Dead and Horny Ch. 07

"Where did you get that?" Dana asked.

"Our dad took it off some guy who was hunting him and mom," Eulalie said. "He let Velvet have it for hunting when she was younger, but I don't think she uses it anymore."

"If I'm in a hurry chopping up firewood, I might." Velvet twisted her wrist while flicking the blade, and it collapsed. "Do you know how to use a sword?"

"Nope. But I'm a pretty fast learner." She tapped her temple. "Dead girls get photographic memory, after all."

"Hmm." Velvet crawled back into the spring and looked at her sister. "If you run into this woman again, I bet she lops off more than your arm. I think we can do better than that."

Eulalie pulled herself out of the spring and moved to some nearby rocks. She rolled one aside and pulled out a silken bundle with towels inside. "You interested in learning how to dodge a sword? Our mother taught us how to fight, she was always paranoid that the Order would find her and dad someday."

"Yes, please." Dana pulled herself out of the spring and caught the towel that was tossed to her.

Velvet grinned, then stood as well. Water dripped from her bulbous, hairy body, creating a sound that was very similar to rain. "This will be so much more fun than hunting."

Lily sat in the rocking chair, her eyes on the sky as the stars appeared. Dinner had been a brief affair where the Arachne had drained a deer and Darren had eaten a bowl of stew. After eating, Bigfoot had showed up at the front door and everyone had retired to the game table for tonight's session.

She had watched for almost half an hour, then got bored and headed outside. The forest was loud, filled with the sound of hunting bats and crickets, and she was becoming aware of the hollow pit in her stomach that craved to be filled with food. She had eaten recently, but between the incident in the pit and her long flight earlier today, she could definitely use a snack.

The door creaked, and she saw that Darren had stepped outside. She groaned inwardly, preferring to mope in solitude. Still, it was his house, and she didn't feel like getting grief from Dana about being impolite later.

"May I join you?" he asked. "Gettin' a bit loud in there. Could use some quiet."

"Free country." She moved out of his chair and leaned against the wall. He let out a groan when he sat, then sighed in relief once he was down. He rocked for several minutes, his eyes closed and exhaustion on his face. When she had come back from her flight earlier, he had been sitting in this same chair, rocking and reading a book. A simple life for a simple man.

Eventually, he opened his eyes and pulled a Snicker's bar out of his pocket and held it up. "Want some?"

She shook her head. "No."

He grunted, then took a bite of it. His eyes scanned the trees, as if he was looking for someone, his jaw working on the candy in his mouth. After he swallowed, he spoke. "I've been thinkin' all day, after this morning's conversation. Wanted to ask you a question."

"Why bother saying it, then? Why not just ask?"

"Maybe I'm workin' up to it is all." He opened his mouth and paused when the sound of laughter came through the windows of the cabin. A smile appeared on his lips, then faded. "What happens to us when we die?"

"Well, first you die. Then you rot and stink until you turn into dirt and goo, depends on where it happens. What kind of question is that?"

Darren scowled at her. "Well, I thought that maybe you knew, on account of being a demon and all."

"I can tell you about Hell. It sucks. Even demons hate being there."

"Hmm. But if Hell exists...then Heaven does, too?"

Lily groaned. "Okay, I'm definitely not qualified to answer questions about that place."

"No, it's not that. But when we die...we still exist. We go somewhere."

Lily crossed her arms and tilted her head. "That depends on a bunch of things. Are you worried about your own mortality or something?"

"Nah, not me. Part of me died when I was young, and it's just waiting for the rest of me. I was just hopin'..." a small smile played on his lips. "Maybe I'm hopin' to see someone again. Once I'm gone."

"It's possible, I guess. I'm not an expert."

Darren turned his head toward the darkness and rolled his eyes. "No, I'm not talkin' about you," he said, causing Lily to look over her shoulder. There was nobody there.

"Then who are you talking about?" she asked, looking back at him with curiosity.

"Hmm? Oh, right. Sorry, mind wanders." He stood from his chair and looked in the window of the cabin. "I love my girls, don't get me wrong. But sometimes I see so much of their mother in them that it makes my heart hurt. It's an ache that never seems to go away, y'know? I'm sure it sounds like I'm ramblin', but...I miss my wife."

