#reader pov

"Your heart is racing," he whispers. "Do I captivate you so much?"

His fingers pause and press against the vein in your neck. You can feel your heartbeat fluttering against his touch.

"You are certainly locked in my own thoughts," he whispers, leaning closer. Your blood is still smeared on the corner of his mouth. His hand grips your shoulder. It's too late to run, if you even wanted to.

Did you want to?

Hey guys! Here is chapter 2 of my fanfic, hope you guys enjoy ;u; Seeking any type of feedback, good or bad, would greatly appreciate it!

CH. 2

The door creaked slowly open, the sound long and drawn out, like something waking after a long sleep. Beneath the matted curls of your wool, your heart thudded heavily against your ribs, the pounding loud enough that it filled your ears. 

Your golden eyes peered into the darkness waiting beyond the threshold. 

You had knocked—politely, of course. The way you were taught when you were still alive. But the thunder rolling violently through the sky had convinced you that whoever—or whatever—was inside had likely never heard your timid request to enter. 

Still. 

The sign outside read Vacancy. 

That had to mean something… right? 

An invitation. 

Or at least permission. 

Carefully, you stepped across the threshold. 

A flash of lightning burst behind you, spilling white light through the lobby and stretching your shadow long across the polished floorboards. The sudden illumination revealed the lobby in fractured glimpses—like pieces of a nightmare assembled in the wrong order. 

High above, a twisted chandelier hung from the ceiling. It swayed lazily back and forth, chains groaning with each movement. Several of its bulbs were burnt out, leaving only a handful to glow weakly. The dim light flickered against the walls, casting shadows that crawled and twisted like living things. 

Some of those shadows seemed to move on their own. 

You blinked. 

They were gone. 

The glass panes surrounding the entrance doors were intricate in design, stained with deep reds and blacks that formed strange shapes—red apples, their skins split open, and swollen eyes staring outward through the reflected surface. 

The eyes seemed to follow you. 

You shifted uneasily. 

Further inside, a few pieces of furniture had been arranged into something resembling a living room. A red leather couch sat facing a circular hearth where a fire was slowly dying, the embers breathing faintly in the gloom. 

Your gaze lingered on the base of the couch. 

The shadows there twisted strangely. Was that leather wrapped around it? 

Or skin? 

Something pale curved along the underside and protruding upwards. 

Teeth. 

You swallowed. 

Maybe it was just the light. 

The storm outside rumbled again, shaking the windows as another streak of lightning slashed across the sky. 

The lobby flashed bright. 

For a brief moment, a bar appeared in the far corner of the room, illuminated by flickering blue neon lights that hummed softly in the silence. Above it hung a crooked sign with fading yellow letters. 

COME & PLAY BLACKJACK 

The words buzzed faintly, like insects trapped inside glass. 

Closer to you, mounted along the wall, was another glowing sign in harsh yellows and oranges. 

CONCIERGE 

Your eyes lifted slowly. 

A deer head stared back at you. 

It was enormous—far larger than any animal you had ever seen in life. The antlers spread wide and crooked, scraping against the wall as though they had grown too large for the room. From its mouth hung teeth the length of your forearm, jagged and unnatural, like something that had forgotten what a deer was supposed to be. 

The empty eye sockets seemed to stare directly at you. 

A cold prickle ran down your spine. 

Maybe there was a reason this place still had vacancies. Maybe people simply knew better than to enter. 

But something in the air tugged at you. 

A strange energy hummed through the building—electric, crackling, alive. It popped faintly in the silence, like distant sparks snapping against old wires. 

Then, somewhere above you— 

Music. 

A jaunty little tune drifted through the darkness, cheerful in a way that felt deeply wrong. 

Your ears twitched. The sound was coming from upstairs. 

Your eyes followed the curve of a massive staircase rising toward the second floor. The steps were carpeted in red so deep they looked freshly soaked in blood. At the top, darkness pooled thickly in the hallway beyond, swallowing the faint lightning flashes from outside as if the storm itself were afraid to touch it. 

The music continued. 

Playful. 

Inviting. 

