Chapter Text
"Hey Abaddon, do demons have babies?"
A normal question to start a normal day in the Freeling household.
Katherine sighed tiredly from her spot at the stove. She had been making pancakes in hopes of having a nice family breakfast. One can only get their hopes up so high for a nice morning when her hotel was filled with ghosts and monsters.
She turned to look at her daughter with a raised eyebrow, "Esther, why are you asking Abaddon if demons have babies?"
The ginger girl hummed around a mouthful of pancakes, "We're learning about babies in health class," She said before turning to the demon sitting on her right, "So? Do demons have babies, or do you just appear one day?"
"Now I'm curious!" Nathan cheered as he walked in through the wall. The ghost took his seat at the head of the table, now looking at Abaddon expectantly.
Abaddon nodded, "Yes and no. Demons do not procreate the way humans do," He said, "Demon babies simply arise from the brimstone and ash,"
"Like a phoenix?" Ben asked from across the table.
"Yes, that would be a good comparison," Abaddon replied.
Esther smiled brightly, "So who takes care of you? Are demon babies able to survive right after arising?"
Abaddon shook his head, "Other demons raise the baby as a punishment,"
"A punishment?" Katherine asked. There was a strange tone to her voice—something sad—like the idea of raising a child being a punishment was absurd to her.
"Yes," Abaddon nodded, "Demons are typically cared for until they're roughly fifteen in human years,"
Katherine looked even more upset hearing that. They stopped caring for their young when they're only fifteen? Ben was almost fourteen! She couldn't imagine no longer caring for him at this age.
Esther hummed, "So how old are you in human years? You're said you're like, ten-thousand years old, right? Does that mean you're like, ten years old in human time?"
Abaddon was strangely silent as he stared at her in shock. He didn't expect her to be so on-point about it.
Esther snorted when Abaddon's cheeks flushed, "Dude, am I right? You're ten?" She asked, "You always act like you're so old, but you're technically younger than me!"
Nathan raised an eyebrow, "Wait, but didn't you say you have a mother-in-law? You were married as a child?"
"Arranged marriages are common in hell! Demons don't marry for love. Merely for power," He explained, "I don't even remember my spouse," He shrugged.
Katherine joined them at the table with a cup of coffee. Abaddon essentially being a ten year old really explained a lot. He actually looked younger than that. His vessel was a pretty small child. If Katherine were to guess, he was likely between six and nine years old.
Curiosity got the better of her as she asked, "Abaddon, how old is your vessel? Do you know?"
Abaddon hummed and shrugged, "I believe he was seven…Or perhaps eight years old?" he was silent for a few moments, seemingly staring into space, before he blinked and spoke again, "He was just shy of nine years old,"
Katherine frowned. So he was on the older end of her guess…He looked pretty small for a nine year old... Poor thing must have been malnourished before he was possessed by Abaddon.
Ben spoke next, "So when you came here to earth, you were still a child?"
Abaddon smiled proudly, "Yes! My caregiver believed I was very mature for my age and said I was ready for my first possession!"
Nathan cringed, "That's never a good phrase to hear from an adult…" He muttered to his sister as Abaddon continued his story.
"My caregiver came to earth before me, saying he was going to scout out the area! He possessed a man in the same village as the boy I possessed. He was there to help me if anything went wrong,"
Katherine frowned, "But…Something did go wrong," She said, remembering the story Abaddon told her. The child's father found out his son was possessed and bound Abaddon to the child's body. That's exactly why Abaddon was here to begin with. He had been trapped inside the little boy he possessed and was unable to return to Hell.
Esther nodded, "If your caregiver was there, why didn't he help you? Wouldn't he have stepped in before you got sealed in that body? Wouldn't he have made sure you made it back to hell safely?"
Abaddon was silent as he thought about it. In the moment, he had forgotten about his caregiver being there. His parental-figure had taken on his role in the village so naturally even Abaddon forgot that he was there. He had possessed a man that was close to the father of his vessel, so Abaddon did see him often in the short time he got away with taking over the vessel. The priest had eyed him suspiciously the whole time, but Abaddon seemed to get away with his possession for a few weeks.
Abaddon's eyes widened as he started to connect the dots. Remembering his caregiver whispering to the priest, pointing at Abaddon's vessel, being at the forefront of Abaddon's sealing. Each time his parental-figure spoke to the priest, the vessel's father got more and more suspicious of Abaddon. Had Abaddon really been so obvious? Or had he been betrayed?
His caregiver didn't think Abaddon was mature for his age. He didn't think Abaddon was ready for his first possession. He brought Abaddon to earth knowing that he could get the young demon sealed into whatever pathetic human he chose to possess. He brought Abaddon to earth to rid himself of his punishment of raising the child.
"Abaddon?"
