01- Succubus!

by Michael-Scott Earle

  “I have to go,” she said as she put her phone back in her bag and stood from the bench.

  “Oh, okay,” I said.

  It was odd that she was getting a phone call, or text message, or even looking at her phone. She normally never did anything with it. Her beautiful face seemed worried, and her forehead scrunched to make her adorable brows knit into perfect chevron-shaped creases.

  “Ummmm, bye?” I said as she stepped away from the table. I tried not to let my disappointment come through in my voice, but I hadn’t expected her to leave so suddenly, or to forget some sort of a farewell. Granted, we had just started to eat together, but I kind of would have thought someone would have at least said ‘goodbye’ or something.

  Maybe the call was really important?

  Maybe she was in danger? Or someone she loved was in danger?

  It was a dumb question to even consider, but I couldn’t shake the notion from my brain as I watched the beautiful girl’s skirt and tail flutter toward the exit of the cafeteria. Charlotte had never left lunch like this, and we only had fifteen minutes until our history test. I didn’t want her to miss it.

  Should I follow her?

  What would one of my manga heroes do?

  I had already crossed the cafeteria wastelands to speak with the beautiful princess. I had already sat down across from her and engaged her in conversation. I had already feasted with her. I could go on a quest to guarantee her safety and ensure that she made it back to her dreaded history test in time.

  My books slid into the familiar nook in my arm, and I stood with a gusto that actually surprised me. My feet carried me quickly to the exit doors of the cafeteria, and I threw my half-eaten lunch into the trash bin. I still felt a little hungry, but a hero could go without food if he was required to embark on a quest to save a beautiful woman. I’d be fine.

  The hallway had a few kids by the lockers, mostly vampires who thought they were too cool to eat in the cafeteria, but I did see a few satyrs speaking with a dwarf. Charlotte was at the end of the far hallway, and I saw her make a right at the corner. I did my best to hurry after her, without running, and peered around the corner once I arrived.

  The beautiful girl walked toward the stairs leading down into the basement levels of the school. It was a dark, creepy place off limits to all students. There were various websites mentioning all sorts of evil sacrifices, or even occult sexual activities performed by the faculty there after hours. I didn’t want to believe that any of those stories were true, but I’d read enough comics and seen enough TV to know that anything was possible.

  Charlotte glanced over her shoulder, and I ducked back past the corner of the hallway so that she didn’t see me. I waited a few seconds before I peeked back around and saw the tip of her tail float down the stairs into the darkness of the basement.

  Ugh.

  The conflict fought in my stomach like two battling tigers. It seemed apparent to me that the love of my life was in trouble. Maybe. She never broke her routine, and I could only think of two reasons why she would need to go into the basement. She was meeting someone either for an epic demon battle or for the activity that succubi were known for. The thought of her having a lover made my heart stop beating for a second, and I felt a sting of tears come to my eyes.

  I was being an ass. I was a senior in high school and going to college next year. I was an adult, and so was Charlotte. If she was meeting someone for love, then I needed to let her go. Sure, I’d probably cry like an idiot for the rest of the school year, but it wasn’t like I’d ever expected her to care about me. I was just happy to be able to look at her.

  But maybe she was in danger? Maybe this wasn’t a secret meeting between lovers? Should I brave the darkness and see if she needed my help? Would I ruin any potential chance at romance or friendship with her if I intruded?

  I took a deep breath, clutched my books tighter against my chest, and walked down the stairs into the darkness of the basement.

  Chapter 3

  The basement looked dark from the top of the stairs, but it was just the change in light from the fluorescent-lit hallways to the dimness of the creepy basement. I reached the bottom of the steps and glanced back to the blue lights. It almost seemed like a stairway to heaven, and I wondered if I should forget about Charlotte and go back to the cafeteria. It was safe there, and I could read my comics, or think about my upcoming test, or do anything other than risk this oppressive darkness.

