Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Gabriel got the father’s light stripped from him by the council and is said to die in less than 24 hours, however he finds that when he consumes a husk, the timer resets.

But even he must admit it’s gruesome.

Nothing he isn’t used to, of course, he had done a lot of carnage for the council in the past. but the fact he has to consume these seemingly rotting husks, similarly to the machine that had stuck him in this situation makes it feel so much worse…

He wanted to vomit. not only is it terrible but it’s also disgusting! They all tasted like some form of rotten flesh! (Which to an extent, they kinda were) and to make matters worse all the husks he’s been eating were the few that survived that accursed machine’s rampage. so not only is he literally eating human souls, but he’s also consuming the only ones (to his knowledge) left, attempting to catch up to the machine to, at the very least, deliver justice before its too late and all of hell is dead.

He can’t fly anymore, either, his wings were damaged in a previous fight, rendering them only useful for the sake of fashion. He felt like a sad, wet dog kicked into the mud whilst rain falls upon his already soaking wet fur.

He feels sick

He feels Weak

He feels Hungry…

Out of the blue, he hears a shrill cry from the distance, sounding exactly like a filth falling to its death. while normally he’d avoid taking another life if he could, its been nearly 22 hours since he’s last eaten; so, reluctantly, he chases the sound.

…

He peeks from behind a decreasingly funny rock, a pleasant, nearly sweet smell wafting over from the other side of the geode.

That’s when Gabriel finally sees it…
Some kind of husk, he’s sure, and yet he’s never seen one quite like that before, it has dark clothes from head to toe (save for some silver and red) with a hood covering its head from view; its stirring a pot filled with some kind of concoction, it’s steaming hot, emitting a pleasant aroma. Gabriel smacks himself on the helmet, convinced that he’s hallucinating, however, the vision never fades nor does the scent. Slowly, carefully, he approaches the hooded figure.

“Be n-“

“WAGH!” The humanoid (you btw!) yelps, quickly rising to its feet, fearfully pointing the ladle once used for stirring at the curious archangel.
“Shit!” You exclaim, attempting to slam the burning-hot ladle into the angel’s exposed midriff, causing your hood to fall from your head.

…

Before the metal tool comes in contact with his skin, Gabriel grips the handle with a surprising show of strength, or maybe not so surprising for a being of light ig.
Gabriel forces himself to do a double take “a… a mortal?” He questions, nearly speechless as he takes in your appearance; the bright whites of your eyes, your normally-sized teeth and mouth, your gay ass pentacle earrings. You looked pretty young too, likely somewhere in your teens.

“Be not afraid, mortal, I have no intention of—“ he begins, before getting rudely interrupted by you once again by socking him in the nuts, letting him fucking have the ladle if it means you can escape. taking a knife from your bag, you get ready to throw it at the archangel’s gut.

“Mortal… gh… put the knife down right now, or else I’ll have no choice but to defend myself…!” Gabriel says like a mf cop, staggering back to his feet and letting the ladle fall into the fake grass coating the ground.

“I’m sure you will” the you reply mockingly, getting ready to throw…
“Fine, have it your way but know I will not go easy on you” he warns, unsheathing Justice and Splendor.

…

You hurl it right into Gabriel’s stomach, the angel parries with Justice, causing the knife to fly into a distant rock.

“Shit…” you whisper, realizing you’ve done fucked up, sprinting into what appears to be a forest. Gabriel blinks for a second’s time before sheathing the two swords once again and sighing into his hands, taking a breath before going in after for you.

…

For a forest in hell, it’s surprisingly lush. Yet, Gabriel sees right through the disguise. you see, in limbo there are many fake open spaces in order to make the space feel calmer, but one can always tell if there’s a wall thanks to the slight humming sound that comes from each one; however, you weren’t so clever, since you were so “quirked up on alla’dat jazz” you couldn’t notice the electric hum of the walls and “clapped” right into one, gripping your head as it throbs, unknowing of the fact that your enemy is right next to you.

“Argh! Goddamnit!” you cry out, limping toward a nearby tree.
“Do NOT take his name in vain” Gabriel demands, defensively crossing his arms while the cross on his helmet seems to almost mimic a frown.
You freeze, slowly peeking behind yourself to see the angry archangel towering over you.

“Fuckfuckfuck” you mutter, teeth grinding against one another, reaching to take out your pocket knife before Gabriel has the chance to attack, but instead he places his hand on your shoulder.

“Mortal, listen to me right now,” Gabriel says sternly, “I am not going to hurt you.”

“Bullshit” you murmur, eyes wide as saucers, body unable to move, trembling from fear “everything in this shitty place wants to do that, how do I know you’re any different? Who even are you???”

“…I am archangel Gabriel, the righteous hand of the father and the… former judge of hell” he says, you completely freeze for a fucking WHILE.

“Fucking WHAT!?!?!?!?” You exclaim “the… oh my god…” you trail off, trying to collect your thoughts. Which are screaming and running wild within your own mind threatening to jump out and strangle you.

Your teeth grind against one another, your body tenses up, and tears threaten to spill out of your eyes. Is this really how it ends? At least assuming it hasn’t ended already, you are in hell, after all. There is no life. There is no warmth. There is no god. The only living things at all are you and the angel standing in front of you, with his hand on your shoulder.

“Are you… going to hurt me?” You ask, eyes wide as saucers, your rough hands grip onto your jacket for some sense of stability “am I… going to get turned into…” you trail off once more, a picture of a husk displaying itself in your mind’s eye. This is it. You’re fucked.

But the archangel doesn’t move, unable to figure out what to do next, he hasn’t seen a human in so long… despite all the terrible pain he carries, he can’t help but feel a sense of levity, even of joy. Slowly, he removes his hand from your shoulder.

“Mortal, I… I’m not going to hurt you”

“You’re... not…?”

“I’m not,” he reassures, “now, human, what is your name?”

“Its Y/n” you tell him, your eyes never waver from the large cross on his helmet while your grip on the cloth of your jacket tightens, knuckles turning a dim white.

Gabriel cautiously sticks his hand out in front of you. You realize this means he wants to shake hands with you; so fretfully, you take his hand, delivering a firm handshake in order to make our lord and savior, Hank Hill proud, and proud he is.

“Y/n, how did you get here?” He questions, releasing his grip on your hand, the tension in your arm causing it to just stay up in the air “I mean— I thought humans… you know…. Died” Gabriel asks.

“Yeah sorry about that” you shrug “I might have accidentally transcended time and space, oops”

“…what?”

