#httn

I have no clue why Tumblr wasn't allowing me to fully upload the one with backgrounds, had to screenshot it from my gallery then upload it 💔💔💔

Also not the style I've been uploading with, this actually fits the style I sketch with more/ allows me to draw faster

The shitpost specifically was made before I published/uploaded the chapter, it was gonna be apart of something else before I decided I didn't really like it and just used it here instead.

Midnight Gatherings -> Day One, 3.7k word count

Begins with a flashback of Abaddon in presumably Hell, an ocean of ichor & some sort of mysterious entity that he accidentally woke up.

Bath time with Katherine! The usual banter between the two.

The kiddos are up in the middle of the night, unfortunately their antics woke Katherine up.

Abaddon has traded with Esther some jewelry he dug up, and in return she's given him a gopher skull. Which he sadly broke/crushed.

Katherine's inner thoughts about Nathan, and how she misses him despite him still being present.

Abaddon crawling up into bed with Katherine, as it's a part of his typical routine. Just unbeknownst to her.

Fraying at the Edges & Unraveling -> Day Two, 6.9k word count (combined)

Flashback to when Abaddon first came to earth & his first encounter with the vessel.

Katherine takes Abaddon into town to pawn off the jewelry she confiscated from Esther the night prior and to buy Abaddon new clothes.

Katherine getting into a fight with Abaddon at the pawn shop, stating that Nathan is dead

Despite Abaddon wanting to go back to the hotel after their fight, Katherine still takes him to the store.

He grows more distant & antsy to leave, Katherine desperately trying to get him to agree to anything to wear.

After flipping through several shirts, she turns back towards him and notices that Abaddon is gasping for air & being unresponsive.

After rushing him to the dressing room and nearly getting her ears blown out from the store speakers, whatever weird phenomenon ends.

Abaddon, understandably pissed, just wants to leave the store.

More about Katherine using numbing as a coping mechanism and believing it's up to her to carry the family completely on her own.

Once they arrive back at the hotel, Abaddon becomes horribly defensive about the situation and threatens Katherine, not wanting her to tell anybody about what happened.

Nathan shows up! She debates on telling him or not, but decides to inform him on what happened since Abaddon is "his kid."

Nathan doesn't view himself as a good caretaker or guardian to Abaddon, admitting that if this is something that has happened before he was most likely just oblivious to it.

We get a perspective cut to Nathan.

He's overly worried about Abaddon and feels guilty for not having been there.

Very brief flashback with Abaddon. In a very odd way showing that he cared for Nathan's company and didn't like when he would leave.

He slowly comes to terms with the fact that he IS Abaddon's parent (in some weird way) and needs to try talking with him.

Nathan checks his room, finding a mess strewn about (wrappers from when he was still alive, and just general trash and bottles)

He finds a makeshift nest with some of the Freelings' clothes in it along with a 'tuft of ginger hair held together by twine.'

Abaddon is curled up on Nathan's old recliner, staring into his own reflection, which is something Nathan takes note of since it's something Abaddon has always hated. - Already having been touched upon in the last chapter, this is implied to be due to his own guilt surrounding his reflection. Both feelings of shame and guilt.

"My liege" being an established nickname Nathan has given to Abaddon.

Nathan attempts a conversation with Abaddon, only ending with Abaddon stating that it's something that can't be helped/ he can't be helped.

Egg, Nymph, & Fledgling -> Day Six, 15k word count (combined)

Esther's perspective, begins with her sketching out demonic sigils onto a paper, trying to remember which sigil went to which demon.

Frustrated, she wishes Abaddon was present as it would made reading the sigils easier.

Flashback of Esther and Abaddon, him teaching her how to read a sigil, explaining that a sword base = an earl of hell.

Demons are born with the knowledge of how to read a sigil.

When Esther asks what the eye in his sigil translates to, he becomes defensive/ weird about it & leaves. (End of flashback)

Esther can't understand why Abaddon has been acting so weird, feeling betrayed and frustrated.

Esther catches a pen mimic and goes to tell Katherine, eavesdropping in on a conversation between her and Nathan.

Nathan catches her eavesdropping as he's leaving but decides not to comment on it or make a big deal out of it & leaves.

After speaking with Katherine she returns to her room, trying to work on homework before ruminating on her thoughts surrounding Abaddon and her feelings of abandonment.