  I stepped away from the stairs and the cool fluorescent light. The path was narrow, but a turn of a corner led me to a series of corridors that spread out in all directions like a grid pattern. The occasional wall lamp hung every few dozen feet, but half of the bulbs seemed to be burnt out, and the other half looked like they only had a forty watt in them.

  I walked a few more feet around the first corner and waited for my eyes to adjust to the lack of illumination. I saw no trace of Charlotte, but the hairs on my neck stood at attention. My legs also trembled, and my palms were sweaty where they clutched onto my books.

  This was a bad idea.

  But every hero probably questioned themselves before they saved the girl. I just needed to push forward. Charlotte might need my help, unless she planned a meeting with a boyfriend that I didn’t know about. If that was actually the case, then it might be good for me. I could leave them alone, and maybe I’d be able to get over the beautiful girl.

  First, I needed to figure out where she had gone. I looked from left to right and realized that it would be impossible to tell where the succubus had walked. I didn’t really see any dust here, just cold dark concrete, rusted-looking plumbing pipes, crumbling brick, and the half-working light fixtures.

  “Hell-” I called out, but stopped myself. Charlotte probably wouldn’t appreciate me following her, even if she was in trouble. Calling out a greeting would be a good way to get her mad at me, or to alert whatever danger she faced that I was also in the basement.

  I closed my eyes and tried to guess where she would have gone. I saw paths immediately to my left and right, and then two more sets of branching corridors further down the hall. It would have been impossible to guess, but I figured that if I explored one of the first branches, it would be hard for the girl to leave back up the stairs without me noticing. I didn’t want to spend the next fifteen minutes looking for her in the darkness if she had already gone to class.

  I guessed left and turned to walk in that direction. The hallway stretched further than I expected, and the walls seemed to crumble into disrepair with each step I took away from the main branch of the basement. I heard a dripping sound ahead, and a popping whirl that turned into a snake-like hiss. I didn’t want to approach the noise, and each step began to feel as if I had walked a hundred yards with a forty-pound weight around my neck. I was about to turn around and head back, but then the hallway opened into a larger room.

  There was a bit more light in here, since all the wall lamps had working bulbs, and I saw a rusted metal desk in one corner of the room. There was also a pair of massive green cylinders set on their sides. I approached the twin metal contraptions and noticed a bunch of pipes leading in and out of them. Pressure gauges were attached to each one, and I sighed when I realized that these were just the school’s boilers.

  This was a dead end, so I turned to walk back to the main branch of the corridors, but, as soon as I spun, I came face to face with Charlotte.

  “Who are you?” Her voice was a sexy growl, and my body fought against equal parts terror and arousal.

  Her purple eyes were glowing brighter than the lamps on the wall.

  “S-s-s-sorry, I d-d-d-didn’t mean to follow you. Well, act-act-actually I did. Ahhhh!”

  I screamed, or tried to scream, but her fingers closed around my throat, and my voice cut off before I could force any air out of my mouth. My neck, spine, and legs cracked with the weight of my body. The beautiful succubus had lifted me by my throat, and my legs dangled above the floor.

  “Who
sent you to kill me?” she growled the question, and I saw her left arm coil behind her back. Her hands normally looked human, but they had now changed into leathery bird talons. Each bladed nail gleamed in the dim lamplight, and I knew that the needles could tear me into spaghetti noodles with ease.

  “No! One! Kkkkack!” My head was swimming with the darkness, and it sounded like the whirling of the boilers came from inside my eardrums.

  “I won’t gut you,” she said a second before she dropped me. I landed on my ass with a painful jolt and gave a thankful gasp when I tasted the musty air. “No.” She grabbed the front of my uniform shirt and yanked me to my feet. My mouth was suddenly a few inches away from her, and I could smell the sweetness of her breath. “It’s been too long since I’ve fed. No one will find your husk down here. I don’t need to know who sent you, but they could have--”

  “No one sent me! I just love you!”