Your instincts screamed at you to turn around. To leave. To run back out into the rain and find shelter somewhere—anywhere—else. But when you glanced behind you, the door slowly creaked shut. 

And then— 

SLAM. 

The sound echoed through the lobby like a gunshot. 

Your hooves froze against the floor. 

For a moment, the only sounds were the dying fire, the rattling storm outside, and the distant tune drifting down the staircase. 

Something was waiting up there. You didn’t know why, but you could feel it. 

And despite the terror twisting in your chest… 

Your hooves slowly lifted. 

One step. 

Then another. 

Hi everyone! This is my first post, I'm trying my hands at a Hazbin Hotel story! I've very much fallen in love with this show and all its characters, so please let me know what you think, I'm always looking for ways to improve! From the Reader's POV.

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Chapter 1:

It wasn’t unusual to find yourself in this type of situation: looming buildings crumpling around you after a brawl between Overlords. You had quickly sought shelter in a back alley, hiding among the boxes since your body was small enough to remain shielded and unseen by the two battling it out. Turf wars were not uncommon, yet they still caused a stir among the sinners whose homes were left lying in waste because of it. 

And your home was one of them. 

It was a—…had been—a meager shack that housed a small kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and yourself. While you had no worldly possessions that you had brought with you to Hell from your time alive, you had accumulated a few small trinkets that were currently being sifted out of the rubble by your bare hands. 

Hands that had, at one point, been very human—soft—but were now slightly clawed at the tips; pastel-colored curly wool clinging to every part of your body. A nose that had once been adored by your parents, kissed gently before you were put to bed, was now a slight snout, pointed and black with speckles of pink dashing across it. A set of golden eyes covered your once-blue ones, flicking quickly side to side as you searched for a small artifact among the rubble. 

The edge of a book peeked out among the broken pieces of your home, and you quickly scrambled to get to it, your thin legs slipping as you tried to keep traction on the shaky ground, black hooves clicking softly. You lifted the book, wiping off the cover and examining it for damage, surprised to see it had withstood what your home had not. 

“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” Your hand gently trailed over the title as your arms moved to clutch the book tightly to you. It was a book you had loved as a child, and upon arriving in Hell, it had been the only source of comfort you had known. Having bartered for it and worked enough to retrieve a copy from the bookstore that was currently in a smoking ruin, you counted yourself lucky. A small satchel sat on your back, the book being added to it, a snow globe featuring a slightly off-kilter Eiffel Tower and a flute carved from animal bone taking up the rest of the space. 

It wasn’t much, but it was all you had now. 

Your head tilted up toward the sky, where the darkening red pentagram symbol loomed above you, a deep rumbling coursing through the air. It would rain soon, and you needed to find shelter. Sinners such as yourself—someone with no social standing or an Overlord to back them up—would be easy prey for a stronger, more devilish individual. 

As fast as you could, you made your way down the pavement, looking for any welcome you could find. But this was Hell, and a warm welcome was the farthest thing anyone would give without a price. 

Rain gently began to patter along the road. The shouts and screams of others still lost in the wreckage, or currently fighting for their belongings, trailed down the street. Your legs felt heavy; the hooves still burdensome as you tried not to slip in any puddles or uneven sidewalk. 

The Pride Ring was known for its unsavory cast: exiles from other Rings, sinners wanting to be famous, Overlords wanting to prove their worth. It was vanity at its finest. 

And maybe that’s why you ended up there? 

There was no time to dwell on that now. The wool was matting and sticking. The lanolin that normally repelled water from your body was no match for the heavy downpour currently rattling your system. Your body was growing not only weary but heavy, and you had to push the wool back from your face just to see. 

A bright neon sign wavered in the distance; a few letters flashing out of sync when you looked at it. Placed upon a large hill farther ahead was a monstrous-looking building that seemed as though it had been put together by a toddler. A ship jutted out of one side, multiple arrows pointed toward random entrances, and a large spire-like building on the right-hand side had an “On Air” sign attached to it. 

But what caught your eye was the crooked sign on the front of the building that read: 

Vacancy. 

I can’t decide which to put this Baelor one shot in.

