Snow Angel (Alastor x OC)

•{Chapter 1}•

The First of its Kind

With a final stroke of red, Harlene's painting was finished. Taking a step back from the easel and placing her pallette down on the black stone that her brown boots, reaching halfway up her shins, were pressed against, she cast her icy blue eyes, bright against her red sclera, along her newest painting and at the backdrop of Hell behind the canvas. Buildings of obsidian black stood as silhouettes against a scarlet sky complimented by deep red clouds. The portrait of the city beyond the bridge Harlene stood upon was almost identical to the inferno around her - a heat that Harlene herself could not feel beyond the constant cold she felt from the night she died, nearly a hundred years ago.
To the dwellers of Hell, Harlene was commonly called 'Snowflake' or otherwise given the title of 'Snow Angel'. But also, Harlene was considered deceased because she'd never been seen by any other living demon ever since she'd fallen into Hell a day before the scheduled, annual extermination of that year. This was because Harlene had spent most of her afterlife wandering in the shadows of alleyways and living in more isolated sections of the Pentagram (more specifically, in an apartment complex within a part of Pentagram City where demons who typically didn't want to be found lived in silent agreement with one another that they would never discuss each other's whereabouts). She didn't want to interact with the other souls, since she was simply terrified of them, knowing that some of them had been murderers and terrorists and things alike before they'd died and ended up in Hell's gruley mosh pit.

Every night since her death in 1939, Harlene had recalled the moment she'd passed away in her nightmares, tortured by the fact that she'd never even been able to hold her baby in her frail arms and apologise for what she'd done to him. Even though the memories still tormented her, Harlene had grown used to them to the point that she no longer woke from her nightmares in a state of panic. However, when Harlene did wake up, it had gotten more and more difficult to find the willpower to leave her bed. She didn't understand why until she began reading in her past time, coming to terms with the fact that she was undeniably depressed. But where in Hell would a demon ever get help for that?
On the other hand, in the time that had passed, Harlene had taught herself how to fly and use her cryokinesis, therefore additionally teaching herself to push past the trauma in order to make use of her new abilities so that she would be able to defend herself from other demons if Harlene ever found that she was in a dire situation where she had to. But controlling her telekinesis had proved impossible.

For once, Harlene was out in the open without her worn cloak, but for the sole reason that no other demons were outside because another extermination had occurred, and knowing that the exterminators ignored her, Harlene took advantage of the exterminations as they granted her with the opportunity to explore Pentagram City without the risk being of being seen and the rumours of the mysterious 'Snow Angel' restarting. And so, certain that the paint had dried due to the naturally hot atmosphere in Hell that she had never once felt, Harlene began to pack up her painting equipment into a chestnut brown case just in time to hear the dreadfully familiar ring of the bell from the tower at the centre of the city, announcing the beginning of the new year and the end of the extermination. She ducked her head for a moment in respectful silence, aware that thousands of souls had been purged that day.
Fireworks launched overhead as Harlene left the bridge that hovered over a river of lava behind and made her way deeper into the city through the quietest streets she could find. Ahead, she could just spot the back of the clock tower where the bell was hidden and the countdown to the next cleanse would have been changed back to 365 days. Ruckus began to start up again in the distance as demons unconcealed themselves in order to rampage throughout the city.
Harlene had to make it back to her apartment before it got too hectic, so she hurried her footsteps.