Autumn was here. The Brimstone Nature Park had shifted from various shades of green to a spectacular kaleidoscope of reds, oranges and yellows, setting the horizon aflame beneath deep red skies. Flocks of migratory birds winged up above, while every now and then, a small rodent or two would rustle through the undergrowth. Despite being relatively close to the town, the park was a wonderfully peaceful place, and Cobalt often found himself returning there on his days off.
With a happy sigh, the Incubus eased himself onto a bench nestled away in one of his favourite relaxing spots. Hidden away from the walking trails by thick brush, it was a lake that had formed beneath a small cliff, fed by water that tumbled over the rocky lip. Dragonflies darted across the surface of the water, only to scatter as an intrepid frog attempted to catch one.
"Thought they'd be hibernating by now," Cobalt murmured to himself, watching intently as the little orange amphibian hopped over to a pile of wet leaves.
He pondered this for a moment, before reminding himself that he was no longer in Science class, and ought to stop worrying about the finer points of biology. Settling back into the bench, the Incubus unwrapped a bacon sandwich and tucked in. He usually preferred to eat healthy, but with the month he had, Cobalt wasn't averse to the odd treat.
In the weeks since the incident with in front of the dorms and his subsequent summons to Mistress Viola's office, he had found himself slowly but steadily settling into his role as a teacher. He was still a long way from garnering his students' respect, of course, but at the very least they no longer tortured him each day. He wanted to believe this was because they were learning to trust him, but it was more than likely because of what happened with Izzbelle. Common opinion held that standing up to the Oni in any way was akin to suicide.
Chewing his somewhat-greasy meal thoughtfully, Cobalt glanced down at the tip of his finger, which sported a ragged scar from where he had tore the skin. Of course, he also had to deal with paperwork from the Brimstone Town Hall after invoking the Rite of Fair Combat. Apparently the police had been called by a panicking first-year that night, and many forms had to be filled out for the police to let them know that he had consented to getting his rear kicked. Bureaucratical busywork, no doubt, but it stopped Izzbelle getting saddled with an assault charge, so he didn't mind.
In fact, Izzbelle Suyas' demeanor had done nothing but improve since the incident. She was still rude, coarse, swift to anger and slow to forgive, but she no longer threw dictionaries at Cobalt, and had actually taken steps to get along with some of her classmates. She had quite taken to Jelli in particular, much to Cobalt's relief. Since she began hanging around with the nervous Glutton, her bullies all but disappeared.
"I don't know how you did it, Karazelle, but you certainly work wonders in your own way..." mused the Incubus, biting into the last of his sandwich just as an errant lark swooped down from a tree.
The Succubus in question was an enigma. She had broken into his room to harass him no less than six times since Izzbelle's outburst, and continually assaulted him with all manner of lewd quips, and yet he could sense no malice or ulterior motives within her at all. She was always the first to offer her hand to Jelli whenever she tripped in the hall, never neglected to ask Izzbelle how she was coping, and even occasionally spent time talking with Whitney, despite the animosity between the two. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought it was her maternal instincts triggering.
But regardless of her reasons, Cobalt had Karazelle to thank for bringing together the closest thing he could call a friend group. They were his students, of course, but he felt like he had been through enough with each of them to relate on a personal level, and he could only hope that the future brought with it opportunities to help them improve as students, as well as friends.
As proud as he was for them getting along with each other, he really wished they would focus some of their time into studying. In the last History test he gave the class, most of them got Cs or below, save for Jelli, who scored a perfect A. Quinn also scored an A, but that was because she had copied everything off the Glutton after bribing her with a bag of marshmallows. Thus, he was forced to fail the Imp, and make her attend detention after school.
At least she got to spend it with Lottie, who had deigned to scribble a picture of a cow all over her test paper in felt-tip pen.
Finishing the last of his sandwich, Cobalt stuffed his rubbish into his satchel and released another sigh. Hell, even Elya had settled down somewhat. Of course, she still sent creepy love letters to him and had a nasty habit of nailing the corpses of small animals to the ashbirches in front of the girls' dormitories, but as long as she wasn't attempting to kill anybody, the Incubus figured to just let her be.
Laying back, he shut his eyes and allowed the wind to wash over him. Yes, this was the life he had dreamed of ever since he moved to Oxford to train as a teacher. He had a rough start and hit a few bumps along the way, but now that everything had calmed down, Cobalt could comfortably say that he was-
His serene musings were abruptly interrupted by the sky ripping itself apart.
A blast of hot air suddenly knocked Cobalt off the bench, bowling him through the wet undergrowth where he smacked into a knotted tree root. Crying out in pain, he clutched his head and struggled to wipe the leaves from his eyes as he tried to right himself, all the while the sound of screaming pierced the calm silence of the park.
"What the Hell...?!" the Incubus cried, peeling an oak leaf off he cheek as he scrambled over to the side of the lake.
Hovering around ten feet above the surface of the water was a red, pulsing rift, oozing demonic magics like a festering wound in the fabric of reality itself. It throbbed regularly like a heartbeat, and as Cobalt slowly skirted the edge of the lake in order to get a better look, the screaming sound grew louder.