“Yeah I dunno either, want some mf soup?”

“Wait… hold on. What the fuck is that supposed to mean??”

“Soup?”

“No.” He grumbles, resting a hand on his helmet “tfym you transcended time and SPACE??”

“Yeah, that’s what im trying to figure out too…” you smile fearfully, clasping your hands together tightly.
This load of BS leaves him speechless, you two just stare at each other for a while while he tries to configure his next sentence, failing ofc.

“So… do you want some soup?” You ask, nervously fidgeting with the zipper of your jacket.

“No, mortal, I do not need any of your soup” he sighs “but can you tell me if you’ve seen any husks around?” The angel asks, feeling the need to hurry tf up before he dies.

“Yeah I saw one” you nod.

“Thank god… where?” Gabriel asks, feeling his muscles start to relax a little.

“Around where we were before,” you claim, “they were still there too”

“I swear, mortal, you had better not be toying with me, now where was the husk really?” Gabriel questions, shooting a stern glare at you.

“…in the pot”

“In the what?”

“Pot”

“I know what you said, what do you mean in the pot!?” Gabriel demands, feeling himself grow agitated, soon remembering the boiling pot from before. Oh god… was that really made out of—

“Mortal, please don’t tell be what was boiling in that pot was… was what I think it was” Gabriel says turning dead serious.

“I-I told you I made soup” you try to defend, much to the archangel’s dismay

“So, human, let me get this straight…” he says, taking a deep breath “you’ve been MOTHERFUCKING COOKING AND EATING ALL OF THE HUSKS YOU FIND!?!?!?!?!?!?”

You stand as still as an old oak tree with the roots firmly planted in the ground or something idk.
“well yeah, what else is there to eat around here?” you ask, secretly hoping for an answer.

“That’s disgusting!” He scolds “those are human souls! You could have just cooked your ancestor there you know!!”

“Well at least they were cooked right, it could be worse” you reply calmly.

…

A heavy silence fills the room (forest???) as the two of you just stare at each other not knowing what the hell either of you should do.

“…so do you want some soup?” You finally ask, Gabriel sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose over his helmet, achieving absolutely fucking nothing “…yes…” he agrees, walking back toward the pot from before; he turns around, noting your lack of action.

“Are you coming, mortal?” He finally asks you.

“…uh, yeah! Totally” you nod, doing a shitty little sprint-walk thing to catch up to him.

…

Soon, the two of you make it back to the pot, the fire has nearly died out, almost as if it knew to put itself on low. You approach the ladle from before, taking your canteen and using some of the water to rinse it off a little. You then stir the soup, the bottom of the pot feels like it has a thin burnt layer which will be annoying to clean off, but aside from that the soup seems perfectly fine; even if it’s thicker than you would like.

You use the ladle to pour some of the soup into two bowls you conveniently had, giving one to your new friend and saving the other for yourself.

He stares at his portion for a minute, taking in its appearance. despite it being made from what could only be considered zombie meat, it smells like heaven- well no, heaven didn’t smell like this per se. but its still not nearly as terrible as you would come to expect from such a dish.

You hand him a spoon, he takes it with caution. slowly sinking the warped metal into the liquid before bringing it back up, taking a chunk of meat along with it.

Gabriel swallows hard, almost like he’s trying to build up the courage before bringing the sustenance to his face, slowly taking a small bite. He’s prepared for the worst, even unconsciously tensing up once it enters, but once he starts chewing he finally tastes it.

It’s good.

Like, really good even.

The soup itself almost takes on a sweet taste, with the husk’s sour, tangy meat countering it, the two sensations together, mixed with the overall umami and salt to counter the bitterness, the angel can’t stop himself from eating more.

Before he knows it, he’s eaten the whole bowl, he ate a whole bowl of this infernal meat… and liked it too, he can hardly believe it.

“How… how could you make this? With nothing but ingredients you would find in hell… how?” He asks, wholly amazed, this was definitely much better than his solution: unevenly-cut meat strips on a stick cooked over fire whilst dreaming up all the ways he could kill that damned machine.

“I learned how to cook a long while ago” you tell him “cookbooks, websites, videos, after a while it became second nature to me”

“I see… wait a minute, I nearly forgot,” Gabriel adjusts his seating “sorry to ask this, but where you’re from… are there… other humans too?”

“Gee, I didn’t think you’d want to replace me so soon” you smile, quickly remembering that he could kill you so ur ass should no have said that.

“Wh- no, t-that’s not what I-” He quickly defends.

“Bad joke! Sorry,” you laugh, much to his expense “but yeah, where I’m from there’s lots of us”

“There are? Really? I haven’t seen one in so long. I really do apologize when I ask this, but could I… meet them?” He requests, with a somewhat pleading look in his cross.

“Yeah if I can actually find a way back lol” you smile, taking a small rock out from your coat pocket, sighing lightly, “I’m not sure… but it might have something to do with this little thing”

“I just happened to stumble across it glowing inside of this weirdly face-shaped rock,” you say and *slay* “naturally, I put my hand right inside and the result was this stone, then everything was covered in this blinding light and here we are”

“Was that really your first instinct? To… shove your hand in its mouth?” He asks, full serious

“Dunno why you’re holding onto that of all things but like okay” you narrow your eyes “yeah, pretty much”

“Then tell me this: where are you from exactly?” He asks, leaning in slightly.

“im from 2025 Ohio” you reply,

”of fucking course you’re from Ohio”. He thinks to himself, clearing his throat

“I see… so exactly 100 years ago” the angel maths. “Say, mortal, could I have the rock for a moment?”

“Are you gonna steal it from me?” You ask, sticking your hand into your pocket and squeezing the rock inside.

“I promise you, I will do no such a thing” he agrees, you reluctantly hand him the stone.

He examines it: first of all, its pretty small, smaller than the palm of either you or Gabriel’s hands. another thing is that it has strange patterns engraved into it along with faded colors in between the lines, there were 5 in total: green, purple, red, yellow, and blue. the rest of the stone taking on a sickly shade of gray.

“How fascinating, I’ve never seen something like this before… ” he remarks, nearly losing himself in thought.
Gabriel rests his chin on his hand, pondering for a minute longer about what you said before about where you got it from, suddenly, he has an idea “Mortal, could I take the stone somewhere for one moment?” He requests, standing up from his place on the ground.
You nod, following suit.

The two of you walk over to the decreasingly funny rock from before.
“What are you doing?” You question, heart doing a cheeky kickflip from fear, like all hearts should do.

