy street corner filled with rats if she was being honest. Instead, it’s a large building with the words “HAPPY HOTEL” in big, bold letters with flashing lights on the top. The hotel looks surprisingly well for something in Hell, with nothing torn off and still looking surprisingly modern. And, is that a cruise ship on there? And a mary-go-round?

“Here's my place. I hope it's not too much,” the blonde demon says, letting out a tiny embarrassed laugh. She walks her inside the hotel, and she's greeted with an old vintage-style interior, with red carpets and red wallpaper and just- so much red. It's a lot to get used to. Vaggie was used the yellows and blues and pinks of Heaven, but all of Hell just seems red.

The blonde demon takes her over to a velvet sofa, gently setting her down. Vaggie collapses into the chair, and it feels so soft, like something that she would have in Heaven. She sinks into it more.

“The medkit is upstairs, but do you want anything else?” She clasps her hands together. “I have a lot of apple juice if you want any? Or if apples aren't your thing, maybe grape juice? Or milk?” She puts her hand on her chin and glances away from her like she's lost in thought, and Vaggie chuckles about that. Who knew she'd get so worked up over what kind of juice to get her?

“Apple juice is fine,” Vaggie mumbles out. The blonde demon looks at her with wide eyes for a second, and Vaggie realizes that that's the first time she's spoken to her since she's helped. Really? I mean, she was tired, but she could've at least thanked her.

The blonde demon lets out a wide smile at that. “Oh! Okay! I'll be right back!” She darts up the stairs and Vaggie's left to her own devices for a bit.

She looks around the hotel room. For a hotel, it sure is empty. She's been to some of the hotels in Heaven, and even the lobbies would be filled with some activity. But, this hotel is just empty. What's going on?

The blonde demon comes back, rushing down the stairs with a medkit in one hand and a glass of apple juice in another (some of it spilling out when she was running and leaving wet spots on the floor, but she didn't seem to care). “Here,” the blonde demon hands it over, and Vaggie takes small sips.

“Thank you.” She replied. She didn't understand why this demon was helping her, but at this point, she didn't seem to have any plans to harm her, so she might as well loosen up a little.

The blonde demon shyly smiles and turns her head away. “I uh- didn't get your name.” She states.

Oh yeah, her name. Should she respond honestly? Adam had named her Vaggie after, “his favorite thing,” but she didn't really know how this demon would react if she told her her name. Anytime she introduced herself to anyone who wasn't an exorcist, they'd look at her with a mixture of confusion and shock before she'd get a surprised, ‘really?’ from them. But then again, it's Hell. Maybe it won't matter as much.

“My name is Vaggie,” she mumbles out.

The blonde demon doesn't react negatively, instead perking up at that. “My name's Charlie! Charlie Morningstar!” She extends a hand out to Vaggie.

Charlie Morningstar? As in, the daughter of Lucifer Morningstar? Lucifer Morningstar? The traitor of Heaven?! This was the princess of Hell! The descendant of the most powerful demon, the creator of Hell, the man of original sin. And here she was. Helping her, an angel. Does she know that she's an angel? Should she be scared? What could she do? She was given order not to harm her-

No wait, why would I harm her? She's going out of her way to help me! Don't think that! What's wrong with you?

Charlie notices her hesitation and awkwardly puts her arm down. “Right- I don't mean to scare you with that title. I uhm… I was just taught it was polite to introduce yourself with full names, you know?” She clasps her hands together, sitting down next to Vaggie while messing and fidgeting with her hands on her lap. Vaggie took quick glances at the demon next to her.

Honestly, she'd never seen Lucifer in person, or Charlie. But in Heaven, the Morningstars were always shown as horrifying and ugly beasts hell-bent on causing as much destruction as they could. She remembers when she was training to be an exorcist, they had posters of what the demons looked like, with the Morningstar's being the most horrifying. Large curved horns, long and crusty claws, red and bumpy skin, all of that. But Charlie seemed so nice. And she didn't look scary or ugly at all. She even seemed a bit cute, with her long blond hair and big eyes.

Charlie glances back at her and Vaggie turns her head forward and continues drinking her apple juice. Right. It's rude to stare.

Charlie's glance lingers on Vaggie a bit longer before her eyes traced to her back.

“Vaggie”, she started. “Your back…”

Oh, yeah. Her wings. Honestly, she thought the pain would feel worse, but she just felt numb right now. But, she could feel the almost dried blood on her shoulder blades.

Charlie leaned down and reached her hand to her back, and Vaggie's reflexes kicked in and she quickly flinched away. “It's fine. It'll heal on its own.” At least, she's pretty sure. She should've felt them growing back by now…

Charlie gives Vaggie a sympathetic look. “Let me help, please. I don’t mean to alarm you, but it looks pretty bad. At least let me bandage it?”

