The townhomes' businesses of St.Peter's street dazzled with life as the dense crowd passed by. Parked vans and women of little clothing and cheap perfume surrounded Red Love's Wine, the only brothel in the town, located at the end corner between St. Peter and St. Charity streets.
The brothel was a cottage building of cobblestone walls and three triangular roofs, which appeared to have been at least 100 years old. Vanilla reached the entrance.
"How can I help you?" The guard, a buff, black man spoke. Two women of little clothing were on the other side of the porch, who didn't even notice her arrive.
"I'm going inside," She responded.
"Sorry kid, adults only. Go home," He had an expression of boring monotony. He was used to the same grind of letting people in or denying them the entrance every night.
"I'm looking for a job..." Vanilla improvised something to say, "I'm looking for a job,"
The black man traded looks with the women on the other side, and all of them chuckled and cackled. Vanilla just launched them a glare with her jet-black eye before leaving.
How stupid did that sound? She bent to St. Charity street, towards one of the abandoned bungalow houses that had a willow tree outside and uncut weeds. If she could not get in through the entrance then she needed to find another way.
"Vanilla? what are we going to do inside that place?" Rowie asked as she put him outside of her backpack. She sat below the willow tree, using its hanging leaves to hide. Crickets singing became audible from the chatting of the walking, drunk crowd.
"I think I'm pretty sure what I must 'silence' Rowie. 'the primitive human desire'. That can only mean one thing..."
"And what's that?" He tilted his head.
"Well, I've read about the old legend of a hybrid being that feeds on the... sexual energy of people... If it's one of them, well I hope we're prepared."
"And why is that thing in there?"
"Where else could it be?" She put out No-see one more time. She got up and walked to the only window of the bungalow. Nothing visible was amidst its darkness but the stink of dust and alcoholized urine.
She hoped that there wasn't any aberration dwelling inside, be it human or supernatural. Once inside, she pronounced the special words. An agonizing, tragic scream rumbled. The sleeping murder of crows in the willow tree outside cawed and flew away in panic.
Numbed down and invisible, Vanilla returned outside. Custos Talpa expected her in the weedy yard. They departed together towards the worn-down cottage, invisible to the incoming, disconcerted crowd. They surrounded the bungalow as she left to see what happened.
In the alley of broken ladders next to Red Love's Wine, Custos Talpa wrapped his sticky tongue around Vanilla and shot her upside. "I-i'm almost there!" She grabbed herself from a circular window where no adult nor average-sized person could fit.
She broke It with the pointy end of Avrevm Bacvlvm and plummeted to the wooden insides. "What did just happen?" A masculine voice rumbled.
The fall made Vanilla's back and knees hurt and stun, but she got up and crawled to a small section at her left where stinky mops and rotten brooms rested.
A grey-bearded man approached the end of the hallway and looked at the shattered window. Vanilla leaned on the bad-lit wall. Although the carrier effect of Custos Talpa covered her and the objects she carried from vision, she could still be heard, felt, or smelled.
The man got closer. She held her breath. He almost rosed her face when he stretched his hand to take a broom to sweep the broken glasses. "Puagh... It stinks like something is rotting." He left with the glass shards on a picker.
Vanilla gasped for air and smelled herself. Sigh... He was right. The combination of mud, blood, lizard saliva, and that place where she fought that woman was not the most pleasant of them.
She walked through the wood-planked hallway of broken doors. Grinding moans sounded when she passed by the carved doors at both sides. She found the maintenance stairs and descended to the main lobby and bar.
Nonsense talking, distorted music, liquor smell, and numb faces of rough, greasy features gave color to the atmosphere. Now she had to find a disguised, seductive demon on that lake of the indistinguishable rabble.
The vast area of beer and sweat odor had a bar in front of the main door. Electrical bulbs swiveled on the beamed ceiling. The circle-top windows were too clingy to see through. Loud gossip inundated the dense place.
"Man, you got to be kidding," Two cheap-suited men conversed. "We have a goddamn serial killer among us. Those kids were in bad steps, but they didn't deserve to die like that..."
"I know, I know... I'm leaving this stupid town. Barely any jobs, they scare you away, and now we have to take care of some murderer. I should have gone to Detroit instead. It's the only place in this state that doesn't suck," He took a deep sip from his beer.