The light of the cabin shimmered in the pools of his eyes, and he smiled. "She saved me. Gave me a life I thought was impossible, and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't miss her dearly. I guess the reason I asked you about dyin' was because I'm hopin' that maybe, once I'm gone, I'll get to see her again. I have my thoughts on it, but figured maybe you could tell me for certain."

Lily said nothing, her thoughts whirling around. It was strange to hear Darren say such a thing, to claim a love for a woman who had clearly been inhuman, but now that the idea was in front of her, she wondered if there was a limit to who could actually be loved.

"I don't know," she told him. "Humans and Arachne are different. Even humans don't go to the same place when they die, it depends on so many things. There is something out there, a place where most of them go, but that's all I know for sure, and even that isn't much."

He sniffed, then rubbed his eyes. "Well, assuming I get there, maybe I'll go looking for her. Will give me something to do."

"I hear the afterlife is a pretty big place. Might be hard to find her on your own."

"I'm never alone," he whispered. He looked away from the window and rubbed his eyes again, then let out a cough. "I'm feelin' pretty tired. Think I'll turn in for the night. Take care."

He took a step away from the chair, but Lily couldn't help but notice that he had left part of his Snickers bar behind. She saw his shadow move through the house, heard him kiss his daughters on the cheeks, then the quiet click of a door in the back of the house.

Inside the cabin, it sounded like the group was besieging a dwarven stronghold, or fighting dragons, it was hard to tell through the laughter and accusations of cheating. Occasionally the night was punctuated by a rare laugh from Dana, a sound which brought a small smile to Lily's lips.

When she had set out on this trip, she hadn't realized how much of herself she would see in the young zombie. Sure, her intentions had been altruistic, and she had hoped to keep Dana from falling down the same hole of anger and chaos that had claimed her many centuries ago.

However, after her ordeal in the Dreamscape, she now found herself wondering if she was in a hole that could still be climbed. Inherently, her nature was evil. It was something she had long been comfortable with, even embraced. It came with the territory of being a creature of Hell, regardless of her origins.

Now, though, there was that tiny voice inside of her that told her what was right from wrong, and it was impossible to shut it out. While looking down on the world from up above, it had occurred to her that she was struggling with very human emotions for the first time in centuries and it was likely entirely due to the fact that part of Mike's soul now resided inside of her.

But it was more than that. He was also like her conscience, a silent observer just waiting to comment on her day to day actions. Would he approve of them, or would he condemn her? It hadn't really come up during their interlude in the Dreamscape, and she couldn't help but miss the soft, loving touch of his skin against hers. Was that something she could still have if she continued her life as a succubus?

Right now, she stood outside a cabin filled with creatures that would inspire terror with a single glance, but beauty was clearly in the eye of the beholder. Each of the monstrous beings inside was just as deserving of love and light as any other creature, and she now wondered if such a blessing could someday extend to her as well. Then again, after all the wrong she had done, did she even deserve redemption?

"I'm so fucking confused," she whispered, her hand now over her eyes. She had never been one to crave salvation, but was that because she had believed she was simply beyond saving? Her insides were all broken, and even though the person she was had been utterly destroyed by Aladdin's magic so long ago, the person she was becoming now rebelled against her own demonic nature.

Could Mike ever see her as anything but who she had been? She thought of the misery that Darren experienced, and had no doubt in her mind that Mike could be the same way. Darren was a man who missed his wife, a creature with a long legacy of hunting and killing humans, sometimes for sport. That Ana had found a way to suppress her own monstrous nature was a testament to her strength, but that she had passed those pacified traits to her children was also a miracle in itself.

If Darren, an ordinary man by all accounts, could love a monster like Ana, then...

Her thoughts swirled around like fiery spirals, memories of the past, both distant and recent, coming to the forefront for her inspection. Troubled by the things she saw, her senses alerted her to the fact that Darren had fallen asleep.

It had been some time since she had properly fed, and now there was a perfectly good meal nearby. She could take a little bit, just enough that nobody would ever know, feed that side of her that wanted to prove that she was still a creature of Hell. But if Dana was right, and he really was dying, such an act could cut his remaining days in half.

