[ hey wonderful readers! ]

[ so this first chapter is a bit like a prologue—by that, i mean it gets a little drawn out at times, but it's still a real chapter so it is necessary for the story line! ]

[ just stick with me here, i promise the story gets better with each chapter :P ]

[ also, disclaimer: this story was written before the show came out! i wrote it after the pilot so it is not entirely canonically accurate ]

☆

☆ Second person POV

You could hear the blood pumping through your ears as you came to a halt at the edge of the forest. The looming wide trunks of the oak trees were intimidating enough to keep you from wanting to enter the mass of darkness, but stopping at the edge of the tree line was just as scary as diving head-first into it, if not scarier.

The man behind you would stop at nothing to kill you, and you knew it, too, but you stopped nonetheless. You would rather face your fate with the bloodthirsty being behind you than overcome your crippling fear of darkness and try to find safety in the murky gloom of the night.

You deserved death anyway.

Your chest was shivering with fear and energy, adrenaline coursing through your veins like a drug.

The night air suddenly stilled around you, not even whispering so much as a breeze. It was almost as if it was anticipating what was about to come next. Maybe it knew that the man was quickly approaching just as well as you did.

"Stop!" the man's voice ripped through the freezing air, forcing your stomach to lurch up to your throat. "Stop right there and put your hands in the air where I can see them!"

You did not put your hands in the air. That would mean surrendering. Instead, you sucked in a sharp breath and turned around to face the dark silhouette of the man.

Despite the fact that your retinas had more than enough time to adjust to the moonlight that revealed the forest's edge, you still couldn't see any of the man's features; you only knew what he looked like from memory.

The entire time, you had been running away from Nate's house—away from this man who had no intentions other than to take your life—and you couldn't even see him.

All you knew is that you did something unforgivable, and this man wanted you dead.

"I said put your hands in the air!" His voice was so rough and forceful that it sounded like it might actually tear his vocal cords. The outline of his shoulders was shifting slightly, seeming to come closer to you. You blinked, and suddenly he was near enough so that you could see the olive tint of his jacket, the ashen color of his cheeks, the edges of his short, ratty hair sticking straight up from the top of his head, the gun that he held straight in front of him with both hands, aimed directly at your chest. "Now!"

You knew that you had no other choice but to surrender.

Taking yet another deep gulp of air, you slowly raised your hands above your head. The air flowed through your lungs like a gust, an in-and-out breath that came out past your lips as a milky fog. Your bottom lip was shaking, and even though you couldn't see the expression on his face as he said his next words—the last words you would ever hear with your feet planted on the soggy ground of the Earth—it was easy to imagine his lips curling up into a sneer with hate, his eyes narrowing with repugnance at the sight of you. He pressed the muzzle of the gun firmly against your chest and said, "I told you I'd make you regret it."

The gun went off with a bright white flash and a bang that was so loud that you were sure it could have deafened someone.

You were thrown onto your back with such force that the wind was knocked out of you, but you barely noticed, because in that moment your whole body except for the specific place where you were shot went numb. All of the nerves in your body were concentrated on the tight, hot, searing pain in the center of your chest that felt was so, so terrible.

Your vision melted away into the darkness as you stared at the starry night sky, feeling your body go limp against the grass.

☆

Nothing in particular brought you to wake up.

Your eyes opened and you realized within seconds that you were still staring up at the sky, only it was no longer dark, and there were not any stars. Instead, the surface you looked up at was a deep burgundy, with distant black clouds that looked like smog floating around aimlessly, like fish in a pool of blood. You closed your eyes, counted to ten, and opened them again.

Nothing changed.

You pushed yourself up into a sitting position and immediately registered the feeling of tons of little sharp things stabbing your palms. Your eyes darted down to see what was hurting you. Rocks. A bunch of small rocks and pebbles, spread over a strip of land made of dry dirt.

A road.

Your eyes felt dry and tired just from looking at the dirt. You rubbed them with the back of your fists before standing up.

Then you stopped. Looking down at your shoes (the very same Converse you had been wearing when you fled from Nate's house to escape your murderer), you lifted your palm and gently pressed it against the center of your chest.

No wound. No blood. No bullet hole.

Was it all a dream? Had you fallen asleep at Nate's house and thought up an anxiety-fueled nightmare about the man, coming to get his revenge on you in the night? Was this still part of that very same dream? No, that couldn't be. You remembered his voice, so vivid and strong and full of pure hatred.

