Author's Note: Salutation dear readers, and welcome to the grandiose chapter of Drifters! Lots of chaos this week. But through Hell and high water, I did manage to get this section edited and ready to go!
That being said, onto reviews!
Gamer of Action 44D: Lol, you're not wrong. Although, a lot of Lucifer's reaction has to do with how well Alastor played everybody's emotions in that scene.
Based on what I saw from the show, Alastor's primary goal when it comes to Charlie is to be the main influencer who guides her growing power. In season one, he's able to do this by taking advantage of Charlie and Vaggie's strained relationship. And makes a deal with the emotionally distraught former to gain a bit of freedom from her control, while simultaneously tying her to a bit of his.
In this version, Amp of all people actually took that canon opportunity from Alastor away. Her attack on Vaggie made it so that Lucifer showed up, and that Charlie is, at least for the moment, too concerned for her girlfriend's safety to be upset with her.
Which presented Alastor with the risk of Lucifer becoming the most important person Charlie goes too when it comes to her power.
Without having some of his freedom back through a deal, Alastor has to make it so Charlie can't put a stop to his plans by telling him 'no'. And he has to respark the division between Charlie and her father so that she'd view him as the more 'Sinner' friendly option.
Luckily Alastor's greatest strength is sprinkling spontaneous innovation onto his slow cooking plans.
Taking advantage of all the things he didn't plan, but did observe, during the fight and the end of the trial, Alastor effectively convinced Lucifer to relapse into his former thought process. And highlighted the fact Vaggie could have killed somebody as powerful as himself the whole time, to highlight the amount of danger Lucifer's daughter was in.
Alastor also used a similar tactic to convince everybody in the conversation that the war with Heaven is inevitable. Charlie and Lucifer could have easily looked at Emily's descent to Hell and been like 'Awesome, there are people in Heaven who don't want a war, are appalled by the Exterminations, and oppose Sera's viewpoint'.
But Alastor turned people away from that path pretty fast. And stoked Lucifer's fear further by subtly pointing out that they had just defied the Seraphim as opposed to just the Exorcists. And who knows how Heaven itself, not just Adam, will respond to his daughter being the boss of the people that did it. While also convincing Charlie that her only option to protect her partner and friends was to fight.
An Angry Green Boss: Which brings us back to your comment from last week… because Alastor is totally a villain. He's manipulative (as seen by the fact the essay above doesn't even scratch the surface of all the subtle strings he was pulling in that conversation), and every problem he solved in Book One was almost always one he purposely created.
Ironically enough, he didn't write like an antagonist. But I think that has to do with his motives being indifferent to the ultimate outcome of the protagonists' goal. Whereas the actions taken by Adam, Lute, and Vox are defined by their opposition to the main characters' success.
Phew, sorry for the long review responses, but with how helpful you two, and every reviewer, have been throughout this book, I wanted to go all out with this section.
But now, without further adieu, besides my traditional apology revolving around any grammatical mistakes that may pop up along the way, I welcome you back too….
Drifters
A Hazbin Hotel Fanfic
Chapter 36:
Ascension of Faith
Within the confines of his room, two friends at his side, and a literal guardian Angel having roused from her mental overload, Nester was very much in a safer environment than he was an hour earlier.
Which was good.
"Why didn't you guys just tell me that in the first place?!"
Because with his hands pulling his quill like it was a fire alarm, his breakdown had certainly reemerged.
"Alright, I'm not gonna act like you don't have a reason to be upset," Stewie's pinky spun around his ear, "but the whole name thing was literally one of the first things I told you."
"In the form of a cryptic warning!" The Doorman clutched his chest so hard, a response was squeezed from his lungs, "I thought the whole thing was just some esoteric taboo shit that was going over my head!"
Still in a daze, and not having unclogged the ringing in her ears, Emily had the luxury of being confused by his mime work instead of his vulgarity.