She begins to blame herself for his absence.

Ben tells Esther dinner is done, and she tries to cover up her emotions/crying.

As Esther & Ben are sitting at the table, Katherine & Abaddon walk in.

He's visibly unwell/ill, but he still sits in his usual chair, albeit not happy about it.

Katherine gives him fruit loops, he refuses to eat them and instead stares at her, she pulls half of the cash she had gotten from the pawn shop and hands it to Esther.

Nathan enters the room & Katherine lights a candle for him.

Esther tries to suggest ingredient hunting to Abaddon, he ignores her and she leaves the room.

Nathan follows her and tries to talk with her, fumbling around before finally saying that he has a very flimsy plan to help Abaddon. Esther agrees to talk & the chapter ends.

Nathan suggests that opening up & being vulnerable about her own emotions will encourage Abaddon to do the same.

They end up telling their plan to Katherine, who is baffled and doesn't have much hope in it succeeding.

Katherine very loosely admits that she had already tried bribing Abaddon to talk.

Esther tries to include Ben in on their plans, Ben doesn't agree and wants not part in it.

Information about Familiars is given, and the only important part being that a familiar will rush to the aid of whomever they're connected to if that person or persons are in danger.

Esther wants Ben to scare her so badly that she believes that she's dying, forcing Abaddon to come to her aid. Essentially trapping him into having to have a conversation as he's been avoiding them all.

Ben is obviously troubled by this, and doesn't want to hurt her.

Threw shade at Anabelle but that's not important to the plot.

As Ben decides that he's not going through with the plan, he hears Esther scream.

Ben rushes to the room where it came from, finding Katherine and Esther.

Katherine had tried to fix one of the lights on the wall, getting shocked in the process and scaring Esther.

Ben goes to help Katherine up, the vent grate flying across the floor as Abaddon bolts out.

Weak on his legs, Esther rushes to help him.

The television screen turns to static and the lights turn off, a surge of electricity suddenly shoots through the lights & sends glass flying across the room from the half-repaired light.

Abaddon begins to gag/retch again like he had previously in Fraying at the Edges.

Katherine protectively grabs Esther and pulls her away from Abaddon, who is now spitting up black blood and clasping his hands over his mouth.

Nathan rushes forward, calling to Katherine for her to move out of the way, and when she does he steps out in front of her instead.

A set of antennae leave Abaddon's mouth & the chapter ends.

A flashback starts as we're back in hell with Abaddon.

He's running from another demon/in a fight.

They use the term fledgling when yelling at him. - Through a bit of dialogue we learn that the term is used for younger demons, especially when a demon is referring to a demon younger than themself. - We also learn that demonic energy is a good signifier of a demon's age.

Abaddon starts to experience similar symptoms as to what will be described in a moment, the other demon seems to come to a realization, becoming more hateful.

Now following Abaddon's perspective, we're taken back to a few moments before Abaddon exits the vent.

He flings himself out of the vent believing that there's a threat. And once realizing there isn't he tries to hide his illness from the Freelings.

He believes it's his job to protect them, not for them to protect him.

Abaddon vomits a large locust onto the floor, starting to crush/hit it with his hand.

As he crushes it, blood spews out, and it begins to eat away at his hand and the floor, Nathan getting caught in the crossfire and some of it landing on his leg.

Abaddon comes to the realization that he does not have "time left", that it hasn't only been 300 years, but rather billions due to his constant trips back in time.

He has a breakdown and despite the locust being a pile of mush he continues to take his anger out on it, further injuring his hand.

Katherine pulls him away from it, holding him and comforting him.

LOTS of inner thoughts about how he actually views himself and yadda yadda, I really suggest rereading this chapter specifically.

Katherine finally gets through to him & tells Nathan to go check on Ben and Esther.

Nathan, even though hesitant, agrees and tells Abaddon that he loves him before leaving.

Katherine takes Abaddon to her room, setting him on the bed as she goes to grab supplies.

Abaddon is anxious to let her leave but agrees if she leaves the door open.

We learn more about hell's culture, this time about scars. - Scars are sought after as they're difficult for a demon to get. Injuries? Easy, but scars? Hard. So many demons, especially younger ones hope to gain scars. Abaddon being among this crowd. However, the two scars he's gotten so far (The cross binding him and now his hand) are reminders of his shame and failure, not of strength.

