Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Helltakers vision was fading in and out, his words becoming more and more slurred, the effort he had to put into being coherent was great at this age. He knew there was no point in getting any final words out, or speaking of regrets and decisions he'd made. He'd made it a point to act near carelessly and recklessly in his life for the sake of enjoyment. He lived without any true fear ,as was evident from the demons and angel women that were at his bedside. They didn't look too down at his current condition as he lay ready to pass.

'Good' the old man thought internally. 'I didn't want to hurt them by letting them know…' He said knowing this would be the last time he saw them, at least as he was right now

"Takin' your sweet time huh old man? C'mon do yah gotta drag this out?" Zdrada asked, trying to hide the fact that she was probably going to miss the life she had here on earth in particular.

A gruff laugh escaped the takers lips for a second. She could be a bitch but he loved her for it. Judgment and Lucy were quick to chastise her for the comment, they were supposed to be nasties of the group by reputation but ended up being the sweetest.

The sound of a few whines brought his attention to his left, Cerberus had to be the saddest looking one out of everyone in the room, he felt his slowing heart pang for a second and smiled. Such puppies they are.

"See you on the other side, big guy," Justice said with her usual confident smile. She was so cool.

"Indeed, I look forward to your arrival Mr. Taker sir." Azazel said, smiling a genuine smile, with a wave as if he were just going to be leaving for a weekend. Not that he ever got the chance to leave them alone for that long.

"I'll make an appointment for you." A tired voice said from just behind Lucy. She obviously didn't get her coffee this morning.

"Ugh, back to the basic bitch internet in hell. Guess its board games and offline shit for us," Malina said sulking. He could faintly smell the vodka on her breath.

It was then he sensed some movement under the bed sheets.

"Modeus! Get out of there! You're not gonna bring him back that way." Lucy said, reaching into the sheets and pulling out the heart eyed gal.

Taker sighed in relief. He got to lay eyes on them one last time. Finally his eyes closed and he smiled one last proud smile.

The alarm in the room began blaring and was shut off shortly after. He was a light sleeper after all. Rubbing his eyes and getting out of bed he was greeted by the silence and the sunlight of morning. It was time to head for your new house, everything had already been taken there but a few items. He got dressed in a red T-shirt white leather jacket and white jeans. He loaded up the last few items in your car and got ready to leave.

"Whoa, I almost forgot." He said. As he went back in the house and brought out a gift he received from his little sister. A pair of tea shades that she said suited him.

A short drive later he made it to the house,a two story building that had previously been abandoned for about 25 years. He wasn't sure why, it was a homely looking place, but still even the realtor said they never could sell the house because of the feeling it gave people. Like they were trespassing. It gave him the opposite feeling, he felt as though he were at home, and even felt a vague sense of familiarity. That was impossible of course, he'd never stepped foot near this building before a few months ago. Still…he felt the pang of nostalgia as he looked around.

"Welp, good to be home" He walked towards the couch and saw a note there."huh?"

A pick up and read made you smile for a moment.

"Congrats on the new house, Chief! Love lil sis,'' Chief was what just about everyone called you. Family, friends, co-workers. That name was synonymous with you. All because of a time when Chiefs little sister called him that back in school. Then everyone started calling him that.

"Well, time to get some grub." Chief said, making his way to the kitchen. You worked hard to move everything to the house so he deserved something good. His favorite! Pancakes!

After a few minutes the Chief was well into cooking his breakfast. He made sure to get them perfectly thin and after setting them on his plate, slathered them with a reasonable amount of nutella. The smell was getting his stomach rumbling, so much that it felt like…the house was shaking?

"What the?!" A quick look around confirmed to Chief that the house was vibrating! The drawers were opening and closing, windows and doors were bangging and wind had picked up in the placed the pancakes on the table then turned to run when suddenly the shaking stopped. He stood motionless for a few seconds to let what happened finish processing. Chief took cautions a few steps backward and looked around. Everything was back in place, like it never happened….except for…

"My pancakes?" Chief said in bewilderment. His breakfast was gone from the plate he served it on. Like they weren't there to begin with. "Da hell…? Did my breakfast get banned to the shadow realm or something?" He asked no one in particular as he looked around on the floor.

"That's weird, guess I'll just make a new plate. Hope ants don't start popping up"

Chief managed to get through his breakfast without any more incidents and checked the news for any signs of an earthquake in his area.

"Weird, no news about it," He said to himself, scrolling through his feed.A knock at the door caught his attention. He put his phone down and approached the door.

