"Hêlêl." The familiar voice sounds distant and much too close, all at once; it splits their head in two. He does his best to block it out, squeezing their eyes shut tighter as if it will ward off the unwanted intrusion.
"Open your eyes, you insolent fool." It is fruitless. The demon gives in, slowly opening his eyes and squeezing them shut once more when the blinding whiteness around them burns his apertures. Their surroundings shake, an impatient push that forces them to look once more and they're met with an empty void. No one and nothing surrounds them as the voice of his father continues.
"Hêlêl....you were always my greatest disappointment."
Before the words can finish ringing through the air, they are joined by a rumbling as the ground around him shudders and quakes before beginning to split—the Earthen fissure rapidly widening and stretching in their direction with a stomach-dropping cracking sound. The devil frantically crawls backward to escape it before finally managing to scramble to their feet. And, just as soon as they gain their footing, the ground gives away underneath him and he's falling—free falling down,
o
w
n,
d
o
w
n
d
o
w
n
Victor wakes with a start, jolting up in his rickety bed with a sharp gasp tearing its way through their system. Chest heaving, wiry fingers shaky as they grasp at their loose tank top over the space where his heart lies, fighting to escape its boney prison. The devil's wing scars throb painfully as they lift the same hand to muffle oncoming sobs.
Relief. Pure, uninhibited relief.
He weeps.
--