Loona And The Ghost With The Most
Synopsis:
Everyone knows the story of Loona; the hellhound who was adopted by the imp Blitzo to have her work as a receptionist for his contract killing business within the Pride Ring of Hell, not to mention the imp's vain attempts at fawning over her with his unwarranted affection in hopes of gaining respect as her new father.
But what if one was to tell you that Blitzo was not the only one who had met Loona at the adoption center, from where she was found?
What if before him, there was another?
A strange and unusual being who had visited the young hellhound woman and had tried to cut her a deal for a chance at his own unique flavor of freedom.
It has been an encounter that Loona has kept secret throughout her formative years, with a being of such infamous reputation and dangerous power that it has haunted her from the shadows ever since, only for them to make their presence known on occasion at such trying times in her life.
This is the untold story of Loona, and her many escapades with the mysterious ghost in the black and white suit.
But whatever you do…Don't say his name three times.
Chapter 1: The Man After Midnight
It was another miserable evening at the Hellhound Adoption Center, located deep within the Pride Ring of the eternal realm of Hell, with the building itself being repeatedly pelted by heavy rainfall from a nearby storm as the hour had gone past midnight.
Deep within the rotting bowels of the adoption center, constant howls and whines from the current inmate residents echoed throughout its soulless concrete hallways. A cacophony of despairing tears that matched the flooding rainwater outside with its intensity and relentless pain.
For one such inmate, Loona sat all on her own and could barely sleep on the hard and dilapidated bed inside her cell, with the constant howling from the other hounds present not helping much either.
As per usual nights like this, Loona had resorted to chasing some escapism on her "Hellphone" branded smartphone to waste the tiresome hours away. But even that had become a tedious headache in of itself considering her cellmate had kept insisting she let him borrow her phone on multiple occasions, despite her aggressive protests.
"Lousy punk kid," the hellhound girl swore to herself. "One day I'm gonna throw his lazy ass if he keeps asking."
As Loona endlessly scrolled through her various social media accounts, the more she felt depressed thinking about all of the other hounds who had already been adopted, undoubtedly having more successful lives than her.
And yet here she remained, stuck in this cesspool of a prison.
A mere silent observer and invisible to everyone else, trapped inside her own personal Hell within Hell.
"Damn privileged pricks," she swore again.
Eventually, she couldn't stand it anymore and had simply turned her phone off. The adolescent hound then curled up into the corner of her cell bed, hugging herself in the red skull-patterned sweater that clung tightly against her body of black, white, and grey fur to keep herself warm whilst listening to the rain outside for comfort.
However, just like the rain, tears started to flow down Loona's face as she lay.
Cold and alone.
Loona did not choose this life, but unfortunately it had chosen her, and she desperately wanted to be out of it. At least, that was how she felt about her situation anyway.
"I'll do anything to get out of here…" the lonely hellhound sobbed to herself. "…Anything…"
Then, a voice drifted through the barred window of her cell room like a chilling breeze.
"Hey! You ok there, girl?" the voice spoke, calling out to her in a deep southern drawl. "I can hear the waterworks from out here."
Loona froze as her eyes opened in distress, her tall furred ears shot up almost entirely off her head.
"H-Hello...? Who's there?" she said tiredly, turning her head to where the voice was coming from.
"Right here," the voice replied.
Cautiously lifting herself off from the bed with her stocking-clad legs, the adolescent hellhound tread lightly on her white-furred paws towards the window before gazing through it, trying to find exactly whom the voice belonged to, only to be met with such a bizarre and peculiar sight.
Just outside in the middle of the torrential rain, miraculously floating in midair, was a man dressed in a tatty black and white striped suit, complete with a purple shirt, black necktie. He was also wearing a pair of dark military combat boots for shoes, which Loona thought was a rather odd choice to go with the rest of his already outlandish clothing.
The floating man looked directly at Loona through the metal bars of the cell window, with herself carefully looking back and sizing him up with her ruby-red eyes.
Despite his dapper sense of dress, the man's physical appearance was much to be desired. The rather perplexing individual practically looked like a corpse.
No…He was a corpse.
The ill-favored man's skin was entirely chalk white with light purple blemishes, as if all of the blood was drained completely from his body.
And to make matters worse, his already dead skin was sparsely covered with green moss, most of which seemed to be teeming on his balding scalp and into his long blonde, albeit decaying hair. His unusual yet unique green eyes appeared to have been struck with a serious case of jaundice and were also nearly sunken into his pale face, leaving only dark circles around them as they unnaturally gleaned from what little light there was coming from the inside of Loona's cell.
Overall, the man was pretty much a walking (or rather floating) zombie. Loona wouldn't be entirely surprised if she found out that he had recently just woken up from his coffin. The disgusted hellhound wrinkled the top of her muzzle at the sight of him, not to mention the sheer smell her sensitive black nose must have picked up from the foul ghoul.
However, Loona's grossed-out reaction didn't bother the decayed man in the slightest, as he floated closer towards her on the other side of the cell window. He then extended his stripey-sleeved arm through its rusty metal bars before opening up a dry-weathered hand as though he were offering a handshake.
"Hi, how are ya?" he said, displaying a crooked smile, poking out a huge overbite of green and charcoal-colored teeth from his coarse mouth.
Loona hesitated to speak after being taken aback by the man's unexpected greeting. Everything about him screamed danger, yet there was something about the way he spoke, so casual and so unfazed that made the young hellhound's curiosity peak a little. He seemed friendly enough, in a really weird but intriguing way.
And even though he looked like he had just walked out of Death's door, she admittedly had seen worse from people, both on the outside and inside of various individuals she had met before throughout her formative life as a young hellhound.
Eventually, she swallowed her hesitation before stretching her own arm out and shook the undead stranger's hand.
"Um…Hi…Like…Nice to meet you?" Loona said in a husky yet quizzical tone. "Who are you?"
"Who? Me? Eh, just a stranger…passin' thru'," the floating man replied, withdrawing from the handshake before reaching into his striped jacket, pulling two cigarettes out from its inner pocket. With a flick of his moss-infested wrist, he popped one of the cigarettes into the toothy overbite of his mouth. "A stranger who can't help but notice a good-lookin' hound like yo'self is cryin' her worries away in the night."
Loona's tall ears twitched, slightly caught off guard by the stranger calling her 'good-looking', Not exactly the kind of comment she wanted to hear considering she was not in the best of moods.
"Well…Thanks, but I don't need any help with it," she said, her tears beginning to dry up as she recollected herself by crossing her arms and straightening her posture, trying to appear more confident. "Besides, I'd rather keep things to myself. Especially from nosy strangers."
"Uh huh," quaffed the man, seemingly unimpressed by the hellhound's attempt at appearing tough.
