Witch Juice

Vincent woke up to the morning sun beaming into his eyes through his hotel window. His hand shot up to block the light as he groaned, struggling to turn away and get more sleep. However, as he turned, he suddenly realized that Lilith was no longer in the bed with him.

“Figures,” he said with a smirk. “Makes it easier, anyway.” He sat up out of the bedsheets and started to put his clothes back on. He drew his phone from his pocket and ran through his contacts. His finger caught Lilith’s name. He jutted his jaw out to the side as he pondered over the idea of contacting her again. His confident expression faded. But soon, his finger instead flicked her name up, his contacts cascading through. Finally, he came to one contact, simply named “V.” He selected the name and put his phone up to his ear. After a couple of dial tones, he hears an answer.

“She took it. She has it,” he groggily asserted into the phone.

At the other end of the line, a woman stood in an alleyway in the city streets. She was a tall, dark-haired woman sporting fashionable shades. Her face had sharp, strong features, her grin was thin and wicked, applied with maliciously black lipstick. Her slender, trim figure was hidden beneath a large, black overcoat, complete with a wide-brim, equally-black sun hat.

“You picked quite a good time to call,” she replied in a sarcastic tone. Her voice was sultry and low, yet chilling, causing even Vincent to be mildly discomforted.

“This… is, uh, spontaneous, you know. That kinda thing,” he answered, still drunk with sleep.

“The trap is set then. Where can I find her?” she asked hastily.

Suddenly, from behind her, a police officer approached her from the mouth of the alleyway. His pistol was drawn with both hands, and he walked slowly towards her. His aim was shaking, his eyes were wide with fear.

“I-I- saw you… I saw what you d-did… to my partner,” he managed to cough out the words as his jaw chattered, the terror overtaking him.

Vincent’s voice continued through the phone. “She left the hotel about… ” Vincent laid his hand against Lilith’s side of the bed to feel its warmth. As he felt the faint heat, he sighed. “Two hours ago. She should be around the university. I gave her a dress- it’s inlaid with wraith-cloth threading. She wore it; the scent should stick to her skin, even if she showers. Your sharp, sharp nose should be able to pick it up.”

“Good enough,” she replied back.

“Hey!” The officer coarsely roared at the woman, his confidence waning as his voice cracked.

“Give me a moment, I have to take care of a pest,” she commented nonchalantly.

“What?” Vincent questioned.

The woman lowered the phone from her ear and slowly turned to the officer. “You saw what I did, huh? Very good.” she condescended. “If you saw it, then you know why you should run along-” A loud bang echoed into the air and a sudden flash penetrated the darkness of the alley. A trail of thin, wispy smoke left the barrel of the officer’s gun.

The woman stopped speaking abruptly. Her patronizing expression soon faded into one of grave sternness. She slowly reached into her left shoulder and pinched at the surface of her coat, at a small divet. From it, she produced a squashed bullet and presented it to the officer. His quaking distress intensified as he realized what had just happened. The gun’s aim became even more unstable.

“That wasn’t very nice,” the woman snarled. She began to walk towards him. Two more shots rang into the air, but she was unphased. The bullets fell to the floor with a soft clink. They could hear the faint, distressed screaming of bystanders outside the alleyway as the gunshots reverberated into the street. The officer held his aim, ready for another shot, but now the woman was in arm’s reach.

She swiftly grabbed the gun out of his hand without any resistance. The officer’s entire body was stricken with dread as his expression melted into terror. The woman looked at the gun quizzingly, holding it up by the grip. “Such peculiar tools for weak, insignificant beings.” She gripped the weapon, which signaled the officer to try and turn and run. However, her arm shot out and her hand was suddenly clasped around his neck. “Let me show you real power.” She gripped the gun harder until the metal began to crack in her hand. Then, with a loud snap, the gun crumbled to the ground in shambled pieces.

“W-what the fuck… are you?” the officer managed to breathe out in a hushed tone through the powerful grip on his neck.

The woman simply responded with a dreadful grimace. She held her arm up and made a claw with her hand. Her red-polished nails began to grow long, into sharp, talon-like curves. The officer’s eyes widened even more as he witnessed his grim fate. Her palm straightened out, and she rocketed her hand into the officer’s chest as he could do nothing but hiss in pain as his throat was compressed by her mighty hand. Her talons punctured through his skin like it was paper, the bones in his chest crackling and snapping as her sharp nails soon met a bloody heart, and her hand had ripped through the muscles and sinew and was now out the other side. Blood spurted forth from either end of the hole she had voraciously torn into him. The man forcefully gurgled in pain as she continued to press on his neck, blood making its way through his mouth and dribbling down his chin as the internal bleeding began to geyser out through his body. The deep red blood splashed to the floor hard as it continued to pour from his fatal wound, and soon his gurgling subsided as his eyes stopped moving and his body stopped writhing. However, she continued to grip his throat harder, and soon a loud crack resounded through the alleyway.

