Chapter 62: Chapter 62

"Ta-daaaa!" Eris beamed, "they look so sleek, don't they?"

She arrived early, almost at six in the morning. I was still trying to clear my brain fog over a cup of strong coffee while she stood in my kitchen with crossed arms and a smug smile, head turned up and eyes closed. On the table next to her were two tickets, printed on thick, glossy paper, with silver stripes and hologram watermarks which changed from logo to the current year when you turned them around. "Phantasmagon, the best fantasy, horror and supernatural convention in the country!" they proudly announced in bold, crimson letters.

"What do you think?" she asked, clapping her hands quietly and putting them up to her face.

"Impressive," I said, picking my ticket up and turning it around in my fingers. "Very. So is this what Internet fame gets you?" I asked.

"This and more!" she said. "It also helps to have friends in organizing committees," she added with a smug smirk.

"Well then," I looked up at her couldn't help but smile back. "Let's get to it."

We quickly changed into the outfits she'd coordinated for us. Between the long, dark cloak with upturned collar, red sweater, white shirt and tight, ankle-length black pants and high-heeled sharp-angled shoes she donned, and the sleek, graphite black suit with a white velvet lapel, as well as a dark red, button-up shirt and black pants and glossy black shoes I had on, we looked like a duo of vampire hunter and stage magician. I supposed it was appropriate, and it seemed to please Ra'zizi enough to have her nod in approval when she stood next to Eris.

"Let's go," I said.

There was nothing to be afraid of anymore.

The convention hall was bigger than a few aircraft hangars joined together, and the majority of the free space was taken up by stalls selling everything from tarot cards, to comics, to self-published fiction. The walkway between them had already gotten busy, even though we arrived no later than a quarter of an hour after the doors opened. Wbe didn't stick out at all with our outfits—most attendees seemed to have locked their color scheme down to blacks, greys and occasional whites and reds, unless they wore costumes, in which case a few neon pinks and greens, as well as royal blues and gold seemed to abound.

"Hey, can you wait a minute?" Eris beckoned to me and I stopped in my tracks at the 3D-printed figurine stall. Turning around, I saw her gawking at grotesque manga imported from Japan. Waiting, I spent some time flicking through the posters, while Ra'zizi seemed busy trying to flick up skirts of passing women. After the eighth attempt, which resulted in a passer-by getting slapped in the face, I checked the time and walked up to Eris.

"Hey, I think we need to go," I said.

"Huh?" she turned to me, with a confused look. She seemed to be so completely engrossed in the process, it was like waking someone up in the middle of the night. "Oh, wait..."

She looked at her phone again. "Shit, we need to go," she said and turned to the stall owner. "Can you keep Guro Princess Agony seven and Magicka Ultra Necro Chimera for me if I pay now, pleaaase?"

A momentary purchase later, and we were hastily making our way down the passageway, towards another big hall, separated from the rest with a set of large doors, barriers and curtains. Ra'zizi would occasionally bump into someone, and I heard a couple "hey!"s that I did my best to ignore as we neared a clearing. Our entrance was actually to the side, through a rather unimpressive door, in front of which stood a rather unimpressed guard. He checked our tickets without much hurry and quickly ushered us through, and by his surprised gasp, I supposed Ra'zizi must have bumped into him too.

I remembered, there was a time my past job sent us all for a short sales and presentation training course, with the stated aim of making us more likely to change potential customers into repeat buyers and fostering better customer relations. From my later performance, I wouldn't be able to tell that any of it worked, and back then I decided: to save myself from dehydration from sweat, as well as vocal chord constriction, I would avoid public speaking like the plague. Yet, here I was, about to deliver a presentation at a massive horror and supernatural-themed convention—first convention in years—and I didn't feel any dread at all. Stepping up to the table, having the lights shone on us, watching the room fill with people in various states of excitement, adorned head to toe, I waited until Eris lays out some books on the table.

"I keep on thinking we should have brought the grimoire," she remarked to me.

"I don't think it's a good idea at all," I said, and seeing her raise her eyebrow, continued, "for one it's on loan. For two, it actually works."

"Yeah, I guess it would have been bad if someone asked us to read it..." she smirked at me, "since, for three, you have no clue about it."

I chuckled and turned back to the audience, taking my seat. It was showtime.

