Suddenly A Succubus

Time slowed to a crawl as Amara froze, her hand on the basement door in front of her. She planted her heel and began to spin around, absolutely sure she was losing her mind, but she caught a glimpse of Vee while she turned.

She heard it too.

Shock and disbelief gripped them both, their breath caught in their throats as they looked back.

Please.

Kneeling in the middle of the circle, wearing a familiar deep blue peacoat, staring up from beneath a curtain of light brown hair, Amara saw the very person she'd been unable to shake from her thoughts ever since that fateful night in the quad. She wasn't glowing, nor was she scattered into thousands of pieces, she simply looked up at Amara and smiled.

"CHLOÉ!!"

Amara broke out into a sprint, tears streaming down her face as she ran towards the circle. Chloé started laughing, overwhelmed with joy as she began crying as well.

Once Amara was close enough, she fell to her knees and slid to a stop just inches away from Chloé. "Is... Is it really you?" Her hands shook as she reached out, nervous to believe this was really happening.

Chloé mimicked the gesture, raising a hand towards Amara's, as she attempted to say something. Her words, however, devolved into tearful gasps of excitement as their hands touched, their fingers intertwining to prove just how real she was. She nodded, her touch inspiring Amara to lean forward and wrap her arms around Chloé.

This is real.

She's here!!

They hugged each other tight, Amara taking great care not to hurt Chloé while also desperately wanting to hold on with every ounce of strength she had. When Vee fell to the ground a second later, Amara looked over and saw the same look of shock she'd worn herself just moments earlier. Breaking off the hug, she happily allowed Vee and Chloé the chance to reunite as well, both girls gasping with unabashed joy while they hugged just as tightly.

Amara lost track of how long they sat there, hugging and softly weeping with joy. Every question gave way to laughter, every concern fell in favor of more crying. At some point, she heard frantic footsteps racing down the staircase behind her and turned to look at the door.

"Vee! What's going--" Tessa froze, gasping in shock just as Amara and Vee had done earlier. Her phone fell to the floor and she ran closer, falling to her knees to join the other girls. She briefly looked at Amara and Vee, silently asking if this was real, both of them simply nodding. Before Tessa had time to process everything, Chloé grabbed her hand and pulled her in for another hug, then did the same with Amara and Vee.

They were finally together again.

The next few minutes were a blurry mess of tears, half-finished questions, and apologies as the girls tried to process everything. Nick joined in too, even shedding his own tears of joy, and it took ages before any of them were ready to have a proper conversation.

Wiping the last of her tears on her jacket sleeve, Amara finally mustered the strength to speak up. "How? How are you still here?" she asked quietly. Next to her, Vee briefly leaned over and squeezed her arm.

"I don't entirely know," Chloé admitted. They were all sitting on the floor inside the magic circle, and they all grew quiet as Chloé began to explain everything. "After the portal closed, I just kinda... I don't know, stopped existing for a while? Like, I didn't have a body, and I couldn't differentiate myself from the world around me. I didn't have any of my senses, I didn't even know up from down. Eventually I started to piece things together, but I didn't have any memories; I was just navigating the world based on how things made me feel."

Chloé looked over to Amara. "I followed you around at times, no idea who you were, but I remembered that you made me feel safe. I did the same with all of you, at times, slowly trying to figure out who I was and why you all seemed so sad."

"Wait," Tessa said, "you've been here? On campus?"

Chloé nodded. "The whole time, yeah. Like a ghost. But, without my memories, nothing made sense. I didn't understand emotions, I couldn't even hear anyone talk for the longest time. I reached a point where I started to experiment, to try and recreate the things I saw other people doing. I pushed a mug off Amara's counter, I listened in on random conversations, my vision improved and I started to see colors again, that kind of thing."

"That was you?!" Amara asked in shock.

"That was me!" Chloé said, laughing. "It took every ounce of strength I had, and afterwards I completely lost myself for a bit. When I pulled myself together again, I saw, like, another you? Which was really confusing in the moment, but thinking back on it, was that your mom?"

"It was! That was the night I learned she's a succubus too!"

