Chapter 2

At the front of the classroom, the chemistry professor was droning on about the different steps of today’s lab, and Amara was finding it difficult to pay attention. Every few minutes she found herself scanning the classroom, trying to catch if any of the other students were looking at her. Thankfully, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but that could easily change in a heartbeat if anyone saw her tail.

In the past, Amara had taken pride in looking her best every day, always picking cute outfits that fit her style. These last couple of days, however, she had decided against her more form-flattering options, opting instead for large baggy sweaters. If nothing else, she was thankful autumn was here, and temperatures were already dropping.

Inside the pouch of her sweater, she was holding the end of her tail tight. After a few failed attempts to push it into her sweatpants, she had opted to instead wrap it around her waist. Every so often she would give it a squeeze, hoping to discover it had disappeared, but every time it remained frustratingly present.

Her mind wandered back to Sunday, to the moment she had first learned about her body’s new addition. At first she had been frozen in disbelief, but soon after she had succumbed to a full-blown panic attack. Nick, used to keeping her grounded during these times, had done his best to keep her calm.

When the initial panic had passed, they had run through some rudimentary tests. They confirmed her tail could register touch just like the rest of her, and she was able to move it at will. Moving it around felt awkward, as if trying to run on a leg that had recently fallen asleep, but the amount of control she had over it was surprising.

In the end, she had fallen asleep incredibly early. The combination of physical exertion and emotional outburst working together to bring her to utter exhaustion earlier than usual.

She hadn’t seen Nick since then, though they had been texting constantly. Today, Amara’s plan was to meet him at the library after her lab. He was much more studious than her, and she hoped he had a plan to figure out what was happening to her.

Why is this happening? And, if it’s going to happen, why now? Why not during puberty?

A hand grabbed her arm, interrupting her thoughts, and she jumped in surprise.

“Hey, Amara, you ready?”

Suddenly shaken back to reality, Amara realized the professor was done talking. Her lab partner, Vee, was halfway through setting up their experiment for the day.

“Sorry, I must have spaced for a second there,” Amara muttered, “are we ready to start?”

“Not quite, could you grab the solutions we need?” Vee asked, caught up in lighting the Bunsen burner.

A few minutes later, after pretending she didn’t need to skim the instructions to remember what they were doing, Amara returned with everything they needed.

“You’ve been a million miles away all class, Amara, it’s not like you. Something on your mind?” Vee looked at her with mild concern, her bright blue eyes eager for answers.

“I just ... haven’t been sleeping well. I think all the stress of school is finally getting to me.” Amara sighed.

“Well, that’s why we went out Saturday, right? Wait, is this about that? Did something happen?” Vee shifted closer, her voice lowering in suspicion.

“I’m fine, and I promise nothing weird happened. I ended up getting tired earlier than expected, and Nick walked me home, nothing special.”

“Hm, that does explain why he went missing too ... Shame, he and I were really hitting it off.” Vee smirked as she turned away from Amara.

“Wait, that was you?” It was Amara’s turn to lean in, eager to get more details and thankful for the distraction. The two continued gossiping, and the rest of the hour passed without issue. Soon enough, it was time to clean up and get ready to meet Nick at the library.

Amara took over the cleaning, washing out all the beakers and tools while Vee finalized the notes and turned their papers in. When she returned, Amara had just finished washing her hands, and left the water running for her. Grabbing the soap, Vee moved her hands under the water, before immediately jumping back.

“Ah, fuck!” Vee yelped, “Amara, this water is scalding hot!

Amara ran over, her hands grasping the handles, but she paused briefly. Everyone nearby was looking at Vee, so she quickly ran her hand under the water. Surprisingly, it felt fine, she would have guessed it was slightly warmer than room temperature had it not just burned her friend.

“Here, this should be better, come run some cold water over it.” Amara finished adjusting the water as she called Vee over. “It was fine when I was cleaning up, I think I just left it running too long.”

“That ... feels nice, thanks. I don’t think there’s any real damage, it just caught me by surprise.” Vee finished washing her hands, hopefully none the wiser. Amara sighed in relief, happy her friend was okay, but made a mental note to tell Nick about this.

Once they cleaned up, they said their goodbyes and Amara started the long trek to the library. The incident at the lab had her thinking about Vee, the concern for her friend outweighing the confusion over what had happened.

The two of them had become fast friends after meeting last year in freshman biology. They both held themselves with an air of confidence, which combined with their natural looks to attract a fair number of suitors. Despite this, they both were more interested in studying, keeping a strong eye on their future and securing a path there.

Amara giggled to herself as she thought back on their meeting. She had been a little jealous of Vee, the taller of the two, with long blond hair and a toned figure, but that feeling had faded fast, Amara deciding she preferred her curvier features and more prominent bust. Now, she lingered on that feeling of jealousy as it flared again, this time wishing she could have a normal, tailless body.

Wait, does she have a tail? I guess I haven’t checked ... I’ll take a look next time, just to be safe.

After another, heartier laugh, she pulled up some music on her phone as she continued walking.

After wandering around the library for longer than expected, Amara finally found Nick huddled in a secluded corner. He already had quite a few stacks of books on the table, with a laptop open in the middle. His brows were furrowed in concentration, and he likely didn’t see Amara quite yet.

