Suddenly A Succubus

The revelation that Amara's recent nightmares weren't actually hers kept her distracted for the entirety of the next morning. On the one hand, the dreams had been quite troubling, and she was relieved to know that she wasn't repressing any horrible memories or seeing grim portents of a possible future. On the other, it was time to deal with yet another new ability, and the intangibility of this one meant testing it would be difficult.

All her other developments had been delightfully straightforward. She could touch her tail and her wings, and she could manifest fire whenever she wanted. How could she practice dreamwalking?

Should I even call it dreamwalking? I don't know if I'm physically traveling to Derek's dreams, or if I'm picking up on his thoughts like some kind of dream television. Do I need to be asleep to do this? Maybe I should let Nick sleep at my place and try to jump into his dreams...

Her morning lectures did nothing to distract her. In fact, she even saw a student nodding off in the back row, and she was tempted to amplify her vision to look for hints of his dreams, but decided against it.

Soon enough, the professor let everyone go, and Amara eagerly headed for the athletic campus. She hadn't visited it since the night her wings first appeared, and today she was planning on meeting up with Nick. Even though he didn't wrestle anymore, he frequently joined in whatever activities he could find. It kept him in shape, which Amara certainly appreciated, and it gave him a chance to spend time with his more athletic friend group.

They eventually met up behind the Gymnastics building. The back wall faced away from campus, and held a large field peppered with the occasional tree. Nick had mentioned a few times that this was a great spot to relax, and due to the morning hours, they were the only people present. She found Nick leaning against the bricks of the building, sitting in the grass with his backpack open beside him. Black gym shorts showed off his muscular legs, and a tight green shirt flattered his torso in much the same way.

"Good workout?" Amara asked, setting down her bag and sitting across from Nick.

"Of course! Alex is still really into freerunning, and he talked me into giving it a shot. He's been trying to teach me some of the basics, and it's pretty tough. What about you?"

"Ugh, you know the answer to that."

"Derek's dreams?" Nick asked.

"Yes! What does it mean? Am I seeing them for a reason?" Amara fell backwards onto the grass, groaning loudly.

"There's always a chance it means nothing. Does he live near you? Maybe you're picking up his dreams because he's down the hall or something."

"But every night? There have got to be other people dreaming around me."

Nick went quiet, then pulled out his phone after a minute of thought. "You said the dreams are the same every time?"

"They're similar, but sometimes I see different parts. And there was the time I floated away from everything, which I don't know was part of his dream or my own powers acting up."

After another few moments of silence, Amara looked over to Nick to see why he wasn't responding. Before she could ask, however, he finally spoke up.

"Isn't it weird that he's having the same dream, night after night? I doubt that's happening for no reason, especially when it's such a realistic nightmare. What if this actually happened?"

Amara sat up, sliding closer to Nick while he continued his online sleuthing. "Shit, that's a good idea! Maybe this is something we can use to our advantage!" She pulled out her own phone, deciding she may as well try to help. It took another few minutes before Nick spoke up again.

"Anything yet?" He asked.

"Nothing," Amara sighed. "Well, I guess technically I'm finding a lot, but it's all mindless fluff pieces about how great he is. He's America's next great entrepreneur, he's valedictorian of his graduating class, blah blah blah. I feel like I'm reading obsessive fanfic that his dad paid people to publish. What about you?"

"Mostly the same, but also a lot of stuff about his dad's rise to wealth. Supposedly he's a modern-day rags to riches story, and amassed a huge fortune practically overnight."

"What did he do? Win the lottery?"

"That's the weird thing, I can't find any answers. I'm seeing a lot of vague references to playing the stock market, but nothing tangible. The only thing I can tell for sure is he didn't inherent it, his parents were relative nobodies." Nick sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose before rubbing his eyes. "Maybe we're coming at this from the wrong angle. What was his girlfriend's name? Stacy?"

"He called her Steph, so probably Stephany. What are you thinking?"

"Well, I think it's safe to assume that everything we find online is going to be heavily curated. What if we find news that's not about him?" Nick shifted on the ground, leaning back against the brick wall. Another few minutes passed, and Amara had given up her own search. She hated this type of research, and instead stood up and stretched out her back.

