"My man!" shouts Connor.


"Har har Greg probably wants a retarded child to have someone finally agree with him," Tom jokes.


Tom and Connor start shouting about how much of a dumbass Greg is. You agree, but don't join in on the berating. Instead, you walk out of the tavern without a second glance. As you make your way outside you are hit with a rush of cool air.


"I can't wait to meet Catia," you mutter to yourself.


You tuck your hands in your pockets and begin the walk to your home. On the way, you bump into a familiar face. It's Lars.


"How did last night go?" he asks.


Something about Lars is rubbing you the wrong way. It might be his emotionless eyes or his downtrodden tone, but you feel like telling him about Catia is a bad idea


"I nearly froze to death," you say, wanting to be vague.


"Yeah how exactly did you avoid doing that? When I left it looked like you were about to pass out."


"Just lucky I guess."


"Lucky huh? Well it's your 'luck' that got me fired. Thanks a lot, now my family can starve to death before getting killed by demons."


You remain silent.


"The captain chewed my ass out for quitting guard duty. I thought he would berate me and give me a warning, but he fucking fired me. I told him how much bullshit that was because I would have frozen to death otherwise. He told me I was lazy and incompetent because 'the other guard didn't complain' as if your dumbass was smart to stay."


You try to apologize but Lars is having none of it. He gets angry and says,


"I pray to god the demons invade and gut you and the captain like fish. Scrape out your insides with their claws and your other insides with their dick."


"Jesus man I said I was sorry."


"Sorry doesn't feed my family. Get out of my way, I'm gonna' drink until I die."


You move aside as Lars storms past you. Well, that was an interesting encounter. You don't even know what to think, were you wrong to lie to him? How would he have reacted if you told him the truth? You push these thoughts out of your head and focus on getting home. It's super cold and you don't want to freeze to death and not have a succubus save you.


You find yourself exiting out of the slums and into the residential part of the city. Most guards sleep in the barracks, however, since your parents never returned from their trip their house is all yours. If they ever return, you hope they don't mind you bringing a demon inside the house. Although, they were always bugging you about finding a girlfriend, this might not be what they had in mind.


You arrive at your parent's old home and open the door. The wooden door squeaks loudly as you open it.


"Some things never change," you whisper to yourself.


You immediately start making yourself more presentable. You change out of your soldiers' uniform and put on a loose-fitting black tunic. You probably should take a bath but you're too excited to see Catia that you forget to. Do demons mind odor?


You're about to sit down in your bed when a chill runs down your spin. Your door makes a squeaking noise and a cold breeze rushes towards you.


"Is somebody there?" you ask.


No reply, although you don't know what you were expecting. It's possible the breeze pushed the door open, it's pretty flimsy and it wouldn't be the craziest thing that's happened in the last 24 hours. On the other hand, you can't shake the feeling your being watched. Should you grab your sword and investigate?

You grab your sword and investigate

Maybe it's paranoia, but what kind of brain-dead retard wouldn't rather be safe than sorry? You take out your sword and leave the bed room, checking every corner as you do so. This pays of as you notice a shadowy figure standing outside your bedroom. Is that…Lars?


"Your senses are very good, demon. I knew you were possessed, how else could you have heard me?"


"The annoying door squeak, for one. Also, it's fucking freezing so I knew someone let in the cold."


"More lies! First you tell me you survived the cold from pure luck, now you tell me your heighten senses are nothing special?


"Lars, you have no idea what you're talking about."


"Stop pretending, I know your secret. You've been possessed by a demon; how else could you survive the frigid cold?"


Not wanting to fight a former friend, you decide to tell him the truth.


"I haven't been possessed by a demon, but one did save me. It all started once you left…"


Later


"So that's why you were at the drunk tortoise? I admit, you've never been one to drink."


"Exactly! I'm glad you understand."


"What now? You're going to come clean to the captain and convince him to give me back my job, right?


While the captain may give Lars his job back, you would probably be fired. Coming into direct contact with a demon and living to tell the tale is a no go. He'll probably think you made some sort of deal to avoid being killed. Regardless of what you plan to do, you say,


"I will definitely do that tomorrow."


Lars nods but still looks a little unhinged. His hand twitches and he gives you a half grin.


"Ok I'm holding you to it, because if you don't, you're gonna wish you froze to death last night."


You gulp as you have no doubt Lars could kill you if he wanted. He leaves and you hear the door squeak once again. The cold breeze has expanded throughout your house and you could use some heating up. After securing to house to make sure Lars isn't still lurking, you fall into bed.


You're super tired and debate whether you still want to see Catia. It's been a long day and if you have any intention of talking to your captain tomorrow, you should go to sleep.

You summon Catia

"Catia."


A dark cloud appears in your room, dispelling a toxic fume. You start violently coughing as you vision blurs indiscriminately. Your eyes shut close and you feel you grip on reality slipping away from you. 


"Ah shit," you whisper before passing out. 


Your eyes jitter open and you're greeted by Catia stroking your face. Her palm flushes the coolness off your face. Beads of sweat drip furiously down your neck as she continues caressing you. 


"Couldn't wait a single day before seeing me again? Especially after you promised your friend you would visit 'the captain'? How cute." 


You don't have time to question how she knows that before she crawls on top of your bed and snuggles against you. Her aura is all consuming and you feel your free will being drained away. Yet, the whole process is extremely pleasing to you. She moves her mouth to your ear and whispers,


"Do you want to see everything I have to offer?"


You bite your tongue to avoid instinctively shouting yes. This may be your last chance to not go through with this. At the very least, it would give you chance to ask her a few more questions.