The Coven's Man: Forever Golden (The Owl House Spin-Off Fanfiction)

Chapter Two - The Old Life I Abandoned

The last thing he saw speeding towards his face was the open jaws of the monster that is Belos. At that moment, Hunter thought that he was going to die, except that he didn't. When he tried to yell for help at first, he couldn't. Belos' hand covered his mouth. But when he tried again, he managed to yell out.

Oddly enough, Hunter's yell instead broke what sounded like nothing but silence. His body jolted violently out of a bed. He no longer saw the rotting teeth of Belos. Instead, he found himself back in his dark, dimly-lit room back at the Deamonne house. When he realized where he was, he stopped his yelling in an instant.

Hunter woke up with a cold sweat, but weirdly no sweat. His breath was still rapid as when he came face-to-face with a resurrected Belos. Or did he? It felt real. Or so, for Hunter. Maybe it was all just a dream. A really bad, and very real dream. He wasn't in real danger and knowing that, he stabilized his breathing.

He never had a bad dream about Belos ever since his defeat, so why did his mind show him that now? Not to mention, the placement exam that took place mere minutes before he and Gus apparently bought ice cream. 'Was the exam a dream too?' Even if it was, he knew his proposition with Bump wasn't.

Seeing that it's still dark outside, Hunter deduced that the morning hasn't arrived yet, so that would mean he was yet to take the placement exam. He wasn't sure to be disappointed or relieved that he didn't dream what he just dreamt. It would be nice if it wasn't, but then again, he remembered Belos was still alive in it.

"It's just a dream, Hunter. Just a dream." He whispered to himself. He thought it was so foolish of him to dream of Belos' return. It would take the impossible for him to do so. He chuckled nervously before deciding he should return to bed.

A nearby noise of static, being followed by muffled chatter, stopped Hunter from going back to sleep. He almost couldn't hear it. When he maintained his silence, he could hear it better. It sounded like it's coming from downstairs.

'That's odd.' Hunter didn't remember turning on the TV last night. 'Is someone in the house?' He could only assume that Darius Deamonne returned from his business trip with Alador Blight, but Darius himself said that he wouldn't be home for another three weeks, so Hunter had the whole house to himself ever since Darius took him under his wing.

He could be home, which is why Hunter got out of bed to check whatever's going on downstairs. Maybe someone broke into the house. If that's the case, Hunter didn't see it to be a big deal. He sneaked out of his room silently and descended the stairs carefully. Before he walked to the living room, he peeked his head out of a corner. To his surprise, the room was empty.

Dimly illuminated by the light of a turned-on orb that showed a late-night news broadcast, no one was in the living room. Not what Hunter was expecting.

"--the terrifying creature."

Those were the words that Hunter's ears caught while he scanned the room for anything conspicuous. He turned to the news broadcast, seeing a horned demon news reporter on screen.

"Bystanders have reported seeing this unnatural being appearing from under a sewer drain and attacking several civilians," Then the broadcast showed handheld footage of the said creature. Hunter intended to look at it for less than a minute, but what they said next... absolutely shook him.

"Reports suggest that the creature's head vaguely resembles the mask of a former emperor... whose name I'm too lazy to mention."

'That footage.' To his horror and disbelief, Hunter saw himself in the shown footage, fleeing while hugging Gus in a protective manner. He was in complete denial over what he was witnessing, his mouth slowly agape.