Can someone actually DO their jobs?
Dec. 19th, 2025 08:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cornerofmadnessHere's my day
1. Call vascular surgeon because no signs of my blood thinners. His nurse says Oh, your script was rejected. How did that happen? she asks herself
Me- Why did no one CALL me and tell me this?
Oh, I'm not sure. I'll make sure the doctor signs this today. If he did I don't think it was sent.
2. CVS after specifically being told not to fill my insulin filled my insulin. Now they'll have to put it back.
3. Been tracking my adagio tea order. It left NJ made it to Pittsburgh which sent it back to where it started in NJ. Made it to Pitt again. Wed they put up a can't deliver to that location. Meanwhile I have 2 boxes from Adagio in my bedroom proving they can. Go to the post office and the package it there and the substitute postmaster didn't put the delivery notice in the box. At least it was there
wrote a story that I think is really good but will probably get little notice. Ah well. I'm proud of it regardless
Title: Red Rain Is Coming Down All Over Me
Summary: Angel has gone back to Valentino because what choice does he have? That’s what he tells himself. That’s the only thing that will keep his friends safe. Being constantly high is his only solace but even drugs can only do so much. How long before he breaks?
Rating: Mature
Notes:Written for spikesgirl58s six word challenge. The words were Fireman Draw Pay Undo Exciting Frog
Also written for the allbingo prompt of (What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue and the lyrical titles bingo prompt of Lyric with "red" "green" or "blue". I chose Red Rain by Peter Gabriel.
And I can't watch anymore
No more denial
It's so hard to lay down in all of this
Red rain coming down
Red rain is pouring down
Red rain is coming down all over me
Red Rain by Peter Gabriel
Rocky had to fireman carry Angel up to Val’s penthouse because Angel was too high and drunk to walk. His bull costar dropped him unceremoniously onto the carpet just inside the door and left him there. He’d crawled a few feet, vomited all over Kitty who had come to investigate, leaving the Fizzy robot sputtering and sparking and he’d passed out. He’d come to long enough to realize Rocky had brought him to the penthouse naked with the strobing, metal butt plug still inside him. He’d clawed it out and passed out again.
When he woke back up, the room still swimming from the booze but the high of the coke had worn off, Angel curled up against the couch and poured some of the PCP and coke mix from the baggie Val had taken to leaving on the coffee table for him. Val was in the ‘glad to have him back full time’ stage and was making him happy but if Angel stayed this sloppy and intoxicated, that wouldn’t last. He’d been pissed at Angel’s performance today. It was only a matter of time before the beatings started. Angel snorted several lines before he slowly became aware of eyes on him. He glanced up to see Vox’s head on the chair, watching him.
“You’re disgusting,” Vox said. “What the fuck does Val see in an empty headed whore like you?”
“What he doesn’t see in you.” Angel licked the powder off his lips. Provoking Vox was never smart but what could Vox do? Valentino and Velvette weren’t allowing Vox’s head to reunite with his body, not yet. This was his punishment for nearly destroying everyone. It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t nearly enough, not even when Val carried Vox’s head into the bedroom and made him watch him and Angel.
“You could at least put on your clothes.”
In answer, Angel let the body parts he usually tucked away slop out: his genitals normally hidden to complete the twink ideal Val wanted unless he was on camera and his arms because enemies didn’t need to know he had extras. He gave Vox six middle fingers and did another line.
“How long do you think Val is going to keep putting up with you being too high to even respond to him?” Vox sneered and Angel repressed a shiver. He’d wondered the same but he wasn’t telling Vox that.
“Not as long as he’s gonna keep your head propped up places.” Angel smirked.
Vox narrowed his eyes. “Put on clothes. I’m tired of looking at you.”
Angel struggled up and put Vox’s head face down on the chair. Ignoring his screams and curses, Angel found his robe stained and draped on the back of the couch. He smoked three cigarettes as he channel surfed, turning the news off fast as Katie the cunt bitched about how successful the hotel was doing now. Tears stung his eyes, trying not to think about them.
“Ha, look how good they’re doing without you there weighing them down,” Vox mocked, his voice muffed by the cushion.
Angel didn’t answer, merely lit up a fourth cigarette and smoked while tears ran down his face. He couldn’t think about it. His heart had died the night he walked away. There was no room left in its ashes for Husk or Cherri or Charlie. No room for any of them.
“How long are you going to sit there and sniffle?”
He wiped his damp face, rage turning off the waterworks. Angel staggered up and flipped Vox upright against the chair again. He held the cigarette close to Vox’s face. He cleared the frog from his throat. Was it stuck there from pure mourning? Too many cigarettes? Did it matter? “This is all your fault. When I was alive, living the life I did being a rat was the worst thing you could be. That’s what you did to me. You turned me into a fucking rat!”
Vox refused to look frightened. He expected retaliation from Valentino would stay Angel’s hand. They were way passed Angel giving a damn what Val did to him. He’d fallen as far as he could go and there was nothing left to lose.
“You fought every time. You weren’t easy, not as easy as I thought you would be.” Vox shot him a smarmy grin. “But you were never going to be a match for me.”
“I’m not the one whose nothing but a TV screen on a chair.” Angel flopped back down on the couch. His robe slithered off his top shoulders.
Vox curled his lip at Angel. “Robes only work when you tie them, slut.”
Angel spread his legs wide and went back to channel surfing. The coke and angel dust were playing well in his head. He didn’t give two shits about Vox.
“I haven’t told Val yet but I will,” Vox said after Angel had watched several minutes of a Sinsmas movie. Was it that time of year again?
“Tell him what?” Angel failed to hide his nervousness. Vox had been in his head, could still be there for all he knew. He’d seen everything. He knew everything. Every flirtation with Husk, every time he told Fat Nuggets what he’d love to do with Husk. Hell, he’d been sitting right there when Angel had jumped in front of a train for Husk. Vox knew it all.
