My Secret Demon Boy

Oh No!

Bad was pacing the room, chewing his lip as he held the device to a pointed ear. His tail flicked nervously behind him. There were three sounds he was hyper aware of. The rain. The phone ringing, and his own shaky breathing. He felt sick to his stomach.

"Hello?" The time weathered voice crackled through the phone and one could see the relief on Bad's shoulders.

"John?! John please I need your help." He begged.

"Halo? Hey calm down, I can't understand you."

He took a few uneven breaths, trying to calm himself, "I need your help."

"You know I'm always here." John assured gently, "But with what?"

"I need your help to open a portal."

There was a long silence, before a hesitant, "Why?"

Bad sighed and explained the past hours events, Skeppy being taken, Dream's arrival, all of it. As he finished there was once again a long pause, long enough to make him think the phone may have hung up, before the old man spoke again.

"Bad… I'm not saying no, but alone? That's a suicide mission."

"I know." He rubbed his temples with a dark hand, "I know it is but there's a few people that I can probably contact."

"I'll see if I can find my old book, you get yourself a team and call me back ok? I'll come to you guys since I'm assuming you don't know how to drive."

Bad shook his head, before realizing it couldn't be seen, "Nope I don't. I'll contact Eret and Fundy. I think Wilbur is down though."

"You do that ok?"

"Ok."

The dial tone rang out indicating the call had been ended. Bad lowered it slowly, trying to calm himself down, he couldn’t be productive or helpful if he was having a panic attack. After a few minutes he looked through the screen of glowing numbers. Trying to figure out who was who with the name list on the button that looked like an older telephone that he’d seen on one of the tv shows he’d watched with Skeppy over the past few weeks they’d been together. He clicked the one labeled Furry Man and sighed in relief as Fundy picked up.

He gave the same explanation to Fundy as he had to John, except this time adding in vague detail his plan to cross back into the Nether using the help of a friend, who he didn’t state the name of in the call. Once ending it he called Eret and gave him the same run down.

The four of them now had a plan, tomorrow they would meet at the river trail in the same spot Bad had stumbled through three weeks ago. From there they would re-open the portal, but Bad had insisted with Fundy and Eret that he would return and face the council on his own despite his promise to Johnathan. He couldn’t bear dragging other (mostly) innocent people into this, and ask them to stick their necks out for something that was his fault.

-

To say the time passed slowly would be… nondescript. Bad felt like hours flitted by like sand between his claws, and other times it was just as slow as the sludge of trekking through soul sand valleys. But eventually everything had fallen into place. Now with Eret and Fundy awaiting him and John on the trail, every nerve he’d been suppressing was racking his body with anxiety. It was too late to back out, not that he would, he cared too much about Skeppy. He swallowed nervously as John set up the portal.

“This is a suicide mission.” Eret said softly as they folded their sunglasses into their shirt pocket.

“I know, but the longer Skeppy is trapped the more dangerous this will be. For us and him.” Bad sighed as he turned to watch John.

It didn’t take long before the air rippled and the purple swirls of magic engulfed the tree in front of him, distorting the surrounding air and view through it. Summoning every last ounce of courage, and ignoring the gallons of fear he stepped through onto the other side.

The Nether was the same as he had left it. Not that he expected it to be different. In front of him he could see the spires of gray salt that twisted upward, claws stretching for the red roof that was about a mile or two above them. The air was so much hotter, and after being on the surface for so long it felt stifling and gross.

Carefully climbing through the gray mineral and black stones, he shifted into his demon form, tail flicking nervously behind him. Every step was cautious, both to not tear cuts with the unusual not quite, but really was, salt of the basalt spires. A strider clicked somewhere to his left where the lava lake bubbled. It was odd to think this now silent landscape he’d been fleeing from just weeks earlier.

He was pulled from his thoughts as the dark brick structure loomed in front of him, the red hazy mist yielded to show the looming fortress. It was nestled in the twisting blue trees and vines that crawled upwards from the ground, choking and fighting out any other plant life from the shroom like trees.

He steeled himself as he approached the entry staircase, which seemed impossibly large, it wasn’t logical but it felt as if it had grown in size since he’d last seen it. It was the tongue of a beast that beckoned him into it’s dripping maw as he willingly fed himself to the blazing stones. Each step felt heavy and dramatic, and as he squared his shoulders at the top, three beings greeted him.

Two of those creatures were the fangs of this leviathan nestled in the woods of the Nether, its dripping jowls hungry for the next victim. He would sooner bathe in the Phlegethon, and weep in the Acheron alone than face them. His heart was in his throat and he felt like his lungs couldn’t possibly get enough air. Between Dream and Schlatt was Skeppy.

Hi! I'm not dead haha, anyways shit came up irl and it really hurt, and I'm still kinda dealing with it, but I'm a lot better and hopefully going to start getting into the swing of things again

Also note:
Phlegethon - River of Fire
Acheron - River of Woe
(Please note: I am a dumbass who let it correct to 'work' originally, and didn't realize before I hit upload lmao)

Chapter title comes from the story obv but also the song 'Oh No!' - grandson