Lmao writing smut on my lunch break at cosmetology school

ʀᴀᴍꜱʜᴀᴄᴋʟᴇ'ꜱ ʜᴏᴜꜱᴇᴡᴀʀᴅᴇɴ...?

Character(s): Just you, the prefect!

Extra(s): This is one of my earlier writings, so the quality isn't something i'm wholeheartedly proud of, BUT! I didn't want to leave it rotting in my google docs.

I also have another idea(from when I first started writing) about Ramshackle as a dorm(not related to my other post about how the dorms are alive, which is still in development. almost done btw!) would you all like to see it?

(Oh and if you can't tell, I assign certain banners to certain topics😶so if you see a repeat banner, 9 times out of ten, it's not a mistake)

Being personally acquainted with the housewardens at Night Raven makes you think. Not about anything in particular, most of the time just about what the fuck was wrong with them, but other times…

They remind you that Ramshackle was a dorm, and therefore, had a housewarden.

The thought…bugs you? You can’t put your finger on what part of the fact doesn’t sit right with you. Maybe how it seems so wrong for Ramshackle to have anything, considering it doesn’t even exist in the school files. So, going as far as to have a housewarden?

It bugs you.

You haven’t brought the topic up in conversation, so seeing the point when nobody even remembers a time when Ramshackle was a dorm, but you still dwell on it from time to time.

What were they like? Did they get along with the students of their dorm? Did the students like their housewarden? What were the dorm’s colors?

What did they stand for? Or, rather, who did they embody?

Were the seven originally eight?

See? The questions keep you up all night. However, there is one specific question you felt the desperate need to be answered….

What did the uniform look like? This is an important question, it never fails to eat at you.

And also, since being attractive seems to be a housewarden requirement, were they hot? The outfit or the housewarden, you don’t know which answer you want most.

These are important questions!

…So, that leads you to now. Snooping through Ramshackle as if you don’t live here in search of the housewarden’s room. You’ve gathered that the housewarden’s have a bigger, nicer, and all around better room than the rest of the students. You’re going off of your experience in Leona’s room, okay? You’re not gonna outright ask ‘oh, what’s your room like?’, hell no.

So, snooping the entirety of the dorm it is.

You come across more than enough dorms, none of them being the one you’re looking for. Still, you persist, wanting to see what the room looked like, should the dorm have it.

You look through the rooms, sighing in frustration when you close the door to the last one without finding the housewarden’s room. Seriously, where did this bitch live?

Flopping down in the lounge, you finally notice just how late it is. You left Grim to sleep in your room to go investigate the dorm before going to bed, but judging by the time, you’ve spent quite some time looking through rooms.

With a sigh of frustration, you flip on the couch to be facing the ceiling, and let your eyes wander the lounge. They pause on the bookshelf behind the couch you’re on at the moment, your head tilting when it sees something of interest.

That book…is not real. 

You sit up and lean closer to the book in question, scanning it and noticing the little things that separate it from the other ones on the book shelf. Intrigued, you go to pull the book off the bookshelf to examine closer.

Your hands grasp the spine and pull. 

Click!

The wall that the couch leans against rotates with a groan, and a screech from you, stopping when it rotates completely to face a dark hallway.

You’re curled up on the couch, staring down the hallway, and silently wondering what type of spatial magic can allow a whole ass hallway(and a room, seeing that there’s a door at the end) to exist under(?) a staircase.

So many questions, and yet, you’re rising off the couch and moving through cobwebs to get through the hallway. You place your hand on the knob, pulling it away to reveal grime and dust. With a scrunch of your nose, you deduce that this room hasn’t been used in a while.

…Could it be…?

With new found anticipation and curiosity, you twist the knob of the door, opening it slowly. The movement kicks up dust, which you fan away while holding back a sneeze.

You look around the room, almost grinning when you find exactly what you were looking for. Housewarden's room.

It has to be, otherwise there would be an elaborate room with Ramshackle's aesthetic that wasn't being used. So, with the power of elimination, housewarden's room.

