Liar in the Attic [Belphegor X Reader]

You ☆ Fatigue and Games

***

"Noooo!" You let out a desolate cry as 'GAME OVER' flashed across the screen.

Belpehgor looked amused at your loss as he took the switch from your hold. "My turn now."

In just a few minutes he passed the level without any difficulties. A smug expression crossed his face when he turned to look at you. How irritating... you wanted to smack that silly smirk right off his face. You hadn't even finished sulking at your loss yet! However, you couldn't deny that he was good at the game, but that doesn't mean that you were going to admit it out loud.

"I don't like this game. Let's play another one."

***

"I don't understand this!"

Why was this game so confusing? It didn't even make sense. How in Devildom were you supposed to play this?

The Avatar of Sloth sighed and reached over, instructing you on what you needed to do. His soft voice tickled your ears, making you shiver. He was way too close... there was no way you could focus on his words when you were hyper-aware of his breathing. If there weren't a barred door between you two, you weren't sure if you were going to be alright.

"...Do you understand?"

"Huh?" You looked up at him, putting on your most innocent voice to hide what you had just been thinking. "I'm sorry, can you explain it again?"

***

"Ha!" Excitement bubbled up inside you like soda pop when you saw the title of winner plastered across your avatar. "I won!"

Belpheghor tried to stifle a yawn but his lulling head showed obvious signs of his tiredness. It was quite late now.... Just how many hours has it been?

"Belphie, are you tired now? Do you want to go and sleep?"

"No... it's fine..." His words slurred with fatigue, contradicting what he said. "What... time is it?"

You opened your D.D.D. to check the time but it appeared as a complete blur. Your eyes felt quite heavy as well, maybe you guys really did stay up for too long. Fighting the urge to fall asleep right then and there, you waited for your vision to clear up. After a few seconds, the numbers could finally be seen properly. Oh... It was early in the morning already... If you were in the human world, the sun would have been rising.

Belphegor looked over to you, his eyes barely kept open. He looked like he was desperately fighting for his life... against fatigue, that is. "Hmm...?" His gaze widened when he saw the numbers, suddenly alert. "You need to go. Lucifer will be coming soon."

Now you were fully awake as well. Hell, Lucifer was coming? Gah, of course, he was coming. The eldest brother was probably going to check up on his captive to make sure he was still imprisoned safe and sound. Why was Lucifer always causing you such trouble? How many times had you scurried back to your room like a poor little mouse because of him?

You ran. Legitimately ran back to your room like your existence depended on it (truth be told, it actually did). If Lucifer caught your nightly activities, you were probably going to be wiped out in barely a millisecond.

Just as you crawled into your bedsheet, you heard the faded click of a door and the pounding of footsteps against the floor outside. You sighed in relief and hit your head on the pillow. Instantly, you blacked out.

***

Black smoke rose from the ground. He smiled, but it wasn't that rare, beautiful, sincere smile; nor was it that lazy perk of the lips that you had always seen. Right then, his eyes were filled with a craze that you had never seen before. His eerie laughter echoed through the attic like blossoming spider lilies, sinister and dark.

"How could a human be as foolish as you?"

He reached towards you—reminding you too much of what his brothers had once done. You stepped back, away from his grasp. Why was he acting like this? Your blood ran cold in your veins before a prevailing thudding in your skull took form. However, you chose to do something different this time compared to all the last few times someone tried to kill you. Even as your fight or flight reaction started to kick in, you suppressed it. You stayed calm, or at least, you tried.

He paused in his steps, cocking his head to one side, confusion plastered across his face. "Stupid human, you should be running away right now."

The black smoke was starting to thicken, devouring your view of the attic and stairs. You could only see him and his tail swishing from right to left. He took another step, and another, until he was right in front of you. "Why aren't you running?"

"I–" You couldn't get the rest of your words out. No, it wasn't because you were afraid or nervous. It was like there was something preventing you from speaking any further.

"I don't need an answer. I would rather not hear the sappy speech you humans like to make, thinking that it could sway the heart of a demon."

The last thing you saw—before the smoke completely swallowed everything—was his hand waving a curse to kill you.

...

You were once again back in the attic with the black smoke rising from the ground. This time, however, he was embracing you in a hug. His hushed words tickled your ears as he thanked you for rescuing him. After the shock of the last incident, you couldn't register what was happening. But when your senses finally came back, you tentatively placed your arms around him, finding comfort in the current situation.

Then... a shift.

The warm atmosphere around you took a dramatic change, turning into a chilling cold. He was no longer talking in that sweet gentle voice you were so used to, instead, he was spilling out his previous plans to you with dark laughter, taking satisfaction in the way you stilled in shock. In a split second—before you could recover from your initial surprise—his hand trailed up to the back of your neck...

SNAP

And then you were gone.

The black smoke covered your vision again...

.

.

.

.

.

Could you change the future?

"Hey, wake up!"

You rubbed your bleary eyes. What was it this time? You opened your eyes to Mammon staring at you. Groaning, you lift your head from the desk, class seemed to have ended while you were asleep...

"Are ya okay?" His expression had worry printed all over it. "You've been falling asleep everywhere today, kinda reminding me of–" He vividly paused, catching himself in mid-sentence.

"Kind of reminding you of what?"

"Never mind." He shook his head, directing the focus back to his original question. "Have you been gettin' any sleep? Ya been looking so tired these days and today was the worst. Ya really need to take care of yourself! Humans are such fragile creatures."

You gave him a grateful smile and nodded. "I'm fine, Mammon. Thank you for worrying about me. It has just been a bit hard to catch sleep somewhere so unfamiliar." It wasn't entirely a lie but also wasn't the complete truth. However, it seemed to have convinced the second-born.

"Tell me if ya have any problems–" As if he had said something wrong, he quickly added, "N-not because I worry for ya or anythin' like that. It's just that it's because I'm your guardian and Lucifer will kill me if ya are harmed under my watch. D-do you understand?"

"Mhm, sure." You chuckled. There it was, his tsundere side was back. Mammon was a really caring demon but he gets embarrassed easily. Sometimes his words hurt you but then you would realize he never meant it.... It was kind of tiring at first, getting hurt by every single one of his words, but later you learnt to not take all his words seriously (especially those hurtful words that he says with such a flustered face). He was a pretty good guardian and friend in general if you look past some of his bad habits.