"Evidently it was too advanced for you." Husk growled. More so as a warning that Nester needed to lower his volume, "Because the second after I gave you instructions on 'how not to be fucked by others', you immediately ran away to fuck yourself!"
"… h-he was pretty out of it back in the courtroom." Emily meekly pushed her words out vacuumed lips. Regretfully for Husk, Stewie, and the slowly emerging reasonable part of Nester's brain, the Seraph's hearing had returned just in time for the cat's language to drown out his sound logic, "And with all the chaos that happened afterwards… Well- Um-"
Which left her with the awkward challenge of having to concretely defend a point she didn't fully understand.
"I-I… uh…" beneath the paused stares of vexed to panic expectations, Emily nervously rubbed her arm. Her reverse away from the stress only halted when she tapped the futon's sole wall, "… I-I'm sorry, but i-is there a way I can respectfully request we all momentarily put aside previous mistakes to… Well, I don't want to say focus on the larger one at hand. Because o-of course each of your viewpoints is equally important-… I-I'm sorry, is this itself offending anyone?"
Beneath the blinks of disbelief, the Angel's anxiety folded in on itself. Caught in the singularity of her own catch twenty-two.
Which, if nothing else, reset Nester and the two others Sinners collective train of thought.
"Shit happens." Husk pinched his brow till a sigh escaped his lips.
"W-what-" the Seraph stuttered. As if she had just realized she was defecating on the Mona Lisa.
"That's the phrase you're looking for." The gambler cut the white haired woman off with the answer before she could turn it into a misplaced apology, "Shits happened, it sucks, it's still new enough to smell, and it's still close enough for one of us to slip on if we're not careful. But whether it's recent or not, the craps in the past."
With Husk's six shooter wisdom having just enough chambers to shoot through everyone's eyes, the room went quiet.
And with the bird's slightly reddened cheeks being fueled by a deep breath, he focused up.
"Y-you're right… I just-" Nester's uneven breath almost tripped him into Emily's verbal labyrinth. Luckily, Stewie and Husk's eyebrows quickly raised him out, "Besides not shouting my name to the Heavens, or within range of Charlie's dad and Alastor, how do I, you know, stop people from enslaving my soul?"
"Not to downgrade the boon that having the devil and the actual devil as nuclear deterrents is, they can only stop the people trying to physically wrench your name from you." Husk made it clear who those titles belonged to, "On account of the fact every Sinner that went by 'John' isn't immediately captured when they get to Hell, guessing somebody's name isn't how you go about bounding a soul. They have to be freely given in a sense, or tricked into discovery. But since Heaven did have our permission to use our past experiences as evidence, you technology volunteered the location of your soul willingly. Your last name is still the key to control it, but the green light to take it's been given. And since the thieves have access to the unlocked car, sort of speak, instead of mugging you for the keys, they can attempt to hot wire it."
Nester had to fight off the rumble of fear threatening to erupt his stomach. Stewie's downward glance, and Emily's covered gasp, were having the same problem with pity and horror.
"C-could somebody have guessed it already?" The avian found it far harder to quench a terrified stutter than a nervous one.
"No." A quick twitch of a mouse's shaken whisper helped him push through it however, "Trust me, you'll- you'd know if somebody hit the jackpot."
Well, the thought behind Stewie's assistance gave the bird enough strength to nod his head.
"T-that's good to know." Emily coughed a smile into her hand. And perhaps in a need to offer more than just brittle positivity, the Seraph forced out her own inquiry, "Would they need to guess his middle name as well? …I-if you have one that is?"
Her voice trailed off into silence when the question began to trail back into her accommodating instinct.
For a moment, the avian fought back his own natural response to bob his head in confirmation. But before he could berate his paranoia for wanting to keep that truth from the three people who encouraged him to have it, Husk shook the problem away.
"Not unless the person went by it. Same can be said for nicknames." Husk sneered a, almost nostalgic, smile away, "Whoever the people up top knew you as, is the golden treasure everyone down here tries to steal."