Well, as if Merry Oaths wasn't depopulating fast enough now people had more reasons to leave. How many abandoned houses did Vanilla spot in the last weeks? Not like she cared. The least people the better.
A drunk man that passed by slapped the rear of a prostitute. To Vanilla's surprise, the woman just gave him a seductive grin, and they together walked to the spiral stairs where she came from.
Merry Oaths was such a hedonistic place. Other small, rural towns in the country she had lived in were orthodoxly conservative and protestant to the guts.
But Merry Oaths was mainly Catholic. Immigrants from European countries doing not so great founded the town less than two hundred years ago when the country was still under British rule. Last names of French, Italian, Polish, Romanian, and Jewish origin were common among the decreasing townsfolk.
"Have you seen that woman? The wife of Mr. Lugus Land." Two men talked at the bar. The bartender, the same man that swept the broken crystals and a blonde worker served drinks.
"Damn. I swear that she doesn't look the age they say she is. The woman is easily the most beautiful I've seen around here."
'Oh, if you only got to know her, my drunk friend...' Vanilla cynically thought.
"But her daughter is the weirdest person I've seen around. She attended the same class as my son, Bobby. I told him to not sit close to her. I don't know but she creeps me off. Maybe I have a chance with her mother..."
Goddamn, moron... Vanilla took a deep breath.
"C'mon, forget about it, friend. She's married to one of the richest men this state has seen."
"Lugus Land? Rich people are rats. All of them," He sipped his beer jar.
"Yeah, but you gotta admit the man's some good on him. He got me and my cousins a job."
"Well, if ya put it like that... Heard he didn't do that bad when the stock market crashed in '29 but I'm sure he took advantage of it, one way or another..."
Vanilla stepped away. Drunk ignorants. A fuchsia figure sat alone at the farthest corner. What in the hell was he doing there? She walked towards him.
"What do you think?" He was reading a newspaper when Vanilla approached.
Was he talking to her? It was like he could see her despite the carrier effect of Custos Talpa.
"That country Germany has put in effect the 'Nuremberg' laws. Is that how you pronounce it? And they have made that Buddhist symbol their official flag."
"I read it somewhere... But sure thing is that people don't care much about the external world in Merry Oaths. What are you doing here?"
"Look at there sweetie, there's your Fille De Joie," He took a sip of his wine glass and pointed his finger behind Vanilla.
"I'm telling you about it! This goddamn... Cheap whore killed my... brother!" A man too drunk to walk straight or talk smooth yelled near the entrance.
"Get out. Now!" The bartender put himself between him and the brunette woman he pointed out.
"I swear you... are going to pay!" He cursed, but the black man at the entrance locked him from behind and kicked him out of the burdel.
"Sorry, Catherine. Please get back to work." The bartender returned to his bar.
The brunette hooker glanced at the double door and walked away. Her red dress didn't look like anything cheap. "We've got her, Rowie..." Vanilla whispered.
"How was your arrival, sweetheart?" The Contractor asked.
Vanilla shot him a sharp stare. He intensified his grin. "Good luck, honey. You can have my sandwich and my wine," He got up and sauntered to the door. He tipped his emerald homburg to the bartender and left.
Vanilla realized how hungry she was. She sat at his former seat and munched the sandwich, saving a bite for Rowie. She drank deeply from the green bottle. The acidity made her face contract and her esophagus burnt, but a warmth that made her irremediably smile struck her.
The strumpet passed by the bar, holding hands with a man. They climbed the snail stairs. Vanilla got up from her seat. It was time to work.
Vanilla lost them from sight on the second floor. It was a structured amalgam consisting of a hallway that ended in the broken window she used to infiltrate. Three corridors traversed it perpendicularly with three rooms on each side. The smell of sweat was sharp. The yellow bulbs didn't offer much light.
Bedsprings bounced rhythmically with both shy and confident human grunts. Vanilla approached a door in the middle section and looked through a small hole below the knob.
"I've been telling you so. Ruth doesn't want me anymore."
'Wait... That's the Major,' Vanilla thought. The fat, balding man was sitting on the edge of the bed, with two counselors stroking his lap and kissing his wobbly neck.
