Chapter 10: Soul Survivor

Lily sipped at her cocktail, smiling at the ocean waves that crashed into the shore, scattering sand along its edges. Technicolor crabs that looked like they had been drawn by a toddler scurried in every direction, a remnant of a childhood memory seeking shelter from the crushing surf. While the drink was good, Lily was a little sad that it had no bite to it — it was impossible to get truly drunk from a dream.

“Hey!” Lily held up her drink. One of her beach minions ran forward to refill it. Truth be told, while she couldn’t get drunk, she also couldn’t get full. She would drink until the stars came out, and then watch them wander in random directions across the sky until day broke again. She was content to wait the contest out, more than happy to live in the simulated time of Mike’s mind.

“You ... How long have we been sitting here?” She turned to the minion closest to her, the remnants of a soul she had consumed once upon a time, long ago. She had forgotten who he was, and so had he. Once properly consumed, a soul was little more than an automaton-no memory of its former self coupled with unwavering obedience. They would do absolutely anything for her, no questions asked.

“Nine days.”

She had tasked this one with keeping track of the time. A silly task, but to a being that had lived for so many centuries, it was easy to lose count of something as small as a day.

“Nine. Wow. Romeo must be going nuts.” She looked at the soul, dressed in white shorts and a tux jacket. He was blond, with hazel eyes, clearly a young man once upon a time. He didn’t respond to her — the souls of the Damned rarely did. Social cues were beyond such creatures.

“Hmm. I wonder what he’s up to.” Lily sipped her refilled drink. Her infernal magic had been directed outward, waiting to sense a new challenge from Mike or, if he was stupid, his third orgasm. So far, he was lying low, probably trying to prolong what was left of his existence.

Lily smiled. Maybe she would let him wake up and go about his life. The next time he boned one of his monsters, she could claim him on the spot.

Lily’s smile faded from her face. No, she wouldn’t do that. When Elizabeth had first contracted her to go after Mike, she had been under the impression that he was just like every other man whose soul she had been sent for. Eager to fuck anything with two legs, cocky, arrogant, the list went on. His lack of desire for sex with her in any of her human incarnations had been profoundly mind blowing, until she realized that he needed something more ... outside the norm.

Yet, when she had appeared as Naia, all he really wanted was to hold her. There had been no demand for sex, no position of power between them. Despite appearing to him as a horny water spirit, Mike had shown mutual respect for the nymph that extended to what could only be described as romantic affection.

“Bah.” Lily threw her glass on the ground. It bounced twice, spilling its contents across the tiny grains of sand. Glaring at the unbreakable glass, she summoned her tail and lashed out with it, snapping the tip like a whip. This time the glass shattered, sending tiny glowing embers into the sky. Affection was a farce, a mask worn in the name of love, but only as a means to an end.

Or was it? There had been a time when she hadn’t thought so, but it had been so long ago that she couldn’t remember how she was supposed to feel. Staring out at the waves, she wondered what the human was up to. Did he spend his days plotting? Or maybe screaming at the visage of his mother? He was taking his time doing something, but Lily was content to stay where she was, relaxing on the shores of his mind.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light along the water’s surface, a wave of energy that sparkled along the sky above, tickling Lily’s senses: Mike had called to her, and it was time to go. The Dreamscape folded itself around her, like the turning of a page, and she was suddenly back at the house.

“Okay, so this is clever.” Lily stared at the large maze around the house. Stone had been pulled up from the earth beneath, forming a labyrinth that led to the house. Long, slender vines clung to the stony walls, vines with tiny thorns. “You’ve built a maze. Good for you. Did you put traps in here? I love a good trap.”

“Come and find out.” Mike’s voice came from somewhere within the maze. Lily rolled her eyes. Clearly, the man had snapped. Best case scenario, some dream contraption he built could actually kill her, driving her out of the Dreamscape and back into the real world. It would take her all of a minute to get back in, and their game would resume. Lily sighed — the last thing she needed was to spend all night trying to seduce a man who had lost his mind.