She withdrew her arm from the man and a torrent of red followed. She dropped the body to the floor with a loud splash, causing the pool below to erupt into the walls of the alleyway. The woman looked at her arms, which were now drenched in deep crimson. Soon, all the thick liquid in the ground and on the wall began to lightly sizzle. Small wisps of scarlet gas rose up from the bloody mess and directed themselves towards the woman. She closed her eyes and held out her hands as the blood on her arms also began to absorb into her pores, soon disappearing completely. The pools of the alley soon evaporated into a red mist that flowed into the woman’s hands. A more intensely crimson vein of mist flowed from the officer’s corpse, with the mangled husk slowly decreasing in size, his dead skin turning deathly grey and wrinkled. The pools eventually disappeared, as if they were never there, leaving only a crumpled and twisted bag of skin and bones that was once the officer.

“A light snack to start the day,” she joked to herself. She brought the phone back up to her ear. “You were saying?”

Vincent, at the other end, had heard only tidbits of the assault. His face turned from one of aloof carelessness to one of stern calmness. “You’ll find her at the university. She’ll lead you right to him.”

“Excellent,” she hissed with a grimace. The grey, wrinkled sack of skin on the ground soon turned into dust in the wind out of the alleyway.

Many hours later, during the cusp of nightfall, Lilith wandered around the streets outside the various academic buildings on campus, making her way to an inner courtyard, filled with lush grass, cut freshly from that evening, filling the air with a pure, loamy scent. Lecture halls and learning centers were scattered along the outside of the pavement that bordered the large green lawn, with gothic-style lamp posts dotted along the walking paths, providing a slight yet warm illumination to the slowly emerging dark of the night.

The scenery would usually provide Lilith with a calm sense of peace. It was quiet and students were sparsely traveling around to their late classes. Some were relaxing on benches, reading books, enjoying the serenity that came with a warm summer night. Others rested under the various trees that were scattered about the courtyard. Lilith could only hear the rare chattering of passerby, along with their lightly echoing footsteps. However, she struggled to find that inner peace, as she tightly gripped her newly built instrument in one hand. She paced back and forth along the walking path, sheathing the gnarled, fanged wand underneath her zip-up hoodie, checking it every so often, away from the eyes of the public. Between the tips of the two fangs, a small wisp of blue light emitted faintly, much to Lilith’s frustration. She reassured herself that her awkward stance while walking would feign as her attempt at reading her bright phone screen in the inner pocket of her sweater.

“It should be working, I don’t get it,” she grumbled to herself. “I constructed it from the coven’s finest materials…Damn it!” She proceeded to attempt to banish it with her violet flames as she did with her vials. However, the sparks of fire simply surged up the surface of the wand and quickly fizzled out, unaffecting it. “Great,” she groaned.

“Excuse me, you lost?” A large man approached Lilith from behind, jogging in place and taking his headphones out of his ears. He was glistening with sweat and took a swig out of a water bottle as he looked at Lilith. “I jog here often, you need directions?”

“No,” Lilith asserted, turning her attention back to the wand.

“I can show you where you need to go on your phone there,” the man flashed a friendly smile. Lilith could sense his eyes wander to her cleavage as she was pulling her sweater out to observe the blue light of the wand, revealing a tight low-cut tank top. She hastily covered up.

“I said I don’t need help,” she replied sternly.

The man chuckled. “You don’t need to be shy. It’s a big campus, plenty of people-”

“Get lost! Insolent creature!” Lilith shouted with all of her might. Her eyes began to glow with violet light. The man’s eyes widened and he slowly backed away.

“Uh…” The man was dumbfounded.

“Go!” Lilith commanded loudly once more. The man simply backed away and ran in the other direction. Only then Lilith realized that her shrill voice resounded through the inner courtyard, catching the attention of everyone around her.

