New and Strange Book 2

Tea For Mama

Alastor sat down across from his mother, pouring out a cup of tea for each of them. When he saw the expression on his mother's face, he had his shadow fetch him a bottle of whiskey, pouring just a nip into his mother's cup. He'd seen her do this whenever she was severely stressed, and had picked up the habit himself when he'd gotten older.

"Thank you, son." Eliza sighed and sipped her tea, rubbing away at the headache she was beginning to feel.

"Are you alright, mother?" Alastor asked, looking incredibly concerned.

"I'll be fine, son. Just...give me a moment."

"Mother, who was that man?"

"Alastor-"

"He did something to you, so please just tell me what he did."

Eliza looked her son up and down, and down the last of her tea, "It's not what he did, it's what he didn't do."

"I'm afraid that I don't understand." Alastor propped his chin up on his hand, waiting for his mother to explain further.

"Alastor..." Elizabeth felt completely torn. On one hand, she could make something up, get William to leave, and then Alastor wouldn't have to know about who William was to him. Then there was the other option, telling Alastor who William was...yeah no. As much as her son had changed, she wasn't really sure how he'd take to knowing William was his father. Eliza had never hid anything from Alastor, even when he was a child. Whenever he would ask about his father, she'd tell him whatever he wanted to know, including how Will had left.

"I remember when he came to the house." Alastor stated, expression unchanging, "I wasn't sure it was him at first, I mean 'William' is a pretty common name. Then I'd spend a little time with him, and I couldn't ignore how familiar he seemed. Then you two apparently knew each other, and that just made me sure of it. You were yelling at him when I first met him too."

"I-" Eliza felt stunned, "I...you were so young I...wasn't expecting you to remember him."

"It was hard to forget. I...enjoyed having him around." Alastor rubbed the back of his neck, feeling somewhat awkward for admitting this, "He knew how to talk to me, which was different...it was nice."

"I see..." This left Eliza in deep thought, perhaps if she explained it all to him, Alastor and Will might be able to have some form of relationship anyway, "Al, I'll tell ya...but ya gotta promise to keep that temper in check."

"Mother-"

"Don't even try. Ya got my temper, so I know how ya can loose it."

"...fine." Alastor huffed and set his cup down.

———

"So...you're his dad?" Charlie asked, pacing the floor.

"Yes..." William was still staring at his feet.

"Al told me you left his mom." Husk grumbled, "I should just shoot you know."

"You're not gonna shoot him!" Vaggie glared at Husk, then grumbled under her breath, "Even if he is walking garbage."

William wrapped his arms around himself, "I'm not proud of it."

"No offense but...I'm not really sure why you're down here." Nifty admitted, "I mean don't get me wrong, I think leaving them was horrible, but I really don't think that alone would get you sent down here."

William let out a weak, nervous laugh, "I'm a coward..." Will said shakily, "I'm an easy to manipulate coward. That's why I'm down here..."

Seeing how blank William's face was, how drained he seemed to feel, it made Charlie feel sorry for him. Maybe he had made a mistake, but he truly didn't seem like a bad person. She'd seen it before with humans...with everyone here at the hotel. They weren't evil souls, but they had made the wrong choices in their life, which is how they ended up in Hell in the first place. It honestly broke her heart to see these souls here, knowing that they were only down here because of stupid decisions and wrong turns they'd taken in life.

"If Alastor and Elizabeth are alright with it...you can stay." The princess found herself saying.

"What-"

"Charlie, you can't-"

"I let all of you stay here, and souls who've done much worse. Why shouldn't I let him stay too, as long as it doesn't upset Elizabeth or Alastor?" None of them were able to argue when Charlie put it that way...

"...you're to kind princess." William said as he got to his feet, "Honestly...I'm not sure if I'm troubled, or comforted meeting you. You're the daughter of Lucifer, and yet you're so much kinder than any human I've ever met."

"Hey!" Vaggie pulled out one of her spears, "Don't even-"

"It's alright, Vaggie. I've been told that before..." Charlie looked back at Will, "So...are you staying?"

"I can't stay...they don't-"

"Oh...you're staying alright." Said a familiar, static filled voice from the entrance of the room. There stood Alastor, a mass of shadow surrounding his as blood red symbols circled his head, radio dial eyes staring right at Will.

"Al-" Angel Dust stepped in front of William, not to protect him, but to keep Alastor from killing him. He couldn't care less if Will died, but Alastor had come far from who he used to be, and he'd be damned if William's presence here was going to set him back now.

"He's going to stay." He approached, the shadow's and symbols melting away, "He's going to stay and make up for everything he did."

Will didn't utter a word, not daring to speak while being stared at in such a way. Alastor looked ready to kill him, not just kill him, but make him feel everything he'd do before he finally died. This may have been his son, Eliza's son, but this...this didn't look like the child of anything, even with the shadow and symbols melting away. Alastor looked like a demon...he looked more like a demon than any real demon that Will had met down here.

Alastor's eyes reverted, and the static stopped, but he was still looking down his nose at Willliam, like he was something foul that Alastor had stepped in. Being on the receiving end of that look was still chilling. When those eyes were seen by Angel, the spider stepped out of the deer's way. Alastor may have had an ego to rival that of Lucifer's, but he'd never look at someone like they were worth nothing. Even if how he looked at you made you feel like a means to and end, he still looked at you with some value. For Alastor to look at you as if you were worth nothing at all, it made you realize how his past victims must have felt right before Alastor put an end to their lives.

"You are going to stay here and make up for every. Single. Thing." Alastor leaned down a bit, putting himself at eye level with his father, "Everything you did, you're going to make up for."

"What do you want me to-" Will was cut off by Alastor letting out a low growl.

"You're not making anything up to me, everything you did to her. That's what you're going to make up for. As far as I'm concerned, the two of us are complete strangers."

"...alright."

"Talk to Charlie about seeing if you can take up a job here, or stay as a guest. Either way, you are going to make up all those years to here. You'll stay and beg if you have to, but each year of suffering she had to experience, you're going to owe her. Only then can you leave, otherwise I'll happily do some decorating with you're internal organs."

"...I'm not cleaning that." Nifty mumbled.

"Understand?" Alastor practically hisses.

"Yes." Will gave a curt nod.

Alastor said nothing else, he simply turned around and walked out, leaving everyone starring after him. It had been awhile since they'd seen Alastor so pissed off, and seeing him like that again was more than a bit unsettling, even to Angel Dust.  They just had to hope this didn't mean he'd go back to how he used to be, otherwise...there was no telling what would happen.

"Ya better not screw it up." Angel muttered, trudging off after Alastor. He didn't want to admit it..but Angel Dust didn't think he could stay with Alastor if he went back to how he was. He'd already gotten out of one shitty relationship, and if Alastor went back to how he was...he'd have to walk away from another. There was no way he was going to risk that again...

Even if he did love Alastor more than anything...he couldn't put himself in that situation again.