“Do I have to draw you a picture?”
“You can’t draw, fucker.”
Vox’s screen glitched and he let out a laugh that chilled Angel to his deepest parts. “I don’t need to. All I have to do is tell Val that you’re in love with Alastor’s pet.”
“I thought that was you.” Angel shook. He could try to deflect Vox but it wasn’t going to work because Vox knew and he was a prick of the highest order.
“He’ll pull the wings right off your kitten once he knows.” Vox smirked. “Can’t wait to see you cry then.”
Angel tried to manifest a weapon but he was too high for his brain to manage his powers. He groped around the couch. You don’t need a weapon. He’s nothing but a head. Curb stomp him. “Val lost to Cherri and Husk right here in this penthouse.”
“Until he called you in. And Val will always call you in,” Vox goaded him.
“Shut up!” Tears well up and he couldn’t stop them as much as he didn’t want Vox to see him cry. When he was face down and listening had been bad enough. “Shut the fuck up, fucking asshole.”
“He’ll make you be the one to kill him. Val will make sure it’s your hands around kitty’s neck and will probably do it again and again every time Husker respawns.” Vox laughed.
Angel screamed wordlessly. His hand came up with something heavy and metallic from near the foot of the couch. It would do as a weapon. He launched himself at Vox, bringing the metal butt plug down into Vox’s face again and again.
“You! Cost! Me! Everything!” A blow punctuated every word. “I have nothing left!”
Vox bellowed in pain and then screeched, “Stop!”
Angel reeled back, snapping his eyes shut against Vox’s hypnotic eye. “Not again. Non mi ferial mai più, stronzo!” He lapsed into his first language, cranking his arm back. He brought the plug down, pointed end first and drove it straight into Vox’s ey,e blotting out the ripples.
Vox’s primal scream drove Angel on. He threw Vox’s head toward the fireplace, missed, so he raced toward it.
“Val! Velvette!” Vox sobbed-screamed. “Help me!”
Angel stomped on his face again and again, Vox’s cries getting weaker with each blow of his foot. He didn’t hear the door open, didn’t know he wasn’t alone until the red chains snapped around his arms and neck. Val hauled him back.
“This is not the kind of exciting moments I need,” Velvette said.
He couldn’t see anything but red and fury. He choked himself on the soul contract collar, trying to get back to finish Vox off. Valentino dragged him further away and struck him hard a few times.
“Stop it,” Val shouted but Angel kept kicking and clawing.
“You finally broke him,” Velvette said. “He’s snapped.”
Val’s pointy toed boot found Angel’s gut, not even slowing him. He grabbed Angel with his hand as well as the chains. Angel twisted and bit him in the shoulder, dumping venom as he went. How dare he keep him from destroying the monster who had ruined him? Val punched him in the face but Angel wouldn’t let go.
Something landed on his back and an elbow went around his neck, yanking his head back. Velvette, the bitch! He’d get her too. Angel snapped at her other arm but she was quick. Velvette jammed something into his mouth and together with Val, they forced his head up and back. Something sweet and syrupy ran down his throat. Angel choked and gasped as some of it went into his lungs.
The red chains disappeared as Val hit the floor. He retched, Angel’s poison in his veins. Angel fell next to him, coughing so hard he vomited up a lot of Velvette’s potion. She stepped on his back, grabbed his hair, and yanked his head back. She poured more of it down his throat. Still sputtering and coughing until he threw up more, Angel swayed and flopped to his side as the powerful sedative took hold.
“Love potion number five to the rescue,” she muttered. “Val, can you get up.”
“Fucker poisoned me,” Val said, pulling himself up onto the couch. He looked over to where Vox’s head rested on the floor, moaning. “Oh, Angie, what did you do?”
The last thing Angel heard was Velvette saying they might need to give Vox back his body.
# # #
Angel woke in his bed, wondering what he’d done to be so black and blue. As the events before he’d blacked out came racing back, Angel trembled hard. His bladder nearly went into business for itself. What he wouldn’t give to undo the things he’d done?
Which things, dummy? Leaving the only family who cared about you? Leaving the possibilities of you and Husk? Beating the fuck out of Vox? Biting Val?
The answer to his question was obvious. Val would make him pay no matter he did now, no matter how hard Angel begged him not to. The bruises he had now were nothing to what was coming. He didn’t regret beating Vox. He only regretted he hadn’t the tools to end him forever. The fucker deserved it after all he’d done.
Angel forced himself up and he vomited and peed, in that order. He washed blood, encrusted venom and vomit from his mouth and pulled the ugliest clothes he had in his closet: some hoodie and sweats left over from a movie. They had been soft and comfy but better he bleed out on them than anything he liked to wear. Charlie telling him to dress more modestly sang in his head. Maybe she’d finally fully approve of him as he went to face the consequences when what he wanted to do was jump out the window and run back to the hotel. He couldn’t bring the coming violence there. It wouldn’t be fair to them.
Valentino was on a brand new couch in the living room. How out of it had he been not to hear the other one being removed and this one installed? Had he or Val vomited on it? Probably. Val’s grey skin was much paler than usual and more bags had been delivered under his eyes. He pointed to the spot next to him on the couch and Angel dragged over there without protest. He’d only make it worse by fighting it.
Sitting wordlessly, Angel eyed Val nervously.
To his surprise, Val merely said, “Are you better now? I’ll owe Velvette if you’re still broken.”
“I’m not better,” he said honestly. “But I’m not out of my head no more.”
“Damn it.” Velvette peeked up over the bar top. What was she doing over there? Had he ruined Kitty, vomiting on her and Velvette needed to play bartender?
“Told you my Angel is stronger than you think.” Val shot her a triumphant look.
“I think he proved that when he nearly took you down.” She sauntered over with two drinks in hand. She gave one to Val.
“I shouldn’t have used my venom,” Angel said, hoping Val would hear that as the apology it wasn’t.
