by Jan Dockter
Oz’s face drooped to a scowl. Isabel could sense that he was taken aback. “She was drunk,” he said, clenching his jaw. “I don’t think she remembers much.”
“But so was I when I first slept with you and Gavin,” Isabel said, shaking her head. “I woke up the next day and I remembered everything.” She paused for a second, clearing her throat. “Well, maybe not everything, but I was at least able to recall that I had slept with not one, but two men.”
Oz let out a sigh. “Isabel,” he said. “Not everyone is able to regain full recollection when they’re sober. You, of all people, should know that.”
“Yeah,” Isabel said, shrugging. But she still wasn’t convinced. Despite Oz’s great ability to control her thoughts, there was something about the way Ava reacted to him that made Isabel’s stomach churn. “So, has she began her transformation into a succubus? Does she need Analise to brief her on what’s gonna happen? I don’t want her— or anyone in this house— to go through this alone… it can be a very scary process,” Isabel said, sighing.
“She’s begun her transformation,” Oz said. “I’m going to call Analise to sit with her, just like she sat with you, and she’s going to explain everything to her.”
“I can sit with her,” Isabel said.
“No,” Oz shook his head. “Analise will take care of it.” There was a pause. Isabel wondered why he was being so secretive about this, but she didn’t want to start a fight. After all, she was getting hungry, and although she hated that her life practically depended on two people, she realized she basically had no choice but to roll with it.
“Alright,” she said, her eyes dropping to the floor. “I’ll come back to check up on her, though. She seemed pretty distressed.”
“You can do whatever you want, Isabel,” Oz said. “This mansion is your safe place, you’re free to interact with the people however way you wish.” Isabel thought she would talk to Gavin about this, but until then, she was going to keep a close eye on this girl.
***
The mansion was starting to fill up with unfamiliar faces. When Isabel first moved in, there was probably half the number or people— or succubi— that there were now. But there was something different about them. Isabel couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but the way they looked, the way they dealt with each other, was foreign to her. She hadn’t seen Ava in a while, and for some reason, she couldn’t stop thinking about her. That horrified look on her face when she saw Oz, the way she was so sure that she hadn’t even slept with another man on that night. Isabel still wanted answers, and she still didn’t know how to get them.
Isabel was just starting her day. As always, she took a shower, threw her silk robe on and walked downstairs, eager to find Gavin. She had been closer with Oz lately, and she was starting to crave Gavin’s company. “Oh, hey,” she said, bumping into Analise on her way down. “I kind of wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Of course,” she said. “Anything you need.”
“Okay, well, it won’t take too long, but there’s a girl here, she’s new I think, and she… I don’t know how to describe it. She seems a little off.”
Analise pursed her lips. “And who would that be?” she asked, her head cocked to the side. For a moment, Isabel hesitated. Analise looked flustered, like she had somewhere to be.
“Her name is Ava?” Isabel asked.
“Ah, Ava!” Analise said, her lips curving upwards. “She’s new here, what about her?”
“I don’t know, she looks kind of traumatized, to be honest.”
Analise let out a sigh. “You know, sometimes, new succubi don’t cope that well at first. You of all people should know that, Isabel,” she said, her eyebrows furrowed.
“I, I know that, but she didn’t seem to be coping the same way I did. Like, at all,” Isabel said, shifting her weight to one leg. “I’d like you to sit down and talk to her, the same way you talked me through my transition.”
Analise stared at her knowingly, and when Isabel didn’t seem to move, she let out a sigh, a grin settling back on her face. “Alright,” she said. “I’m going to talk to her, I promise you.”
Isabel flashed Analise a sincere smile and then walked away. In the back of her mind, the fearful look in Ava’s eyes lingered, and she made a promise to herself that she would get to the bottom of this.
CHAPTER 6
The newcomers were still rolling in. Not a day passed by without Isabel waking up to the sound of people moving into the rooms below. She had made a routine of jerking out of bed, rushing downstairs to see who it was, and being absolutely taken by how different they looked to everybody else. But soon enough, the newcomers were everybody else, or at least they seemed to have outnumbered the people who Isabel thought were everybody else. They all had pale, almost white, porcelain skin, long straight dark hair and bloodshot eyes. The more Isabel looked at them, the more she realized they all looked the same. She had asked Gavin about it time and time again, but he never seemed to give her a definite answer. “It’s all a part of their transformation, it’s like when you’re still an infant and your skin has that purple tinge to it, it gets better over time,” he would say to her. What Isabel was worrying about, though, was Oz. There was something different about him. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but it almost seemed as if he shifted characters whenever he was with her. He had developed a nervous tick that emerged whenever the two of them had sex, one that made his neck jerk violently to the side. Something was off. She had tried talking to him about that, too, but he never really gave her an answer, either. Isabel was starting to think that maybe life at the mansion wasn’t as easy or luxurious as she thought it was.