We're also informed of a war going on in hell that Abaddon has complicated feelings towards. - It's also mentioned that he's "fighting on both sides" and thinks that it would be better if he died rather than survive once the war is over.

Katherine cleans his wound patiently, doing a somewhat shitty job.

She begs to know what's been going on and what happened, stating that they all want to help.

She realizes that he can't talk as his throat is pretty shredded from throwing up an abnormally large locust, and apologizes for not realizing sooner.

She attempts Nathan & Esther's previous plan of being emotionally vulnerable, opening up somewhat and just telling him to listen when his discomfort becomes visible.

MORE about hell - We learn that allies or allyships in hell are few and far between & rarely last long. The only ones that last being among arch-demons. - We also learn about "Legion-members" & "legion-leaders", however it's not touched upon and not much is known about what these titles mean.

Katherine finally convinces Abaddon to change out of his clothes temporarily, since his current apparel is disgusting.

Katherine gets up to leave and Abaddon freaks out.

She offers to grab Nathan, and reluctantly, Abaddon agrees.

Abaddon can "smell" emotions.

Abaddon reminisces about the quilt Esther gave him, thoughts devolving into him grieving prematurely about their impending deaths, already starting to miss them all.

Nathan enters and he has a very awkward one sided conversation with Abaddon.

We learn that Abaddon used to "comfort" Nathan when he was alive by using physical sensation, either by biting him or resting his chin on the man's stomach, he finds it difficult to ground him now that he can't use these tactics.

Nathan uses the term "my liege" again, earning a small smile from Abaddon.

Abaddon notices that Nathan has holes in his leg, some of the blood from the locust having splashed onto him and eaten through his essence.

Nathan tries to play it off.

Katherine enters to the room with clothes and a cup of honey, she lets Abaddon pick out the clothes he wants and gives him the cup of honey afterwards to help with his throat.

There's a mention to bees here but I can't comment on this until future chapters. Just keep this in mind.

Abaddon loves the honey. :thumbs_up:

He gets too joyful and ends up having another flare up, defeated he lays down in the middle of the bed and curls up.

Once Katherine changes in the bathroom, Nathan tries to leave and Katherine asks him to stay.

Katherine sets two pillows under the quilt so Nathan can lay under it, letting him lay down before turning out the light.

Abaddon considers moving up from Katherine's legs to between her and Nathan, caving in and bugging her so she'll flip over.

She flips over and embraces him. I heavily recommend rereading Fledgling, it has so many details as well as being the only chapter so far to be from Abaddon's perspective. THIS is just the summary.

Maybe it'll be okay -> Day Ten, 8.9k word count.

Katherine is still trying to get Abaddon to talk, however he's not cooperating.

She's gotten closer with him due to his clinginess and has started to learn more about how to read his expressions or mannerisms.

Katherine tells him that Esther has something planned, but they'll need to go into town.

Abaddon is unsure but agrees.

Esther has been overly worried and Ben has been trying to fill in Katherine's role/take up her responsibilities since she's been so busy with taking care of Abaddon.

Katherine feels guilty about this.

She finally gives Abaddon his normal clothes back, he's overjoyed about it.

Katherine doesn't like the idea of unpredictability and losing control.

Katherine is nervous about taking Abaddon into town, Ben reels her out of her thoughts.

She gives a whole spiel to Abaddon and Esther about behaving, and Ben asks if there's anything he should do.

Katherine, tired, and already overwhelmed, uses a harsh tone with Ben.

As Katherine's thoughts spiral again, Abaddon presses his hand into her thigh to ground her, and when that doesn't work he uses his nails instead.

She yells at Esther, and AGAIN her thoughts spiral, Abaddon grabs her wrist and orders to be carried.

She can't deny him & carries him, he's very happy about this and almost has another flare up due to being overly excited.

Katherine apologizes to Ben for using a harsh tone with him, Ben is somewhat shocked at the apology.

As she spirals again, Abaddon blows air into her ear to distract her.

Esther has brought them to an oddity store/shop.

Katherine sets Abaddon down, and he walks halfway over to a shelf before looking back at her, still anxious about wandering too far.

The worker compliments Abaddon's clothes, and after some "conversation" Katherine distracts him by giving him a racoon skull to look at.

Ruth, the worker, tells Katherine that's it's okay to call Abaddon weird, and that it's not exactly a bad thing.