He then held the cigarette in his dry grey lips with his left hand as if he was ready to light it. But instead of using a lighter, he brought his empty right hand in front of the cigarette's end and clicked his fingers.
Strikingly, a small lick of steady flame flickered to life from the very tip of his right thumb, lighting the cigarette's tobacco almost instantly. The strange man then inhaled a long drag from his now lit up coffin nail as he waved his thumb rapidly to put its flame out.
"What the-?" Loona whispered to herself, looking on in disbelief but still maintaining her composure.
She then watched as the zombified man breathed out a large puff of smoke from his lungs, which then formed into a giant vaporous ring before dissipating into the air.
A very peculiar sight to the hellhound indeed, but what was even more perplexing however, was that the levitating stranger was seemingly unaffected by rain, despite him being in the thick of it outside. And with her acutely perceptive vision, Loona could see that every raindrop from the storm was not landing on him, almost like each drop was passing right through his very body, leaving his monochrome suit completely dry.
Not even his lit cigarette was soaked by the downpour.
And yet still, the floating man kept smoking away, as if he were none the wiser.
"Wha'ever helps ya sleep at night, girl. S'pose it's better than howlin' up a storm like ya friends here," he said, pointing out that the noise coming from the other hellhound inmates throughout the adoption center had been going on non-stop.
The howling, the yelping, the whining. Never stopping.
"Yeah, well…We all handle our worries differently," Loona sighed. "I just handle mine a lot quieter than most…No use in making a big deal over it."
"I heard that, sis," the man agreed, taking another puff of his cigarette. He then stretched his hand out again, holding the second one he had pulled from his jacket earlier. "Want one?"
Loona again hesitated.
She dabbled in just a little smoking here and there, despite her young age, knowing deep down that she really shouldn't and tried quitting, only for the temptation and cravings to eventually catch up to her in the end.
Once, she had tried smuggling an entire pack of cigarettes through the adoption center's security checks, which landed her in serious trouble with the wardens. Not that it didn't help things much either looking back.
But lately, her mind was weighing heavier than usual and it had been a while since she had some calming nicotine in her system. Perhaps having just the one drag might help take the edge off a bit.
"Sure, hit me," said the teenage hellhound, trying not to sound too grateful.
She stepped up towards the window quietly with her slender hind legs and took the cigarette from the floating man's hand between the iron bars, with him giving her a small wink. Almost as if he could see right through the facade she was trying to pull with her icy demeanor.
"No worries, girl," he said, giving Loona another unnerving smile before he clicked his fingers again, producing another lick of flame from his thumb, complete with the sound of a metal Zippo lighter.
Now this was just getting ridiculous, but Loona played along. She put the white cigarette to her rich black lips, leaning forward to light its end with the stranger's flaming thumb.
So far, she did not mind the attention she was getting from this bizarre and seemingly magical individual. He certainly came across as charming at least.
A little odd, but charming nonetheless.
Still, she wasn't stupid enough to not suspect that men in general only acted in a certain way when they wanted something from a girl. And he was definitely no exception.
With her death stick now lit, Loona took a few puffs as the man put his fiery thumb out yet again. The slit pupils of her eyes dilated as the sudden rush of nicotine had now infested her lungs.
"Nice trick of the hands, big guy," she said, exhaling a hot cloud of cigarette smoke from her muzzle. "Comes with the floating?"
"Nah, just tools o' the trade I learnt from the carnival over the years," the talking corpse replied, making odd shapes out of the smoke he himself was exhaling. One of those smokey shapes resembled a rotating Ferris Wheel.
"That figures," Loona muttered, taking another quick puff.
"Why's tha'? Do I look like I've come from the carnival?" the man asked, as he gestured to his black and white striped attire.
"No, you look more like you've just walked out of the circus. And a really dead one at that too," the hellhound answered with a deadpan tone.
The loud pop of a gunshot could be heard ringing out in Loona's cell as the man suddenly jerked backwards, clutching his chest.
"Ouch!" he yelled playfully, feigning injury as though he had just been shot. "Ha, ha, ha. Definitely walk'd into tha' one".
Loona just stared at the man again, finding it odd that he could conjure weird sound effects out of thin air on a whim, let alone all of his other magic tricks. He was almost like a real-life cartoon character. At least he had a sense of humor, she had to admit.
"So what are you doing here?" Loona asked coldly, taking a few more puffs from her cigarette.
"Who wants to know?" retorted the man, doing the same with his cigarette.
"Just a simple question," she growled.
"And?" he snapped, unintimidated.
"Well, any girl would be wary of a strange man talking to her through their window, in the middle of the night," Loona pointed out sharply. "Perfectly reasonable for me to feel just a tad suspicious…So I'll ask again…Why are you here?"
"Like I said," the man spoke. "I heard ya cryin'."
"Yeah, and I already told you," Loona snarled, her teeth laid bare in her frown. "I don't need any help with it." After making herself clear, the hellhound then turned away from the window before slowly returning to her bed.
"Even if tha' means gettin' outta here?" the man asked.
Loona froze, stopping on a dime. Her ears flicked from hearing the strange ghoul's words, her head snapping back in his direction before being followed swiftly with the rest of her body.
"What?" she asked with a hint of intrigue in her voice, taking a few steps toward the window again.
"Yeah…Well…Ya want out, right?" the zombified man snorted. "I mean…who wouldn't, in a dump like this? So, what if I help ya bust outta this place? How 'bout tha'?"
The hellhound couldn't believe what the floating ghoul was proposing.
Him?
Getting her out?
He did indeed have a few tricks up his sleeve, he had proven that much for sure, but a full blown breakout was just something she couldn't help but be skeptical about.
"You want to…break me out?" Loona asked, tilting her head to one side.
"Yep," the man answered simply.
"How?"
"Let's just say I have some…other talents," he said. "Apart from some cheap circus acts, o' course."
Loona glared back at the man with an uneven brow. Was he telling the truth? Was he lying out of his backside? Or just plain deluded?
"Does that include breaking through steel bars?" she asked, gesturing to the bars of the window as she finished her cigarette before putting it out. "I don't see any cutting equipment anywhere on that drab suit of yours."
"I can do anythin'," the man responded, putting his cigarette out too.
"Really?" she said, crossing her arms again.
"Wanna bet, pupper?" he shot back with a provocative grin.
"Pupper?" Loona thought, her uneven brow from before was now scrunched into a sharp and narrowing glare.
The stranger was really pushing his luck by calling her that.
"Ok then…Do it," she demanded. "Break me out of here. Like to see you try."
"Eh, eh, eh," the ghoulish stranger uttered, wagging a pale and aged finger. "I'm gonna need ya to do somethin' for me first."
"Ah crap. There's always a catch, isn't there?" Loona muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes.
"Well, if ya want me to do anythin' other than lightin' ya cigs," he explained. "Ya just gotta do one lil' thing for me. That's all…Just one."