You take in the whole room, stopping at the sight of the canopy bed and restraining yourself from going over there and flopping down. It just looked so comfortable, but seeing as the place is covered in cobwebs, you feel like getting on the bed would cause you to have an asthma attack from the dust it’ll kick up alone.

So, no, it’s not happening.

Other than that, you let yourself explore the room, picking up a few things to examine them further. The aesthetic…is unclear. You can’t quite put your finger on what, or who, the dorm is supposed to embody. Neither does the room have remnants of the last housewarden, everything looks…fairly kept together. Unlike the rest of the dorm, this place is fully furnished and seems fine, other than the cobwebs and dust. 

You guess it makes sense. Since it was hidden, there was no way for the years of nosy students or weathering to get to this room. 

Despite the dust and cobwebs…definitely fit for a housewarden.

Now that you're here, you realize that you had no ulterior motive as to finding this room other than pure curiosity. There's nothing in here for you and you have to focus on figuring out how to leave this…place? This couldn't be underneath the staircase, it's too large.

Anyway, besides the satiated curiosity, you can work on–

What is that?

You squint your eyes, the light from the  candles which lit when you entered not being enough for you to see clearly, and look over the wardrobe.

There's…something peeking out of the bottom. Fabric, you think.

You approach the wardrobe and sure enough, that's fabric caught in the door, peeking out. Weird…clothes aren't something abnormal you've found in Ramshackle’s dorms, but the housewarden’s? You'd thought they would've taken all their clothes.

Curious, you open the wardrobe and find what the fabric was attached to.

Damn, those are some high thigh boots! How did the housewarden walk!?

You grab the fabric of the outfit, marveling at it. You have the feeling that, like some of the other housewardens, this uniform is a bit different from the standard dorm uniform. It’s relatively simple, but then so is the whole dorm’s aesthetic. 

Because of how high the boots stretch, the bottoms of the uniform are fairly short, barely reaching past the blazer. Speaking of the blazer, it has a cape sort of feel to it, with the sleeves having a cut out starting right at the inner elbow, stretching all the way down to the wrist. It’s barely a sleeve at that point, letting whoever’s arm is wearing it to be free. With golden epaulettes at the shoulders, the uniform has the military aesthetic to it, but retains elegance.

There’s white fabric, longer than the average tie, but short enough to convince that, yes, it is supposed to be wrapped around the neck. Maybe a bow? With how the ends of the ribbon are pointed, you would assume so.

For the buttons, they’re this glowy blue, similar to Grim’s blue flames, but leaning more to teal. Embedded into the fabric of the blazer, it contrasts nicely against the…what color is this?

You rub the fabric of the blazer, trying to put together a color that comes close to describe this shade. It’s certainly in the ‘teal’ category, but it leans towards a deep, muter blue and somehow remains grey? It isn’t some bright color, it lets the buttons be bright, and instead creates this sort of background for the gold and buttons shine.

It’s…nice. Pleasant to the eye.

….You wanna put it on.

No, think about it, this uniform has been sitting here for who knows how long, it’s probably dirty and it’s probably covered in harmful dust. You have to resist.

…but pretty suit. That’s conveniently in your size.

No!

…no?

…maybe?

…shit, you’re putting it on.

With an excited glint in your eye and careful fingers, you pull the outfit away from the hanger and the wardrobe. You take off your clothes, quickly switching into the uniform. Black dress shirt, then the tie (whether or not it’s supposed to be tied like a bow or not, you don’t care, that’s how you’re tying it), the shorts that have a bodice piece to go over the blackshirt, then the blazer. 

Now for the part you were most excited and worried about. Those thigh highs.

You grab the boots, slipping them over your socks, and slipping them all the way over your knee until they stop just below the hem of the blazer. Fully black, and…kinda comfortable. The heels, which weren’t too high in the first place, don’t feel as bad as you thought they were going to.

Buttoning up the blazer with its button/glowly stones, you walk over to the full length mirror to see how you looked.

You catch sight of something on the dresser and freeze.

…Mirror can wait, accessories come first.