It should have bothered her more that she was now standing in his room, she didn't even remember walking there. The window was open just a crack, which had been more than enough for her to gain entry. Outside his bedroom door, she could hear the others laughing, followed by the rolling of dice. Through the veil of sleep, she could sense the war brewing inside of Darren's head, and his brow was furrowed, making his wrinkles even deeper than before.

She sat on the side of his bed and put her fingers on his temples, curious what could trouble a man who lived with two Arachne daughters in the middle of nowhere.

The Dreamscape was different for everyone, but the sudden intensity of Darren's mind shocked even Lily. She was standing outside the cabin once more, but it was surrounded by a fierce jungle full of smoke and gunfire. Curious, she walked inside, sensing the fragile soul within.

Darren sat at the dining room table, his body hunched over and his hands trembling. On the table was a bloody knife, and he occasionally flicked the handle, causing it to spin in place.

"He didn't always used to be like this."

Lily turned to see who was speaking, and was stunned to see a younger version of Darren standing on the other side of the cabin. He was wearing combat fatigues and had a rifle slung over one shoulder. Though he spoke to Lily, his attention was focused on the jungle outside.

"I'm guessing not." She looked at Darren, then back at his clone. "So, what are you supposed to be? His lost childhood? Dreams of better days?"

"I'm the one who watches over him, ever since the war." The clone frowned, then turned his attention to Lily. "The dreams are coming for him, you know. The venom keeps them at bay, helps to hide him from the shadows, but it isn't the same. He used to think it was the venom that kept the darkness back, and maybe in the beginning it was. But death comes for all things, and when it took her away, he learned an inconvenient truth."

"Are you talking about his wife?"

"Ana." The clone laughed, then drew his gun and fired it out the window. The staccato burst of ammunition startled Lily, but when she looked outside, she saw a cluster of shadows flee into the jungle.

"What the fuck is even out there?" she asked.

"Guilt. Sadness, some regret. Anything that wants to come for you when you're at your most vulnerable. The jungle claims us all, eventually, but what matters is having the strength to escape it." He slung his rifle over his shoulder and pulled a Snickers bar from his front breast pocket. "Want some?"

"No, I'm good." She kept a wary eye on the clone, then crossed the cabin to Darren. There was no furniture other than the table and chair, and Darren had picked up the bloody knife and was inspecting it, his reflection distorted in the steel of the blade.

"This is weird." Mike stood with her now, appraising the cabin. "Did you seriously pop in here to eat a part of this guy?"

"I don't need any judgement from you," she told him, then sat on the edge of the table. Darren's eyes briefly met hers, and she saw a total lack of interest. His entire attention was focused on the bloodied knife in his hands, and every now and then, she thought she could hear the distant screams of an angry man coming from it.

"I get it, you're hungry. But you can't feed on the innocent, now can you?"

Lily opened her mouth, then lowered her voice. "He's hardly innocent. I can see it written on his soul. Sure, he's done good things most of his life, but there's a lot of darkness, too."

"Would you say he's a bad person, though? Do dark deeds always define us?" Mike sat on the edge of the table and crossed his legs much like Lily did. When he noticed, he shifted his knees apart, then leaned toward her. "And remember, I'm part of you now. Any judgement from me is really just a self-reflection that you might not want to hear."

"Shut up," Darren whispered. Back in the real world, Lily heard him groan.

More gunfire echoed through the cabin, and Darren's clone frowned through the gunsmoke. "Shit, it's going to be a bad night," he said.

Lily looked at Mike, then Darren. The two of them had very different lives, but their capacity for love made them similar enough that it made her uncomfortable.

"Looks like you get to make a choice, tonight." Mike hopped off the table and walked to the closest window. He watched something for a few minutes, the silence punctuated by gunfire. "You can feed, it's not like anyone is going to stop you. Looks like you may be doing him a favor, helping him put the other foot in the grave. I can't imagine having dreams like this for months on end. You could even think of it as a good deed, right?"

"You ass," she told him. She knew what he was doing, and hated that it was working.