“Mortal, does this rock look at all familiar to you?” Gabriel asks, turning toward you.

“Yeah, it looks exactly like the one from before now that I look at it, only it’s bigger” You reply, keeping a close eye on both Gabriel and the stone.

“Listen to me, I need you to trust me with this, understood?” He requests all dramatic-like.

“Yeah, sure, what’re you gonna-“ before you finish your sentence Gabriel drops the stone into the suddenly funnier rock’s mouth.
“-DO?!??!?!!?!?!?!?!??!?” Your voice gets much louder and raises in pitch dramatically. you freaking cave dive into the rock’s mouth before you can think, determined to retrieve your precious all-logic-defying stone.
Just barely, you feel your hands graze the stone “just a little further…” you whisper to yourself, hanging onto the hilarious rock’s mouth by only your feet, suddenly feeling hands wrap around your ankles in an attempt to help you not get eaten by a literal rock.

Just a little more…

Finally! you can feel your hands grasp it from the dark abyss, jerking your leg as a signal to come back up.
Luckily, Gabriel gets the memo, gently pulling you out from the dark, void-like space.

You’re pulled onto the artificial grass coating the ground with a concerned angel standing over you. You immediately stand up straight, facing the mf who almost blew your chances of ever going back home.

“Dude what the hell??? You almost just lost us the fucking stone!!!” You growl, your face becoming flush from anger.

“To be fair I didn’t think jumping into its mouth would be your first instinct either” he replies, crossing his arms and looking down upon you.

“You know what? Im sorry! Im just REALLY losing my shit right now, that’s not your fault. I have to think.” You turn away, taking your head into your hand. Gabriel lifts his hand like he’s about to reach out and do something, but doesn’t know what to do and instead drops his hand and looks away.

You close your eyes, taking a breath and taking a good look at the stone. you notice that the faded green from before turned darker, almost as if it was painted. A faint glow rising from the green color.

“Oh my god. It actually worked.” You say in complete deadpan, turning around to face Gabriel “you did it! Look!” You grin, switching to a higher voice and lifting up the stone so he can see it.

He examines the stone. oh my god. It actually worked. by the looks of it, if the two of you continue deeper into hell, placing the stone into a different funny rock each time, you’ll be able to recharge the stone and go back to your time period, or possibly any time at all.

“It… actually worked,” he remarks, utterly stunned. The two of you look at each other with mutual understanding; you’ll both traverse hell finding any and all funny rocks and shoving the stone into their gullets, then you will both go back in time to where you were just after this whole situation happened. That should give Gabriel all the time he needs to work out his feelings directed towards the machine and you could show him around. Hey, maybe it could be fun, its good to try anything once… unless its cancer, don’t do cancer.

The two of you wander back to your makeshift campsite and polish off the rest of the soup, then you clean up and get moving.

…

The sun has finally set, yet limbo doesn’t get any cooler. You feel your feet start to drag and your eyes begging to be shut, you decide to ask Gabriel if the two of you could take a break.

“Its getting pretty late, do you want to call it a night?” You ask him, he turns his head down towards you, continuing his confident strides.
“No, I’m perfectly fine” he fucking LIES “why? Are you-“
“Nope!” You interrupt “no, I’m a night owl so it takes me a while to get tired”

While insists that he’s fine, Gabriel takes note of his own fatigue, thinking that maybe a short break wouldn’t be so bad. He leans up against a tree, he’s just giving his eyes a quick break is all! He’ll stay awake…

His ass did NOT stay awake, he immediately slumps to the side in exhaustion, gently snoring against the tree’s bark. You decide to sit next to him, leaning against his arm and letting yourself relax into the warmth. Maybe this won’t be so bad after all…

Chapter Text

Gabriel finds himself surrounded, he’s been here many times before, too many times to count. he hears the council chanting, praising god around him and denouncing the archangel’s words and pleading as nothing but pure heresy.
He already knows how this goes, how this always goes: he’s strong, strong enough to take on the whole council 100 times over; and yet he allows them to take his light, to remove what’s rightfully his. He feels like he deserves it. He’s not good enough, not… holy enough. They’re right, every single one of them. How could he fall to something so weak and insignificant in the first place?

He lets his light be taken away, a pain worlds worse than the greatest of hellfires. He deserves it however, he should do better this time.

Gabriel launches upwards, gasping for air and gripping the edge of his skirt. It was just a dream, it’s over now, he’s not THERE anymore. It’s all taken care of. He’s fine. They’re not here. Not anymore.

Looking around, he finds himself in the very artificial forest he took a “short break” in earlier, the darkness of the “night” from the endless screens seem to coat the world around him, causing him to hardly be able to see shit. how long was he even out for?? He notices your jacket laying on his lap, presumably used as a blanket before he fucked it up. He slowly stands up, picking the jacket up and looking around. out of the blue, you pop out from the other side of the tree, causing him to jump.

“Good morning!” You grin, holding a jar of murky green goop in one hand, the other in the air in the form of a friendly wave, “are you okay? You were breathing kinda weird…”

“Im fine.” He says, but his trembling hands tell a different story “its just…” his eyes move to the jar in your grasp “…what is that?”

“Flower goop” you shrug, shifting your gaze to the jar in hand “its what I put in the soup last night to sweeten it, hell plants are weird as fuck, huh?”

“you’re… eating that?” He asks, voice taking on an undercurrent of disgust.

You nod, smiling brightly.
“ye” you hope that you’ll think of something really cool to say, but nothing comes to mind :( “…anyway, are you ready to get going?” You ask, shooting awkward finger guns that cause his wings to flinch.

He dusts himself off, nodding “yes, we should get going as soon as possible”.

“Alright, lets get going then!” You cheer, excitedly turning your back “but first…” you flip around, turning your head toward him dramatically “what… are your pronouns?”

“He/him” the archangel states, you give him a thumbs up and the two of you journey through the forest, walking over old, smelly, rotten corpses and the dried blood surrounding them. You want to vomit, but you hold it together and just keep walking alongside your newfound friend, struggling to keep up bc he speed walks like mad. Also at some point he gave you your sick ass jacket back by the way.

After walking for a while, the two of you finally finish your trek, finding yourselves in front of a mansion, the music shifts, landing on a familiar tune, you find yourself laughing silently, certain memories flooding your mind, specifically the composer’s name.

However, Gabriel seems very serious —even more so than normal— his head held just a bit lower than normal, almost to show some form of guilt.