You walk over, eyes pointedly looking away from the vanity, you slip on the black gloves on the dresser, along with some earrings that match the stones on the blazer. Buckling the belt on the glove over your wrist, and picking the wire glasses up to put them on. The lenses are tinted the same teal as the stones, obscuring your vision the tiniest bit.

Finally, you take the last few steps over to the full length mirror with your eyes closed, and pausing in front of it. Pushing the glasses to rest on the top of your head, you open your eyes.

There's no gasp of amazement, or a ‘that isn't me’ moment, but your eyes do widen a bit as you turn around in the mirror, admiring just how nice the uniform looks on you. The heels of the boots make a satisfying sound as you shift around, clacking against the wooden floor.

You look…good. Like, actually. You didn't think the uniform would fit you, but it feels natural on you. Not forced.

You like it, but it's–

The tinted glasses slip back down your face, revealing something in the mirror.

You squint your eyes, adjusting the wire glasses. The mirror…it has this sort of…pattern etched into it. The glasses paint everything in teal, letting you see the pattern clearly.

You touch the pattern, watching it ripple away into the mirror, and as another appears on the mirror, higher than the first. You drag your finger upwards, watching this pattern do the same as the first.

Repeating this pattern about five or six times with each new pattern, you watch as the mirror ripples and disappears entirely.

There's … a staff.

Oh, the housewarden’s staff!

Your eyes light up like a child’s while you reach out to grab it. Once it's in your hands, you take it out of the mirror compartment, observing it in its entirety.

It's like someone picked up an entire street lamp off the street and shrunk it down to a staff. It's an antique street lamp, more rounded around the edges instead of points.

The metal on it is intricate, and complements the green accents of Ramshackle's aesthetic with its muted gold.

It's taller than you are, the actual lantern of the staff about a head above you.

Speaking of the lantern…that is certainly housing a very large magestone. Seriously, it’s like someone chipped off a piece from a raw magestone and stuck it inside the lantern. At least they were careful enough to get a stone that matched the teal accents on the uniform, but still…the piece is so large, it illuminates the room.

The staff is comfortable in your hand, and not too heavy. The mirror reappears and allows you to see the finished uniform. You admire it in the mirror, noting how the glasses seem to glow now that you’re holding the staff in their presence. They are almost completely opaque from the outside, but only obscure your vision the slightest bit.

Huh. Magic, probably. 

You admire the uniform some more before deciding you've had your fun and now it's time to take it off. While internally debating whether or not you should tell someone of the room and uniform, the lenses of the wire glasses take a brighter glow, until light is illuminating from them.

You finally notice the change when the light is starting to obscure your vision, your side of the lens finally starting to become solid light. You go to take the glasses as off but–

The world goes white, your ears start to ring, and pain erupts in your back.

The world comes back to you slowly, reaching up to rub your eyes with a groan. You can only see the ceiling from your position on the floor– did you fall? – and move to sit up.

Memories of what happened,of the uniform, staff and glasses, come back to you, making your clutch your head from the headache..

You've must've fallen backwards…after you were FUCKING FLASHBANGED.

You stand shakily in front of the mirror.

Oh shit.

You stare at yourself in the mirror, wide eyed and a fucking ghost.

Your bones are on display because your skin is translucent. The uniform is still on, but the tiny bit of skin that shows above your boots is enough to want to hurl.

You stagger backwards, freezing when your eyes catch sight of the wall. Of the room.

Everything is wrong. Like someone took a filter and inverted the colors so that it would be bright teals and dark blues. It hurts your head to wrap around, but it doesn't amount to the message written on the wall.

In glowing letters, the same glow as the glasses and the buttons, are the words:

SEE NO EVIL.

Oh FUCK NO. 

The words burn brightly on the wall, not allowing you to tear your eyes away for a second. You finally manage to look away, when smaller, but just as intense, letters appear below it.

Eyes are the window to the soul. Don’t let them peer into it.

They!? WHO’S THEY!?

You’re freaking out, gloved hands clenching around the staff, which glows lowly in your hands. 

Suddenly, another message appears, more blunt than the last two.

The glasses stay on.

…message received.

You take a large gulp of air, forcing it into your lungs, forcing yourself to breathe and focus on figuring out where you are, how you got here, and how to leave.