"So that's where you got it from!" Chloé laughed again, eventually sighing and quieting down once more. "But, yeah. I slowly figured out more and more things as time went on. I tried to figure out everyone's names, the names of the buildings, it took a really long time. The scariest part--well, at the time it wasn't scary, but now that I'm thinking back it was terrifying--was this weird void that followed me everywhere I went. I think... I think it was the afterlife. Whenever I looked at it, I just knew it was the end of everything."

Everyone grew quiet, paying rapt attention to Chloé's story. Talking about the void seemed to change her demeanor, and she stood up before turning to face the dead end behind them. "I don't know how to describe it. It was everywhere and nowhere, big and small, and no matter where I went it followed me. It was between the corners of the walls, at the edges of buildings, things like that."

Chloé stood at the edge of the magic circle, leaning forward slightly as she inspected the wall in front of her. While she did, her body slowly lifted off the floor. "It's not here anymore. I wonder if it gave up on me?"

Vee spoke up next. "How do you feel now?"

Turning back to the group, Chloé continued hovering a few inches above the concrete. "I'm still trying to figure that out. For a while, engaging any of my senses was physically painful and disorienting. It got a little easier over time, and it honestly feels like something clicked just a moment ago, once I got my memory back. Like, now that I've put all the pieces together, holding this form feels a bit easier. Amara, Vee... I heard bits and pieces of you saying goodbye, I think that's what brought me back. I suddenly remembered all the pain of the portal closing on me, but I also finally realized that you were all sad because I wasn't around anymore. It... it was really eye-opening."

"Of course we were sad, you idiot," Tessa said, forcing a smile as a tear ran down her cheek. "You're our friend, we were all falling apart without you!"

"I mean, yeah, but..." Chloé stammered. "There's always that fear, right? The little voice in the back of my head that says you don't actually like me, that you're just putting up with me. I spent so many years being harassed, the butt of the joke, and those feelings were the loudest when I was trying to put myself back together again. The most familiar thoughts, the ones that came back first, were the little voices that told me I was worthless. Nothing."

"Chloé, you saved our lives! You saved the entire fucking campus!" Amara said. "Without you around, I-I didn't know what to do with myself!"

"It's true," Vee added, playfully elbowing Amara. "She was an absolute mess."

"You've always been the one trying to keep us in line, pushing us to be better, more responsible people," Tessa said. "I'll admit, I don't think I realized how much I enjoyed having you around until, well..."

Nick grabbed Tessa's hand. "We were miserable without you, Chloé. I don't think I can possibly express how happy I am to see you again," he said quietly.

Chloé floated closer to Nick and Tessa. "Ugh, I know, and I don't want to make you all repeat the same things you've been saying for the last year and a half. I don't mean to make this all about me, it's just--"

Tessa jumped to her feet in protest. "Oh, don't start with that! You just fucking came back from an endless void between dimensions; there will literally never be a better time to make everything about you! There's so much I want to know! What did you see? When you interacted with the world, what was it like?"

The conversation began veering off on a small tangent, Chloé doing her best to answer Tessa's endless questions, and Amara mentally stepped back for a moment to collect herself. Vee seemed to catch this, and leaned closer to whisper, "Hey, you doing alright? Obviously this is incredible, but you've been a little... y'know, recently."

"No, I'm good," Amara whispered back. "It's just... a lot. This is so much to take in."

They looked over at Chloé and Tessa; the latter was excitedly shooting off question after question, while the former seemed to be struggling to keep up. Vee sighed. "Poor Chloé. I can't imagine how terrifying this all must have been for her. She still seems a little shaken, honestly."

"You think so?" Amara looked over at Chloé. She was happy, no doubt about it, but subtle differences in her posture stood out to Amara. She'd photographed Chloé at her best, and something still seemed off. "Huh, now that you mention it... she always has this spark when she's in her element, and that's not quite there right now."

"Well, it's not every day you claw back from death itself," Vee said cautiously. "You always knew her best, do you think there's anything we could do to cheer her up?"

"Cheer her up?" Amara looked at Chloé again, her eyes glancing briefly to the floor underneath her. "Oh. Yeah, that's easy."

"Really?"

Amara raised her voice, calling out to interrupt the other conversation. "Hey, Chloé!"

The other girls stopped talking, and Chloé looked over. "Yeah?"

"I thought you'd be more excited," Amara said, holding back a smile.

"Excited?" Chloé tilted her head in confusion. "About... almost dying?"

"About having superpowers, silly."

