Love by Djordje Negovanovic

The succubus child was not supposed to fall in love.

“Demon, please, a child for my wife,” the desperate man pleaded.

The succubus child was not supposed to fall in love.

“I have tried and tried and tried, Demon, but I cannot rear a child. Please, for her. She deserves this happiness.”

The succubus child was not supposed to fall in love.

“I will give anything, Demon. Anything.”

…under most circumstances.

“Anything?” the Demon crooned, a filthy baritone voice leaving his wretched throat.

The man breathed in the ashen air. “Anything.”

The Demon smiled. “I wish to take the humanity of this child.”

The man rose to object, but thought better of it, wiping the sweat from his desperate face. “That is all?”

Nodding, the Demon said, “she will bear the face and body of a human, but she will be a foul demon at her core. And she will love, and love, and love humans, until there is no more love to take.”

“And that is all you require? For my… daughter?” the human murmured ecstatically.

From the ashen air the Demon produced an apple, red and greedy as the lapping flames around them. “Feed this to your wife,” he instructed, “and have your child. You may not tell your daughter what she truly is. Let her find out for herself when the time is right.”

“Oh thank you, Demon, thank you!” the man replied. Grasping the unholy apple in his desperate hands, he hurried away to his waiting wife.

And so was the beginning of the succubus who fell in love, who’s Demon father’s wishes would be satisfied.

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“Papa!” the young succubus squealed, masked in the body of a quaint young girl with golden corkscrew curls and silver eyes. “Papa! I’ve met a rabbit!”

Her father, who’d once made a deal with a twisted Demon, looked upon his cursed daughter and smiled. “You’ve met a rabbit?” he humored her with false disbelief. “Did you play?”

“Yes! I chased it through the woods,” she continued. “I kept trying to catch up to it, but the closer I got, the farther away it hopped.” She let out her sadness in a long, outward breath. “But I loved that rabbit so much!”

The man looked over to his wife, who had finally been blessed with a wonderful child, and who looked upon her small, perfect family with a smile of contentment. The man knelt down to the girl and said, “Darling, it is a beautiful thing to love something else. But love it too much,” he warned, “and it will have no chance to love you back.”

Looking into her father’s eyes with her own, which did not match his, she made a silent but fortuitous vow. She would love only if she was loved.

Year passed. The young succubus kept her lips tight and her hands bound in a finger-laced grip. She smiled politely at passersby, she thanked the merchants, but little else did she say. Growing into a beautiful young woman, the silent girl was revered in awe by the people of the town. The mystery of the beautiful girl who kept quietly to herself grew, and grew, and grew.

As did the succubus’s hunger.

“Have you no husband?” a gray merchant asked the lovely inhuman creature, handing her a sack of grain and fruit.

The succubus smiled. “No, not me,” she sighed politely. “I’ve only just reached 20.”

The merchant gawked. “Then you are already running out of time!” she squeaked.

The demon-woman’s forgiving eyes looked upon the salesman as she started, “Well, surely it is not my duty-”

Racing past, a young boy with hungry hands snatched the sack of goods from the cursed woman. His soft, beaten shoes slammed down on the tiled road and carried his starving body farther and farther away. Sparing no glance back, he beat on.

She looked down at her empty hands in bewilderment. With mild hesitation, the woman with blonde corkscrew curls steeled herself, picked up her modest town dress, and chased after the little criminal. With light steps and blazing intention, she locked her eyes onto the thief, a huntress hunting down game. As he turned into a narrow alleyway, decorated by laundry stretched across in string drapery, so did she.

But before she caught the small rogue, it seemed another had gotten to him first.

A tall man, young and lean and draped in cloth of abysmally bland colors, held the young boy by the back of his collar, who kicked his feet uselessly as he gained no ground. Eventually, losing either hope for or interest in escaping, the boy let his feet drift lamely under his body, motionless, before the young man loosened his grip.

“Is this yours?” the young man asked, plucking the burlap bag of goods from the hungry hands of the child.

