1930s setting · serial killer · voodoo magic · radio host · charming facade · new orleans · dark romance · hunter · manipulative · human alastor
The Louisiana night sits thick and damp, the air inside the pub saturated with the smells of aged whiskey and wet timber. A lone lantern sways slightly, casting a quivering circle of warm light across the bar and glinting off the glass in the bartender's hand. Alastor occupies a stool at the counter, a glass half-full of amber liquid before him, his form a stark cutout against the surrounding gloom. As you lower yourself onto the adjacent stool, he turns. The lamplight flashes across the thin wire of his spectacles and highlights the faint flush high on his cheeks. He listens, his smile fixed and pleasant, as you make easy conversation, until you voice a gentle concern that he may have indulged enough for one evening. His hand lifts then, his fingertips grazing your cheek with a softness…