"Dude! It finally came!" My tomboy roommate barely withheld her excitement as she barreled into the living room of our apartment with a package in her hand. "Check it out, Cole." She smiled as she tore at the brown paper surrounding her purchase.
As she ripped the covering off the package, bits and pieces scattered all across the floor of the living room like confetti. For a second I thought about lecturing Ayaka about not making a mess of our apartment, but who was I kidding?
This place was already a shithole. At least some half-assed confetti would make it feel a little livelier.
My roommate was your stereotypical childhood friend. Seriously, she looked like she belonged in an anime where she would probably get rejected by the boy she likes.
And for good reason too.
Ayaka's long, blond hair was always greasy and unkempt, and the smell of the sweet leaf reeked off her so frequently that most people just assumed she was using a hemp-laced cologne. To top it off, Ayaka wore denim shorts, as well as a t-shirt with the logo of whatever old-school rock band or metal band that she was currently listening to.
Honestly, I'm kinda glad she has no sex appeal in front of me, I was worried I might do something I would regret when we decided to live in the same apartment.
Still... Her ass is quite big. I tried not to stare at her butt.
Sigh... What a waste of a beautiful face, it's a shame she doesn't take care of herself.
My friend was giddy as she removed the final piece of packaging to reveal a leather-bound book that had to at least be a hundred years old. The book's pages were wrinkled and dirty, the cover had scuffs all over it, and the spine was screaming for dear life as if it held onto the pages by only a single thread. I was surprised that it didn't crumble into dust the second it touched Ayaka's fingers.
She jokingly blew on the cover to remove the nonexistent dust, brushed it off with her left hand, and then started to flip through the pages eagerly.
"What did you get?" I groaned because I had already guessed.
"The answer to all our problems!" My roommate slammed the book closed with a giggle and grinned proudly as she handed me her new reading material.
I took the ancient tome from her as if I was accepting a venomous snake. This thing was hundreds of pages long and had definitely seen a lot of use over its lifetime. I looked at the title- Demonology for Our Time.
"Did you seriously buy another demon book?" I questioned my tomboy childhood friend.
"Bro, not just any demonology book," she tried to explain. "This is the big one. The big tuna. The book to end all books. The one book to rule them all--"
"I get it," I facepalmed. "This thing looks old as fuck, where did you get it?"
"The internet is a wonderful place, my friend," Ayaka clicked her tongue at my question. "I found it on this obscure occult website and had it shipped in from the Vatican City. It only cost two-hundred dollars!"
"Wait," I scoffed. "That wouldn't happen to have been the two-hundred dollars I gave you for rent now, would it?"
"Don't be mad." Ayaka held out her hands to calm me down. "If all goes as planned, we'll never have to worry about rent or jobs or that kind of thing ever again!"
"Ayaka…" I growled at my roommate.
Our apartment may have been super shitty, but at least it was a roof over our heads. I'd been struggling ever since I moved out here from Kansas City a few years ago and, even though she'd been my best friend ever since middle school, Ayaka sometimes made things difficult with all her impulse buys.
We needed food and rent, not books that'd feed her occult hobby. I stood to storm off, but Ayaka caught me by the shoulder.
"Bro, hear me out," she pleaded. "When have I ever steered you wrong before?"
"Do you really want an answer to that?" I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Yes, because we both know the answer is never." She laughed and crossed her arms confidently. "And even if it has happened once or twice in the past, this time will make up for it."
She gave me a thumbs up with a bright smile. I guess she can be cute, when she wants to be.
"Fine." I sat back down and handed the book back to Ayaka. "So, what's it do?" I couldn't stay mad at Ayaka for long.
For all her crazy shenanigans and odd viewpoints, she always meant well. I'm sure whatever hairbrained scheme she had that went along with buying this book, it was because she wanted to help us get out of our shitty situation. The least I could do was listen. What was the worst that could happen?
"You won't regret this." She gave me a pleased nod before she flipped through the book for a few moments. She eventually stopped on a page halfway through the text and gestured at it emphatically. "Do you know what a succubus is?"
"Vaguely." I nodded. "Aren't those the hot female demons?"
"Precisely! Succubi are female demons who are summoned to fulfill your wildest fantasies, normally in bed," she giggled. "But they are also said to bring luck, fortune, and even crazyass abilities to those who summon them!"
"So…" I trailed off for emphasis. "Your solution to our money problems is to summon one?"
"Survey says- Yes!" She pointed at me and made a dinging noise. "Besides, I've got some wild fantasies I'd like them to fulfill as well…"
"I'm gonna stop you there, Ayaka," I smirked.
Never took her for a lesbian. But oh well, I'm happy for her.
"I'll go along with this. Not because I think it'll work, but because it would be pointless to have spent all that money on this book and not at least use it once. Where do we begin?"
"First thing's first," she said as he read over the text on the page. "We need a pentagram, a metal bowl, and a piece of paper!" She thought for a moment. "I have just the bowl. It's by my stuff in the closet. Can you grab it while I start drawing the pentagram?"
"Sure…" I nodded to my friend as she set to work.
After getting all the stuff I went to her room. Ayaka had already spread out our furniture and drawn a pentagram on the floor, and she was lighting candles at each corner when she noticed me out of the corner of her eye.
"Right on time, Coley!" She smiled when she saw me.
She lit the final candle and then brandished a small pocket knife and a piece of paper. "So here's what happens now," she explained. "We both take a sheet of paper and write down our wildest fantasies and innermost desires. Make sure the letter is addressed to Lilith."