  Maybe it was my dizziness from lack of air, or the pain from falling on my ass, or the fear of getting eaten by the woman who I had a crush on. Whatever the reason, the admission spilled out of my mouth like air when the wind is knocked from someone’s lungs.

  “Wait, what?” she asked as her talons moved from my shirt to my neck.

  “I-I-I just think you are beautiful.”

  “Beautiful?”

  “Y-y-y-yes,” I stuttered again as the points of her nails dug into my throat. “Ever since you transferred to our school. I mean, I love-love-love your wings, and your tail, and your h-a-a-air. You are smart too, I see that you get A’s on all your tests and you turn in your homework on time. I--”

  “My wings? My tail? What are you talking about?” I felt my warm blood start to drip onto the collar of my shirt.

  “Y-y-yeah, I like your wings. I like the purple color. They are like Lilith’s.”

  “Lilith’s? How do you know Lilith?” Her grip tightened, and I almost couldn’t talk.

  “From the Darkstalkers video game. I guess yours are more purple like the inside of Morrigan’s. Lilith's are red in her default costume. You always seemed to look more like Lilith to me, even though you have long hair. She is my favorite character.” I realized I was babbling and about to run out of air.

  “You see my wings? How? Am I the only one?” Her eyes narrowed to molten slits of purple fire.

  “Uhh, the angel and erinye girls have pretty wings also, but I prefer your pinkish-purple ones to their feather ones. T-t-t-there are l-l-lots of beautiful girls at our school, but I just really like you. Sorry, I don’t want to scare you. Or have you think I am some sort of weird stalker.”

  Her eyes continued to glow their purple hue, but I felt a bit of the pressure loosen from her nails on my throat. I took a little-larger breath, and my heart began to beat at a normal pace.

  “How do you know about my wings? Who are you?”

  “I don’t understand your question. I uhh, ummm, I’m Sherman.”

  “Sherman? You said you saw me at school. Do you go to this school?” Her eyes narrowed a bit when she asked her question.

  “Yeah, I sit behind you in physics class. We are lab partners. I just talked to you a few minutes ago in the cafeteria. Do you remember?”

  “Hmmm.” Her eyes drifted up and down my body before settling back on my face. “I think I remember you. Yes, you did ask me about the lab at lunch. I’m sorry. I am normally good with names and faces. I didn't remember yours.”

  “That’s okay. I, uhh, I get that a lot, actually.”

  I felt her hand release my neck, and I reached up to touch the blood coming from the tiny holes she’d made there. My books lay scattered across the cold floor by the boilers, and I saw one of my mangas sitting in a pool of dark water. I should have been upset, but I was more happy to be alive now.

  “You see my wings,” she said it like a statement and not a question.

  “Yeah, and your tail.”

  “I don’t understand. You said something about angels also?”

  “They have white or off-white feather wings, and their hair kind of glows. Angels, right? That is what they are called on the TV shows and the internet.”

  “And erinyes?”

  “They have these dark-gray or black-feathered wings. There are ones with gold or brown wings, but I think those are furies. I’ve never really asked them if there is a difference.”

  “And I am?” she crossed her arms, and her lips formed a forced line.

  “Uhhh, succubus right? The wings, the tail, you are beautiful.” My heart started racing again as soon as I complimented her.

  “What else do you see?” Her voice turned into a low growl again, and I wondered if she didn’t like me calling her a succubus.

  “Uhhh, what do you mean?”

  “Do you see the other devils, demons, anything else that doesn’t look like a human?”

  “Yeah. From my observations, only one out of ten or so people look like me. The rest are something else. If you want, I could go through the list of them. There are the vampires and werewolves, or sometimes they are werecats. There are the goblins, some elves, dwarves, lizards, and--”

  “Stop,” Charlotte said with a raised hand. “How long have you seen us?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “No one can see us. Do you understand? We can’t even see each other’s true form. What you are saying is impossible.” She uncrossed her arms and took a step toward me.

  “I-I-I ummm, I kind of always have. What do you mean that it is impossible?”

