Chapter Text
A child sitting in their bed is a sleep paralysis demon’s favourite thing, an easy way to get some good fun. Also to not get tortured by hell. One good little sleep paralysis demon, by the name of Crowley, found a kid who was just sitting in bed, he was sleeping of course, but he didn’t have any dreams yet, a soundless sleep. Crowley entered the room and trickled his way to the child’s head, resting a single finger on his forehead, Crowley was in. He studied the child's memories for a moment, his name was Adam, scared of the dark, loss of breath, monsters, being alone, normal kid things.
He had enough, making himself visible he changed his shape and in this kid’s mind he created a nightmare. Adam sat up from his bed, thinking he was awake he yawned and rubbed his eyes then he looked around, there was a shiver down his spine, but it didn’t come from him, it felt as if someone was inducing it with a long sharp fingernail. He tried to scream but his lungs wouldn’t make a sound, he couldn’t breathe, he turned around and started slapping at whatever was doing this to him, but there was nothing there. Adam’s breathing came back and steadied, he turned back around to find nothing there, it was so dark, he was so alone, he turned around again to find that the other side of his bedroom was gone too. His heart was suddenly racing, his breathing shallow and barely there. Eyes tracking everything he suddenly caught a glimpse of light, flashing on what seemed to be a fingernail.
His pupils constrict as he sees it, the… thing puts a name into his head, Crowley, Adam guessed it was the things name, but as he was processing this information Crowley jumped over to him and he seemed to be getting bigger, hair turned jagged and patchy, skin turning vomit green, pupils turning to slits. He smiled which showed off his jagged teeth, not fitting together. He had a tail now peeking out under a black night-gown, there was a tear and terrible scaly black wings sprouted from its shoulder blades. Adam screamed and that made Crowley laugh.
“Who… What are y-you?” Adam whispered, tears streaming down his face, he kept backing away, but Crowley stepped with him, the voice that came out of the demon’s lips was like twenty voices in one, no they were the same voice just different pitches.
“I already told you” Crowley murmured calmly, holding back his giggles, “Crowley” Adam noticed that he had what looked like a snake tongue because Crowley kept flicking it in and out.
“Why are you here?” Adam sputtered, still backing up. “Why are you t-tormenting me?”
Crowley just laughed at this and Adam repeated the question, louder this time. Crowley was caught off guard by the sudden courage, but he decided that he would answer the question “It’sss my job” he hissed, still putting on that twenty pitches thing.
“I… are you some sort of… nightmare?” Adam asked, getting his courage back as Crowley seemed to be calming down, but as soon as he said the word nightmare Crowley lunged forward and hissed in his face, getting saliva all over. Adam was pinned now and Crowley’s nails were digging into his arms and he was sobbing.
“I’m not jusst any nightmare I’m your worsst nightmare a persssonal demon you might ssay ” Crowley spat, his tongue bobbing out at every ‘s’ “And once you’ve had a tasste of my nightmaress you will never want to ssleep again.”
Adam whimpered and Crowley disappeared, the scene changed and Adam was in solitude in a cave, the dream felt as if it had been going on forever already. He curled up in a ball against a rock and sobbed. There was a fire which gave off what felt like warmth, but there was a certain evil to it that Adam didn’t want to get near. Within the shadows, Crowley’s figure appears and claws its way to a backing away Adam, who backs directly into the real Crowley.
Crowley grips claws around Adam’s arms and whispers “Boo,” directly into his ear. Adam screamed and ran away, tripping over a rock and falling directly into the fire, he was suddenly engulfed and the fire filled his eyesight, then it parted unto a circle and Crowey stepped through it snarling with a wide smirk plastered on his face.
His claws grew long enough to touch Adam and he drew a claw across the boy’s chin, blood dripping down into Adam’s hands. And on his lap, it was weird it hurt but he knew that it wasn’t real. Crowley’s nail retracted and he bared his fangs in a smile.
“Understanding it now?” He said grimly, “doesn’t hurt but it does,”
“Ye… yeah..” Adam whimpered, nodding he attempted to prepare himself mentally for the next scene change, at the slight adjustment in his demeanour Crowey chuckled.
With a wave of the demon’s hand the scene changed and Adam was thrown into a place he didn’t expect, his school. In a blink of the eye the halls filled around him with people, he wasn’t claustrophobic, but when it came to that many people he got really stressed very easily. He ran through the halls of the familiar building, pushing around the ever growing crowd.
He made it into a classroom where there were no people but one nightmare one demon, lurking through the shadows, the torturer started laughing and strutting over to Adam, the boy ran across the now empty halls and suddenly there was nothing, just blackness, then slowly the most beautiful, comforting landscape started to form. Adam was reluctant to walk around the new forest that had appeared before him, but Crowley was nowhere to be seen.
A soft, round figure came into view, with kind eyes and a peaceful smile. He was muscular as far as Adam could tell through the lightly coloured night-gown. He stepped his way through the forest, his off-white wings becoming smaller as he didn’t have much space for them. A halo rested above his head, he looked like an angel, he probably was.
“Who… are you?” Adam wondered aloud. This got him a wider smile and once the angelic being was right in front of Adam he leaned down.
“My name is-“
“Aziraphale,” Crowley snarled. His claws unsheathed and his teeth bared, Aziraphale summoned a flaming sword and Crowley leaped.