Chloé stared at Amara for a moment, the gears behind her eyes slowly clicking into place. She looked down at the floor, saw that her feet were no longer touching it, then gasped and looked back at Amara. "OH MY GOD! I CAN FLY!!"

With an ecstatic shout, Chloé rose even higher above the ground. Her arms floated up, as if in zero-gravity, then her hair and her coat followed suit. Laughing the whole time, a massive smile on her face, she looked up at the ceiling. Without warning, she began flying around the room, completely unrestrained by the forces of nature, her laughter occasionally cutting off as she effortlessly passed through the nearby walls and ceiling.

"I was able to do this over there, too! I was able to phase through--" She disappeared into the ceiling, then reappeared from the wall behind Amara. "-- but I didn't even think that I might still be able to do that! LOOK AT HOW FAS--"

Amara started laughing, beaming with joy as she watched Chloé race all over the basement. After another few passes, Chloé even phased through everyone present, an incredibly strange feeling that sent chills through Amara, but the strange sensation only made her more excited to have Chloé back. Not only had she defied death itself, but somehow, she'd found something new in the process.

A minute later, after the initial excitement had passed, Chloé paused a few feet away from the magic circle and wobbled slightly. "Whoa, guys, I feel a little dizzy..."

"Maybe you're pushing yourself too hard? Come on down, take a seat, relax a little," Vee suggested.

As Chloé nodded, she began floating closer to the group. As she moved, her hair began to lose its color and her body grew transparent. However, that translucency faded as soon as Chloé moved inside the circle, at which point she sighed with relief.

"Ugh, sitting sounds like so much work..." she complained.

"I'm sorry, work?" Nick asked. "It takes effort to sit?"

"Yeah, it's like... wait. Huh." Chloé paused, inspecting the ground underneath her. She briefly touched down, her clothes and hair falling limp, then a moment later everything began floating again. "Okay, I'm obviously not 100% my old self, the flying and the phasing is proof of that, but remember what I said before? That all of my senses came and went? I think that's still happening."

"But you said sitting takes effort," Vee said. "Sitting isn't exactly a sense."

Repeating her earlier maneuver, Chloé's hair and clothing briefly fell limp before floating back up again. "I think gravity is a muscle now. It takes real, tangible effort to make my body obey it. That's probably why I can phase through things; my sense of touch is optional now. I wonder if I can--"

Chloé suddenly vanished. Everyone else in the group flinched in surprise, but before anyone could move or say anything, they heard her voice again. "I knew it! Staying visible is the same way! Ugh, this is so much better. It's like coming home after a long day of classes and collapsing on a bed. Shoot, my bed! Am I not going to be able to use my bed anymore?"

"So, if you're able to pick and choose all your senses now, does that mean you can still touch things even if you're invisible?" Amara asked, speaking to the air where she assumed Chloé was. A second later, something grabbed her hair and lifted it up.

"Ha! You're totally right!" Chloé said from above Amara.

Following the sound of Chloé's voice, and the movement of her own hair, Amara assumed her friend was floating behind her. "It's not disorienting at all? Being upside down or invisible?"

"Not really, it's like I'm completely detached from... oof, actually, I changed my mind. I'm not feeling too great right now." Chloé dropped Amara's hair, though she stayed invisible. "Wait, am I...? Yeah, I just left the circle, that's why."

"The circle?" Tessa asked. "What has the circle got to do with this?"

Chloé spoke up again, her voice moving back to the center of the magic circle. "I don't know! For some reason, whenever I'm inside this circle, everything feels easier. It's not as tiring to see or hear or feel or whatever. Is there something special about it?"

"Right, we never told you that part," Tessa muttered. "This circle is connected to Purgatory, initially to hold it at bay, but I reconfigured the runes to instead create a bridge there. It's how we got Amara and Vee back just before Brandon invaded. If you technically exist in a permanent state of suspension between the two planes, that would explain why everything feels easier here!"

Tessa was clearly excited to explore the magic behind this new theory of hers, and she even pulled out her notebook to start jotting down more ideas.

"That's so cool!" Chloé said, reappearing a few inches above the circle. "I'll definitely need to be careful about overdoing it outside of the circle, but even if I'm just staying invisible and listening to things, that's still a huge help. I can't wait to help you guys take down the Coven!"