“Hey, you okay?” You ask, tilting your head in an attempt to meet his eyes.

“I’m fine.” He waves his hand dismissively, avoiding your gaze “lets just leave quickly”

You slowly nod, cautiously opening the gate to the manor. You see nobody so you mosey on inside, the archangel reluctantly following you.

“waow this place is so sigma…” you remark, taking in the beautiful surroundings surrounding you the way surroundings do.

Suddenly Gabriel snaps out of whatever trance he was in before, looking at you all confused-like “…sigma? Really, mortal?”

“Fine, its very… skibidi” you grin evilly “and that stained glass of you? Major rizz”

“Stop that. Now is not the time” he says, crossing his arms with a huff and walking toward the stairs.

“Jeez someone’s angstpilled this morning” you scoff, following his footsteps upstairs.

He freezes, and in turn so do you as you both take in the sight in front of you.

There is a skeleton beneath the stain glass window, bent over as if mumbling a prayer. It’s covered in holy cloth, untouched by the dried-up gore around it and scrawled onto the wall, the text pleads for forgiveness of all things.

Gabriel feels his chest sink, bending down to observe the skeleton in front of him, carefully pushing the holy cloth from its face. Gently, he cups the skull in his hands, taking in its appearance. Seeing how he failed yet another, seeing even more proof of how cruel the council was. His stomach churns as his hands begin to tremble; slowly, gently, he removes his hands, placing the holy cloth back where it was before.

Feeling his heart sink to the floor, he slowly stands up, feeling the guilt weigh down his shoulders try to push him to his knees. Maybe he really was a failure, a waste of the father’s light, maybe he—

His thoughts are cut off by you placing your hand on his shoulder, “hey… are you--“ however, this time, you’re cut off by him instead.

“Im FINE.” He insists, shoving your hand away. He doesn’t say anything after that, he just quietly walks back downstairs the through another wooden door. Walking straight through what seemed like a cross between a large puddle and a mini lake stained with old blood like it wasn’t even there.

You struggle to keep up with him, winding up exhausted but knowing now’s not the time for a break. Against your own wishes, you refrain from asking him any questions, whatever just happened back there looked like it had cut him deep inside: a wound that may never fully heal. So the two of you silently walk until you reach this really red and fucked up hallway (???) looking thing. However you’d seen one of these before when you made it to limbo. You thought it was some sort of exit at first, unknowing of the fact that it would only lead you deeper into this seemingly never-ending hellhole.

“Is this…” you hesitantly ask “…what’s gonna take us deeper?”

“Yes.” He simply states, eyes to the distant ground. Its clear he’s fighting off some pretty terrible thoughts, and you’re not really sure how to help.

You nearly say something, anything to at least maybe take his mind off things, but the second a letter leaves your mouth, he starts talking.

“I’ll go first, it’s safer that way, its a long way down” he says, walking ahead and turning his head toward you but only for a moment. Jumping down the red hole. You don’t fight him on it. And after he’s been down for 15 seconds you follow him, a soft “whoosh”ing sound gently whooshing whooshily.

…

One moment you’re in the air, the next you’re in the archangel’s arms, bridal style bc he’s a genderless being of CLASS. he gently places you onto the ground. Your mind reels for a second before it SIBAU and lets you look around. Its a whole goddamn city down here, your eyes practically have stars inside them and for a moment you forget all of the worries you had about this new layer. Only for a moment tho and you snap back into reality.

“So this is lust,” you remark, looking up at the shy, which takes on a rich purple hue “its… pretty”

“Indeed it is,” he agrees, arms crossed as he looks toward the sky all stoic-like “it was once a desolate land of punishment and fear used to punish those who became too… consumed by each other’s flame, but many years ago a city was built upon it so those sinners could live in peace and harmony”

“Well they did a damn good job building it, that’s for sure” you nod, turning your head to look at the seemingly endless space in front of you, still silently admiring the beautiful structures surrounding you and your new friend “…do you know who made all this?” You ask, hands gripping the sides of your jacket as you absentmindedly fidget with the cloth. You know you shouldn’t ask too many questions right now, but your curiosity had gotten the better of you and before you knew it, you had already popped the question.

“It… was an old friend of mine” he states, turning his head downwards as if to express a form of shame —or perhaps more guilt— yeah… maybe don’t question him any further…

“Were you gay for each other?” You cover your mouth the second the question slips out, eyes widening, threatening to pop out from their sockets.
He whips around to face you, the absurdity of your question was enough to snap him out of it, yippee!

“WHAT?”

“Did you say gex?”

“What would saying ‘gex’ have to do with anything??” He asks, wholly (hehe see what I did there?) confused, covering his helmet with one hand because god freaking damn this dude needs a break.

You finally sybau and he sighs.

“Well, yes, we were very gay with each other in our time together… however that came to a very gruesome end, one I admittedly regret” he admits, looking at his fancy metal shoes before looking at you, whose face displays a mix of sympathy and “:o”

You clear your throat and put your romantic fanfic ideas for the two on the back burner (for now) “I’m… so sorry that happened to you”

“Its nothing, I shouldn’t have brought it up… let’s just keep going” he turns away once more and begins to walk away, you follow after him of course. Maybe you shouldn’t have pried so damn much…

…

And on that note the two of you journey through lust, overcoming obstacles, doing parkour, jumping on those green landing pad things, taking selfies with those two skeletons that looked like they were freaking (tho he only watched you do that with clear disappointment and a loud sigh) and finally the two of you are exhausted, yet Gabriel refuses to stop, let alone slow down. You, however were fighting to keep your eyes open, your stomach begging for food and your throat crying out for water. You did actually have water on you but you didn’t want to be left behind.

Unbeknownst to you, however, Gabriel was wrestling with his own physical symptoms; not only caused by exhaustion, but also since he hasn’t eaten a husk in a hot minute. His halo’s bright, almost electric blue was slowly fading into a darker and darker hue.

His knees grew weak and tingly, along with his arms. His head grew foggy, as well, and the world begins to spin around him, forcing the archangel to take a break inside one of the abandoned apartments near the end of the city. He’s almost at gluttony, he just needs to keep pushing… To get to the subway. He can do this… he...

…

After a while, he hears sounds outside, growling, screaming, and liquid splashing onto the ground. His knees threaten to give out as he slowly rises to his feet, leaving the apartment as fast as he can to see what the fuck is happening.