The room is the same, other than its inverted state, so there is a chance that…

Taking a chance, you clutch the staff and walk out of the room, into the hallway you arrived in. Arriving at the couch at the end of the hallway, you gingerly sit on it, already reaching for the fake-book.

You grasp it, breathe in, and pull it out.

Immediately, the wall springs into action, turning the wall, and the couch you're on with it, to face the familiar lounge of Ramshackle.

It looks…inverted. Just like the housewarden’s room. Wrong. 

You stand, walking towards the window. Peering out, you notice how the whole world is painted in the same hues.

Fuck…Grim!

You jolt, already springing into action. You dash up the stairs, not slowing down as you go to open the door–

You screech loudly as you lean to meet the door, only to phase through it.

And the floor.

Flopping down onto the ground floor on your front, you let out a yelp of pain when you feel your bones take the brunt of the fall. Fuck, that hurt. You could feel your bones jostle around from the impact, pressing into organs that aren’t there at the moment.

You’re starting to miss being a meat sack.

You shake your head, breaking out of your thoughts to grab the staff and dart up the stairs once more. This time, you stay…physical?...enough to place a hand on the handle of your room’s door and burst into it.

Eyes darting around to look for the fiery cat, you start to panic when you don’t see Grim anywhere. You don’t understand, you left him right on the bed, where he was sleeping–oh. 

Oh shit.

You race over to the window in the room, scolding yourself for not realizing sooner. When you left Grim on his own in the bed to explore Ramshackle, it had been close to midnight. 

Right now? The sun is setting. You’ve been down there a day, whether you lost track of time, or– the flashbang! It must’ve knocked you out!

…Fuck, you missed class!

Dragging your free hand down your face, you clutch the staff a little tired in frustration. Without you, who knows what sort of shit Grim got himself into while you were taking an impromptu nap! The entire school day, gone, just like that! All because you decided to put on some stupid outfit and the glasses! Flashbanged you!

You thump your forehead against the glass of the window. Just great.

You had decided, waiting around in Ramshackle while in this inverted realm wasn’t an option and you were going to ask Crowley–maybe not a good idea, now that you’re thinking about it– for help in reversing. After that, you were ripping this uniform off, putting back in its closet, never to be seen again.

That was, until you froze at the of the entity peering down at you at the moment.

‘SEE NO EVIL’

‘Don’t let them peer into it.’

…mysterious writings on the wall, were you by chance speaking off the LITERAL GHOST HORSE STARING YOU DOWN AT THE MOMENT.

It’s literal just standing there, with the teal light from your glasses reflected in the voids of its eyes. Just. Staring.

And you’re staring back. Albeit, through the opaque, nearly matte, glasses, but you’re staring.

The glasses…oh. The messages to keep the glasses on, for ‘them’ to not be given the chance to peer, see no evil–

You’re face to face with a being who could peer into your very soul, with glasses as your only defense!

FUCK.

…Did all Ramshackle housewardens have to deal with this!? Was this just something they did in their free time!? Get flashbaned by glasses and get transported to a place only described as limbo–why isn’t the sun moving!? You’ve been here an hour!

This–this is too much…

“Fuck out of my way,” You grumble, breaking eye contact with the ghost horse and waving the staff/lantern in its face. Its hooves clop against the brick road outside of Ramshackle’s gate, moving out of your way and allowing you to pass. It tilts its head, following you while you walk down the brick road, towards the main campus.

Your eyes dart around this mysterious world–limbo? –and you take in with a shaky breath the fact that it’s deserted, all except for the odd entity here and there.

Some glance at you, others just walk numbly, and the stupid horse eventually gets bored and ceases to follow you.

None are…against you being here, and if they are, they’re not actively trying to get you to leave. Most are…just glancing at the lantern, then at you, then going back to their business.

The lantern…the glasses…both belonged to previous housewardens…perhaps the entities are simply…used to this? Mysterious occurrences of a person with glowing lenses and a lantern are a common thing for them at this point? 

…this is all so confusing.

