Alfred awoke with a start. A thin, cold layer of sweat covered up his shivering form while his gaze remained unfocused in the dark room. It wasn't the dark room that Alfred's mind seemed to think he was in at that moment. Instead, it was focused on the dream he'd just had. A reoccurring dream that almost always wanted to haunt his mind. A memory that he wished could just leave his mind permanently, but of course, forgetting about what had happen would not make him any less guilty for the death of his brother.
At first, Alfred was in shock after he had abruptly awoken. The events that had taken place within the dream had been so vivid. It was almost as if everything that happened in his nightmare had just happened in real life right at that moment. After a moment of realizing where he was however, Alfred eventually realized that what he thought was his reality right at that moment was only a nightmare. Well, perhaps a memory would be a more accurate way to describe it. Just some horrible memory that continued to haunt his sleep in a reoccurring dream. Sometimes, Alfred wished that there was a way that he would never have to sleep again, or better yet, never dream again. He hated seeing himself accidentally kill his brother over and over again.
Tears began to develop within his eyes as he sat up; only to curl up into a ball against the wall so that something could support his trembling form. He tried his best to keep the sobs threatening to pour from his mouth stifled, yet as time passed by, he eventually became a loud, bawling mess. Goldie seemed to have noticed that something was wrong with her owner, as she immediately stood up from where she once laid, and tried to nudge Alfred's arm out of the way so that she could start licking his face.
It wasn't long before Alfred's loud sobs attracted the attention of the demon, as soon, he heard a knock on the door, and Ivan's voice asking, "Fredka, are you okay?"
There was no answer, aside from the non-stop sobbing. Sighing, Ivan decided to enter the room as he mused, He probably just had some horrible nightmare. Since that was the most probable conclusion he could draw from the situation, Ivan decided that comforting Alfred would probably be the best thing to do at that moment. It didn't seem as if with how upset Alfred was that he would be able to speak.
Unfortunately for Alfred, some invasive thoughts decided to encourage his fear at that moment. What if the demon was somehow able to read his mind? What if the demon somehow found out that he had accidentally killed his brother, started hating him after making that discovery, and decided to hurt him? Sure, the demon had been caring towards him, and didn't really show any signs of having an exaggerated amount of power over him, as he was able to cause the demon some pain, but he'd only really experienced about a solid ten hours with the demon. It wasn't as if he knew the world he was in too well. Therefore, with this new found fear in mind, Alfred decided to scoot away from the demon when he approached him.
The demon frowned at this reaction, and stopped walking towards the human for a moment. I thought he was over his fear of me, he thought with confusion as he felt hurt begin to gnaw at his heart, Why is he suddenly afraid of me?
Ignoring the sudden emptiness growing within his chest, Ivan decided to proceed to approach the human. This caused the human to stop trying to move away from the demon, as Alfred realized, once more, that there was no way he was going to escape the demon. Therefore, he instead decided to plead, in the hopes that the demon would show him some mercy, "Please don't hurt me! It was an accident! I didn't mean to kill him..."
The demon's eyes widened at the last statement. Then, once he'd regained enough of his composure to think, he wondered, What happened to him? His previous life keeps sounding more messed up the more he speaks...
Since there wasn't enough light coming from the hallway for Ivan to be able to see Alfred's face, he decided to turn on the light so that he could study the human, and perhaps show him that he had no intention to hurt him by revealing his passive expression. However, that didn't seem to reassure the human much, as when the demon decided to sit down on the bed next to him, the human whimpered, "I'm serious! I didn't know that what we were doing was dangerous until it was too late!"
At that moment, Ivan couldn't help but appreciate the fact that the dog was now trying to find a comfortable place on the bed, instead of trying to comfort Alfred. Sure, Goldie was a sweetheart, and didn't seem to have a problem making the human feel safe before, but now it seemed as if the human would need words. After all, the dog's affection wasn't going to explain everything. It would be best if the dog decided to stay out of the way as the demon tried to reason with Alfred, and he appreciated the fact that the dog became discouraged when, in the dark, it looked as if she was trying to receive his attention and Alfred had completely ignored her.
When Ivan decided to pull Alfred into a tight, comforting embrace, he couldn't help but feel relieved when the human didn't try to squirm out of his arms and possibly hit him. Although, he couldn't help but feel a bit dispirited when it didn't seem as if the human's sobs and tremor were going to stop any time soon. Therefore, Ivan decided to tell him in the most soothing voice he could manage, "Shh, everything's going to be okay. I promise."
Alfred tried his best to argue through the sobs, "It's not going to be okay! It's never going to be okay!"
"Fredka, look at me." At first, Alfred refused to comply. Even when Ivan gently tilted his head with his hand, Alfred still refused to make eye contact with the demon. Since the human was being stubborn, Ivan decided to add, "That means I want to see your eyes."