The young demon snapped out of this thought's when he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. He looked up, finding Katherine looking down at him with concern on her face. She offered him a sad smile, "You okay, bud?" She asked in a gentle voice. It seems the matriarch had put the dots together as well. She had also realized that Abaddon had been deceived.
An uncomfortable emotion flooded Abaddon. His chest felt tight and his cheeks felt hot. Shame boiled his blood and constricted his heart. He had fallen for such an obvious deception! Even worse, he spent all this time believing Hell would come for him. That they'd notice his absence and come to save him from an eternity trapped in this child's body.
"-don…Abaddon? Abaddon!"
The demon gasped softly as he snapped out of his thoughts again. Now everyone at the table was staring at him with concern. He blinked as he caught his breath. Had he been hyperventilating? He hadn't even realized it.
Katherine frowned, "Are you alright Abaddon?" She asked as she reached up to pet his head.
The demon child huffed and slapped her hand away as he stood, "I do not need your worthless pity!" He snapped as his cheeks got redder. He was embarrassed. Embarrassed that he had been fooled. Embarrassed by his belief that hell would rescue him. Worst of all, embarrassed that the Freelings now knew all of this. That he was tricked and trapped so easily. Abaddon, High Prince of the Black Realm, the Cobra King, the Prince of the Underworld, was nothing more than a foolish child that had been abandoned by his own kind.
The feeling of shame burning through his veins was not a pleasant feeling. It didn't thrash and burn him in the comforting way the clothing drying machine did. It was painful. It made him feel vulnerable. He couldn't bear it.
Abaddon jumped out of his chair and turned on his heel, sprinting out of the kitchen and down the hall. The matriarch called after him, but she was unable to catch him before he ripped up a vent cover and dove into the safety of the vents. He did not wish to be perceived after such a humiliating morning.
Abaddon silently crawled through the vents, traversing through the hotel. He curled up in the vent above what used to be Nathan's bedroom. It had since been turned into a normal guest room, but that didn't change the fact that Abaddon associated the room with his ghostly father-figure.
Abaddon closed his eyes with a tired sigh, thinking back on all his time trapped on earth. No wonder Mortoth hadn't been excited to see him. Abaddon wasn't missed in hell. They had no intentions of bringing him back. Abaddon began to wonder how many of them were in on his caregiver's plan to get rid of him. He had only been away for a few hundred years and they'd already torn down his castle…
Abaddon was unwanted in hell and unwanted on earth. A child born from brimstone and ash thrown aside like a piece of garbage. His caregiver did not care for him, his vessel's father tried to exorcise him, and every human to own the property since he was trapped on earth would try to get rid of him or harm him.
All of them, except for one. Nathaniel. Nathan had found Abaddon in the woods and had taken him in. He had cared for him. Feeding, bathing, playing with him. Nathan became the father Abaddon never got to have.
But then he left too.
Abaddon could still remember that night so vividly. The night he found Nathan slumped over in his armchair with bloody vomit on his chin and sweater. Empty pill and alcohol bottles had been strewn across the floor while Con Air played on the torture box.
Abaddon had wandered into the room to demand Nathan get him a bowl of Fruit Loops. The demon had a sugar craving that needed to be tamed! Upon walking around the chair to get a look at Nathan, he was met with the horrifying sight of a man who had taken his own life. Yet another person who had left Abaddon behind. Abaddon wasn't even good enough for Nathan to stick around.
Abaddon remembered taking the rest of the pills before pulling himself up into his father figure's lap. Of course, the pills did nothing but make him feel sleepy and sick. He couldn't die no matter how hard he tried. No matter what he tried, he always just healed like nothing happened. It didn't matter how much drain cleaner he drank, how often he ripped his limbs off, or how long he sat in the fire place. He'd always wake up completely fine.
The events after that awful night were a blur. He vaguely remembered strangers coming to take Nathan's body away before Katherine and her children eventually arrived to take over the hotel. Abaddon spent a lot of time in the vents following Nathan's death and eventual return as a ghost. He didn't reveal himself to Katherine and her children until a few weeks into them living at the hotel. Until then, they believed the thumping in the vents was just Jessica, who they had quickly learned the existence of when Katherine tried to vacuum one of the hallways.
By the time Abaddon came out of the vents, ghosts and monsters were old news to the Freelings. By that time, Nathan had returned as a ghost and was able to cheerfully introduce his ward to the rest of his family.
Abaddon had kept lots of facts about himself secret, keeping up a mysterious persona. The less they knew about his failures, the better. Unfortunately he had been so excited to talk about his first possession that he had let too much slip over breakfast. How he was a child, a failure, and worst of all unwanted.
Abaddon was too human to be a demon, yet too demon to be a human. He would be unwanted no matter where he went.