She looked around, as she could now feel the eyes of the courtyard on her. She could hear the hushed whispers of passersby and feel the confused gazes of onlookers. She ground her teeth in frustration; she wanted to shout at them all. She wanted to show them all of her true power but the fact that she simply couldn’t expound on her annoyance. Instead, she quickly shuffled away from the courtyard. But her tired expression soon changed to surprise as the small blue wisp within her sweater started to grow. A strand-like wisp of magical smoke grew from the light ball, but it was still wavering to and fro. Lilith, guided by the swirling wisp, scurried around the street, causing people near her to dodge her with puzzled looks. However, her focus was now solely on the wisp, her expression now chiseled with determination. Finally, after minutes of dizzying loops and circles about the walkways, the wisp settled, the strand of smoke now wavering in the direction of the Mathematics Lecture Hall.

“Ah.” Lilith produced a sly grin as she pondered. “Makes sense, now.” She took off her sweater and tied it around her waist. “Time to work the charm,” she whispered to herself as she followed the rest of the students into the lecture hall.

Emmett was walking into his Linear Algebra class along with the many other students sauntering into the lecture hall, cursing themselves for putting such a late class into their schedules. The once-bustling crowd of students from the beginning of the semester was now culled by boredom and cut down to a sparse, yet still sizable group. Emmett had actually gotten a perfectly fine class in the mid-afternoon when he signed up, but as soon as he had heard Jenna was taking the same class, he changed it over to this one within the second week. He didn’t mind the awkward night class’ timing, he just wanted to be with Jenna.

The lecture hall was quite large, holding one hundred or so seats all aligned in semi-circular rows, each row lower than the previous, all leading down to a huge whiteboard and wooden podium on its right side. The professor was there, but instead of gathering his notes as per usual, he was brimming and chuckling while talking to an old student of his. It was a student that Emmett had recognized all too well.

“Aidan’s here?” Jenna had snuck up behind Emmett, startling him, causing Jenna to lightly snicker. He quickly composed himself in front of his crush. After his dream from last night, the hot aura around Jenna was seemingly beginning to sear him.

As he looked at Jenna, the eerie whiteness of the corridor from his dream seemed to creep into his peripheral vision. As she was now right in front of him, Emmett was only now realizing how vivid his dream was, how accurate and detailed his vision of Jenna was, and how real the sensations felt. He looked at Jenna’s lips again, and could strikingly recall the wet sensation of them slurping on his cock. His head started to feel light as his toes curled up within his shoes and his whole lower body felt like it was heating up. Emmett was beginning to wonder if that was even a dream at all.

“Hello? Everything okay? Aidan’s got you really shaken up, huh?” Jenna’s words penetrated Emmett’s trance. He suddenly snapped back to the real world.

“Yeah, he just wants to, ya know, make sure I come to class and actually pay attention,” Emmett answered nervously. The whole situation seemed childish.

“I see… Oh! Is this because of that thing with Thomas? That was some crazy shit.” Jenna’s eyes were wide with the appetite for drama.

“I know, I want to say the guy had it coming, but still…” Emmett looked down and began to ponder something.

“Still what? He totally had it coming. Do you remember when he was caught roofie-ing some of those girls from the D&D Club? Just so he could take pictures of them while they slept at his apartment? Yuck!” Jenna and Emmett continued to scan the lecture hall for seats.

“Yeah, but… raping a girl in the bathroom of a student center? That’s not his style…”

“Oh yeah, what exactly is his style? Do predators have a style now?”

Emmett grinned at Jenna’s joke and rolled his eyes. “That’s not what I mean. I mean, like, he was a creep, a coward. He stuck his camera up girl’s skirts on the bus, he smelled girls’ hair when they got near him, that kind of creep.”

“Not the ‘attack-a-girl-in-a-public-restroom’ sort of creep, huh?”

“Plus: no witnesses from a crowded student center in the middle of exam season? I would’ve heard some crazy stories on the internet by now.”

“Right, ‘I was there,’ or ‘I heard the whole thing’ kinda deals.”

“Exactly,” Emmett nodded.

“Sounds like we have a mystery on our hands, Detective Grimm.”

Emmett rolled his eyes again. “I’m being sorta serious for once.”

“I am too! You’ve convinced me, I guess, it sounds weird. But what can we do now?”

“I… I don’t know, actually. It sounded pretty exciting though.”

“You play too many video games,” Jenna scoffed.

“Please, I barely have the time anymore… I make my own games now,” Emmett joked, sounding over-dramatic on purpose.

“Thrilling,” she chided.

