Tethered to You (Alastor X OC)

Ch 21

We stood in front of the large wooden doors.

The stained glass windows adorning the center of each door had an intricately made apple in its design.

Alastor reached out and his knuckles rapped against the wood. There was shuffling, a rather loud crash and then mumbling.

The door swung open unexpectedly, making me jump. Alastor merely looked down at the person who answered the door.

There stood a girl, taller than me by nearly a foot, wearing a cute white dress shirt with suspenders.

Her face was round and her cheeks looked soft and childlike, but it was obvious she was a matured woman.

Her skin was ghostly pale, and her eyes were a bright electric red. On each of her cheeks was a little red circle, reminding me of a porcelain doll, or perhaps even a clown.

Her smile quickly lowered into a small frown at the sight of Alastor, but her stare shifted to me. She tilted her head curiously, probably because Alastor and I were holding hands.

"Um..." she started nervously, glancing back to Alastor, "can I help you?"

Her tone was unsure, and the skin on my arm prickled as Alastor upped the static in his speech, creating an electrifying atmosphere.

"Hello, darling!" He chirped, using his overwhelmingly cheery radio host persona.

"We couldn't help but spot your magnificently large building! My, what a spectacle!" He held his hand out for the woman to shake, and she looked at it skeptically.

"Alastor, pleasure to meet you sweetheart!" Were the words he yelled next, and before she could seize his hand he lowered it and brushed past her, dragging me with him.

Inside I marveled at the spacious and intricate room. Despite the worn down feel of it all, it was a generally nice space.

Alastor never once let go of my hand, being almost territorial over me.

Like in a 'I dare you to touch her' kind of way.

I didn't mind, it's sweet he feels protective over me. I even noticed his smile widened and his teeth thinned nearly to a needle like state.

He's puffing out his chest and looking intimidating. I'm not sure why, but he is. Maybe he feels nervous about me meeting the princess.

The woman, who I'm assuming is the princess, closed the doors. She approached us slowly, that same apprehensive look in her eyes.

"Did you want to check in...?" She asked timidly, and Alastor burst into laughter.

"You tickle me your majesty!" He said mockingly, "Oh the humanity! Check in? Ahaha!"

Upon seeing the poor girl's hurt expression, I felt annoyed towards Al.

I scowled at him and he received a harsh slap to the arm. He jumped slightly and looked down at me in wide eyed surprise.

Upon seeing my angered expression he backtracked, "I mean...no thank you, princess,"

That's better.

She glanced between us quizzically but fixed her expression when I smiled at her, giving me one of her own toothy smiles,

"Hello, princess!" I greeted her kindly, "I'm new here in hell, and Alastor was showing me around," I held up his hand and shrugged, "and I saw your building and it was just so neat looking I wanted to check it out!"