“Oh, um… yes, yes that would belong to me,” the young woman stammered, forcing her beating heart to quell from the abrupt end to the chase.

Handing her the sack, he continued, “I apologize. It seems my brother has taken too kindly to thievery.”

“It’s not my fault!” the young boy squawked. “I’m hungry. And I like fruit.”

The young woman laughed slightly, covering her mouth with her knuckles. “Eat with us, then?” she extended, patting down her worn village clothes.

The young man smiled. “We’d be delighted.”

And so the succubus fell in love. Hungrily.

“Do you see the lights on the water?” he asked her, months later. “The sea reflects the stars.”

“It’s beautiful,” she said, staring at his eyes, filled with wonderment.

“Someday, I will travel the waters,” he promised. Whether he promised to her or rather to himself shall forever remain a mystery.

“And take me with?” the young woman implored.

“Wherever I go,” the young man began, staring out into the open sea, “be it a castle of gold, a meadow of flowers and magical aromas, or a cave of sapphire wonders,” he turned to face her, “none of it will mean anything if you are not with me to share it.”

She smiled, her face as bright as the endless stars above, as he took a step toward the shore.

“Do you not fear sirens?” she crooned.

“No siren could draw me from you,” he mused, grinning with loving eyes.

And so continued their meetings. They convened and reconvened in somber, quiet places, filled with color and wonder, bringing with them their own magic. They filled small places with wonderment and joy, with solace and safety, with hope and love. When they were together, the sky boomed with silent color and the sea glistened with the stars’ light. The hushed music of the world hummed around them as the wind carefully danced.

And the succubus grew hungrier.

In a twilit night, in a shining sea, in a quiet rowboat, sat the two young lovers. The young man rested his arms on the drifting oars and stared up into the sky, as the young woman looked upon him and his hopeful face.

“What are you thinking about?”

The man lowered his head to face her, and his smile grew. “What will happen to us?” he inquired. “What of the future?”

She smiled and looked up at the stars he was gazing at so forlornly. “And have you found your answers in the night sky?”

“I think I have.” He took her hands in his and held on with a soft grip.

She looked to face him again. In his eyes she saw hope, she saw joy, she saw love. In their glossy reflection, she could see herself.

And she saw hunger.

“We have only so much of our lives left, so many nights of stars ahead of us. Why not share it together, forever?”

She breathed in a quick, hushed breath. “Are you proposing marriage?”

He smiled into her silver eyes. “Would you accept?”

“How could I not?!” she cried. Taking him in her arms, they embraced, hugging tightly his slim shoulders. Pulling back, face to hopeful face, he laid his lips upon hers. And they kissed.

Ah yes, they kissed. And finally,  finally the succubus’s hunger would be quelled.

At first the kiss was filled with the warmth of their love, the young man’s and the young woman’s passions poured together. Then the warmth continued to grow, and grow, until it was blisteringly hot. The succubus hugged tighter her victim as the warmth from the kiss, from his body, sapped into her.

She breathed in his air, his life, his love.

The demonic predator felt the void inside her finally be filled, trapping her squirming prey in her deadly embrace. His skin grew dry and a shade of dusty gray. His veins tensed and grappled his putrid flesh. His skin hugged tight to his thin bone as his hair thinned and fell from his dying head. His eyes, now loose in his head, took one last glance up at the night sky, before falling from their sockets.

And once the empty body stopped wriggling, the succubus was sated.

Coming to her senses, the young woman dropped the decaying body onto the floor of the small, lovely rowboat, and screamed, licking her lips, mourning the death of her fiancé. His bones cracked and snapped as the pile of his limbs sagged and gave into gravity. The young woman with corkscrew curls and silver eyes wept ferociously, unable to shake the sense of satiation that now filled her insides and how vivaciously her body tingled. She looked upon the rotting corpse, foul and serene, and made a silent but fortuitous vow never to love again.

That was, of course, until she would once more grow hungry.

Djordje Negovanovic

Featured Image: Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay – Purple demonic eyes