?Only In My Imagination? (Alastor x fem! reader love story) ?

Ch. 15 ?Window To My Past?

When I snake my arm around his, our forest surroundings disappear, and we fly through the air at such a fast speed I can barely comprehend what is even happening.

Instinct has me reach out and cling onto Alastor for safety, and I don't notice the soft smile of amusement on his face when I do so.

After what seems to be ten seconds, we're suddenly standing in an old, warm house, the smell of cooking jambalaya filling the air, and a woman's soft voice singing off in the distance.

I glance left and right, admiring every little detail of this place, before I glance at Alastor.

"What is-"

"Shh," he brings a finger to his lips, "watch."

We turn our heads towards the staircase, only to see a small little boy running downstairs, wearing brown shorts with a white button up undershirt while suspenders hang on his shoulders, and a pair of glasses sit on his eyes.

I stare at the little boy as he runs into the kitchen, tugging at his momma's yellow dress.
She laughs, bending down to scoop her boy off the ground and set him on the counter near the jambalaya pot.

"Smells real good, mama," the boy says.
My eyes widen.

She smiles, running a hand through her son's brown hair, which he accepts and giggles. "Dinner will be ready real soon, Alastor."

Alastor?

I look at Alastor who stands beside me, his face expression changed from a content look, to now a sad, wistful stare as he watches his mother and his little boy self before us.

Realization sinks in.

This is a window to his past. From when he was a child...
This isn't the present.
We've traveled back in time...

Suddenly, the door slams open behind us, making me flinch and look back to see a drunken man, holding a half drank bottle in one hand, and the door knob in another.

"Abigail!" he shouts, slamming the door behind him before he drags his drunken self to the couch and sits.
The mother, Abigail, sets her son down in a panicked state, whispering to him to go upstairs and not come back down until she says so.

The boy runs right through me and Alastor, as if we weren't standing there at all, and he goes up the steps, stopping just around the corner to duck and peak through the railing to watch what happens.

Instinct has me turning to look at Alastor, who only stares, not saying a single word.

The mother runs into the living room at her husbands bark and order, taking off his coat, asking him how his day was, and offering him a drink of water.

Everything goes south in less then two seconds.

The man shrugs his wife's hands away, mumbling a drunken sentence under his breath before tipping the bottle over his lips and taking a deep drink.

It was then that the mother asked where did he get the money to buy that bottle, and he responds saying from the household savings.
At that point, Abigail is shocked, and says in a soft, saddened voice that that money was for Alastor's education.