Chapter Text
The afternoon light shined through the window of the hotel’s Tv room. The curtains were thick but allowed just enough of it to shine through in slivers, the kind of slivers that would have any cat resting there until it went away.
Abaddon didn’t know how long he had been sitting there in this man’s lap. He figured it had been hours just by the sun since he couldn’t really read time at all.
“You’re still asleep,”Abaddon said,his voice unnaturally quiet for someone who usually prides themselves on having their voice heard. He thought Nathan was ignoring him at first until he saw the vomit on his sweater and his face.”But you’ve gone cold…”
And with that, the demon boy wiggled himself off of Nathan’s lap, having gone to get the man a blanket. He truly believed that the man was sick and resting.
The boy eventually came back with a blanket bigger than himself, enough to cover the man and probably himself as well. The weight of the blanket made him stumble at times because he was carrying it by himself all the way to the Tv room.
None of the ghosts in the hotel would be able to help, not that they could even if they wanted to, because they would just phase through it like they always did. And Abaddon would have been too prideful to accept the help from them anyway.
“Nathan,I have brought you your woven warmth,it has caused me much trouble bringing it here for you and-“If the man was alive, he would’ve chuckled at his words and told him that it was actually called a blanket. That was when Abaddon stopped talking as soon as he noticed something.
The scattered pills on the table and the empty bottle which the peering sunlight had brought too much attention on now. The vomit around Nathan’s mouth and his sweater. The stillness of his chest that used to beat with every breath he took.
“Nathan?”Abaddon said, dropping the blanket at his side to walk closer to Nathan. Despite himself and how aloof he usually felt to others in his presence, he actually felt slightly concerned for the man.”Are you awake?”
He got no reply so he tried again, a little bit louder this time. “Nathan!”He said,trying to make his voice heard. But still he got no reply so he got up close and tried to shake him awake with all the might that this vessel, which he had cursed under his breath about being weak sometimes, could muster.
The man, however, still did not get up and remained completely still in the chair. Abaddon was getting really concerned now, more than what he would like to admit to anyone.
Abaddon was trying many things to see if Nathan would wake up and he was about to give up when he spotted something. Nathan’s phone on the table. Maybe he could use that to call for help? he wasn’t sure if it would do much anyway.
And so,Abaddon made great efforts to climb the man’s legs to be able to sit in his lap and reach the phone. Once he did, he fumbled with it a little bit because he wasn’t sure how it worked since Nathan never taught him how to use a cellphone, not that he would’ve listened to his teachings anyway hence the small cracks on the screen.
He heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the lock screen come on, the photo on the lock screen being of Abaddon himself sleeping which had been a not so really secret picture that Nathan had taken a long time ago. Luckily, a man like Nathan opted for no lock in case Abaddon wanted to see something on it that he had been watching and it turned off while he wasn’t there. He opened the phone to find a bunch of apps so he started pressing things to see what worked.
That is until he found the contacts app. Maybe these people could know what to do? So he scrolled through each one. There were only 3 contacts in his contact list. Two of them had pictures of a woman and man who were really old and their contact names were ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’.
Abaddon shook his head slowly,he couldn’t call those two. He needed someone who be knowledgeable enough to understand what was happening and why so his last option was that last contact.
That last contact had a picture of a woman who had the same kind of hair as Nathan did,only a bit lighter,holding a toddler boy and a baby girl as they rested in her arms. That contact was named ’Kathy’.
He decided to call that one as he figured the woman would know what to do. He let it ring for a moment as he waited for her to pick up. “Hello? Nathan, why are you calling me so late-“the woman answered from the phone but Abaddon cut her off quickly.
“He’s not moving!”Abaddon cut in, his voice unnaturally cracking slightly as if he had realized that the worst thing possible had happened already.
“What?”The woman said, already panicking.”What are you taking about? Talk slowly so I can understand you.”
“Nathan’s not moving and he’s been here for hours,”Abaddon repeated, trying to slow his words so the woman would at least understand him enough to try and call for help.”He won’t answer to me nor will he wake up!”
The woman on the other end gasped slightly in the way people do when they realized something truly bad has happened before saying she’ll call for help.
When she and the paramedics got there, they found Abaddon curled in Nathan’s lap with his knees to his chest. He wouldn’t let anyone take him off of there until they had to practically pry him off.
They figured Abaddon was a normal kid who was dressed weird so they took him to the hospital alongside Nathan who was covered by a linen blanket they only used for the dead. Abaddon was in too much shock about the whole ordeal to correct them that he was in fact not a child but a demon in one’s body.
Hours later, they had settled him into a softly lighted room with toys and art supplies. It was a kid calming room and it somehow worked on the demon.
Abaddon colored on paper, despite not being able to tell the colors apart at all, but his attention was mostly focused on what was happening outside the room.
He saw the woman talking to a doctor outside from the shadows of the slightly glassed window in the door. He knew they were talking about him, probably wondering what to do with a boy that had suddenly became an orphan witnessing something that horrific early.
Then the door swung open, bringing in fresh air and voices into the quiet room, the doctor was the first person to come close to him.
The doctor crouched to his level, giving that gentle smile doctors give to young patients and kids, as he pushed aside the coloring stuff. “Hey, kiddo , your aunt decided to house you for a few days while we figure things out with your dad, okay?”The doctor said softly as the woman walked up behind him, having this nervous look on her face at the same time.
Abaddon was going to correct the man but the woman came up to him before he could and crouched to his level just like the doctor had done which made him feel small. “I’m your aunt, Katherine,”She started off slowly as if trying to test how he’d react to seeing a new face after probably only having been with Nathan for so long.
“How about this?”Katherine continued,trying to steady her own voice as though not to alarm the boy with any panic.”You can stay in the hotel for a few days by yourself to processing everything as me and your cousins start moving in to help. Is that good?”
Abaddon nodded slowly. He didn’t speak yet as his voice was not a normal child’s voice so he didn’t want to really scare her. Not yet at least. He didn’t trust her that much yet.
This was going to be a long few days. He just knew it in his head.