"Do what, exactly?" she asked.
"Ya just gotta say my name three times," the floating man smiled, lifting three more of his wrinkled fingers.
"Wait, that's it?" Loona said, uncrossing her arms.
"Yeah," he replied back. "Simple enough for ya's?"
"Ok, hang on," the hellhound spoke, trying to process what was happening. "Even if I do say your name…Why are you even doing this? And how do I know I can trust you?"
"Does there have to be a reason why?" the man shrugged.
"With creepy old guys asking girls for favors?" Loona remarked. "Oh, there absolutely is."
"How's 'bout I let ya out first?" he proposed. "Then I'll tell ya's?"
"You really think I'm gonna fall for that?" she said back with a snarl.
"And wha'cha gonna do if ya don't?" the ghoul asked, indifferent. "Stay here?"
Loona wanted to shout back at him, and rightly so. But the more her mind was mulling over the stranger's words, the more her mouth was struggling to find any argument that could hold much water.
"Well…I, uh-" she blurted out.
"Ok, tell ya wha'?" the stranger interrupted, leaning his head closer to the window. "You say my name, I let ya out. But if ya feel like ya changed yer mind, then I'll just…back off."
"Just like that?" Loona asked back, stepping away from him instinctively.
"Yeah," he answered. "But o' course after tha', I'll have to put ya back in ya cell. Don't want an escaped convict traced back to me later down the line."
"But then you'll tell me why you're doing this, right?" she said.
"Sure, sure, sure," he replied.
After hearing the ghoul's proposal, Loona gave it some thought. His reasons for putting her back in her cell seemed fair enough. Him not wanting to be tied down with her was par for the course with everyone else who had left her out in the cold.
Her parents included.
Besides, if she didn't like whatever motive the stranger had after being this courteous for her, she would then just end up being put back to where she was, almost as if nothing had happened at all.
"Alright…So all I have to do is say your name three times?" Loona asked again, just to be sure.
"Ya got it," the strange man replied. "That's all ya have to do."
"Ok, then what's your name?" she said.
"Ah…" he breathed out. "Now that's the hard part, I'm 'fraid."
"What do you mean?" the hellhound spoke, eyebrow raised. "Can't you just tell me?"
"Welp, that's the problem," the floating corpse stated. "I can't just tell ya."
"Why not?" she said, straightening her posture, her frustration growing. "Hmph, don't tell me you forgot?"
"Nah, it's not that," he explained. "Ya see…I have this curse, right? Now grant'd, this curse allows me to do all sorts o' things, kinda like a superpower. But as always, there's a catch. My name needs to be said three times in order for me to use this power, but I can't say my own name as a consequence. Otherwise it wouldn't be much of a curse now, would it?"
"I guess," Loona remarked. "Even if it's a tad ironic."
"Heh, ain't it just?" the ghoul muttered.
"Well, how am I supposed to know your name then?" questioned the hellhound. "Don't you have a pen to write it down or something?"
"Not exactly, but p'haps I can think of a way…" the man pondered, scratching his mildew-ridden stubble with the red scabby nails of his fingers before clicking them, causing a bright lightbulb to magically appear just above his head. "Oh, I know! Why don't we play a game?"
"Seriously?" Loona scoffed. "That's the best you can come up with?"
"Hey c'mon, think of it more as an ice breaker," he said as he then reached up with one of his large and veiny hands, grabbing the lightbulb over his bald scalp. "Tho' I reckon the ice between us has pretty much already shatter'd at this point, if ya know wha' I mean?"
Loona merely huffed a long exhaustive sigh at the stranger's request. But if it was the only other obstacle to overcome to leave her cell, she was willing to put up with it.
"Fine…What kind of game?" she asked frustratedly.
"How's 'bout a game of Hangman? One o' my favorites," the man proposed, throwing the lightbulb into the air before it had unexpectedly shattered, conjuring small wisps of smoke in its wake.
As the smoke rose, it separated into divided miniature clouds before they began forming into what appeared to be blank and wavy underscores levitating in midair, like the ones usually found on a certificate waiting for a signature;
'_'
"Ok…I can work with this," an intrigued Loona uttered, just barely making out the floating underscores through the bars of her window. "So I just try and spell your name by guessing some random letters, right?" she asked.
"Ya catch on fast, girl," said the floating stranger, snapping his fingers before pointing at her. "Oh, and by the way…Since ya gonna find out wha' my name is, and only if ya do, I might as well get to know yer's. If that sounds fair to ya, o' course?"
"Um…Sure…" she said whilst rubbing her snowy furred hands nervously, feeling a little caught off guard. "…It's Loona…"
"Nice to meet ya, Loona," he grinned. "Now let's play!"
"But wait…What happens if I lose?" she asked honestly, trying to understand the stakes of the game.
"Then I leave…" he assured her. "Gone! Arrivederci! Sayonara! Simple as that. "But o' course, you'll still be stuck here as well. So if ya want tha' sweet taste o' freedom…" With a slight pause, the stranger leaned his head in again so Loona could see his enticingly twisted smile. "Then I suggest ya think very carefully, gorgeous."
"Gorgeous? Oh piss off," Loona groaned internally, softly growling at the man's provocative attitude.
She then glanced at the blank underscores as she began thinking of a letter to start off with.
"Well…'S' is usually the most common letter," she said confidently. "So I'll go with 'S' first."
"You certainly sound like a smart girl," the ghoulish man said back, his voice sounding a little more smooth and warm like a lively gameshow host. "And you most certainly are right!"
As the undead host made his declaration of a correct answer, a glowing letter 'S' flickered to life over one of the underscores;
'_S_'
"Good start," Loona whispered with a chuckle. But as the young hellhound tried to think of another letter, a faint surge of realization crept into her mind;
She was actually getting a little bit excited over this.
But why? She didn't usually get this thrilled over anything.
"So, wha' will it be next? C'mon, give us another," the stranger said, his voice returning to its southern drawl.
"What about a 'T'?" she replied.
"Bingo, we got another one!" he announced. A bright letter 'T' had now appeared;
'_T_S_'
"Alright," Loona said out loud.
There she was getting excited again.
Very strange. What was making her feel this way?
"Wanna go for a third? Three times the charm, after all," the ghoul said.
"Ok…Well my name starts with 'L'…So let's go for 'L'," she suggested with a smile curling up in the corners of her muzzle.
"And we got ourselves a hat trick, everyone!" he cheered, as the letter 'L' manifested;
'_T_L_S_'
"Wow, I'm impress'd," the floating man praised, giving Loona a congratulatory wink. "Yer definitely on a roll here, girl. But let's see if we can make it four-in-a-row, shall we?"
The hellhound hesitated, feeling a little twinge of apprehension in her chest. She then looked at the levitating letters and underscores, only just noticing that all of them together would make a name consisting of exactly ten letters.
