Buck Turned Fawn

Chapter 4 - Mama Rosie

It had been 20 minutes after Charlie had left the lobby. Nobody had returned yet, which felt...odd. Hell, they hadn't even been answering their phones!

Until now.

Angel Dust's phone vibrated. He checked it

"Vag says Smiles is doing fine."

"I doubt that"

Husker set down a bottle of cheap booze

"Come on, whiskers-"

"I dare you to call me that again."

"Oh-"

Charlie and Vaggie came downstairs, looking like they had been through 3 wars back-to-back.

"Oh? Did smiles do something?"

"He's...just being difficult."

Vaggie sounded tired of Alastor's bullshit, whatever the fawn did.

Charlie spoke quietly to Vaggie

"How about we get Rosie to help?"

"Rosie? The cannibal overlord? Her?"

"Yeah! Maybe she knows a thing or two about....his state."

Vaggie didn't have another choice, she just needed Alastor to calm down.

"Sure, let's try this..."

Charlie went back to Alastor's bedroom while Vaggie stayed downstairs. Angel Dust immediately spoke up, annoyed that his question was answered with something vague.

"So...what did Smiles do, exactly? You gotta tell us more than he's being difficult!"

"He was...he just won't cooperate with us...at all."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back with Charlie, she approached Alastor's room and knocked on the door.

"Alastor? I wanna talk to you..."

"Go away, Charlie."

"Look, I don't wanna just leave you here alone..."

Charlie paused, then spoke up again

"...do you wanna talk to Rosie instead?"

Alastor thought about it;

"..fine."

She heard shuffling from inside the room, then Alastor opened the door, still in his regular attire and now in an un-bloodied shirt [and a new, better bandage]

Charlie grabbed his hand, getting Alastor to make an "eek!" noise. She dragged him down to Cannibal town, specifically, Rosie's emporium.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After about 25 minutes, they arrived at Cannibal Town. Alastor had been silent the entire journey, which slightly worried Charlie. He was always one to talk after all.

She pushed open the doors and entered, looking around the place. It still seemed as red as ever and filled with patrons.

She approached Rosie, who was at her front desk. And Rosie noticed Charlie, which made her fairly excited. She wasn't expecting Charlie back so soon!

"Hi, Rosie!"

"My, I wasn't expecting you back so soon! Tell me, how's your little hotel project going?"

"Well, it's been doing fine. But...Alastor wants to talk to you. Alone."

Alastor, meanwhile, stood beside Charlie awkwardly

"Oh? Well, come on Alastor! We can chat over some tea!"

She brought Alastor into her office

"Now, you stay out here, dear"

And she left Charlie outside the room.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She closed the door and Alastor sat down on one of the seats

"So, Alastor, what did you wanna tell me?"

She sat down across from him, getting a cup of tea

For Alastor, he had gone nonverbal. He forgot how to speak, because of his regressed state. He just wanted to tell her everything was fine.

But he JUST couldn't...

So, he made some random hand gestures, trying to explain what was up with him.

"What are you trying to tell me, Al?"

He got annoyed he couldn't get his point across, so he ended up just curling up, pulling his knees to his chest and pulling on his hair as hard as he could, causing a few strands to get pulled off.

Rosie, concerned, set down her cup of tea and stood up, approaching him.

"Oh...did it happen again?"

The fawn nodded and sniffled, feeling tears well up again at the pain of his hair pulling and everything happening. It was starting to make him fairly overwhelmed.

"Oh, Alastor. You should've seen me sooner..."

She pulled his head into her lap, stroking his hair. She eventually placed her hand between his hip and bum, which seemed to trigger something in him.

His eyes shot open as he scurried away from her, starting to crawl into the wall, extremely panicked.

"Alastor? What's going on?"

Rosie didn't fully understand what just happened, as Alastor never told her about any of his trauma. Sure, the age regression and him being a serial killer did make her less surprised at this reaction, but she never knew his triggers.

Alastor sat down, his knees to his chest still, and leaning against the wall. He whimpered, but he still couldn't speak up.

No...please...don't!

That was the last thing he could remember thinking before slipping into the flashback.