[ Downwards ] (Alastor x reader)

Chapter 3

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I tilted my head up cautiously bit by bit, until I locked eyes with the grinning demon that towered above me.

And so we stared at each other. After a few uncomfortable seconds, he narrowed his eyes, the clocks in his eyes ticking, at which I grew worried. He suddenly pulled back the chair I was sitting on - I yelped - and hoisted me up by my hand, catching me at the last moment.

"The name's Alastor, pleasure to meet you!" He croaked as he spun me and gripped my hand.

I breathed out, almost laughing, but it was like I couldn't make any noise come out.

Charlie, as if sensing my discomfort, began indirectly shooing away Alastor.

"Hey, Al-Alastor, why don't you check on Niffty? I believe she wanted to uh.. to chat..." She laughed, and her shoulders bounced, but by the look on her face it was obvious that she felt troubled.

He closed his mouth into a tight smile, and hummed a thoughtful note, "Hm.. great idea! I believe I should." He threw his hand up and summoned a microphone out of thin air and left, continuing to hum a melody.

Charlie gave two wobbly thumbs up as he left and muttered "Cool beans.".

I was dumbfounded ; all I could do was stare at the wall, eyes wide open. I placed my palm carefully onto my chest, right where my heart was, and felt the rapid palpitations. I was in a state of shock, completely zoned-out, but before long, my eyes began drying up, and I blinked a few times to regain consciousness. I turned back around to face Charlie, but she wasn't looking in my direction.

"Who..?" I tried speaking, but my throat was too dry. I swallowed, "Who was that?"

Charlie lifted her gaze to me, as if my voice woke her up, and a small smile graced her lips. She then walked over to me, and pulled back a chair to sit nearby.

"That was Alastor," she tilted her head to the direction in which he left in, "he is an.. overlord.. here."

I cocked my head to the side and stared blankly at her, which she took as a sign to continue, "In hell, there is a sort of hierarchy: at the top is Lucifer, then the Overlords, like Alastor, who in some way are similar to Lucifer, but not nearly as powerful. They all possess some unique powers, though, which helped them fight their way to the top: this is what differentiates them from other demons like hellborns and imps."

"Hm."

I nodded, then returned a half-smile as she walked over to Vaggie in the other room.

I ran a hand through my hair, and decided to return to my room.

Treading back up the spiralled stairs, my mind was completely empty ; was I just tired, or did that demon's energy suck the life out of me? Oh no, that's ridiculous.

I looked around my room again, my vision clouded. Too tired to properly lock the door, I gave it a lousy kick and trod over to my bed. I fell, face down; the blanket made it difficult to breathe, but I didn't care anymore, and so I cried. I wept and sobbed and cried, my nose running, my throat closing up, choking me. I flipped to my side and curled up, bringing my hands up to my arms for a tight, reassuring squeeze to distract me from the coldness of life. I squeezed my eyes shut, my tears running down my face and onto my bedsheets, spreading like rays of sunlight.

My snivelling eventually died down, and the room fell into an ominous silence.

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Silence.

It had been some time, perhaps a few hours. After I had that nap, I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders : unfortunately, it seemed like that boulder left a few pebbles behind. My heart felt heavy, and even though I had awoken, I couldn't bring myself to get up. I didn't know why I felt so gloomy all of a sudden : perhaps the realisation that I am in hell had finally gotten to me, yet alI could do with that information was let it blare in my mind whilst I stared at the ceiling through half-shut eyes.