He walks to the side of the building to find you in combat with a Stray. It shoots hell energy at you, you mostly dodge but it collides with the side of your arm, causing a screeching burn to form across the skin, searing through the tough cloth of your sleeve as well. You hiss in pain, gritting your teeth as you clutch the stinging patch of skin and take out your favorite knife: your trusty butcher’s knife, and charging at it. It points its arm at you, getting ready to shoot once again.

However, before it manages to do anything; a brilliant, yet dim light flashes before your eyes and next thing you know the husk is skewered. blood trickles down a beautiful golden blade and drips onto the ground, followed by a small huff from Gabriel. He retracts the sword, letting the husk fall limply to the ground and rejoice with the remainder of its lost blood.

You revert back to doing your previous “:o” face, stopping in your tracks, feet frozen to the ground. You let out a tiny “dayuuumnnnn” but its too quiet for Gabriel to hear. He turns his head to you, blood dripping off his sword until it all seems to magically disappear from it.

“Are you alright?” He asks all dramatic-like, sheathing splendor with practiced grace.

“Holy crap that was so badass!!” You say with awe clear in your voice, you clear your throat “uh yeah im fine, ’tis but a scratch!” You smile. He could literally just kill you if he wanted to.

He approaches you, avoiding meeting the husk’s body with his eyes.
“You need to be more careful,” he warns, his strong hand gripping your arm. He takes a look at your burn while it screams at you, making tears want to spill from your eyes which is weird because you haven’t cried for that reason since you were a kid, which kind of makes you feel stupid for feeling that way.

But yea the burn is so bad some of your skin is literally cooked that’s how bad it is, I think that’s called a third degree burn but I dunno.

“Take off your jacket.” He demands before asking if you have any bandages, you nod and remove your jacket, unconsciously grinding your teeth as you do so.

Meanwhile he rummages through your bag, sifting through cooking material, sharp objects, bags of teeth, etc. eventually he finds a first aid kit and removes a thingy of gauze, a bottle of anti septic, and a few cotton balls.

He approaches you and you bite your lip in anticipation.

“You know, I can totally do this myself” you say, your voice unintentionally taking on a much higher pitch.

“Mortal, I just watched you simultaneously “whip and nae nae” as you call it while falling down thousands of feet 3 TIMES merely an hour ago.” He sighs “you’re lucky I caught you before you hit the ground somewhere”

You stay silent, quietly cracking up at your own memories of “yeeting” yourself over buildings with those launching pads and a little creativity, luckily you timed things just right so you’d always land on one of those other launching pads in a never-ending cycle before he stopped you.

“Okay, I see your point, uh… thanks” you mutter, holding your forearm and avoiding his gaze.

…

He wets a cotton ball with antiseptic, causing you to flinch, you hiss in pain while he directs you to “stay still”. Your whole body stiffens up like you’re some kind of statue and you thank your lucky star when he moves on to applying the gauze, taking a dramatic sigh of relief when its over.

“Thank you” you murmur, cheeks flush from both pressure and embarrassment “it… feels a lot better already”

“You’re welcome, but as I said: be more careful next time, you’re lucky this is the only injury you walked away with” he scolds, you nod, turning your red face to him.

“Yeah, I’ve got it, thanks again”

You find your eyes move to the husk…

“So… who wants some soup?” You grin evilly “…or maybe meatloaf…?”

…

You take your trusty lighter from your coat pocket, the lighter is red with a blue flame pattern at the bottom. You use it to light a twig on fire, gently placing it inside a pile of fresh firewood which was conveniently there, carefully blowing on it to get it to spread. while the fire begins to grow, you start preparing the meat, carefully making precise cuts with your knife and guiding it through the flesh. Some blood squirts itself onto you but you’re too hungry to really care anyway.

You mince it into tiny pieces and move on to the next step:
You squeeze old ketchup packets from your bag into a bowl, adding to it two eggs you got from an inconspicuous man behind a tree, stolen salt and pepper packets, and a crushed sleeve of crackers. you set it aside to let it all soften. In the meantime you disassociate.

…christ…

After 10 minutes of that, you add the meat to the cracker mixture, dicing up a layered root you found in limbo and adding that to the mix, stirring until combined.

You coat your big ahh pot in an oily substance you picked up a few days ago, adding the meaty mixture into it and spreading it out on the bottom of the pot, covering the bottom of the lid with a cloth and securing it on the top of the pot. gently placing the pot atop the flame, hoping it’ll cook the way you want it to.

…

While that cooks, you decide to talk to Gabriel to pass the time.
You end up staring at him, cocking your head slightly.
“Hey, your halo is dimmer than before, you good?” You ask, voice laced with concern.

For a second he can’t register what you just said, holding his throbbing head in his hands
“I’m fine,” you says, trying to feign some kind of strength “I just need to eat…”

“Well if its really that bad I have some more crackers in the meantime,” you rummage through your bag until you find a half-empty sleeve you had previously thought had gone missing, “how’s this?” You ask while showing him the bag.

“No, its not that,” he says, avoiding your eyes “save those, I’ll be fine”

“Alright then, if you’re sure” you gently place the sleeve of crackers inside of your bag as if its a prized possession so it knows you’ll never take it for granted again, heavily resisting the urge to kiss it so your new friend doesn’t think you’re batshit.

“So… what’s your favorite color?” You ask him, gently setting your bag to the side and holding your ankles loosely to the ground.

He pauses for a moment, as if confused “my favorite color? You’re not going to ask me about like god or the afterlife or anything?” He asks.

“I’m not sure I need to know anything else, or y’know, want to” you look to the ground for a minute before looking back up at him “now come on, is it gold like the design on your chest plate? Maybe blue like your halo? I’m not going to stop guessing until you tell me” grinning, you sit your head in one of your hands in a playful manner, cocking your head while you wait for a reply.

Gabriel huffs, his gaze shifting to the sky fondly “Mortal, back on earth, had you ever seen the sun rise after a long night? The way it coats the horizon in a beautiful array of golds, pinks, and reds?”

You hum contently, looking to the sky and picturing it in such beautiful hues “yes I have” you nod “so, that’s your favorite?”

“Yes, I believe it is”

“Based.” You nod, listening to the wind as it sings to you.

He agrees, trying to hide the fact he has no idea what the fuck based means. The two of you enjoy the moment together, occasionally shivering from the harsh wind, but it doesn’t seem to bother the two of you so much, thanks to all the buildings helping to block or at least distort it.