After a moment a hesitation, Alfred finally made eye contact with Ivan. Even in the dark lighting of the yellow lamp light, Alfred's eyes seemed to almost glow due to the slight pinkish tint that formed in the white part of his eyes from all of the crying he'd done, and still was doing. Not only did his eyes seem to become somewhat lighter (as if they weren't already light), they seems to have obtained a bit of a grayish hue. The tears that continued to slide down his cheeks, and the regret and dread that radiated from his expression only seemed to enhance how dismal, yet beautiful the sight of Alfred's eyes were at that moment. Even if Ivan did feel a bit envious at the sight, he couldn't help but feel even more sympathy for the human as he examined the overwhelming sorrow that seemed to scream from those beautiful orbs. After a moment of being distracted by Alfred's eyes, Ivan returned his focus to the problem at hand, and began, "If it was my goal to hurt you for all of eternity, what would be the point in taking the time to even try to make you feel comfortable around me?"
Alfred opened his mouth, as if he was about to give out a reason as to why Ivan would want to do it that way. However, he was immediately interrupted, as Ivan decided to answer his own question, "There wouldn't be any point. Demons are very powerful, and I just happen to be stronger than most demons. I'm not saying that you're weak. For a human your size, it's shocking how strong you are. But I'm stronger, and I can easily take advantage of you. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's the truth. All I'm trying to say is that even if I am capable of doing so, I'm never going to hurt you. Don't you remember those times you hit me? I never hit you back. I tried to understand things through your perspective."
For a moment, Alfred thought about what Ivan told him before asking, "But why wouldn't you hate me, and why would you even care for my well being?"
"Fredka, I hardly even know you. Why would you expect me to already hate you? Besides, I have a couple of reasons as to why I'm caring for you. For one, you have just entered this world. You're going to need someone to help you get used to this change. Secondly, I'm sort of hoping that you'll want to... stay... with me."
Alfred watched as the demon turned his head away from him; a sign that he was becoming shy. Alfred could tell that Ivan wasn't blushing in a way that signified that he was in love. That would've certainly scared him away from the demon. Instead, it looked as if the demon was embarrassed by what he'd just said. Alfred had to admit; it was sort of strange for someone to wish for another person they hardly even knew to live with them. Then again, the demon sort of did seem to show signs that he was extremely lonely. It wasn't the first time he started acting shy around the human, and sometimes, Ivan would even become quite talkative around him. Even if Alfred didn't respond to anything he said. Then, there were those times when Ivan would hug Alfred for no reason; as if he was touch-starved. Those times would always cause Alfred to flinch, and later become a bit uncomfortable, as those hugs were always completely unexpected.
However, it didn't seem as if Ivan's shyness was his main concern at the moment, as Alfred stated, "Well, I doubt that you're going to like me for long. Besides, you're probably really annoyed with how I've been acting ever since you met me, and obviously I ended up here because I'm a horrible person."
Fresh tears prickled in Alfred's eyes, and the fact that his voice wavered immediately snapped Ivan out of his bout of shyness as he explained, "If you think that you ended up here after you died because 'you are a horrible person', I'm just going to let you know that that's not true. Everyone goes here when they die."
"Don't lie to me, I'm here because I killed someone! Maybe you're not going to punish me for it, but I know it's going to come back to get me eventually."
"Nyet, Fredka," Ivan pulled Alfred into yet another tight embrace as he told him, "You're not a horrible person. You even said that it was an accident earlier, didn't you?"
Alfred nodded his head as he hid his face into his arms, and after receiving this response, Ivan continued, "I realize that this must have been a hard lesson for you to learn, and I understand that you feel horrible about it, but please realize that you're not a horrible person because of this. Sometimes good people make huge mistakes like that, and it's not fair, but please don't let this eat away at you. You don't deserve to be miserable."
Instead of responding, Alfred only continued to sob as he thought, He doesn't understand! Meanwhile, Ivan began to stroke Alfred's hair in an attempt to sooth him. As he watched Alfred's form shake with sobs, Ivan mused, This human's so young, yet it seems as if he's been through a lot.
After what seemed to be half of an hour of non-stop crying, Alfred eventually became too exhausted to continue being miserable. As soon as he was leaning against the demon, Ivan decided to lay him down and tuck him in. However, before the demon was able to stand up from the bed and leave, he felt the human hug his arm. At first, Ivan was shocked, but eventually, he couldn't help but smile as he stated, "Alright, if you don't want to sleep alone, I can stay."
After Ivan was under the covers with Alfred, the human immediately snuggled up to the demon as closely as he possible could. A warmth began to grow within Ivan's chest due to the sudden affection. After he'd reached over in order to turn off the lamp, Ivan wrapped one arm around the human as he listened to him fall asleep. Then, before Ivan began his attempt to drift off to sleep, he thought, I hope that I can eventually make Fredka feel at least a little better about himself.