"Got it!" Nick pumped his fist in victory, waiting for Amara to look over before he started reading the article aloud. "A student was found dead early this morning after officials pulled a car out of a local river. The girl was identified by the local coroner's office as Stephany Peterson, 18, a senior at Jefferson High. Stephany had been drinking with friends late last night and attempted to drive home at approximately 2:15 AM. The last person to see Stephany was her boyfriend, who had let her borrow his car to return home. He was unaware that she'd been drinking, and reported her missing early this morning."

As Nick continued talking, sharing more of the article, Amara found herself pacing across the grass. Every word he read infuriated her, and her breathing was growing erratic. The full scope of the story was now obvious, and she was having trouble thinking straight. "He blamed her? He murdered his girlfriend and got away with it?!"

"Hey, deep breaths Amara, don't--"

"That FUCKING. ASSHOLE!!" Without even realizing it, Amara's hand was suddenly encased in a chitinous gauntlet. She lashed out, punching the brick wall next to her as she let out another scream. Her vision blurred, and she could barely see the dust and mortar that now covered the lawn. Her eyes eventually met Nick's, and she immediately recognized the look on his face.

Fear.

Her vision sharpened again, her breathing calming down as she shook her hand back to normal. She fell to her knees, panicking as she started speaking. "Nick! Please, it's okay, I'm so sorry! I don't know what came over me! Are you okay? I didn't hurt you, did I?"

Nick took a few deep breaths, his shock quickly fading as he held up a hand. "I'm okay, nothing hit me. I just... I don't think I've ever seen that side of you."

Amara leaned in, pulling Nick into a tight hug as she continued whispering apologies in his ear. They stayed there for several moments before Nick finally whispered back.

"That's what happened at the party, isn't it?"

The two friends separated, Amara nervously wringing her hands. "Y-yeah, but a lot worse. I'm sorry you had to see me like that."

"Well, at least you're angry at someone who deserves it this time, right?" Nick forced a smile, trying to smooth things over. "I'm not going to take it out on this wall, but I understand how you feel." The two of them looked at the nearby bricks and saw that a noticeable chunk of the wall had been destroyed.

Amara sat back down, doing her best to brush the evidence of her outburst towards the building. Looking around, she realized that the grass around her also appeared discolored, like it had been out in the sun too long. "Does the article say anything else?"

"Doesn't look like it, but I think it's pretty obvious what happened. His dad must have bribed the police to pin the blame on Stephany."

"There's got to be a way we can use this against him, right?"

"Not with conventional methods."

Their eyes met again, and Amara realized what Nick was inferring. "But, with my powers, I might be able to do something! All those books we read about Succubi, a bunch of them mentioned that we can control dreams!"

"If he's having nightmares about this every time he goes to sleep, he's got to be torn up about it. If you can push him further—"

"—I might be able to force him to come clean! Nick, you're a genius!" Amara jumped up in excitement and began pacing the grass once more. She'd been eager to do something about Derek ever since he'd attacked her, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

"Think you're up for it?" Nick asked, smiling at her excitement.

"Well, I'll need to learn how to control dreams. I was actually hoping you might help with that. Want to sleep over tonight?"

"Nah, tonight won't work." Nick grabbed his backpack, pulling out a small agenda. "What about tomorrow?"

Amara did the same, though her schedule was on her phone. "That should work. I figure we'll hook up right before bed, then I'll try to jump into your dreams. If I can't do it awake, I'll go to sleep and hope something happens."

"Great! It's been a while since I've crashed at your place. Maybe we'll do some more cooking while we're at it?"

"I love it! Think of what you want, and I'll do my best not to burn it." Amara chuckled, but stopped when an alarm on her phone went off. "Oh! Shit! I've got to get going, office hours are starting. See ya!"

She grabbed her bag, threw it over her shoulder, and began running back to the main campus. She took a quick detour back to her apartment, where she overhauled her appearance to prepare for her next stop. A change of clothes, a jacket to cover her exposed skin, and a quick look in the mirror to see if her shapeshifting was up to par. The walk across campus was tense, memories of her last impersonation attempt crossed her mind, but thankfully she made it to her destination without issue.