✨Only In My Imagination✨ (Alastor x fem! reader love story) ✓ [COMPLETED] BOOK 1

Ch. 22 ✨I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire✨

Alastor, hands clasped behind his back, no smile on his face.

I'm both relieved and frightened to see him. It was easy for him to kill Jason, what gives him the excuse to not kill me?
"He would never hurt you," I hear a voice in my head say, "not the one he loves..."

Loves...not me, but the invisible soul of Elizabeth that lives inside of me.
I clench a fist behind my leg, forming my lips in a tight line to keep from tears falling.

No words are shared between us.
For once in his life, he is saying nothing. No 'Hello,' no jokes, nothing at all, as if he's waiting for me to do it all.

After about six very uncomfortable silent seconds, I finally choke out a muttered word.

"Hey." Is all I said.

He still doesn't say anything, and I exhale, raising my gaze to meet his.
"You did it, didn't you?" I whisper through a shaky breath, silently praying that he tells me no, that it was merely a coincidence, but I am not given that relief.

"Yes, I did."

"Why?" I ask, feeling my voice raise higher, "why would you do that?!"
He can see the anger, the hurt, in my eyes, and he looks away, trying to shield himself from seeing it, to justify his actions.

"I made a vow long ago that I would always protect you, no matter the circumstances, or the consequences."

"So you'll just KILL anyone who tries to hurt me?!" I shout, not caring about the slice of pain in my chest from breathing, or the pain on his face. He needs to hear this, he needs to know this anger that's been bubbling inside of me for twenty years.

"Do you even know what you've done?! He had a family that loved him! You forever tainted them! Do you even care?!" I take a breath, "what am I even saying?" I shake my head, "you're a fucking serial killer. Of course you don't care about anyone but yourself."

His eyes raise to meet mine, and underneath them, I see vulnerability, hurt, shame...
No, don't let it fool you.

"You're a monster," I whisper, "a sick, evil monster. I wish I never met you, I wish this fucking soul didn't reincarnate and tie me to you!"

I grab a nearest rock and throw it against the tree in fury, breathing heavily in and out.
I want him to hurt, I want him to feel like he isn't on his usual high horse....
I want him to hurt, like he hurt me.

But even I admit myself, that all I'm saying, it hurts me too.

He doesn't say or do anything, he only stands there, taking all that I throw, inhaling a pained breath as he shuts his eyes.
Even he himself knows that what I'm saying is true, he is a monster, a serial killer, a demon...

He doesn't care about who he hurts, or the consequences of his actions.
Because he's what he likes to call himself, the Radio Demon.

I turn away, to walk to the darker part of this forest and wake up, but a tug of my shirt keeps me from moving.
It doesn't pull, it merely holds me in place, keeping me from going further.

I look over my shoulder to see his hand pinching my shirt, his head hanging low in the space between us.
"Let me go, right now," I say through gritted teeth, trying to get him to let go, which he does not.

"You're right," he starts to say, "I am a monster...I knew the moment I stabbed the knife through the heart of my first victim, that I was giving up any chance of ever being a good man. I knew I was selling my soul to Hell, I wanted to. I loved the thrill of it all, of merely smiling and having all people afraid of me. Of killing Hell's overlords for my amusement. It was all that I could do to keep me from losing myself entirely to the deep pit in my heart-put there by the loss of my mother and Elizabeth. But then something happened," he raises his eyes to meet mine, "it happened to you as it happened to me."