Suddenly A Succubus

MISSED CALL: Chloé

MISSED CALL: Chloé

Chloé: AMARA ARE YOU UP??

Chloé: SOMETHING CRAZY HAIRBRUSH

Chloé: AND I NEED YOU TO POST ABOUT IT!!

Chloé: HAPPENED*

MISSED CALL: Chloé

Chloé: Okay I couldn't wait

Chloé: I need you to look over the post I made

Chloé: Text me when you wake up!

Somehow, Amara had managed to sleep through Chloé's barrage of notifications. After a split second of panic, she realized nothing was wrong and finally returned her friend's calls.

"Chloé? Hey, I'm up, what's going on?" Amara yawned, still not entirely awake.

"Amara! Okay, so you know Connie? From the charity? Wait, shoot, I don't think you two have met yet. You'd love her, she's great! She's always posting really pretty pictures of herself, I think she might have a fancy camera too?" Chloé was clearly excited, and was talking a mile a minute.

"Chloé..."

"Sorry, that's not important. Anyways, so Connie has this friend that lives off campus, right? Connie is over there all the time, and honestly I think they're dating but don't want to say anything yet, 'cuz she seems to spend the night pretty frequently."

"Chloé!"

"Right, sorry. Sorry! So Connie, she spent last night with her friend, and she's walking home this morning, when she sees that a huge chunk of the Palace has been cleaned up! Like, the remaining walls are down, a bunch of the bigger pieces are in the dumpster, it's crazy! I had to call the dumpster people to schedule a pickup, and we technically haven't even started yet!"

By the time Chloé had finished talking, Amara had already moved to the kitchen. Her tail was holding her phone, which left her hands free to start the coffee. "So, did anyone see who did this?" she asked nervously.

"That's the weirdest part! No one saw anything, it must have happened in the dead of night. But, I mean, who would do that? We've already been advertising the scheduled clean-up hours, why would they do this in secret?"

Amara chuckled at the irony of the situation, wishing she could tell Chloé the truth. "Honestly? It might be better that we don't know. If this stays a secret, there's a good chance people will speculate about what really happened, which translates to a bunch of free publicity for your charity!"

"Ooooh, see, this is why I wanted to work with you on this! You understand all the marketing nonsense!" Chloé paused, her initial excitement having faded somewhat. "Are you able to check my post? I'm sure I didn't use the right buzzwords or whatever."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you did fine. I'll talk to you later, okay? I gotta start my day."

The girls said their goodbyes and finally hung up, leaving Amara alone in her apartment once more. She took her time with the rest of her morning routine, getting dressed, doing her makeup, and eventually setting up her laptop on the kitchen counter. She curled her tail around her coffee mug, took a long sip, and got to work.

Opening her editing software, she plugged in the smaller of her cameras and watched the content slowly transfer. She was very familiar with editing photos, and while she'd done some video work in the past, it definitely wasn't her specialty.

Thankfully, she didn't need to do anything complicated with the video from yesterday. The meat of the footage was roughly in the middle, and it was quick work to remove the useless footage from the beginning and the end. Her biggest concern was to look for any accidental flashes of her demonic abilities. She wasn't entirely sure what they might look like to an outside observer, and the rest of her morning was spent watching the video in its entirety, just to be safe.

It was a surreal experience; she was watching her very first sex tape, yet she wasn't actually in it. She did her best to focus on the important parts, watching her eyes, looking for hints of hellfire, and she was pleasantly surprised when she found nothing. While watching it was making her incredibly horny, she knew she couldn't afford to be distracted at the moment. Plus, Nick and Tessa were probably busy.

After uploading a copy to her phone, she began packing up the rest of the day's classwork. Her thoughts lingered on Mr. Luxnor, on this strange cult he was a part of. What did they want? What was this all leading to?

She tried to think back to all the magic circles she'd been exploring with Tessa. While she didn't understand the technical side of things, she wondered if there had been any other clues she might have missed. Right now, they knew about the one under Lysander Hall, the Cafeteria, the Science Building, and Brandt Hall. Many of them hidden in different ways, none of them exactly the same.

Unfortunately, her curiosity didn't amount to anything. In the end, she simply didn't understand the magic at play. Her strengths were more tactile, and she was hoping this lead with Mr. Luxnor would pan out.

Thinking back on all the circles, however, did bring up memories of Vee. If Amara hadn't been investigating these circles with Tessa, she might never have left the house while shapeshifted. Would that have changed things? Derek would never have accused Vee of attacking him, but how did she know she didn't scare him off in the process?

Of course, Vee probably could have taken him. At the time, I thought I might have indirectly helped her avoid an attack of her own, but she's an Angel! She could probably take him out with both hands tied behind her back! I still have no idea how I didn't lose that fight... am I really stronger than her? Is there more I'm not seeing?

Memories of Halloween began trickling into her thoughts. Flashes of pain, her body changing and warping, the house falling to pieces around them. The hatred in Vee's eyes, the utter contempt for everything Amara was. Those same eyes, bloodied and tearstained, begging for mercy before--

Stay focused Amara. You can't change the past, and you've already done so much to try and help.

She shook her head, grounding herself in the moment before her breathing started to settle. Pulling out her phone, she opened Vee's contact and stared at it for a while, hoping she might manifest a response.

Predictably, nothing appeared.

Amara: I hope you're planning on finishing the semester. I miss you.

She wiped a tear off her cheek, gathered the rest of her things, and left for class.