Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Every day was a slow day for the hotel. Katherine would be lucky if she got one guest a week. Usually, the only guests she ever got were the shady kind and only stayed for an evening, if they survived the ghosts. If her finances weren’t so deep in the gutter, Katherine would have turned away such unsavoury folk, but money was money. 

The hotel’s reputation remained negative despite how hard Katherine worked to brighten the place and cater to every guest’s whims. The ghosts and Abaddon remained a problem. 

However, Katherine had to give credit where credit was due; Abaddon had been causing less chaos with guests ever since that fateful day when he beat up that occult and saved them from an apocalypse. Instead of terrorising the guests by leaving squirrel corpses and bones in their beds and scaring them in the night, he had eased back to just maliciously staring at guests and making them uncomfortable. 

The ghosts, however, kept to their usual antics. Nathan had done his best to negotiate with most of the friendlier ghosts, but the more malevolent spirits refused to reason. 

Katherine had learned by now which rooms were extremely off-limits, only giving guests their least haunted rooms. 

“Abaddon, do you see my pencil anywhere?” Katherine shuffled some papers around on the lobby desk, looking under books and even beneath the keyboard. She had been working at the front desk all afternoon, hoping to check a guest in. She had no idea where Nathan had roamed off to, her children were yet to return from school, and Abaddon had been oddly following her around for most of the day. 

After not hearing a response from the usually silent demon, she bent down to look under the desk where he was sitting. She was not at all surprised to see the demon scribbling his sigil on the old wood. 

Katherine sighed and grabbed the demon’s hand and tugged him out from under the desk. 

“I’m busy!” Abaddon argued as he was practically dragged out, not entirely done with his work. 

“No, you’re vandalising my property. I told you, if you want to draw, just ask and I’ll give you paper.” Katherine pried her pencil out of the demon’s hands, who tried his best to hold on as tight as he could. 

“It is not drawing! I am making my mark!” Abaddon continued to argue, gasping slightly in horror once Katherine had successfully retrieved her pencil. 

“You can do that on things that belong to you; this is my desk.” She placed the pencil behind her ear, far out of reach for the little demon. “I’m not arguing with you, Abaddon.” 

Abaddon frowned up at her, his fists clenched, “You don’t let me do anything!” the demon complained, looking almost distraught. 

“I said I’m not arguing with you.” Katherine reiterated firmly, folding her arms now as she held her stance confidently. She was in no mood to entertain the demon. 

“I despise you.” Abaddon hissed before he darted off to a nearby vent, ripping it open and scrambling into it. The sound of his body clunking through the vent system echoed through the lobby.

If Katherine hadn’t already heard those exact words a thousand times, she may have felt slightly hurt, but being a mother of essentially three kids, hearing that phrase wasn’t uncommon. 

She sighed and returned to her paperwork, which mostly consisted of working out her debts and taxes. 

___________________ 

Abaddon was not very observant; in fact, many things went straight over his head. However, he had noticed Katherine's increasing irritability lately. She seemed easier to anger, and her tolerance for Abaddon's disobedience had dwindled. 

“She’s under a lot of stress, bud. When we’re under a lot of stress, we get easily agitated.” 

The demon remembered Nathan explaining to him after Katherine had blown up at Abaddon about his recent decision to smear squirrel blood on the lobby walls. 

Abaddon felt agitated himself; he had found that no matter what he did it somehow upset the Matriarch. 

He could have easily used blood or burned his sigil into the table, but he had used a pencil, a tool he knew was normal to write with, yet even that was still wrong. 

Abaddon had scrunched himself up into a ball in the vents, hugging his knees as tightly as he could while he enjoyed his dark surroundings. He’d sulk for as long as he wanted; if the Matriarch tried calling out to him, he wouldn’t answer. The demon had debated on just waiting out this period of ‘Pissy Kathy’, what Nathan had called her, and hope things went back to normal, where she wouldn’t reprimand him for the smallest of things. 

He had no idea how much time had passed, nor did he really care. He stayed in the vents even when he had heard Esther and Ben return from their ‘prison’. Usually, he’d join Esther and listen to the retellings of her prison experience for the day and go threaten ghosts into doing her homework, but Abaddon wanted to keep sulking. 

Abaddon had expected Esther to look for him, at least hear her call out his name, but there had been nothing. When he had crawled through the vent system to get to her room to inspect what had her attention, he could only frown in displeasure as he stared through the grate to see Esther happily talking on her ‘sell-phone’. 

“Oh yeah, in science class, it was crazy how Mr Kruger reacted to your question. Your dumb, brilliant mind annoys everyone, Heather.” 

The demon’s eyes narrowed as he continued to watch Esther laugh into the device, calling out Heather’s name. She had recently become more attached to that stupid new-world device and talking to Heather with it. Abaddon couldn’t understand it, but he knew it bothered something deep inside of him. 

Abaddon turned tail and crawled back deeper into the vents. He wasn’t going to bother to look in Ben’s room; the teen had been completely focused on the ghost, Annabelle, more so than usual. He had been trying to figure out a way to transport the ghost with him to the prison where they would dance. The demon had no idea why they’d want to dance within the prison they attended every weekday. 

Then there was Nathan. Abaddon usually didn’t mind tagging along with the parental-figure ghost as he wandered through the hotel and spoke to various other ghosts, but even Nathan had recently become obsessed with speaking with the deceased psychologist about all of his ‘feelings’. Abaddon couldn’t fathom why a dead man would bother talking about such meaningless things. 

The demon came to a halt at a T-junction in the vents. His mind had slowly begun putting pieces together. Nobody had actually really been paying him any attention lately … 

Abaddon did not appreciate the sinking feeling he felt in his chest. 

I have spent years with myself, I DO NOT need their pointless attention. 

Abaddon tried to convince himself as he took a right, crawling back towards the lobby. He had experienced such hellish treatment from many individuals in the past, some he honestly admired for their wicked tastes, but whatever the Freeling family was doing to him was far worse. 

He had accepted that they saw him as ‘part of the family’, even though the demon had no idea what that really meant. He had tried to accept the no-strings-attached kindness that was shown to him so often. He had even come to like the pointless embraces. 

But he hadn’t received any embraces recently. 

For a demon who prided himself on his solidarity, the burning desire to be held was infuriating and downright disgusting. Nothing in Hell could equal the discomfort and pain in his chest. 

If they had all just been a stupid, insignificant blip, Abaddon could have just killed them all. 

But the thought of losing them hurt worse than the discomfort within him. 

Perhaps he just needed to do something different to regain their attention. He wasn’t entirely sure what exactly, but he was confident he’d figure it out. 

The demon blinked in surprise when he heard unfamiliar voices coming from the lobby. He quickly picked up his crawling pace to get to the grate of the lobby’s vent and peered out of it curiously. If it were potential guests, maybe he could completely leave them alone, and the Matriarch would reward him for his efforts. 

He squinted through the grate, trying to assess the people he saw from above. He had always liked spying on new guests from the top vent; it was the best lookout spot. 

There was a woman and a man, average-looking like every other human in Abaddon’s eyes. Their clothes looked modern and they lugged large suitcases behind them. Nothing was of interest to the demon until he noticed the woman placing down an odd-looking carrier. 

Abaddon wasn’t listening to Katherine talking to them; he was far too horrified by what he had seen in the carrier. 

It was a human infant, a thing far worse than a grown human. Infants were stupid, loud and just overall a nuisance. The demon had terrorised many infants in his years, but their wailing cries brought no joy to him, just irritation. He did, however, enjoy snatching things out of their grubby little hands.

It had been many years though since he had to deal with such a thing. If Katherine saw any sense, she’d turn them away and tell them to never come back. 

“Welcome to the Undervale Hotel!” 

Abaddon’s eye twitched dramatically as he watched Katherine hand the couple a set of keys. 

Chapter Text

If the hotel had any guests that day, Katherine would have assumed they were just another couple of drug addicts looking for a place to crash. However, she was surprised when two ordinary people walked through her hotel doors.

They seemed like charming, down-to-earth folks. They carried a large amount of luggage behind them, which indicated this wouldn’t be their only stop. 

Katherine would have been over the moon if she hadn’t noticed the young woman carrying a baby in one of those state-of-the-art baby car carriers. 

In her almost two years of owning the hotel, she had never checked in a family with a baby. They had once had a small family with the youngest being five, but they had left before nightfall. 

As a mother, Katherine felt concern not just for the parents but for the child. The last thing she’d want to expose a baby to is horrifying things like ghosts. 

But as a business owner, she desperately wanted their money. She felt awful for feeling that way. 

“Hi there, how can I help you folks today?” Katherine put on a smile while she mentally battled herself. 

The young man was dressed casually, and the young woman beside him was almost matching. He set his luggage down and walked up to the front desk with a cheerful smile.

“Hey, yeah, we’d like to book a few nights.”

Katherine had to school her face from showing any sign of shock. Having a normal guest was weird, but having a normal guest that wanted to stay for more than just one night was just unheard of. 

“A few?” Katherine kept her smile, eyes darting from the man to the woman, then to the infant that seemed to be peacefully sleeping. Her good motherly conscience couldn’t let this happen. 

“Have you checked at the B&B in town? They offer lovely family packages.” As much as she hated the success of Charlie’s B&B, it would be a far better environment for this family. 

“Oh, we did try to book there, but sadly, they’re full. The owner said this would be the next perfect place?” The woman smiled softly at Katherine, the light bags under her eyes a tell-tale sign of early motherhood Katherine could never forget. 

Katherine cursed internally. The next hotel was miles away, and it was nearly six in the evening. 

“Right, uh, I will have to warn you this hotel is rather old so you may hear lots of bumps… and things.” She widened her smile awkwardly. 

“That’s no problem with us! We’ve been travelling around the world, and we’ve stayed in some crazy places.” The man chuckled while pulling out his wallet. 

“Wow, that’s impressive.” Katherine blinked before looking to the baby, who had slowly begun to stir. “I could barely travel a couple of hours when my kids were little.” 

“We thought we’d have trouble too, but he’s been such a champ! He’s as fearless as his parents.” The woman laughed softly, gently swaying the carrier as he noticed her child waking up. 

“I sure hope so…” Katherine mumbled under her breath before getting the rest of the details from the man. 

