The serpents den (Reader x Sir Pentious)

Chapter 7: Recovery

For once, the nights secret blessing of dark dreams was not permitted, with new memories to draw terror from nightmares moved quickly to latch onto new experience and recreate it in their own sick ways. The dark campus of a dream being painted with the colors of blood and carnage as the memory replayed itself over and over again, each repeat further distorting adding more visuals to break apart sanity at the seams. That horrid sickly warmth spreading within, the burning crackle of skin, that horrid chill as organs slid out of place, and the inability to scream created something beyond just a nightmare. Tear filled eyes shot open in the middle of the night, the horrid feeling still desperately clinging to flesh and embedding itself to hold a phantom sting. Sitting up trembling limbs helped to shake tears away from crimson tinted eyes. Only a few discolored tears being allowed to fall down your face, before Pentious sat up and did what he could to wipe the rest away. "D-did I wake you up?" your voice only came out as a tear choked whisper but among the unusual silence of night it was loud enough. He simply shook his head, sheets moving faintly as his tail shifted and wrapped around you further "No no, don't worry. Come now, I know your scared but you must rest" he whispered. Arms slid back around your waist gently pulling you back down till once again your head rested against plush pillows "I know, it's horrible but everything will be alright. Trust me, it will be better in the morning" he assured. Burying your head back into his neck there was nothing more that could be done aside from stay in his chill embrace "It's ok, you're ok, he's ok, everything is ok..." you thought silently. As badly as thoughts tried to find comfort there was very little, while death wouldn't be able to take either of you down here the idea of suffering thought the damage was no better. Trying to calm down you just listened to the rhythmic beating of your own heart and slow breaths until eyes and thoughts grew comfortable enough to draw to a close once again. Nightmares quickly taking hold as consciousness slipped away once again but this time the onslaught was met with some resistance, not only from your dreaming self but from the illusion of the serpent king. Though not a peaceful night of rest the rest of the night passed by without another break as you did your best to fight back against the dark dreams.

Waking from the nightmares once again hells gentle morning light peeked though the curtains, though eyes seemed to already fair well with the darkness the faint light softly illuminated the room letting some of its royal colors show through the dark grays. Sitting up once again that cold yet pleasant embrace was now entirely gone, though still in his room he wasn't there besides you for your second wake up. Though still tired eyes begged for a few more moments rest the thought of falling into another nightmare was enough of an incentive to get up and get ready for the day. Stepping out into the hall a mess of eggs dropped what they were doing and ran up to you cheering "Boss fixed you!" and things like that. There was a moment where you questioned why they were so relieved but then it hit you, while you could regenerate any time you were harmed there was nothing to help the eggs once they were cracked open. No doubt they wouldn't know and just assume that once someone went still that was it. Though their cheers were cute to hear loud noises after such a night was drawing a bit of a headache "I'm fine, i'm fine, go tell Pentious I'm up and getting ready" sure enough that was all that was needed for them to scurry off and let you head into your own room. A quick shower was all that was needed to wipe away desires for sleep, changing into the black and yellow dress tux that Pentious had custom made for you there was no remnants of the night before. Glaring into the mirror a malevolent voice seemed to softly growl out a darker thought "Get that bitch back." "How? I can't fight and what good would it do. She's probably been ripped apart a thousand times" you thought silently. Shaking your head, you pulled away from the bathroom mirror and headed back into the bedroom. "How do you get back at someone when pain most likely does nothing?" you thought to yourself silently as you sat on the edge of your bed "Maybe I could humiliate her somehow, damage her reputation" a knock at the door broke thoughts apart. "(Y/N)? Are you in there?" a soft smile managed to crawl back on your face as you called back to him "Ya, I'm here. You can come in." Sure, enough not a moment later the door was open and he slithered inside "How are you feeling?" he asked. "I feel like a mess" you muttered "You'll get used to it once it happens a dozen or so times, I know that sounds horrid but it's impossible to go for long without being harmed in some form" he replied. He moved closer taking a seat beside you "Here, I have something for you" Curious eyes watched as he reached into his pocket and took out what looked like a gun. Light weight and silver, it felt and looked almost like a child's toy. "The red button switches the safety and the yellow one on the other side activates a little laser light to help with accuracy" pressing the yellow button on the side of the case a small red dot ran against the ceiling and wall as you inspected the strange device. "Why are you giving this to me now?" you asked, he stayed silent for a moment before a small sigh escaped him "I made a miscalculation..." he muttered. "Last night before we were going to leave it occurred to me that it was your first time going out and seeing hell, though you've seen a lot on social media that barley scratches the surface of how intense this place can be. You had no way to defend yourself and yet I still went through with it thinking that if anything went wrong, I could handle it while you ran away or hid" he explained. "But you didn't... you stayed and tried to attack while Cherri was distracted..." he trailed off "I should have known you wouldn't run" he sounded more pissed with himself than anything. You leaned over resting your head against his shoulder "I fucked up" he muttered "We both fucked up" you replied. "At least the next time that bitch shows up I'll be armed. Think I can shoot a bomb while it's in her hand?" it felt too soon to joke about it but it earned a small scoff and chuckle from Pentious. "Depends on how well of a shot you are" it was nice to see that little smile back on his face "I mean you put a laser scope on it so I shouldn't be that bad" keeping the safety on you slipped the gun into your dress coats pocket and stood up. "You make any post about smacking her ass?" sliding off the bed he stood besides you "No" he replied "I was too busy arming the minions and making sure the alarms were set" he explained. Walking out of the room the two of you started heading down the hall to the dining room "Do you think she'll try to attack you in your own home?" you asked, there was a small pause as if he was thinking about it. That small moment giving the impression that she might be crazy enough "She's done it before, though it wasn't hard to drive her away she still caused a bit of damage" he seemed to trail off for a moment. "So she's probably going to do it again" it seemed like there was an idea running through his head but unlike before it seemed to draw a tear in his mind instead of confidence. Glancing around the eggs seemed to all be out in the open, each one holding either a metallic rod or some other device as though it was a dangerous weapon even though it was just basic materials. "Your boys don't seem well armed" you whispered "They are too incompetent to hold real weapons, I tried arming them with laser guns many years before you fell but as you can imagine they caused catastrophic damage to my home and one another. They were cracking one another so often that I could hardly manufacture them fast enough to keep up. The most that they could hope to get is a stun baton but only a few out of the entire batch are worthy of that." So the only ones actually armed were you and Pentious but judging from how he mostly dodged last night he didn't seem like the type to get his hands dirty. You originally wanted nothing to do with the terf war bullshit but after seeing that bitch hurt your snake boy and blow you to heaven, you were ready to kick some ass. "She's going to attack regardless. I can assure that but... I'm not sure how I want to approach this..." he muttered "We piss her off further, lure her inside, trap her, beat her, and post it online. If your boys could drive her off on their own then the two of us helping will make it easier" you said. "A powerful demon leaves the dirty work to others and forgive me for saying so but you don't strike me as a fighter" he replied. You rolled your eyes and stopped in the hallway "Really? Cause I beg to differ. There are plenty of videos of powerful demons cracking open a few skulls with their own hands. Besides, this bitch is on the top of my shit list, If she attacks I'm going to take a shot regardless" the shock of the mess was slowly being replaced with an unnaturally dark desire leaving a small growl to leave your throat. "Why must you be like this" he hissed softly "Fine, you can join the fray but don't get yourself blown up again" you couldn't help but smirk at his frustration. "Alright then, what's the plan?"