Scars Of The Wicked (Alastor X Reader)

Chapter 18: Surrender

Alastor's Point of View:

(We continue where we left off)
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"Who's a stranger that you'll never forget?"

"Oh boy. So this was actually just shy of a year ago." She started. "It was early in the morning, I wanna say somewhere in Texas- we were packing up and getting ready to move to the next town. I was at the store getting some last minute necessities before the road trip."

I nodded, listening attentively and patiently waiting for her to continue.

"While I'm in there, I see this kid scurrying up to the gas station through the glass window and just come running inside. I didn't think anything of it because I see kids running around without their folks all the time."

"Uh huh." I nodded.

"This kid comes up to me and tugs on my shirt." She continued. "I'm not gonna be a dick and tell this kid to scram, so I look down at him and I ask him what was up. This little boy looks at me with so much panic, and he asks me "will you pretend to be my mom, this woman keeps following me and I don't feel safe."

I felt my jaw drop a little. What an unfortunate situation.

"Did you?" I asked.

"Hell yeah I did." She said with a nod. "This kid must've been like 6 or 7 years old and he was so small, no fuckin' way I was letting him out of my sight until I knew he was safe. Sure enough this lady comes in looking for him, he points her out to me so I know what she looks like. The gal of this woman... she comes over and tries to grab his wrist and get him to follow her and he's blatantly like "no I don't know you!""

"That sounds like a scary situation for both you and that child."

"It was, looking back, but at the time I was more angry than scared at the fact that she was so persistent she didn't think anything of it when she saw me holding his other hand." She sighed.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Oh I lost my shit, I went off on her." She said. "I told her that if she didn't leave him alone, I was gonna call 911; and not for a cop to take her to jail, but for an ambulance because I was about to put her in the fucking hospital. Long story short that lady wound up leaving, I called one of my friends back home to let them know I wasn't leaving until this kid was safe while one of the employees let him call his parents. And I stayed there with him until his real mom came by to pick him up."

"I'm sure that mother must have appreciated it very much." I said.

"She thanked me up and down and apologized for me having to be in that situation. I felt bad for her she kept calling herself a terrible mom for letting her kid run off, this and that- I told her don't worry about it kids run off all the time and that I was just glad I was able to step in and help. I'll never forget that kid."

"He probably won't forget you either." I nodded with a gentle smile. "Or what you did for him. You did a very kind thing that day."

She shrugged. "Yeah. I just felt so bad. I can't imagine being so scared that I ask a stranger to keep me safe."

"It happens," I said with a sigh. "It's a crazy world we used to live in. Isn't too different from here, in a lot of ways."