What Once Was

Chapter 45- A Little Party Never Killed Nobody

-October 12th, 1920
-New Orleans
-Charlie POV

-3:27 am

I was back home, which I found strange since I clearly remembered I was in the human world; And I could feel something stirring up in the air. As I got up from my bed, Razzle and Dazzle where no where to be in sight, but my bedroom was open, which made me think they had gotten a midnight snack as it was currently still dark outside.

I walked down the corridor, looking out to see if anyone was here, but there were no servants to be in sight. Only my footsteps were heard in the grand palace. I turned to the paintings and portraits that hung on the walls, to have a sense of familiarity, but rather, they were all blurry and undistinguishable. I found it strange, and I felt a bit more creeped out that I was apparently the only one here, but despite this feeling I still kept on walking, in hopes I would be able to see any sign of life.

That is until I reached the entrance of the palace, where one of the doors was open by a bit, being able to catch a glimpse of the outside, however there was a puddle of something dark in the entrance. I slowly crept up to it and pulled open the door, revealing a large puddle of blood. Despite the sky being red itself, I was able to distinguish it was blood. My eyes trailed off to the bottom of the stairs and then did I see footsteps that led to the bottom of the staircase and saw a familiar figure with his back against me.

He turned to me, as if he had sensed me, only to reveal Alastor with a widened grin that seemed to hurt his face.

"Al? Are you okay?" I asked worriedly as I was going to make my way towards him, but rather than doing that, within a second he had come up to me in a flash, standing right in front of me.

"My Love I'm more than okay! I have done what pleases most of us!"

"What do you mean?" I was so confused. How did he get here? He couldn't really be here since he was still alive and a human.

"What we both agreed on. Getting rid of these pieces of flesh. They must pay. They must pay. They must pay..." He kept on chanting it as his voice grew distorted as if it was played on a radio. HIs shadow behind him has distorted and changed to more of a hellish appearance.

"Al! Snap out of it!" I told him as I grabbed him by the shoulders, hoping he would get out of this trance, but rather, his eyes rolled backwards, and his sclera turned red, his wide pearly white grin turned yellow, and small horns grew from the top of his head resembling those of a deer.

"It's too late for that My Dear! Now all I have to do is kill you and my mission will be done! Now come here Darling, I promise it won't be painful!" His eyes grew into two black holes, and his fingers grew into what seemed like black tree roots that stretched out and were coming right for my eyes....

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I woke up in a cold sweat, with my eyes widened, and my heart racing it felt like it was about to burst out from my chest. My eyes adjusted to the dark as I realized I was still here in the human world, in my bed, and right in front of me was Al, who was sleeping away peacefully, with his arm wrapped around me.

I tried to control my breathing as I realized it was all some sort of twisted nightmare. I found it hard to believe though as it had been a while since I had had a nightmare... in fact when I was a kid I used to have this concurrent one about-

"Are you alright My Love?" Al asked, between asleep, and awake. He pulled me closer to him, and I could smell his cologne as I took in deep breaths did it help soothe me.

"...yes... it was just a nightmare." I replied, snuggling closer to him. Trying to shake off the twisted version of him I had seen in my nightmare.