Walking into the maze, she was immediately assaulted by a winged figure made and stone. In the real world, such a creature would have a fighting chance. Here, however, Lily was the Queen. She snapped her tail like a whip, cracking the stone figure in the head, shattering it into fluttering butterflies.

“Cute.” Lily navigated the maze. Every few turns, a new stone guardian sprang from the shadows, and Lily quickly dispatched each one, her tail shattering them with relative ease. The maze itself was intricate, but Lily was far too curious to simply fly over the top. Mike had spent his time mastering the Dreamscape, but to what end?

Moving ever deeper, she couldn’t help but laugh at the childish traps he had set for her: A deep pit full of water, spikes that came out of the walls, and even a rolling boulder which she swatted with one hand, making it float away like a balloon. Thinking she was near the center of the labyrinth, she was surprised to emerge back where she had started from.

“Wow. Nice job, Romeo.” Chuckling, she turned around to walk back in. She was in no hurry.

This time, the stone warriors were short men with spiked knuckles. Again, she whipped them with her tail, shattering them into dust. Spike pits, logs, and even a pit of paper tigers were no match for Lily, but she kept going. She found the whole thing rather amusing.

The stone walls suddenly became smooth, giant letters carved into them. Lily laughed. Clearly Mike had attempted to write something in the maze, hoping the large letters would remain in place. While true, the letters shifted back and forth between similar shapes. Lower case “a”s transformed into curvy “e”s, and Lily had to hold her stomach when she found nearly half a mile of stone with poorly spelled iterations of the word “penis.” What the hell had Mike been up to?

Soft music played ahead, the sky above growing dark. She had fucked around in his maze for so long that she hadn’t even noticed the change in day. Rolling her eyes, she made the final few turns before stepping into a lavishly decorated bedroom. In the middle of the room was a table lit with candles, and a large vase of roses. Sitting at the table was Mike, who flipped casually through an old, leather-bound book.

“Hey there, Romeo.” Lily sauntered forward, her hips swaying from side to side opposite her tail. “This is super cute. Did you spend all week making this?”

Mike held up a finger in response, his eyes scanning the rest of the page. He wore a button down dress shirt over his jeans, and his bare feet were in the sand. The rest of the room was empty, though tiny waterfalls along the edge of the room filled water troughs.

“Oh please. We both know you can’t be reading anything in there.” Lily smirked. She was dying to know where this was going.

“On the contrary.” Mike flipped the book over, revealing the word CAT in giant letters. “You can call it an exercise in concentration.”

“Is that why you wrote “penis” so many times?”

“Oh. Yeah, that was an exercise in frustration. Please, sit.” He gestured at the seat across from him, which slid away from the table. “Would you like something to eat?”

“Sure.” LIly sat across from him. Gone was the man she had left defeated on the beach. Mike radiated confidence in such a manner that Lily felt like she were in the presence of an Elder Demon. She chalked it up to his fragile mental state. “I was under the impression that you were ready to continue our little game.”

“We have plenty of time. You taught me that.” Mike clapped his hands gently. Plates and cutlery with wings flew in from outside the room, circling briefly before landing on the table between them.

“Now this is impressive. What are we having?” Lily watched the giant serving platter land between them, massive wings carrying the lid away. Through the steam of the dish, a large silver bowl was revealed. Looking inside it, she laughed.

“I’m still learning,” Mike said, grabbing a ladle. He took a large serving of the oatmeal on the bowl and poured it on Lily’s dish. “This was a childhood favorite of mine. I learned that sense memories are powerful here, and therefore easier to conjure.”

“Yes, but oatmeal? C’mon. A lady deserves better than that.”

“You are quite right, but you aren’t a lady, aren’t you?” Mike winked.

“You have me there.” Lily smelled the food. She could make out the sweet tones of cinnamon and maple. “Speaking of which, how’s your ass?”

“Ah. Well, I couldn’t sit for nearly a day until I remembered that this was just a dream, then it instantly stopped hurting.” Mike spooned some oatmeal onto his platter. “I must admit, that gave me some mixed feelings. I was so angry at you for doing that, and even angrier at myself because you made me cum with it.”