After some time you check on the meatloaf, its nearly done so you squeeze some old ketchup and mustard packets on top and place the empty plastic vessels back into your bag because you ain’t no littering bitch, after all. After another 10 minutes you decide you’re too hungry to keep waiting and remove it from the flame. trying your best to make the slices stay together, you place them into the bowls with care and yet, they crumble.

“God da-“ you begin to mutter, only to feel Gabriel’s intense gaze fall on your person, causing shivers to crawl down your spine, spreading across your back using your ribcage as a guide.

“Uhh… fuck?” You correct yourself.

“Better.” He nods, arms crossed before receiving his bowl of depressed meatloaf.

He takes a bite fearful of the taste, but yet again it hits. Its spicy and kind of bitter as well as very smoky but thanks to the sweet ketchup and onions it manages to taste really goated. hell, it even has sauce! whether it's just sauce or if its the sauce is up to you.

He looks toward you again to see you staring at him wide-eyed and jaw dropped.

“…are you okay?” Gabriel asks

“…How do you eat with the helmet on?…” you ask him back, your mind doing fucking kickflips in the prison of skull.

“What?”

“…How do you eat with the helmet on?…” you repeat, eyes unwavering.

“I… just eat”

“Valid ig” you shrug, letting it go in favor of eating your own share of meatloaf “zamn no cap bruh this shit lowkey bussin ong frfr. W chef ngl sheeesh let them cook”.

“What made you stray from the path of god?”

You choke on your bite of food, coughing into your arm.

“Wgat??” You finally wheeze out.

“Don’t think I haven’t noticed the devil symbols on your ears and jacket” he looks you up and down “I just… want to understand why”

“Well damn, uh… normally I don’t start trauma-dumping onto people I just met” you avoid his eyes “I am a Y/N so my life kinda sucks and all…” you grunt, rolling your eyes before loading the dramatic backstory, complete with dark piano music and hyper-realistic background visuals ofc.

“Basically the church I went to sucked and didn’t care while the community hurt someone I cared about and I didn’t do anything and the rest of the community didn’t give a rat’s ass, then I stopped worshiping god so I wouldn’t turn a blind eye like that ever again” you simply state in an even tone, doing jazz hands while the music fades out.

The two of you sit in silence for a moment, Gabriel waiting for you to say more while you wish you could.

“I see…” he finally pipes up, eyes falling to a random door in the distance “…I’ve had my fair share of hardship from a religious community too, you could say”

You scoot closer to him, taking on a more subdued tone, “I can kill them for you, if you want”

He sighs “its fine, I’ve… already taken care of things” he says darkly, continuing to avoid your face.

“Hey, what’s going on with you today?” You cock your head, trying to get him to look at you “you… don’t have to answer, I don’t mean to pressure you, but if you have anything you want to get off your chest I’m not going anywhere”

He turns his head to you, you crack a smile in response, a small one in hopes that it’ll reassure your angelic comrade.

He takes a deep breath and looks ahead of both of you.

“God is dead, Y/N” he says, feigning indifference as best he can.

You’re silent for a moment before gently resting your hand on his forearm in an attempt to be comforting.

“So god’s dead…” you repeat, trying to get your brain to come up with something to say, but you don’t really know what to say, you think that maybe its like someone who maybe lost their parent?? You go with that “that must have been awful”.

“It was…” he looks at his boots, purposely avoiding your gaze “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t-“

You interrupt him “no, don’t be sorry, *im* fucking sorry that happened to you”

“I—” he looks at you “…thank you, mortal”

“Hey, of course, don’t even mention it, okay?” You grin “now come on, we should finish up or the food’ll get all gross”

He agrees and the both of you finish off the meatloaf.

A part of him can’t believe you’re real in all honesty. Not only hasn’t he seen a human ever since like THE virgin MARY, but also I dunno if anyone’s ever told you this but you’re like really weird. You’re combative, rude, strange, literally willing to die for a steak, and also dressed very… differently than he was used to humans dressing. You had made much of your odd clothing by hand whether necessary or just for fun he wasn’t sure.

You also followed the word of the devil, this is something he really didn’t like about you. He just couldn’t wrap his head around it, even after your explanation. In his mind, it was simple: god made the world, the universe, and everything inside it in 7 days sometime 6000 years ago. He lovingly made you just as he did every other mortal on earth, and yet you reject him. The whole thought of that just rubs Gabriel the wrong way.

And you swear a lot. He guesses it made enough sense, since god made teenagers like really highly emotional (and had very soon grown to regret it) so he understands why, and he would prolly be a hypocrite if he tried to make you stop. (Though, he has been trying to get you to quit using the lord’s name in vain and you’re slowly getting the hang of it at least.)

But despite all of this, he really enjoyed your company. You were also kind, caring, and generous; traits he admired from you. Though he was disturbed by your excited killing of human souls, even if they didn’t appear as such…

…

The two of you clean up and go back inside the abandoned apartment Gabriel took a break in earlier, luckily it had two separate beds: a rarity in this layer of hell (or anywhere bc there aren’t all that many beds in the other layers???)

You crash land onto the one closest to the door, feeling your bag try to crush your spine but being too tired to care. You’re just happy to be able to stretch out on a real bed, something you haven’t done since you got here. You smile contently, feeling sleep wash over you before all fades to dark…

Gabriel sits on the other bed, the one next to a small window, it lets a slight draft into the room. He starts unbuckling some of his armor, happy to finally take all that shit off.

He turns to you, noticing that you’d fallen asleep. He gets up and pulls the covers over your eepy aaah form and your bag. He looks at you, taking yet another sigh, and quietly he promises not to fail you like he’d failed all the others: The Ferryman, the mansion guy, Minos (even tho that was more betrayal tbh), and many others, more than he would like to admit.

He shakes his head, hoping to snap himself out of it and turns around, laying in his own bed, feeling the exhaustion claim his body as he slowly drifts off…

Chapter Text

Gabriel opens his eyes, and as if he had only blinked its morning, or at least he thinks it is. Also you’re standing over him, drawing something in your notebook from before.

“What the fuck—“ he starts, causing you to drop the notebook with a loud ‘thunk’

“Good morning!” You grin your best grin, trying to look innocent

“Mortal you’re not fooling anyone, what the fuck were you doing?” He asks in an agitated tone.

You deflate, picking the journal up from the ground.
“Ahaha… just a lil’ art is all…” you laugh nervously.

He narrows his eyes, unbeknownst to you ofc.
“Well then, if its ‘just a lil art’ you’ll show me, correct?”