A rather long name indeed, not to mention the odd assortment of letters that were already revealed. Loona could already tell that this was a name she had certainly never seen before, and was struggling to work out what letter to choose next.
"Maybe…'H'?" she said anxiously.
Suddenly, the man's head had miraculously decapitated itself from the rest of his body with a loud *Snap*, reappearing just above where the glowing letters with a long hangman's noose tied tightly around his severed neck.
"Woah!" Loona yelped with a look of shock on her face.
"Aw- Terribly sorry, lil' miss," the man's head spoke, with the rest of his body shrugging its shoulders independently. "But that's a wrong answer, I'm 'fraid."
"A little warning when you do that next time?!" she snapped harshly, her fur bristling.
"Well, ya only made one mistake," he pointed out. "Ya still got a few chances left to get my name right."
"Yeah, I kinda figured that," she muttered. "What about vowels? Can I choose a vowel?"
"O' course ya can, girl," replied the ghoul's severed head. "This ain't no 'Wheel Of Fortune'. And ya certainly not being 'Countdown' to pick one, either."
"Ok, ok, good to know," Loona said back dismissively. "I bet 'E' is pretty common too…Let's go with 'E' then."
"Woah!" he hollered. "Good answer! Ya found four letters all at once!"
With that said, four instances of the letter 'E' popped into existence, nearly filling up all of the underscores entirely;
'_ETEL_E_SE'
"Yes!" Loona shouted, pumping her fist in the air. At this point, she didn't care (or even notice) that she was getting more excited by the minute. All that her mind could focus on was getting out of her cell, and she was more than halfway there.
"Very nice work, Loona," praised the stranger once again, his disembodied head still suspended by the noose. "Yer almost there. Ya just need to find the last three letters, and then ya right outta this dump."
"Heh, I'll be glad to see the back of it," the hellhound remarked with a smile. "Right…How about…'R'?" she asked.
Like before, a sharp and bloody *Snap* was heard. The ghoul's torso suddenly ripped itself from all of its limbs before reappearing just above the letters, reattached to his hanging head.
"Whoops! Wrong answer again," he said out loud.
"Okaaay…" Loona groaned, her smile vanished. "Uh…Can I pick another vowel? Would the letter 'A' help?"
Snap* Another of the man's body parts had rejoined his hanging torso, this time his right arm.
"Oh dear!" he said playfully. "That's two wrong'uns in a row."
"Damnit-" Loona swore under her breath. The excitement she felt was now slowly fading, for there were only three chances left for her. "Let me see…I'm gonna try…'C'?"
Snap* The ghoul's left arm had rejoined his dangling corpse.
"Nope."
"Crap!" Loona swore again. This was getting dire now. Her chances for freedom were slipping fast. "Uh…'J'?" she uttered, not too sure of her choice. "What about 'J'?"
The man didn't say anything at first, a tense pause fell upon this long game for a brief moment until he spoke again.
"Close…But no cigar," he said finally.
Snap* His right leg reattached to his hung body, leaving only his left one on its own.
"No!" Loona screamed, reaching out her hand before falling naturally to her side. Her face also fell, now with a devastated look as the harsh reality of the situation had hit her like a brick.
She only had one chance left.
"Now…" the hanging man spoke up. "I know it looks kinda bad…And that's because it is."
"Oh…really?!" barked the hellhound, jabbing towards the floating letters with a finger. "I'm not exactly left with that much to work with here! I mean, why does it have to be spelt all weird like that?"
"Hey, that's just how my name is always spelt," he grinned. "Nobody's perfect…'Except for you, gorgeous."
"Oh shut up!" Loona spat, her face flustered with heat.
"Huh…Fine," retorted the stranger with a frown, sounding as though he was slightly hurt by the hellhound's outburst. "Be like that, I guess…Just wanna give ya a clue, is all."
"Wait, what?" Loona said, flashing intense desperation with her eyes. "A clue?"
"Well, I was gonna give ya one," the man grumbled. "But if that's yer attitude-"
"No, no, hang on!" Loona interrupted, grabbing his attention before taking a small breath to calm herself down. "Please…Can I have a clue?" she asked softly, feigning some air of remorse.
The man didn't answer immediately, giving a tiny glance to the fraught hellhound girl, and a twistingly wide grin.
"Alrigh' then," he said finally. "I'll give ya clue…if ya answer me this question."
"Sure, go ahead," Loona replied eagerly.
"Riddle me this!" the suspended stranger announced. "Wha' goes buzz 'n' makes honey?"
Loona merely gave a bewildered expression. "What...? A bee?" she answered. "You mean a bee, right?"
"Bee is correct!" he called out, just as the letter 'B' had appeared in front of its literary brothers;
'BETEL_E_SE'
Loona watched the newly conjured letter before giving an almost gracious look.
"Heh…Thanks," she said.
"No problem, lil' miss," the man replied. "Now…Think ya might be able to spell my name?"
"I-I…I don't know," Loona stuttered, reading the letters repeatedly. "I've never seen a name like this before. Bee…Bee…Tell...? What kinda name even is that, anyway?"
However, a tiny fraction of the young hellhound's mind couldn't help but feel something slightly familiar with how the beginning portion of the name sounded.
"Well it's my name for a start." the stranger stated.
"Pfft, whatever you say man," Loona muttered, shaking her head.
"Look here, girl," he said with a serious inflection. "Believe or not…I actually want ya to win this one. So I'm gonna give ya another clue, how 'bout that?"
"Being overly generous, aren't you?" she said suspiciously.
"Hey, ya want my help or not?"
Loona took a moment, rubbing one arm with the other. "Ok, fine. What's the other clue then?"
"Alright then, listen up 'n' listen good," the stranger declared, his voice dropping to a whispery and melodramatic tone. "My name is the same name as a star, deep in the constellation of Orion, shinin' bright in the night sky."
"Huh? How am I supposed to know that?" said Loona, utterly confused. "You gave me an easy clue before."
"What's the matter? Don't ya know astronomy?" he asked.
"No…" she admitted honestly.
"Why not give it a guess then? Go on, I believe in ya! Just say what you see!" the stranger suggested, momentarily switching back to his gameshow host persona again.
"Ok, ok," the desperate hellhound said, turning around on the spot and taking a few steps away from the window, ruminating on what the man's name might be.
"That's it, pupper," the man spoke in his regular voice again, impatiently wiggling his whole body around by the noose still wrapped tightly on his neck. "Rack that ol' noggin o' yer's. Just think real hard now! Don't keep me hangin' around, heheheh!"
"Pack it in, will you?" Loona muttered sharply, standing squarely at the far end of her cell, staring down at her bare paws in deep thought. "Same name as a star…Say it three times."
Her brain was rattling fast. That feeling of familiarity was creeping back again.