You grumble to yourself, clutching the staff tighter and sighing when the campus comes into view. It has the same inverted ‘filter’ on it, painted in dark blue and bright teals.

Geez…all this teal and in between colors are all starting to get on your nerves. You don’t even like referring to any of it as teal, it’s an in-between color. Same thing for your lenses and lantern. But, teal it is.

You finally arrive at the Main street of the campus, ignoring the various shadows that linger among the statues in order to approach the school. Up close and in this odd, inverted version of it with the colors all wrong, it’s more threatening than usual.

With a deep breath, you…try to open the main doors. And fail. Because your hand keeps phasing through them. With an irritated huff, you decided to just phase through the doors entirely, suppressing a shiver at the feeling of passing through a solid object. It’s probably the weirdest feeling you’ve ever felt, even during your time in Twisted Wonderland.

Feeling your body slowly pass through something solid, how your body has to sink into the material first and then allow your bones to pass through…it’s not fun.

Whatever! Just…you need to focus on finding Crowley or someone to help you fix your shit.

…oh, hell no… the walls are even darker in this realm! You quite literally can not see.

With a heavy sigh, you place a hand onto the wall, tilt the staff forward so that the lantern lights your war, and just pray at this point.

It took….longer than you’d hoped. But you did find the stairs. Eventually.

Anyway, you stand in front of the stairs, wondering how you’re going to get up them with no way of seeing where you’re going or which staircase you’re even on. They’re confusing even in the real world. So, you do what you always do when encountering the stairs. Hope.

With a shrug, you place a foot one step, your other foot on the one above it, and slowly maintain this pattern all the way up the stairs.

But you ran into a problem. Or, fell into one? See–

You were getting excited that the Headmaster's office was only a few more steps and turns away and that you were finally going to go back to normal. And then you took that last step, nearly bursting with relief and excitement when–

Your foot phased through the staircase. And then your leg, and then it was your whole body.

…So you phased through the stairs, fell, and are now in pain at the bottom staircase, because you landed on your bones the wrong again.

“...fuck,” You grab your side, having landed on a step of the stairs and jostling your ribs. That hurt, a lot, more than than most injuries you’ve gotten, excluding overblots. Those are a fiasco in themselves, normally landing you in the infirmary for a couple days.

You shake your head, feeling the pain starting to fade. It bothers you, how injuries in this…realm? Seems to fade away almost instantly, like they never happened. Makes you feel…detached.

Is that the point? Probably is.

You get up, using the staff as support to get yourself up the stairs again.

It takes you a bit, mostly because you phased through multiple sets of stairs at least 3 times, but you eventually, finally, see the headmage’s office. A sigh of relief escapes you, but you try to not get too excited, lest you fall through the floor again.

You nudge open the door, looking for Crowley.

He’s not there, and you don’t even know why you thought he would be! You haven’t seen anybody—no other human, that is–in this place since you got here—uh, who knows how long ago! You groan, walking over to Crowley’s chair and plopping it, resting for a bit. It’ll be good for you, finally getting the time to just…breathe. Process all the shit that’s happened in the last few hours or so.

Let’s see…you found the housewarden’s room, found the housewarden’s uniform, found the housewarden’s staff through a…mirror compartment thing, got flashbanged by glasses, woke up and found yourself a ghost in a room with warnings on the walls, found out the entire day had passed, left Ramshackle and had a staring contest with a ghost horse, phased through multiple stairs, and now…

You’re here, sitting in Crowley’s chair. Which would be a lot more fun under other circumstances.

…okay, what do you do now?

Most likely, no form of phone use will make it through…realms. You’re settling on realms. Anyway, most likely, if you were to text or call, it wouldn’t go through, so that’s out of the question.

You mindlessly kick your feet up on the desk, crossing them as you think and tilting your head to the side. The staff stays in your hand, your fingers thrumming against it.

What to do, what to do…

Okay, so this is probably the work of magic, as are almost all things in this world, so…what did everyone tell you about magic? You’ve asked a few times, what it felt like and all that, but you never really listened. Really, what was the point if you yourself couldn’t do magic?