Vaggie’s first instinct was to say no. In Heaven, whenever it was the rare times her sisters got hurt, they’d ignore any help and deal with it themselves. Being hurt was a sign of weakness, and it would heal very quickly anyway. There was no point in tending to them. But, she couldn’t say no when Charlie looked at her with those eyes, like she truly did just want to help the best she could.

Vaggie nodded her head and hesitantly turned around. She brought her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around into a fetal position, lowering her head slightly.

Charlie started applying medicine to her back, and it stung a lot more than she expected it to. She winced, taking a breath through gritted teeth, and before she could turn and ask Charlie what the Hell she thought she was doing, Charlie put a hand on her shoulder.

“I’m sorry! I forgot that this is going to sting a little. But that just means that the medicine is working. I promise the pain will go away after a bit.”

Was that really how it worked? Vaggie has been an angel for a while, and she has limited memories from her time as a human, but she thinks she vaguely remembers that being true. But she hadn’t experienced that in so long. How did humans and sinners live like this?

Charlie continued applying medicine to her back. Minus the stinging feeling, which eventually went away, it felt… nice. Her hands were gentle and soft, and Vaggie felt like she could relax a bit. She doesn't remember the last time she’s been cared for like this. The closest feeling she could think of was her limited memories as a human when she was a child and her mother would comfort her before she went to sleep. She hadn’t had this kind of comfort in a long while.

It stayed like this for a while, with Charlie applying medicine and bandages, before she spoke up. “So, I noticed this on the streets, but I didn't really know how to bring it up. Why is your blood is yellow?”

Oh, right, that. Shit.

What was she supposed to answer? Demons here had either red or black blood. She couldn’t just pass as a regular demon with her holy blood! Crap, what was she supposed to do?

“I uhm- I just do, I guess.” Wow. Okay. Shit. She really needed to get better at lying.

But Charlie didn’t even seem to question it. “That’s neat. It’s very pretty. Sorry if that sounded creepy I just- it looks nice.” She shut her mouth quickly after that.

Does she really not know? The exorcists were extra careful to not let any blood shed in Hell, so she probably didn’t even know anything about what the color would look like. Or did she just not care? She really hoped it was the second option, but that probably wasn’t it. And even if she doesn't know now, she's bound to figure it out sooner or later.

After one final wrap, Charlie removed her hands from Vaggie's back. “There!” She said, clapping her hands together. “All fixed!”

Vaggie got out of the fetal position, turning her head as far back as she could without breaking it to check what the bandages looked like. She stretched her arms over her head a bit, and she felt herself smiling. It still hurt a bit, but she did feel a bit better. She turned her attention towards Charlie, who had a warm smile on her face. Vaggie gave a warm smile back to her. “Thank you, princess,” she said.

Charlie's face turned slightly pink, and she looked away for a second. Was she embarrassed again? Why? What's Vaggie doing that's causing her to be like that?

“Don't worry about it!” Charlie said, waving her hand. “Oh, would you look at the time! It's getting pretty late. You should get some rest; it'll help the wounds heal faster.” She seemed frantic when she said the first part. But, she was right. It was getting pretty late; the exorcisms usually lasted all day.

Vaggie yawned. “Yeah, you're probably right about that. I do feel pretty tired. Does this place have anywhere I can sleep for the night?” It was a hotel, there's gotta be a place she can stay unless this place is overbooked. Maybe there was no one in the lobby because they were all hiding from the exorcists in their rooms.

Charlie nodded. “There's a lot of empty rooms here. Come on, I'll take you to one!” Charlie grabbed Vaggie's hand and started leading her up the stairs. “There's a room near the top with a really nice view, and it's close to mine so you won't have to walk far if you need anything and- oh right, your weapon!”

Vaggie turned her head back to her spear. Her angelic spear. Shit. Would Charlie take note that it's an angelic spear? Would she kick her out if she found out she was an angel? She probably would; she's caused so much destruction to her kingdom. But, maybe she'll be okay. She hasn't figured out she's an angel yet; even with the yellow blood.

Before Vaggie could say anything, Charlie was rushing down the stairs, grabbing the weapon with her bare hands.

“Charlie, wait!” Vaggie called. “It's an angelic weapon! It could seriously harm you if you're not careful!”

Charlie turned around to face her, spear in hands, giving her a comforting smile. “It's okay, Vaggie! These things are left around Hell all the time; I've handled these before.” She turned her head to the spear in her hand. “Though, this was your weapon?” She asked. “I'd be more careful if I were you; carrying these around all the time can be dangerous.”