“Good morning,” she said, strutting down the hallway to check on the newcomers. But no one answered her. For some reason, everyone looked like zombies: unresponsive, pale-skinned, almost catatonic. In the distance, Isabel caught a glimpse of Analise, so she ran to her. “Analise, hi,” she said, faking a smile. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” Analise said, not looking at Isabel. “Hey, hey, this window’s sealed shut, stop trying to open it, you’ll break it, please,” she snapped, diverting her gaze to one of the newcomers. Sealed windows? That’s new, Isabel thought to herself. It was like they were treating those succubi like animals. Analise had her arms folded across her chest, gawking at the newcomers as they unpacked their things. “Whoa, whoa, be careful, over there,” she said again. “Sorry, Isabel, I’m a bit distracted right now, can I meet you later?”
“Sure,” she said, her eyes dropping to the floor. She turned around to leave, and then she remembered Ava. “Well, it looks like I’m going to have to resort to someone else for answers,” she said to herself.
Isabel knocked on Ava’s door and it swung open. She raised her eyes to the person standing at the door, only to realize it wasn’t Ava. “Hello,” Isabel said, tilting her head sideways. “Is Ava there?”
A tall, curvaceous ginger haired girl stared back at her with glassy eyes. “Do I know you?” she asked, almost robotically.
“No,” Isabel shook her head. “I thought this was Ava’s room?”
“I’m not sure,” the girl said, narrowing her eyes at Isabel. There was something about her that made Isabel’s skin crawl. She paused for a second, her eyes fixated on the hallway, darting from one passerby to the other. “Oh,” she said again. “You mean the redhead?”
“Yes, the redhead,” Isabel nodded. “She used to live here?”
“They moved her to another room, I think,” the girl said with a low voice. “She stirred up some problems.”
“Problems?” Isabel asked, worried. “What kind of problems?”
“I don’t know,” the ginger replied, shaking her head frantically. “I don’t know, don’t ask me these questions or they’ll do to me what they did to her.”
“Who are you talking about and what would they do to you if you talked?” A million thoughts were racing through Isabel’s mind. She wanted answers, an
d she wanted them now. Suddenly, the door slammed shut, and Isabel was left with nothing but more questions. She could’ve sworn she saw a pair of black wings protruding from the hem of the girl’s dress, but she thought it was all in her head. She just stared at the closed door, her mind blowing up with alternate scenarios. Who was this girl? And what have they done to Ava? Who were “they” to begin with? Isabel stamped her foot and hurried down the other end of the hallway, determined to find Analise again, but when she got there, Analise was gone. “This is one big ass mansion,” Isabel said to herself. There was little to no chance she was going to find Analise again on the same day.
Isabel turned around to leave, only to bump into Gavin. “Whoa, you’re in a hurry,” he said, his pearly teeth flashing through his smile.
Isabel opened her mouth but no words came out. She decided she wasn’t going to say a thing. If she was going to get to the bottom of this, then she was going to do it herself. “Sorry about that,” she said, the corners of her lips curving upwards. “I’m just kind of in a hurry.”
“Well, I hope we’re on for tonight?” Gavin asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
“Sure,” Isabel said, patting him on the shoulder and then squeezing past him. “I’ll catch you later.”
Gavin didn’t like this. He didn’t like this one bit. For the first time, Isabel didn’t display any signs of uncontrollable hunger, and neither did she show any enthusiasm at the mentioning of sex. Was she growing immune to Gavin’s mind control? Were they doing something wrong? Gavin took in a deep breath and let it out through his teeth. Something was going horribly wrong. Isabel wasn’t easily tamed anymore, and soon enough, she would be able to resist mind control if they didn’t stop her. Something had to be done. Gavin waited until Isabel disappeared around the corner and then he went after her.
“Um, hi,” Isabel said to one of the newcomers. He turned to her, his ashen skin almost glowing in the light. “I was wondering if you’ve seen Ava? She used to live on this floor,” Isabel asked, her eyes fixated on his.
“No, I don’t think so,” he replied, fumbling with a pair of dice. Isabel peered into his room, catching a glimpse of a bunch of girls sitting on the bed with some sort of board game spread out in front of them. She smiled when one of them got up and popped her head out the door.
“Hello,” she said. “I think I know who you’re talking about.”
“You do?” Isabel asked, her eyes lighting up. “Have you seen her recently?”
Immediately, the girl’s face dropped to a scowl. She stepped outside, motioning for her roommate to leave the two of them alone, and then she slammed the door shut, her eyes searching Isabel’s. “Listen,” she said. “I didn’t want to say anything, but they took Ava, I saw it happen in front of me.”
“Who took her? And what did you see?” Isabel asked, her eyes darting back and forth frantically.
“Ava was acting up… she found out what they’re doing to us, so she spoke up. And then this woman, I think her name was Analise, came and took her.”
Isabel’s heart skipped a beat. A part of her wanted to ask more questions, to listen till the girl was done talking, but something told her that the more she listened, the more confused she would get. This mansion was all she knew, all she lived for, and now things were changing. Something was happening, something hideous, and Isabel was scared to uncover what it was. “Where did they take her?” she asked beseechingly.