Aidan, down at the whiteboard, exchanged friendly handshakes, shoulder pats, and giddy expressions with his old math professor. He started to make his way up the steps to the back row with a cheery jaunt, towards Emmett and Jenna who were still scanning the lecture hall for open seats. Aidan was a tall young man. He had a strong, angular chin yet soft, baby-faced features. He had medium-length, flowing hair and he had a gentle gaze, his eyelids always seemed to be half-shut. It made it difficult for Emmett to be too mad at him despite his annoying demands. Other than that, he had broad shoulders and a strong physique. Although Aidan was known for being a genius with the highest scores in the university, all while double majoring in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, he still found time to be president of the campus’ legendary Karate Club, which kept him in tip-top shape. Nobody really knew how Aidan did it all.

“Emmett!” Aidan beamed at him with his usual chipper demeanor.

“Hi, Aidan,” Emmett spilled out without a hint of joy.

“Jenna!” He turned to Jenna with the same cheeriness.

“Hi, Aidan. Thanks for being here,” she chimed out. It was obvious Jenna didn’t really know how to act around Aidan’s unwavering joy. “I guess ol’ Emmett can’t rest on his ass now.” Jenna playfully jabbed at Emmett with an elbow.

“Oh, come on,” Aidan urged. “I’m not some babysitter. I just want to make sure our good friend Emmett here just makes it out of Linear Algebra and Topology alive.”

“I’m doing fine on my own, thanks.” Emmett defended. “You didn’t have to come here, I’m not a baby.”

“Again, just making sure, not here to baby you around,” Aidan assured back.

“Yeah, Emmett. It wouldn’t hurt to have a little boost, right?” Jenna added.

“You’re supposed to be on my side,” Emmett hissed.

Jenna giggled back, “I’m never on your side.”

“Anyway,” Aidan interjected. “This is going to be a tricky lesson. It’s on the Woodbury matrix identity. You familiar?”

Emmett and Jenna stared blankly back at Aidan.

“No,” Emmett answered unemotionally.

“Okay, well, like I said it’s a tricky one, so please pay attention to this stuff. It’ll definitely be on the final.”

“Aidan, I didn’t come to lecture to just goof off, okay.”

“You don’t have to goof off, you could just fall asleep or just not pay attention,” Jenna added matter-of-factly.

Emmett leered at Jenna, her mischievous grin unwavering, and Aidan simply nodded in agreement with her.

“Alright, lecture’s gonna start in fifteen minutes, so take your seats- oh, and don’t forget the Topology notes.”

“Thanks for the reminder, Mom.” Emmett scoffed.

“Don’t mention it.” Aidan started with a light jog for the back row as Emmett and Jenna moved towards some seats in the midsection.

“You’re not sitting with us?” Jenna asked before Aidan moved out of earshot.

“Oh, well, maybe not today. When I was a sophomore I used to sit in the back here.” Aidan excitedly jumped in one of the flip-out lecture seats in the furthest back row, landing in it perfectly with a satisfied grin. “It’s the very same seat where I finally understood pseudo-Euclidean spaces. Plus, it’ll feel less like I’m babysitting you, right?”

“Nostalgic, I guess,” Jenna commented, trying to force out a bit of shared excitement.

“Great!” Emmett exclaimed with relief. “Let’s go sit far away.” They continued towards two empty seats towards one of the midsection rows and finally sat down, drawing out the small attached desk paddles to lay their notebooks out on.

“He’s just as eccentric as ever, despite the whole news about Thomas. Is he really gunning for the number-one spot?” Jenna wondered.

“No, he doesn’t care about that kind of stuff. And I don’t really think he liked Thomas much anyway.”

“Maybe he is broken up about it, though. He seems like the type to not make others worry about his feelings, you know?”

“Yeah, I see your point.” Emmett looked back at Aidan. He beamed back at Emmett, shooting out a swift thumbs up. Emmett unenthusiastically produced his own groggy thumbs up, to which Aidan beamed harder.

“Or maybe not,” Jenna observed, looking back.

“No, you have a point. Remember when I got kicked from the Computer Science program? That’s when I met Aidan.”

“I remember. Aidan was with that peer mentorship program.” Jenna nodded.

“Well, he was going through shit at the time too. His mom had cancer- it’s all good now, though. But, at the same time, his older brother got caught up in some bad shit or something. Drugs or some legal trouble with a girl I heard.”

“That’s pretty amazing, actually. Had the time for all that…” Jenna replied in awe.

“Yeah, I was supposed to meet Aidan for a few weeks but the dude is fucking stuck to me now.”

“Didn’t you guys play a game together, an MMO or something?'”

“Champions of the Abyss. He is surprisingly good at it even with his insane schedule… it’s actually kind of annoying.”

“See, that’s probably one of the reasons why he’s ‘stuck to you.’ You’re a friend, Emmett.”

“I know, I get it, I get it. He comes from a big family; he thinks he’s everyone’s big brother.”

