Do You Want to Know? - Hazbin Hotel

Chapter 11: Feel

In the early morning hours, Alastor awoke with a start, the memories in his nightmares still flashing in his mind. Bright light. Laughing. Bleeding. Backed against a wall. Mind fuzzy. Trapped.

The radio demon was getting tired of this. How many days in a row has this been now? Too many, that's for sure. Even a brief but much-needed trip to Rosie's the prior day hadn't cleared his mind.

"Oh honey, I'm so happy for you!" Rosie was beyond thrilled to hear of the recent developments with the king. "But why do you think you've been so sleepless? Not having those nightmares still, are you?" Alastor's silence answered the question well enough. "Hmm. Didn't you mention that his highness helped quite a bit with that before?"

The radio demon sighed. "Yes, I suppose so. But I don't know if he can fix this." Rosie waited, she could tell there was something more. Alastor spoke again, knowing it was going to come out sooner or later anyway. "It isn't just Adam."

"Then what is it dear? You know you can tell me." Rosie always felt like a safe soul to confide in. So he did.

"The fight with Adam... It reminded me of things. From before."

"Before what, darling?"

"Before I... went away."

Rosie's eyes would have widened, if they were more than empty holes. She hesitated before speaking. "Alastor. I know that... You haven't wanted to discuss this much before. But maybe... Well, the longer you try to ignore it, the longer it'll take to heal."

Rosie didn't know the whole story. No one did. But she knew enough to know that this was not a light topic. "Listen, hun. I think you and Lucifer have something really good going. You feel safe around him. Maybe, once you're ready, you should... Talk to him about it?"

"I'll never be ready." Was Alastor's only response. Rosie sighed. "I know."

Visits with Rosie always helped Alastor to sort through his thoughts, but he didn't always enjoy the result at the end. He could lie to himself, but he couldn't lie to Rosie. He tried, sure, but the overlord saw right through him. She always had.

Out of the corner of his eye, Alastor noticed his shadow. It was... holding something. Smiling. "What is that?" Alastor asked it suspiciously. Its smile fell a bit as it tried to hide the object. Alastor growled at it. "Give it to me. Now." The shadow shook its head. What the fuck is wrong with this thing recently? Alastor's antlers slowly began to grow, and an eerie green light started to glow. The shadow quickly cowered and dropped what it was holding. Alastor swiftly picked the object up off of the ground and inspected it. What the...

It was... Him? The demon turned the odd plastic thing in his hands a few times before he realized what it was meant to be. It was a lovely shade of red and shaped like a little duck. Like a children's bath toy. Except it was also smiling a big, wide, sharp toothed smile. It had bright red eyes and fluffy, black-tipped ears and red hair and tiny little antlers. It was Alastor... but as a rubber duck toy. He turned to his shadow, which was already back to smiling at the little plastic thing.

"Where did you get this?" Alastor asked. The shadow only smiled wider. The demon sighed. "Does his majesty know that you have this?" he asked accusingly. The entity frowned, the tips of its shadow ears going back ever so slightly. "That's what I thought," Alastor said plainly. I'll give this back to him later, the radio demon thought to himself, and set the toy down on his desk. Glancing from his window, he saw a rather unwelcome sight. This was the fourth drone Alastor had caught peeking into hotel windows from afar this week.