“Your ass is an erogenous zone. And that sensation I gave you was no different than a finger in your ass, which I know you love. Just much, much bigger.” Lily winked, tasting the mash in front of her. Surprisingly, it was good. “I think if you look, deep down, you’d be surprised what your body likes.”

“And how would you know?”

“I’m a succubus. I can see all that your body desires, even the things you have yet to try.” Lily took another bite. “This is really good. Where is it from?”

“My grandma made it for me. When I was three, maybe? That part is fuzzy. Every time I smell oatmeal, I remember her face, sitting across from mine, both of us eating big spoonfuls as we watch cartoons on the TV in her apartment.” Mike smiled, lost in a memory. “She died when I was five. My father took it hard, I do remember that.”

“Thanks for sharing with me.” Lily meant it. Every bite made her slightly nostalgic for a time long ago lost. Each smell and taste took her back just far enough that the sharp edges of her memories spared her broken heart.

“So if I could see your desires, what would they be?” Mike licked the back of his spoon, picking up some oatmeal that got stuck on the handle. “If I could see into your soul, what would your body like the most?”

“Interesting question. I don’t know what I physically desire — I have seen and experienced so much that it’s hard for me to feel those feelings anymore.”

“That sounds awful.” Mike leaned forward. “A being built for pleasure who experiences none of her own.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.” LIly shrugged, her breasts rippling. “I just don’t experience sex like mortals do. It is a necessary act to feed.” Though it didn’t used to be, she thought to herself. “My turn. You seem awfully cocky for a man who is one orgasm away from losing his soul.”

Mike laughed. “Oh. That. I’m no longer worried about it.” The music grew louder, and Lily laughed when she saw the source was a coatrack playing a violin.

“You have to explain that one to me,” she said, pointing at the piece of furniture.

“Oh. Yeah, I saw that in a movie once. Can’t remember what. He follows me around, keeps me company.”

“You mean he keeps your mother away.”

“That too.”

Mike’s eyes glinted. For a second, Lily felt a seed of doubt in her gut. Mike was hiding something from her, something important. She thought that maybe his mind was cracked, but the longer she spoke with him, the faster she was realizing that he was all there. What was the catch?

She replayed the deal they had made in her mind. She rarely missed any mistakes — her capture by the Society was a result of the last play on words that had screwed her over. It had been a similar arrangement to Mike’s, only the deal had involved the actual taking of a soul, which was impossible to do when it had already been given away.

Lily fumed silently. The deal with Mike was impossible for him to win, but the catch in her last agreement did allow her to transfer ownership under the right conditions. Looking at Mike, she had a tough time believing he would be any different than the multitude of masters she had been a slave to.

And if she did lose her bet, the Society would come for her. No escaping that.

“So, is this just a social call, or are you ready to do business?” Lily had finished her plate, her tail twitching off to the side. “I have all night, so to speak.”

“I don’t see any reason to wait.” Mike licked his spoon again. “The Dreamscape seems interesting and all, but there are people on the outside that I miss. They occupy my thoughts, all the time.”

“You won’t get to see them again when I win.” Lily rose, bending forward to press her breasts together. “If you wait, then you can at least think about how much you miss them.”

“I’ll be seeing them again.” Mike tossed his spoon away. He stood too, the table spinning in place. It expanded, filling the room until it became a king-sized bed. Mike’s clothes transformed, becoming a silk robe. “You have my word on that.”

Lily sighed. “Okay. It’s your funeral.” She leapt onto the bed, sprawling out on the sheets. Her wings and tail disappeared, replaced by a simple black and red teddy. “You’ll have to excuse me if I’m not in a hurry to see our game end.”

“I prefer it this way.” Mike climbed on the bed with her. “And I appreciate getting to know you a little bit better.”

“It won’t matter once you’re dead,” Lily informed him. Mike was on his hands and knees over her now, the stars up above casting light on the scene. “Once you die, everything you are goes away. It’s as simple as that.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Mike leaned forward, planting his lips gently on hers.

What the fuck? Lily thought, then froze when she saw the predatory look in his eyes. Something was wrong here, but she couldn’t figure out what.