Derek and Bailey. They were married, and both were from Australia. The husband, Derek, had paid in cash for four nights. Katherine couldn’t complain; she hadn’t touched so much money in ages! She would just have to work as hard as possible to ensure the family stays for the four nights. 

“Well, you’re all checked in.” Katherine grabbed a set of room keys and handed them over to Derek. Room 77 was one of their most normal rooms she could offer. “Welcome to the Undervale Hotel. I hope you enjoy your stay.”

As Derek took the keys and said his thanks, everyone had flinched as they heard a loud thud from above. The guests looked up at the ceiling with raised brows. 

“That’s our old ventilation system! It makes those noises quite often!” Katherine quickly said, grabbing the guest's attention while she cast a glare up at the vent. 

—----------------------

The demon had banged his hand in anger after Katherine had given over the keys. He couldn’t care less that he’d made noise. 

Abaddon was about to leave and retreat to a dark corner of the hotel until the guests had finished their stay. He had little interest in listening to Katherine as she tried to explain the various noises the new family would be hearing. However, his attention was suddenly captured when he noticed a significant change in the tone of the Matriarch’s voice.

“Oh goodness, he really is adorable! May I ask how old he is?” 

Abaddon had never heard that odd tone from Katherine before. It was high-pitched and sickeningly sweet. He quickly looked back through the grate. 

“He’s eleven months, it’s hard to believe he’s nearly at the toddler stage.” 

The demon’s eyes narrowed as he watched Katherine move away from the desk and closer to the infant and its mother. 

“That’s amazing, they really do grow up way too fast.” 

Abaddon watched Katherine bend down to the ground, exchanging further pointless words with the mother before she did something the demon could never have expected. 

She had picked the infant up, her hands had cradled it so gently and carefully, but skillfully resting it against her chest. 

The demon couldn’t understand why a wave of red-hot anger surged through him or why he felt the urge to scream. It was as if he were witnessing a great evil unfold before him... an evil he did not approve of.

Abaddon immediately noticed the dopey smile on the infant and how it used its hands to grasp Katherine’s necklace. The demon wanted nothing more than to seize the infant and throw it out of a window.

“You’re so good with him! Our little Ray usually shies away from strangers.” 

“Oh, I’ve had two of my own; this little guy can probably just sense I’m just as tired as you.” 

The demon seethed as the two women laughed together, while the infant tried to join in with a more pitiful laugh.

His horror only grew when Ben had come down from the stairs after Katherine had called out to him to help carry the luggage, and the teen had dumbly begun cooing over the infant, spouting absolute nonsense. 

“He’s so cute, I can’t believe Esther used to be this tiny.” 

Abaddon was starting to grow tired of hearing everyone compare the infant to something ‘cute’. As far as the demon was concerned, the blubbering mess held zero ‘cute’ attributes to it. 

Ben had always been a weak link. Abaddon couldn’t entirely blame the foolish teenager, but he felt utterly mortified when Nathan walked in and nearly lost his mind over the baby. Although Nathan didn’t attempt to touch the infant, he couldn’t help but swoon over the thing, which was now making quite a bit of noise.

“I haven’t seen a baby in ages, you guys sure have a super cute kid!” 

Abaddon felt nauseated. This was becoming too much too quickly. Nathan had called him a cute kid before, despite the demon’s strong dislike of it, but now it felt like something important was being ripped out of him. 

Abaddon despised many; he hated numerous other demons, but the hatred boiling within him for this insignificant infant was surpassing any hatred he’d felt before.

The demon was beginning to not care as to why he was feeling such things; all he wanted was to get rid of the root of the problem… possibly bury it. Drown it. Could it fit in the blender? 

Abaddon relished in the ideas, finding some comfort in the disturbing imagery. He quickly cast one last glare down into the lobby before fleeing, loudly thumping his knees as he crawled, hoping to irritate Katherine. 

He had to get rid of the pest before his entire family was lost to it. 

—--------------

"And the Wi-Fi password is on the table," Katherine said as she finished her tour of the room. The room was a reasonably sized accommodation featuring a double bed and an ensuite bathroom. Katherine had expressed concerns about the lack of baby-related amenities in the hotel, but the couple assured her that they had everything they needed covered.

“And we stay on the floor below, so you’re welcome to give us a shout,” Ben added as he rolled the last massive case into the room. 

Derek and Bailey thanked them and even gave Ben a small tip for helping with the bags. Katherine was grateful for their kindness and sincerely wanted this to work out.

Once Katherine and Ben left the couple and their baby to settle in, they returned to the lobby, where Katherine's expression grew more serious.

“Ben, I may need your help and Esther’s in making sure nothing happens to that family.” Katherine looked at her son, who nodded eagerly and gave her a thumbs-up.

“Don’t worry Mom, I’ll loop Esther in once she comes out of her room.” 

Katherine smiled, giving her son a gentle rub on the head before her eyes landed on Nathan, who had stayed behind to man the desk. 

“Nathan, I desperately need you to tell the ghosts that this family is off limits. Once they’re gone I’ll let the ghosts do whatever they want for a whole week.” The desperation in Katherine’s eyes must have been obvious because her brother gave her a pitied look. 

“I’ll try my best, Kathy. But you know how some of them are…” Nathan couldn’t help but cringe as he saw a ghost pass by stark naked. Ben covered his eyes and went back upstairs, ranting about things he wished he’d never seen. 

“Trying is better than doing nothing. I also need to speak with Abaddon.” Katherine frowned and glanced at the vent in the ceiling. She was determined to ensure every problematic factor was dealt with.

—-------------------

Abaddon had crawled his way through the vent system until he’d reached Esther’s room again. She was no longer speaking on her device, but she was now on her ‘laptop’, another device Abaddon struggled to understand. 

He quickly shoved the grate open and crawled out onto the floor. He picked himself up quickly and ran over to the desk Esther was sitting at. 

“Esther, I-” 

“Not now, dude. Heather said there was going to be a surprise pop quiz tomorrow and I seriously need the credit.” Esther kept her gaze on the screen, her fingers tapping away at the keyboard. 

The demon couldn’t help but frown. His most trusted ally wasn’t even interested in listening to him. 

“This is serious!” Abaddon nearly squeaked, his voice going an octave higher from desperation. 

“Dude! If it’s mothman again, we’ll deal with him later!” Esther finally turned to look at him, but just to glare.

The demon was growing tired of receiving such looks from everyone. 

“It’s worse than mothman!” Abaddon yelled, stomping his foot in frustration. Esther had just swung back around to face her device. 

He really had no allies in this situation. Abaddon suddenly felt extremely alone. 

Before the demon could retreat into the vents, Katherine had come into Esther's room after hearing the ruckus. 

“What’s going on up here?” She questioned, giving the demon a questioning look. 

“Abaddon has a situation, but I’m super busy right now,” Esther mumbled as her fingers tapped away. 

“It’s an emergency!” Abaddon growled, correcting Esther’s words. 

“Well, emergency or not, I still need to talk with you, young man.” Katherine grabbed Abaddon’s arm and dragged him out of Esther’s room. 

Abaddon fought back as hard as he could, but the Matriarch’s strength was always far too powerful for him. The only thing he could do in defiance was to go limp and force the woman to drag him along the floor. 

“I seriously don’t need you acting up right now!” 

The demon narrowed his eyes at her as she dragged him into her room and shut the door behind them. She let him be on the ground but it was clear she wasn’t going to let him go until she had to say whatever she had to. 

“And I don’t trust you!” Abaddon sat up and folded his arms while bringing his knees up to his chest. 

“What? I- no, I don’t have time for this. I need you to be on your best behaviour, I’m well aware you saw our new guests. We need them to stay!” 

Abaddon couldn’t believe that this voice belonged to the same woman who had been talking so sweetly earlier. It sickened him. It was… unfair. 

“It makes noise, but you praise it … but when I do it you yell at me!” Abaddon raised his head to shoot Katherine a nasty glare. His words clearly took her by surprise; she stepped back and blinked.

“What on earth are you talking about?” Katherine seemed to finally be listening to him. She had bent down to his eye level, her anger apparently on pause.

Abaddon looked away, trying to scrunch himself up further. How dense could she be? 

“The infant. You hug and praise it for its noise.” He mumbled, wanting nothing more than to return to the vents. 

“The… oh, the baby? Abaddon, that’s what babies do. They don’t know any better. You, on the other hand, know the rules and can clearly understand them.” 

The demon hesitantly looked back at Katherine. Her face was no longer contorted into a scowl but instead a very soft smile. For a moment, Abaddon wanted nothing more than for her to hold him like she had the infant. 

“Abaddon, are you jealous? Of a baby?” 

Abaddon’s eyes widened. Jealous? That was not possible; he could never be jealous! Perhaps he may be slightly jealous of some of the more powerful demons in Hell, but an infant? 

“Ha! No! I couldn't care less!” the demon snapped, putting on a false sense of bravado.

“Well, if you didn’t care, why are you so upset over it?” 

“I’m not upset! It’s all just stupid, and you’re all stupid!” Abaddon quickly stood up and rushed past Katherine, nearly toppling her over. He had slipped into the vent in her room as fast as he could, all while hearing Katherine go on about ‘behaving’ and ‘staying away’ from the guests.

However, Abaddon’s plan went against those things. 

He wasn’t jealous. He was just mad. 

Once he got rid of that family, everything would go back to normal… 

Chapter Text

Abaddon had several ideas, all of which consisted of extreme violence. As much as he wanted to wield fiery axes and decapitate the guests, he knew his physical form was far too weak to pull something like that off. 

He had to settle for sneakier tactics, which he’d slowly become accustomed to over the years, although he did prefer going in guns blazing. 

His initial plan involved separating the adults from the infant. This would be challenging, as they appeared to be glued at the hip. However, he had recently watched a movie with Nathan that had taught him some tricks. He couldn't remember the title, but he did remember that the main character’s name was Dennis, and he was a kid who constantly caused trouble. 

This plan had a high success chance; Abaddon just had to stick to it and hope his own family did not interfere until he was done. 

Abaddon’s first step was to sneak through the hallways; using the vents was not part of his plan. He needed to ensure that no one saw him, not even a ghost. Fortunately, Abaddon was a quick and quiet runner, able to travel from one end of the hotel to the other in just a couple of minutes.