They have some small talk, Katherine telling them that Abaddon isn't her son, just her nephew.

Ruth asks about Abaddon's name, asking if he was named after something in the bible, not specifying what that thing in the bible is.

Katherine, not having known that Abaddon was ever mentioned in the bible, is taken aback.

She's confused, as Abaddon has never mentioned this before.

Esther and Abaddon are checking out some pinned bugs, having a decently good time.

Ben is watching them, and comments on how Abaddon's legs are shaky.

Katherine asks him how he's feeling, and Abaddon, fully engrossed in looking at the bugs, brushes her off.

Esther, nervous about Abaddon possibly feeling unwell again, leaves to go gather ingredients with Ben following after.

Katherine experiences some back pain, and makes a joking comment about being old.

Abaddon states that's she's not old at all, and Katherine states that maybe not to him. Abaddon stops and thinks for a moment, seemingly bothered by the thought.

Katherine notices as they walk through the store that Abaddon is having trouble with his sense of smell.

She wants to confirm her suspicion, and gets him to try and guess the flavor of a candy without opening it.

Abaddon, frustrated at not being able to use his sense of smell correctly, throws the candy down and sits on the floor.

Katherine asks why he didn't communicate this and Abaddon shuts down, saying that "I'm not weak."

Katherine gives up with questioning him, offering instead to give him the candy if he stops messing with his bandages.

Abaddon finally stands back up, and Katherine takes him over to a bone section in the store.

Once Abaddon sees all of the skulls, he lights up and becomes excited, running over and looking over each one.

As Katherine gets lost in her thoughts, she's brought back by Abaddon clawing into her/trying to climb up her, terrified.

Annoyed, she makes him show her whatever scared him.

A horse skull is the culprit, and she makes him touch it.

She lets him pick out a skull, and he ends up choosing a rabbit skull.

Esther and Ben meet back up with her after she purchases the ingredients she wanted, Katherine notices that Ben doesn't have anything.

Katherine walks up to the counter and tries to take the skull from Abaddon, he's baffled why she's taking it away from him, and Katherine explains that she has to pay for it first.

Ruth packs up the skull after Katherine pays for it, and Abaddon excitedly takes it from Katherine.

She scolds him lightly for not telling her that he was feeling sick again.

Abaddon states that he doesn't, and it's implied that the horse skull was just making him nervous.

They arrive back at the hotel and Esther drags Abaddon behind her into the lobby.

Katherine makes Ben choose what they're going to have for dinner, wanting him to make choices for himself and not to worry about money or accommodating others.

Nathan greets Katherine as she walks in, overly worried about how their trip went and how Abaddon did.

Katherine gives him a brief rundown, mainly just brushing him off before going back to the parlor room, knowing she can't just ignore the hole that the locust left in the floor.

There's a mention of Katherine & Nathan having similar mannerisms, and that it "proved something".

She asks about how Nathan's leg is doing, afterwards stating that he shouldn't have jumped out in front of her & that she's enough for the both of them.

Nathan grows concerned/confused, but Katherine cuts him off picking up a black strand of fur from near the hole in the floor.

After deciding she has enough on her plate, she lets it go and Nathan bugs her again about what she meant.

Katherine states that she doesn't want Nathan feeling responsible for protecting her.

As she thinks about it & Nathan speaks to her, there's brief flashbacks to things Nathan has said in the past and brief moments from their childhood.

Katherine blames herself for Nathan's poor relationship with their parents, him joining cults, and his eventual suicide.

Nathan tells her that nothing that happened is her fault, not his health or his death.

Katherine cries at the realization, a weight finally being lifted from her chest.

She finally admits that she misses him.

He apologizes, and motions for her to sit on the couch with him.

Nathan states that Katherine is the only person that he ever considered his real family.

As the chapter ends Katherine lets herself grieve Nathan, understanding that it's okay to let the past go and accept the version of Nathan that she has now. Again this is another chapter I highly recommend rereading, as it has a lot on how Katherine views her role in relationships and her grief surrounding Nathan.

Of course it wouldn't be (unpublished), Chapter nine, & Chapter ten -> 13th day, combined word count as of posting 4.6k (Only chapter 8 is fully written! So that's where the word count comes from).

Wowwww you wanted spoilers. I can't believe you.

Whateverrr I guess you get a little preview.