Emily's breath choked on her acceptance to such cruelty. And Nester bit his bottom lip to wedge the point home.
"Any chance your brother had just picked a really convenient time to go bat shit, and this whole 'Gavin' thing's a recent development?" Stewie tried to break the tension with a blown grin. Although Husk's glare at the mere mention of the 'G' word shattered it.
"Considering that would mean I had been the sane twin in the car," Nester rasped out a small, but only marginally forced, grin of appreciation towards the smaller Sinner, "I'm afraid not."
"So long as we're on the subject," Husk's rolled eyes grinded out a sneer, "you and your brother are both Amer- North Americans right?"
The cat bit his tongue, as if the brunette's dialect and memory hadn't already dropped a pin on his previous location.
"Last I checked." Nester sighed his exhale, "Why? Does being from a continent instead of a country really grant me that much of a shield from people's guesses?"
"The people making educated ones will fuck around inspecting that barrier for sure." Husk mumbled back, almost as if he was deep in thought. Trying to deduce the name to see how much time he wasted, "And if you just end up being some privileged fuck going to to school out west, the stupid ones will be barking up the wrong tree till Hell freezes over."
"I mean… I don't think it will matter but-"
"Don't tell me idiot! If we can use it correctly, the smallest bit of ambiguity could be the crucial difference between us finding a solution, or somebody else finding your chains!" Husk interrupted. Finger to his chin before he opened his mouth, "Fuck. Of all the times to need the Vee- Listen, I don't need to know anything else, but is your last name French?"
"N-not," Nester's voice crackled unsure, "that I know of."
"Great!" Husk took the hesitation as a confirmed negative. Then quickly passed it to the former bus boy, "I'm too old for this forum crap-"
"No kidding." Stewie couldn't stop his quip from seasoning the aged slang.
"Just take out your phone and start some rumor that Chicken Little's from Quebec!" The gambler snapped.
"R-right-" the mouse yelped at the order as if the cat had rung up his own name. Yet by the time the rodent's phone illuminated his face, his digits paused on the screen, "Wait… can Canadians even go to Hell?"
"The French ones can."
Almost feeling the need to do Emily's job for her, Nester was about to say that seemed a bit, if not racist, then regionalist of the cat.
But then again, the shit that happened because of Husk's age was definitely too old for the Doorman to focus on.
A sentiment shared by Stewie. Who after a simple shrug, started spreading the stereotype.
"Alright, between that breadcrumb trail," Husk sighed, almost as if he had cheated the bell by reversing a clock, "and the fact you're not in literal chains, your family's Hancock's proving itself unique enough to delay the problem."
The cat motioned his exhale to the room. But outside Stewie's tap, all the gamble did was spread silence.
"… and?" Nester broke it.
After a confused gaze towards Emily showed her own curiosity was still trying to figure out a way she could politely ask Husk to rethink his view of America's mime hat.
"And what?" The cat sneered as if hit with his own wave of offense.
"I just- You seemed to be on a roll, so I thought your plan had a part two." Nester flicked the admittance off his quill.
"I'm sorry, is me doing everything in my power to buy us time to make one not enough?"
"O-of course it is." Nester wrung the rasped answer from his waving arm.
"Oh, I know!"
To everyone's surprise, Emily beamed away her own internal question with a solution.
"You do?" Husk blinked twice. One for the avian and the other for the rat.
"Yep!" The Seraph's current smile came the closest to pushing away her long existing feeling of unease. And with a deep breath, she tried to blow her remaining nerves away, "Shit happen!"
Once again, a lull of silence was her only response.
"Because we need to…" and the edges of Emily's lips quickly unfurled within it, "You know… focus up?"
"… I mean," Nester breathed out a whisper, "she's not wrong."
"Fuck, the world is really coming to an end-" the cat moaned towards Heaven, but stopped before Emily's mouth could make the vulgarity he taught her a habit, "We've delayed the problem, but what can we do to solve it?"