“Yep!” You gulp, feeling your heart race as you look for the right page, knowing there is no lying to this guy even though you really wish there was.

Fearfully, you hand him the notebook. You hold your breath, preparing for the worst.

He’s speechless for a full minute, not knowing what to say, he starts talking a few times, only to trail off. Eventually he articulates a sentence: “what the hell is this supposed to be?! Is that me?”

You start giggling from both fear and also how fucked this is “now, I can explain”

“Im waiting.” He says in an even tone that says ‘don’t try me’

“So… you know fetuses, right? Those fucked up hideous things…”

“Yes im aware, now why did you draw me as one???” He asks, confusion and concern in his tone mixed with a hell of a lot of wounded pride, was this really how you saw him??

“If you look on the page before that one I also drew myself as one” you smile, fidgeting with your jacket “I thought it’d be like really fucked up and hilarious if I drew us both like that??”

He just fucking stares at you so you explain further: “I like to make clay figures of people as hideous fetuses and give them to them sometimes”

“Why???” He questions, looking at you like you’re completely insane.

“I… I dunno how to answer that!” You claim “its funny?? I think???”

“Is this a human thing? Does everyone you know just do this??” He pushes further, quietly questioning his existence

“W— no!” You stutter, now he knows you’re fucking batshit. Fuck. “Its just something I like to do”

Gabriel gives up bc you’re already giving him a fucking headache. As well as giving up, he’s also getting up, and by up…

haha… lets just say…

Up and Adam.

…

Anyway so the two of you venture into an old, abandoned subway in order to reach the next layer of hell: gluttony. You both squeeze into what kinda feels like a mine cart, he stands in the front of it while you hang out behind him.

He presses the ^ button on the screen, causing the mine cart to start moving slowly. He stands with one hand on the hilt of Splendor and one foot on the edge of the cart.

You can’t help but admire him, he just looks so damn stoic! Every detail reminds you of those renaissance paintings.

“Watch behind us, someone could come from behind” he warns, and you do, taking out your butcher’s knife and striking a cvnty pose as well.

The mine cart squeaks in resistance as you enter a dark yet darker room, Gabriel’s shoulders tense up “Mortal, I don’t think we’re alone” he warns.

Your eyes slowly shift to look above your head to see red orbs bright as the sun with humanoid silhouettes vaguely made out by your eyes, which had hardly adjusted to the dark.

“Above us… there are 6 eyes in total” you mutter in a practiced even tone, attempting to not alert the other lifeforms.

“Don’t move a muscle and you’ll be fine,” he advises, you cautiously nod and silently curse yourself for doing that, but luckily the dark beings down seem to really notice.

I don’t know what should happen next because the way I wrote these two characters, they would just be statues and avoid these creatures with ease. But that’s boring asf so the mine cart spontaneously combusts, a bright explosion that sends the two of you flying in opposite directions.

The creatures cry out, sounding like a person getting a lobotomy at your local CVS pharmacy, they charge at you both, you get up and dash towards Gabriel, but as you do that one of the creatures grips onto your jacket with its talons, scraping your back and lifting you off of the ground. You feel its sharp teeth press into your head, warm liquid flowing from where it bites you.

You grunt, gripping your butcher’s knife and slashing what is probably its chest, it cries louder, letting you fall to the ground. You land on your feet, throwing your knife between the bleeding one’s presumed eyes, causing it to fall to the ground with a loud plop. You retrieve your knife from its cranium and huff cooly in mimicry of Gabriel.

Meanwhile Gabriel gets launched by the explosion and crashes into a wall, his armor making a really loud crashing sound, attracting the attention of the other two beasts. They charge toward him but before they can even blink he slashes one of their heads clean off with practiced grace.

The other one cries from anger of its lost comrade, charging toward Gabriel only to meet the same fate. Quick and easy. The archangel had thought many tough battles, so two simple harpies were nothing to him at all, he huffs the way he normally does, spotting you in the distance bc he’s got that night vision premium.

“Mortal, are you alright?” He asks, you give him a thumbs-up.

“Yeah, totally!” You bounce in place, “that was so exhilarating!”

“I’m… glad to hear that” he turns away, determined to leave as soon as possible, “now we should get going before we have more company”

“Oh okay, one second” you smile. He gulps, realizing what you’re about to do.

“You’re not going to…” he trails off, watching you excitedly take out your butcher’s knife and start cutting away some of the specific beast you killed’s flesh, causing Gabriel to nearly gag.

“Mortal, stop this at once! We just ate last night” he pleads, to no avail of course.

“This is for tonight, who knows when we’ll get another load of fresh meat on our hands, right? and plus, I’ve never tried one of these before” you grin, locking in so you night vision is perfect. You finish quite fast for such delicate work, wiping the dried up blood from your head and placing the neatly-wrapped meat in your bag for safekeeping.

The two of you decide to walk from there, luckily there wasn’t much walking to do from where you ended up.

Soon, the smell of rotting flesh fills both your senses, you feel physically sick. That’s when you come across it: the rotting corpse of what had to have been a giant, its eye sockets with two dead parasites spilling out of them, and its mouth covered in living ones feasting upon the rotten flesh. You audibly gag, covering your mouth with one hand.

“What… the hell…” you force out.

“This is the corpse of king Minos… the the ruler of lust,” Gabriel feels himself nearly choke, not only because of the sight (and stench) in front of him, but also the memory of an old friend.

“Your boyfriend?” You ask, remembering your convo from chapter 2.

He nods before the words settle in his brain, once they do he turns to you in shock.

“…my what?” He asks, shock eminent from his voice.

“Your boyfriend” you cock your head “I thought you said you were gay?”

“I said we were gay in our friendship, not… that” he flinches “why would you assume such a thing in the first place?”

“You don’t— ohhhhh” you cut yourself off, realizing his old arse probably still thinks gay means happy, you drop the topic entirely, dropping down the elevator in Minos’s bootyhole.

…

Just like last time, he lands first, catching you once you make your descent. You look around, the ground under you squishing in a way that doesn’t sit right with you. Surprisingly, the meat is still fine, you would have expected it to be rotten too.

“Ugh... this is…” you mutter in disgust.

“Indeed mortal” he nods in agreement “be careful for the acid btw”

You agree and the two of you continue through the sticky heat of gluttony, Gabriel moves in front of you, doing various parkour and helping you across. That’s just kinda how it goes for most of the layer, you make quick work of it really, at least up until the weird floating hand things you’re on now.