Jenna giggled back, “And as every brotherly relationship goes, it can be annoying-”

“Totally,” Emmett interjected.

“-but, it can be rewarding too,” she continued. “As I said, you’re lucky to have him in your life.”

Emmett sighed. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Jenna mimicked in a nasally tone.

“That is just the most accurate, most awe-inspiring rendition of my voice I’ve ever heard,” Emmett said sarcastically. After a pause, Emmett suddenly perked up. “Speaking of ‘CotA’-”

“What the fuck is ‘coda’?”

“‘C’, ‘O’, ‘T’, ‘A’, Champions of the Abyss.”

“Oh, what about it?”

“Didn’t you start playing at some point?”

Jenna blushed and receded a bit in her seat. “Uh, yeah, a little.”

“You stopped? We could’ve played together, I’ve never seen you play.”

“Yeah, well, a little busy lately.” Jenna seemed embarrassed.

“You should play when you’re free, at least. It’s a good way to let off some steam.”

“I guess… I wasn’t any good at it though.”

“That’s fine, video games aren’t about being the best or whatever. They’re about being part of a whole community.” He enthusiastically made a semi-circle motion with his arms. He then excitedly dug out his phone from his pocket. “CotA has a whole following online and a really devoted community.” He tapped at his phone vigorously and began to scroll through photos. Finally, he presented one to Jenna, who reluctantly moved forward to view his screen. To her surprise, it was a group photo of him and Aidan smiling widely and several people around them dressed as various monsters, demons, wizards, and other fantastical creatures in various fighting or action poses, all dressed as characters from the game.

“Wow, you actually look happy.” Jenna scoffed.

“That’s- well…” Emmett was struck by the stark contrast between him in the photo and his current self. “Yeah, Aidan and I hung out a lot,” he replied softly. He couldn’t help but crack a smile looking back at the photo. “After I had gotten accepted back into university through the Math program, we celebrated by going to this convention.”

“See? Friends!” Jenna cheered softly.

“In this one, we tried to get this cosplayer’s number-”

“Ooh, which one?” Jenna asked excitedly, looking closer at the picture.

Emmett squinted at the photo, scanning each cosplayer. He pointed at a girl dressed as a wizard with silver-plated armor and a large brimmed hat with gold trimmings, adorned with all sorts of fake jewels.

“Damn, that’s a really good cosplay of… Mephina?” Jenna looked to Emmett for confirmation of the character’s identity.

“Wow, very good,” Emmett replied with a gentle, sarcastic clap to which Jenna rolled her eyes. “Anyway, she was really into Aidan.”

“Aw.” Jenna blubbered facetiously.

“Don’t ‘aw’ me. I wasn’t into her anyway- But yeah, Aidan got her number, but then we learned that she had a whole shrine dedicated to Falonius, the Wind God.”

“That sounds… kinda cool, I guess. If her cosplay was that cool then the shrine must be-”

“The shrine took up the entirety of her parent’s basement and she sculpted naked statues of him out of soap.”

“Oh. I see.” Jenna receded back in her seat in disgust.

Emmett continued to scroll through the photos on his phone, recounting a small story from each, with Jenna chiming in every now and again, enjoying the retelling of Emmett’s old stories. With each story, Emmett told the tale with more confidence and grace, and Jenna was absorbed by each word. She continued to lean into the phone screen, and Emmett was picking up wafts of her glorious scent once more. Her face was close to his, and just the sight of her luscious cheeks and adorable button nose in his peripheral vision caused his loins to heat up. However, Emmett felt at peace here. He felt like this was just right, this is where he belonged: with Jenna.

Emmett finally started to think to himself: “Tonight, I’ll tell her.”

He continued to scroll through his phone until suddenly Jenna stopped him.

“What the fuck was that?” Jenna asked with a small chuckle.

“Oh, what?” Emmett scrolled back up a few photos. He finally saw what was a picture of a circular insignia drawn with bright, scarlet line-work against a black background. The insignia was inlaid with intricate markings and within it were more circles, also inlaid with strange designs, each connected to each other with delicate and swirling lines. Each circular level was more detailed than the next, with Jenna’s eyes scanning the shapes and curves with wonder.

“What… is this? Did you make this?”

“Oh, yeah, this was like an idea for an art asset in my game.” Emmett blushed as he was clearly embarrassed by the level of dedication to a single drawing. “It’s like a… magical… demon seal, thing.”