“Damn straight, amorcito, but you had snapped. We all saw it coming except for Vox, apparently. He goaded you,” Val said and Angel figured he must have watched the security feed. Which meant he was dead. Which meant Husk could be too. He fought back the trembling. He needed to be the man his father had crafted him to be, the tough fucker without a heart. Val couldn’t know how afraid he was.
“Bet he saw that butt plug coming for his eye.” Velvette snorted. “That’s going to take forever to heal.”
Angel scowled. He’d hoped he’d blinded Vox for good but he should have known any sinner who could exchange heads would be able to heal or at least upgrade to a new head with a good eye.
“This can’t go on, baby.” Val stared at him. “You’re useless to me this high and drunk all the time. I know you know that. It’s why you’re doing it. To be stubborn.”
“I’d have bet on heartbroken.” Velvette laughed. “Which makes it more fun. I’m right, aren’t I? You’re not being stubborn. You’re heartbroken.”
Angel looked at her, emotionless, but he didn’t answer. She snapped a selfie with him in the frame and titled it ‘heartbroken whore goes on rampage.’ God, just what he needed. Cherri would probably see that and try to mount another rescue mission doomed to fail.
“I’ll be better,” Angel promised because if he didn’t, he’d suffer and he still wouldn’t have his friends back. If he was out of it, he couldn’t protect them.
“Is Vox right? Do you love that gato pendejo?” There was more bewilderment in Val’s tone than rage which took Angel by surprise.
Angel shook his head. “I’m not free to love anyone.”
“Not even me,” Val said. The strange tremor in Valentino’s voice took Angel back decades to when he’d believed Val to be a sweetheart in love with him. In a flash, Angel understood something he hadn’t before. In some ways he and Valentino were alike, looking for someone to love them but they were broken dolls. Who could love that?
“I did. Once. Before I became property.” Angel lifted his chin. He was going to be punished anyhow. He might as well be honest.
“At least he has brains enough to realize what he is.”
At Vox’s voice, Angel snapped his head up. Vox staggered in, his TV head swathed in bandages and a patch over the eye Angel had buried the butt plug in. Oddly enough, he was in a hoodie and sweats too, must be the default injured man’s garb of the day. Vox gained unsteady momentum toward Angel and cocked his fist back.
Valentino popped up and stopped him, catching his arm and pushing him back.
“What the hell, Val?” Vox growled.
“Angel is mine!” Val snarled. “It was bad enough I let you talk me into using him. I knew I should have told you no.”
“No?” Vox let out a bitter laugh. “Val, you never saw my vision. Angel was key. I needed him.”
Val grimaced. “He was never the same after you started doing that.”
“I’m never gonna be the same again,” Angel muttered.
Val glanced down at him and back up at Vox. “I will deal with Angel, not you.”
For someone without actual lips, Vox sure knew how to curl them at people. “He’s a used up crack whore, Val. Toss him out and move on. That’s what he deserves, even before he did this to me.” He pointed to his blinded eye.
Angel stood and glared down at Vox. Val widened his eye at him but Angel had moved straight passed ‘fuck it.’ He was already down for a punishment, he might as well keep on earning it. “Val knows value when he sees it,” Angel snarled. “You’re lucky I didn’t cut your tongue out, shoulda after what you did to me, after what you did to all of hell.”
“That’s mighty big talk from a pet on a leash. Learning something from the other leashed pet?” Vox twisted the proverbial knife in Angel’s chest.
Val put a hand on Angel’s shoulder, pushing him to sit. Angel refused.
“Val, I think it’s time,” Velvette said.
“I know.”
The low, almost mournful tone in Val’s voice caught Angel’s attention. He looked up at Val who wasn’t paying him any mind.
“It’s time for you to go.”
“Don’t just toss him out like this. Do what you normally do to people who piss you off, Val. Let me watch,” Vox jeered, leaning forward, eager to watch Valentino pull Angel’s limbs off.
“I wasn’t talking to Angel,” Val replied.
Vox’s eye nearly filled the screen. “What?”
“He’s talking to you, Vox. Val and I have been talking and you’re out.” Velvette didn’t bother to stand up and address him. She swiveled her chair back and forth with one leg, looking bored. Was she masking her emotions? Angel was too shocked to figure it out.
“Out? You’re throwing me out?” Vox’s voice went shrill. “Without me, you two would be nothing!”
“There, that’s the attitude that we can’t take any more.” Val stabbed a finger at Vox. “We’re not nothing without you. We’re partners, Vox. Equal ones but you didn’t want to play it that way anymore so now neither are we.”
Vox sputtered, unable to process it or form words.
“So pack your bags, Vox. You’ll have to earn your way back in here.” Velvette spun a lock of hair around her finger.
“I built this empire. Vee Tower is here thanks to me! You can’t do this to me.”
“They can,” Angel said, dodging as Vox swiped at him.
“Shut your filthy mouth, slut. What do you think you know about any of this?”
“The capos know when the don they answer to has gone rotten. You can’t survive if the head’s started to stink. Back in my day, that brought the coppers to your door. Here, you pissed off half of hell and all of heaven. That’s a cloud of stink you can’t escape,” Angel said.
“Like you could even begin to understand. Listen to you. Watch The Godfather too many times?”
“We were both dead before that movie ever came out. You told Charlie I killed my dad, Vox. You had to spoil that for me too. But you don’t know why I did it, do you?” Angel stepped forward and Val let him, curious.
“Who cares?”
“You should because if there’s one thing I do know, it’s how organizations like this run. I’m not an empty headed whore. I’m the one who put a bullet in the head of one of the biggest dons in Brooklyn. My papa. He was just like you, thinking he was too important, pissing off the rest of the capos, treatin’ them like garbage. So I took him out.”
“You? You want us to believe any of that? You’re nothing but a back alley whore that needs to go back to his alley.”