"Oh, we can inform people about the inherent evils of slavery!" Emily offered. Unaware she already made her contribution, "Once the people of Hell understand the moral injustice of the practice, your real name will be the last thing on their mind!"
The whoosh of Stewie's sent message swept him back into the conversation. If only so he could stare at the Seraph's naivety in pitiful disbelief.
"Alright, that's one plan. Now can anybody think of a good one?" Husk wrenched his face from the Angel's frown and onto the two Sinners.
"Um… I…" Nester desperately tried to formulate a solution in his mind, but he simply didn't have the knowledge to voice a lost cause. Let alone a long shot.
"Fuck man, you're asking the wrong guy." Stewie's response to being on the spot didn't fare much better. With the mouse running a hand through the fur atop his confused head, "In some ways I'm lucky that Roadie has control over my soul. But I've had more luck walking away from his control in one night, then two decades of trying to find away to break it-"
The rodent must have combed over a switch, because his pupils suddenly lit up.
"Shit… shit!" He practically cried out the word of the day, "Are you willing to accept a 'good' bad idea?"
"Fuck." The gambler blew on the dice, "I guess at this point I-"
The cat stopped just long enough to turn towards the singular bird in the room. Although, Nester's blank mind nodded. Up for anything that could fill his head with hope.
"We are."
"Awesome!" The mouse yelped. Taking in a deep breath, the smallest Sinner prepared to use the bobbing necks as pistons to power his solution, "Right now, we're just delaying the inevitable. Because whoever guesses Nester's name is a matter of 'if' not 'when' right?"
In spite of the cold front sweeping over his spine, Nester's head continued its vertical whiplash.
"Well, since we've delayed the 'when', shouldn't we use that time to address the 'who'?" The mouse cracked a toothy smile that froze the audience's sweat drops. If the rodent cared for how his idea was being processed, the fire in his eyes did a good job evaporating any visual critiques, "I mean, I'm not just going to tell you guys my name. But even if I did, you wouldn't be able to take control of me by saying it. Because Roadie already owns it. And so long as he doesn't die in the Extermination or give it away, everybody who says my name is essentially casting out a line with no hook."
Nester saw Emily cringed at the thought. But Husk almost seemed to hear the words with a storybook level of dreamy, albeit unreachable, hope.
"I-is that true?" Nester asked the original spark plug of this brainstorm.
"I mean… it is." The cat took a deep breath. Creating a hurricane that fought against his entrenched nihilism, "But you'd still be giving up your freedom."
Husk's heavy dose of reality wasn't a pill Nester could easily swallow. But given the cat and Alastor had made the medicine the former had to take every day obvious, it wasn't a treatment, or rather an ailment, that the avian could ignore.
"At best, you'd get a guy like Roadie…" Husk motioned towards Stewie. Whose deflated smile proved the gold standard was far from a perfect one. "And at worst you could get a monster like- Well, at worst you would get the monster known as Alastor."
Nester followed Husk's contemplating eyes to the floor.
"… is… I mean," Nester rasped in a breath. Before he inflated himself up with all the strength the logic of his question could muster. "Can't I give it to one of you guys?"
"Giving it to me would-" the mouse had the decency to treat the request as forfeited flattery. But he rubbed it off his arm nonetheless, "You'd just be giving it to Roadie then. And who the fuck knows how he's going to start treating his souls."
It was hard to tell if Emily flinched from the curse, or the messed up reality of Stewie's free will belonging to somebody else.
"Same goes for you?" Nester turned an already answered question to the cat.
"Yeah, and even if it wasn't…" Husk exhaled his vision through the floor, "Well, let's just say you should never trust a man who deals his own bad hand."
"…do you all have such little faith in yourselves?" Emily whispered her first genuine question through the silence rather than a constructed smile.
"Huh."
It was hard to tell if the sentiment echoed from the three Sinners was done so as a sigh or a smirk.
But as Nester's head rose to watch Husk answer, he figured it was probably a combination of both.