He ducked behind potted plants, snuck under tables and even climbed on the ceilings to avoid being spotted. Katherine had been making her way through all the hallways, patrolling them. Abaddon had the upper hand though; he knew the Matriarch would assume he was in the vents. 

The demon was on a limited time frame; he was well aware that it was nearing the point in the evening when Katherine would call everyone to eat and if he didn’t show up, she’d become suspicious. He also really didn’t want to miss dinner because tonight Katherine had said she’d be serving the nuggets of chicken shaped like dinosaurs. Abaddon wished he could eat them every night. 

Abaddon managed to get in front of the new family’s room, staring up at the old oak door and double-checking its number. He was fairly certain it was room 77, that’s the one key that was missing on the key rack anyway. He had checked… twice. 

The demon cleared his throat and prepared himself for the next phase of his plan, his least favorite part. 

He slowly raised a closed fist and gently knocked on the door three times. The demon could hear some minor sounds coming from behind the door, footsteps and silent whispers. 

When the door opened and revealed the male counterpart, Abaddon smiled up at him sweetly, his big blue eyes almost shimmering with innocence. He swung his arms behind his back and slowly swayed back and forth. 

“Oh? Hey kid? You lost?” The man smiled, his voice becoming slightly higher as he spoke. 

Abaddon seriously hated this.

“Hi, mister. My aunt Kathy said she wanted me to tell you she needed to speak with you.” The demon’s voice was buried away, instead using the more natural child-like voice the vessel had originally had.

“Wow, she’s got a nephew here, too?” The woman came to the door as well. Abaddon felt slightly unsettled at how eagerly she looked at him. 

“Well, thanks, mate. I’ll go come down with you.” As the man was about to leave the room and his wife behind, Abaddon slightly panicked. 

“Uh, she said both of you!” He quickly stood in front of the man, essentially blocking him. 

The man looked at him with a puzzled look. For a moment, Abaddon feared his plan had derailed. 

“Both of us? Must be really important then. Okay, go tell her we’ll be down soon, we kind of just got our little guy settled in.” 

Abaddon glanced through the gap between the adults, his eyes finding his target sitting in a strange-looking prison. He was this close; he had to keep pushing. 

“It won’t be long, I’ll keep an eye on it-uh, him.” The demon widened his smile, drenching out every bit of false innocence he could from himself. If he had done this out of true kindness, he would definitely have hurled buckets of blood. 

The wife and husband looked at each other, the one seemingly more hesitant. The man opened his mouth to say something but the woman quickly stepped forward and laid a warm hand on the demon’s head, causing him to flinch slightly in surprise. 

“What’s your name, kiddo?” Her smile was nearly blinding; the demon felt as if he was looking up at the sun. 

“Abaddon.” He nearly dropped to his usual voice but quickly caught himself, keeping his smile solid. 

“Okay then, Abaddon. You seem like a sweet kid so I’m going to trust you.” 

“Babe, are you sur-” 

The man was cut off again as his wife gently nudged past him, guiding Abaddon into the room. The demon was almost salivating, his finger tips itching and his heart racing. His plan was working! 

“His name is Ray, he’s in his playpen, so you don’t need to worry too much, but just make sure he doesn’t eat anything strange.” 

Abaddon nodded absentmindedly as he walked further into the room. Just to the side of the bed stood the confinement contraption, or the ‘playpen’ as the woman called it. 

“Okay, we’ll be right back!”

The demon heard the adults quickly walk away, by the speed of their footsteps, he gathered he didn’t have much time until they realised they had been deceived. 

He quickly rushed back to the door and closed it before running up to the playpen. It was rather annoying that he could barely see over it, but luckily, the walls seemed to be transparent. 

The demon’s eyes narrowed as the infant looked up at him, its hands clumsily playing with something while also having something strange on its mouth. 

“They imprison you and silence you? You hold less threat than a flea.” Abaddon’s usual dark tone came back. “Yet this prison is feeble, and you can’t escape it. It shows me how weak you truly are.” The demon hissed through gritted teeth, his ocean blue eyes fading to red. 

The infant continued to stare at him; it made no sound or response to Abaddon.

The demon’s eye twitched. He made quick use of his limbs and hoisted himself up over the playpen, entering the prison that the infant could not escape. 

The floor was littered with all sorts of toys Abaddon had never seen before. If he had had the time, he would have inspected a few. 

“You enter my home,” The demon inched his way cautiously to the infant who was half his size, “You force my family to look at your hideous face,” Abaddon felt a rush of power slither up his spine as he got close enough to look straight down at the infant, “I’ll be doing everyone a favor by snuffing you out.” 

Abaddon was more than ready to complete the final step in his plan, until he was interrupted by said infant that held up the toy in its hand towards the demon. 

“What? You think this offering will save you?” the demon scoffed as he snatched the toy from its hands. It was a spherical object made of soft wires, with smaller spheres connected to them. When he moved the toy around, the smaller spheres shifted, too. He had to admit that the rubber-like material of the toy made him want to chew on it.

He snapped out of it quickly and tossed the toy to one side. 

“No offering can save you from the suffering I’m about to inflict upon you!” Abaddon almost yelled, his hand swinging back, ready to slap this thing.

Yet once again, he was brought to a pause. 

The infant had watched him toss the toy aside, but it barely blinked in reaction. Instead, it plopped the object out of its mouth and held it up to Abaddon.

The demon blinked, his brows furrowing in confusion as he looked over the object. He had assumed it was some sort of gag to enforce silence, perhaps with spikes that embedded into the mouth… but it looked nothing like that. Abaddon put two and two together very quickly. 

“You DARE try to silence me?!” Abaddon clenched his fists, completely taken aback by the infant’s brazen display. 

“Dah.” 

“What?” The demon blinked again, watching as the infant put the silencer back in its mouth and pulled it out again, holding it back up to the demon. 

“Dah.” The infant made that noise again, but with more assertion, as if Abaddon was meant to understand. 

“I don’t speak in your wretched tongue, you fool!” Abaddon spat, his anger quickly rising once more. His time was running thin; he couldn’t afford any further distractions. 

He was slightly surprised when the infant stood up slowly, its balance as bad as a newborn deer's. 

The demon scoffed and smirked slightly, “I applaud your desire to fight back, but your effort is futile.” Abaddon took a small step back as the infant fully stood up. It wasn’t as small as he had thought it was. It looked mildly annoyed, its brows furrowed and its bottom lip pouting. 

“DAH!” the infant yelled this time. Despite its unsteady stance, it aggressively pushed its way toward the demon. Abaddon was convinced that it was determined to fight back. He wasn't entirely opposed to the idea, but he was running out of time.

“If it’s a fight you seek, so be it, but I will not fight fair and I WILL obliterate-” 

Abaddon’s eyes widened as he felt the object from the infant’s hand being shoved into his mouth. The infant had moved so quickly that the demon could not have predicted its actions. It managed to get close enough to use the silencing tool with such force that Abaddon almost felt winded.

He stood completely still, his mouth taking a few seconds to process the shape and texture. It had no taste, but the soft, rubbery centre made him instinctively clamp his mouth around it. He felt his mouth moving on its own, making small sucking movements. His fiery red eyes had returned to their natural blue hue. 

Abaddon was puzzled by the sudden pause to all his thoughts and the way his anger seemed to dissipate almost immediately. A strange wave of tranquillity washed over him; if it hadn’t been for the laughter coming from the infant, he might have been tempted to close his eyes and surrender to it.

The infant had clumsily sat back down, giggling and clapping its hands. It appeared quite pleased with itself.

“You think this trickery will stop me?! You don’t get to laugh at me!” Abaddon yelled after he hesitantly pulled the painfully comfortable silencer out of his mouth. He wanted to throw it at the infant, but his hand refused to let it go. 

“Abaddon!” 

The demon’s blood ran cold as he heard the Matriarch’s voice echo from the hallways. The thunder of multiple feet running towards the room could be felt through the floorboards. 

His time was up. 

Abaddon cursed and cast one last glare at the infant, which still seemed far too jovial. 

“I’m not done with you.” The demon quickly put the silencer back in his mouth as he got himself out of the playpen. He may as well take a trophy with him for his efforts. 

He ran to the single vent in the room and tried to pry it open, his eyes widened once he’d seen the grate had been welded shut. When had Katherine done that?! 

Abaddon scanned the room in desperation for another exit; jumping out of the window seemed like the only option. 

They were on the first story; he’d likely only break an ankle and maybe an arm. 

Before Abaddon could get any closer to the window, the room door had swung open, revealing an extremely angry-looking Katherine and a set of concerned parents behind her. 

The demon wanted nothing more in that moment than to be swallowed up by Hell’s maw. 

—-------------

Katherine felt foolish for believing everything would be okay, especially after her conversation with the demon. She couldn’t fully accept that the demon boy was actually jealous; he had never displayed that emotion before. He was selfish and certainly overdramatic, but jealousy had never come into play… until now.

She had been downstairs when she heard the new guests call out her name. They didn’t sound panicked or frightened, so she assumed it had to be about the hotel, something normal…

However, when she found them and they explained what her nephew had told them, Katherine saw red. 

It was a sick mixture of anger, fear and pure panic that propelled her up the flight of stairs. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what Abaddon would do to the baby. She had seen his handiwork at the local park before; he would hurt any child on site. 

Katherine was already trying to prepare herself for the worst, trying to formulate what she’d say to the parents. If she hadn’t been running on pure adrenaline, she’d have definitely puked a couple of times by now. 

Dreading the worst horror scene imaginable, when Katherine flung the door open, the last thing she expected to see was a laughing baby and a demon trying to sneak out of a window. 

“Abaddon! What the hell?!” Katherine stormed in and roughly grabbed the back of the demon boy’s shirt, tugging him further away from the window while the two parents quickly checked on their baby.  

The demon squirmed and wriggled in her grasp, but when he threw no curses at her, she quickly turned him around to look at his face. 

“Oh my God, is that a pacifier? Did you steal a pacifier from the baby?!” Katherine almost wanted to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all; an enraged tiny demon thrashing around like hell, all while sucking on a pacifier. She truly felt as if she was going insane. 

She tried her best to rip the pacifier out of the demon’s mouth, but the boy had clamped down on it like a honey badger while growling like a rabid dog. 

“Um, Katherine, do you-” 

Katherine looked to the younger mother, who was rightfully in shock but willingly reaching out to help. Her husband looked mad. They were definitely going to be leaving after this. 

