Chapter Text
Shadows creep along the walls, growing impossibly large threatening to consume everything around you. Breaking out into a cold sweat you feel your sweat trickle down the back of your neck leaving goosebumps in its path. Static prickles across your skin like a million bugs were crawling all over you. You hadn’t felt like this in over seven years, but it hadn’t nearly been long enough. Rigid in your stance, your eyes frantically move about the room trying to catch a glimpse of the red phantom drawing near.
Yet he evades you.
A voice inside you screams for you to run, but your legs remain rooted to the ground. They feel unbelievably heavy as the darkness continues to close in on you. Your throat threatens to close as an unseen weight settles around your neck. After all this time, why did he come back?
You close your eyes in wait. "Please have mercy on me." Prayers fall repeatedly from your lips despite you not even being religious. You were already in hell. What was the point? Except right now, you would take even the slightest chance that God or even Lucifer himself might hear you and intervene before he came and collected you.
Just like in life your prayers aren't answered.
So, you keep your eyes shut tightly. You knew he would come for you eventually; it was unavoidable. Running wouldn't do you any good; he would merely enjoy the chase. Your stomach plummets, footsteps start to echo, their owner walking within the shadows unseen but there was no doubt in your mind about who was prowling towards you.
The tinny laughter that follows all but confirms your suspicions before the sudden appearance of a bioluminescent chain does. It's the only thing emitting light anymore, every other light source oppressed by the newly formed abyss. The glowing metal illuminates your surroundings in shades of sickening green.
It was such an ugly color.
You once believed it was the color of life. Now you know better. The color only brought destruction, and the smell of something rotten like a long-forgotten corpse festering beneath the floorboards. It brought the phantom taste of ash and blood too. Your sharp teeth drag roughly against your tongue in an attempt to get rid of it and yet the taste remains.
If anything, it only grows stronger until there's no way to escape it.
Swallowing thickly, your eyes stray down to your neck, where a matching soul collar now tightens around it. It cuts cruelly against your jugular, your breath coming out in pants before a sudden and sharp tug has your landing painfully on your knees with a grunt.
"It's been far too long, old friend." Your own personal devil talks down to you with a mocking lilt. His tone far too cheery for the sadistic smile sprawls across his lips, tugging harshly at the corners of his mouth. The skin there pulled tight and straining, close to splitting further apart.
A shiver runs down your spine at the predatorial display. You instinctively want to cower away. Whimper like a cowardly dog with its tail tucked between its legs, but that's not how this game is played. Even after all this time, you remember what he expects from you. The unspoken rules for the twisted game he fashioned your life into.
You know better than to disappoint.
Drawing your shoulders back, you stick out your chin high, acting bold. The world is your stage after all. "Not long enough I'm afraid." Snarling at him, you flash your canines at him like a dog ready to bite. He doesn't hesitate to play along, invading your space, giving you the chance to bite him. You make no move, and his smile widens defying all logic. The bottom of his eyes curving upwards to leer down at you. They shine with cruelty and look far too knowing.
He knows as well as you do that, you wouldn't dare bite the hand that feeds you. You're at the disadvantage here, making this whole thing just a game for him. Losing with dignity was your only option if he even allowed you that much. "Now there's no need to be so rude, hmm?" He leans over you, drawing out his hum as it crackles with feedback. His presence looms over you in a silent threat.
His playful mood is fading fast despite his ever-present grin. As always, he was changing the rules, and you were forced to keep walking on a fine lined tightrope or fall with no safety net to save you.
Checking your attitude, you watch him with trepidation, nodding your head minutely. You could read him well enough to know he didn't want actual words from you. It was a skill that never quite went away. He awarded you with a condescending pat to your head, full of the same warmth one would have for a particularly dumb pet. "I came here to offer you a deal."
You felt yourself bristle at his intentional word choice. He eagerly consumes your discomfort, laughing at your tight expression. "Oh, deer me!" He chortles some more, not even attempting to hide his amusement at your expense. "Forgive me for my choice of words, darling. It was a mere slip of the tongue."
He sounds anything but sincere as he takes it upon himself to tug the edges of your lips up in a painful grin. "Now smile, dearest! ~ You look positively atrocious without one! ~ Not that you ever look good, mind you but smiling is definitely a start." He cuts himself off with another round of canned laughter, jostling your shoulders roughly like you were both in on the joke that only he was privy to.
His actions and words, all meant to offend you under the guise of false comradery, and yet your fear is enough to keep you from rising to his bait. Despite his urgings, you know his 'good' mood is far too fragile to risk actually retaliating against him. No matter how much he pokes and prods at you, you aren't going to willingly offer yourself up to a cannibal.
He loses interest rather quickly after that, laughter waning down until his back to just smiling with a far too knowing edge. "As I was saying, I came with the most generous offer, if I do say so myself."
"And I do!" Another more grainer rendition of his voice abruptly joins in, blasting from the mic adorning the top of his newly summoned staff. It's singular eye glaring gleefully at you.
Your already frayed nerves force you to look away from it, unnerved by now having three eyes staring right at you. Your clear submission has his smiling a tad bit more genuine. You both know you'll accept whatever he was offering you without a fight.
"I require your company, cher. After the amusing little fiasco I saw in the picture box this afternoon, I've decided to pour my efforts into a new pet project..." The devious smile that follows as well as the sudden red lighting illuminating his face tells you all you need to know about his intentions. May Lucifer have mercy on whoever has caught his attention now.
"Why this charming new Hazbin Hotel-" The name doesn't sound quite right to you, but you don't have a death wish. So, you keep your corrections to yourself.
"-has gotten my name written all over it and I haven't even lifted a claw yet! So, I hoped you joined me on this new exciting endeavor. What do you say? Let's exchange one another's company for the other and call this an even deal! ~" He jovially finishes, almost hitting you as he throws out his hand. Palm facing upwards for you to not shake on your new 'deal' but to put your hand in his.
It seems your answer was not necessary, he had already made the decision for you. You hesitate for only a moment, skin crawling at the thought of touching him, but it only takes a twitch of his brow to force your hand quite literally.
In the very same instance, you place your hand in his, the shadows quickly descending on the both of you. But where they cocooned over Alastor in a familiar embrace, they consumed you like a starved beast, choking the very air in your lungs. They took every bit of you in their hungry maw as you're both swept halfway across pentagram city, leaving the room you were in before back to normal if not for the eyes covering the walls.