By The Light Of The Blood Moon

Side Effects

Alastor and Angel Dust were walking towards the radio tower, as Alastor was scheduled for his regular show. For Angel, he had agreed that there wouldn't be a "special guest" star this week, since that had been the only way to get Angel to agree. The spider had killed before, but generally he preferred to have a reason, unlike his soulmate who had no such requirement.

Arriving at the tower, Angel strolled up to the door and let them both in, but not before Alastor had shouted a panicked "Angel, wait!"

Angel stood in the doorway, shocked by the panicked tone in Al's voice, and the pained smile on Alastor's face. The second demon had stopped midway to grabbing Angel to jerk him clear of the door, but he had frozen, a confused look on his grinning countenance.

"I...don't understand?" The red demon said softly to himself. "Nothing happened when you opened the door?"

Angel could see that there must have been a security measure in place that had failed to activate, but he had no idea about why. He gently shrugged his shoulders in an I dunno gesture. "Can I go in now, Smiles?" He said, his normal snark sounding through. Alastor waved him on, still appearing to be in deep thought.

After arriving into a small mudroom, Alastor turned to check on his "security system", which honestly looked like a cross between something from a freaky game show and a medieval castle. One thing was certain, it was set to go off at the slightest provocation, and if it had gone off, although it wouldn't have sent Angel to his second death, it would have hurt like all hell when it shredded through him.

"I'm guessing ya don't get much company, eh?" Angel said, a chill running down his spine.

"Not many", the other answered thoughtfully, the snorted "even fewer repeat guests."

"Can't imagine why." Deadpanned Angel. "So I'm going out on a limb here and guessing that you generally come in a different way?" Asked the spider demon, pointedly eyeballing the strange mechanism around the door.

"Ah, no, actually". Answered Alastor, with a distracted tone, as if he was still thinking. "The device won't activate if it's me", he said. "It's enchanted to react to things that are not me" he said thoughtfully. "Which is why I wonder, why didn't it activate?"

Angel swallowed hard, understanding the panicked look on Alastor's face earlier. "No offense ", Angel said, "but I'm kinda glad it didn't work."

The two made their way into the basement, where Alastor's "studio" was located. It was, by most appearances, an ordinary basement, save for the broadcast equipment and the other equipment, Angel assumed that the tools and various other things gathered there were for the use of the radio demon's esteemed 'guests'. Angel was suddenly both glad and disappointed at the same time that those implements of torture wouldn't have a victim tonight. He couldn't understand why he felt an urge to see them in use, but to his shame, he did get an excited feeling when he saw the leftover spatters of blood and viscera remaining there. He looked away, mumbling under his breath.

Alastor paid him no mind as he quickly got everything set up for his broadcast, which tonight would be a repeat. He pulled a recorded show from one of the many shelves on the other side of the room, setting about to get it running. He called out over his shoulder for Angel to "just have a seat anywhere" and the more Angel saw of this place, the more he was disturbed by his reactions to it. He could feel himself beginning to panic, the room feeling suddenly too small, too stagnant. He needed to be outside, where he could breathe. As he opened his mouth to tell Alastor that he was going to be outside a moment, he realized that he was already outside, standing next to the tower!

"What the everlasting fuck?" Angel said to himself, not understanding how he got there. Did Alastor somehow teleport him to the outside? It had felt an awful lot like when he had teleported everyone after the ball.

In a flash, Alastor was there with Angel, and looking equal parts confused and concerned. "You never told me that you could do that, Angel!" He was clearly not unhappy, but Angel could see even with the smile, he had been worried.

"I can't do that! Are you fucking kidding?" Angel fired back, not realizing how upset he was until the words were out of his mouth. He looked into Alastor's face, "I'm worked up and that came out wrong." The white demon apologized. "I haven't ever before done that." He said more calmly, although the shock and emotion was still raw in his voice. "Al?" He questioned, "what's going on with me?"