Haunted (Alastor x OC)

Ch 57

Aria's POV

The bell rang overhead as we entered the library.

I was casually chatting with Alastor as we entered, but when I spotted who was at the checkout counter talking to Mrs. Ida I froze.

The two men standing there speaking quietly with her were large, and they were completely familiar.

Josh's friends...

You can imagine how they feel about me.

Quickly, I grabbed Alastor's arm and pulled him off to the side. He stumbled and then when we were safely behind a book display he looked down at me confused.

"What?" He said in a hushed whisper and I glanced around the display, watching as the men took an envelope from Mrs. Ida, and then turned to leave.

"Those are Josh's friends," I hissed and Alastor's expression quickly turned annoyed and he looked over in their direction.

"There's more of him...?" He grumbled and then sighed, turning around and moving out of our hiding place.

I panicked and went to grab him which subsequently caused both men to look our direction and internally I face palmed.

"Hello, gentlemen," Alastor said casually and they glanced at each other before one of them scoffed.

Right now Alastor probably doesn't look like much to them...they're both around the same height, and they're probably about 200 pounds of muscle heavier than him.

I was holding onto his arm, hiding behind him slightly.

Then, they completely ignored Alastor and looked at me. I hid further and they laughed.

"Hi Ari, long time no see," Gary, the bigger one, said lowly, "Josh may have left but don't think we forgot what you did to him," he spat.

They were keeping their voices hushed for obvious reasons.

Alastor chuckled, then, and nudged me completely behind him. Their eyes shifted back to him and they looked slightly amused.

"Look...she found herself a guard dog," Gary said.

Alastor chuckled again, lower this time. There was a slight growl beneath his tone, and he took a step forward.

"Scurry back to the sewer you crawled out of...or we're going to have a really messy problem on our hands," he said quietly, his voice calm.

Both men glanced at each other and then back at us. There was a moment of extremely tense silence before Gary finally backed off.

They began heading towards the door again.

"It was nice seeing you Ari." Gary said as they left.

Those words immediately made me feel uneasy. I was clutching onto Alastor's shirt tightly, and as soon the door was closed I let out a breath I'd been holding.

Then I spun him around and he complied with ease, staring down at me with a bored expression.

"That was uneventful," he said, and I smacked his chest.

"Good! I don't want events! Stop trying to cause events to happen!" I hissed angrily and he held back a chuckle.

"You're cute when you're angry," he said and I felt my head almost explode.

I was about to start lecturing him further when movement alerted me that someone was approaching us.

We both turned to face Mrs. Ida as she walked over with a smile.