"What a poor boy... We'll show you some love~"
Vanilla put her gaze away. And to think that her father and she often had dinner with him and his wife at his residence. "This is going to take a while. Rowie, can you track their scent?"
"But I'm gonna be visible if you put me apart from you."
"I don't think any of these... will even be aware of some pup crawling on the floor."
"Okay. Put me on the ground. I can do it."
Vanilla did so. The white pup began to track. Vanilla followed him to the end of the second hallway. Black, greasy filth covered both doors. She looked through the one at her right.
"Why don't you come with me? I'll be leaving for the city soon. I want you to stop working on this rathole," It was all black inside. Between the shadows, the black clothing of a woman inside reflected light. It was not the one they were looking for.
"I know... I like you too. But you see, I have a debt with the owner. He threatened to harm my son or me if I leave. It's the same with most of us. He hits us if we don't pay him the daily fee." The woman cried. Sobs became audible.
"That man... I swear I'm going to talk to him."
"Please don't. He has many connections and is ruthless as... I don't want anything to happen to you."
"Marie, I'm tired of just seeing you here. I want you to come with me. I got a stable, well-paying job. We can be a family. Your son too."
"Please... Don't insist..."
Vanilla stopped lurking. She leaned on the wall and looked at the ceiling, uncomfortable with that scene. Why did it have to be like that? She could not help but feel, sorry? for such a low-class woman. Despite being motherless, alone, an outcast, that scene made her feel privileged to be herself. Guess others had it worse.
"Vanilla... I heard that. We must do something," Rowie mumbled
"About them? But what can we do Rowie? Should we even intervene in what is none of our business?"
"We can punish evil. You can do it!" He wagged his tail.
"Evil, Good, was it as simple as those two words..." Deep down the need of doing something palpitated heavy, but her logic system was resilient. "Well. This wasn't our room. We need to keep looking up."
"But Vanilla,"
"Please Rowie. We have something to do."
The other room was empty. Rowie sighed and tracked on the splintery floor once again. He reached to the other side of that narrow hallway. Vanilla followed him.
"I can't see very well..." Vanilla sneaked through the doorknob of the last door. "Wait. We have her!"
The brunette, red-dressed woman laid on a cherry bed. She stroked her client's chest, and then put her eyes on the small hole Vanilla used to voyeur. A disgusted expression filled her face and she got up. Vanilla lost her from sight. She stepped back, picked Rowie, and leaned on the door behind them. Did she saw her?
The door unlocked. Her fine face and made-up hair made her look like she belonged to a way more prestigious and expensive burdel. "Why are you spying on me?" She asked. "I can see you. Get up. Come inside," It was like she wasn't invisible to her. The first sign of her inhuman nature...
"No. I know what you are." Vanilla dryly responded.
"Hehe. That puppy is so cute. I just want to talk to you," She used that fake tone Carol thought was good faking at.
Certainly, in that hallway, Vanilla had less space to maneuver, and the state of that man was something intriguing. She got inside and gripped Avrevm Bacvlvm inside her pocket.
"Please feel at ease," The woman moved to the nightstand next to the bed and got out a bottle of wine. She served herself a glass.
"Rowie," Vanilla whispered. "Please take a look around," She put him on the ground and stood at the door's wall. The door closed alone.
"As you can see, this is a fun but exhausting job," The woman said.
"Vanilla, he's not breathing," Rowie murmured. He looked at the man from the floor.
"Oh, not again," The woman eyed his body, laying like a ragdoll on the messy bed. His chest didn't expand nor contract. "Well," She got up, grinned, and got closer to Vanilla. "Don't worry, that only happens to men. I know why you came to me."
Her grin intensified. She pinned her waist behind, put her hands on Vanilla's shoulders, and playfully pushed her against the wall. She engulfed her space with her sweat and perfumed scent. She leaned her hands above Vanilla's shoulders and looked down with glossy eyes, biting her lips.
"Don't mind if your pup watches us have fun? Hehe..." She placed her hand on Vanilla's thigh, rubbing it with her fingertips, and went up, rosing her skin below her dress. Only a couple of centimeters stopped her from touching her intimate zone. She placed her forehead on Vanilla's and tried to get her lips on hers.
