Forget-Me-Not (demon x Fem!Reader)

Chapter 4: Alone

The rain beats heavily down on Ryder's shoulders as he stands in a pitch black void... he flinches as thunder cracks around him. There's a moment of darkness before he finds himself being held down by a monstrous demon on the edge of a clearing. "Grr... let... go of me!" Ryder growls trying to struggle his way out of the demon's grip. He hears another voice start to speak. "Tsk, tsk... you never learn do you..." the voice is coming from someone just outside of Ryder's field of vision. Ryder growls and struggles a bit more but his attention is turned to a pair of boots that glide into his view followed by a thin ropey tail with a small flame at the end as someone walks slowly in front of him. "Don't go crushing anything vital. I do want him alive, you know." the voice says, likely talking to whatever demon is pinning Ryder to the ground. The large demon growls and Ryder feels the demon's grip on his head lessen. "Mind holding him up?" the devil asks. The demon quickly adjusts its grip on Ryders arms and releases his head... Ryder's head stays relatively slack as the demon pulls his upper body up. "Look at me." the devil commands "pfft... make me." Ryder chuckles and spits at the demon's feet. Suddenly a set of pitch black claws grip Ryder's chin and yanks it up so Ryder can meet the devil's eyes.

Ryder's eyes lock with blood red irises embedded in pitch black obsidian, framed by long white hair held in a ponytail. a pair of big spiral horns stem from the devil's forehead. "I suggest you watch your tone." The devil scowls and as he speaks Ryder is given a view of a mouth full of jagged teeth. "What's with the princely voice?" Ryder asks sarcastically "Wait, let me guess you've either got a superiority complex or daddy issu-!" Ryder's comment is quickly interrupted by the devil swiftly stepping to Ryder's side and crushing one of his legs underfoot. "AAGH!! A-alright, sh*t! What do you want!?" "That's better!" the devil says, a sickening grin crossing his face. "I was just wondering what you'd be willing to tell me..." the devil walks back in front of Ryder, holds a hand out and summons an image of someone who's only a silhouette in blue flame... but Ryder can feel a strong connection to them. "if I told you that your precious one was in my custody." "What!?" Ryder says almost instinctively, his eyes widen in surprise for a moment before it quickly settles into a murderous glare. "What have you done to them-!" "Oh, don't worry, I assure you they're fine. But... if you fail to comply with my requests..." the devil theatrically snuffs out the image. "They'll be paying the price." the words leave the devil's mouth as a deep growl.

"NO!!" Ryder shouts desperately. struggling to try and break free of the demon's grip.

"DON'T YOU DARE!!"

Ryder yells one last time before his eyes fly open with a gasp and he jolts up to sit. Ryder instinctively had his hand stretched out in front of him as though reaching for something that isn't there. Ryder trembles and breathes heavily as his eyes dart around the room... it's the guest room he's been calling home for the past few days, he hears the gentle thrum of the rain just outside. Ryder takes a deep breath and lays back down resting his hand on his face. "The hell was all that...?" Ryder mumbles drowsily to himself as he lets his eyes shut for a moment.

With a deep sigh and a few grumbles Ryder rolls out of bed and heads out of his room. Ryder yawns and stretches his arms out as he walks into the living room, he immediately notices that (Y/N)'s not there. Ryder looks around the house a bit, finding a note on the kitchen counter that's been signed from (Y/N).

"Hey, Ryder. I have work today. I didn't want to wake you up, so I'm just leaving this note, if you get hungry there's still some stuff in the fridge and there's plenty of snacks. I'll be back later. -(Y/N)."

"Huh... okay then." Ryder puts the note back down on the counter and, not really knowing what to do, wanders around a bit. He may not have been living here for more than a few days but Ryder notices the energy is a little off when there's no one around. Ryder glances at the shelf of (Y/N)'s Grandma's old books, and one about dreams jumps out at him. Grabbing the book and skimming... thinking back to the nightmare that woke him up so abruptly... after a while of looking for some kind of meaning or symbolism to it... Ryder just closes the book and puts it back. "Maybe I'll just... forget about it..." Ryder mumbles. "I'll just chalk it up to paranoia."

Walking around with no real ideas in mind Ryder notices a door that he hadn't seen open, since (Y/N) usually leaves most of the doors in the house open wide for her friends to barrel through Ryder gets curious. Opening the door he finds a room filled with a bunch of different knick-knacks and trinkets filling shelves upon shelves and taking up space on a desk in the corner. A large bed, a couple of comfortable looking chairs, quite a few picture frames with the pictures face down, and a thick layer of dust over everything. It doesn't take too long for Ryder to figure out this must have (Y/N)'s grandmother's room... it looks like (Y/N) probably hasn't touched it in a while. Ryder can't help but frown sensing the bittersweet emotions hanging in the air of the long empty bedroom, he closes the door and walks away, not wanting to open a can of worms he wasn't prepared to deal with.

Ryder stands awkwardly in the middle of the living room having exhausted all other options. "It's too quiet. I've gotta find something to do..." Ryder crosses his arms and thinks for a little while... "I could just go take a nap..." Ryder mumbles. "Though..." Ryder looks over at the game controllers on the tv stand.

-later-

"I'm back."

(Y/N) says walking in, leaving her shoes and umbrella in the hallway near the door. "Hey." Ryder says absent mindedly while staring intently at the tv, playing video games. (Y/N) walks over drowsily and unceremoniously faceplants over the armrest and onto the couch next to Ryder who only just looked over at her. "Uh..." Ryder just blinks at (Y/N) who is very clearly exhausted. "You okay?" Ryder asks. "...tired..." (Y/N) replies, her voice is a bit muffled by the couch cushion. Ryder cracks a grin at the sight. "I-is this normal for you?" Ryder questions, struggling to keep himself from laughing. "mhm..." (Y/N) groans in reply as she moves her arms to create a sort of pillow under her forehead. "if you're that tired you could go to sleep early." Ryder notes as he turns back to his game. There's a solid thirty seconds of quiet, broken only by the sounds from the game and the rain, until Ryder realizes that (Y/N) would've probably said something in reply already. Ryder looks back over at (Y/N) to see that she's still draped over the armrest, just seeming a bit less conscious. "(Y/N)?" Ryder asks raising an eyebrow in suspicion, when there's no reply he thinks that she's definitely fallen asleep. "That... cannot be comfortable." Ryder whispers under his breath before stopping his gaming and carefully laying (Y/N) down normally on the couch making sure he doesn't accidentally wake her up.

Ryder leaves (Y/N) asleep on the couch and quietly sneaks off, glancing back at (Y/N) and flicking off the lights before he ducks into the guest room for the night.

(Author's note:  oh boy, so sorry for the lengthy wait! I REALLY dropped the ball this time. I know this chapter's pretty short and not a lot really happened, but I'm working on the next one and will hopefully have it up very soon! I'm sorry again for the wait!)