"Do you really think the Demons Velvette showed you are the norm?" The gambler mumbled his truth like rattled dice, "Because the selflessness Charlie treats us with goes beyond the concept of rarity down here. Hell, the fact Nester basically ran into another version of her when we met you is-"
In a brief instant of fear, Nester's body clenched up. Thinking the bartender's abrupt silence meant his soul had been snatched.
However, when he looked up to see the cat was stopped by a realization, and not some sort of demented hairball, the bird slowly began to see more and more of the cut off answer.
"God…" the feline's slits darted towards the hall. As Nester's and Stewie's widened while following along, "We're fucking stupid."
"U-um- Woah!" before Emily could have a chance to be lost. Nester grabbed her by the hand, as the three Sinner's bolted out the room and towards the elevator.
"I'll head up and see if I can distract Al." Husk ran his finger into the elevator's call button, "I doubt he'll make the effort for your soul, but you should still tell her your name as far from the radio tower as you can."
The bird nodded, as his neurons flowed faster than the lift's arrow signaled its approach to their floor.
"Maybe Em's can fly you above it." Stewie piqued up. Offering not only his help, but the confused Seraph's services as well, "I mean, winged Sinners are pretty rare, and you are going to be giving it to her anyway."
"Good call." Nester wasn't even aware his own head confirmed that before Husk, "Do you mind Emily?"
"N-not at all," the Angel agreed to an idea she didn't fully understand… made evident when her eyes widened when she did, "W-wait! You want me to own your soul?!-"
Out of sheer politeness, the Seraph paused her own train of thought so as to not interrupt the ding of the elevator's arrival.
Fortunately, the anchor of shock and courtesy that had whipped Nester's arm in place, was quickly pushed into his drag by Stewie.
"Fuckfuckfuck!"
CRASH!
Unfortunately, that push was into what truly cut off the Angel.
The black and pink rhino that charged forth from the cage. A beast that knocked Heaven down atop Nester, as well as the rat and cat not meant for the savanna.
"Fuck fuck…" the repetitious Vee looked around in a confusion that outpaced the startled pins fall, "Fuck!"
And by the time their own questions could form, the pinkette had come to a realization. One that she made on her way back through the elevator doors she wrenched closed.
"What the… is…" brain rattled, Nester struggled to compose a question.
"Is she going to be okay?" Luckily, keeping a level head when it came to the concerns of others, was not something Emily could ever be lost on.
"Who the the fuck knows." Husk picked himself up and rerouted everybody towards the staircase, "It's always something with this damn place."
XxxxxxX
Vaggie… Vaggie didn't know the universe could stop for her. The mere idea that it would for anyone just sounded like the selfish byproduct of memory's tendency towards embellishment.
Heck, even when her life had flickered out on Earth, Heaven, and Hell, the ticks of entropy had kept going. Giving approximately zero shits for each end she experienced.
But then again, those conclusions had only been chapters. And it wasn't until right now, a now that was infinite in its finite space, that she found herself in complete stillness.
"Where did- Where did he take her?" The guard couldn't stop herself from asking the stupid question. Not when Alastor's grin was doubling as a teleprompter.
"Oh my dear sweet child~" the radio hummed. A hand reached out to drape over both her and Odette's shoulder, before whisking them in for a group huddle, "I have absolutely no idea!"
The Wendigo stated his limitation as if it was the most wonderful thing in the world.
And despite how shriveled Vaggie's pupil had become, she noticed Odette's silence spark from the ears.
Evidently, this development was not something the weapon's heiress had been notified of in advance.
"… Why?" The guard herself was leagues more in the dark. But far more accustomed to Alastor's omnipresence, Vaggie tried to break through it first, "Why are you doing this?"
The radio crackled a discord through his fangs. An action Vaggie felt more than she heard.
"Why did you really come here in the first place?" The fallen Angel pushed herself away on shaky legs, "Why the actual Hell do you want a war with Heaven?"