“I overheard Analise talking about the chambers,” the girl said, her eyes dropping to the floor. “They took her there, she was kicking and screaming, and they took her there…”
“Hey,” Isabel said, placing a hand over the girl’s shoulder. “Do you know where the chambers are?”
She shook her head. “No, but there is speculation… some say they’re underground, some say that only one room has access to them… I really have no idea.” She paused for a moment, inspecting their surroundings. “But I want you to be careful,” she hissed. “You don’t want them taking you there, it’s an ugly place, I hear.”
Isabel nodded, and then the girl retreated back into her room and slammed the door shut. “What the fuck was that?” she muttered to herself, turning around and making her way for the stairs. She had been skeptical of what was going on for a long time now, but it was only when Ava went missing that Isabel truly start to believe that something was horribly, horribly wrong. As she hurried down the stairs, she caught a glimpse of Analise again. Isabel could feel her feet carrying her to where Analise was going, and she found herself following in zigzags between hallways and tiny little corridors that Isabel has never seen before. She was pretty careful, though. Every now and then she would stop for a couple of seconds, waiting for Analise to disappear, and then she would start following her again. Analise was pretty quick. She flew down the last set of stairs, and then finally, she disappeared into a dark hallway with cement walls. Isabel stopped dead in her tracks. She looked around her; all she saw were cement walls, part bare wire, part red brick. It was almost pitch black in there; a part of the mansion Isabel had never seen before. She let out a sigh, and when she felt a hand come over her shoulder, she jumped back, her heart feeling as though it would burst out of her chest.
“Isabel? What are you doing here?” Gavin asked.
Isabel didn’t say anything. Her eyes were darting from Gavin, to the shadows dancing on the walls, and then to Gavin again. She could feel his eyes boring into her, his glare almost deadly. He tried to smile but it looked fake as hell, and Isabel would have made a run for it, if it weren’t for the immense amount of control that Gavin was imposing on her. “I, I,” she stuttered, trying to figure out what to do. Her brain was on overdrive. She felt like this was some kind of uncharted territory, somewhere she wasn’t supposed to trespass. In a way, she felt like she had uncovered something, something that was better off left alone.
“How did you even make it all the way here?” Gavin asked. “Isabel, dear, you’re not supposed to be here, only Analise and I have access to this place.”
The more Gavin rambled on, the more Isabel became convinced that she had to get to the bottom of this. Something was off. There she was, namely the most powerful succubus of her time, and there were places in this mansion that she knew nothing about, hidden places. The very idea of there being an entirely different world underground made her stomach churn, and she figured that, if she was going to go on living the life she was living, then she had to be aware of everything that went on around her. Right now, it felt like she knew nothing. “Gavin,” Isabel said finally. “Let me pass.” She tried to squeeze past him but he stopped her, so she just stood there for a moment, straightening herself, trying to gather her thoughts. “Gavin,” she said again, her voice firm this time. “I said, let me pass.”
“Who do you think you are?” he asked, leaning in close to Isabel. His face was only inches from hers, and she could feel the warmth of his breath colliding with her skin. It made her sick. “You think you know everything?” he asked. “Izzy, my love, you know nothing.”
Isabel stumbled a few steps back. Suddenly she felt out of breath, like Gavin was sucking the life out of her. His eyes were piercing hers, demanding that she take a step back. But she wasn’t having it. “I’m not leaving,” she hissed. “I’m not leaving until I figure out what the fuck is going on.” Suddenly she could feel a gush of energy surge through her. She felt powerful, like something had stripped her of all her fear.
“You’re still new to this world,” Gavin whispered, brushing Isabel’s cheek with the back of his hand. “It can get ugly sometimes, and it’s still too soon for you to find out about the ugliness of this world… embrace your naivety, honey, embrace it.”
“Stop treating me like a child,” Isabel said, pushing his hand away. At that point, she was just plain furious. She hated it when Gavin babied her; he tended to do that a lot. “Is Analise in there?” she asked, peering over his shoulder.
“Yes.”
“Well,
aren’t you going to tell me what she’s doing in there? I need to know what’s going on or I’ll go absolutely mad,” Isabel said, trying to hold back the tears. Suddenly she felt weak again. The more Gavin exercised his powers on her, the weaker and more vulnerable she got. She thought she would get stronger with time. She thought she would be able to resist his powers. “Alright,” she said finally. “I’m sorry.”
Gavin nodded at her, and not long after Analise appeared again. When her gaze met Isabel’s, she stopped abruptly. “What are you doing here?” she asked, her head cocked to the side. “You must get out, right now.”
“Analise, where’s Ava?” Isabel asked, pushing past Gavin and just standing there, not taking her eyes off the blonde. Her emotions were all over the place; one second she was confident, the next second she felt helpless, like the working of some impenetrable force was taking her over.
“Ava?” Analise replied, confused. “Oh, you mean the redhead?” In the distance Isabel could hear voices, like little cries for help. They echoed everywhere, and Isabel wondered if it was all in her head.