The Otherworld

11.

MATURE: PRAISE KINK, TEASING

ARLO. Arlo, where is he? No, no, no-

I wake up gasping, my breaths staggered. "Arlo!"

But he's not here.

Where am I? Where's Arlo?

I'm in a small room, on a bed, alone. The walls are a pleasant yellow shade, with paintings hung on the wall. There's a desk and a dresser, and a door which I get up to open.

There's a long hallway, with windows covered by drapes. I peek outside. It looks...normal. Like, human world normal. Did they take me back?

I find a spiral staircase at the end of the hall, and walk down, hearing voices in what I assume is a living room. I stop by the doorway to listen.

"—are we supposed to do next?" Felix is saying. "If Arlo's not okay, I don't know if we can keep going."

"We have to." Alastor murmurs.

"You think he's going to let us? He cares a lot more than he lets on."

"Yeah, but his life depends on it. We need to tell him."

"I don't understand why you didn't tell him in the first place." Pho mutters.

"He was already scared, he didn't need to know that it was him the Angel's want."

What?

"Yeah, and now he'll be furious when he finds out."

"We just need to get him to the amulet, and he'll be fine. He doesn't have to know yet."

There's a short silence. I'm about to go in, but Dei speaks.

"Tell me, hot head. Has he fucked you yet?" I hear him ask.

I know Felix's face is red. "That doesn't have anything to do with this."

"I know, I know. Just curious."

"No." He mutters. "It doesn't matter."

"Are you sure? You seem quite jealous."

"Shut up."

He's pushing it. "He's fucked almost everyone else, but still not you? Surprising, given his sex drive. Or maybe he just doesn't-"

"Shut up!" Something crashes against the wall, and I smell smoke. He went too far.

"But-"

"Dei." Pho snaps. "Drop it."

He huffs out a sigh. "Well, I'm bored. I thought this was supposed to be fun. But he's been asleep for almost a whole day, and there's no one to fuck. Unless...?"

"No." Alastor and Felix both say flatly.

"We're waiting for him to wake up." Pho says. "We can't go to Arlo yet, and he'll want to the minute he wakes up."

"What if Arlo doesn't get better? We can't stay here forever."

"Ed says he owes us. We can stay as long as we need."

"He can't leave the property. He's going to be furious when he wakes up."

I decide, then, to walk in.

They're in a living room, with pink walls and soft looking blue furniture. Felix and Alastor are on a couch, Dei laying on his back on a rug in front of them. Pho is leaning against the wall, looking aggravated, and frustrated. What surprises me is that they all look very...normal.