“Holy shit. This is some seriously good artwork, Emmett; it reminds me of those demonic pentagrams, except all cool and swirly.” Jenna leaned closer to the phone to inspect the designs further, tracing the linework with her fingers. “How do you even think of this kinda stuff?”

“I don’t know. It’s relaxing. I kinda just start and let my mind wander.”

“Sounds therapeutic.”

“It is, sort of.” The shame was starting to wear off. Jenna continued to scan the image, but Emmett quickly withdrew his phone.

“Oh, what, you’re embarrassed now, Mr. Artsy-fartsy?”

“I’m not embarrassed, I’m just… you know, this stuff isn’t important.”

“What do you mean, ‘important?”

“Like, I guess I should be focusing on my studies and not this stupid shit.”

“It’s not stupid, it’s something you’re into. If you didn’t do this stuff from time to time, you’d probably kill yourself.” Jenna smiled. Emmett slightly grinned back.

“That’s true. But still, it feels childish.”

“It’s not!” Jenna asserted. “I wish I could do stuff like this.”

“You probably could, Ms. Smartsy-fartsy.”

“That’s not even creative, you just took the one I said and rhymed it.” Jenna pouted. “But still, no way.”

Emmett thought for a second. “Is that thing you were talking about, ‘Drive’?”

“Kind of. ” She answered back. “You do things because you want to do them, you know?”

“Doesn’t everyone do that?”

“Not-”

Jenna was interrupted by the professor speaking up, asking everyone to get ready to start taking notes, signaling the beginning of class. Jenna leaned back in her chair as Emmett continued to eye her, wondering about her unfinished thoughts. He could sense that something was definitely bothering her.

Emmett and Jenna sat through the class. Periodically Emmett would drift into a soft sleep as the professor’s monotone voice rang out into the lecture hall, the constant tone of his simple prose sending Emmett into a lull. Jenna would quickly answer with a quick jab of the elbow, much to Emmett’s chagrin. She would then look back at Aidan who would shoot out a quick reassuring thumbs-up as per usual. Aidan would then go back to leaning in close with child-like wonder in widened eyes, absolutely assimilated by the professor’s dry lecture full of topics he had already learned and did not need to learn anymore. Jenna allowed Emmett to copy the notes he missed during his small nap. They impressively continued like this systematically for a good forty minutes, with her jabbing him awake at least five times, earning five whole Aidan-certified thumbs-ups.

For the sixth time, Jenna finally snapped. “Who falls asleep that easily?” she quietly hissed as Emmett was revived by yet another elbow jab.

“It’s his voice, it’s so… boring,” Emmett whispered back, slouching back into his seat. Jenna simply jabbed him in the arm in a small, but enraged flurry, causing Emmett to grunt in low spurts of pain. Soon the student behind them aggressively shushed them. Jenna cringed down in her seat with a look of shame. However, her cheerful energy soon returned to her.

“Oh, I almost forgot my complimentary thumbs-up.” Jenna looked back at Aidan again.

“Yeah, get your dumb thumbs-up.”

Suddenly Jenna frowned and looked back at Emmett. “That’s weird, does Aidan have a girlfriend or something?”

“What?” Emmett was startled at the sudden interest in Aidan’s love life. Emmett turned back and saw something incredible: Aidan not paying attention to the board. He instead sat straight up in his seat and was staring blankly to his left. There, Emmett could see what Aidan was entranced by, because he, in turn, started to become mesmerized by the image as well. Next to Aidan, was a pale woman, with jet-black hair done up in a ponytail. She was wearing a tight black tank top and slim, blue jeans, sitting on the chair with her knee up, leaning towards Aidan with her elbow resting on the backrest of the seat. Her full, pink lips were slowly making out words that Emmett could not hear, and her sly, dark eyes were absorbing Aidan’s full attention. She gazed at him as she spoke with her eyes half-shut, her head shaking ever so slightly with every sound, her face scrunching with small snickering every so often. Emmett could only imagine the sweet tone that came with a steamy, attractive look like that.

“Wow, Emmett, did you get a good look?” Jenna asked sarcastically.

“Yeah, one sec,” Emmett replied blankly, entranced. He suddenly became aware of Jenna’s facetious tone.

She leered at him. “You’re leaning back an awful lot, there.”

“What? No, these seats are just old, this place isn’t even up to code, probably.” He pulled the backrest back and forth to demonstrate the looseness of the seat. “This kinda shit will kill my back, you know that? We should sue.” Jenna was unphased at his aloofness.

Her expression worsened, her eyes narrowing, criticizing his perverse behavior. Emmett crinkled in his seat.

“L-look, I’m just worried about Aidan.”

