Chapter Text
The boy wakes in slow waves of consciousness, a distant dream pulling at the threads of his mind. The world seems to hold an overpowering glow about it as his burry eyes attempt to take the early winter morning sun rays in, with more focus comes the awareness that Esther is laying in front of him; the two clearly having gone to sleep together in Abaddons room, she’s staring at him with sleep lay-don eyes. There is exhaustion etched into her face, bags almost as noticeable as his own weighing down her eyes.
”Hey…” she whispers, even her voice seems to carry a weight of sheer exhaustion Abaddon has only heard in her voice once before; at that time it had been laced with terror at the end of the world as she demanded Abaddons action, demanded he do something.
”Hi…” he whispers back, finding his voice to ache with the effort of speech. A distant memory of something slimy yet sharp like razor blades sliding down his throat, with it comes a flood of memories all painted in an iridescent hue. A glow so mesmerizing Abaddons breath hitches at the recollection; where had it come from? What was it? With effort the boy focuses his attention back on Esther who had yet to look away, “What—… what happened? What occurred last night?”
Esther clears her throat gently, “Well, you were supposed to be in here sleeping; Mom told me to come get you but when I did you were gone. From what I could gather it seemed you were in the vents again but Ben said he could track you using Uncle Nathan, don’t ask me how it works I really don’t know. One thing lead to another and we found you in the old church again, but it was on fire Abaddon. Mom started freaking out and yelling at these two people who were only checked into the hotel yesterday, Uncle Nathan tried to get to you but the fire stopped him. I—“ she cuts herself off, looking away from Abaddon for a moment before her eyes return, “I used the ring, she helped me take control of the fire… Mom took it last night.”
There is a beat of silence as Abaddon studies his cousins face, she seems both ashamed and proud of her actions. From behind Esther the two of them hear a half asleep snort, peeking over Esthers shoulder reveals Nathan waking from a doze that he would swear never happened; the two children watch as he slowly comes back to awareness, eyes focusing before shifting to the bed then widening as he takes in the twos wakeful state. “Hey!” He drawls, “look who’s awake!” He sits up in the chair he's dragged to the bedside, smiling warmly at the two. “How’re you feeling?” His question isn’t aimed at anyone specific.
”Tired.” Esther intones.
”Extremely.” Abaddons voice cracks.
”Well, you’re probably in need of some good ol’ breakfast, huh?” Nathan stands, for too energetic for Abaddons taste; but his attention is quickly grabbed by the mans sweater, then the rest of him. The child’s eyes widen as he marvels at his adopted father, much like the dazzling fire from the night before Nathans sweater holds a brand new hue; it’s bright and cheery and oh so awe inspiring. The edges of Nathans being carry the same glowing beauty of his sweater, Abaddon can’t help it; his mouth drops open in shock as he takes it in.
“Abaddon?” Nathans face twitches, clearly attempting to curb his concern “You okay buddy?”
Sitting up, Abaddon continues to stare before pointing toward Nathans sweater. Esther sits up alongside him, looking to Nathan before turning back to her cousin, taking a moment Abaddon considers how to ask his question, “Why has your sweater changed? It was grey was it not?” Now it was Nathan and Esthers turn to stare at him.
”Wait a minute! I thought you were colourblind!?” Esther jumps up to her feet, standing upon Abaddons bed with a look of wonder on her face. “Can you see blue?”
”What’s a blue?” Abaddon asks, dropping his hand back to the bedcovers.
”It’s a—“ Esther laughs, “It’s a colour! Oh gosh, okay. We’re gonna have to find some way to test this!” With excitement she pulls Abaddon from the bed, forcing him to his tired feet before she drags him downstairs toward their first meal of the day; Nathan trailing behind them with a laugh of his own.
The kitchen is alive with the scents and sounds of the matriarchs cooking, the smell of batter baking in a pan warming his senses as Abaddon walks gingerly toward his seat. Esther sits beside him while Nathan sits at the other end of the bench, the matriarch placing a large plate of pancakes in the centre of the table along with a pile of plates and utensils. Ben is already sitting on the opposite side of the table to where Esther has placed herself, he kindly passes a plate with two pancakes and a fork to Abaddon before dowsing it in syrup; then helping himself to his own.