“I am so, so sorry! My nephew is quite a handful, and I promise I’ll get this back to you!” Katherine said as she struggled to manage the demon. She finally got a firm grip on him, pinning his arms to his sides and holding him under her arm, leaving only his legs to flail wildly in the air behind her. She was actually grateful for the pacifier; it kept him from trying to take bites out of her.

Katherine ran out of the room as fast as she could, her mind racing through a million different emotions. She was relieved he’d done nothing heinous; she was upset that she hadn’t seen this coming, she was furious that the demon even tried something… she had no idea how to deal with each emotion at a time while dealing with the demon. 

She had run back to her room and locked the door behind her. She grabbed the emergency salt kit Esther had given her ages ago from her bedside table and sprinkled lines across the doorway and windows, even the vent. Once she was satisfied that there were no escape routes left for the demon, she let him go. 

He wasted no time and immediately crawled under her bed, it being the only small, dark place he could access in the moment. 

Katherine sighed in frustration and got on all fours to try to look under her bed. It was far too dark to see anything clearly, but she could make out the demon’s silhouette. 

“Abaddon, I’m extremely pissed right now.” She warned. “I told you how important these guests are, and you go and do this? What the hell were you thinking?” She stared at the unmoving silhouette, only hearing the occasional suck from the pacifier the demon still had. 

She waited a few minutes, hoping to hear some kind of response, but all she received was an icy silence.

Katherine was not a religious woman; she followed no particular faith, but in that moment, if there was a God listening, she found herself praying for their help.

Chapter Text

Nathan was well aware his usefulness was limited; being a ghost didn't give one many options. He didn’t let that deter him though, he did what he could where he could and having had a relatively good standing with most of the other spirits in the hotel made his job easier. 

When Nathan had gathered up most of the ghosts in the meeting room and informed them about the new guests, he had expected some push back but to his surprise, he was met with none. 

The spirits seemed hooked on the notion that Katherine would let them do as they pleased for an entire week; they were taking her word in good faith and willing to behave until the guests left. 

Having a lot more time on his hands than he had expected after the peaceful meeting, Nathan was unsure of what more to do. A part of him desperately wanted to go look at the baby again, maybe even try and play with him. It made him regret not spending more time with his niece and nephew when they were that young. 

Nathan understood that Katherine would lose her temper if he tried to physically interact with the guests, so he decided to keep his distance.

He would have returned to the not-so-friendly ghost psychologist in the basement, but the ghost had shoo’d him away earlier, claiming that he had a headache… which was odd, since Nathan knew ghosts couldn’t get headaches. 

Lost between what to do and where to go, Nathan wandered the halls. He decided he may as well use the time to inspect all the walls that needed new wallpaper. 

He had counted roughly 120 walls in desperate need of a touch-up before he heard his sister call out for him. She had sounded distressed and a floor below him. Luckily, he could just phase his way down rather than relying on the stairs or elevator. 

“Kathy?” He called out, slightly concerned as to what the problem could be. Katherine didn’t rely on him much, or at all. She only called him if there was a ghost related issue, or… 

The ghost spotted Katherine in front of her bedroom, arms folded and hair looking dishevelled. She looked like she was a second away from tears, or screaming. 

He ran up to her, his brows furrowed with worry. 

“Kathy? What’s wrong?” he tried to rest his hand on her shoulder, but was given the usual reminder that he was no longer corporeal, as his hand simply phased through her. 

“Abaddon. He tried to hurt the baby, Nathan.” Katherine looked at him with exhausted eyes. 

“What? He wouldn’t do that, Kath.” Nathan couldn’t help but change his frown of concern to a frown of annoyance. He understood Abaddon had his tendencies to do bad things, but this was a bit much. 

“Nathan, for God’s sake, he is a demon, I know you see him as a kid but-”

“He IS a kid, a demonic one sure, but he’s also still learning things!” Nathan interrupted his sister, he was aware she was clearly running on adrenaline and saying things she didn’t mean, but it was difficult not to take it personally. 

“You know what, I didn’t call you over to argue. Abaddon is hiding under my bed. I’ve trapped him in the room with salt barriers until I can sort this mess out,” 

Nathan’s brows raised in surprise as Katherine walked past him, “Get through to him, because right now I can’t.” Her voice was quieter, but sadder. 

He listened to her, catching the glimpse of concern on her angry face before she rushed down the hallway. 

The ghost looked at the bedroom door for a moment before deciding to just phase through the wall instead. 

—-----------------------------------

Katherine's room was cold and dark, with the sun almost gone, further enveloping the room in darkness.

Abaddon preferred it that way. The old, hard wooden floor beneath him bit into his sides as he tried adjusting himself under the bed’s frame. There was just enough space for him to be able to roll from side to side if he wanted to. 

But he’d rather keep his position of being scrunched up into a ball, tucking his head to his knees as tight as he could while his left side ached as it lay against the floor. 

He had barely listened to Katherine; he had hardly noticed her get up and leave the room. 

Usually, when he had these sorts of sulks, he’d be shouting and cursing while kicking and punching anything he could. Still, as he continued to suck on the ‘pacifier’, as Katherine had called it, he felt his anger disappear and instead get replaced by a gross, empty feeling in his chest.

He had failed to get rid of the infant, in fact the thing laughed at him as if he was a joke. Katherine had caught him and now all that was left to do was wait for the inevitable punishment. If the Matriarch hadn’t trapped him in the room, he’d have fled for the forest and hidden away for a couple of days. 

“Heya bud?” 

Abaddon barely flinched when he heard the familiar voice, soon seeing the face the voice belonged to. Nathan had phased through the bed, down on all fours, trying to make himself as small as possible. 

“You wanna talk about it? Wait, is that a paci?” 

The demon glared at the ghost who was smiling at him. He quickly rolled over, turning his back to Nathan. As much as he wanted to hate it, Abaddon found slight comfort in hearing the man’s calm voice. 

“I’m going to take a wild guess here and say you stole that from the baby?”

Abaddon remained silent for a few seconds, deliberating on his choices. 

Nathan continued to stare at his back, being nothing but patient. 

“It gave it to me.” The demon barely whispered out through the pacifier, his speech slightly impeded from the soother. 

The ghost decided to lie flat on his back, staring up at the bedframe as he listened to the boy. 

“The baby gave it to you?” 

Abaddon could only nod before he frowned to himself, “Actually, I think it attacked me with it.” 

The demon finally jolted when he heard Nathan bark out a laugh; one of those laughs he made whenever he’d seen or heard something extremely humorous. 

Abaddon scowled, finally removing the pacifier from his mouth as he turned back to face the ghost. 

“You think it is a joke?” He wanted it to come out angry, but only a soft, disappointed voice escaped his throat. 

Nathan quickly stopped his chuckling and looked at Abaddon, a kind smile plastered on his face again. 

“No, not at all. Sorry bud, listen, I’m sure this is all just a crazy misunderstanding. Please tell me what happened?” 

Abaddon found it slightly difficult to keep his frown and pout as Nathan looked at him with that look, the look that made him feel like every bit of Nathan’s attention was on him and him alone. 

The demon shied away from the gaze and focused on the pacifier he was holding in his hands,

“I despise the infant. I wanted it gone. So I tried to get rid of it, but I failed.” Abaddon didn’t know if it was because of Nathan’s general kind aura or how the ghost would try to hug him, he just wanted Nathan to know the truth. 

“Oh, uh, like, gone gone?” Nathan asked for clarification, he looked somewhat mortified when the demon nodded his head in affirmation. 

“Yikes, bud, I’m afraid that’s a no no. Remember how I told you killing is bad, but if you really, reaalllyy had to do it it should be done to someone who’s seriously crazily evil?” 

Abaddon glanced away from the ghost as he remembered snippets of that conversation Nathan had had with him. Once he looked back at the ghost, he nodded once. 

“So what makes you think the baby is some crazy evil?” Nathan asked curiously, not in a condescending or belittling way. 

It was Abaddon’s turn to stare at Nathan with mortification. He narrowed his eyes, he opened his mouth a couple times to speak but he couldnt formulate the words. 

“It - , you all… it had you all looking at it, and talking at it in funny voices!” Abaddon finally blurted out, keeping an eye on the ghost’s reactions. 

Nathan stared at him for a while, blinking once, then twice. Then his moustache slowly rose as he began to smile. 

“Abaddon, that’s jealousy, buddy.” The ghost reached his arm out , his hand gently phasing through the top of the demon’s head. 

“No! It’s not!” Abaddon shook his head and tried to scoot away from the ghost. He really didn’t want to have the same conversation he had already had with Katherine.

“Did you feel angry and hurt when you saw me talking to the baby?” Nathan kept his voice calm, and he persistently kept his hand on the boy’s head. 

Abaddon paused his scooting for a moment. He was annoyed that Nathan was correct. 

“...perhaps.” The demon cleared his throat, his free hand nervously picking at the wood in the floorboards. 

“Then, as much as you don’t want to admit it, that’s jealousy. It’s a normal emotion to feel, although sometimes not healthy.” Nathan pulled his hand away and lay his arm back down, but he had lifted it in a way that were would be enough space for Abaddon if he wanted to lie between him and his arm. 

“Human emotions are beneath me.” The demon muttered as he eyed the spot the ghost had left open for him. He wasted no time in crawling into said space, tucking himself under Nathan’s arm. He remembered how he and Nathan would do this when he was alive; sometimes at night they’d lie on the grass outside and look at the stars… which Abaddon found extremely boring, but he enjoyed the company, and Nathan could make up the worst stories. 

“You and I both know that’s not true. You feel plenty, and that’s okay.” Nathan returned his gaze to the bed frame, letting the demon settle. 

“Admitting to that would be pathetic.” Abaddon huffed, unable to ever see himself openly declaring his feelings that weren’t anger or pride. 

“Don’t need to admit to it with me, bud. I’m happy you didn’t hurt the baby, but things could have gone south…” 

Abaddon wasn’t entirely sure how his actions could have gone south, as far as he knew, they had been facing the east. 

“So,” Nathan continued, “I don’t want this happening again, so instead of trying to attack an innocent baby, just talk to me?” 

The demon’s eyes returned to an angry red as he snapped his neck to look up at the ghost. 

