Raziel felt the warm night air washing over her body, it always reminded her of swimming upstream in the great river Tem, the currents and waterfalls were all powerful and long, and the water was always warm. The powerful current threatened the lives of those who were weak, but for the winged demoness, it was only a blissful resistance to be conquered.
At home, Raziel would scream with pleasure when she reached the greatest heights to which her wings could take her. But here, now, her tongue was bound by her promise to be careful. ‘But so much of it… for all its differences, this is just like home.’ The air was breathable, her body felt light, and she savored the feeling of complete and total freedom. She would never say it, but, ‘I pity Albaer… and anyone without wings, they don’t know what they’re missing, being tied to the ground the way they are.’
She flipped herself over several times, somersaulting in the sky, heedless of the way she tumbled, her confinement to his home had been very brief, but only now did she realize how much it was getting to her. Now… now that she was free as a bird on the wing again.
She might have enjoyed it for hours, the temptation was there. ‘But I have something to do. Promises to keep, and an open door waiting for me to come home to sleep.’ That was a warm, pleasant feeling, the thought of somebody waiting for her, hoping for her to come back, other than her sister, she struggled to think of anyone who gave a damn. ‘The teachers weren’t so bad. But I guess it’s hard to get invested in thirty or forty of us at once.’
She dismissed the memory as she came nearer to her destination, the boy, Trevor, which Albaer knew where lived.
The house was what, back home, Raziel would have called a manor, but this one was almost a copy of the ones around it, ‘The wealth of this world… it’s beyond my wildest dreams… even Albaer has a room of his own…’ To the demon who shared a space with ten others, that in and of itself was unimaginable.
The tools of this world were things on par with myths of her home, gods who could access all knowledge and craft whole worlds, it seemed unthinkable.
And yet there it was, the proof of it all, within talon tip striking range in his home, and passing beneath her now as she circled in low and silent. Albaer had the scent of his attacker on his body when he came home, so finding him in the home was easy. She landed on a grassy area. ‘No crops?’ She wondered, it seemed bizarre that nobody was growing food. ‘Where does it come from?’
Raziel put that curiosity aside and followed her nose to where the smell was strongest.
A window on the upper floor, she reached out to touch the home, it was made of a mix of wood and stone. Nothing her talons couldn’t have pierced with ease. ‘No evidence.’ She reminded herself, and listened, the sound of snoring came from within.
‘Perfect.’ Her smile became predatory, she jumped up to the second story and caught the ledge, she peeped in, the room was dark except for a dim light coming from beneath the door that led to its interior. Even better, the window was slightly cracked, while insects chirped around her, she slid the window up and folded her wings within, she crept in, remaining low, her body slinking over the carpeted floor and over to the bed.
The concealment of night was nothing to one of night’s creatures, no more than the ocean was a barrier to fish.
She rose up beside him and looked down, he wasn’t a bad looking kid, chiseled face losing what was left of its childhood behind. His chest rose and fell steadily, as if he slept without guilt. A smile on his sleeping face suggested pleasant dreams. The faint smell of desire, that much was familiar, easily recognized across all lines of race when it came to a succubus.
She held her hand over him, [Deepest Dreams]. She released the spell. [Aspect of the Succubus], [Dream Walker]. She then got on top of him, the bed creaked a little, the squeaks of the mattress giving in to her added weight added to the creaking noise. But it was nothing. Her feet were on his chest, his breathing became more labored, and her hands rested on his face, cupping it as if he were a lover.
Then the red eyes closed, and she entered into his inner world.
‘This is not what I expected.’ She thought, and looked around. A happy sort of music was playing somewhere, the sky was green, the grass beneath her feet, that was blue like the sky should have been. The bouncy tune was so disgustingly happy that she couldn’t help but tap her feet to it while she sought her prey.
She didn’t have to look long. Trevor was sitting on a chair watching a television, there were characters bouncing up and down, bizarre creatures, legs growing longer and shorter, with ‘Da da dadadadat da’ playing on a loop.
Raziel didn’t know much about the world of humans yet, but a few things she was sure of. ‘That television would have to be plugged in for it to work. Well, dream logic, who cares?’ She brushed it off. Trevor, unfortunately, and also unsurprisingly, was nude.
A young woman with ink dark hair popped into existence, similarly nude, and frankly in Raziel’s view, ‘From what I saw of her, she probably doesn’t look nearly that good naked.’ The woman who appeared out of nowhere was holding a tray, bending forward and babbling nonsensical syllables, on the tray there sat a cup of milk, ‘Oh don’t tell me… oh by the gods are ‘all’ humans perverts?!’ Raziel asked herself and strode over to where he sat.
She gave the woman a shove, knocking the nude dark haired woman onto her side down on the bluegrass. Trevor’s eyes shot up to Raziel. “Stop. I bind your tongue, mortal.”
She laughed as his lips twisted into knots on her imperious command.