“So you mastered the Dreamscape pretty well,” Lily told him, once their lips parted. “But I can’t figure out the purpose of the maze.”

“Hmm. It’s a long story. Want to hear it?” Mike asked, his fingers trailing up her thighs. Lily shivered. Was that lust, or fear?

It was time to take charge. She pushed Mike hard enough that he toppled over, his robe coming undone and revealing his erect cock. Scooting down the bed, she took his balls in her hand, stroking the soft skin at the base of his dick with just the tips of her nails.

“Sure. You talk, I suck.” Lily pulled the head of his dick into her mouth. It felt larger than last time, stretching her lips. She altered her jaw, making it wider, and retracted her teeth to avoid biting him. She slid her lips around her cock, changing the back of her throat into another pair of lips so that she could doubly suck on him.

“Mmm. I like that.” Mike ran his fingers through her hair, combing her red and black locks away from her face. “You’re pretty good at it.”

“Thank you,” Lily replied, but it came out as sloppy mumbling.

Mike kept stroking her head, gently tracing her jaw with his fingers. The tenderness in his touch caused a strange stirring in Lily, an ancient feeling she hadn’t felt in a long time. Somehow, it was like he knew what she wanted.

“So let’s talk about the maze.” Mike let out a little gap when Lily took him all the way into her throat. Her neck bulged slightly where the head of his cock was, and she gulped at him greedily, both of her mouths sucking at him. It was easily her favorite trick. “This all goes back to Demonology. The part about how you can’t lie to me.”

“Uh-huh,” Lily mumbled, drooling on his cock. She tickled his balls with her free hand, stroking the skin beneath them.

“Damn, that feels good.” Mike traced Lily’s ears with his fingers, stroking her neck gently as his hands slid away from her. “Um, it went back to the deception piece. You made yourself look like everyone else, and I simply believed it. But if I had asked you directly, you had to reveal yourself.”

Lily locked eyes with Mike, making her eyes sparkle for him. Staring deeply into his eyes, she saw a complete lack of concern. He really did believe that he was going to walk away from this unscathed. She almost felt bad for him, but how she felt didn’t matter. She could already sense his body reacting, both here and in the real world.

“After you left, it got me thinking about a few things. You see, my mother, may she burn in hell, she isn’t real. Yet her presence here was very real, an entity beyond a sense memory. That got me to thinking about the difference between reality and fiction. What here was a lie, and what was the truth? Clearly, you and I are truth. This place, in a way, is truth. It’s all part of a code.

“I spent many years working with computers, learning how to code, utilizing the logic of a program to solve problems that emanate from nowhere. I decided to spend my time away from you learning how to manipulate the environment. The maze was my first attempt, a large scale effort at programming my Dreamscape. At first it was made of sand, and crumbled easily. But with a little bit of practice, I was able to create large stone walls, and populate it with various devices meant to activate upon your arrival. Think of them as If-Then statements.”

Lily popped her mouth off his dick. “So, wait, you built the maze just to prove you could build a maze?”

“I built the maze to teach myself how to code in the Dreamscape. You see, I needed to learn the logic of this place before I could build something bigger. Come here.” Mike sat up, running his hands down Lily’s shoulders. “Your mouth feels great, but I want something a little more intimate.”

“Your wish is my command.” Lily crawled on top of him, Mike guiding her hips with his hands. On her knees, she placed her hands on his shoulders, and Mike slid his hands down her thighs, rubbing the top of her cinnamon folds with his thumb. Lily sighed, lowering her body onto his, feeling him slide up inside of her. She shifted her insides around, but Mike touched her face gently to get her attention.

“No tricks for now. Let’s take our time.”

“Sure thing, Romeo.” She may as well enjoy herself. She slowly rotated her hips, shivering at the the pressure on her inner walls. Shifting her hips backward, she moaned softly at the sensation of Mike’s dick pushing upward into the spongy tissue behind her clit. Even though he had said no tricks, it didn’t apply to her own pleasure-she expanded her g-spot, making the entire front of her vagina a shortcut to her pleasure center.

A familiar shiver went up her spine, and she moved from rotating her hip to a slow, gentle ride.