The young hellhound girl knew within her gut that she had definitely heard all of this before somewhere, and sometime ago.
Closing her eyes, she thought back really hard to when she was young.
Very young.
Back when she was with her parents.
When she wasn't alone.
"Bee…Tell?" she thought, rinsing every possible pronunciation through her head. "Bee-Tell...? Beetle...? Betel-"
Then, Loona's bright red eyes snapped wide open. The dark thin pupils inside the pools of her silver irises quickly shrunk as the sudden realisation of what the man's name could potentially be had finally dawned on her.
She knew exactly where and when she had heard it before, from such a very long time ago.
Cautiously, Loona turned her head, with the rest of her body following suit, and looked up towards her cell window again, passed its metal bars and directly at the enigmatic ghoul who was peering down at her with an almost unnerving and restless stare, fidgeting as he did.
Staring back at him, the hellhound girl's pulse began to quicken as well as her breathing. Her heart beating erratically with adrenaline as her memory harkened back to when she was just a little hell pup.
Back to when her mother used to tell her stories.
One of those stories however stood out to Loona, and rightfully so. It was one of the most memorable, or rather infamous tales that any Hellborn would have ever heard as a child.
The tale of an undead creature.
A demon.
A monster…
One who waits in the shadows, always looking out for their next victim, tricking and coaxing them to say his name three times, before he eventually got them in the end.
There was even a nursery rhyme attached to such a tale;
"Be wary of him, whose name must not be spoken. Three times, unbroken."
Loona used to be frightened of that story.
That was until she grew up, and had to face some of reality's worst nightmares throughout her formative life all on her own.
But now here she was, torn from her parents and virtually rotting in this cesspool of a prison alone, face-to-face with quite possibly the very same monster from the exact same story that scared her all those years ago.
She tried to speak, but an instinctual sense of fear kept stopping her.
However, behind that fear was an even more overwhelming force of biting curiosity in Loona's mind.
Enough curiosity to override her hesitation.
Enough curiosity to even speak.
Enough curiosity for her to muster up the strength and courage to finally ask if the infamous name she was thinking of really did belong to this mysterious man she had been talking to all this time.
With a hard swallowing of her worries, Loona anxiously let out the darkened name from the tip of her tongue.
"B-B-Betelgeuse?" the hellhound stuttered, her tall furred ears lowered down, almost touching either side of her face.
And at that moment the name fell from her black lips, the floating man exploded into a thunderous uproar with a look of sheer delight beaming from his waxy white face.
"Yes!" he screamed, throwing both of his hands up in the air with wild excitement, his disembodied left leg reattaching to the rest of his body with the noose around his neck untying itself before it disappeared in a trail of smoke. "Yes, that's it!" he screamed again, pointing at the levitating letters.
With a whisk of her head, Loona could see each letter had now been completely filled, spelling out the very name she had been dreading to see as it flashed three times like a bright, blinking neon sign;
'BETELGEUSE'
'BETELGEUSE'
'BETELGEUSE'
Horrified, Loona staggered further away from the window until her back hit right up against the wall of her cell with her tail tucked between her slender legs.
"You're Betelgeuse?!" she cried out, her voice shaking.
"Ah, ya said it twice now!" retched the ghoulish man, now formally known as Betelgeuse, as the glowing letters spelling his name abruptly disappeared. "C'mon- Just say it one more time, girl," he said in a spurring manner, his eyes narrowed with his dry mouth twisting upwards to an undeniably lecherous grin.
Still frozen to the wall, Loona could only stare back at him, her whole body shivering and mind storming with various thoughts, all confirming that her worst fears had now come true;
He was real.
The Great and Powerful Betelgeuse was actually real.
But as seconds passed, her breathing began slowing down to a more stable rhythm and her shivering lessened. A large and heavy brow grew over her eyes, forming an intense scowl. Her hands had now closed into hard still fists, showcasing a definite change in her mood.
Gradually, Loona took a few steps away from the wall towards the window yet again, only this time there was a noticeable defiance In her stance as she leaned her head towards Betelgeuse whilst bearing her razor-sharp canine fangs.
"…I know who you are…" the hellhound growled through the teeth of her snarling mouth, her voice low and venomous.
"Wha'?! Me?!" Betelgeuse croaked in a surprised tone.
"Yeah…Thought you could trick me, didn't you?" growled Loona again.
"Pfft, w-whaddya talkin' about?!" Betelgeuse replied, shrugging his shoulders as if appearing ignorant of what was being said to him. "Ya know who I am? Yeah o'course ya do, I just show'd ya my name, that's why." But as he kept speaking, the irises of his jaundiced eyes began to flicker, emitting a subtle green glow as the tension in his voice crept up. "And it's my name that's gonna get ya outta here…That's what ya really want, isn't it…?" More and more, the glow in his eyes grew brighter, his voice sounding thicker with irritation and intensity by the second. "Then all ya gotta do is say my name. C'mon gorgeous, don't waste my goddamn time and just be a good lil' pupper girl for me! Just say it!"
"Shut the fuck up!"
Loona's piercing roar from the back of her throat ripped through the air like a fierce whirlwind, so loud in its volume that it had probably woken up a few of the other hounds throughout the adoption center. "Don't fucking lie to me, you dirty old shit stain!"
"Huh?" uttered Betelgeuse with an overtly flabbergasted look on his aged face, the eerie glow in his eyes quickly faded.
Presently, the air felt colder from the freezing tension that now entered the room.
"You were just fucking with me all this time, weren't you?!" Loona accused, standing her ground. "Yeah, I know exactly who and what you are, and all the stories about you! The kind of stories little implings and hell pups get scared of after reading them before they go to bed. About how you sneak around the Afterlife, tricking others into summoning you so that you could get what you want out of them, am I right?"
After Loona finished her interrogation, the one known as Betelgeuse merely stared at her blankly in a deafening silence.
Then, his vacant expression was then filled with one that appeared to be malicious in nature, with the moss-infested brows over his eyes lowering down into a chillingly dark look and his parched mouth yet again curling up into a grin.
A wide and horrible looking grin.
Lifting both of his cold dead hands, the ghoul clapped them together three times in a slow and somewhat sarcastic applause with each clap being louder, sharper and more spiteful than the last.
"…Clever girl…" Betelgeuse purred, voice dripping with evident amusement. "You're smarter than ya look."
"Have to be in this fucked up world!" Loona snapped. "Especially when facing monsters like you! So why is it that you want me to say your name? What do you want from me?!"
"What do you think?" the floating man said back in a derisive manner. "Indulge me."
"W-Well…I don't know…To kill me?" she asked hesitantly.
"No," he answered.
"Take me away as a slave?"
"Non quello."
"Eat me whole?"
