Helluva Boss X Reader (Season 1)

CHAPTER 82: UNDERTOW

Silence.

A silence so thick it held everything in suspension.

Not a whisper. Not a breath. Not even the heartbeat of the world itself. There was nothing.

Y/N's body floated there...
Completely motionless. Still, among the cold, silent and dense shadows.

There's no up, no down. No direction whatsoever.

Nothing existed but her form, wrapped in the cold embrace. A cold that constricted her chest, numbed her muscles, and made her fur stand on end, already fluttering in suspension.

Her eyes, red and bright, opened slightly and gazed toward something beyond herself. Beyond everything.

As if the world were too far away to reach. As if she herself no longer knew how to return.

The pup tried to move, but her limbs didn't respond as they should.

Every movement felt slower, heavier, clumsier. As if her muscles were made of lead. As if all strength had vanished from her.

Little by little, the young hellhound felt a pressure. A frigid current that dragged her down deeper and deeper. Toward a colder, darker void.

She moved her arms and legs uncoordinated, struggling blindly, her tail lashing out in a futile attempt with all the strength her numb and trembling body allowed, to free herself from that invisible grasp that was dragging her toward a nameless abyss.

She looked around, desperate, searching for a way out. An edge. A light. Something.

But she saw nothing.
Nothing but darkness.

Her chest began to burn. First a faint heat. Then, a relentless blaze. And with it, her desperation grew with every second.

An urgent need to scream surged through her like an electric current. But her throat had already closed.

The silence, so thick before, began to be broken by muffled whimpers, twisted, barely audible groans, and a growing, vibrating, harsh pressure that throbbed in her eardrums and reverberated in her skull.

A high-pitched, nonstop buzzing that expanded like an echo from inside her.

Fear took hold of her. Like an animal. Biting from within.

The kid kicked clumsily, thrashed. She moved her arms aimlessly, her muscles quivering. She let out more grunts, broken, scared, but she couldn't hear them anymore.

She didn't even know if she was emitting them or if they were just trapped inside her.

Her claws extended. Her teeth ground together. Every part of her tensed, as if she could hold on for just one more second.

But the burning in her chest was unbearable. She was begging. Begging for air. Air that wasn't there.

In the distance, far away... A barely perceptible sound slipped through the hum.

It was faint, distorted. A formless murmur. An incomprehensible echo that slid like a ripple through the pressure surrounding her.

But Y/N didn't hear it clearly.
She kept kicking, clawing at the emptiness that devoured her, while every fiber of her resisted surrender.

The pressure on her chest was so intense, so unbearable,
that she couldn't hold it back any longer.

Defeated, she let out a stifled scream. But she received no air in return. Only cold. Only burning. An icy liquid scorched her throat, descending into her lungs like inverted fire.