“Talk to you? Like how you’ve been talking to that poor excuse of a doctor for the past few weeks? Like how Esther and Ben have been talking to their friends non-stop? Or maybe how Katherine has been shouting at everyone because she’s ‘stressed’.” Abaddon slammed his hand against the floor, his rage obvious. 

The ghost looked at him, and his face dropped to an expression the demon couldn’t quite place. Sad? Disappointed? 

Abaddon watched Nathan sigh and slap a hand to his face, something he did when he’d done something foolish, which was usually. 

“Oh geez, bud. You’re right. We’ve been neglecting you, haven’t we?” Nathan took both of his hands and covered his face in shame. “I’ve been so wrapped up in myself lately, I didn’t even think about how it would be affecting you.” 

Abaddon wasn’t entirely sure what he felt as the ghost turned on to his side and tried to wrap him in a hug. It wasn’t warm or soft, it was cold and empty… yet, it was enough. 

“I’m sorry bud, I promise I’ll pay more attention to you, and we’ll sort this all out with the rest of the family, how does that sound?” 

The demon nodded slowly as he scrunched himself back up while the ghost tried to embrace him even closer. His eyelids nearly closed when Nathan had given him a soft peck on the head. 

Abaddon felt his fear and worry disappear, and his anger had once again settled. Nathan may have been a fool, an idiot, a gullible loser, but Abaddon could never think of anyone else who hugged and loved him as Nathan did. 

“Now, about that paci…” 

The demon’s eyes shot wide open and instinctively shoved the pacifier back into his mouth, making it clear that he had zero intentions of letting it go. 

“Okay, okay, one thing at a time then. I’ll go talk to Katherine and get you out of here, then we’ll get everything back to normal, alright?” 

Abaddon nodded as Nathan stood up, phasing through the bed. He watched the ghost’s feet walk towards the wall he’d previously come through. When the pair of feet had disappeared, the demon continued to lie in silence. He tried not to focus on the warm feeling in his chest or the heat on his cheeks, or the fast patter of his heart. 

The demon wouldn’t admit to it, but he wanted more. 

Perhaps if Nathan got through to Katherine, maybe he could convince them to kick the guests out and give Abaddon all the attention the infant had stolen...

Chapter Text

Packed suitcases, disappointed looks, followed by angry shouting and threats of legal action… Katherine would not have been surprised by any of this. 

Yet when she returned to the Taylors’ room, she was surprised to find them still unpacking their clothes and belongings. 

Derek was busy hanging up shirts in a wardrobe while Bailey seemed content sitting on the bed watching their baby. 

When Katherine had knocked on the door and asked to come in, the couple didn’t seem entirely upset. The husband perhaps came across as slightly annoyed. 

“Are you alright, Katherine? Is the boy alright?” Bailey had asked before Katherine could begin to spout apologies. 

“I’m, well- yes, I’m alright, thank you. I sincerely apologise again. I should have warned you about my  nephew.” Katherine forced a stressed smile.

“You grabbed and ran off with him so quickly, I was going to tell you it’s okay.” Bailey smiled and looked over to her baby, who was keeping busy with a soft material book, before she looked back at Katherine. “He can play with Ray, Ray likes playing with other kids. When we were in Mozambique, there had been baby monkeys that even played with him.” 

“Don’t remind me, their parents ransacked all our food.” The husband chimed in, half jokingly yet clearly still angry over the memory. 

Katherine raised a brow. The Taylors were certainly not the average type of guests. Despite that, she had to shake her head. 

“No, my nephew is, well, troubled. He does not play well with others, and I promise I’ll replace the pacifier he stole.” She had to internally cringe after saying that; she had noticed the pacifier brand belonged to NUK, and she really couldn’t afford their prices. 

“Oh don’t worry about the dummy, we have sooo many!” Bailey laughed and stood up, grabbing the baby travel bag off the ground and rummaging through it before lifting out a handful of pacifiers, “Ray loses these like I lose my earrings. We have backups for the backups.” 

Once again, Katherine was in awe as she watched the mother hand over one of the many pacifiers to her baby, who eagerly grabbed it, as if he’d long forgotten about the other one that was missing. By looking at all the branded products and the designer bags and clothes, Katherine realised that these people really had no issue with money. 

“Is your nephew disabled?” 

That made Katherine blink again, looking at Bailey with mild confusion over her question. 

“Disabled?” Katherine echoed, wanting to make sure she’d heard right. 

“Yes, I don’t mean to be rude!” Bailey quickly waved her hands around in defence, “I’m a special education teacher for kids, that’s how I started my whole ‘travelling around the world’ thing.” 

Katherine felt this woman had magically jumped out of a Disney film because she sounded far too nice and perfect at this point. 

“No, it’s alright. My nephew is…” Katherine bit her tongue. How could she possibly tell these two that the child with behavioural issues was not disabled, just demonic? Then again, he was colorblind… what stops him from having any more disabilities? 

“It’s okay, I do apologise for making an assumption! I thought I could help if-” 

“My wife has a terrible habit of trying to help everything and anything. I apologise as well.” Derek interrupted, trying to get his wife to drop the subject. 

Katherine appreciated their manners. She had heard plenty of people call Abaddon the foulest of insults and derogatory terms, not that Abaddon cared, as he’d just hurl those insults back anyway. 

“No, my nephew is just...” Katherine wasn’t sure; if she had to get Abaddon assessed, who knows what could come back. She was positive that the demon would terrorise any psychologist who would attempt to test him. 

“He’s autistic.” 

The three adults in the room turned to look at the doorway to see Nathan standing there with his arms folded. 

Katherine quickly walked up to him, her eyes screaming, ‘what are you doing?!’ 

“Nathan, Abaddon is not, you can’t just- he’s never been tested!” She whispered angrily at her brother, looking over her shoulder to give the Taylors a panicked smile. 

“Don’t need some doctor to tell me what I see for myself.” Nathan whispered back, a brow raised as he looked down to his sister, “Demon or not, he’s got some obvious traits.” 

“You know 5% of boys in America are diagnosed with autism?” Bailey chimed in, her smile glowing. “I’ve met so many parents who feel lost because they don’t know how they can assist their children; it's normal! I help kids and parents on how to cope.” 

‘If you could create a parent handbook guide on how to deal with demon-possessed children, that would be a start’, Katherine thought, not entirely sold on the idea that Abaddon could be autistic. 

“Angry bursts of rage? Trouble with social situations? Super sensitive to certain sounds, textures? Prefers being alone? Takes everything literally?” Bailey began to list off things, sticking a finger up for everything mentioned. 

Katherine would have thought Bailey had just described Abaddon to a T, leaving out the bits of enjoying maiming and torture. She had never thought about it before, but it all slowly clicked into place. That led her to another question though: was the autism from the vessel… or Abaddon? She shook her head, not wanting to think about that at all. 

“Yup, that’s my kid. As his father, I am sorry for what he did… which uh, what exactly did he do?” Nathan stepped into the room, being careful not to bump or touch anything. 

“I’m pretty sure he was just trying to play with Ray, he only took his dummy and Ray is perfectly okay. His speech was a bit odd beforehand but that’s normal.” Bailey walked closer to Nathan, which made the ghost cautiously move back in case. 

“I would have preferred if he’d just been honest and said he’d wanted to play, rather than lie to us.” Derek spoke up, folding his arms, “But I am aware they do things differently.” 

Katherine and Nathan were obviously relieved that the parents hadn’t taken it seriously. Nathan was not going to inform them that his demon child was plotting murder. 

“I’ve spoken to him already. He is… sorry, in his own way. I just need to speak with my sister now.” Nathan smiled before looking at Katherine, who had given him a quizzical look in return. 

“It’s no problem, we appreciate the apology though.” Bailey smiled kindly as she walked the two owners back out of the room. 

“Thank you so much, again. I really appreciate it.” Katherine smiled back at the younger mother before the room door was closed. 

The siblings looked at one another for a second before walking down the hallway together, back to Katherine’s room. 

“Is Abaddon really sorry?” 

“Kathy, we’ve been neglecting him.” 

Katherine stopped in her tracks and looked at Nathan as if he’d just kicked a dog. 

“What? Neglecting him? Nathan, he’s been on this earth for over three hundred years! Okay yes I haven’t been able to bathe him this month and I’ve just been so overwhelmed with everything from the hotel to our bills to Ben’s determination to take Annabelle to prom and I’m so proud of Esther she’s making real friends and-” 

Her breath hitched as she felt the icy cold embrace of her deceased brother wrap around her. She was inches away from a full cry. No matter how hard she tried to hug him back, all she could feel was a cold space where he should have been. 

“It’s okay, Kathy. You’ve been doing your best, you’ve been doing everything. I’m to blame here. I may be dead, but I should have been paying more attention, rather than just thinking about myself.” 

Katherine listened to her brother whisper as he phased his head over her shoulder, wanting to desperately lean on it. Her brother had always had the habit of running away and dodging accountability, but Abaddon seemed to have drastically changed that in him. 

“So then how do we fix this?” Katherine asked, her hand idly running up and down the ghost’s back, her fingers simply phasing through. 

Nathan pulled away and looked down at his little sister with determination. 

“We listen to him. We give him our attention.” 

Katherine frowned at that, “Nathan, he’s made it clear to all of us how he dislikes being touched. I can’t do anything more than just talk with him, which is limiting in itself.” 

“That’s what he wants you to think. He views himself as a big, tough demon who crushes souls between his fingers; he’d never admit to wanting hugs.” Nathan began walking again, wanting to get back to Katherine’s room. 

“So you’re saying we should listen to him by not listening to him?” Katherine questioned, following after her brother.

“In a way, this will have to be a learning curve for all of us. I think his newfound jealousy of the baby has made him more aware of what he really wants.” Nathan took a pause outside of Katherine’s room. 

She raised a brow and couldn’t help but smirk to herself, “So he is jealous,” she muttered under her breath before she opened her door, using the tip of her shoe to break the line of salt. 

The light from the hallway leaked into the dark room. Katherine was tempted to turn a light on, but decided against it. 

“Abaddon?” She called out softly as she stepped into the room, somewhat impressed that the demon hadn’t made a bolt for it. Nathan followed in behind her. 

Katherine looked down at the bed, hearing the slight shuffle on the floor. 

“You can come out now, bud.” Nathan encouraged the demon, using his go-to soft approach. 

Katherine and her brother watched the bed in silence for a minute before they noticed little hands sliding out, followed by a head of messy, unruly brown hair.