Vaggie let out a breath of relief. It's nice to know that the princess had handled these before; less anxiety of her getting hurt. Though, it made Vaggie realize how many demons must use these things, and how many weapons she and her exorcist sisters have left in Hell. The weapons were easy to make, and they didn't have much use for them outside of cleansings, which only came once a year, so they'd often just leave them in Hell to avoid the hassle of fixing them or cleaning them when it'd just be easier to get new ones. She remembers seeing the demons earlier dragging the heavenly-blessed weapons out of the street. God, if she'd known how many demons used them, she would've been more careful in the past.

Charlie ran back up to Vaggie, grabbing her hand again and leading her to her room. She was able to get a better look at the hotel, and while she thought it was weird how empty it was in the lobby, it felt even creepier and emptier in the halls. Most of the doors were unlocked or opened, and there was no one inside any of them. Just the occasional beds and furniture that clearly haven't been used in a long time. Why does Charlie have an entire hotel if no one even comes to it?

Eventually, after many flights of stairs, because the elevators didn't work, they reached the room Charlie wanted to bring her to. Charlie opened the door to show a large, mostly empty, room. There was a large red tinted window there that showed the outside of Hell, and a door next to it that had a stairway leading to… somewhere. In the center of the room on the wall, there was a large, fancy red bed with red sheets and a gold and red blanket. In the center of the room was a rug with a bunch of apple designs on it. Vaggie stared in awe. The most she got in Heaven were military bunks with the other exorcists. She can't remember a time when she ever slept by herself, let alone have a room and a bed so fancy.

“Wow,” was all Vaggie could say.

Charlie rubbed the back of her neck. “Sorry it's not much. I try to decorate the rooms as well as I can, but there's so many rooms and I tend to forget to-”

“It's perfect,” Vaggie interrupted.

Charlie smiled at that. “Well, I'll leave you to it. There's a shower in that door with soap and towels and all that. My rooms just down the hall in case you need anything and- oh, right! Your room actually has a crow’s nest, see? The door and the stairs over there lead to it, so you can have the best view in Hell!” Oh. So that's what that was.

Vaggie turned to Charlie. “Thank you again, Princess. I don't know how I could ever repay you.” Despite being in Hell, she showed her so much kindness in a new world she was so scared of. Honestly, Vaggie doesn't know what she did to deserve all of this kindness, especially considering all the lives she had taken.

Charlie smiled (she seemed to do that a lot). “You don't owe me anything, Vaggie. I just want to make sure that you're okay. I couldn't live with myself if someone got hurt because I refused to step in.”

Vaggie's heart warmed at that. Charlie didn't seem like what was taught about Lucifer and his kin at all. She wanted to help Vaggie; just because she could. Even in Heaven, the exorcists never helped each other out much unless they got something out of it. Having Charlie doing it out of the goodness of her heart was a nice change of pace.

“I'll leave you be, Vaggie. Just get some rest, okay? Remember: I'm just down the hall if you need anything!” Vaggie nodded, and Charlie left the room, gently shutting the door behind her.
____________________________________

It was harder to fall asleep than Vaggie would've liked.

Everything felt fine physically. The bed was super comfy and soft, the spot where her wings had been wasn't hurting as much, and the blankets felt nice. But, maybe it was just the shock of everything at once hitting her. Again.

She sighed, getting herself out of bed. She'd been tossing and turning for the last hour; not like she was going to fall asleep anytime soon. She looked around the room. It was pitch black out now, with only the lights of the city to illuminate the place. She got up, looking out the window. It was harder to see now that it was dark out, but just because she couldn't see the carnage, didn't mean she didn't know it was there. She sighed again. She's definitely going to have more trouble sleeping now.

She turned her attention to the crow's nest Charlie had mentioned. She could use some fresh air right now. She walked up the old, creepy stairs of the building before she reached the Crow's Nest of the Hotel. Despite everything that's happened, Charlie was right. The view was nice. But, even with that, it didn't feel right. Knowing that down below, there were the bodies of the demons she had crushed; their friends and families mourning them. The bodies of the little kids that some of the exorcists killed- it was a lot. And now that she was stuck in Hell, she wouldn't be able to ignore it. Their bodies and screams of terror will haunt her as long as she lives here.

And Charlie- she's going to hate her if she found out about her past. Charlie would kick her out and she would be left on the streets with nothing. Demons would get to her and she would be torn apart limb from limb if they ever found out about her being an angel.

Fuck. She really needs to make sure that things stay okay for her.

Notes:

This has been in my drafts since January, and I just decided to finish it last night at 4 am. I plan for this to be part of a series that show Vaggie and Charlie before they started dating, as well as Vaggie's reactions to Hell and all of that. Can't wait to write more of them!

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