Angel flexed and brought out his tommy gun and his wire-wrapped baseball bat. The chains went around his wrists and Val forced Angel to turn, to look at him. “Don’t worry, Val. I ain’t gonna use ‘em. I’m making a point. The only reason I didn’t bash your skull in last night, Vox, was I was too high to get my weapons. Don’t know how you got to hell but even killing my papa didn’t send me here, not by itself. Before I shot him, I was one of his enforcers. I shoulda killed you last night, woulda if I had the tools. And I ain’t sorry, no matter what happens next.”
“Put the weapons away, baby,” Val said and Angel complied. Val wasn’t going to let him attack Vox and whatever happened to Angel next was going to be ugly enough as it was.
“I almost wanted to see him use them,” Velvette said. “You nearly took my head off with that weapon of yours, Vox. No one is going to trust us any time soon, for anything thanks to your stunt.”
“We just gave him back his body. The last thing we need is to have chunks of it all over the carpet which we would. You saw what Angie did with just his feet and fists.” Valentino pushed Angel down on the couch and this time Angel let him.
Valentino stalked over to Vox. “You have to go now, Vox.”
“You can’t really be serious. Val, don’t.” Vox grabbed Val’s wrist but Val pulled free.
Val refused to look at Vox. “I’ll help you pack.”
“Maybe the princess will take you in.” Velvette laughed.
“She would. She shouldn’t but she would,” Angel grumbled.
“This is the thanks I get?”
“For nearly incinerating us so you could fuck Alastor?” Velvette arched an eyebrow. “Yes. You know when and where the weekly meetings are. Show up and prove you can earn your way back in.”
Val took hold of Vox and dragged the injured sinner along. Vox stammered protests before launching into begging. Velvette followed them. Thankfully they shut the door on Vox crying. Angel didn’t want to hear that. Angel glanced about, stunned he was alone. What the fuck was Val going to do to him once Vox was escorted to the door?
“I should run!” he whispered to himself.
It would only make things worse. He went to the bar and poured himself a double, downed it and poured another to drink more slowly. Angel sat on the couch and waited for his fate because where would he run to? Back to the hotel? No way even if he could no longer protect Husk or Cherri, not with Val knowing how much they meant to him. To his father? Henroin would mow him down and mail his parts back to Valentino. To his brother? That was likely to have the same ending as the scenario with their father. He might as well just wait for his punishment. Maybe Valentino would only kill him into a respawn once this time.
He put the TV on and watched Serpent in the Garden, some weird mystery series that actually had a plot. He was too numb for doing anything else. It was over an hour before Valentino returned alone. Angel muted the show, waiting for the rage to unleash all over him.
Instead, Val staggered over to the couch, bone tired from the look on his face. He sat next to Angel, his wings falling limply off his shoulders, puddling around him. Angel had never seen him look so dejected. For once Valentino looked like an actual person with feelings other than lust and rage.
“I’m sorry,” Angel said.
Val looked at him without saying a word.
“Not for fucking up Vox, even knowing what he means to you and what my bad behavior means for me,” Angel said. “I’m sorry that he treated you so badly, like you didn’t matter.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because I know how bad it feels.”
Val winced and his head sagged. He took off his glasses and covered his eyes. In spite of himself, Angel put an arm around Valentino. He hated himself for it. After all Val had done to him, he deserved no comfort. But if this was going to be his life again, he might as well show Val some of what he’d learned from Charlie; that everyone deserved some empathy.
“He shone too bright. He couldn’t see me anymore,” Val whispered.
“Power went to his head. I helped him get to that place. I can’t forgive myself for the things he made me do.” Angel sighed. “He took what little I had left from me. He even took you.”
Valentino let out a soft moan. “You haven’t wanted me in years.”
“You know why. But I’m here now.”
“Because you have nowhere else to go,” Val countered, dropping his hands. His eyes glistened.
Angel didn’t respond. It wasn’t something he could deny.
“I should fuck you up hard for what you did to Vox,” Valentino said.
“I’ve been expecting it.”
Valentino’s chest heaved and he didn’t pull away from the curve of Angel’s body. “I already want him back.”
“You and Velvette were clear about what needs to happen for that. Vox knows what he has to do, if he can,” Angel said. “I hope he dies in a gutter.”
Val gazed at him sourly. “Watch your tongue.”
“I’m tired of pretending, Val. But am I sorry you’re hurting.” He rubbed Valentino’s back. Was he? Maybe a little and that disgusted him. Why did any part of him remember he had loved Val once? He should hate him entirely and mostly he did but maybe Henroin was right. Maybe he was soft in the middle. “What are you going to do to me as punishment?”
Val took the tv remote from him and turned the sound back on. “I’ve done it already, haven’t I? You’re here. You want to be back at that ratty hotel. But you’re here. You’re mine and that looks like it hurts you enough.”
Angel blinked, his jaw dropping. Valentino not going for more pain? This was a trick, right?
“I just want to watch TV,” Valentino said, putting his hand on Angel’s hip. “I want you to sit right there until I tell you to move.”
“Okay, Val.”
Angel remained next to him, pretending he couldn’t see Valentino silently crying. He still should have ran off. He could have shared a gutter with Vox. Maybe it’s what they both deserved. But he did as he was commanded: he sat and provided silent comfort to Valentino. He had gotten away with nearly destroying Vox, at least this time. Angel doubted he’d ever get another chance but he could live with that. He wanted so badly to slip off and go to the hotel with his friends. Val and Velvette were willing to forgive Vox if he worked hard to prove himself. Could he do the same at the hotel?
No because you’re not free. You’ll never be free. Make peace with it.
Angel couldn’t make peace with it. All he could do was endure it. Alone, always so alone. This was what he was meant for. Hell was matching his punishment to his crimes. He was where he belonged. Anything else had been a fever dream.
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1. Call vascular surgeon because no signs of my blood thinners. His nurse says Oh, your script was rejected. How did that happen? she asks herself
Me- Why did no one CALL me and tell me this?