"Coming," He called. He opened the door and was greeted by the sight of an older woman with dark skin, brown eyes wearing a brown police uniform, her hair was greying in some areas. "Good Morning, Officer, is there something I can do for you?" Chief asked

For a few moments the woman was silent, her eyes widened briefly for a split second.

''Good morning sir. I didn't mean to disturb but I heard some ruckus coming from your home while on patrol with a partner. Is everything alright?" She asked the man while giving him a look up and down.

"Actually I was just looking into house just shook like mad and there's no news of an earthquake. Nothing I did caused it, unless making pancakes is somehow linked to seismic activity;" Chief said with a slight chuckle.

"Oh…you made pancakes?" The police lady asked. Her expression was one of surprise followed by a blank stare. She was silent again for a few moments.

"Something wrong, miss?"

"Oh! Not at all. As long as everything is okay now I'll get out of your way. Have a pleasant day," The lady said, turning and heading back to her police car.

"Huh…that was a bit odd," Chief said as he closed the door behind him. He decided he'd go finish tidy up.

A few days Later

"Finally done with the upstairs," Chief said, sighing. He had spent the past couple days getting his house in order and was now only left with the basement. Figuring he'd earned a break the young man sat down in front of his gaming computer and booted up the fighting game heavy hitters.

"Alright Wolf spider, let's take you out for a spin online." He said entering the game's online mode with his character of choice and searching for an opponent. A few seconds of waiting turned into 2 minutes, then 4 then 5 minutes of waiting.

"Oh come one, this game came out a year ago it can't be dead alrea-" Before he could finish complaining his screen began flashing as the words 'Match found' suddenly in red, then white. 'What is…" The game ceased malfunctioning and the pre-fight screen opened.

'Incoming challenger: Водка Демон ' Character of choice: Oni arataki'

"Interesting choice, not the most popular character to fight with," Chief said, attributing the sudden malfunction to a network error or maybe his opponent's internet connection being shitty.

The fight started and Chief immediately noticed two things: His opponent definitely knew how to use Oni Aratki based on the combos they were trying to pull, and they certainly had terrible internet as the lagging on them was painfully obvious.

"I almost feel bad for doing this," Chief said smiling as he used Wolf Spider's combos with an expertise he'd gained in all his years of gaming. His opponent put up a decent fight but they couldn't keep up and lost both rounds consecutively. "Good game, though you might wanna consider getting better internet before coming back, you may have beaten me if you weren't lagging so much," Chief said as he sent a 'GG' in game. A second after that his screen froze.

"Oh come on!" The previous flashing returned, this time there were no words on screen for several seconds, only high pitched static and then abruptly the words ' Водка Демон has sent a friend request. ' "Oh, uh…" He hesitated. "Sure I guess" Chief said as he accepted the request. His opponent went offline shortly after.

"Think I'll go play something else."

Chapter Text

A few nights later Chief was laying in bed at around three in the morning, scrolling through his phone, he found he couldn’t sleep. “Coffee before bed was a really bad idea,” He said in dismay as he continued to scroll through his feed. “How strong is this coffee? I’m totally wired! I can almost still smell it!” Chief said as he noticed that he actually could still smell a strong coffee scent in his room.

 “Huh?” Chief got out of bed and walked down the steps, determined to find the source of the aroma. The further he walked the more he realized that the smell was coming from his kitchen, this confused the young man as he knew that he finished the last of the coffee himself. When he finally made it into the kitchen all he found was the empty coffee pot exactly where it was when he left it. 

“The smells are gone,” Chief said as he took in another whiff of the air. “Was it coming from the living-” Chief couldn’t finish the sentence before his nose was attacked again by the smell of smoke, like that from a cigarette. Chief started coughing and looked around to see if maybe some part of his house was burning but as far as he could tell there was no such fire. 

Not being able to stand the smell anymore he ran out his backdoor to the backyard to get some air. For a brief second he thought he could hear a light raspy voice calling him…a pussy?

“What the hell?” Chief spun around. No sign of anyone around and on top of that the smell had also dissipated. “Okay, that was….weird,” The young man said  as he looked over one last time to make sure that there wasn't a fire in his house. Satisfied he wasn't at risk of burning alive he returned to his house. While passing by the kitchen before heading to his room he noticed the coffee pot had hit the floor. 