"You could also just walk away. In fact, choosing not to do something bad is good in a way, right? You could leave this place and go for a quick flight, maybe snack on a camper who cheats on her husband or something. Take a few months of life from someone with decades yet to live. No harm, no foul."

"Stop it," she said, his words cutting into her. She put her hands on her ears to shut him out, but the gunfire still made it through. "Please, stop saying things like that."

He was before her now, down on both of his knees. He pulled her hands away from her ears, his eyes now full of kindness.

"What I am is a reflection of who you are," he told her. "I am your soul now, remember? Everything you do will help shape me. If you don't like the changes that you see, you need to either accept the person you've become and live with it, or be the change you want to see in the world."

Lily scowled at him and grabbed him by the neck.

"You think I'm manipulating you, like he did." Mike grabbed her wrist and pulled her hand off his throat. "But I'm not. You know that feeding off of this man is wrong, but it isn't against the rules, and you hate being told what to do. For what it's worth, I believe you are better than this, but my word is only as good as what you do with it. So what will it be? Will you snack a little, or let him be?"

Her breath was coming in short bursts now as she contemplated her options. If what he said was true, doing something wrong would change that little piece of soul inside of her. Would Mike eventually become like her? Full of rage and spite? Was that what she wanted to encounter inside of the Dreamscape every time she visited?"

"How are you even here?" she asked. "Aren't you stuck on that island?"

"You are my island. I go where you do." He pointed out the window closest to him, and when she looked outside, the jungle had faded away, leaving behind the sandy shores of Mike's soul. "You're in his head, but I'm in yours. There was a movie about this, kind of, but I never saw it, so don't remember the title."

She stood and grabbed the knife from Darren. He looked up at her in surprise, but she put her hand over his mouth. His clone started toward her, gun raised, but she waved him off.

"You said that she used to bring him peace? This Arachne woman of his?"

The clone nodded.

"There's always a third option." She moved toward the front door and kicked it open, and her wings expanded out behind her. She could see them now, the nightmares awaiting Darren in the shadows. They shifted about beneath the leaves, waiting for her to step aside.

In the real world, Darren's brow had furrowed, and he was groaning.

"It's time to clean house," she declared, then launched herself into the jungle of his mind, the dagger held tightly in her hand. She tore through the dense foliage and hunted them down, angry shadows that exploded into mist as she stabbed, snapped, and tore them apart. She set fire to the jungle itself, burning it away from the cabin in a fiery ring.

The shadows were many. Nightmares were known not only for their veracity, but their numbers. And as they surged toward her, she could feel pressure building up inside the Dreamscape. They were powerful, perhaps even strong enough to boot her out of Darren's mind. These manifestations had been lying in wait for decades, kept at bay by Ana's presence and her venom, and they were hungry to claim Darren once and for all.

One by one, Lily summoned up the souls she had consumed over the centuries, commanding them to scour the jungle with her, to cleanse it of the shadows once and for all. The souls in her thrall obeyed without question, and the nightmares fled in terror as an army of her own tracked them down and ground them into dirt. As the jungle burned, the world flourished and blossomed anew, and after nearly an hour in the real world, Lily found herself back at the cabin once more, standing atop its scorched eaves. Below her, the souls of the Damned eagerly awaited orders, and she dismissed them, letting them rest in the depths of her mind once more.

Darren's troubled sleep had calmed, and when she walked inside, he was now sitting at the table with a cup of coffee gripped in his hands.

"That was not what I expected at all," said Mike, holding a coffee of his own.

"That's because I'm unpredictable, Romeo." She held up the knife and then crushed it with her hands. When she opened them, technicolor dust fell to the floor and drifted away.

"I'm impressed." Darren's clone was sitting on the window ledge, a wry smile on his face. "But they'll be back eventually. The nightmares always come back."

She looked at Darren, then back at Mike.

"Never tell anybody about this," she said.

"About what?"

While Darren's back was turned, she sifted through his memories and pulled up everything she could about his dearly departed Ana. Her body shimmered, and she sprouted six more legs. Her torso shrank a bit, and when she touched Darren's shoulder, he turned and regarded her with wide eyes.

"Ana?" he asked with wondrous eyes. "Is that really you?"