What Would Make Alastor Cry?

Equal Park

Okay before you guys read know this, Alastor grew up in a very racist time period. If anything in this offends anyone, know that I'm not trying to offend you, I'm just trying to be accurate to the time period Alastor grew up in."

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I didn't awake to oblivion, or the usual dark lighting of Hell. I awoke to afternoon sunlight filtering in through green sycamore leaves. Through the leaves, I could see beautiful blue sky above.

"Well good morning, Sleeping Beauty." Came an angelic voice. A face suddenly hovered over me, a face that both haunted me, and filled me with joy.

"Abigail." She leaned back, allowing me to sit up and look at her properly.

"Well who did you expect, silly?" Abigail smiled at me fondly. I gave my surroundings a quick glance, trying to see if I knew where we were. It was a small park, and due to how many blacks, Hispanics, Asian, and mixed people there were, I had a pretty good idea where we were.

Égal Park, one of the few places in Louisiana where racism was none existent. It was a quarter mile outside of New Orleans, so it was where everyone who wasn't white like to go on weekends.

Of course that didn't mean there weren't any white people, just not many. This park was open to everyone, and no one was treated unfairly. If there was ever a place on Earth that was close to Heaven, this was the place.

"Look, there's our friends!" Abigail pointed to a group of four making their way to us. I could feel a genuine smile begin to spread across my face.

Maybe I never went to Hell. Maybe I never lost Abigail. Maybe it had all just been a bad dream. Yeah, a bad dream. In fact, I could already feel the dream fading from my mind.

"We made it!" Came the sing song voice of Maria. Maria was the shortest of us, and love to sing. She was one of the lead singers in the school choir. Like Abigail and I, she was creole.

"We made lunch too!" Nancy held up a picnic basket. Nancy was creole as well, and had a mother who worked as a cleaning lady.  Nancy was never one to sit still for very long, and always liked to keep everything nice and clean.

"More like I made lunch." Rosie spoke haughtily. Rosie was like the mother of our group. She always looked after us and made sure we didn't act like total fools. Her family owned the best tailor's in town. The only problem was that no one really knew that because they did business in the part of town where most colored folk lived, where most anyone who wasn't white lived actually.

"Hey, we helped!" Henry spoke defensively. Henry was the only one of us who came from a white family, but that didn't stop him from spending time with us. Unlike the rest of his family, Henry thought everyone should be looked at equally, and that skin tone meant nothing about who a person was. Henry was my closest friend, and like a brother to me.

"More like tried to eat all the sandwiches." Rosie shot back. 

When they were all seated next to us, Rosie began handing out her sandwiches. Rosie was a decent cook, but then again I'm a little biased towards any cooking that wasn't my mother's. Gazing at each of my friends, I felt relief and joy bursting inside of my chest. How amazing it was that Hell had only been a dream, and that I was with the people that mattered most to me. Nothing could ruin this moment, nothing.

As if to prove the greatness of this moment, a white man, who looked like he had rather deep pockets, stop a few feet away from us and smiled. He then bid us good day and left. A white man pleased to see a mixed group of friends, how outstanding! What a day this was!

"Alastor, Earth to Alastor." Henry waved a hand in front of my face.

"Oh! Yes Henry?"

Husk. His name is Husk now. You know this.

"Are you feeling okay? You seem a little out of it."

"I'm fine! I guess I'm still a little sleepy." I finished off my sandwich, and then stood to stretch out my legs.

"Fine day isn't it?" Maria asked as she too stood up.

"It certainly is, Maria! Hurry up everyone!" I began running down the hill. It felt good to feel the air rush past me. Why didn't I do this more often?

Because yo dead. You're dead, Alastor.

"Alastor, wait!" Abigail called cheerfully as she raced after me. Everyone else soon followed after me. This was a game we like to play. One of us would start running, and the rest would try to catch them before they reached a certain point. It was like reverse tag, except everyone was it except for the runner. The point I was trying to reach was a tree that a good 100 yards away.

This isn't real.

I had almost reached the tree when a small, delicate hand pressed into my back. I heard a small giggle as I began turning around. I knew it was Abigail by the giggle. I expected her to gloat, but when I faced her completely, she was covered in blood and had her hand over heat looked like a gunshot wound. I stared in horror at her. Her mouth opened, but it wasn't her voice that came out, it was my own. It was a horrible, pain filled shriek.

T
  H
     I
       s
          i
            S
              N
                  '
                    t
                      R
                        e
                          A
                             L

Suddenly, everything began changing around me. My friends disappeared, and the glorious park became a dark, dank alleyway. Memories start rushing back as I began shaking from fear.

"No." I muttered, "Don't make me loose her again."