Oh, I'm not sure. I'll make sure the doctor signs this today. If he did I don't think it was sent.
2. CVS after specifically being told not to fill my insulin filled my insulin. Now they'll have to put it back.
3. Been tracking my adagio tea order. It left NJ made it to Pittsburgh which sent it back to where it started in NJ. Made it to Pitt again. Wed they put up a can't deliver to that location. Meanwhile I have 2 boxes from Adagio in my bedroom proving they can. Go to the post office and the package it there and the substitute postmaster didn't put the delivery notice in the box. At least it was there
wrote a story that I think is really good but will probably get little notice. Ah well. I'm proud of it regardless
Title: Red Rain Is Coming Down All Over Me
Summary: Angel has gone back to Valentino because what choice does he have? That’s what he tells himself. That’s the only thing that will keep his friends safe. Being constantly high is his only solace but even drugs can only do so much. How long before he breaks?
Rating: Mature
Notes:Written for spikesgirl58s six word challenge. The words were Fireman Draw Pay Undo Exciting Frog
Also written for the allbingo prompt of (What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue and the lyrical titles bingo prompt of Lyric with "red" "green" or "blue". I chose Red Rain by Peter Gabriel.
And I can't watch anymore
No more denial
It's so hard to lay down in all of this
Red rain coming down
Red rain is pouring down
Red rain is coming down all over me
Red Rain by Peter Gabriel
Rocky had to fireman carry Angel up to Val’s penthouse because Angel was too high and drunk to walk. His bull costar dropped him unceremoniously onto the carpet just inside the door and left him there. He’d crawled a few feet, vomited all over Kitty who had come to investigate, leaving the Fizzy robot sputtering and sparking and he’d passed out. He’d come to long enough to realize Rocky had brought him to the penthouse naked with the strobing, metal butt plug still inside him. He’d clawed it out and passed out again.
When he woke back up, the room still swimming from the booze but the high of the coke had worn off, Angel curled up against the couch and poured some of the PCP and coke mix from the baggie Val had taken to leaving on the coffee table for him. Val was in the ‘glad to have him back full time’ stage and was making him happy but if Angel stayed this sloppy and intoxicated, that wouldn’t last. He’d been pissed at Angel’s performance today. It was only a matter of time before the beatings started. Angel snorted several lines before he slowly became aware of eyes on him. He glanced up to see Vox’s head on the chair, watching him.
“You’re disgusting,” Vox said. “What the fuck does Val see in an empty headed whore like you?”
“What he doesn’t see in you.” Angel licked the powder off his lips. Provoking Vox was never smart but what could Vox do? Valentino and Velvette weren’t allowing Vox’s head to reunite with his body, not yet. This was his punishment for nearly destroying everyone. It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t nearly enough, not even when Val carried Vox’s head into the bedroom and made him watch him and Angel.
“You could at least put on your clothes.”
In answer, Angel let the body parts he usually tucked away slop out: his genitals normally hidden to complete the twink ideal Val wanted unless he was on camera and his arms because enemies didn’t need to know he had extras. He gave Vox six middle fingers and did another line.
“How long do you think Val is going to keep putting up with you being too high to even respond to him?” Vox sneered and Angel repressed a shiver. He’d wondered the same but he wasn’t telling Vox that.
“Not as long as he’s gonna keep your head propped up places.” Angel smirked.
Vox narrowed his eyes. “Put on clothes. I’m tired of looking at you.”
Angel struggled up and put Vox’s head face down on the chair. Ignoring his screams and curses, Angel found his robe stained and draped on the back of the couch. He smoked three cigarettes as he channel surfed, turning the news off fast as Katie the cunt bitched about how successful the hotel was doing now. Tears stung his eyes, trying not to think about them.
“Ha, look how good they’re doing without you there weighing them down,” Vox mocked, his voice muffed by the cushion.
Angel didn’t answer, merely lit up a fourth cigarette and smoked while tears ran down his face. He couldn’t think about it. His heart had died the night he walked away. There was no room left in its ashes for Husk or Cherri or Charlie. No room for any of them.
“How long are you going to sit there and sniffle?”
He wiped his damp face, rage turning off the waterworks. Angel staggered up and flipped Vox upright against the chair again. He held the cigarette close to Vox’s face. He cleared the frog from his throat. Was it stuck there from pure mourning? Too many cigarettes? Did it matter? “This is all your fault. When I was alive, living the life I did being a rat was the worst thing you could be. That’s what you did to me. You turned me into a fucking rat!”
Vox refused to look frightened. He expected retaliation from Valentino would stay Angel’s hand. They were way passed Angel giving a damn what Val did to him. He’d fallen as far as he could go and there was nothing left to lose.
“You fought every time. You weren’t easy, not as easy as I thought you would be.” Vox shot him a smarmy grin. “But you were never going to be a match for me.”
“I’m not the one whose nothing but a TV screen on a chair.” Angel flopped back down on the couch. His robe slithered off his top shoulders.
Vox curled his lip at Angel. “Robes only work when you tie them, slut.”
Angel spread his legs wide and went back to channel surfing. The coke and angel dust were playing well in his head. He didn’t give two shits about Vox.
“I haven’t told Val yet but I will,” Vox said after Angel had watched several minutes of a Sinsmas movie. Was it that time of year again?
“Tell him what?” Angel failed to hide his nervousness. Vox had been in his head, could still be there for all he knew. He’d seen everything. He knew everything. Every flirtation with Husk, every time he told Fat Nuggets what he’d love to do with Husk. Hell, he’d been sitting right there when Angel had jumped in front of a train for Husk. Vox knew it all.
“Do I have to draw you a picture?”
“You can’t draw, fucker.”
Vox’s screen glitched and he let out a laugh that chilled Angel to his deepest parts. “I don’t need to. All I have to do is tell Val that you’re in love with Alastor’s pet.”