Then it hit him. This was just like the transport rifts used to travel between planes of existence, but much smaller and much, much more unstable! But he was nowhere near Brimstone's only Jump Terminal, so that could only mean...
"Someone's trying to cross here from Earth...?!" he breathed, eyes widening in kind with the rift.
As if to respond, the screaming intensified into a deafening crescendo before something dropped from the crimson rift and plummeted into the water. As quickly as it appeared, it sealed up a disappeared, leaving the park silent once more.
Cobalt stood by the lake, eyes widened and mouth hanging open.
There, struggling just beneath the foamy surface of the lake, was somebody dressed in what appeared to be some kind of homemade hazmat suit, complete with a thick gasmask that obscured their features. As they gave a muffled scream for help, Cobalt deigned to question the nature of the interloper later and rushed to the edge of the water.
"Here, take my hand!" he called, stretching his arm as far as it would go.
They thrashed over to him, grabbing onto the Incubus' wrist with both hands, nearly pulling him in. Digging his heels into the dirt, Cobalt grit his teeth and slowly hauled the masked stranger from the cold autumn waters.
"Ack! Filter's clogged!" the choked in a muffled voice, barging past him as they clawed at their face.
He made to remark upon the stranger's rudeness, but fell silent as they pulled the gasmask off.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
They were a human. A bronze-skinned woman with bright green eyes and freckled cheeks, to be precise. Utterly dumbfounded, all he could do was stare as she gasped for breath and pulled her hood down, revealing erratic brown hair that appeared to be singed black at the tips.
"Oh thank fuck it's breathable!" the woman cried, collapsing onto her back as her chest heaved up and down.
Cobalt - still frozen with shock - couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. For centuries, demons had kept the existence of Hell a secret from humans; it was just a fact of life. There had been multiple meetings of citystate leaders in the past where they discussed revealing themselves, but the verdict always came down to the simple fact that humans simply weren't ready to accept that demons were real. So many measures were in places to hide Hell's existence from them, and here one lay, lying on Hellish soil as she drank down lungfuls of Hellish air. Just how did she manage to access a Jump Terminal? And if she didn't, and resorted to the more archiac method of travelling between worlds - one that involved a lot of ritual murder - was Cobalt in danger? Should he get the jump on her and claim self-defense? Or should he call the authorities, whereupon she would be detained, undergo a memory wipe at the behest of a Succubus psychomancer and be sent back to Earth? Or should he just-?
"I fucking knew it! Those bastards called me crazy, and yet here I am! Hah! Kiss my ass, you Sorbonne pricks!" the human roared, proudly displaying a middle finger to the sky.
Turning around, she fixed Cobalt with a grin, eyes sparkling with fascination.
"Breached the veil and made first contact to boot! Gotta note this down...!"
Unzipping her hazmat, she dropped to the floor and wriggled out of it before kicking it aside. She was wearing a heavily-abused lab coat, under which she was sporting a tank top and a pair of cargo shorts. Producing a damp notebook from her coat pocket, she pulled out a pen and began to write.
"Alright, first contact... Blue skin, horns, about five feet and nine inches tall... wings, tail..."
She glanced up at him.
"Kinda cute, in a way... Investigate later."
By the time she finished, Cobalt had finally managed to remember how his voice worked. However, he hadn't quite nailed articulate speech, and instead made a drawn-out whine of confusion as he pointed a shaking finger at the human scientist. Glancing at it, she stepped forward and sniffed it before laughing and shaking it vigourously.
"Alison Titch, at your service! Gotta say, I'm pretty excited to finally meet one of you!"
Once Alison let his hand go, Cobalt shut his slacked jaw and shook his head.
"A- A human? Here? H- How did you...?" he trailed off, pointed above the lake where the rift had first appeared.
"That? Oh, that was nothing. Didn't really feel like killing anybody to make a bloodstone, so I just smashed a miniature hadron collider together and let her rip. Just to see."
"Y- You built a hadron collider?! Just like that?!"
Her face lit up at his words.
"Ah, a fellow man of science, are we?" she laughed, grabbing his hand.
"N- No, I'm just a teacher...!"
"Don't be modest now, come on! I'm sure we can still compare notes! Hey, what's your name, bluebell?"
This whole situation was ridiculous. For a moment, Cobalt wondered whether he was dreaming, before reminding himself that Lust demons were incapable of having non-lucid dreams. The very notion of a human scientist breaking into Hell out of curiosity was absurd.
But he liked to think himself a rational man. So, taking a deep breath, the Incubus settled his nerves and gave Alison a firm handshake. Just because she had bent the rules of physics didn't give him an excuse to be rude.
"Cobalt Trayer. M- My name is Cobalt Trayer," he breathed after his heartbeat had slowed somewhat.
Nodding, Alison jotted it down in her notebook.
"Cobalt, huh? Weird name. Guess your mom wasn't very imaginative, huh?" the human joked, reaching out to pinch his blue skin.
He slapped her hand away, but remained quiet. She wasn't that far off; Cobalt's older sisters were identical quintuplets, and his mother had to color-code them in order to tell them apart.
