Part 14

Astrid nervously made her way up to the office building. She focused on breathing as a million different thoughts bounced around her head

You're a terrible person, you'll get yourself killed with this. How could you do something like this to people who went so far as to call you a friend!?

She shook her thoughts away angrily. I'm not hurting them. I'm saving them from what Lucifer would do if he found out I couldn't kill them.

She pushed open the door and went directly to the staff lounge, the others were there, and she exhaled with relief.

Now for the hard part. She cleared her throat to announce her arrival.

"Oh, hey Astrid." Loona waved without looking up from her phone.

"Hehe... hey." Astrid cleared her throat, earning a concerned glance from Millie.

"You alright?" She asked, Astrid nodded and looked at the TV.

"Since when do we actually watch the news?" She asked.

"Since Lucifer himself said that everyone needed to watch the morning report today for a new announcement." Moxxie replied, his eyes not leaving the screen.

"That wraps up the weather, and now today we have an important announcement to make for the denizens of hell-"

The rest of the i.m.p turned their heads to look at the screen and Astrid took that as her opportunity to strike.

With a deep breath she gathered her strength and tossed her hands out in front of her, freezing the team in front of the tv.

The red X burned over her heart and she panted tiredly as she looked at the group. Millie and Moxxie were holding hands, Loonas ears were perked at the TV and Blitzø was sitting in his "cat position" as Millie had called it.

(It's this one btw)

She temporarily diverted her attention to the important news report

"From now on, once a year we will hold a cleansing where angels will come down and kill off souls that don't give a rats ass about surviving. Of course, demons won't have to miss out on the fun as they will be allowed to kill and fight other demons on this day as well." Tom trench was saying.

"Oh and your fathers recent activities gave me an idea!" That's what he wanted to announce. Alastor's recent murderous rampage gave Lucifer the idea to kill off souls who made it in hell... Astrid turned off the tv, went around closing the blinds, and gave one final look at her now former co-workers before closing and locking the office doors.

We might meet again one day. She thought as tears threatened to race down her cheeks.

No, no crying. Demons don't cry.

*two years later*Authors note:Hey guys, so from here until the events of the Hazbin hotel pilot I will be doing a lot of time skips to get character introductions out of the way and whatnot so I hope you continue to enjoy the series :)

Also TW for the rest of the chapter: Abusive relationship and implied 🍇I'll put stars around it in bold and then stars when it stops.

Astrid made her way down the street, some demons parted for her, she had a small reputation, she ensured that Alastor wasn't the reason for it. She made sure this reputation was hers and hers only.

She was a pretty feared assassin now. Most people who knew her didn't aim to piss her off. They knew what she was capable of.

"I'm telling you dolly had you just stayed low and kept your damn mouth shut none of THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!" Astrid heard as she neared the corner of the block. The voice sounded familiar and Astrid braced herself, hoping she was wrong about the voice.

She wasn't.

The boy, now around 19 or 20 had the same air of superiority around him as he had in the living world... and it sent terrified shivers down Astrid's back.

Astrid had a rebellious teenage phase of her own, though it only seemed to take place when she was 15. Alastor knew about it, even though she thought she was being smart and hiding it well, and he let it happen.

Though he knew about her sneaking out at night, he didn't know what she did, and hated himself when he found out.

Well, Astrid had found a group of "friends" they were the typical "hangs around in alleyways and steals things from corner stores" type group, and Astrid, wanting to break out of what she deemed a boring goody two shoes routine, wanted to befriend them.

She had been hanging out with the group for around two weeks when the group dared her to steal from the small store on the corner of her street.

That was the easy part, actually stealing something. The hard part was actually building up the courage to do it. Eventually she came back with a hairbrush. Nothing big, but it was more than they had expected her to get.

That night one of the boys, Raymond, led her off a short distance from the group.

"You know, kid," he said, despite the fact that he was only a few months older than her, "you're not so bad." He kissed her, and she kissed back, and she went home that night feeling better than she had since hanging out with them.

*warning*********Each night she continued to go hang out with them. And one night, Raymond invited them all to her house. She went to his room, he practically begged her too, calling her a pussy and explaining that she'd like it.

Well she didn't, and she avoided them as much as possible the next night.******End⭐️

Snapping back to reality, she looked at Raymond now. He had deep red skin and wore an angry red mask that looked embedded into his face... or... no, it was embedded in his face. He had his arm on the wall in front of him beside the head of a really short demon that she didn't know. Both of them looked new here.

Raymond had a small x on the side of his neck while the girl, although Astrid couldn't see it and was only judging from the bloodstained holes on her dress, had various x's on her abdomen, leaving Astrid to believe they were both shot.

"I'm not surprised you're here Raymond." Astrid called out, making herself known. Raymond's angry red mask morphed, like grotesque clay, into a green smile, and he looked over at Astrid.

"Is that Astrid? Baby I've missed you!" He opened his arms and approached her before she threw him back with her hand and walked carefully and calmly over to the girl.

"That's all you have to say! 'Baby I've missed you' after the last time we saw each other was because you screamed at me for complaining and then tossed me out of your apartment!" She was furious and the girl behind her cowered, somewhat in fear somewhat in awe, as Astrid advanced on him.

"I- I was just having a bad day, that's not any excuse to get mad at me, you know I didn't mean it I-" Raymond stammered.

"Shut up!" Astrid stomped, "I got over you luckily, and now here you are, bothering some other girl who probably didn't do anything wrong!"

Raymond whimpered and stood abruptly, scampering away and tripping over his own feet as he did so.

Astrid took a deep breath and turned to face the girl behind her.

"Hello, I'm so sorry you had to deal with him too... I should've killed him myself when I had the chance." She laughed to herself before looking back over at the girl.

"What's your name?" Astrid asked.

"...nif- Nifty." The girl spoke up.

"Nifty? That's an odd name, but I can't judge. My names Astrid. How did you two get down here?"

"I- I uh, he told me to help him break into a store and so I did and we started getting chased by the cops. He kept yelling that I did it and I dragged him into it and they shot him and then shot me and I- I-" she burst into tears and Astrid hurried over to her.

"Hey, hey, it's alright. It's not your fault. I'm sorry that you got dragged into his antics. I'll make sure he can't hurt you anymore."

"I h-have to go home with him though." She sobbed.

"No you don't, I just said I wouldn't let him hurt you. Come on, I'll take you to my place, Alastor shouldn't mind sharing the apartment with you.

She pulled Nifty to her feet and then began the walk to their apartment.

"It's a bit small. I've been needing to upsize anyways one room to do all my magic won't be nearly enough anyways." Astrid laughed as they made their way down the streets.

Authors note: no I'm not shipping Nifty and Astrid, they'll end up seeing each other as sisters.