Sanguimancy (Alastor x OC/Alastor x Reader)

Descension

Down, down, down through the dark she fell, arms and legs flailing wildly as her dread gave way to pure terror. She screamed, but she was falling so fast that the sound was drowned out by the wind whipping by her ears.

Below her she could see clouds, tinged red and ominous. Lightning crackled around her as she plummeted through them, skin charged with electricity. Drops of moisture enveloped her, stinging her eyes as she passed through the suspended rain. The clouds parted as a cityscape approached, and the artificial lights burned into her retinas as she was pulled closer and closer. She tried to look, tried to face her inevitable doom with some shred of dignity, but it was all too much, and her eyes screwed shut in fear.

But instead of becoming a human pancake, she hit the ground with a soft thud, bouncing once on the concrete.

She sucked in a breath, trying to get used to the sensation of having a body again after so many days...years? One eye cracked open, then another. Pebbles, trash, and broken glass greeted her. Twitching her fingers experimentally, she didn't appear to have been paralyzed or otherwise grievously injured from her fall, much to her surprise. Legs shaking, she got to her feet, dusting off the hospital gown she found herself wearing. That's right, she had been in a hospital, hadn't she? She vaguely recalled sirens, the sickly glow of fluorescent lights, the sharp pain of the defibrillator.

Was she dead? She certainly didn't feel dead. She appeared to still have all her fingers and toes, and her skin lacked the dull pallor of a corpse. A cockroach scuttled by her feet and she instinctively took a step backwards, disgusted. Where was she?

She stood in the center of some sort of abandoned lot, filled with debris and scrubby black grass breaking through the cracked concrete. A tall, rusty chain-link fence separated her from an abandoned street, and the buildings looked as though they had been bombed out, with entire floors exposed. It was like standing in the middle of a war zone.

On the mostly intact brick wall in front of her, a giant, tattered poster bore a depiction of some sort of man...spider...thing flashing the camera two thumbs up on what appeared to be two sets of arms. The writing was faded, but she could make out the words, "Angel Dust in: 'Well...Ok!'" with an 18+ symbol plastered under it. She realized with disgust that the spider was surrounded by what appeared to be male genitalia, in an inhuman range of colors, sizes and shapes, and looked away, feeling both disturbed and perplexed.

Her gaze turned to the maroon sky above her, entirely covered in clouds and glowing dimly from the light of the moon. Well, not the moon, but a moon, a dark celestial body with what appeared to be a giant, glowing pentagram etched into it. The sight sent a shock through her. No. No. It couldn't be. But all the pieces fit: the fall, the rubble, the ominous skies.

She was in Hell. Holy shit she was in Hell.

Lee's chest felt tight as she fell to her knees, shaking and breathing hard. Her vision blurred as she felt tears spill down her cheeks. Why was she here? What had she done to deserve this? Sure, she was stubborn as a mule, she cursed like a sailor, and yes, when she was seven she did steal a chap stick from the grocery store. But that surely wasn't enough to condemn her to eternal damnation, was it?! She never killed anyone, never did hard drugs, hell she'd never even gotten a speeding ticket! Was the afterlife really so punitive?

The sound of a car, far away but still audible, was the first indication she might not be alone. The thought didn't bring her any comfort; if anything, it made her aware of just how exposed she was. She got to her feet, tense, ready to run if she needed to. But there was no one there. Regardless, she knew she had to hide. If this really was Hell, that meant there could be all manner of demons and devils prowling about, eager to rip her limb from limb.