"Lilith?" I questioned.
"Yes, Lilith. The first succubus." She nodded. "In the demon lore, she was the original wife of Adam, but she refused to submit to her husband. That got her banished from the Garden of Eden. After that, she allied herself with Lucifer to become the first demon succubus, and in the eons since she's become known as the Demon Queen, ruling over every single succubus that has ever existed."
"You sure know a lot about this," I couldn't believe my friend's encyclopedic rant.
"Oh, that's just rookie stuff. The knowledge in this book, however, is the big leagues!" She waved off her train of thought. "Anyways, after writing our letters to Lilith, we need to smear it with a bodily fluid and burn it in the bowl."
"Please tell me we're using blood and not jizz," I joked.
Ayaka just shrugged. "Succubi prefer semen, but I'm gonna do blood since it's the essence of the soul and all that. But hey, you do you," she laughed before offering me the neon-green sticky note. "Now, best get writing."
I nodded and scribbled down my desires.
It'd been awhile since I'd been in a relationship, and the last girl I'd been with made me wonder if she was actually a demon in disguise herself. So, I started there. I jotted down all the qualities I wanted from a hot demon woman, as well as all the crazy things I wanted to do to her in bed and, well, in life in general.
When I had finished, I realized Ayaka was already done, so I motioned for Ayaka to hand me the knife.
For half a moment, I studied the small pocket knife, and the feel of it in my fingers made this whole endeavor feel way too real. I glanced at Ayaka, and she gave me an eager smile and nod.
I realized that if I bitched out now, my annoying friend would never let me hear the end of it. Besides, what was the worst that could happen? I'd just have a small cut on my finger, and then Ayaka would mope around the apartment for a few days when she saw that the book didn't work.
Maybe she'd actually stop spending our money on this kind of shit.
I took a deep breath and then raised the knife to the tip of my left index finger. The blade slid along my digit slowly as it left little more than a dull sting in its wake. I closed the knife and handed it back to my roommate, who grinned at me like a maniac.
"Let's do this," I said as I met my friend's eyes.
"You're not gonna regret this." Ayaka said, and I nodded to her.
"It's weird. Usually, I'm unsure about, well, everything, but this time, I'm really hoping it works." I laughed as I squeezed the tip of my finger to expel a droplet of blood, which I then smeared onto the letter to Lilith.
"Me too, bro. Me too." Ayaka nodded before we each crumpled up our piece of paper and tossed it into the bowl.
Ayaka grabbed a couple of matches, struck them against the ignition strip of the box, and then dropped them on top of the paper. The sticky notes danced in the black and red cup as they caught fire and incinerated before our eyes, leaving only the faint smell of burnt ash and ferric blood.
As the last bit of paper turned to ember, all the lights were cut in our apartment, and the candles blew out with an unseen gust of wind.
"Did it work?" I exclaimed, somewhat freaked out.
"That was definitely not normal!"
"I don't know." Ayaka shrugged. "It says here that if the ceremony works, the succubus will come to you in your sleep."
The lights returned at this point, but a lingering chill spread throughout the apartment. It might have simply been our leaky windows, but it was the middle of the summer. The chill sent a shiver up my spine, and I started to wonder what we had just let in. The absolute last thing we needed in this place was an evil entity causing problems. My landlord already had that role covered.
"Welp, I don't know about you, but I'm beat." Ayaka yawned. "Summoning a demon really takes it out of you!
Time to hit the 'ol dusty trail!"
Ayaka wiped the blood off her finger onto her shorts before she turned around and shuffled off toward her bedroom. As she walked, she whistled a happy tune and nearly skipped across the floor.
It was a bit strange because, even though it wasn't that late, my body told me that it was time for me to head off to bed, too. Was this one of the side-effects of summoning a demon? Not that I cared. For a twentysomething like myself, sleep was a pastime.
I sauntered across the paint-stained hardwood floors of our apartment. Once I finally reached my room, I pulled off my clothes and tossed them onto the pile of dirty laundry in the corner. Then I hopped up on my mattress and got comfortable.
The next thing I knew, the sound of rustling coming from across my room jarred me from sleep. I squinted to see if it was a mouse or cockroach that was causing the ruckus, but the room was only illuminated by the sharp red glow of my alarm clock.
It read 3 A.M. The witching hour. At least that's what all the 3 AM cringy horror YouTubers say.
It couldn't be.
Could it?
As my eyes adjusted to the low light, I scanned the bedroom for any sign of an intruder and reached under my bed for good 'ol Bessie, the baseball bat I kept around in case I found myself in this exact situation.
Through the neon glow of the clock, I could scarcely make out a figure standing in my doorway.
"Who the fuck are you? I'm warning you! Get the fuck out of my apartment or I'll--" I started to demand as I climbed out of bed and readied the bat.
My words caught in my throat when I saw her. There was a beautiful woman standing in my doorway.
Love juice was dripping from her exposed smooth thighs.
Her long black hair ran all the way down her shoulders and her erect nipples can be seen pressed against her short tight black lolita dress. Her eyes shone through the darkness with a purple haze, illuminating her beautiful sharp features. If not for the unusual glint of her eyes, I would have just assumed she was a regular woman.
Was I dreaming?
Or was this what I thought it was?
Licking her lips seductively, she slowly approached me, her eyes filled with lust.
You mean, Ayaka was actually right this whole time!