"Wha'?!" Betelgeuse blurted out in clear disbelief with a snort. "Honestly, you girls and ya imaginations nowadays!…Well I mean, who am I to judge? I'm into some weird shit myself, I guess…"
Loona naturally winced the top of her muzzle at his remark. "Ok, so why do you want me to summon you, then?" she asked again.
"Because, I thought I could bust ya outta here," he explained. "Simple as."
"That's bullshit and you know it!" she said harshly, baring her fangs again. "You must be after at least something! Otherwise you wouldn't be acting like such a goddamn creep to me!"
"Hey- Listen here, babes," Betelgeuse grumbled with a stern inflection.
"Babes?!" Loona's mind screamed. "That's it!"
In the heat of the moment, the young hellhound launched herself straight into the bars of her cell window with a violent crash, barking and roaring like a wild dog with her snarling teeth, almost biting Betelgeuse's finger off. She then tried to scratch her way out with her sharp claws and leaving deep marks on the inside walls, with her eyes burning a deep crimson glow.
A beast's rage fully unleashed.
Betelgeuse himself however, simply floated a short distance away on the other side, hanging back as he watched her scratching, thrashing and biting, but to no avail.
Eventually, the ferocious hellhound had lost some steam, her breathing now heavy and ragged through her black nose as she slowly withdrew from the window.
"Down girl…" Betelgeuse spoke with a small tilt of his decomposed head.
"Get out of here!" Loona snarled, her red eyes still burning. "Go away and leave me alone!"
"Ya know wha', babes?" he said, floating closer to the window again. "For someone who's stuck in a rut wit' absolutely nuttin' going on wit' their life, ya sure do act like a brat over it."
"Fuck off!"
"Oooh, that's a migh'y temper ya got there. Is that why ya got lock'd up here in the first place?" Betelgeuse remarked, with Loona letting out a guttural growl from the back of her throat and through her clenching serrated teeth. "Heh, I'll take tha' as a yes."
"Shut up!" she roared. "You've been a real pain in the ass to me, so why don't you just make like a tree and piss off?!"
"Well for one, I don't think ya got the full picture 'bout what I do exactly," he replied casually, seemingly unfazed.
"I know enough!" she replied venomously, pacing up and down the length of her cell room floor. "Enough that you're nothing but bad news, and I don't want anything to do with you!"
"And yet here you are still talkin' to me…" Betelgeuse said.
"Agh! Just go away!" Loona shrieked, once again moving away from him in a storming tantrum as she threw herself onto her bed, sitting on it with her back turned whilst covering her ears with her hands and hiding herself away in the comfort of her sweater.
"Listen, let me ask ya somethin'," Betelgeuse said out loud, his voice carrying itself by an overtly commanding tone. "All o' these stories ya heard 'bout me? Sayin' tha' I trick others into gettin' wha' I want? Can I just ask, did any o' 'em say tha' maybe p'haps wha' I want'd from these people exactly was just to help 'em out?"
Hearing the floating ghoul's claim, Loona let go of her twitching ears and peered over her shoulder towards his direction.
"The fuck do you mean?" she said coldly, the red glow in her eyes fading.
"Alrigh' look, ya wanna know wha' I do? Straight from the horse's mouth...?" Betelgeuse professed. "I make deals wit' people…"
"Tsk- Well that's fucking reassuring," Loona rasped, her throat sore from all of the shouting she did earlier.
"Hey, hey, hey, now hear me out, girl," he continued with a clear air of confidence. ""Wha'ever people want, I provide."
"So what?" Loona snarled, her dimmed eyes narrowing with suspicion. "You're some sort of contractor?"
"Hmmm- More like a freelance salesman," the dead man hinted.
"Yeah right…A salesman," she said harshly, turning her head away to face the corner of her cell room wall. "Not surprising…What's your business angle? Screwing people over behind their backs before taking their money?"
"Hey, as the old sayin' goes; if ya good at somethin', never do it for small change," Betelgeuse grumbled. "Like I said, I can do anythin'. And people are very willin' to pay a pretty penny for tha' kinda service from me. I ask wha' they want, they summon me, and I get the job done for 'em. But after tha', I want somethin' back from 'em as payment."
"Well not from me!" Loona snapped as she sank further in her bed where she sat, wrapping her arms around her legs, cradling them tightly. "Even if I do want you to bust me out of here, I don't have anything to pay you back with."
"Doesn't take a genius to see tha'," Betelgeuse stated. "Which is why I'm not gonna be askin' too much from ya's…Tha' is, if ya actually take up my offer."
Loona's ears perked up, unsure of how truthful Betelgeuse's words were or not.
"…Y-You won't…?" she asked hesitantly.
"Yeah…Call it a seven-day trail sorta thing," Betelgeuse answered. "Because believe it or not, I can understand how ya feel right now, livin' in a mad house like this." For probably the first time since he appeared, the ghoul fell silent for a moment, his head dropping slightly, followed by his shoulders. "…Matter o' fact…Ya kinda remind of an ol' friend I once knew," he added, his voice now sounding despondent somewhat, almost lamenting.
"A friend?" Loona thought with a few blinks of her ruby eyes, her head tilted and her ears uneven. "The Great and Powerful Betelgeuse…had a friend?"
"They felt the same way," he murmured, lifting his head up again. "All alone…No escape…Almost had one foot in the grave when I first met 'em…"
As Loona heard Betelgeuse's tale, she loosened her grip on her slim legs, relaxing her posture for just a fraction.
"…Did you help your friend out…?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
"Sure I did!" he spoke up with a returning air of swagger in his voice. "And they can vouch for me on tha' if ya meet 'em. Five star review, I guarantee it…Well, four outta five, more or less."
Loona eyes darted from side to side as her mind processed Betelgeuse's confessions, totally unsure of what to make of them.
Was he being truthful?
Actually truthful?
It sounded like he was, but it was hard for Loona to tell, especially with a now growing sense of doubt clouding her mind.
"He might be my only chance," she thought. "Can I trust him?"
But her deep and intrinsic thoughts were soon distracted by the distant howling from the other hellhounds that echoed throughout the adoption center. Their cries and whines of painful sorrow pierced through the walls, relentless, miserable and inescapable.
"And my friend wasn't just the only one I've lent a hand to," Betelgeuse said out loud, drifting his stripey-clad body a little closer. "They've been many others I've help'd throughout my afterlife. And most o' 'em were in a similar boat as you." He then moved even closer to the window, as though he was making sure the hellhound would hear him clearly.
"Shut up…" Loona whispered, moving her head away from him as she wrapped her arms around herself, just to try and feel any form of warmth her sweater could still provide.
And yet…all Loona could feel was the cold. The chilling, icy cold that she has been putting up with throughout her young life, ever since she first arrived at this hellhound prison when she was only a puppy.
But now, it was becoming even more unbearable.
She was feeling colder…and colder by the second.