“Worried? Worry about yourself.” She pouted in her seat. Emmett thought it was cute whenever she got mad with her little scowl, but this time she actually seemed angry.

“What?” Emmett asked bluntly.

“Nothing- just…” Jenna shook her head. “You guys are all the same.”

“I’m not staring at her!” Emmett defended. “It’s just that I’ve never seen Aidan like that.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Jenna deflected.

Emmett had to admit to himself that this sudden show of jealousy caused some hope to well up in his chest. He almost wanted to smile but forced it down as he thought of the counterpoint to his own blossoming joy- she could just be annoyed at his pervertedness. Either way, this would not be good for his chances with Jenna.

“It’s true! When do you ever see Aidan having an interest in girls?” Emmett retorted, but as the words left his mouth he already realized the contradiction.

“You just-” Jenna started, her annoyance beginning to escalate.

“I just showed you,” Emmett softly replied, defeated, realizing his own stupidity.

The two sat silently for the next minute, the tedious and dull words of the lecturer now biting at Emmett’s spine as he had no choice but to wallow in the awkward air that he created. His thoughts instead swirled far away from math and more towards ideas for a solid defense. He pondered in his mind, “I’m a guy, it’s natural to stare.” He quickly dismissed that one as a lame excuse. “Why do you even care?” He mentally shook that away, as it sounded too rude. But as he looked back at Jenna, he found the perfect retort as she was also looking back at the mysterious woman.

“See, you’re looking too.” Emmett taunted.

Jenna swiftly turned back to Emmett with a leer. “What did you say?” she asked accusingly.

Emmett had no response. “Nothing,” he chirped.

Jenna sighed. “Fine, I’ll admit it. She’s a hot one.”

“I mean, she’s… alright.” Was this a test? Emmett’s mind was racing.

“Come on, I’m sorry. She’s hot. I bet everyone is looking at her,” Jenna reassured.

“Let’s just focus on the lecture.”

“What part were you starting at? I think she has nice tits.”

“Now who’s the pervert?” Emmett accused with a grin.

“I’m allowed to say that, I’m a girl,” she replied, delighted with herself.

“So if you were a lesbian, then that’d be perverted?”

“No- wait, actually…” Jenna took a moment to think. Her concentrated, pensive look as he became lost in her thoughts caused Emmett’s stomach to tingle with the familiar feeling of fluttering butterflies- it was adorable. Emmett took the opportunity to check on the stranger and Aidan. However, they were gone.

“He left,” Emmett suddenly stated, worried.

“Huh?” Jenna snapped out of her meditative state. She looked back as well. “So?”

“The professor is going over the practical applications of the Hilbert space in emerging quantum mechanics. Not only that, but he’s referring to his research on physical observable Hermitian matrices. Aidan wouldn’t miss this for the world- he probably didn’t go over this stuff when he took this three years ago.”

“What?” Jenna asked, dizzied by the wordiness of Emmett’s sentence.

“He likes this stuff, he wouldn’t want to-”

“I get it, but why does it matter? Let him tango with hot stuff.”

Emmett thought about it. Why does he care? He couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was amiss, like an itch that he couldn’t scratch at the back of his inner thoughts. However, he could not make out a concrete statement on what he was feeling. He started to feel uneasy. The lights that illuminated the lecture hall seemed brighter. It began to remind him of the ghostly white room from his dream, the fading picture of the hallway now seemed to be permanently stamped into his vision.

“It’s just… a weird feeling,” Emmett replied unconfidently.

Jenna looked back at him, worried. However, much to his surprise, she nodded her head. “I get you.”

“You… you do?” Emmett was flustered.

“Yeah. Of course I do. Every time I visit your dorm, I always get this funny feeling: ‘Emmett didn’t do his homework’, or ‘Emmett didn’t do his laundry’, or ‘Emmett lost a bunch of sleep while he was coding.’ Like a sixth sense between friends.” Jenna smiled at Emmett. “Go check up on him, you can just copy my notes later.”

Emmett was warmed by Jenna’s sentiment. He attempted to let loose a nice smile back instead of the kiddush grin that was slowly blooming from his crush’s kind words. He instead let out a half-smirk and nodded. “Thanks, Jenna,” he replied. “You’re the best.”

“I am the best,” she cheerfully echoed. Emmett collected his books into his bag, and swiftly marched down the row, and dashed out of the lecture hall through the center aisle.

Lilith held Aidan by the hand, leading the entranced young man down the hall towards the bathroom on the floor beneath the lecture hall, knowing it would be empty at this time of day. Aidan had the familiar blank expression on his face, simply looking ahead and marching along as Lilith dragged him easily with no resistance. With her other hand, she was scanning her document, which was also loaded up on her phone.