Whispering excitedly to herself, Alison stepped over to the bench and sat down, her pen scribbling so fast that it threatened to dry out the notebook through friction alone.
"So I'm guessing you're a demon, right?" she asked, patting the spot beside her.
Cobalt slowly eased himself down onto the bench, still wary of whether he ought to call somebody.
"Um, y- yes. I'm, uh... an Incubus," he added quietly, almost hoping that she didn't hear him.
But her eyes widened frighteningly.
"Ooh, are you gonna seduce me?!"
"What?! No, of course not!"
"Oh. You sure?"
"Yes!"
"You sure you're sure?"
"I'm sure, Miss Titch!"
"We could call it research...?"
Cobalt groaned and buried his face in his hands. Relenting, Alison backed off and returned to taking notes.
"A reserved Incubus, huh? Gotta revise my theories then. What other kinds of demons are there?"
He sighed wearily. She didn't seem to be particularly dangerous, so what was the harm in telling her? If anything, it would be just like going over the basics in his biology lessons.
"Seven kinds, one for each Deadly Sin, if that makes sense," Cobalt explained, taking Alison's notebook and jotting down the names of his fellow demonic races.
The scientist listened intently, eyes glittering with wonder.
"I'm guessing you're Lust, right?"
"... Technically speaking, yes. B- But the Sins we represent do not necessarily define who we are."
"Right, right... Also, been meaning to ask; aren't you a little young for a teacher?"
"Physical aging in demons is a three-step process. I suffer from a condition that stunted said process. I'm actually twenty-two years old."
"Nice. Legal."
"What?"
"Nothing. Do go on."
With the help of some hasty diagrams and one or two flowcharts, Cobalt gradually explained the races, cultures and history of Hell to Alison, growing more and more comfortable as he filled each page of her notebook. By the time he had gotten to describe the differences between Oni tribes and Oni clans, he had tuned the human's presense out entirely, imagining himself to be teaching at the head of a blissfully attentive class.
He turned a page, only to be faced with the damp cardboard back of the notebook. Glancing up, he noticed that the sun had sunk considerably in the sky.
"Oh my... I think I got carried away..."
Looking over at Alison, he was surprised to see her still gazing at him attentively.
"You know so much... You'll make a perfect assistant!" she cried excitedly, snatching her notebook back.
"Erm... right..."
The pair sat still for a few minutes, the silence broken only by the splashing of the waterfall and the rustling of paper as Alison scanned through the notes he had written. She seemed to have a vested interest in Hell, the kind that supplemented an acute appetite for knowledge. Though he knew not her reasons, he could understand as a fellow scholar.
"I- I don't suppose you'll be sticking around here, will you?" Cobalt asked, looking over at the human.
She flashed him a grin.
"Portal was a one-way trip, so I couldn't leave even if I wanted to."
"Where will you stay?"
"I have enough supplies to keep myself going, don't you worry. Just need to find a decent place to camp out."
Cobalt swallowed hard. A part of him questioned why he was helping her, but having witnessed the human's genuine interest in Hell, he felt compelled to help her. Perhaps he just found it refreshing to have finally met someone with whom he can actually discuss the finer points of demonic anthropology.
"I know a place not far from here. There's no paths or roads nearby, so you should be safe from being discovered if you camp there," he explained, getting to his feet.
Alison's smile widened as she stowed her notebook away.
"Well then, by all means; lead the way, bluebell!"
With a quick glance around to ensure that they were not being watched by any lost dog-walkers, the Incubus gestured for her to follow him around the lake. Rounding the water's edge, he reached the cliffside where the water tumbled down from the stream up above. Instructing Alison to flatten herself against the rocky wall, the pair slowly sidled through a gap in between the rock and the water.
Behind the waterfall lay a decently-sized cave, large enough for them both to stand comfortably. The floor was flat, there were no jagged protrusions and it wasn't terribly cold. He used to hang out with his friends in the park when he was younger, and the cave was one of their favourite secret sports.
"Here ought to serve your needs," said Cobalt halfheartedly.
The scientist, on the other hand, seemed thrilled at the prospect of living in a cave. Spinning around to face her new demonic companion, she suddenly hugged him, soaking his shirt through with lake water.
"Hell yeah, bluebell! This is perfect!"
"I- It is?"
"Yeah, just needs a lick of paint and it'll be every bit as good as my basement back home!"
Nodding slowly, the Incubus slowly backed away towards the mouth of the cave.
"Well, I'll leave you to it, then... I really ought to get back home."
He had one foot through to the outside when Alison suddenly called his name, prompting Cobalt to look back. She smiled and gave him a thumbs up.
"Be seeing you later, yeah?"
He looked down at the stones underfoot.
"... I suppose so..."
Feet crunching against the gravel, Cobalt remained silent as he slowly ambled away from the lake. When he was sure he was out of earshot, the Incubus collapsed against a tree and gave a kind of half-scream, half-groan.
First he had rowdy students to deal with! Then he had the Headmistress' expectations piled on top of him! And now he has to keep secret the fact that a human is camping out in the park?!
Just what the Hell else was he going to have to deal with before the year was out?!