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The streets of Pentagram city were always a bit odd in the anticipatory time before a new Extermination started. Most sinners – the fortunate ones, anyway – had already taken shelter and were just waiting for the insect-like buzzing to announce the arrival of the angels. Others treated it as revelry, thumbing their noses at the Heavenly host coming to cleanse their ranks. And still others made their hasty way through the streets on errands or desperately trying to find somewhere suitable before it all kicked off.
Velvet never thought she’d be in the latter category. That’s what she got for losing track of time – it was easy to do when at one of Valentino’s parties. She could have stayed, safe in the penthouse, but she had an appointment to keep and she was already late. Velvet had many flaws, but she could never abide lateness.
The sky started to open and she glanced up, anticipating the first wave of angels. She picked up her speed. Not because she was necessarily afraid of the angels, but because she’d be damned if she got blood on her brand new party frock. Hardly anyone had even seen it yet.
She turned down one street, pausing at the large building dominating at the end of it. The Radio Tower. Velvet hesitated for a moment, then jumped as a large drop of blood rain fell and splattered at her feet, just missing her. She’d take her chances – she was not getting caught in a blood storm.
Everyone knew the Radio Demon kept his tower doors unlocked. No sinner was stupid enough to venture inside uninvited, lest they suddenly become a midnight snack. Some even theorized that Alastor left his doors unlocked for that very purpose, hoping to lure in unsuspecting demons and cutting down on his hunting time. No one knew what the actual truth was, but Velvet didn’t care as she pushed the door open and stepped into the darkened foyer. It was a big place. She could probably avoid Alastor until the Extermination was over.
She stepped further in, looking around curiously. Alastor had visited her own cottage here and there, mostly when she was hosting one of her Overlord tea parties, but she’d never been inside his abode. The deer eschewed most technology, and apparently that also extended to lightbulbs. A few unattended sconces were jammed into the walls here and there, but the dark musty place was mostly lit by tiny bits of the red sky that managed to straggle through the half-covered windows.
Velvet took out her phone, sliding her finger over the flashlight and allowing the unnatural blue light to illuminate her way. The light revealed a few bones on the ground near her feet, which she impatiently kicked away. She opened the audio app. “Note to self. Alastor really needs a good interior designer – ah!”
She leapt back and dropped the phone onto the floor as the screen suddenly exploded, sending wisps of smoke into the darkness.
“Ah ah ah,” Alastor’s disembodied voice floated through the ether. “Now that’s cheating. Not to mention rude. When in Rome, you know.”
Velvet scowled, dropping to one knee to pick up the pieces. So much for Alastor being unaware of her presence. “That was a brand new phone, you smiling bastard!”
“I’m sure another will be in your hand once the evening is over,” Alastor’s voice answered. “I had been so craving some entertainment and… here you are. Time is running out, little doll. Tick tock, tick tock.”
“Running out?” Velvet frowned. “But –“
“Better hide. You wouldn’t want to make this game dreadfully boring, would you?”
Velvet sucked her teeth in annoyance but ran for the rickety stairs anyway. Someone had lit candles and placed them on random intervals on the steps, casting long shadows. In Velvet’s opinion, that was cheating, considering Alastor’s abilities regarding shadows.
The stairs were so full of discarded bones and skulls it was hard to move upwards. Velvet shoved them off in disgust, shaking her head. Honestly, had the man never heard of a broom?
She paused once she made it to the landing. There were plenty of shadowy corners to back herself into, and she did so, reaching into her long kneesock to pull out her backup phone. Alastor was a fool if he thought she wouldn’t have extras – she was in good with the media Overlord, after all – not to mention, she wouldn’t be caught dead in Alastor’s mysterious home without the opportunity to livestream.
“Hey there, sinners and winners,” Velvet whispered as she began her livestream app, watching the emojis and comments already start to stream in. “You’ll never guess where I am.” She began to move down the hall as she talked. The floor was covered in thick red plush carpeting, and her slipper-clad feet only made the barest of whispers as she moved.
“That’s right, the home of the Radio Demon himself, the very center of those screams, chills and thrills he broadcasts every day.”
A smile spread across her stitched face as she watched the engagement and emojis tick up. She was sure to have some fun with this.
“As you can see, Alastor has some way bad taste in décor,” Velvet continued, turning her camera on to the darkened Victorian paisley wallpaper covering the dark walls. “Yee-uck.”
Doors lined the hallway, all firmly shut. Velvet could see a marble bust at the end of it, but she couldn’t quite make out what it was of. She tried the handle on the closest door, beaming when it easily clicked open. “Let’s see what’s in here.”
The room was apparently a workroom for Alastor, because a surgical table with suspicious stains on it was pushed up against one wall, a bucket of knives, saws and other sharp tools next to it. A hook hung from the ceiling.
“Ooh…” Velvet maneuvered the camera around the room. Alastor broadcasted his kills, so it wasn’t particularly a surprise to see this here, but it was certainly interesting to see up close and personal. “I wonder –“
The doll demon paused in her sentence. The air had changed. It was no longer silent.
It was staticky.
She could hear Alastor’s humming from down the hall, his tap-shoes brushing against the thick carpet. As he drew closer, she could hear him singing to himself.