It took all of Vaggie's effort to shift her tremor of disbelief into one of rage. And with her world falling apart around her, anger and wrath felt like the only things anchoring her to reality.
"Why did you work so hard to protect everyone in the Hotel, just to put it in the ultimate danger?!" She growled. And when Alastor chivalrously ushered the Carmine behind him, Vaggie's fingernails bit through her palms, "Why the hell did you just convince Charlie to fight, when you knew you'd scare her dad away?!"
Her voice had risen at this point. And the fact Alastor's amusement followed a similar trajectory infuriated her to no end.
"Why the fuck do you have to be such a monster?!"
Out of courtesy, most people's insight usually allowed any and all emotional outburst to be followed by a moment of silence.
A time when all that could be heard was the ragged breath of the beast who cracked, and the wide eyes of the spectators who witnessed it.
"Because," Alastor, regardless of Vaggie and Odette's strive for the norm, did not allow such respect to enter his domain, "I am rather good at being one. And whether her drive leads her back here in a week or a year, Charlie will have no choice but to finally see me as her necessary one."
Vaggie's eye furrowed in anger.
Yet even her lost one wasn't blind to the confusion weighing her down.
And neither was Odette's sudden fascination with the floor.
Or the Wendigo's laugh.
"The same way the Carmines have," he chuckled, more with amused sympathy than malice, "and the same way you will. Or more accurately, already have."
Alastor propped up an eyebrow as if it was a spark plug.
"Considering you'll be the first person to pick up a spear in order to protect your partners hopes, dreams, and friends."
The deer managed to suck all the oxygen from the room when he pushed that simple statement for his lungs.
And with a locked jaw, Vaggie's hammered heartbeat twitched in rhythm with the radio's steps across the suite.
"Do not fret over it too much Vagatha." Much like his rising pupils over her head, Alastor twirled his cane in place, "You, the hotel's inhabitants, and Charlie's dream may just be my tools, but there is much solace to be had in knowing I need all of them to function properly. Husker can attest to that~"
"Husk?-" before Vaggie could voice her confusion, the microphone turned lever wrenched open the top floor window. Just in time for her question to emerge.
"CHARLIE?!"
His snarled voice raised to a level of panic that seemed about as alien to the feline as his new found gaze of determination. One that landed upon the Wendigo the moment his answer couldn't be found.
"Where is she?!"
"On sabbatical~" Alastor hummed.
"Husk what are you doing?-"
"Shit, Al just let me-"
"There's no need. I'd say you've thought things out rather well my trickery terrapin," The pinstriped man cut off Vaggie's and Husk's shared inquiries, "but that would be a lie. I mean for goodness sake, are you aware you stated the reason why they needed to leave my studio, within it?"
Vaggie's confusion only increased when Alastor's motion towards the window revealed an Angel carrying Nester towards the sky. Her six wings pumped her upward like some sort of reverse parachute, as her arms held the Doorman by his shoulders like some sort of dubiously stitched strap.
"Besides, I have no desire for the boy's name. Though," the radio's boots kicked the phone Charlie left behind. "The same cannot be said for the problem you ran into on the way here."
"How did you-" the cat was, if Vaggie was reading an actual emotion on Husk's face correctly, infuriatingly flabbergasted, "Fuck!"
"You're welcome!" The radio stated with a gleeful clap.
All while the canary swan dived out the window, and streaked after his winged companions.
"I don't understand, why are you-" Odette finally voiced a question.
Alastor, perhaps to make sure he answered the right question, closed the barrier with a sharp crack before the pale heiress could finish.
"Like I said, there is a benefit to having me as your handyman. I keep all my equipment in order." Alastor's eyes smiled more than his teeth, "Even the pending ones."
When Vaggie's scrunched iris followed the deer's gaze, it tripped into the open realization of her pupil.
"…fuck you Al." where her hiss of defeat, had to accept the white haired truth of the Demon's order.