“You look like you’re enjoying yourself.”

Lily’s eyes snapped open. She had settled into a slow, gentle rhythm, her mouth open as she exhaled with every press of her hips. She smirked, her eyes meeting Mike’s.

“I don’t know what’s coming over me.” Moving her hands to caress his hips, she rolled her hips more aggressively now, pressing down hard enough that Mike was stretching her pussy to the limit. She relaxed her tendons, her hips spreading even wider. Somehow, Mike’s dick seemed to grow larger to accommodate. “It seems that you’ve gotten me a little worked up.”

“That’s because I plan to win.” Mike ran his hands up Lily’s hips, sliding over her gown until they found her breasts. He gently thumbed one of her nipples while he squeezed the other breast, dropping his hands back to her hips to pull himself even deeper.

Oh shit. Lily felt it just then, a tiny warning before the flood. A spark had ignited, one that she rarely felt, deep within her stomach. It traveled up and down her spine, slowly gaining energy. Looking down at Mike, she felt a powerful lust overtake her, a sudden desire to slam her hips into his.

“What have you done to me?”

She moaned as Mike pulled himself even deeper. Waves of pleasure radiated through her legs, tiny sparks of long forgotten lust gathering in her cunt to form a small fire. The hotter it got, the sooner she realized that she couldn’t stop.

Mike smiled knowingly. “Allow me to finish. The maze was an attempt to learn how to code in the Dreamscape. Coding makes sense to me, and it establishes logic I can use to control my dreams. During this process, I discovered something important, something of value I could use to win.”

“Even if you make me cum, I’m still at an advantage,” Lily told him, tiny gasps between every other word. She couldn’t help it now — Mike was gently running his hands over her body, squeezing and stroking her in a way that took her back in time to a sense memory of her own.

“Shush. Let me finish, you little devil.”

Though he teased her, his words caused a rush of feelings. Every movement he made was tailor made just for her, the soft, romantic touches her body desired. It was the opposite of every mortal she encountered, in such a hurry to slake their own sexual thirsts. “You see, you gave me plenty to think about after our last encounter.”

“I ... I did?” She couldn’t stop moving now. She increased the pacing of her hips.

“You see, I thought you trapped me here. A house in the middle of the ocean. When I watched you fly away, I thought that your wings were the only way to escape. But then you came here instantly, wearing a bathing suit no less. Two thousand miles of ocean between me and the nearest land mass. If you had created this world for me, inside my head, then why did you have to fly away the first time?”

“I did ... didn’t trap you here,” Lily said. “This place was ... was ... already here!”

“Exactly. Once I realized that, I began working on the maze.” Mike grabbed her hips, massaging them as her whole body tensed up. “You see, I realized that once you figured out what I had, I was going to have a tough time keeping you here. The maze was one part distraction, three parts Dreamscape logic.” Mike slid a hand down her breast, pinching her nipple through her teddy. “I needed you to be distracted, your attention on something else. Otherwise, you may have caught on.”

“Caught on? To what?” Her breathing was ragged now, her orgasm building steam. How had he done this to her? It made no sense.

“You said it yourself. This is my Dreamscape. Everything here is a reflection of who I am.” Mike was actively thrusting into her now, grabbing her ass with strong hands. “Do you want to know the real reason I can’t escape? The truth behind my inability to leave this island, this strange paradox of a world that bows to my whim, yet won’t let me do something as simple as swim away?”

“I ... don’t ... care...” Her entire body was throbbing from within, pulsing in time with her own cunt.

“I can’t leave this place for one simple reason.” Mike grinned, his eyes flashing blue and green. “Because she can’t leave her spring.”

Soft, feminine hands grabbed Lily’s hips from behind, shoving her down onto Mike’s cock. Luminescent bubbles tickled her nose, her lust skyrocketing as she came so hard that her wings burst into view, her tail reappearing and whipping around dramatically, only to be grabbed from behind by something wet. Lily’s hips bucked, her wings flapping hard and lifting her into the air. The hands behind her held fast, preventing her escape, and she was forced back onto the bed.