"Now, I may not be a gambler," growled the ghoulish man, his croaky voice settled to a low-pitched rumble. "But I'm eager to bet that you're the risky type o' girl who's willin' to do anythin', just to be happy…Anything,"
Loona's eyes widened, her breath hooked inside her throat, shocked to hear the mysterious man's choice of words.
They were her words.
The very same she had said to herself right before he had first shown up and spoken to her.
Did he hear her say them from outside?
"I have to get out of here…I need to get out of here!" Loona's mind spiralled, lamenting on what she desperately wanted over and over again, still hearing the howling hellhounds echoing around her through the cell walls.
It was as if they were getting louder…It felt inescapable.
She wanted it all to stop, trying to block it all out by covering her ears again with her white-furred hands.
And yet…Loona could still hear the howling.
Trying desperately to silence the noise, she clawed at her head with her sharp black nail, gritting her teeth as hard as she could, hoping that the surge of endorphins in the blood rushing to her brain could numb the torment for just a tiny bit.
And yet…the howling continued.
"Or if ya don't wanna deal wit' me…Then you can just…stay here, I guess. In this place…Cold…Alone…" Betelgeuse spoke again, burning an intensive glare on the shivering hellhound's back. "But hey…As the kids say these days…That's just my opinion…So whaddya say?" he asked finally.
With a swish of her head, a shaking Loona gave Betelgeuse another quick glance over her shoulder, her shimmering eyes once again damp. She then pondered on what he said regarding this so-called 'friend' of his and he had helped them out. Not even the scary stories of him said anything about that.
Were the stories even true?
"I don't know…" she uttered weakly, her words drenched in doubt as well as her thoughts.
Betelgeuse then gave a small shrug with his shoulders as he gradually started to float away. "Well…If that's how's it's gonna be…See ya then-"
"Wait!" Loona called out unexpectedly, wiping away the tears.
"Hm?" the ghoul grunted, slowly coming back.
With a sharp and deep inhale of her lungs, Loona rose from her bed and stood back up to face Betelgeuse, wiping away the faint tears with the long rugged sleeves of her sweater.
"Ok…I'll say your name," the lonely hellhound said pleadingly, moving ever so cautiously to the window again with the soft pitter-patter of her paws. "I'll summon you…Just this once…Just to see if you're telling the truth or not, and to let me out of this cell for a bit…But only on one condition,"
"Depends," retorted Betelgeuse, peering down at her with an arched brow over his dull green eyes.
"You give me my freedom," Loona said, her red eyes meeting his gaze, an intense matching of jade and crimson staring right at each other. "And you'll show me exactly what I have to give back to you in return." Raising her voice slightly, she then pointed a finger squarely at the listening ghoul of myth and legend. "But if I don't like what it is, even for just a bit…You put me back here…No questions, no tricks, nothing…Understand?"
"Sure, it's a deal-" Betelgeuse shrugged.
"Promise me!" Loona demanded, her voice raised more.
"Wha'?"
"Promise me you will do that!" she demanded again. "That you'll put me back in my cell when I tell you to, ok? If I'm gonna summon you, I want it done on my own terms, not yours. Got it?!"
After Loona had laid out her improvised terms and conditions, Betelgeuse continued to look down upon her under his long hooked nose, as though a vulture would do when sizing up their next found meal in a desert. He then slowly lifted one of his old, rotten-looking hands before slipping it inside his black and white striped jacket like he did before.
But instead of reaching for what one would assume to be something that was hidden within his jacket's inner pocket, the ghoulish man had a good feel around until a few squelching sounds could be heard.
Loona's muzzle wrinkled and her stomach churned at the disgusting noises coming from inside Betelgeuse's jacket. She originally thought that he was only taking out a pen of some kind to write something down with, or perhaps another cigarette, but instead what he was actually taking out was something the hellhound did not mentally prepare herself to see.
Carefully, Betelgeuse then brought his hand back out of his jacket, revealing a most shocking article to behold.
It was fleshly, moving, and most definitely alive.
There, sitting in the palm of his pale white hand, was the quivering mess of his dark and still beating heart, completely separated from the inside of his chest.
Mortified by such a disgusting sight, Loona quickly covered her mouth and nose with one hand, feeling as though she was about to vomit as her wide eyes helplessly watched the vivisected, grisly organ that was laid before her. The heart's valves and fleshy chambers were still pumping out thick jets of blood from its severed arteries and veins into the open air.
With her mouth still covered, the sickened hellhound glared back at Betelgeuse, utterly bewildered as to why he was showing her this.
"What the fuck?!" her mind yelled. "Is this some sick joke?!"
But her question was soon answered as she saw what Betelgeuse did next. Still holding his heart, the ghoul raised his other hand and lifted his wrinkled forefinger before then placing it on the bloody organ. With such delicate and precise movements, he then scratched a long drawn out tear on the top of his own heart with the tip of his red crusty fingernail, forming a single glowing green scar.
Loona uncovered her mouth as she curiously witnessed Betelgeuse doing this strange act in such a casual manner, all the while showing no sign of discomfort or pain on his decrepit face.
Soon, he did the exact same thing a second time, slowly scratching yet another garish green scar on his severed heart before lifting it up for the revolted hellhound to take a better gander.
With her black nose flared, Loona adversely looked at the two glowing scars on Betelgeuse's heart, forming two intersecting lines like a large green cross on its bloody mess of flesh. She then anxiously glanced back up to Betelgeuse as he withdrew his heart from view with a firm grip before slipping it back inside his jacket, and presumably back into his own chest as a loud *Squish* sound could be heard from within.
"There?" he asked with a roll of his shoulders. "Satisfied?"
"As much as I'll ever be," she whispered, holding both of her hands close to her stomach, apprehensive in placing her trust in him after witnessing the sickening stunt he had just pulled.
"Well, go on then…Say it," Betelgeuse said with a smirk and a noticeable growl in his voice, lifting yet another finger before casually wagging it from left to right. "But only if ya really want to…"
"Alright…Here goes nothing…" Loona said back with bated breath, swallowing hard and biting her bottom lip, feeling an intense surge of adrenaline being pumped through her body again.
"Betelgeuse…" she muttered, saying his name once whilst taking long and steady breaths to calm herself.
"…Betelgeuse…" she said for a second time, hands trembling.
She was actually going through with this.
Before attempting to utter anything else, Loona could see that the suave husk of a man was looking directly at her with a most definite smug expression, as he began to adjust his striped suit and straighten the black tie around the collar of his purple shirt.
The hellhound glared back at him with a fierce gleam in her eyes before closing them tight, apprehensive over what might happen next as she mentally prepared herself to say his name for one last time.
"…Betelgeuse!" Loona yelled finally.