XxxxxxX
"W-we're probably high enough…I think." Nester fought to push his words past the wind Emily beat into his face.
In truth, he had no clue where Alastor's range of influence ended. Hell, for all he knew, it had no end.
But with his own nerves being mirrored by the Seraph's, who looked more exhausted from the emotional stress than her musical back in Heaven, the Doorman figured the height in which Stewie went from a mouse to an ant was far enough.
"A-are you sure? I-I can keep going a bit more if you like?"
The avian had a feeling the Angel was asking more so about the task, then where it should take place.
"T-that's okay." Nester reasoned. Although, with her wing still working overtime, the bird quickly understood that the name he dropped would do so from an ever rising point, "I um… well… to be honest, outside of you being the best choice in a bad situation, you're probably just the best choice period."
Given the Demon had known the Angel for less then a day, he probably wasn't qualified to say such a statement with so much certainty.
"S-so I guess… um… I'm…" which is probably why he immediately second guessed it.
Uncharacteristically, he almost felt like giving himself a pass for the anxiety. After all, he was a flightless bird about to entrust his soul to a stranger, I'll be it a heaven sent one, hundreds of feet in the air.
Emily looked down at the silence. And the one created between them caused Nester's jaw to lock.
"How about this," the blue hued woman offered a muscle strained smile. One that tweaked her vocal chords up an octave as it constructed artificial words, "I'm Emily, but you can just call me Emma, or Em, or even just E if that's what you'd prefer!"
Her voice was a mere echo of its former giddiness. But with all the chaos that had erupted in the hours between now and the first time he heard the greeting, Nester's instinct couldn't help but twitch a smile.
"It's nice to meet you…" Emily took the gesture as a good sign, before adding a giggled obvious, "Now it's your turn-"
"WAIT!"
A snarled screech struck Nester's side before he could turn towards it.
And by the time his helicopter could think to breathe in a yelp, or his eyes could widen at the comet impacted into his belt, the human feline that was Husk had his fangs firmly in the bird's… phone?
"What the?-"
CRACK!
Snapped in two, the cell's gurgled death zap hit Nester's ears faster than his own confusion.
"Hmph!" As was the terminal velocity in which the flying house cat spat it out, "Alright, now you're all good to go!"
And said feline's accelerated free fall after it.
For just as quickly as Husk's sonic boom had come, it departed. His wings blurring in a motion as he left them with the goal to crash into the ground at Mach speed.
"…"
"…"
BANG!
Two sets of eyes watched his impact. If only to prove the organic asteroid had indeed been beside them two seconds ago.
"I.. um… do you want me to…" Emily began to trail off. Still flying them upward, despite the circles they seemed to be going in… despite the approach of the starting line he had come from five month ago… despite all the twist and turns of a universe that hated straight answers-
"Gavin Powell!" which is why, against all better judgment, the avian nearly yelled the title to existence, "For God's sake, it's just Gavin Powell. Everybody happy!"
Whatever shock Emily felt at the outburst, was wrenched away by a silence they didn't have time for.
"Gavin…"
Which saved Nester the trouble of having to feel whatever weight this moment was supposed to have-
"Powell."
The same could not be said for pressure he suddenly felt squeeze his very being. A force so abrupt, it fell the very smile of its user.
Although, even as Gavin felt his very essence be compressed down to its core being, Emily's concern at the ensnarement of his very body and soul… was probably proof it was now in good hands.
At least, that's what he could only hope.
As the chains of unwanted control constricted his vision from a tunnel to a black wall.
"Nester?!"
.
.
.
End of Book One
XxxxxxX
And everybody now hates me for all those cliffhangers XD
Luckily the story is far from over!
I've been writing and editing nonstop for the last ten months, so the hiatus between this book and the next won't exactly be short.
However, in that time a trio of epilogues will be dropped!
So stay tuned!
And as always, feel free to comment! Criticism is always welcomed (and given the cliffhangers, probably expected this time around XD) so long as there's an attempt for it to be constructive!