“I thought that was you.” Angel shook. He could try to deflect Vox but it wasn’t going to work because Vox knew and he was a prick of the highest order.
“He’ll pull the wings right off your kitten once he knows.” Vox smirked. “Can’t wait to see you cry then.”
Angel tried to manifest a weapon but he was too high for his brain to manage his powers. He groped around the couch. You don’t need a weapon. He’s nothing but a head. Curb stomp him. “Val lost to Cherri and Husk right here in this penthouse.”
“Until he called you in. And Val will always call you in,” Vox goaded him.
“Shut up!” Tears well up and he couldn’t stop them as much as he didn’t want Vox to see him cry. When he was face down and listening had been bad enough. “Shut the fuck up, fucking asshole.”
“He’ll make you be the one to kill him. Val will make sure it’s your hands around kitty’s neck and will probably do it again and again every time Husker respawns.” Vox laughed.
Angel screamed wordlessly. His hand came up with something heavy and metallic from near the foot of the couch. It would do as a weapon. He launched himself at Vox, bringing the metal butt plug down into Vox’s face again and again.
“You! Cost! Me! Everything!” A blow punctuated every word. “I have nothing left!”
Vox bellowed in pain and then screeched, “Stop!”
Angel reeled back, snapping his eyes shut against Vox’s hypnotic eye. “Not again. Non mi ferial mai più, stronzo!” He lapsed into his first language, cranking his arm back. He brought the plug down, pointed end first and drove it straight into Vox’s ey,e blotting out the ripples.
Vox’s primal scream drove Angel on. He threw Vox’s head toward the fireplace, missed, so he raced toward it.
“Val! Velvette!” Vox sobbed-screamed. “Help me!”
Angel stomped on his face again and again, Vox’s cries getting weaker with each blow of his foot. He didn’t hear the door open, didn’t know he wasn’t alone until the red chains snapped around his arms and neck. Val hauled him back.
“This is not the kind of exciting moments I need,” Velvette said.
He couldn’t see anything but red and fury. He choked himself on the soul contract collar, trying to get back to finish Vox off. Valentino dragged him further away and struck him hard a few times.
“Stop it,” Val shouted but Angel kept kicking and clawing.
“You finally broke him,” Velvette said. “He’s snapped.”
Val’s pointy toed boot found Angel’s gut, not even slowing him. He grabbed Angel with his hand as well as the chains. Angel twisted and bit him in the shoulder, dumping venom as he went. How dare he keep him from destroying the monster who had ruined him? Val punched him in the face but Angel wouldn’t let go.
Something landed on his back and an elbow went around his neck, yanking his head back. Velvette, the bitch! He’d get her too. Angel snapped at her other arm but she was quick. Velvette jammed something into his mouth and together with Val, they forced his head up and back. Something sweet and syrupy ran down his throat. Angel choked and gasped as some of it went into his lungs.
The red chains disappeared as Val hit the floor. He retched, Angel’s poison in his veins. Angel fell next to him, coughing so hard he vomited up a lot of Velvette’s potion. She stepped on his back, grabbed his hair, and yanked his head back. She poured more of it down his throat. Still sputtering and coughing until he threw up more, Angel swayed and flopped to his side as the powerful sedative took hold.
“Love potion number five to the rescue,” she muttered. “Val, can you get up.”
“Fucker poisoned me,” Val said, pulling himself up onto the couch. He looked over to where Vox’s head rested on the floor, moaning. “Oh, Angie, what did you do?”
The last thing Angel heard was Velvette saying they might need to give Vox back his body.
# # #
Angel woke in his bed, wondering what he’d done to be so black and blue. As the events before he’d blacked out came racing back, Angel trembled hard. His bladder nearly went into business for itself. What he wouldn’t give to undo the things he’d done?
Which things, dummy? Leaving the only family who cared about you? Leaving the possibilities of you and Husk? Beating the fuck out of Vox? Biting Val?
The answer to his question was obvious. Val would make him pay no matter he did now, no matter how hard Angel begged him not to. The bruises he had now were nothing to what was coming. He didn’t regret beating Vox. He only regretted he hadn’t the tools to end him forever. The fucker deserved it after all he’d done.
Angel forced himself up and he vomited and peed, in that order. He washed blood, encrusted venom and vomit from his mouth and pulled the ugliest clothes he had in his closet: some hoodie and sweats left over from a movie. They had been soft and comfy but better he bleed out on them than anything he liked to wear. Charlie telling him to dress more modestly sang in his head. Maybe she’d finally fully approve of him as he went to face the consequences when what he wanted to do was jump out the window and run back to the hotel. He couldn’t bring the coming violence there. It wouldn’t be fair to them.
Valentino was on a brand new couch in the living room. How out of it had he been not to hear the other one being removed and this one installed? Had he or Val vomited on it? Probably. Val’s grey skin was much paler than usual and more bags had been delivered under his eyes. He pointed to the spot next to him on the couch and Angel dragged over there without protest. He’d only make it worse by fighting it.
Sitting wordlessly, Angel eyed Val nervously.
To his surprise, Val merely said, “Are you better now? I’ll owe Velvette if you’re still broken.”
“I’m not better,” he said honestly. “But I’m not out of my head no more.”
“Damn it.” Velvette peeked up over the bar top. What was she doing over there? Had he ruined Kitty, vomiting on her and Velvette needed to play bartender?
“Told you my Angel is stronger than you think.” Val shot her a triumphant look.
“I think he proved that when he nearly took you down.” She sauntered over with two drinks in hand. She gave one to Val.
“I shouldn’t have used my venom,” Angel said, hoping Val would hear that as the apology it wasn’t.
“Damn straight, amorcito, but you had snapped. We all saw it coming except for Vox, apparently. He goaded you,” Val said and Angel figured he must have watched the security feed. Which meant he was dead. Which meant Husk could be too. He fought back the trembling. He needed to be the man his father had crafted him to be, the tough fucker without a heart. Val couldn’t know how afraid he was.