Trevor’s eyes, once blissful and confident, were suddenly full of fear, his fingers clawed at his painfully stretched and knotted lips.
“Do you know what I am? Nod if you do?” Raziel said, and he didn’t respond.
She grabbed his hair and yanked him from his chair, then threw him onto the grass and brought her foot down onto his spine. The sky turned red, the ground shook and cracked around him, fire spouted upward from the many gorges he saw, his pretty Sarah remained frozen where she lay, but the music remained unchanged. He was now trapped on an island surrounded by impossible pits, the heat of them being like volcanos.
He couldn’t scream, but he could try, and did, his cheeks puffing out from the failure.
“I am a demon… a demon out of hell.” She used her fearsome fangs to best effect, opening her mouth to let him see the jagged knives, and plucked from her passing remembrance of what she read of human mythologies.
“Do you think you’re dreaming, boy?” Raziel hissed and laughed, and kicked him on his side, sending him rolling over the grass several times to land on his back.
She jumped, her wings spread out in all their glory, and landed on his stomach.
“You are… this is a nightmare… but the nightmare is one you won’t awaken from. Your twisted evil has brought you into my grip…” She dug her talons into the dreamer’s flesh and began to pull it away. ‘Am I overacting? Maybe. But he’ll wake up fine, this will do.’ She told herself, and when his face was twisted in confusion, she saw her chance.
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“Unbind.” She said, and his lips untwisted.
He immediately protested, “Evil?! I’m not evil! I’ve never done much… I’m no worse than anyone else!” He howled in protest and writhed under the demon while her appearance changed, muscles grew and her face became twisted and fearsome, as she grew, flames began to gout from her pores.
“You? Innocent? Let’s see, I never make mistakes!” Raziel hissed, and shoved her hand through his open mouth, tearing his brain out through the gap between his teeth.
Trevor gaped at seeing his own brain, and hovering over it, like on a flat screen, his memories unfolded.
“You beat that boy into the muck… why?” The demon’s hand grew, she stepped off of him, and took his entire body into her fingers, she began to squeeze.
“His name… his name is Albaer! He deserves this! Not me! He deserves everything he got! Everything and worse!” Trevor protested, staring at the boy on a loop going down again and again.
“Why?!” She shook him hard, rattling his head around before stopping. “Tell me why I should take him in your place?! Convince me!”
“Because his father-” Trevor began, and Raziel cut him off.
“We already have his father, boy. He burns, and burns, and thirsts, and thirsts, and has no hope or relief. I was thinking I would take you to his chamber, share in his torment…” Raziel made what she herself counted as a melodramatic laugh as she raised the boy aloft overhead and opened her mouth.
“Albaer is a bad seed!” Trevor shouted.
To his eyes, she seemed, frankly disappointed. Her body grew and the distance between himself and the grass grew with her. “That’s your best argument?! That he is related to someone evil?! We have your great, great grandfather in our hell… he burns… burns brighter than the sun, if we use your words, then you are also the seed of evil. A bad seed… and one I will enjoy tormenting for a long, long time.”
“But he… but Albaer…” Trevor’s mind raced like mad, desperate to come up with something to say Albaer had actually done.
The demon’s fingers began to burn at the muscle where his protective skin had been peeled away.
But the demon’s face cocked at him, it scratched at its horns, his brain in the demon’s other hand was almost ‘pulsing’. “Let’s find something, demons must be fair, it’s part of the rules.” She said offhandedly and began to filter through his recollections.
“Ah, here he is, you were very young then, hardly an age where you can be called guilty of anything. But we’ll see.” Raziel mused, and let it play. It was clearly Trevor and Albaer, but much, much smaller.
“Hmm, you look like friends.” Raziel said, and it was true, they were playing in a sandbox, wearing shorts, Trevor handed Albaer a cookie, Albaer broke it in half and gave part back over to Trevor. “Oh yes, so evil…”
Trevor howled in pain, his muscles felt like they were being cut by a blowtorch.
“I’m going to enjoy you… you’ll nourish my lust, your screams, such pleasure…” Raziel laughed and snapped her fingers, they began to shrink, she dropped the terrified young man, his bones snapped like twigs, and the demon crouched down and leaned over him.
“This is the end for you… and you authored it yourself by preying on the innocent. That’s the truth of hell… that you mortals craft it all on your own, this dream, this nightmare… I’m going to carry you from it…” Raziel gave what she hoped was a thoroughly villainous laugh, and it was at least good enough that the human on the grass began to crawl away from her.
“Just a dream… it’s just a dream, if I can just wake up, just wake up I’ll be fine! I’ll be in my bed again, at home, safe!”
The demoness walked behind him as his arms pulled and legs pushed him over the grass. The blades of grass began to cut his flesh like actual knives. Raziel stepped over him, straddling his body, she put her talons on the back of his neck and pushed him down, piercing his face with the once soft surface. “Wake up? Why would I let you wake up? No… I won’t.” Raziel laughed and drew one talon over his cheek, slicing it open, but Trevor protested.