And then…Nothing…
Nothing happened…Not even a sound…
Nothing of any sort had happened, whatsoever…
Puzzled, Loona began to slowly open her eyes again, only to be met with an even more confounding sight;
Betelgeuse was gone…
He was gone completely, vanished without a trace.
"Hey! Where are you?!" Loona shouted with a stunned look, rushing towards the window before looking through it to get a better view of the outside.
The hellhound scanned the surrounding dark and murky landscape in the distance with her heightened sense of vision, but Betelgeuse was nowhere to be seen.
Did he lie to her? Could he really have spent all of this time getting her hopes up to finally be free from her godforsaken prison, only to just ditch her at the end to be left in the dirt?
"Where did you go?! Come back here, you bastard!" she called out, not believing Betelgeuse's disappearance for a second. "You think this is fucking funny, pulling my tail like this?!"
He had to still be around somewhere. Otherwise, why would he have put all of that effort trying to convince her into saying his name three times?
Loona continued desperately looking out of her window for any sign of him. But as she surveyed her surroundings, the hellhound began to notice something odd that she didn't quite pick up before;
The rain…The rain from the storm outside that had been going before Betelgeuse had made his unexpected appearance into her lonely little world…had stopped.
It had stopped entirely.
There was not a single drop of rain anywhere.
Loona naturally looked up towards the sky, just to be sure if the rainfall had in fact halted for good, but all she could see rather perplexingly was that there were still dark storm clouds hanging ominously above her in total silence.
In fact, that was something Loona had also noticed. Everything was now quiet all of a sudden, with not even the faintest of background noise present.
But most disturbingly of all…The howling.
The non-stop howling from the other hellhounds that once tormented Loona every day and night…had also fallen silent.
Realising this, Loona couldn't help but feel a sliver of blood-freezing dread snaking its way through her body as her unresponsive ears instinctively fell.
She couldn't hear anything.
Anything at all.
Just the ambient absence of sound.
A cold and deadly silence…
But the anxious hellhound girl didn't have to wallow in this silent atmosphere for long, as the stillness around her was suddenly broken by the unmistakable quaking roar of thunder that now tore through the thick clouds across the gloomy sky above.
"That's weird," Loona's mind echoed. "My phone didn't say anything about thunder on the weather report tonight."
But the hellhound's train of thought was soon interrupted by the inevitable sight of lightning that began to streak past every cloud she could see through her small window, only to astonishingly discover that each arc was in fact in an odd color.
The arcs of lightning were not white as they usually should be…They were green.
Worried, Loona started to back away from the window slowly as she could hear, let alone feel each lightning strike getting closer and louder with each passing second.
"What's going on?" she wondered, steadily taking each step backwards with her shivering slender legs.
Then, Loona heard what could be the loudest thunder clap in her adolescent life, coming from behind her.
Directly behind her.
Almost jumping right out of her fur, Loona yelped while she dashingly turned on a dime to see a bright flash of green light, bursting outwards and creating eerie shadows from all sides behind her from the middle of an open corridor, just on the other side of the large steel bars of her cell room.
As the light faded out of existence, she could see the large shadowy figure of a person in its place, standing in almost complete darkness just a few feet away from her with only the cell bars between them.
It was him.
It didn't take long for Loona to immediately recognise the now foreboding image of Betelgeuse, with his distinctive black and white striped suit posing as his visual harbinger.
Shocked by the sinister sight of him, Loona staggered and fell instantly onto the cold concrete floor.
In heart-pounding desperation, the startled hellhound clawed her way backwards away from the imposing ghoul before leaping onto her bed like a lost and petrified puppy after seeing the first sign of a much larger and more dangerous animal in her vicinity.
Trying to gain some safer ground, Loona backed further away on her bed, right up against the furthest corner of the room. Breathing heavily through her nose, she locked her sights onto Betelgeuse as the slit pupils of her eyes shrunk to just miniscule holes in her silver irises when she then started to notice something moving from the bottom of Betelgeuse's black combat boots;
Smoke.
Thick, exuberant threads of green smoke were now emanating from Betelgeuse's person, with himself standing completely still in front of Loona's field of view, unmoving and quiet.
Quaking on her mattress, she helplessly sat and watched as the freakish vapor began to pour towards her like water from a river, flowing on floor's surface, through the tall rusty bars of her cell and underneath her bed until it had completely filled the room.
"Oh fuck! Oh fuck! Oh fuck!" Loona's mind cried out, frozen in place as she saw the smoke begin to rise onto her mattress and up to her legs. "What have I done?!"
She wanted to scream, but the abject terror of the situation had a firm grip on her throat, for she was too afraid of breathing in the seemingly toxic fumes around her.
It was suffocating.
And as if to make matters worse, the lights of her cell started to flicker. Every single lightbulb Loona could see around her flickered on and off in rapid succession, all except for one that was directly above Betelgeuse's head, naturally catching her attention.
She could see that he still wasn't moving a muscle, that is until the decayed man lifted his moss-infested head, revealing the full gruesome features of his disheveled face, and most strikingly his eyes which were once again glowing a deep and vibrant green. But Loona noticed something different about them.
They have changed somewhat.
Changed to the point that it caused her already pounding heart to skip a few beats.
His pupils.
The dark pupils that once sat inside Betelgeuse's eyes…They had disappeared.
All that was there were more fleshy fibres inside his irises, leaving only smooth beads of solid green floating in the yellowed whites of his eyes, like two shining emeralds looking outwards from the inside of Betelgeuse's sunken sockets.
And they were both looking straight into Loona's direction.
Straight into her core.
Loona tried to get away even further, only for her back to be met with the worn-out wall from behind. Her hands clasping at it with her sharp nails, scratching its crusty and fragile cladding.
Still watching him like cornered prey, she could then see the undead specimen raise both of his black and white-sleeved arms, whilst simultaneously keeping up with his menacing jade-colored gaze.
Afraid of what he was about to do next, the hellhound couldn't help but whimper out a few inconsolable whines from her throat as Betelgeuse struck a pose like a circus ringleader announcing an avant-garde performance to an unseen audience.
With his large arms stretched out apart, the grotesque pale man of myth spoke two gravelly, soul-shaking words through the crooked charcoal teeth inside his impossibly wide and sinister smile;
"~It's showtime~"
Author's Notes:
Thank you so much for reading the first chapter of a long and exciting fanfiction project I am undertaking.
There will be a long wait for chapters as I am still in the process of writing this story, and I am also currently going through various life challenges as well. So I politely ask any readers to please be patient. This is a project I care deeply about and I wish to finish it to the absolute best of my abilities to make it the story it can be for everyone to enjoy.
If you have liked this chapter, feel free to Fave, Follow and comment as I am open to feedback. If you have any questions regarding my story, please send me a comment/message and I'll be sure to get to you with an eventual answer.
Thank you so much for your patience and understanding, and I hope to catch you all again in the next chapter.