Abaddon looses himself to staring at Ben’s sweater as the older boy helps himself to his pancakes, the sweater he’s wearing is the same… colour as the fire from the night before. Self control out the window, the boy realizes after the action is complete that he’s grabbed Ben’s arm and is pulling the other toward him. To Abaddons surprise the sweater doesn’t feel any different, yet the colour gives the material so much more life than it once had.
”Uhhh… Abaddon?” Ben sounds worried but doesn’t pull away, his tired eyes focused on his younger cousin.
His eye’s don’t stray from the fabric as he runs a thumb over its soft exterior, “It changed…”
As Ben’s eyebrows furrowed in thought Esther stood on her seat, slamming her hands onto the table at either side of her own plate “Another one!” She shouted before jumping down from her seat and scurrying from the room, mumbling as she went, “Test can’t wait!”
“Esther!” The matriarch called, only to be ignored by her daughter. With a sigh she turned her attention to the remaining three, “What’s going on?”
Nathan seemed the only one willing or capable of answering as Ben simply shrugged his shoulders and Abaddon couldn’t strip his eyes away from the sweater long enough to process the question. “Esther thinks he’s seeing colours, she’s gonna test it… somehow. Not sure how but, ya’know it’s Esther so I’m sure she’ll figure something out.” Nathan sighs contentedly as he answers his sister.
Ben’s gentle tug on his wrist gets Abaddon to let go, yet he finds his eyes jumping from Nathans sweater to Bens sweater as he eats his pancakes. As the boy starts his second pancake Esther comes skidding into the kitchen, Abaddon only having a moment to process what’s happening before his mouth is hung open in shock again; because there’s Esther in her jacket, but the jacket has changed in the same way Nathan and Bens sweaters did. It carries this whole new colour he’s never seen before, not in all his time in hell or on the mortal plane.
Esther then skirts around the table, making her way to stand between Ben and Abaddon where she places a handful of crayons upon the tabletop. “I need you to tell me which of these crayons match our clothing.” She can barely keep the excitement from her voice as she leans back, Abaddon looking from her to the crayons then each article of clothing. It doesn’t take much effort to identify the three crayons that do match their clothing, but what confuses Abaddon more is how many grey crayons are still present.
From the looks on each of their faces, the pleased smile on the matriarch; Abaddon can only assume he’s passed whatever test Esther has created as Benjamin holds up his vibrant crayon, “This colour is red, it definitely matches my sweater.” Esther leans in between the two boys, holding up her own crayon, “This one’s green, just like my jacket!”
”And this one,” Nathan points to the crayon sat on the tabletop in front of him, “Is blue, just like my sweater.”
”Wait,” Katherines brows are furrowed as she asks, “When did you come to the realization that you could see all these new colours?”
Just as Esther is about to answer Abaddon interrupts her “Last night. The hellfire used to burn the building was… this colour.” He points to Ben’s sweater.
”So you remember what happened then? I’m gonna need an explanation.” The matriarchs voice takes on that no-nonsense tone as she continues to eat.
With a sigh Abaddon considers his options before delving in, explaining how he’d seen the two guests speaking to Cain in the halls and had followed them back to their room. How he’d been caught snooping and they’d believed he was in league with the Demon, how Cain was absolutely a demon and up to something. It was when Abaddon attempted to explain what happened within the church that things became difficult, he got as far as the fire before a sharp squeezing pain around his heart stalled his recollection. It felt as if a clawed hand had wrapped around his heart and was holding it with the threat of crushing the muscle into dust.
You are not to tell them
The voice was a whisper from deep within his mind, echoing from somewhere he could not find.
Katherines sigh broke him out of his thoughts, she held her forehead in one hand shaking her head from side to side as she spoke, “You’re defiantly grounded. Vent and blender privileges are suspended until farther notice.”
Abaddon gasped in astonishment.
Katherine doesn’t think that things are over, not yet anyway. With the news of Judge Cyrils cases being investigated as well as the man listed as Abaddons biological father petitioning for release she know things were only just beginning, especially when she still had no idea how many townsfolk were involved in the mess to begin with. She’d been informed by officer Sloan the night before, just after putting the kids to bed that the man technically had more rights to Abaddons custody than they did, given that he was listed as the father while the freelings were not considered family.
She knew she had a long legal battle ahead of her but with Isaac and Letitia by her side she knew she’d be okay. Abaddon started his sessions with Mr. Andrei that coming Monday and his vaccines were at the end of the week along with his continued epilepsy testing, if that man Todd decided he wanted to fight for custody Katherine would face that monster head on; she wouldn’t hold back.