His light brown hair was fairly curly, but he typically kept it short; He claimed it was too difficult to manage when it got long. The one time he tried, their junior year, Amara had thought the long hair flattered his sharp features nicely. His deep green eyes darted back and forth across the pages, and his arm was propping up his face as he read. He was hunching slightly, no doubt the library chairs weren’t the most comfortable for someone close to six feet tall.

Nick had wrestled in high school, and while he didn’t play sports anymore, his body was still quite athletic. His muscular frame was sometimes hard to notice, due to his uninspired wardrobe, but today he was wearing a button-down flannel that was quite flattering.

Amara moved in, sitting down across from him and tossing her backpack to the floor.

“You know, normal people use the internet these days. Heard of it?” Amara grabbed the nearest book, pretending to read it upside down as she stared at Nick over the top of it.

“Very funny, Amara, but my roommate is hogging the room again. Plus, a lot of the books I need for my classes are locked behind paywalls.” Nick put his book down and leaned back, stretching his arms behind him. “Not to mention all the books that haven’t been properly digitized yet, especially on older campuses like ours.”

“Whatever, nerd.” Amara rolled her eyes, “What is all this anyways?” She gestured to the stacks cluttering the table.

“I’ve been here for a while, so it’s a combination of most of my classes. Calc, History, all stuff you hate.” Nick leaned in, his eyes more focused as he changed the topic. “And of course, some research about your ... condition. How are you holding up? Anything new? Weird?”

Amara set her book down as she quieted her voice, “Other than, I don’t know, my fucking tail?” She sighed, planting her head on the table before groaning. “I’m sorry, you don’t deserve that. I’ve just been so stressed ever since Sunday. Every single time I catch someone looking at me I’m scared they’ll see it.”

Nick reached across the table, grabbing her wrist. “Hey, I get it. I’m confused and scared too, and this isn’t even happening to me.” He squeezed one last time before letting go. “So, nothing else? Just the tail?”

Amara switched to leaning on her elbows, “Ugh, I think I almost burned Vee during our lab. I was washing my hands, and left the water running for her, but she shrieked and said it was practically boiling.” She pushed her head into her hands, sulking. “I’m starting to think my building doesn’t actually have issues with its water heater.”

Nick paused, thinking to himself for a moment. “So now, it’s just the glowing eyes, the tail, and a tolerance to heat. That would make sense...” Nick started rummaging through the books on the table, looking for one in particular.

“Make sense? Did you figure out what’s happening?” Amara had to remember to keep her voice down.

“I’ve got a theory, the book is here somewhere.” Nick moved a stack of books to the floor as he kept digging, “Have you looked into this at all?”

“I tried! I learned a lot about a group of fighter pilots in World War 2 called the Red Tails, it was pretty inspirational.” Nick glared at her, likely not surprised she had gotten distracted. “Hey, you know I’m terrible at research.”

“Well maybe if you actually focused on what’s around you,” he muttered, grabbing the book under her arms and turning it right side up, “You’d find something useful once in a while!”

Nick triumphantly held up the book, its tattered hardcover reading “A Complete History of Demons & Demonology”.

Amara stared at him in disbelief. “Nick. You can’t be serious.”

He leaned in again, matching her gaze. “Let me at least walk you through it, okay? Keep breathing, focus on my voice, I’m here with you.” He walked her through a familiar routine, keeping her grounded as he opened the book.

“So, we don’t have a lot to go on, but the tail is a pretty big clue. There are a lot of stories from mythology about creatures that are mostly human, except for the addition of a tail.”

Amara kept breathing, in for 2 counts, out for 4. A steady rhythm, one Nick had helped her piece together over years of friendship.

“Often, the tail is based on an animal. Satyrs have horse-like tails, kitsune have fox tails, things like that. There’s very little overlap, which makes it helpful to figure out what you’re dealing with.”

She squeezed her tail through her hoodie, listening intently to Nick’s words.

“Now, yours is pretty unique, and doesn’t really match up with an animal. It does, however, match a lot of descriptions of various religious demons.” He started flipping through pages, showing off all the different depictions of hellish creatures. Many of the demons depicted had smooth, red tails, with flared spades at the end.

“Okay, I guess that makes sense ... but this book is huge! How are we supposed to narrow it down?” Amara’s eyes lingered on a picture of a snake offering a woman an apple.

“That stumped me for a bit too, but then I remembered another detail. When did this start happening?”

“It was ... right after the party. Right after I finally had sex!” Amara shifted in her seat, leaning closer to Nick.

“And with that in mind...” Nick flipped to a dog-eared page, “meet the succubus. A demon that gains power and energy from sex.”

Amara picked up the book, properly this time, and spent the better part of the next hour reading everything she could. She wasn’t the fastest reader, but with the scope of her research narrowed, she was able to be much more productive. She managed to find another few books Nick had missed, but also found quite a few websites that proved helpful. Eventually, her stomach rumbling, she was forced to start packing up.

“So, how are we feeling? Better or worse?” Nick asked, returning from dropping off his last pile of books.

Amara’s eyes lost focus, staring into the distance as she pondered his question. “You know how monster movies always have that one scene? Where the heroine finds an old library and learns all about the thing trying to kill her? It’s like I’m living that movie but ... but I’m the monster.” There was a slight hitch in her voice, which she countered with another deep breath.