“Bet he saw that butt plug coming for his eye.” Velvette snorted. “That’s going to take forever to heal.”
Angel scowled. He’d hoped he’d blinded Vox for good but he should have known any sinner who could exchange heads would be able to heal or at least upgrade to a new head with a good eye.
“This can’t go on, baby.” Val stared at him. “You’re useless to me this high and drunk all the time. I know you know that. It’s why you’re doing it. To be stubborn.”
“I’d have bet on heartbroken.” Velvette laughed. “Which makes it more fun. I’m right, aren’t I? You’re not being stubborn. You’re heartbroken.”
Angel looked at her, emotionless, but he didn’t answer. She snapped a selfie with him in the frame and titled it ‘heartbroken whore goes on rampage.’ God, just what he needed. Cherri would probably see that and try to mount another rescue mission doomed to fail.
“I’ll be better,” Angel promised because if he didn’t, he’d suffer and he still wouldn’t have his friends back. If he was out of it, he couldn’t protect them.
“Is Vox right? Do you love that gato pendejo?” There was more bewilderment in Val’s tone than rage which took Angel by surprise.
Angel shook his head. “I’m not free to love anyone.”
“Not even me,” Val said. The strange tremor in Valentino’s voice took Angel back decades to when he’d believed Val to be a sweetheart in love with him. In a flash, Angel understood something he hadn’t before. In some ways he and Valentino were alike, looking for someone to love them but they were broken dolls. Who could love that?
“I did. Once. Before I became property.” Angel lifted his chin. He was going to be punished anyhow. He might as well be honest.
“At least he has brains enough to realize what he is.”
At Vox’s voice, Angel snapped his head up. Vox staggered in, his TV head swathed in bandages and a patch over the eye Angel had buried the butt plug in. Oddly enough, he was in a hoodie and sweats too, must be the default injured man’s garb of the day. Vox gained unsteady momentum toward Angel and cocked his fist back.
Valentino popped up and stopped him, catching his arm and pushing him back.
“What the hell, Val?” Vox growled.
“Angel is mine!” Val snarled. “It was bad enough I let you talk me into using him. I knew I should have told you no.”
“No?” Vox let out a bitter laugh. “Val, you never saw my vision. Angel was key. I needed him.”
Val grimaced. “He was never the same after you started doing that.”
“I’m never gonna be the same again,” Angel muttered.
Val glanced down at him and back up at Vox. “I will deal with Angel, not you.”
For someone without actual lips, Vox sure knew how to curl them at people. “He’s a used up crack whore, Val. Toss him out and move on. That’s what he deserves, even before he did this to me.” He pointed to his blinded eye.
Angel stood and glared down at Vox. Val widened his eye at him but Angel had moved straight passed ‘fuck it.’ He was already down for a punishment, he might as well keep on earning it. “Val knows value when he sees it,” Angel snarled. “You’re lucky I didn’t cut your tongue out, shoulda after what you did to me, after what you did to all of hell.”
“That’s mighty big talk from a pet on a leash. Learning something from the other leashed pet?” Vox twisted the proverbial knife in Angel’s chest.
Val put a hand on Angel’s shoulder, pushing him to sit. Angel refused.
“Val, I think it’s time,” Velvette said.
“I know.”
The low, almost mournful tone in Val’s voice caught Angel’s attention. He looked up at Val who wasn’t paying him any mind.
“It’s time for you to go.”
“Don’t just toss him out like this. Do what you normally do to people who piss you off, Val. Let me watch,” Vox jeered, leaning forward, eager to watch Valentino pull Angel’s limbs off.
“I wasn’t talking to Angel,” Val replied.
Vox’s eye nearly filled the screen. “What?”
“He’s talking to you, Vox. Val and I have been talking and you’re out.” Velvette didn’t bother to stand up and address him. She swiveled her chair back and forth with one leg, looking bored. Was she masking her emotions? Angel was too shocked to figure it out.
“Out? You’re throwing me out?” Vox’s voice went shrill. “Without me, you two would be nothing!”
“There, that’s the attitude that we can’t take any more.” Val stabbed a finger at Vox. “We’re not nothing without you. We’re partners, Vox. Equal ones but you didn’t want to play it that way anymore so now neither are we.”
Vox sputtered, unable to process it or form words.
“So pack your bags, Vox. You’ll have to earn your way back in here.” Velvette spun a lock of hair around her finger.
“I built this empire. Vee Tower is here thanks to me! You can’t do this to me.”
“They can,” Angel said, dodging as Vox swiped at him.
“Shut your filthy mouth, slut. What do you think you know about any of this?”
“The capos know when the don they answer to has gone rotten. You can’t survive if the head’s started to stink. Back in my day, that brought the coppers to your door. Here, you pissed off half of hell and all of heaven. That’s a cloud of stink you can’t escape,” Angel said.
“Like you could even begin to understand. Listen to you. Watch The Godfather too many times?”
“We were both dead before that movie ever came out. You told Charlie I killed my dad, Vox. You had to spoil that for me too. But you don’t know why I did it, do you?” Angel stepped forward and Val let him, curious.
“Who cares?”
“You should because if there’s one thing I do know, it’s how organizations like this run. I’m not an empty headed whore. I’m the one who put a bullet in the head of one of the biggest dons in Brooklyn. My papa. He was just like you, thinking he was too important, pissing off the rest of the capos, treatin’ them like garbage. So I took him out.”
“You? You want us to believe any of that? You’re nothing but a back alley whore that needs to go back to his alley.”