"Wait, what?" Tessa froze. "What do you mean, 'take down the Coven?'"

"You guys don't know? That's right, Davenport was being real hush hush about it..."

"About what? Chloé, what do you know?" Tessa asked again, much more concerned now.

"Well, I spent some time following Davenport around, and I learned that she's not actually here to close the Gate. She wants to alter them to act as siphons, which is only possible if they leave the Gate a little bit open. The bigger the opening, the more magic they get.

Stiff, uncomfortable silence hung in the air as everyone processed what Chloé had just told them.

"They're... not actually here to help?" Amara asked, her breath quickening.

"No, but... but Miss Bishop, she's always--" Tessa said, starting to panic.

"They're just here to exploit us? To throw us to the wolves in a desperate grab for power?" Thick, billowing waves of heat began to swirl around Amara.

Vee stepped closer, holding Amara's arm. "We can't say that for sure, maybe Chloé misheard--"

"Just like Wellington?Just like Brandon?!" Amara's hair burst into flames, causing everyone except Vee to jump back in fear.

"We can talk this over!" Vee said, radiant energy gathering around her to keep her safe from the fire. "We need to do this together!"

"That's what we tried last time!" Amara shouted. Looking around, she saw everyone's shadows flickering on the walls and clawed her hellfire back inside of her. With the fire now under control, she forced herself to take a deep breath; in for two, out for four.

"Amara, I get it. This sucks, but it affects all of us equally." Vee turned to look at Tessa, still holding Amara tight. "Tess, this is your Coven, what can we do to stop them?"

Tessa clutched her notebook to her chest, practically hyperventilating as she returned Vee's look. "I... I don't..."

"Hey, you're not alone, Tess," Nick said, taking her hand. "We're in this together."

She looked at him, nodded, then tried to calm herself down. "Davenport's in charge, but technically she holds the same title as everyone else. We should talk to Miss Bishop, she'll want to know about this, and she can help us put together a plan."

"You want to trust them?" Amara hissed. "Even if Bishop's better, she's still more than happy to let Davenport assault you in public!"

"T-this is different," Tessa muttered, shrinking into herself. "It's not about me anymore, this is a fundamental betrayal of everything a Coven is supposed to stand for. She can help us."

"Um..." Chloé muttered. "I wouldn't be too sure about that. There's a good chance that everyone already knows the plan. Some of them tried to talk Davenport down, but she's got dirt on all of them and she's using it to keep them in check."

"What?!" Tessa said, tears threatening to fall again.

"All the more reason to act now!" Amara said. "Every second we wait puts us at greater risk! Chloé, have they started changing the circles yet?"

"I-I don't know," Chloé admitted.

Amara pointed to Chloé, as if her admission proved her point. "If we wait too long, we lose our chance to fight them on even footing. Would you rather confront them now? Or after they've got all the magic of the planes behind them?"

"It's not... I just think..." Tessa stammered.

"We've spent months letting everyone walking all over us! The cult, Wellington, Brandon." Amara raised a fist in front of her, hellfire swirling bright around it. "I had a chance to end him, Tessa, and I let him go. Everything Chloé went through? I could have prevented all of it if I hadn't been scared of taking initiative!"

"It's not that simple, Amara," Vee said quietly. "Even if the siphons aren't active yet, we have no idea how strong they are!"

Amara looked to Vee, then around to the rest of her friends. Their silence spoke volumes as to which plan they favored.

"Tch," Amara scoffed. "Be that way. I'll take care of this myself."

Vee briefly tried to hold Amara back, and she pulled her arm free before walking over to Nick. She grabbed his arm tightly before turning to walk towards the exit.

"Wait, what?" Nick winced, planting his feet and trying to pull away. "Amara, stop! You're hurting me!"

Amara spun to face him, flames leaping from her gaze. "What?!"

"Too much energy and you won't be able to think straight, Amara," Nick said, holding his ground. "We need to talk this over as a group. Put together a planas a group."

Releasing her hold on Nick, she cast her eyes to Tessa.

"He's right, Amara." the witch said.

Vee nodded in agreement as well, then Amara finally cast her gaze to Chloé. Getting her back was a miracle, and now the Coven was trying to throw their campus into disarray again. They had nearly lost Chloé because they didn't strike while the iron was hot, and Amara refused to throw that lesson away now.