A Happy Family

Chapter 14

"I can't believe the entire system crashed again! And they can't even fix it without you! How stupid are your employees, Vox?" He'd messaged her after he and Val had finished, before he'd joined the moth for a soak in the tub, saying that the media systems had been having issues and he'd been called to handle it. The reality was that he'd crashed it on purpose to spend more time with Val. Three hours later, he had finally torn himself away from the man to come back to the woman.

"They need me because I'm the one that controls the system, Elaine. They can't even get in without me. It keeps people from being able to just change things without my permission." He watched her as they walked and she rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. I woke up and you were gone and the bed was already cold. It was almost like you never even fell asleep." He hadn't really. She wrapped her arms around his as they walked and looked around. "You got it back up and running again, though." She held up her phone so that he could see and he forced a smile, just like all of his politics.

"Of course. Do you know how much back lash we'd get if it stayed down? In the few hours it was down we had millions of calls." That was true. He'd crashed it and they'd almost immediately been flooded with complaints; not that he cared, mind you. Valentino was much more important to him than some media junkies need to post a picture of their morning workout.

"Some people and their addictions." He smiled at that. He was still thinking about who her puppeteer was. Clearly, the person had kept her under lock and key for some reason, forcing her to live under a rock. She knew absolutely nothing of Hell and the people who lived in it. It was almost sad, in a way, since she still seemed to be adjusting to all of the new things around her. It also made him curious, however, at some of the things she didn't know. How far back did it go? What had she missed?

"That's fine. Their addictions pay a lot of us Overlords bills. Take Don Henroin, for example." Looking down at her, she was on her phone again, typing away.

"Who? Is he some new big wig?" He had a timeline now, at least. Henroin and a good portion of the Family had died shortly after them, but only by about two or three years. The Family as a whole had already been present in Hell, but Henroin and his crew specifically and taken over and brought its supply and demand through the roof. They'd brought in new drugs for the new crowd, a smoother distribution, some small price cuts, and area wide margins. That way the drugs were easier to find, cheaper to buy, there were more variety to choose from, and you always knew what side of town had what. They were kind of a big deal.

"You could say that. He died after us, but he deals almost exclusively with addicts, so he knows a thing or two about them." She hummed in response and her phone vibrated, which led to more typing. "And then of course, there's Alastor." Now was a real test. Alastor had died before them, and he had a reputation even if you didn't know what he looked like. The chances were that you've heard the stories, or even heard him in his Hay Days if you were around long enough, but she didn't look up.

"So, what does he do? Each Overlord controls something, right?" He thought about the question and it was a hard one to answer. Nobody really knew what Alastor was the Overlord of, if you were to give each one a specific thing. He ruled electronics, that was a no brainer. Valentino controlled sex and deviance, Velvet had food in her pocket, especially sweets. But Alastor didn't necessarily have one thing that he focused on. Over the years he'd known Alastor, which was the last seventy or so since he'd died, he'd learned a lot about the man. He knew that Alastor liked to cook, and he made deals just like any of the Overlords. He enjoyed dancing and was decent at it, and was popular with women, though he never took lovers. He liked animals well enough, and when you stepped back and looked at him like this it was hard to believe he was in Hell at all. Until you included the facts that 1) Alastor was an open cannibal who had numerous cannibalistic associates 2) The man was brutally honest and more than a little crass, though he was such in a gentlemanly way. And finally, Alastor could be cruel, just like any other Overlord, towards those who stood in his way, hence all of the stories. The man had decimated Hells long standing lords within a short ten years; tearing them down to specs and broadcasting their screams and cries for mercy so that all of Hell could hear.