You look at the staff, more specifically, its magestone.

Sitting correctly and bringing the staff closer so that your forehead is leaning against your hands grasping the staff, you close your eyes. You may not be able to use magic or even feel it in the air on a good day, but you have the knowledge that, yes, it is everywhere.

Breathe in…breathe out…

…Perhaps just let the magic run its course, Whether it be through the lantern, the realm…or through you.

Relaxing, you continue to breathe in and out.

Just…let it flow. Let it flow.

It may have taken a while, or no time at all, but eventually, you feel…something. It’s faint, it’s barely there–

A searing shock jolts through you and you have to clench the staff in your hands in order to just let it flow. 

Let it flow.

The heat’s becoming unbearable, sweat starting to form in beads on your forehead.

Let it flow.

There’s a feeling of electricity in your veins, pain from an unknown force pulling and tearing its way through your body. It’s trying to make a path for itself inside of you, even though your body is protesting at every twist and turn.

Let it flow.

It’s too much, it’s horrible, your body is screaming at you to stop the flow, but you can’t. It’s already sunk its claws into you, forcing the channel to stay open. 

LET IT FLOW.

You want to cry, scream, make it stop. The magic is trying to flow where it isn’t supposed to, sending shocks of pain down your nerves.

Then everything stops.

You breathe heavily and–

It settles, bringing a searing heat with it, that your mind confuses for cold, so there’s these conflicting signals of what temperature is being felt, causing you to feel both at the same time, and it’s horrible.

A sob rips out of your throat, feeling the way the magic carves out a space for itself in your veins, anchoring into a body that was never made to house magic.

It comes to a high, and for a second, it feels like you’re floating and gravity has lost its hold on you, moving out of the way for the magic taking root in your veins.

Then it all comes crashing down and so does your head. Right down onto the desk.

…the ceiling to the housewarden’s room?

You bring a hand up to rub your eyes, knocking the glasses out of place. Remembering the warnings, you scramble to pick them up, but freeze. You look around, nearly crying with relief when you realize you’re back.

Nothing has the weird ‘inverted color’ filter anymore, back to the browns of Ramshackle. There’s no glowing carvings on the wall, warning you to not let ghost horses ‘peer into your soul’, or–

You–you’re still on the floor.

With a loud ‘pop!’ from your back, which you take a wide eyed second to process just how loud it was, you get up from the floor, rubbing your lower back like an old man.

“How long was I…?” You stretch some more, more pops coming from your joints A while, you can guess, if you have this many kinks in your back.

With the movement already becoming second nature, you grab the staff and glasses, sliding the glasses on your face and adjusting your grip on the staff. Wobbly enough to hold on the staff as support for a few seconds, you eventually make it out of the housewarden’s room, walking down the dark hallway where the fake wall is.

You’d take off this uniform, but you can also feel remnants of–whatever that was–clinging to your veins, jolting through them at random times.

So, infirmary first. Then the outfit changed. Priorities.

You plop down on the couch, reaching for the fake book, and pull. Closing your eyes in preparation, you let the wall turn to face the lounge.

You peek an eye open, and immediately, your jaw drops at the sun’s position in the window.

If you’re going off the assumption that the limbo-realm worked on the same time as this one, you deduced that you had missed a day of school. But now?

It’s morning. So either, it’s morning the next day or…

It’s been two days since you went into the housewarden’s room.

Fandom: Saw (duh)

Rating: G? PG? (This one’s pretty general and nothing wild happens)

Pairings/Characters: Mark Hoffman x reader (like, very mildly); Mark Hoffman; Amanda Young

Warnings/Content: Not much… Choking; Kidnapping (implied); Mentions of masks and costumes for “sensual” purposes… That’s literally it…

Summary: You go to a haunted attraction and run into some questionable characters within.

Author’s Note: Ooooo a very dumb Halloween quickie—a stupid little drabble I had to write this morning after hitting some haunted houses last night. We love a holiday-theme. Yeah, Sabrina Carpenter—not sorry if you didn’t like that reference.

I think the whole premise of “What if you go into a haunt but there’s actual killers in there?” trope is funny.