Vanilla petrified. Her pulse raised, but she felt intrinsic disgust. Her reflects kicked in. "Back off!" She pushed her away. The woman almost tripped over. "You disgusting monster! I know what you are."
"Oh, so you like to play rough..." She bit her lip harder.
"You're a Succubus. A murderer." Guilty irony vibrated on Vanilla's chest. She raised Avrevm Bacvlvm.
The woman uncontrollably chuckled. An aura of grey smoke surrounded her. She hunched back and began to transform into the hybrid being she actually was.
The smoke faded away. The night worker didn't have human legs, but hairy goat paws with bent knees. Her skin dazzled blue and her eyes turned into yellow slit pupils, just like the ones Mr. Fluffyball's carrier effect provided. Two goat horns grew up where her forehead started.
"You aren't as dumb as you look!" She grinned with aggressivity.
"No normal person would get that close to me with this stink I'm carrying right now," Vanilla pointed Avrevm Bacvlvm with one hand.
"Hahahahaha!" The goat-human hybrid pushed her against the wall with psychic force before she could even shoot. Her skull and spine collided against the wooden planks. They cracked and splashed dust everywhere.
Damn thing, she was nothing like the succubi she read about in ancient books. Rowie approached, but the woman approached too. Her crow claws longed and spread on her blue hands.
Despite the hunching, pulsing pain, Vanilla pointed Avrevm Bacvlvm from the floor and shot. Electrical bolts splashed, but the succubus swiped them all away with a swift and effortless movement from her hand.
The woman hybrid laughed. She used psychic force to send the artifact flying away. Rowie furiously barked. She raised Vanilla with telekinetic force. She felt as if an invisible and gigantic hand was squeezing and breaking her neck. Her tiny and pathetic human hands could not get her free.
She felt another force rising her coat and then her light blue dress below. She struggled and shook her legs. The woman approached, bouncing her hips.
"Now, we can do this in a good way, or in a bad way. You choose." Her eyes darkened. She bit her lip and grinned.
"What?!" She looked behind. A din rumbled. The window next to the bed broke. Shattered crystals flew everywhere. Custos Talpa showed his upper, scalped body and shot his tongue.
Like a boomerang, his sticky tongue engulfed her body and plunged her to his snout, in an attempt to maul her soft and crunchy body.
But the horned woman fought back. It became a mess of her clawing and pushing, with the chameleon moving his snout forth and back, trying to devour the monster with his thousands of pointy teeth.
Vanilla hit the floor and panted for air. Rowie tried to lick her face. She ran towards Avrevm Bacvlvm. Damn. It was too risky to shoot with both so close. Although Custos Talpa would endure the electricity, she felt some loyalty to him that could not bring her to do it. But he was not resistant to fire, and much less ice.
"Hey, what the hell is going there?" A male voice and various steps rumbled from the outside hallway.
Custos Talpa and the Succubus stopped fighting. The chameleon let her free and crawled down away. The succubus looked at Vanilla, smiled, and jumped outside.
Just what she needed. The fighting made her visible. And if they saw her there with the body of that unlucky man, well, better not think about the consequences. She put Rowie on her back and looked for an exit.
The window stood open. 'Act first, think later.' Those were the words her training coach back in school used to say. She always thought they were stupid, but only until that moment, she understood they had their place.
The outside was the alley she used to get in. She closed her eyes and jumped to the open garbage container below. Her body bounced on the bags and leftovers, sinking in the moist stink.
"Hehe. One more time!" Rowie joyfully said.
She got out. There was a banana peel on her head, and her coat and body were puddly with rotting food, mud, and other filth she preferred not to think about what they belonged to, considering the nature of the place it came from.
She got out of the alley. The night was calmer, but drunkards singing and prostitutes smoking still roamed the worn-down street of broken townhomes.
'Where in the hell are you...' She mumbled. She spotted a red-dressed woman walking sensually to the other end of the street. Drunk men whistled and yelled gibberish.
"Thanks for the help, No-see!" She freed him. The chameleon crossed the blue portal in front of the wall he stood in. His carrier effect was gone.
Vanilla rushed towards the woman, getting insults for pushing away people on her run. The woman looked back, spotted her, and skillfully sprinted away despite her high heels.