“I hear a little dolly playing a trick, trick, trick… the lovely little dolly better hide quick, quick, quick…”
Velvet pressed her phone to her chest to hide the light from the screen. Under the surgical table? No, that was far too obvious.
Behind the hook, though, was a closet door she hadn’t noticed before, and she scrambled for it. The door revealed itself to not, in fact, be a closet, but the entrance to what appeared to be a very narrow passageway. She squeezed herself into it, closing the door behind her just in time for Alastor to pass the main doorway, still singing to himself.
“Little dolly, ollie ollie, come and play…”
Velvet let out a small breath, holding up the camera to live stream herself again. “So I’m in this really creepy passageway… look…” she scanned the camera around. The passageway was plywood, barely holding together, and almost completely overrun with spider webs. “Let’s see where it goes…”
The tight space was hard to maneuver. It was only about as wide as Velvet’s shoulders, and she had to keep stepping over pipes and wooden beams and long-forgotten refuse. The pace was slow, and people on the live stream were losing interest. Not to mention, she was starting to get seriously claustrophobic. But she couldn’t turn back. That would be too obvious, she’d immediately get caught.
Finally, a literal light at the end of the tunnel. Light shone under a crack, signaling to Velvet that this must be another door. Sure enough, a gentle push was all it took for her to tumble out into another room.
There were no windows in this particular room, and the gas lamp lights were at the lowest setting so she could barely see in front of her face. Velvet flashed the light from her phone around, frowning, confused. If it was so dark, how had she seen a light glowing from under the crack?
Something glittered in the corner of her eye, and she turned. Tucked up under a shuttered window was a lavish dollhouse, almost half her height it was so large. As she looked, she saw something glimmer from one of the miniature windows, as if one of the dolls had come to life and was signaling her with a lantern. Well, this was Hell – Velvet had seen stranger things in her afterlife.
An old-fashioned record player that Velvet hadn’t noticed before suddenly crackled to life, the record on it already halfway through a tinny, static-laced song which was quickly interrupted with Alastor’s voice singing along instead. The record slowed, giving Alastor’s voice a slow, almost demonic quality.
“Dolly, dolly, quick quick….”
Velvet knew she should run. Try find another hiding place in the darkened den of the Radio Demon. But the dollhouse was too alluring. Surely she had a few seconds to investigate.
She knelt down in front of it and opened it up on its hinges. Each tiny room was lavishly decorated with miniature furniture, rugs, and paintings. In one of the very top little rooms was a doll holding a glowing lantern. Velvet frowned as she pushed her face closer to get a better look – the doll looked familiar with its striped hair and stitched face… awfully familiar…
The doll turned and Velvet’s suspicions were confirmed. It was a perfect simulacrum of her – and it was moving. By itself.
“Okay sinners,” Velvet said, suddenly remembering she was still streaming and trying to quell the tremble in her voice. “It’s gotten a little too creepy for me so your girl Velvet is over and –“ Before she finished her sentence, the phone immediately died, its screen going dark. Velvet spun back to the dollhouse where the little identical doll was giving her a sinister smile. It lifted the tiny lantern, blowing it out. As it did so, the entire room went pitch black, the only movement being the record that was still spinning slowly around the player.
“An’ I think that’s my cue to move it,” Velvet whispered to herself, leaping to her feet, only to find she was stuck fast to the ground. She looked down to find a shadow grinning at her with electric blue eyes, tendril like fingers wrapping around her ankles and holding her still.
“No!” Velvet shrieked, trying to pull her foot free to no avail.
“I did give you ample warning to hide,” Alastor clucked his tongue as he melted out of the shadows in front of her, idly spinning his microphone in one hand as if bored. He waved his free hand, and shadows rose around Velvet, twisting across her body. She tipped her face up and gasped as if the shadows would suffocate her. She lost her footing, shadows gently cushioning as she fell to the ground, pinned, immobilized and becoming consumed by the darkness.
“Oh dear,” Alastor’s twisted grin hovered above her as he leaned down to peer into the dollhouse. “Looks like my little dolly has finally been caught.”
----
Alastor’s parlor was light and warm, a stark contrast to the rest of the Radio Tower. He sat primly on the edge of his seat sipping from a tea cup as Velvet shook the shadows free to find herself sitting across from him.
“Tea?” Alastor asked her.
“Coffee, three sugars, you know that,” Velvet said through her scowl.
“Why the long face?” Alastor asked innocently, “You know you’re never fully dressed without –“
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard the schtick,” Velvet pouted, accepting the coffee cup from him. “You said no cheating. You cheated.”
“No, no,” Alastor said. “I said cheating was rude, I never said it wasn’t allowed. Besides, it’s hardly cheating when you insist on recording your every move on that ridiculous device of yours. I’ll expect you to delete that, by the way, I don’t want to find Vox has done some sort of expose piece on what kind of curtains I have.”
“It was a livestream, it’s already gone,” Velvet shrugged. “I still say you cheated.”
“Agree to disagree,” Alastor smiled at her over the rim of his tea cup. “I think it’s quite clear I’m the winner this year.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Velvet folded her arms. “Well next year, you hide, and I get to be ‘It.’ “