Abaddon had crawled his way out slowly and stood up to look at the two adults. Katherine was all too familiar with that far-away stare that used to unease her; now it just informed her that he was willing to listen. 

Taking Nathan’s words from earlier into consideration, she knelt in front of the demon and slowly reached her hand out to try to comb through the boy’s hair. She noted his glare and the way he had flinched, but he remained still. Sucking on the pacifier still threw her off. 

“Nathan told me everything. The Taylors also aren’t upset. They are actually far too understanding; it’s concerning.” Katherine spoke, using a gentle tone she reserved purely for her children, “I’m sorry for being so tough on you lately. I’ve been under a lot of stress, and my anger has been misplaced.” 

Abaddon continued to stare at her as she spoke, his tiny fists unclenching while his body seemed to grow more relaxed. 

“Can you forgive me?” Katherine asked, the hand that had been combing through his hair, which seriously needed a wash, came to rest on his tiny shoulder.

The demon looked down for a moment, as if contemplating, the only sound in the room being the idle, soft sucking noises. 

He looked up at her and gave a single nod. 

Katherine didn’t fully understand why she smiled so happily, nor why her heart felt lighter once Abaddon had forgiven her. Nathan’s own smile matched hers. He couldn’t have been prouder of his sister and son. 

In that moment, neither adult expected it, but the demon stepped close to Katherine and silently wrapped his small arms around her neck, trying to bury his face into the side of her neck. 

Katherine completely froze, unable to fully comprehend what was happening. She had never hugged the demon, nor had the demon ever hugged her. Their physical contact usually consisted only of minor violence. 

She expected the demon to let go and quickly run off, damning her to Hell, but he remained tightly locked to her. 

“Kathy,” Nathan whispered, standing in front of the two. He made a motion of hugging himself while looking at Abaddon and her, realising that Katherine had been too shocked to return the embrace. 

Whether it was maternal instinct kicking in or not, Katherine didn’t care as her arms quickly enveloped the small demon into a tight hug. Feeling his hold tighten around her just brought back thousands of memories from her own children. 

Katherine wasn’t sure how long the hug lasted, but it was long enough that her knees started to ache. 

“Thank you, Abaddon.” She had whispered into his ear as she attempted to let go of him and stand up, but she was sorely surprised to be met with resistance. 

The demon remained silent and kept a firm grip on her. If Katherine was none the wiser, she would have expected him to try to strangle her. 

Slightly hesitant, Katherine carefully swung her arms under the demon and gently lifted him as she stood up, her knees thanking her for the effort. Receiving no complaints, she adjusted him slowly, allowing him to sit on her hip and hook his legs around her. She couldn’t believe how much she had missed this, especially since Esther and Ben were now too big for her to carry. 

Nathan had watched the scene with a mixture of adoration and regret. He wanted nothing more than to hold Abaddon the same way, yet he was happy that there was someone who at least could. 

Abaddon had adjusted himself and moved his hands to cling to Katherine’s jacket. 

The room remained in a comfortable silence.

Chapter Text

He couldn’t stop; he didn’t want to stop. 

Her voice was soothing, her hold was warm, and tons of jumbled-up images in his head kept flashing through his mind, images he was certain he had buried away for good. 

His mother, no, the vessel’s mother, their mother? Wait, whose mother? 

The kind woman with soft hair, gentle eyes and a voice that soothed every sore… her face was blurry, he couldn't exactly remember anymore but Katherine’s face slowly began to replace hers. 

A part of him hated how much he loved and yearned for this feeling, how safe he felt as she held him against her. He didn’t want to let go, not until he was satisfied. 

Hearing Katherine say sorry and ask for forgiveness was almost as good as the hug. Abaddon had heard her say sorry before to him, like the one time she tortured him with a bath and got the horrendously smelling soap in his eyes. It burnt like Hell, and he never understood why she apologised over it. However, this ‘sorry’ felt different, like a comfortable heavyweight on him that understood his feelings.

Most importantly, though, Abaddon had reclaimed what the infant had stolen. He was in Katherine’s arms now, overruling the stupid infant’s claim. Abaddon had no plans to relinquish this any time soon. 

“Oh God, I should have been busy making dinner by now.” Katherine groaned, looking to the round device on the wall that told her the time. 

“You’re right, hey, let’s do takeout?” Nathan suggested, still smiling that stupid smile of his. 

“I’d say we don’t have the money… but we can definitely afford to split a pizza...” Katherine hummed, sounding pleased. 

Abaddon was the opposite of pleased. 

“No! You promised!” Abaddon had shouted angrily, his pacifier falling out of his mouth. Katherine had seemed to have caught it instinctively with her free hand. 

“Hey, you don’t need to shout at me. What did I promise?” Katherine questioned him, her tone still surprisingly soft. 

The demon tightened his grip on her and gave her his infamous red glare, 

“You said it was the night of nuggets from chickens in the shapes of fossils!” he replied angrily, but lowered his volume, taking Katherine’s request into account. 

“Oh, shoot, I forgot about that, sorry bud.” Nathan walked closer, looking apologetic. 

Abaddon gave the man a quick glare too, but eased up once Katherine sighed and chuckled.

“Right, I did say that. Okay, I’ll make them, we can do pizza tomorrow, maybe.” 

The demon grinned happily and pumped his fist into the air in victory while Katherine and Nathan walked out of the room. 

“Yes, yes, yes!” Abaddon cheered, bouncing around in Katherine’s hold despite her complaining about it. As they walked down the stairs, Abaddon noticed Katherine shoving his pacifier into her jacket pocket. 

“Katherine, that’s mine.” Abaddon let out a low growl, although the Matriarch didn’t look fearful at all. 

“You’re first going to tell me why. It’s for babies; you are not a baby.” Katherine looked at him momentarily as they reached the bottom of the stairs. 

Abaddown frowned, scrunching up his brows and pouting. 

“Yes, I am not an infant, good on you for seeing that.” The demon huffed, pointedly ignoring her question, all while wriggling his one arm to try to reach her pocket. 

“It’s odd, you hate anything that can silence you so why do you want it?” Katherine kept prodding as she walked to the kitchen, her brother still following silently. 

“I don’t know!” The demon exclaimed, exasperated by her questioning. “It does not silence me, it….” He paused, thinking as he tried to find the words. 

“Soothes you?” Nathan chimed in. Abaddon looked over at him with a hard stare before he nodded in agreement. 

“Yes, yes! It soothes me. It weilds a strange force that calms the enraged hellfire within me that has been burning since my essence was trapped!” Abaddon seemed almost happy, finally being able to put into words what he’d been feeling. 

Katherine took another pause and looked at the demon. Abaddon wasn’t entirely sure what emotion he was seeing, but it had a smile, it almost looked like pity, but it seemed too happy to be pity. 

“See, look at him, finding healthy coping mechanisms. Good on you, bud.” Nathan praised the demon, playfully phasing his hand over his head to ‘tussle’ his hair. Abaddon couldn’t help but grin with pride. 

“I wouldn’t call it healthy, but it’s sure better than drinking all my detergents.” Katherine sighed and used her free hand to pull out the pacifier, but held it away from the demon as he tried to grab it. “But we need to make a deal before I give it back.” 

Abaddon paused his imitation of a kitten trying to grab a fish and looked at Katherine seriously. 

“I’m listening.” His tone was earnest, but the adults seemed like they were doing their best not to laugh. 

“Only use it when you feel you’re really upset, when you really need it.” 

“Why?” Abaddon raised a brow, not entirely sure of what Katherine meant. 

“So that it helps us to know when you’re struggling. We don’t always know how you’re feeling and you don’t really express yourself well, so if we see you using it, we’ll be able to tell you may need help.” Katherine’s sweet voice was almost enough to convince the demon. 

“I don’t need help, and I don’t struggle.” Abaddon stared at her as menacingly as he could. 

“Ok, I’ll rephrase. Only use it when the so-called hellfire inside of you gets too much.” Katherine was beginning to look annoyed again. 

“What if I don’t?” Abaddon challenged her, despite knowing the power she was wielding. 

“Then no pacifier ever again. I’ll destroy every single one.” Katherine smirked, almost wickedly. 

The demon gasped in horror, half admiring Katherine’s evil genius and half mortified at the idea. Katherine had proven time and time again how she kept to her word; he wouldn’t say she was bluffing. 

“You’re an evil, wicked and vile woman…it’s a deal.” Abaddon held up his pinky finger. Katherine looked at it in surprise. “Esther said these ‘pinky promises’ were more powerful than handshakes, so.”  The demon waited patiently for Katherine to accept.  

He wasn’t entirely certain why she or Nathan had giggled, but she’d taken her free hand and used her much bigger pinky finger to intertwine with his while dangling the pacifier between her other fingers. 

“Alright, a deal’s a deal.” After completing the pinky promise, Katherine handed over the pacifier. She gave him a strange look as he was about to put it back in his mouth. He paused for a moment to consider how he was feeling.

Abaddon carefully put the pacifier away into his pocket, deeming that his current calm state did not call for the power of the soother. He couldn’t help the smile that spread on his face as Nathan and Katherine praised him for doing so. 

“Abaddon, I need to put you down so I can work in the kitchen.” Katherine shifted him on her hip before trying to pull him off. 

“I don’t want to go down.” Abaddon glared at her, sinking his fingers deeper into her clothes. 

She looked at him expressionless for a moment before she shrugged and started walking out of the kitchen. 

“Alright, no dinosaur chicken nuggets then, we’ll order pizza.” 

“NO!” Abaddon yelled and quickly released his grip on her and jumped down before tugging at her hand to get her back to the kitchen. “You promised!” he nearly wailed, his pitch going higher. 

“Will you let me cook?” Katherine asked with a smile, slowly making her way back into the kitchen even though the demon was trying to drag her. 

“Yes, fine!” Abaddon sighed, defeated again, while the Matriarch happily continued about her business in the kitchen. He glared over at Nathan, who was giggling softly. He missed being able to kick him in the shins. 

Abaddon decided to sit on top of the table while he waited for Katherine. Nathan sat at the table with him. 

The demon hadn’t been impressed when Nathan explained to him that the Taylors were intending to stay for the whole duration of their visit. Nathan had given him a stern warning to keep his distance from the infant, but Abaddon had argued back, 

“The infant is putting its filthy hands on my family. Am I just to sit back and watch?” He had asked earnestly, unsure why Katherine and Nathan had given each other weird looks and said ‘aww’. 

