Succubi’s Curse Online
By
Lanak F. Tanor
Copyright © 2018 Akhoy Jyoti Chaudhury
All rights reserved
(Lanak F. Tanor is a pen name of author Akhoy Jyoti Chaudhury, who also writes under the pen name of A. J. Chaudhury)
SPECIAL THANKS
To Executive Producer: Annie Wang;
And to Luke, Tom and David for help with the editing.
This is a work of fiction. All characters and events are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to real people or events is entirely coincidental.
Chapter 1: Lanak Tanor
I didn’t like it when we reached the river.
It was odd. For normally, when Zurk and I came to fish, I would feel lively. This morning, however, I had an unsettling feeling take hold of me upon seeing the river. Zurk however was enjoying it.
“Woots!” he said, running down to the river and splashing water onto his face. I looked about the place warily as I set my bag down. I shook my head. The unsettling feeling was ultimately just a feeling, and it was all in my head. I decided to enjoy the morning. This was after all supposed to be the time of the week when I enjoyed myself.
“Let’s see who manages to catch more fish, eh?” I said to Zurk.
“I have been the winner for the past ten weeks,” Zurk boasted proudly, and despite his wrinkles and the grey of his beard he seemed to have suddenly become a teenager, “do you think you still have a chance against me?”
“Well, it was I who caught more fish eleven weeks ago,” I said with a grin as I prepared my fishing rod. Zurk shook his head.
“Eleven weeks is a long time ago,” he said. “You used to be a great fisherman, not now anymore…”
But I had suddenly stopped listening to Zurk. The unsettling feeling had suddenly grabbed me again. And it was coming in harder now. I did not like it at all. It was the same feeling on which my life used to depend a long time ago.
A time when I had been a different person altogether… A Succubi tamer.
But I had given up that job and the powers that came with it. Heck, I had even given up the privileges of being a player. I could no longer see my stats, but I didn’t care. Plus, notifications used to pop up in my vision all the time. It had been irritating at best. I was glad I had taken up my new life. Was it a bit mundane? Yes, absolutely. But on the positive side you didn’t have to deal with the possibility of killing innocent girls when you knew that there was the slightest of possibilities that they needn’t have been killed if only you were more skilled at taming.
Hundred percent of the times when dealing with a succubi I wanted to turn them into the innocent girls they really were. But ninety percent of the times, I would be forced to kill them just so that the havoc they were causing could be stopped. I was glad I had given up that life.
“Yeah!” Zurk cried in elation, as he brought up a beefy fish, breaking me out of my thoughts, “The first one is already mine!”
I bit my lip for the unsettling feeling was just refusing to leave. There were no succubi in these parts, I told myself. I focussed on the fishing.
It was after a few minutes that I felt a tug on my fishing rod. I pulled. The fish fought, and I was sure it was a big one for it was pulling me towards the river instead of me pulling it towards land. Zurk meanwhile laughed at me.
“You are really getting old, aren’t you?” he said.
I gritted my teeth.
“Your words aren’t helping me!” I said. Zurk took the fishing rod from my hands, relieving me from the chore. A few seconds later the fish was dancing in the bank, jumping up and down. It was one big fish. The orphans to whom we will be giving it will be quite happy.
“I think it’ll be safe to say that it was I who caught the second one as well,” Zurk said, flashing his teeth.
“Whatever,” I countered, taking my fishing rod from him. “Next time help me by keeping quiet, all right?”
It was at that moment that a sound reached my ear. A very eerie one. It was not made of words, but was a faint echo of sorts. Yet, it was easily distinguishable from the sound of the light breeze that was blowing in the morning or from the sound of the river. It didn’t seem to have been made by the tongue of a human or even an animal, neither was it a sound created by nature. The hair of my body stood on end, even as the sound vanished almost immediately after my ears had caught it.
“What was that?” Zurk said, and he seemed to have gone abruptly pale. All his liveliness had disappeared. I myself felt like I had swallowed a block of ice. I had wished the sound was a mere creation of my own mind, much like the unsettling feeling that had been coming to me ever since we had reached the river, but the fact that Zurk had heard the sound as well took away all my hopes.
“I do not know,” I said. “But I did not like it at all.”
Zurk looked around the spot frantically.
“You think we should leave?” he said to me. I pondered over it. Would it be a good idea to abandon the fishing because of a mere sound? After all we had been coming to this spot for a good while now. So far we had never come to any harm. No ferocious wild animal ever came here.
Not waiting for any response from me, Zurk began to put the two fish he had caught into his bag.
“I think we should return,” he said, picking up his bag, quite ready to leave.
“So that will be two for you and zero for me?” I said. Much as I wanted to leave myself, a rather childish part of me wanted to at least catch one fish. My fishing skills had been on the decline for a while now. Zurk, who had already taken a few strides away from the river, stopped and looked at me. He ruffled his balding mop of hair and shook his head.