You barely make it to the second one, Gabriel huffs about how slow you are but you ignore him, carefully jumping to the third one…

“See? Im quick wit it!” You defend “hey, what’s that ominous cracking and crumbling noise?”

You look beneath you only to see nothing but a dark void “…fuck” you then fall headfirst into the abyss.

“Y/N!” He yells, extending his wings and jumping in after you.

Oh yeah his wings are kinda still fucked up right now.

“FUCK—“

Chapter Text

You wake up on a fancy Persian rug on the floor, head spinning. You thump your pounding head with your palm a few times, slowly standing up.

“My, my, dear, are you quite alright?” You hear a voice perk up from behind you, it causes you to jump because its British.

You turn to see somebody who looks similar to Gabriel, however he has a very… distinct style.

He wears a bright red tuxedo, a black button-up (the top buttons left unbuttoned), and a chain necklace with the devil’s sigil on it. However, he doesn’t wear a helmet like the archangel’s. hell, he doesn’t wear one at all. Smooth, pitch-black skin as dark as the vast ocean on full display whilst he smiles sinisterly, he has two eyes which glow red and pierce through your very soul, and he has a halo; except it almost seems broken, making the shape of two horns, all the hell energy running through his form making them appear blood red.

The figure’s gaze softens, a smile that sends shivers down your very spine.

“now, isn’t it rude to ignore someone whose talking right to you?” He giggles in a way that makes shivers run across your spine. Fearfully, you stutter out your reply.

“Ah… haha… sorry, I'm fine, thank you” you grin weakly “where’s gab-“

He cuts you off “ah, details, details, what matters is that *you’re* here, love” he walks toward a small, ornate table clad with a cute tablecloth and a matching tea set, all of which matching his suit of course.

He sits down, delicately placing a napkin on his lap
“Come, won’t you join me?” He asks, voice feeling as if it soothes your very soul with every word he speaks, you agree, feeling all your fear melt away.

You sit down across from him, your eyes absorbing every detail of the intricate tablecloth.

“Now where are my manners,” he scoffs at himself elegantly, as if appalled “my name is Lucifer, and yours?”

“Lucifer… like the devil..?” You ask, eyes landing on his forehead and widening in both excitement and newly-reawakened fear.

“Indeed, now, I do believe I asked you a question” he taps his fingers on the table for just a moment.

“Woah, sorry!” you smile, internally cringing at your own behavior, “my name’s Y/n, it's nice to meet you”.

“Oh, dear, the pleasure is all mine,” the devil smiles cheerfully, pouring himself a cup of tea, the brown liquid emitting a light steam into the air, you have to admit it smells heavenly…

“Care for a cup of tea?” He offers, and you happily accept, admiring the dark caramel liquid as it falls into your cup. You put at least 6 sugars in because you can, causing the devil across from you to chuckle.

“My, now I understand how you ended up in this layer of hell in the first place” he laughs elegantly while your face goes red with embarrassment.

“Don’t feel embarrassed, my dear! I was merely kidding” he smiles lightheartedly. “Now drink, must I tell you to do everything?”

“Right, thank you for the tea” you try to match his smile. You take a shallow, airy sip of the tea, feeling the hot liquid coat your mouth before rushing down your throat.

Its both smoky and sweet, like a marshmallow roasted by a campfire, as well as strangely earthy and a little on the thick side. Its heaven— or rather hell in a cup, burning your tongue and leaving it aching for more with each tiny sip you take, but you stop yourself, not wanting to seem sloppy in front of the devil from the Bible.

“Woah, this is amazing!” You grin, eyes practically filling with stars “what kind is it?”

“My my, how forward” he muses “its a secret recipe” the demon lord winks, taking a deep breath

“Now, with that out of the way, I do believe we have more important matters to discuss” he takes a sip of tea, savoring the feeling on his tongue

“What matters?” You ask, nearly choking on your own tea

“Well, to start I would like to say how wonderful it is to meet a mortal who follows my word! While your time period births more and more, you still remain quite rare indeed,” he chirps, returning his lips to the rim of his tea cup.

“Yeah, I don’t really know of anyone else who does the same,” you drink more tea, savoring the smoky taste, “it's really nice to meet you though, you’re really cool y’know, your word kinda saved my life, so… thank you”

“T’was nothing, my dear, really” he giggles, checking his pocket watch “oh my, we’ve almost run out of time!”

“Wait what?”

“The devil is a very busy man, my sweet, please do not take it personally” he reassures.

“Okay” you nod “how much time do we have left?”

“Just enough” he grins a terrifying grin, revealing his terribly sharp teeth, “well then, shall we get onto the big, terrible secret?”

“What secret.” You quickly defend, feeling your muscles tense up.

“Oh, dear, don’t play dumb with me” he leans in and your chest tightens “you know, that cute little story you’re feeding my dear little brother”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about”

“BullSHIT, Y/n” he cackles, leaning back in his chair “but I’ll play along… for now”

You stiffen, gripping onto your jacket for some assurance while he continues.

“Yes, I'm sure when my dear brother, the righteous hand of the father, the judge of hell, the strongest current archangel will forgive someone who dares to lie to his face” he laughs with his whole chest “and a MORTAL, no less, yes I'm sure he’ll be quite alright with that notion”

He wipes a tear from laughing so hard “oh, dear little brother of mine, never change…”

You’re completely frozen in fear, fiddling with your chair, hands quaking as you feel a bead of sweat drip down from your forehead.

“What? You’re not going to drink your tea? It will get cold you know” he smiles playfully, pouring himself another cup.

“How— how did you know about—“ you say, but he interrupts you.

“I’ll stop you right there, dear, I'm the devil, you do the math” he takes a sip of his freshly-poured tea sassily.

“Do you think… he’ll be hurt?” You ask, gritting your teeth as you await a reply.

“Hurt… I’m not quite sure, in all honesty… he’d certainly be angry…” he taps his chin in thought, “though I do believe he has changed slightly from being the over-zealous puppet we all know and love, so maybe there could be a chance for forgiveness, but only time can tell, it seems”.

He checks his pocket watch again “oh, dear, speaking of time…”

He elegantly sits up from his chair and approaches you, you stand up and back away.

“Hold still darling, I won’t harm you” he smiles, yanking you by the collar of your jacket forcefully.

“well, up you go, dear, best of luck on your little journey,” he throws you upwards, launching you up and through the layer of gluttonussy above you. And with a sickening squelch, you find yourself in yet another room, head spinning with a mix of fear, the dizzy, and an immense feeling of guilt.