“Here it is: Aidan Longrass, with ancestral roots to the Duke of Kingston… husband to Elrys the Saint… who was known to use magical healing spells. I continue to impress myself with my research,” she sang to herself. “I should have known: ‘Aidan Longrass’,” Lilith celebrated to herself. “That’s a surname from an old wizarding family if I’ve ever heard one: Longrass.” For the first time in a good while, Lilith was beaming with happiness, striding along the hallway. Aidan simply nodded along in a zombie-like state as she spoke out her thoughts.

She dragged him all the way to the bathroom door. Lilith looked back at Aidan, eyeing his physique up and down. “Not bad. Better than your friend. I might actually enjoy this one.” She happily shoved the door open and entered, further leading him into the stall, as she had once done with Thomas, albeit in a more graceful manner.

“Wish I didn’t have to enchant you,” she lamented as she puppeteered him with her fingers. Her index finger swirled through the air towards the toilet, causing Aidan to obediently sit down on the toilet seat. “It’s too bad goody-two-shoes like yourself are more… hesitant towards this kinda thing.” Aidan nodded again, blankly staring at Lilith. She proceeded to unzip his jeans and began to kneel before him, pulling down Aidan’s pants along with her. Out sprang Aidan’s flaccid penis. Lilith’s eyebrows raised as she observed the size.

“And here I was afraid that this would be unceremonious.” She gingerly grasped his soft cock and it began to slowly engorge in her hand. She then formed her other hand into a straight, gentle claw, lowering it over the head of the penis. As her fingertips made contact with the sensitive end of his cock, the entranced Aidan let loose a low breath of pleasure.

“You like that?” she chimed. She continued to slowly trail her fingers down the shaft, rubbing her fingertips ever so slightly against the veiny skin, until her palm met the head. She then swiftly ran her fingers back up his cock, then tenderly down again. She rhythmically continued in this way, up and down as the penis began to grow ever larger, towering over Lilith’s face. She smirked as the size continued to impress her. Aidan’s mouth hung open, breathing out gasps of pleasure as her fingertips proceeded. As Aidan’s cock grew to its maximum size, she began to grasp the shaft with light pressure. With a loose grip, she stroked his penis up and down the entire length.

As the pre-cum began to bubble at the end of his dick, Lilith pinched a bit between her fingers and tasted it as she had done before. As her fingers met her tongue, her expression brightened even more. “It even tastes regal,” she commented with a grin. She suddenly stopped stroking and began to contemplate.

“Ugh?” The zombified Aidan complained.

“I know you’re hungry for more… but in a way…” she eyed the enormous, pulsing cock before her. “I’m hungry too.” Lilith grabbed Aidan’s cock and jut her head forward, stuffing the head of his dribbling penis into her mouth. She slurped hard as she swaddled her wet lips around his sensitive skin.

“Ah, ah!” Aidan shouted out as the wet smacking sounds of Lilith’s intense suckling rang out into the empty bathroom. She popped the dick out of her mouth and panted with a tickled expression, but she was not yet satisfied.

“This’ll make me the most powerful witch,” she proclaimed victoriously. “I’m going to guzzle all your magic cum and finally kill all those fucking demons.” She rushed her head forward and engulfed most of Aidan’s dick into her mouth. Her tongue wildly danced along the underside of his shaft as she vigorously bobbed her head over his member. Lilith felt his dick tense in her mouth, the throbbing pulses encouraging her to pump his cock into her mouth faster and harder, the wet schlips of her powerful slurping ringing into the air.

“Uwuh! Uhyeah!” Aidan cheered in a low tone as his jaw was slacked and his mouth was agape with awe at the intense pleasure of Lilith’s mouth. She felt his cock pulse against the walls of her cheeks. With her other hand, she magically produced a vial of green liquid in a small spark of violet flames.

Suddenly a waft of air flew across her back. “Hmm?” she asked, startled, with a mouthful of dick.

“Ackguh?” Aidan chimed in with a puzzled tone. The stall door had been forced open. Lilith suddenly felt her head jerk back as her ponytail was being grabbed, Aidan’s dick sputtering out of her mouth. She was soon flung across the tiled floor away from Aidan, forcefully tumbling across the room, her back slamming into the sink, her vial hitting the floor and shattering against the ground. Lilith groaned in pain as she looked up to meet her assailant. It was a tall woman in a large, black overcoat, wearing a black sun hat and sunglasses.