His husky voice still rang in your ears: I told you I'd make you regret it.

Then what did that mean for you, right now? If you hadn't dreamed of the man shooting you and leaving you to your demise, then how were you seeing, breathing, moving? Was this just a dream?

Were you dead?

Taking a deep breath, you decided to forget about the logistics of your flustering situation for a moment and figure out where in the hell you were. A dense thicket of trees spread out from both edges the pebbly road and continued out as far as your eyes could see. No, not more trees, you thought, the familiar feeling of panic darting through your chest. The road did not end, though, at least not for a long ways. To your left, the dirt line ran along the ground and off into the horizon. On the opposite side, the road lead all the way to the blurry edges of a clump of tall, lanky buildings. A city, maybe.

Without giving any deep thought to it, you began your hike down the road, heading for the city.

After what seemed like at least twenty minutes of walking with nothing to look at but the eerie sky and the thousands of trees around you, the edge of the city's entrance came into view. The dirt road beneath your feet melted into concrete, which was cracking from old age in some places. You hugged your arms around your chest and looked around, taking in the new surroundings.

Tons of buildings of many shapes and sizes surrounded the road, veering off into the vast space. Dazzling lights that hung here and there glared down over the road, shining on the few cars that were parked by the curb, illuminating the side walk and the people on it.

You noticed a couple of people, talking loudly and tripping over their own feet as they stumbled into a fit of ear-piercing laughter. You kept watching them, sensing that something was off. Then, as one of them turned to look at the other, you saw their face.

It was a girl, with long, curly grey hair, and a long, fluffy black dress, but what stuck out to you most was her vivid blue skin and her deep, pitch black eyes. Her cheekbones rose high on her face, and her lips were thick and black, pulling back into a sharp grin that resembled that of a shark's.

You nearly screamed at the sight of her. And, oh god, she was talking to a... a thing with two heads, connected to two necks, both longer than a ruler.

You could feel your head throbbing, pulsing like your blood was made of heavy mud. Everything was blurry around you, and your knees began to feel weak. Every part of your body told you to collapse to the ground, to just take a moment, right then and there, to collect your thoughts, but you could no longer see the two people on the sidewalk because the black spots that crowded your vision were taking over, covering everything in sight with blotchy darkness. Your skin felt hot, but your insides were cold as you closed your eyes and numbness consumed you.

☆

"Hey, little girl, wake up. Come on, I know you can hear me." The words were distant and scratchy, as if you were hearing them through a radio station. Your eyes fluttered open and you found yourself staring up at the same red sky as before.

So, you thought, licking your dry lips to moisten them, this must be my reality now.

As you were becoming conscious enough to see the details of the person standing next to you, you saw that his skin was a pale grey, but his tuxedo jacket and eyes were even redder than the sky.

It was one of those creepy things. Your heart began to beat faster, pushing your muscles to life as you jumped up into a sitting position and used your arms to scoot back, away from the man. His smile stretched further back on his face, exposing a massive set of sharp yellow teeth. His sparkling eyes were trained on you, one of them looking past a pink tinted monocle.

You scurried into a standing position and had the fleeting thought of running away. You could run back into the forest—away from the city and the people with blue and grey skin and creepy smiles. Something made you stop, though, something about the way his eyes looked at you with such brightness and life, the way he kept his hands held formally behind his back. Something about the mess of red and black hair atop his head took hold of your curiosity.

"I'm Alastor," he said. Despite the fact that your head felt clearer and your vision was less muddled, the roughness of his voice had not left. "Looks to me like you just had a pretty big fall. Are you feeling alright?"

You placed a palm on your forehead before nodding slowly. You must have passed out, probably from shock. All of this sudden newness wasn't really treating you kindly.

"Well. It's great to meet you..." Alastor trailed off, then stuck out a gloved hand. You noticed that the charismatic smile never left his face as you reached out and took his hand in yours, giving it a light shake.

You smiled lightly, but you barely matched Alastor's brilliance. "I'm (Y/N), and it's nice to meet you too, but, um, would you mind telling me where I am?" you asked, glancing back at the buildings that were still so ominously close.

When you looked back at Alastor, his smile had only lit up more. Keeping a firm hold on your hand, he took a step closer to you, seeming to look into your thoughts as his eyes sparkled with what looked to you like thrill.

"Why, you're in hell, my love."