"Summoning a succubus: first hand account and personal experience" was the descriptive title. I wouldn't have known how much to tell these people, but luckily Eris had prepared my slides and would often substitute for me while explaining concepts dealing with the occult. As one could have expected, the first and foremost was why one would summon such an entity, and I could tell Ra'zizi was having a blast when her sexual prowess was mentioned, and likewise when she strolled past the excited members of the audience. I made sure to counterbalance the rest of the presentation with ample warnings and recounting of how tiring and overwhelming having a succubus hang on to you was. I knew I had to tone down the content because of the venue, so I didn't go too much into details, yet I was sure to underline that this was serious business. But I found out that, even though the audience seemed to lap my words up, they only appeared to grow more interested in the summoning, especially when I recounted that every night there was continuous unholy deeds being perpetrated upon me, seeking to sap all my energy. At one point, in the middle of my warning, Ra'zizi kept on turning down the microphone volume by fiddling with the knobs by the amplifier, only to turn it back at maximum for a loud bang just when I was setting the mic down on the table. I continued, and the silence after I stated the audience members should perhaps just be content with finding someone among fellow convention goers was punctuated by whispers and giggles.

"Right, that about concludes it," Eris stated, knitting her fingers. "Time for Q and A!"

There are certain presentation goers, I think, who pride themselves on making the presenters as uncomfortable as possible and asking as many inconvenient questions as possible. One after another, people wearing various robes, runic necklaces and heavy doses of make up kept on asking me about the particulars of the bond, whether the grimoire could be traced back to a key of some Solomon, and whether I thought a blood pact would be less safe than a word pact. I was lucky to have Eris with me to fill them in with whatever she learned while preparing this presentation. At least none of them were detective Rellin, I thought.

"I guess my knowledge is more of a know-how type than book smarts," I concluded and a wig-wearing, pale, long-eyelashed woman at the mic rolled her eyes so hard I thought she might get dizzy.

The next in line after her was a woman with hair in wide jet black and thin neon purple stripes, wide-hemmed dress and a garmend that gave her an figure the appearance of a wasp. She seemed to ready herself for a moment before opening with, "You know... I was talking about this with my sisters..." she turned back for a moment to some audience members I couldn't discern in the dark, then back to us, "and we really doubt you're for real... I mean... we kind of think you might be a phony...!"

A few concerned whispers echoed around her and I exchanged looks with Eris, who waved her hand around and shrugged.

"I assure you I'm for real," I said. "This is real, I have really summoned a succubus."

"You say this," she countered, "but how are we supposed to believe you? You haven't shown us any knowledge of the occult!"

More concerned whispers.

"I mean, you have your expert lady here," she waved her hand at Eris, who, this time, seemed to turn her head more vigorously between me and her, and looked as if she was about to stand up. The wasp girl continued, "but, with all respect, I don't think you yourself knew anything about what you were doing... So how come, when so many..."

I let the silence hang in the air for a moment while I looked at my hands, trying to think of what to say. She seemed to be waiting for me to look back at her, because as soon as I did, she began talking again.

"You kno-"

"You're right," I cut her off. "I didn't know anything about this occult stuff when I summoned Ra'zizi. Hell, I don't know basically anything right now, either... But what I do know, is that apparently it doesn't matter," I paused to look around, trying to find Ra'zizi, but couldn't see her anywhere. "You just have the will to do it in you, or you don't. It's the mindset."

The wasp seemed momentarily stunned. She took a long breath, then began,

"How.... You're so... This is so offensive, you know!" she swayed left and right, and glanced back again, "Like... You're not a satanist, not a part of Wicca, or any magick group. You're not a seer. You don't even know how to read any of the spells! And you..." she smirked with disbelief and shook her head, "This is what the Phantasmagon sold us tickets for?" she seemed to be waiting for the reaction from the audience, who began to shuffle and whisper to each other more loudly now.

She stepped forward, more towards the light at the podium,

"You should apologize!" she said. "Apologize treating people's beliefs like they're entertainment, when you haven't shown us anything to believe you!"

"I'm pretty sure the succubus was interrupting my talk just before," I retorted.

The wasp groaned, "oh, come on!" She started heading back to her seat, but before passing the mic to the next person, she turned around and said, "Get real!"

Suddenly, the lights went out, everywhere. For a second, the whispers grew more confused. I looked to the side at Eris, but couldn't see her in the pitch black darkness. Then, the sound system squealed, the shrill feedback stinging in my ears.

"Augh!" Eris moaned.

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I tried covering my ears, but the sound stopped just as abruptly, and was instead replaced by a hysterical, wailing cry of fear. It was the wasp girl's voice. The lights came back on—she was getting up from falling onto a chair, the mic on the floor next to her. I saw her skirt was upturned, revealing for everyone her long, thin, stocking-clad legs. Her hair had been ruffled into a ragged look of a used-up house painting brush. She was trying to pull the skirt back down, and kept repeating, "Who did that?! You?!?" while turning left and right. After quickly whipping her attire back into decency, she retreated back into the shadows, and seemed to sulk with her friends, who huddled around her.

