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"We want you to solve the sponsorship issue before the week is over. There will be no more discussion about this matter."
Tangie stares at the text message in front of her, letting it illuminate her face in the otherwise dark background of the evening show being filmed. Hela is sitting in front of at least a dozen cameras, smiling her million-dollar smirk as the host of whatever late night show this is talks about her newest film. The audience is just about fifty people, laughing on cue at whatever she's saying now. The host is slightly older, a handsome man with a grey suit. Above them hang stage lights, and a red light that says 'on air' blinks furiously by the door.
"Out of the both of us, I'd say I'm the one who's better at crying on set" Hela remarks, and the audience laughs. The host chuckles too, changing the card in his hands. "No, no, I mean it. Eve is good at a lot of things, crying is just my expertise."
While the audience continues to laugh at something Tangie doesn't even understand, the angel in question is sitting somewhere in the background with the other managers and staff. She can see some of them glaring at her for having her phone open, the stark light probably disturbing their view of the set from the darkness they have been put in. But Tangie doesn't care. She clicks away from her head manager's contact and goes to Hecate's instead, typing furiously with a stressed scrunch of her nose.
"Is everything going alright on set? Do you need a manager there?"
She's acting like a human now. A full blooded, stressed and overworked human. Day in and day out it's the same thing all over again. Rushing from Hecate's filming site to Hela's promotions, wondering if the actress that she is not currently with is doing alright and wondering if the actress that she is currently with would be alright if she left and went to check up on the other. And even when she isn't on a double schedule, there is still so much to do. Driving, coordinating, meeting members of staff, making sure everything is running smoothly and defending Hecate and Hela from any malicious intents. (Which is already hard enough, considering how she would very much like to be someone attacking them, not someone defending).
"I need you here in an hour."
Tangie bites her lip, dragging a stressed hand through her hair. Hecate's answer is so bright on her screen it's giving her a headache. It's a classic demon trick again. Hecate wants her there just so that she can stress her out even more, make her rush Hela's schedule and get in trouble with the both of them. It's not easy being a manager of two popular actresses, but it's even worse considering the fact that they are trying to get rid of her and feed off her negative energy at the same time. A human wouldn't be able to handle it. Tangie is already running on just three hours of sleep every single night, with no days off, barely any breaks to eat and drink. A human wouldn't be able to handle it. An angel can, though. She just hope that she isn't making it too obvious that she's an angel. She's already in trouble as it is.
Yes, in big big trouble. There is the Mazanin problem, too. It's been exactly forty hours since he found out about her being an angel. Tangie has been counting down the seconds, minutes and hours, to the point where it's just adding extra stress onto her shoulders. Even though she agreed not to think about it to not raise any kind of suspicion in Hecate and Hela, she is still very much stressed over the fact that he does know, and she doesn't know what he's going to do about it. So, even though she's stressed right now, being torn in fifteen different directions, her mind is still half occupied by the fact that she might be doing all of this unnecessarily. They might kill her any second now.
"-I mean how close are you two, really? It seems like your fans have been asking about you two forever."
Tangie snaps her attention back to the late night show, seeing how Hela is laughing gently at the host's question. The audience is watching curiously. A cameraman pans the camera closer to the demon's face, his tongue in between his lips as he concentrates. Hela's hair that reaches just above her shoulders is flipped to the side, and Tangie immediately recognises that Hela is captivating the audiences again. Her face is just the right amount of smug, hidden behind layers of calm kindness and charm.
"Oh me and Eve have been close for quite some time now. We know each other from when I was hired to help the catering at her sweet sixteen."
The host smirks a little to himself and shakes his head, the camera panning over him. Tangie sighs and tries to keep up with the show. "Is that so? As far as I remember, Eve mentioned that you two met while taking acting classes together. Why do you two keep changing your story?"
The audience is at the edge of their seats. Hela smiles nonchalantly, and Tangie can't help but think that she's quite natural in front of the camera. Easy going, easy to talk to and having the ability to make the audience laugh even if she's not saying anything actually that funny. It's mostly demonic tricks being at play, for sure. But Hela is a high class demon who isn't afraid to be under the spotlight. She's a natural. Even as an angel, Tangie can admit that.
"Hmm, you've caught me red handed." She muses, captivating the camera with her easy-going, sparkling eyes and the laughter behind her teasing tone. "I like to keep my fans guessing. Which story is the right one is for them to determine. I can't say for certain if either of them are correct, either."