“It’s not fair! You said you had to be fair! At least give me a chance!” Trever yowled, and he immediately raised his head away from the sharp blades.
“Fair, fine. I’ll give you a chance.” Raziel taunted, she snapped her fingers again, and a few feet away, there was the figure of Albaer as Trevor last saw him.
‘Just a puppet illusion, but he doesn’t have to know that.’ Raziel suppressed her giggle and told her lie, “Don’t be frightened, Albaer, I’ve called you into this boy’s dream to decide his fate, do you know him?”
Raziel’s ‘doll’ of Albaer looked around, alarmed, and confused, but answered. “A dream… a dream… alright, it’s a dream, yes, I know him. That’s Trevor, he did these things to me…”
Raziel plucked from the memories she gleaned and the wounds she drew from sharing with her sister, and the clothing of the boy vanished to show a body bruised, battered, bloody and beaten, two years worth of abuse scattered over his body were laid bare before Trevor’s eyes.
“I didn’t do that!” Trever shouted.
“By inches, you did, two years worth.” Raziel laughed, “What, did you think wounds didn’t happen at all if they healed? Foolish boy.”
Trevor was still trying to claw his way forward, but she held him by the nape of his neck and met the eyes of her doll. “Boy, Albaer, this one is bound for Hell. But he wants me to be fair, and what could be more fair than letting you decide? All you have to do is take one step back.” She closed her talons tighter around Trevor’s neck, he gasped. “Stick out your hand, Trevor, if he takes it and pulls you away, I’ll let you go, but if he doesn’t?” She giggled and crouched down by his face, her horn grazed his head where some skull was exposed.
The doll, her illusion, would do exactly what she wanted.
“You come with me.” She said, and Trevor’s arm thrust out with wild desperation across the gap to where Albaer stood.
“Come on! Man please! I know I was a dick to you! I’m sorry! Forgive me! Please forgive me! I’ll never do anything again! Never! I’m sorry!” Trevor’s fingers twitched, his body trembled. “I want to wake up! Please let me wake up!”
Albaer did not step back, but nor did his hand come out. “I don’t forgive you. I hope I never see you again. When I leave that trash town, I’ll spend my life trying to forget you.”
The doll seemed to waver, ‘Albaer would probably actually let him go to Hell… but hey, object lessons, and I did promise I wouldn’t take any lives.’ Raziel shrugged it off, and the doll stretched out his hand.
“But nobody should suffer forever, no matter how much of a piece of shit you were, fine, this is just a dream I’m having anyway, or you’re having, I don’t know, nothing matters, so why not?” The doll said, and he grabbed the burnt flesh of Trevor’s hand, and pulled.
Raziel let go and stood up, seemingly perturbed, she crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Well, this is unexpected. That’s never happened before.”
Trevor watched Albaer’s hand like it was the hand of God, it clasped around his own, and pulled him away from the demon’s grip, and such was his relief that he barely registered the knife-like pain of the blue grass over which his legs were dragged.
“Are we done? I don’t want to be around this guy, even in dreams.” Albaer answered.
“Yes, we’re done, Albaer.” Raziel snapped her fingers and ‘Albaer’ vanished in a puff of smoke.
She put her hands on her smooth hips and sauntered over to the crumpled heap. “You got lucky, boy. Most victims of what I saw would have laughed and watched you be dragged away. So fine, you get to live.” She snapped her fingers again, and the scene, everything about it, began to restore itself, the frozen image of Sarah, the grass no longer cut like knives, the gaps began to close up, the sky turned green again, and the fire vanished.
And most importantly, he felt his body starting to heal.
She nudged him onto his back, but didn’t kick, however she did put her foot on his chest and held up her red hand with the sharp talon tips. “Oops, I healed ‘all’ of you. You need a reminder. Something to tell you how close you came. Not that it will help, animals like you are bound to come to me sooner or later.” She clicked the talons of her hand together, bent over, and sliced open his cheek again. She held the talon up, a drop splashed down on his face, and while he watched, she licked the sharp tip clean.
“Sleep well, boy. I suppose I can wait a few more years for you.” She said, and stepped away, then vanished.
Raziel opened her eyes as she exited the dream. His body was now in a cold sweat, trapped still in the dream he couldn’t wake up from. She thought for a moment, and a wicked thought came to mind. She drew her talon over his cheek, slicing it where it had been done in the dream she’d invaded.
Then she got off the bed, it creaked and squeaked again as she put her feet on the floor. “That should do the trick.” [Delay cancel magic one minute]. She set the spell to end after muttering her satisfaction, gave a sharp nod, and went for the window.
She held the window sill, pulled the glass down, and pushed off, wings spread, and took to the air to return to Albaer again.
Raziel saw no reason to remain, her work was done. So she didn’t see the young man shoot upright in his bed, gasping for air like a drowning man in the dark space, touch his cheek to find the blood still there, and fall back sobbing like a baby until dawn.