Nathan had promised Abaddon that he’d ignore the infant for the rest of its stay, while Katherine had said she’d do her best to limit her interactions with it. 

Abaddon would have preferred the burning or drowning plans he had, but he suspected he’d completely lose out on what he’d recently gained if he went through with it. 

“That baby isn’t even cute anyway. You’re way cuter, bud. I bet you were super cute as a baby.” Nathan cooed, trying to grab at the demon’s nose, but the demon had grown wise to the man’s dirty tricks and managed to dodge each grab. 

“I was never an infant. I emerged from the primordial ooze as I was intended to be, fully whole and fearsome… and powerful!” Abaddon stood up on the table and looked down at the ghost with a confident smirk. 

“That explains a lot, actually…” Nathan whispered, scratching at his moustache. 

“Hey, Mom, why’s dinner so late?” 

Abaddon looked to the doorway, seeing Esther walk in while holding her stomach. 

“It’s almost ready, we had some issues to deal with. Go call your brother.” Katherine looked over her shoulder as she shut the oven door. 

“Oh, right. Abaddon, you okay? What was the emergency?” Esther looked up at the demon who was still standing on their eating place. 

He frowned and crossed his arms before turning his back to her. Abaddon was still angry with her, his so-called ‘ally’ that hadn’t been there for him… 

“Dude, the silent treatment? Really?” Esther groaned. 

Hearing her footsteps coming closer, Abaddon assumed she was going to make her usual snarky comments, but she remained silent. Instead, he heard some clunking behind him, and before he could turn to inspect, he felt hands grab at his sides and begin torturing him in a way he hated most. 

“Tickle torture!” Esther yelled maniacally, her fingers kneading into his sides which made his eyes water and the worst, annoying sounds come from his mouth. He couldn’t stop Esther or the painful laughter. He tried grabbing at her hands, and he tried wriggling away. It became a mini warzone on the table. 

“Not on the table, you two!”

Katherine’s warning went unheard as the two practically wrestled. 

“Abbadon go for her neck, she’s super ticklish there!” 

The demon grinned wickedly between laughs as he heard Nathan’s battle tactic, his hands fighting against Esther’s to reach her neck. 

“Nathan! Stop encouraging them!”

“Uncle Nathan, you’re cheating!” Esther complained, laughing as she tried to hide her neck by tucking her chin in, but Abaddon was able to sneak a finger in and wriggle it, causing Esther to momentarily lose her grip on him and squeal.

It was a constant attack from both sides, and it sent them tumbling off the table and onto the kitchen tiles. The hard thud to the floor was enough to make them pause for a moment, taking in deep breaths. 

Abaddon looked at Esther while she looked at him. 

“Truce?” Esther asked, between gasps for air, still half laughing. 

“Truce,” Abaddon replied with a chuckle, his sides still throbbing from their battle. He despised the tickle torture and what it brought out of him, but he did enjoy the light feeling he always experienced after it. 

Nathan was clapping his hands, cheering them on in their epic fight, while Katherine looked at them half-unimpressed. 

“Now that you’re done, please call your brother,” Katherine begged, opening the oven and releasing a hot wave of delicious smells that made Abaddon want to jump straight into it. 

“Okay, okay. Come on, let's go call Ben.” Esther stood up and extended her hand to the demon.

The demon, suddenly having forgotten about Esther’s previous transgressions of the day, gladly took her hand and allowed himself to be lifted. He gave her a single nod before they rushed out of the kitchen together, thundering up the stairway.

—-------------- 

Katherine waited until the sound of galloping footsteps had faded before she looked at her brother once she had placed two oven trays filled with cooked chicken nuggets atop the oven. 

“I’m not the only one slightly weirded out, right?” She pulled off one of her oven mitts to open a cabinet to pick out plates. 

“Tickle torture? I think it’s normal.” Nathan gave her a quizzical look, watching her as she packed out four plates. 

She rolled her eyes while smiling, “No, I meant Abaddon’s change… it’s weirdly sweet, but…” 

Nathan raised a brow before getting up from the table and walking over to his sister. When she kept silent, unable to continue her sentence, he took over.

“You want to love him, but you’re afraid to, right?” Nathan smiled when Katherine looked at him with a wider smile. 

“Well, yes, I suppose so. He’s a demon; he has destroyed, maimed, decapitated and hurt many things. I still have that tiny scar on my right arm from when he bit me the first time I tried to bathe him.” Katherine glanced at her arm before she began dishing up the chicken nuggets with a spatula.

“To be fair, I did warn you.” Nathan chuckled but when his sister didn’t return the gesture, he grew serious, “Kathy, I won’t lie, I was scared too. When I saved him I really thought he was just a really troubled kid with some wild imagination, but he proved me wrong very quickly.” 

Nathan stood back a bit as Katherine moved back to the oven to pull out the fries she had baked. 

“I was scared, until I realised he was just as scared as I was.” 

Katherine paused at that before quietly placing the hot fries down. 

“It’s ironic to think a demon could be scared,” she said with a sad smile, pushing a stray hair out of her face and behind her ear. 

“I just think he’s still learning about himself, and it's our job to help him. Now come on, where's my plate of food?” Nathan groaned as he walked up to the counter, inspecting the four plates piled with nuggets and fries. 

That got a small chuckle out of Katherine, playfully swatting her hand through her brother. 

“You can’t eat, you doink.” 

“Hey, the name-calling is not necessary.” Nathan huffed but let out a laugh with his sister. Their laughter however, did not get a chance to last long though. 

Nathan had quickly stepped away from his sister, and Katherine had swiftly hidden her hands behind her back as if she had just committed a crime as they heard a knock before seeing Bailey standing in the kitchen doorway. 

“I’m so sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt, I completely forgot to ask earlier if I could use your microwave?” Bailey was carrying her baby on one hip while her free hand was carrying a small bag. She lifted the bag slightly and smiled sheepishly, “I’m afraid Ray really doesn’t like cold food.” 

Katherine blinked and quickly gave the young mother a knowing smile. 

“Of course! Does he bottle feed?” Katherine naturally walked over to the kettle, checking that it was full before switching it on. 

“Yes and no, he eats solids but he loves washing it down with warm milk.” Bailey looked beyond grateful as Katherine helped her by taking the bag and placing it down on the counter and opening it for her. “I’m also so sorry for interrupting your dinner!” Bailey had apologised again while her baby was focused on babbling to Nathan, who couldn’t help himself but respond with the same babble. He’d clearly forgotten his promise to Abaddon. 

“Please, there’s no need to apologise,” Katherine reassured her while trying to give a glare to Nathan. 

“You keep doing your thing, I’ve got the rest.” Bailey gave Katherine’s arm a gentle squeeze with her free hand. Katherine honestly felt somewhat relieved to have another mother in the room with her. 

Nathan had caught Katherine’s glare and had realised his mistake. Luckily for him he had turned away from the baby just in time as the three Freeling children came walking in. 

Esther looked unfazed, clearly being brought into the loop by her older brother who just seemed tired. Abaddon however, stood dead still with widened eyes as he looked at the woman and her child. 

“Does he cry a lot? I really hate crying babies.” Esther blurted out, walking past Bailey and her child to grab her plate of food nonchalantly. 

“Esther!” Katherine hissed softly.

“No, it’s okay!” Bailey let out a genuine laugh, “Ray is relatively good, I promise he won’t be a bother.” Bailey waved away any of Katherine’s further attempts at apologies. 

While Ben had walked over to help his mother carry the rest of the plates to the table and Bailey busied herself with the microwave, Nathan had gotten in front of Abaddon to try to regain his attention. 

“Hey, bud? You still hungry?” Nathan bent down, meeting the demon at eye level like always. 

Abaddon blinked, snapping out of whatever thought process he had been in. He gave Nathan a small nod and tried not to glare daggers at the baby while Nathan guided him to the table. 

“Mom, did you give yourself less food again?” Ben looked down at his plate as he sat next to his mother, eyeing her plate and noticing the discrepancies. 

“I’m not that hungry, and I’ve finished my growing, it’s fine, Ben.” Katherine smiled while placing down forks in front of everyone.

She wasn’t entirely too stressed anymore about Abaddon. The dinner would go well, and Bailey and the baby would go off and have their own dinner in peace… right?

Chapter Text

Abaddon had wanted to yell at the woman and infant to get out, seeing them in his kitchen rightfully annoyed him. Nathan had however managed to convince him to sit at the table and just eat his food. 

The demon took his spot at the head of the table, a spot Nathan had said was the most important position, one that held power and status. Abaddon obviously knew that it was meant for him. 

He did his best to ignore the sounds of the infant, focusing on the plate in front of him. Katherine had given him a small portion of fries and a larger portion of the dinosaur chicken nuggets. The demon noticed that there were far more T-Rex shapes than any of the other fossils. 

“There are too many.” Abaddon frowned and looked over at Esther’s plate; she’d already nibbled her way through most of her fries. 

“You need a Brontosaurus?” Ben used his fork to sort through his chicken nuggets. 

“I need one. I also need a Triceratops and a Stegosaurus.” Abaddon reached over to Ben’s plate, his tiny hand grabbing at the specific dinosaurs that Ben had scooted out from his pile. In return, the demon grabbed his excess of T-Rex nuggets and flopped them into the teenager’s plate. 

Katherine had thanked Ben for his kindness, while Abaddon had simply given him an approving nod. The demon looked at the Matriarch with big eyes.

“Am I still banned from ketchup?” he asked, looking over to the ketchup bottle that stood on the table between Katherine and Ben. 

“Depends. If you promise to eat it normally and not paint half the kitchen with it.” Katherine gave him a warning look. Abaddon took that as a no and eagerly held both his hands out, demanding the bottle be passed to him. 

He tried to ignore the odd stare he was receiving from the woman and infant, who were just standing and waiting for something. It irked him. 

Abaddon listened to Esther talk about her day to Katherine, explaining several plans she had come up with to overthrow the school. The demon had covered half of his plate with ketchup, drowning his fries while the nuggets teetered on the brink of annihilation.

Katherine had always told him to use the eating utensils. Why? Apparently, for manners and cleanliness. Abaddon was in no mood to try to stick a fork into his food and just miss. 