“Did I drop it while I was running out?.” He questioned as he picked it up. “Agh my fingers,” He said with  annoyance as he felt a faint but noticeable pain moving through his hand. The second that he placed the pot back on the table however the pain stopped. “Do I need to see a doctor?” He asked out loud before heading back upstairs. Thankfully the events of the past few minutes had sufficiently tired him out, so he could finally drift off to sleep. 

As Chief slept he began to have visions of someone being in the room with him. Initially he was afraid of the unknown figure but his feelings began to shift when the figure became a bit more clear. Whoever it was was almost certainly female given the hourglass figure that currently had his attention. A closer look revealed crimson eyes and short white hair. He couldn’t be sure but he thought he could make out something on opposite ends of her head. Chief didn´t resist as the alluring figure climbed into bed then  quickly straddled in his lap. He moved his hands onto her sides almost on instinct, like he had done this before, a familiar yet new sensation wracked his brain as the figure's toothy smile came into view. 

“Is it…really you?” A shaky and needy voice asked as she licked her lips in anticipation of a kiss. At this point Chief could make out a red ribbed sweater that hugged an impressive bust, moments later their kiss began and Chief  let the dreamy vixen and himself enjoy eachothers company. 

The next morning, as the young man blinked awake and stretched, he had no memories of his encounter the night before. However, that didn’t mean there wasn't any evidence of it. 

“Augh…,” He groaned as he felt a weak aching in his body, and a stinging on his skin,  it was almost like he’d been active in his sleep. He was planning to sleep in a while longer but decided to go wash his skin to deal with the stinging. Rubbing his eyes as he stood in front of the mirror, Chief doubletaked. Now that he got a good look at himself he realized what the cause of the stinging was, several bright red spots now covering his upper body. Stunned by what he saw he knew a doctor was probably a good idea at this point. He got dressed quickly and got into his car, speedily he drove to a nearby clinic he knew wouldn't be too crowded. 

After a short wait, the Chief now sat in front of a doctor.  Said doctor was writing some notes onto a clipboard and observing the young  man closely . 

“So, you say you just woke up with these this morning?” The doctor asked. 

“Yeah, they don’t sting all that much but I haven't the slightest clue where they came from,” The Young man responded, a bit panicked. 

The doctor looked closely at the red sores and their positions on his body. Lightly poking them he asked the Chief how it felt. Some minutes later the doctor stood before the Chief and spoke his thoughts. 

“Well you can relax because these appear to just be minor bruises. You're sure that you don't know where these came from?¨ The doctor asked. 

¨ No, not at all. I went to bed last night and woke up with these on my body, also fatigue in my limbs” He responded. 

¨Fatigue? Have you been active at all lately? Sports? Heavy lifting? Fighting? Sexual activity?” The doctor went on. 

“None of that, not recently at least. I’ve been moving stuff around my new house but it’s not like I bump into everything around me. ” Chief responded. 

“I see. Well sir, there are some basic lotions you can get to rub on those to try and make them disappear faster. Other than that then you are free to go, they’ll clear up in a couple of days. Maybe you should get your mattress checked for bed bugs?” The doctor suggested. 

“Yeah, thanks doc, I’ll look into that,” Chief said as he took his leave. 

A short ride later, Chief was back home and ready to inspect his mattress. He reached for the door handle to his room but stopped when he heard a hurried shuffle. He stared at the door for a few seconds, that was the sound of someone scrambling on the mattress. He clenched his fists and summoned up the courage to enter the room. In one swift motion he threw open the door and looked inside, ready to confront whoever it was. However, as he scanned the room it appeared to be completely empty, the only trace of a presence was the unmade bed. 

“I know I didn’t leave my bed like this.” Chief said out loud to himself. He looked around a bit further and noticed the open window. “Oh geez, I think I did leave that window open. Some animal must have gotten inside.” He said scolding himself internally. “Well if it wasn’t doty before it is now. Getting this thing out of here.” 

With that Chief put on his gloves and began wrapping up the bed sheets with plans to throw them and the mattress out. He failed to notice at the time that as he wrapped the sheets up, there were hot pink lipstick marks peppering the inside of his bed sheet.

Chapter Text

Hello everyone, as the title says I'm posting this to announce that this story will be canceled and will not receive any further updates. For those who were waiting for a new chapter you have my deepest apologies but for the sake of not giving anyone false hope and also to clean up my current list of ongoing stories, I'm canceling this one since I have no future plans for it.

I hope you enjoyed the read while it lasted. I hope you enjoyed what little I was able to put out.