Like A Dark Paradise (A Hazbin Hotel story)

The Garden

A/N: Okay so. While I was writing the chapter, I found out waaay too late that Alastor's canonly Aro/Ace in the show so... that pretty much blew through the whole entire point of "close to canon as possible" in the story. I ended up getting a meltdown over this and I had to decide to whether or not I should continue the story as is, discontinue it, or end it with a different ending where the reader/OC gets killed near the end of Act 2 part 2. I had to think it over and thought, "Hey. I'm already knee-deep into the story and people love it the way it is so why the fuck not?" In short, I decided to continue with it regardless of the show's canon. There won't be any drastic changes to the characters so no worries.

I'm letting you guys know right now in advance: this chapter will be the mark of where parts of the show's canon will no longer apply to the story's canon. Reason for this is that for the story to progress normally without any major plot holes, certain tweaks will have to be done in order for certain events to happen. Also, if you have made it this far into the story, kudos to you because we're looking around 20+ chapters in part 2 alone.

...I'm starting to think that split was a bad idea.

One last thing, be sure to check my Twitter and Instagram for fanart of this story as well as the Discord invite to the server where you can get updates on the latest chapter (instead of leaving the site page open and constantly refreshing it for updates) and discuss stuff with other fans of the story. In addition, I have an Etsy store for art prints if you are interested in that.

Well, enough with my rambling. I'll let you get to the story.

~~

The bubbly hot water soothed your aching muscles while you were relaxing in the bathtub. It's been so long since you had any hot water available to you. You practically had to force yourself to adapt to bathing in cold water. At least you can enjoy it while it lasts.

You heard a few knocks on the door before a familiar voice called out to you. "Hello? (Y/n)? It's Alastor. I will be out for a few minutes. Will you be okay by yourself?"

"U-um, yes," you answered. "Why do you ask? Are you going somewhere?"

"Nowhere special, (Y/n). Don't worry. I'll be back before you know it."

And just like that, Alastor left without saying another word to you, leaving you completely alone in the house. You wonder where he's running off to this time around. Knowing Alastor, he's probably off to do his killing sprees Aura has mentioned. If that was the case, you're glad he decided to leave you behind. You didn't want to witness the gruesome death of his victims. Nor did you want any involvement in it whatsoever. Despite what he does, you hope he returns home safely. You would hate to have something happen to him; you didn't want to be all alone again.

You got up from the warm, soapy water, stretching your arms up in the air. It sure felt nice to soak in hot water. You reached for the towel on one of the shelves and dried yourself off while you carefully stepped out of the tub. Now for the real question to this matter: should you sleep in the guest room or Alastor's room?

...

While Alastor hated leaving you alone in the house, he had no choice but to do so as instructed by Madame Aura. She wanted him to meet her at the garden near his house. The same one she made when he first brought her here to recover from her severe exhaustion. That garden sure did bring back a lot of memories. Setting that aside, Alastor couldn't help but wonder what could be so important that Aura had requested him to meet her at that place specifically?

"Alastor. I want you to meet me at the garden around nightfall. There's something I need to talk to you about. Don't question it. It's a bit of a serious matter."