“Fine,” he said, “it’s just a creepy sound after all. Sometimes, mice sound creepy as well. But that doesn’t stop them from being mice, does it?” Zurk didn’t look very convinced of his own words, but he impatiently sat down on a riverside boulder, so that I could go about my fishing business.
I attached the worm into the hook and then threw it in the river and waited patiently. My mind began to wander to the times when I used to be a Succubi tamer. I had been one for about a period of ten years. Yet, I had aged almost thirty years during that time frame. After settling down in my new life, my wrinkles had more or less remained the same. Taming succubi brought strains to the body. I had earned good money during that time period, but my fast declining youth had raised my concerns, along with the other drawbacks of the profession.
Youth…
A memory suddenly came to my mind. I had a déjà vu feeling grip me, as I recalled myself standing on the banks of a small stream, holding a fishing rod. It was the first time I had ever gone fishing… in the real world. I recalled my friends from my childhood, almost all of whom had died before the introduction of The Second World. But I had survived. I had been ninety-five when The Second World was unveiled. It was a virtual reality world, one to which people could upload themselves forever. Did it have risks? Absolutely. But it didn’t matter for I was old. In fact only old people were allowed to upload themselves into The Second World.
I remembered that time of helplessness when I had been ninety-five years of age in the real world. I had been a mere log of wood, lying on a bed day in and day out. All of this had followed a car accident. Till my ninety-fourth year in the real world, my life had been more or less a good one. I could still walk briskly for my age and enjoy the world. But the car accident had totally wrecked me. When The Second World came along, and the government said they would allow old people like me to upload ourselves into the virtual world, I had leapt at the first opportunity. My children and grand children had only been happy.
>
After uploading myself to the game world, I had hoped I would be able to meet my family members after they got their own game capsules. While young people were not allowed access to the Perma feature of The Second World, they could still explore the game world for shorter durations of time. However, before my family could buy more game capsules, war broke out in the real world.
My children and grand children did not survive.
The Second World however survived. It was protected by international law. It had citizens from all countries and the computer that had all the data of the players was floating in space.
I was brought back to the task at hand when I saw someone on the other side of the river. She was moving behind the trees. She seemed to be wearing little clothes. And what were those things she wore on her head? Plus, there seemed to be a strange extension behind her...
I felt a pull on the hook. However, I was so astonished by the sight on the other side of the river that I subconsciously let the fishing rod fall. The fish kept pulling, trying to free itself from the hook. The result was that the fish ended up pulling the rod into the river and it went down the surface with a ‘plop’.
I was paralysed to the spot and found myself incapable of movement. The girl on the other side could only be a succubus!
“Why did you let the rod fall into the river?” Zurk said, who didn’t seem to have sighted the succubus.
“I- I,” I stammered, “I think we should get out of this place right now, Zurk.”
The succubus on the other bank had disappeared behind the trees. I would have liked her to be in sight. This was bad.
Very bad.
I turned to Zurk, my eyes filled with horror.
“Let’s go!” I said and I grabbed him and pulled him up. “Let’s get the heck out of here!”
But Zurk was resisting my pull. He looked confused.
“I don’t understand,” he said, “did you see some dangerous animal?”
I pulled my hair in frustration.
“I saw a goddamn succubus. Now move!”
Zurk’s eyes went wide.
“A… a succubus?”
“Hell yes,” I said and I grabbed Zurk’s hand again to pull him along. But yet again he resisted my pull.
“But Succubi are not found in these parts,” Zurk said. He seemed to be fighting the idea that one could come here or that I had actually seen one.
“Doesn’t matter,” I barked, “I SAW one! And if you don’t come, I’ll leave you here alone.”
The sound of wings being flapped reached my ears. I looked towards the other bank of the river again but saw no sign of the succubus. A cold fear gripped my heart. I turned on my heels and without waiting for Zurk I began to march away from the river bank. A shudder had taken over my body. When I had come to these parts that was because I had never wanted to lay my eyes on a succubus again. They were vicious devils. They wrongly used the powers of beauty and seduction to take make mindless demons out of men. Women were not spared either. They were turned to succubi.
I marched away from the river bank. It was only after I had gone a good distance that I realised that Zurk wasn’t following me. I had hoped that seeing me so afraid he would come along, but no, he hadn’t. I stopped.
There was a fight going on in my head. I had no wish to abandon my good friend. Yet at the same time I knew that dealing with a succubus wasn’t something to look forward to. I gritted my teeth. I had to save Zurk.
Letting out a curse I spun at the spot.
“Zurk!” I cried out and I began to run towards the river bank again. When I reached it I saw that there was no Zurk. There was just no sign of him there at all.
I scanned the spot. Where could he have gone? There was only one proper way from the spot that led to the town where we lived.
And then I saw Zurk’s bag lying on the ground. I ran down to it. The fish Zurk had caught were still in the bag. His fishing rod was lying beside the bag as well. Zurk was not someone who would leave his fishing rod or his fish under any circumstance, not even if some wild beast came to eat him.
