A Horrific Fantasy

Chapter 54

It took some time but finally Louis was able to bring Angel to meet with Moxxie at the barrier. Of course Angel was suspicious of him and wasn't sure if he could be trusted, but according to Louis:

"If you can't trust Moxxie then you can't trust anyone."

And the toy pig took an instant liking to him. In fact he went right up to Moxxie and started hugging his leg.

"Well hello." Moxxie greeted the pig happily. "Never thought I'd see you again. And see you've made some friends."

"Does he belong to you?" Angel asked.

"Nope. He doesn't belong to anybody. Alastor was intending to give him to a child but the little porker ran off and was captured before he could. We sure Levana had corrupted him or had broken him to bits. But thank heavens he's alright." He patted the pig on the head. "Well you're probably tired and hungry, so you just follow me back to the house. We have lunch waiting."

"We?"

"Me, my wife, our friends, and your friends."

"You mean Charlie? She's with you?"

"Yes and she's perfectly safe."

Moxxie then proceeded to escort them to the bureau. Although he didn't really think of it as a bureau at all. From his perspective it was some huge labyrinth of bright and bold colors mixed with Gothic overtones and mechanical machinations. A maze of fantastic and bone-chilling expressionism. Nothing he saw was normal, it was all twisted it up and combined with something pretty and creepy. Now he had been to many strange places before, after all his cousin used to work at a circus, but nothing under that big top could compare to the small, separate kingdom that Alastor had built with his unique imagination.

"I wonder if Blitzo would like this place." Angel thought out loud. "It sure is weird like him."

Angel was welcomed warmly by Moxxie and Millie, and treated to the same lunch that Charlie, Alastor, and Octavia feasted on. As he ate, Charlie explained the entire situation to him and what her plan with Alastor.

"So that's your idea? Use imagination to stop a psycho woman?" Angel had responded skeptically.

"Believe me, I know how this sounds." Charlie said.

"It sounds like something out of the Twilight Zone."

"Well we are kind of in the Twilight Zone. I mean not the actual Twilight Zone, but this an entirely different world we're dealing with here. And in this world it makes perfect sense to use imagination against evil, child-murdering, psychopaths."

"How the hell does any of that make sense?"

"Okay it's obvious he's not going to be any help." Alastor said. "We'll just have him stay here and keep an eye on little Octavia."

"Hey I'm no babysitter." Angel protested.

"Well you would be useless against Levana. You have no faith."

"How can I have no faith? I'm Catholic."

"Not that kind of faith. I mean you don't actually believe any of this is real. You're sitting right in the middle of it, but you still don't believe. And I can tell just by looking at you that you lack any sense of imagination or creativity."

"That is not true! I am plenty creative! You should see what I can do with a skirt and a pair of pants."

Alastor face palmed.

"I mean you're not creative with fantasy or make believe!"

"Oh...Yeah I'm not very good with that. My cousin on the other hand, can he come up with some crazy shit. I should have brought him along."