He used both of his hands to pick up two separate chicken dinosaurs, a Stegosaurus and a T-Rex, bashing them into each other multiple times before he ripped the head off of the herbivore and swallowed it whole. 

“Abaddon, stop playing with your food. And use a fork, please.” Katherine frowned at him after she had finished chewing her own dinosaur chickens. 

“This is not playing, I am recreating a scene I saw with my very own eyes that your poor mortal minds could never understand,” Abaddon spoke as he chewed through the rest of the Stegosaurus, stopping now and then to dunk it into the pool of lava chips. 

“Last time we had dino-nuggies, it was a Brontosaurus versus a Triceratops… I’m not too sure how accurate your memories are.” Esther snickered as she nibbled at a Pterodactyl on her fork. 

“I saw many battles, Esther.” Abaddon scoffed at her. He chose to continue his mini rampage through the nuggets, ‘burning’ them in the lava and severing their limbs. He couldn’t help himself at one point to imagine the infant in place of the dinosaur. 

“Are you two all sorted for dinner?” Katherine had asked as she got up from the table, looking towards the woman who was now shaking a bottle. Abaddon had seen her put it in a bowl of water earlier, which made no sense to him.

“Oh, yes! Don’t worry about us. We had a late lunch.” She smiled sweetly, the infant was wriggling in her hold as it tried to reach for the bottle she was still shaking. 

“Just let me know, we can organise dinner for you in the evenings.” Katherine smiled and took her plate to the kitchen sink. 

Abaddon did not like the idea of Katherine giving their food to these guests. It was his food, his family’s food. How could no one else see that the infant was trying to take everything? 

Ben had stood up soon after his mother, quickly taking over at the sink to begin washing the dishes. Katherine and the woman began to talk more, exchanging further pleasantries while the woman put something away in a bag and swung it over her free shoulder before giving the bottle over to the infant, who grabbed it and began drinking like its life depended on it. 

“Bud, if you glare any harder, you might drill holes into them,” Nathan whispered behind the demon. Abaddon couldn’t help but smirk at the idea, but he knew he did not have such powers, and Nathan was being mean for teasing him about it. 

“They’re lucky I can’t,” Abaddon growled, watching the woman and infant leave the kitchen. The woman had said her goodbyes and further pleasantries but the demon could only focus on the beady, soul-eating eyes of the infant that stared right back at him before they left. The family ate the rest of their meal in relative silence.

“You don’t like babies?” Esther asked him while he grabbed a handful of ketchup-drenched fries and shoved them into his mouth. 

“Yeah, we’re not having this discussion again.” Katherine came around the table while Esther had hopped down to dump her plate in the sink, much to her brother’s horror. 

Abaddon huffed through his nose as he tried to chew his fries while Katherine mercilessly wiped his mouth clean with a damp cloth, trying to pull away from her, but she just followed in pursuit. She even dared to clean his hands. He really couldn’t understand why he couldn’t just be filthy. 

“You kids want anything to drink? We’re out of soda, so your options are orange juice or milk.” Katherine sighed, retreating once she reckoned Abaddon was clean enough. 

“No thanks, mom. Thanks for dinner though!” Esther quickly darted out of the kitchen, presumably back to her room. 

Ben shared the same sentiment, stating he’d stick to water for health purposes. When he had finished washing the dishes, including Abaddon’s bloody-looking plate, he took his leave as well. 

“I would kill for a glass of Chardonnay right now.” Nathan groaned and sat down at the table. Abaddon didn’t know why humans loved alcohol so much; it did nothing for him. He got way better kicks out of cleaning products. 

“Abaddon, you want something to drink?” Katherine asked and the demon’s face lit up, just as quickly as it shut down after she denied him bleach. 

“The usual then.” Abaddon sighed begrudgingly. He watched the Matriarch walk from the fridge to the cabinets. He swung his legs idly under the table as his eyes kept track of what she always prepared for him in the evenings after meals.

“When you’re done with it, put it in the sink, understood? I don’t want to find it between my couch cushions again.” Katherine warned when she handed him his cup. 

Abaddon remembered when the Matriarch first gave him the special cup, calling it a ‘sippy cup’, saying how it would prevent mess and give the demon the freedom to walk around. 

The demon wouldn’t deny that he liked the convenience of his spill-proof cup; he no longer got into trouble for spilling various liquids on the floors. 

He grabbed hold of the cup’s handles and eagerly took a big sip, enjoying the familiar taste of milk flavoured with strawberries. Abaddon despised plain milk. Katherine had tried very hard in the beginning to get him to like it, but the only way he’d ever drink it was if she put the delicious strawberry syrup into it. 

“I need to get back to filing… I’ll be in my office if anyone needs me.” Katherine sighed as she walked out of the kitchen, leaving the ghost and his adoptive son alone. 

“Wanna go watch some movies, bud?” Nathan looked at the demon with a fond smile. 

Abaddon paused for a moment, fully aware that Nathan would likely fall asleep within the first hour of watching television. He didn't mind too much; he could still enjoy the movies and learn from them. The demon eagerly hopped off his chair and rushed out of the kitchen, heading for the lounge. He ignored Nathan's shouts behind him, telling him not to drink and run.

—--------------------------

Abaddon had to give Nathan credit; he managed to stay awake for an entire movie before falling asleep. The demon had been sitting on the carpet while the ghost had taken his usual seat in the armchair behind him. 

If it wasn’t for the man’s tell-tale snoring that gave him away, it was the fact that he wasn’t yapping on and on about facts he knew about the movie. 

Abaddon really did not care about the history or ‘behind the scenes’ of the movie; he could barely understand the movie by itself. It was a war movie, and people were fighting; that’s all he needed to know. He just wanted to see bodies being blown apart. 

The movie had ended on a boring note, not enough screaming or blood for the demon’s liking. 

He slowly got up off the floor and turned to look at the sleeping ghost. The room was completely dark, with the only light coming from the television. Abaddon couldn’t tell the time, but he knew it was late enough and most humans would have gone to sleep. 

He used to relish in causing chaos at night, running into town and disturbing multiple homes or causing severe property damage to stores… but that had ended a while ago when the Matriarch had offered him a nighttime routine. It didn’t really always work; he needed Katherine for it, and she’d been so busy lately…

Abaddon looked at his empty sippy cup on the floor and decided to leave it be; it would be slightly amusing to hear Katherine complain about it tomorrow.  

The hallways were dark, and the lobby’s lights were off. All clear signs that everyone had gone to sleep. 

Despite not having heard a single noise from the infant for quite some time, Abaddon still had thoughts on various ways he could get rid of it without getting into trouble. 

He was debating on mixing up some sort of poisonous concoction and feeding it to the thing when he noticed a single ray of light coming from Katherine’s office. 

The demon put a pause to his plan and walked up to the illuminated room. The door was slightly ajar. He quietly pushed it open further, eyes squinting as he peered around, only to spot the Matriarch sitting at her desk with her hands holding her head up. 

Abaddon looked at all the papers that had been flung across the room; her hair was out of its confines, and her jacket lay haphazardly over her chair. 

“Katherine?” Abaddon spoke softly as he entered the room, his eyebrow raised with a mixture of concern and curiosity. It wasn’t often he got to see the woman in such a vulnerable state. 

When she made no noise or movement in acknowledgement, he walked closer, hesitantly reaching out to touch her arm. 

When she flinched, so did he. She had sluggishly let go of her head to look down at him; her eyes looked puffy and tired. 

“Oh, geez, baby, don’t sneak up on me like that.” Katherine croaked out, her one hand rubbing her face. 

The demon raised another brow at the odd tone of voice and word usage from the Matriarch. 

“Katherine, I’m not an infant. Are you quite alright?” Abaddon tried to get a closer look at her; he could smell no alcohol and he saw no empty pill bottles so his worst fears were crossed out. 

Abaddon was about to question her further but was shocked to feel himself being hoisted up onto her lap. He would have slapped her, perhaps even bitten her, but he remained still from shock as she adjusted him to lie against her chest while one hand supported his back and the other pressed his head against her.

“I’m sorry, baby. We’ll go to sleep now, I promise.” She whispered into his hair.

The demon couldn’t find the strength or desire to fight against this, especially once hearing that same tone Katherine had used on the infant earlier in the day. 

Abaddon knew she was clearly not in her right mind, he had no idea what had caused it though. It clearly wasn’t drugs or alcohol, what else could it have been? 

“Katherine, I think-” 

“Shhh, there, there,” Katherine hushed him, something he should have taken offence from, but her soothing tone and the way her hand kept softly patting his back kept him tranquil. 

He felt the same warmth flutter through him from when Katherine had held him earlier, except this time, hearing her idle humming brought a whole new sense of peace he didn’t know he could experience. 

Abaddon carefully adjusted his head to look up at Katherine, a part of him fearing she snapped out of whatever this was. 

Yet when she looked down at him with nothing short of love mixed with exhaustion, the demon wanted to scream, or cry? The whirlwind of emotions whipping through him made him want to puke. 

                      Shove her.

          Hold me.

                      Slap her.

          Hug me.

                       Bite her.

         Please don’t let me go. 

The demon hurriedly fished out the pacifier from his pocket, feeling the situation called for it as he felt completely lost within himself. 

He could almost immediately feel the aching panic in his chest settle as he placed the pacifier into his mouth, instinctively sucking. Katherine still seemed to be in whatever state she was in, her eyes closed as she continued to pat his back and hum. 

Abaddon took a deep breath that he didn’t realise he needed. His hands naturally grasped Katherine’s shirt as he tried to pull his knees closer to his chest. She automatically wrapped her arms tighter around him, drawing him in closer each time he wriggled. 

“Work is almost done… I promise…” Katherine mumbled, her humming becoming irregular and her patting coming to a stop. Abaddon had closed his eyes, listening to her heartbeat as she began to fall asleep. 

The demon didn’t need sleep; he would just lie awake at night. Yet he couldn’t help but fall into a peaceful slumber, Katherine’s warm body being the most comfortable thing he had ever lain on. He’d let himself rest, for a few minutes… perhaps a few hours. 

He would have done so if it hadn't been for the sudden, painful, loud cry of an infant echoing through the hallways.

The sound jolted both him and Katherine awake in shock, shattering the peace that Abaddon had desperately wanted to maintain.