I heard the sound of conversation. It was coming from behind some bushes on the other bank. I strained my eyes and I saw that one of the people there was Zurk… and the other was a girl.
My heart froze.
But then I saw that the girl didn’t posses any wings or horns and I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Maybe she was some normal girl and Zurk had merely gone over because she required help? The river wasn’t a very big one and was more of a stream. It wasn’t hard even for an old man like Zurk to wade across it.
“Zurk!” I called. Zurk seemed to hear me and he stood up. I waved at him.
“What are you doing there?” I asked to him.
“She came here to collect water,” Zurk said, gesturing at the girl beside him, “but her pitcher fell into the river. I got it for her.”
It was more or less good news and I exhaled.
And then Zurk let out an abrupt cry. He pointed at me.
“Behind you!” he cried.
I whirled around. There was the succubus standing right behind me. She had a smile on her cute face. I shook my head. I couldn’t fall for her charms, or I would be done for.
My experience from my days as a Succubi tamer kicked in. Instead of running away from the succubus I lunged towards her. She hadn’t expected it. I pinned her to the ground.
“Why have you come here?” I barked at her. All the time her beauty was deteriorating very fast. It was what happened to a succubus once they realised that there charms wouldn’t come to use. Her face became devilish. It was scary to watch the transformation.
She kicked me on the stomach. For her slim legs her kick was very powerful and I got thrown away. Grunting, I pulled myself up to my feet.
“What do you want?” I demanded the succubus.
“Just a kiss,” the succubus said, showing her fangs.
I remembered my trusty dagger. I always brought it along whenever I went to any remote place. It still hung by my belt and I now drew it from its sheath.
The succubus pouted her lips.
“You are going to kill me?” she said.
I swung the dagger at her. My aim was the horns. If I could somehow break one of her horns she would die. The succubus side stepped, and I almost tripped because of my own inertia. Damn, I had gotten fat leading a lazy life, hadn’t I?
I grunted, exasperated at myself.
Then a plan formed in my head. If I could somehow push the succubus into the river…
I sheathed my dagger. I would need it, but right now I had something else in mind. I lunged at her again. She tried to evade me, but I grabbed her torso, such that for a moment she was lifted into the air. My face came dangerously close to her fangs and she tried to bite me. But thankfully her fangs were an inch too far away. I slammed her on the very edge of the river bank. She groaned.
“Ah, that is not a lot of pleasure,” she commented. She began to flap her wings. But I was just not ready to let her go. Her flapping became more and more powerful, even as I somehow managed to draw out my dagger. The next moment I knew, she had taken to the air, while I held on to her torso. The distance between us and the ground went on increasing. My heart rate spiked.
I shook my head, refusing to be taken.
“Should have tried seduction,” I said to the succubus. I raised my sword and hit one of her horns hard. Her eyes went wide. I reckoned she had not expected me to hit her horns. But now my dagger was wedged into the horn. I grabbed the horn with my bare hand and I pulled out her horn. The succubus let out a mad shriek. Her wings disappeared and the two of us plummeted into the river.
As we were taken along by the current of the river, I kicked my legs and swam towards the bank where Zurk and the girl were. I also took the body of the succubus along with me. I lay down beside the rocks of the river bank. I felt drained of all energy. I couldn’t stop my panting. Zurk ran to me and placed a hand on my shoulder.
> “Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said, nodding. I looked at the body of the succubus. Her features were fast transforming. It was a minute before her features settled to that of a girl in her early twenties. Before I knew it, I was crying. I had killed the girl.
The girl began to disappear. First her body became translucent and then she was totally gone.
“Why are you crying?” Zurk asked me.
I shook my head. He wouldn’t understand. I looked at the spot where the girl’s body had been. I wondered when she had been turned into a succubus. Recently? A hundred years ago? Who knew?
“Was that a monster?” the other girl whom Zurk had helped asked me.
“A succubus,” I told her, “a monster of sorts, yes.”
“But succubi don’t appear in these parts, do they?” Zurk asked.
“This is the first one I am seeing here,” I said. “I hope it’s also the last one.”
Leaving the girl, Zurk and I waded the way back to our own side of the river.
“All this happened because I didn’t go with you, right?” Zurk asked.
“Nah,” I said, “it was good you stayed. The succubus was killed. Otherwise she would have roamed this place and maybe she would have attacked the other girl and turned her into a succubus as well. So it was ultimately for good.”
The rest of the day was a grim affair. The children at the orphanage weren’t very happy seeing we had only brought two fish. We told about the succubus to the authorities. They looked me up and down as if they didn’t believe I had tackled a succubus alone, even though they said they believed us.
But it was the night that was the worst part of that day. Once again the eerie sound was heard. The very one that Zurk and I had heard while we were at the river. And this time the sound persisted. It was so creepy that people came out of their houses, their hands over their ears in an attempt to keep the sound at bay. Chaos spread over our little town, which was usually quite peaceful. Children cried for the sound frightened them. I knew that bad days were coming. Deep inside I knew that the sound and the succubus were somehow related.
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