Chapter 4: Chapter 4

The alarm clock in my phone must have been going for so long it actually turned itself off. I woke up to the bright, mid-day sky, naked, on the floor. My phone's batttery was practically dead and my prospect of staying employable were in a similar position. Stumbling, uncertain of what on Earth happened to me, I rushed myself through my morning routine and ran out the door, running back to lock it, before heading off to work. It was almost noon.

The atmosphere at work was strangely bearable this time. I felt elated. I felt somehow vigorous. Was this how people in stable relationships feel? I couldn't even care about my manager's long, drawn out speech about performance and how they will likely cut part of my pay for being late. I must have been smiling because Steve, Tom, and the girl he was banging - I forgot her name actually - all asked me on separate occassions if something had changed in my life. I guess it had.

My travel home is almost always spent idle-minded, on my phone. I decided to check the original thread again. Strangely, the post with the recipe was deleted. My posts were still there, but they were all referencing now-nonexistent posts. There seemed to be an explosion of activity after the two pictures I uploaded. Somebody was writing worried, stating they hope I know what to do around demons. Someone else chimed in, saying they hope I didn't break the circle. My heart sank a bit, but I read on. What could those people even know, anyway? They keep on saying that I don't know what I will summon, and that I would be dead if it was a succubus, but I'm clearly here. In between the serious replies, the thread was full of jokes about supernatural TV shows, pictures of anime succubi and memes. There was even a small flame war about religion going on. I scrolled all the way down and the thread seemed to have eventually lost all momentum a few hours after my image posts. It was eventually locked and nobody could reply anymore. Before I closed the browser, I noticed the very last post, made by some prankster a few hours after the activity almost died out.

"lol ur gonna die" it said, referencing my pictures.

That's as far as I can remember from that day. Going back home, I realized I wasn't sure how to feel about the entire thing. I guess I still didn't completely believe in what happened. Whatever it was, it wasn't nearly as dreary as the people online claimed it would be.

I wonder how long it will be before we meet again. Do we meet again? Are these demons just assigned randomly? I went online again in search of answers.

It's not been five minutes when someone came to knock on my door. It was Izzie. I opened the door slightly, kind of as if I wanted to peek around the frame - she's never come around at this time of day, I usually only see her once a week or so anyway, so I didn't know what to think.

"Hi," I begin.

"Hey Matt... Is everything okay?" she asks with a slightly uncertain smile.

"Uh, yes, I'm fine, why?"

"I... I heard some strange noises yesterday, and a voice that sounded like you. It was in the middle of the night, and I was kind of concerned that maybe... uh..."

At that moment I realized that she must have heard at least my shriek when the succubus appeared.

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"Oh, no, no, everything is fine!" I reassure her.

"Okay..." she seems a bit unconvinced and keeps looking at me.

"It's fine, Izzie, really," I put on a courtesy smile as I tried to not burst into flames from embarrassment. "Just uh... got upset."

"Upset?"

"Yeah... lots of things to get upset about lately."

"I'm sorry..." she took a pause and cast her gaze down. "I didn't mean to pry..." She lifted her eyes back and gave me a smile that looked sincere. "Take care then?"

We stood there in silence for a short moment, me hiding partially behind the door, hand nervously clutching the doorknob. She asked me if I could do her a favor and buy some groceries when I go to the store. I agreed, feeling a sense of neighborly duty. We then said our byes and everything went back to normal - so I hoped.

I couldn't help but feel that she thought something was up, though. I made a mental note to not have any more demonic intercourse at 3 AM, or at least keep it quiet.

The worst of times was running into the landlady. The layout of the building made it almost impossible to avoid her, especially after work. What was even worse was that she wasn't even a real land-lady. The mid twenty-something spoiled daughter of the building's owner liked to go around with a paper clipper and a pen and click it every time she spotted a flaw.

She had long, blonde hair that she would always keep in a pony tail, and a fairly intimidating-looking face, with inward-angled eyes that looked like they were judging everyone from behind thick-rimmed glasses without the upper rim. She kept her eyebrows neatly trimmed - in fact, she seemed to want to look as neat as possible at all times. Her shirts were always dazzling white and buttoned up to the top, her high-heel shoes seemed like a perfect fit, and she would usually sport an office woman look, wearing either dark blue or black jackets and skirts, even though she didn't really work in any sort of office. I couldn't spend any longer contemplating the little mole she had on the side of her slightly upwards-hooked nose, as she began with her usual lecturing voice.

"Mister McDowdy," she began. I was this close to getting out of her sight. I could tell this wasn't going to be pleasant by the way she pursed her carmine-lipstick-covered lips.

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