The audience laughs a little, and so does the host. Tangie rolls her eyes as her foot starts to tap against the floor out of stress. Clearly that's an excuse. They can't give a definitive answer because the humans would research it and find out that it's false. Tangie wonders where they really met. She can't ask, obviously, because she can't tell them that she knows what they are. But if she could, she'd love to know how long they've been working together like this. If they are dating, even.
Tangie couldn't imagine dating either of them. Or anyone, for that matter. Angel soldiers don't date. They fight and fight and fight until they eventually die. If they date, they can say goodbye to their careers. Tangie is already on the top of the food chain. She can't imagine losing her career. But she can, though, imagine dying. Because it seems like that will happen in the near future.
The host takes a deep breath and turns to the camera, smiling with that classic tired and calm look in his eye. He points his cue cards forwards and leans towards the audience. "Well you heard her folks! You've been watching the late evening show with world class actress Mary Wersal! Thank you everyone and have a good night!"
A saxophone plays in the background and the audience cheers and claps, the camera panning over to the band. Then another camera moves over to show Hela and the host as they shake hands and talk, but their conversation can't be heard past the shrieking instruments and catchy song. Tangie waits impatiently for them to be finished. The camera is now only focused on the band, and Hela waves the in-studio audience goodbye as she jumps off the set stage and walks calmly towards the dark area, where all staff are waiting for her. Tangie stands up.
The makeup artists start to fuss with Hela and the smile on her face drops immediately. She rolls her eyes, pushing them away as they desperately try to take off any jewellery and ornaments that belong to the show and not her company. Hela doesn't care about them. Instead, she gives them one last dismissive glare and they all back off, scared. She walks up to Tangie instead, who is the only one around her who isn't scared.
"Tell me something good, manager."
Tangie gathers all of their things from the floor, kind of ignoring Hela's sighed remark. She can't think of anything good right now. Nothing is good. The CEO is pressuring her to do something that she definitely can't do. Another actor at the company could expose her any second, forcing her to be killed by the demons she works so hard for. Hela is acting all moody and tired and Hecate is demanding that she tear herself away from her duties here just to come be disturbed over at her set. Nothing is good. There is nothing good to say.
"We have to hurry. I have to be at Eve's set in forty-five minutes and you have another live stream in three hours."
Tangie barely knows what a live stream is at this point. All of this is hard. It hurts behind her eyes and in her head, and she just has to hold her flat palm against her forehead for a second to stop the thundering pain. As an angel, she's never had so many difficulties at once. All she had to do was follow the instructions of her next mission, kill, come back home, sleep, eat, go on her following mission and watch the circle repeat itself, over and over again.
Now she's having shoulder problems, back problems, headache problems, stress problems, a bad appetite and nauseous feeling deep in her stomach. She feels like a human. A dumb, desperate human on the very bottom of the food chain. Working day and night for something that she has absolutely no motivation for. Working until her death. Desperately holding on to the fruitless hope that maybe one day, one day she might find a window and kill the two demons she was here to kill.
"I better drive, then." Hela says, a tone to her voice that Tangie doesn't recognise. The angel can't help that the demon's snide remark, whether it was snide or not, makes her feel a little frustrated. She feels so odd with all these emotions boiling up on the inside. Usually she's strong enough to be able to unleash any frustrations at her target, and even more commonly she is strong enough not to have to face any frustrations at all. But now she is weak, and as a weak person, the frustrations have been boiling under her skin, prickling behind her eyes, threatening to explode into fierce, unfamiliar and hot red anger.
"Yeah, whatever."
Her snappy tone does not go unnoticed by the very observant actress. Hela smiles, a surprised look on her face. Tangie looks at her, about to say something when her heart suddenly drops to her stomach. Oh no. Oh no no no. Hela must be feeling her anger right now. She must be feeding off on it, in fact. This is exactly what she and Hecate wanted. Tangie is just giving it to them, all of her anger and her frustrations. She can see the glow in Hela's eyes. Tangie looks away. She needs to calm down.
If they grow stronger thanks to her, it won't benefit her in any way or form.
Hela chuckles under her breath. She puts a hand on Tangie's shoulder, and the angel immediately clenches her teeth to hold back a sound of pain. A demon feeding off someone's anger is also a demon with activated powers. Hela's activated powers hurt more than most things. It's a burning pain that takes all of Tangie's willpower not to react to. She knows that the moment she reacts, she'll be dead. Immediately. Such a quick and horrifying death is scary to think about.