Angel flexed and brought out his tommy gun and his wire-wrapped baseball bat. The chains went around his wrists and Val forced Angel to turn, to look at him. “Don’t worry, Val. I ain’t gonna use ‘em. I’m making a point. The only reason I didn’t bash your skull in last night, Vox, was I was too high to get my weapons. Don’t know how you got to hell but even killing my papa didn’t send me here, not by itself. Before I shot him, I was one of his enforcers. I shoulda killed you last night, woulda if I had the tools. And I ain’t sorry, no matter what happens next.”
“Put the weapons away, baby,” Val said and Angel complied. Val wasn’t going to let him attack Vox and whatever happened to Angel next was going to be ugly enough as it was.
“I almost wanted to see him use them,” Velvette said. “You nearly took my head off with that weapon of yours, Vox. No one is going to trust us any time soon, for anything thanks to your stunt.”
“We just gave him back his body. The last thing we need is to have chunks of it all over the carpet which we would. You saw what Angie did with just his feet and fists.” Valentino pushed Angel down on the couch and this time Angel let him.
Valentino stalked over to Vox. “You have to go now, Vox.”
“You can’t really be serious. Val, don’t.” Vox grabbed Val’s wrist but Val pulled free.
Val refused to look at Vox. “I’ll help you pack.”
“Maybe the princess will take you in.” Velvette laughed.
“She would. She shouldn’t but she would,” Angel grumbled.
“This is the thanks I get?”
“For nearly incinerating us so you could fuck Alastor?” Velvette arched an eyebrow. “Yes. You know when and where the weekly meetings are. Show up and prove you can earn your way back in.”
Val took hold of Vox and dragged the injured sinner along. Vox stammered protests before launching into begging. Velvette followed them. Thankfully they shut the door on Vox crying. Angel didn’t want to hear that. Angel glanced about, stunned he was alone. What the fuck was Val going to do to him once Vox was escorted to the door?
“I should run!” he whispered to himself.
It would only make things worse. He went to the bar and poured himself a double, downed it and poured another to drink more slowly. Angel sat on the couch and waited for his fate because where would he run to? Back to the hotel? No way even if he could no longer protect Husk or Cherri, not with Val knowing how much they meant to him. To his father? Henroin would mow him down and mail his parts back to Valentino. To his brother? That was likely to have the same ending as the scenario with their father. He might as well just wait for his punishment. Maybe Valentino would only kill him into a respawn once this time.
He put the TV on and watched Serpent in the Garden, some weird mystery series that actually had a plot. He was too numb for doing anything else. It was over an hour before Valentino returned alone. Angel muted the show, waiting for the rage to unleash all over him.
Instead, Val staggered over to the couch, bone tired from the look on his face. He sat next to Angel, his wings falling limply off his shoulders, puddling around him. Angel had never seen him look so dejected. For once Valentino looked like an actual person with feelings other than lust and rage.
“I’m sorry,” Angel said.
Val looked at him without saying a word.
“Not for fucking up Vox, even knowing what he means to you and what my bad behavior means for me,” Angel said. “I’m sorry that he treated you so badly, like you didn’t matter.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because I know how bad it feels.”
Val winced and his head sagged. He took off his glasses and covered his eyes. In spite of himself, Angel put an arm around Valentino. He hated himself for it. After all Val had done to him, he deserved no comfort. But if this was going to be his life again, he might as well show Val some of what he’d learned from Charlie; that everyone deserved some empathy.
“He shone too bright. He couldn’t see me anymore,” Val whispered.
“Power went to his head. I helped him get to that place. I can’t forgive myself for the things he made me do.” Angel sighed. “He took what little I had left from me. He even took you.”
Valentino let out a soft moan. “You haven’t wanted me in years.”
“You know why. But I’m here now.”
“Because you have nowhere else to go,” Val countered, dropping his hands. His eyes glistened.
Angel didn’t respond. It wasn’t something he could deny.
“I should fuck you up hard for what you did to Vox,” Valentino said.
“I’ve been expecting it.”
Valentino’s chest heaved and he didn’t pull away from the curve of Angel’s body. “I already want him back.”
“You and Velvette were clear about what needs to happen for that. Vox knows what he has to do, if he can,” Angel said. “I hope he dies in a gutter.”
Val gazed at him sourly. “Watch your tongue.”
“I’m tired of pretending, Val. But am I sorry you’re hurting.” He rubbed Valentino’s back. Was he? Maybe a little and that disgusted him. Why did any part of him remember he had loved Val once? He should hate him entirely and mostly he did but maybe Henroin was right. Maybe he was soft in the middle. “What are you going to do to me as punishment?”
Val took the tv remote from him and turned the sound back on. “I’ve done it already, haven’t I? You’re here. You want to be back at that ratty hotel. But you’re here. You’re mine and that looks like it hurts you enough.”
Angel blinked, his jaw dropping. Valentino not going for more pain? This was a trick, right?
“I just want to watch TV,” Valentino said, putting his hand on Angel’s hip. “I want you to sit right there until I tell you to move.”
“Okay, Val.”
Angel remained next to him, pretending he couldn’t see Valentino silently crying. He still should have ran off. He could have shared a gutter with Vox. Maybe it’s what they both deserved. But he did as he was commanded: he sat and provided silent comfort to Valentino. He had gotten away with nearly destroying Vox, at least this time. Angel doubted he’d ever get another chance but he could live with that. He wanted so badly to slip off and go to the hotel with his friends. Val and Velvette were willing to forgive Vox if he worked hard to prove himself. Could he do the same at the hotel?
No because you’re not free. You’ll never be free. Make peace with it.
Angel couldn’t make peace with it. All he could do was endure it. Alone, always so alone. This was what he was meant for. Hell was matching his punishment to his crimes. He was where he belonged. Anything else had been a fever dream.
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Date: 2025-12-20 12:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-20 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-21 08:52 am (UTC)Oh I hear you loud and clear! It seems everything we try to do now is thwarted by other people being idiots. Even our own colleagues. It is rare to find efficient workers now days 🙄
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Date: 2025-12-22 04:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-12-22 11:24 am (UTC)