  “The terms of the War on Earth. We all have to look like humans. It is the only way we can be in this realm. We can’t see each other. How long have you been able to see us?” Her arm lashed out, and I felt her nails sink into my bicep, painfully. Her grip felt insanely strong, and I gasped with part surprise and part fear.

  “I don’t really understand. I’m sorry, Charlotte. I just remember always being able to see, ummm, these kinds of things.”

  “No, that doesn’t make any sense. What did you say your name was?” she asked.

  “Sherman.”

  “Sherman, Sherman, Sherman,” she repeated. “How could you have gone through life seeing us? I find it hard to believe that one of Earth’s Soldiers wouldn’t have found you out already and killed you.”

  “Killed me?” I felt the terror permeate the rest of my body like an icy chill.

  “Yes, killed you.” Her eyes seemed to glow a brighter purple. “But I’m not interested in killing you right now. I’m more interested in understanding how you weren’t found out until just now, or how you haven’t gone insane.”

  “W-w-why would I go insane?” I asked as her other clawed hand clamped onto my other bicep.

  “Because you witness the stuff of myths, legends, and stories walking the streets. You see angels, devils, demons, and monsters. Your human mind wasn’t meant to observe these things.” Charlotte shook her head, and her full lips twisted into a smirk.

  She didn’t let go of my arms.

  “I didn’t think it was weird.”

  “How did you not think seeing someone with wings and a tail was weird?” she rolled her glowing eyes.

  “I don’t know. Now that you mention it, the idea seems weird. I just saw everyone on TV, and not everyone was human. The comics I read have non-humans in them, and the anime I watch has non-humans. No one ever talked about it, so I just kind of thought it was normal.” As I spoke the words, I remembered the last eighteen years of life and tried to recall the times when I might have said something to someone.

  People always thought I was weird. It was why I didn’t really have any friends and spent all my time studying, playing video games, reading comics, or watching my TV shows.

  “You can see our true forms through the TV screen?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Damn. This is useful. Didn’t your parents ever say anything to you?”

  “They ignore me. Well, they give me money, and food. But they aren’t very interested in talking to me about sc
hool or--”

  “Shhhh,” Charlotte let go of my right arm and pushed her taloned finger to my lips. Her touch made my head spin, or maybe it was the blood leaving my brain and traveling somewhere else in a hurry. “Did you hear that?” she whispered.

  “No,” I gasped.

  “My target is here.” She leaned in close to my face and her warm breath tickled my cheek. The sensation made me almost want to faint, but the new wave of terror kept my nerves awake.

  “Your target?” I gasped.

  “Yes, I transferred to this school so that I could assassinate one of Lucifer’s generals deployed here. Pick up your books,” she commanded, and we both bent over to gather up all my text and comic books.

  Once we had them gathered in our arms, Charlotte pulled me toward the boilers. I almost thought about resisting her, but then I realized that I didn’t want to be out here in the open room, and I’d much rather be hiding from whatever the pretty demon girl was hunting. Especially if it meant I’d be in close quarters with her.

  “Wait, what? Aren't Lucifer and succubi on the same side? Don’t you both come from Hell?”

  “No, Sam. Shit, you really don’t know anything. Lucifer is a devil. Angel really, but he leads the devils from the Abyss. Satan is in Hell.”

  “So you work for Satan? What about the angels? What about all the other… uhhh, what do I call them?”

  “Angels report to Gabriel. The rest are monsters or supernatural creatures. You really don’t know anything about the war? This is so stupid. I can’t believe you can see us.” She pulled me all the way behind the boilers, and the only light came from the glow of her purple eyes.

  “Uhhh no. Are you all fighting each other?”

  “Shhh, you are too loud, Scott,” she whispered urgently.

  “Sherman,” I breathed. Maybe I should have been offended, but my parents often called me by the incorrect name, so I was used to it.

  “Huh?”

  “My name is Sherman. You called me Sam, then Scott.”