"Oh Tangie" Hela muses, still kind of laughing. "This whole manager thing is getting on your nerves, isn't it?"
Tangie smiles fakely and pushes Hela's hand off her shoulder, not too obvious, but not too gently either. She picks up the rest of the bags and starts heading towards the door.
"You can drive. Try to keep up."
Hela grins after Tangie, who rushes to walk away from the backstage of the set. She walks after her and into a long corridor of different staff member rooms, not paying the rest of the employees there any mind. Tangie is fast and pretty soon enough, they've reached an elevator. She ushers both Hela and all of their equipment into the small space, before getting in herself and pressing the button to the basement floor. Hela leans against the wall of the elevator as it moves down, not taking her eyes off the angel. It's silent. Tangie keeps her eyes on the door. She presses her nails into her palm, knowing that sooner or later, Hela is going to say something annoying.
"Something is bothering you."
There it is. Tangie holds back an eye roll. Obviously something is bothering her. Everything is bothering her. She takes a deep breath to keep her anger down. Hela sounds happy rather than worried. Of course she is happy. If Tangie is unhappy, the demons can feed off on her. They should be happy.
"Nothing is bothering me."
The elevator dings, announcing their arrival. Tangie gathers all of their things into her arms again, doing it with ease considering the strength and muscles that she has built for so many years. Hela scoffs, walking out of the elevator right behind her. Tangie presses her nail even further into her palm, knowing that this isn't going anywhere good. Hela never lets anything go if she's put her mind to it. Demons are like that. Especially powerful demons. That's how they've climbed up the ranks so successfully.
"Something is bothering you." Hela says, sounding more serious this time. She gets in front of Tangie, stopping her from walking any further. Tangie sighs. Hela looks way more cold now, unlike her usual teasing, evil self. She's still evil, of course. Just more work-minded. She must've noticed that there is something about the company that is bothering Tangie. Demons tend to be relatively good at reading people, after all.
"I want you to tell me if there is something I need to know, Shepherd."
Tangie keeps her mouth shut. Hela gets visibly irritated, but also more curious.
"You don't want me to ask twice."
When her tone drops down to a warning, Tangie knows that it isn't wise to keep denying her an answer anymore. Hela's eyes shine with that demon stubbornness. She won't let this go no matter what, and if Tangie keeps denying her like this, she'll probably do something that Tangie wouldn't be too happy about.
When a dark smoke-like phenomenon starts to surround them, Tangie tries to hold back all of her panic. Hela is using her powers now.
It surrounds her, dark and gruesome and unsettling. It slithers around her neck and her legs, filling everything around her to the point where she can only see Hela. This must be terrifying for a human to see. Tangie has seen it many times before. But this time, she feels almost like a human. It's her first time without her powers. Tangie swallows her pride before she can think. The demon's powers are getting into her head. Hela glares down at her, her hands in her pockets.
"It's the sponsorship." Tangie gasps out, her eyes widening when her mouth is moving without permission. Hela raises an eyebrow, her expression still cold and power all over Tangie. "What about it?"
Tangie tries to keep her mouth shut. She feels out of control. The smell of demonic powers is overwhelming. She looks away from the demon's eyes, knowing that there is not much that she can do. "Their parent company is threatening a lawsuit. The CEO wants me to fix it before it happens."
Hela frowns.
"Why you?"
Tangie kind of feels like she could cry right about now. She's telling her all of this without wanting to. She could handle it on her own. Instead, embarrassingly, she's going to have to spill all of her problems to a demon, and that demon will probably think that she's asking her for help. She isn't! She doesn't need any help, especially not from a demon who she's supposed to be killing right now, not talking to. This is all so annoying.
"Because he's too scared to ask you." Tangie grits out, not wanting to admit it. Demons love it when you call them scary. It feeds their ego. It's like calling an angel righteous, or a human attractive or smart. It's that one thing that they really, really like. Tangie hates that she's forced to compliment her, now, out of all times. And she hates the smile that comes over Hela's face, as she draws back all of her powers as if they never existed before. She really hates it.
"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Hela mocks with a smile. She turns around and starts walking again.
"Don't worry about the sponsorship anymore. I'll deal with it."
But maybe, for once, Tangie could just let one thing off her shoulders and not think about it too much. Hela wouldn't do anything too crazy.
Tangie sighs.
Right?
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