"Ahem, sorry about that..." Eris apologized to the confused audience.

Some people left, together with her, escorted out by confused-looking staff, but most stayed. In fact, now many more began queuing up to the microphone. They all had the frendliest demeanor from that point on, in the end using up even more time than what we had alotted for the questions and answers. Ra'zizi looked proud of herself.

"Okay, now, everybody please line up, one person at a time! Get your copy signed!" Eris announced, standing up and waving her hand.

Thus the crowning moment came. The hall was all lit up again, and a very long queue wound around the room, each guest waiting for their own copy of the pamphlet Eris had prepared. It looked very impressive, to be honest—printed on quality paper, with a cardboard cover and even a few illustrations inside that she scanned from some papers she dug through in the library. But for me, it was immaterial. The first customer, a freckled ginger girl with large glasses, long leather boots and a shirt with baggy sleeves was all too keen to swipe her credit card on the reader by Eris's side.

"Who shall I make this out to?" I asked, pen hovering over the opened cover.

"Ehm... Emmy- Emma! No, Emmy!" she said and smiled awkwardly.

"Okay, here goes," I signed a dedication for her. "There you go... Emmy..."

I held out my hand, and Emmy gladly shook it. Looking into her awe-struck eyes, I made sure to not hold it too long, lest others would get impatient.

One by one they came along, some thanking expressly for the lecture, others strangely silent, eyes cast down. I didn't pay too much attention to the men—a surprisingly large part of the audience turned out to be women. Lace, black lipstick, red and purple hair, white and black patterns in clothing. Some were just plain. Some gasped when they touched my hand, others turned their eyes up at me, like they were suddenly enlightened, with mouths opening. Ra'zizi stood by, making obscene gestures around their torsos, her eyes burning with anticipation. They walked away in silence, clutching the signed copy, or stepped away, then turned on their heels, only to step away again. The names I could no longer remember, even though I was pretty sure I recognized one of them, but with the flamboyant outfits and the amount of makeup, who could have known? All I knew was that every time I felt something resonating deep inside them.

The whole thing was over before I realized, and by the time we went through the stalls, it was already almost late afternoon. Eris and I went outside, to a bit of greenery besides the convention hall, to get some fresh air under the overcast sky.

"Hey, look there," Eris nodded.

In the near distance, huddled together under a big gazebo and chattering to each other was a group of girls, the same I shook hands with less than a couple hours ago. I didn't manage to estimate how many there were before my phone rang. Checking the caller ID, I took a long breath before picking up.

"... Matt?" Tim's voice asked with a worry.

"Yes, Tim, it's me," I answered.

"Are you... Look, I know you don't want to talk anymore," he said and sighed, "and I won't be trying to help you anymore with the exorcisms or anything. I just... wanted to tell you I'm sorry that it turned out this way."

That took me by surprise.

"Yeah, me too."

"Anyway, if you don't want to stay in touch, I get it. But... just tell me you'll solve this somehow, because I can't stand t-"

"I will solve it, soon."

"Okay, uh..."

"And you'll get your grimoire back."

There was an awkward pause, before Tim picked up again.

"So, I guess that's it for now... Uh... Good luck, man," he said. It sounded like wanted to say much more, but instead meekly added, "you've changed..." and went silent again.

"Thanks," I replied. "I'll see ya when I see ya."

Putting the phone back in my pocket, I heard Eris going "uhm, uhm". I noticed she was looking back at the gazebo. The girls huddled in there must have noticed me, as the closest of them started shyly stepping forward, until, eventually, all of them began quickly approaching. As soon as they got to within an arm's reach, they began vying for my attention.

"What's your favorite body type in a succubus, Matt?"

"Matt, does your succubus have hair like that?"

"I like your outfit..."

Soon a few of them began running their hands over my shoulders and leaning onto me with coquettish smiles.

"Wait," I said, noticing one of them, huddled further at the back, "Anne?"

The cashier I met what seemed like ages ago had kept her curly hair, but dyed it black with silvery accents. She was sporting a one-piece skirt with a checkered pattern and a lot more eyeliner than I remembered.

"Ah... yes... that's me... Eris told me... About the convention."

"Long time no see," I said, stretching out my arm to pat her shoulder, causing her to blush and look at me with strange excitement. "We have a lot of catching up to do!"

"Ye... Yes!"

I turned to Eris who had already started taking pictures while Ra'zizi stood behind her, softly giggling.

"I think we can go now," I said to her. "Looks like it works."

Eris put her phone down for a moment and gave me a grin of pure satisfaction.

"Yessss," she said.

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