"Happy Birthday to me."
She sings softly to herself, eyes pooling with tears as she lay in a pile of freshly fallen leaves.
Golden columns of light sneak through the canopy of an ancient wood, tugging at the remnants of mist that shimmers through the trees as it warms the forest where she lays, staring up at nothing as woodland life rustles through the branches and bushes around her. In her hands, resting on her chest, a large, freshly picked mushroom.
A deep breath and long sigh does little to lift her out of her melancholy.
"Twenty one years." she whispers. "... how much longer?"
She sinks her teeth into the mushroom as if it was a perfectly frosted cupcake. Dry, bitter and spongy, she chews wistfully, and swallows without feeling. Her gag reflex has long since given up trying to prevent her from stuffing odd foods into her mouth. A necessary part of her survival.
No friends, no family, no love. Just her and a half-eaten mushroom, hiding in the woods.
Her stomach lurches as the fresh fungus falls into its empty pit.
"I hope that wasn't poisonous." she chuckles nervously. She takes another bite, her mind ignoring the revolting sensations erupting all over her mouth.
"Happy birthday to me." she whimpers, half chewed mushroom slipping from her lips.
Her name was Vaela. No surname. Not one she could remember anyway. Like most humans who still find themselve living in big cities, she'd grown up being tossed around between overcrowded orphanages and broken foster-homes run by vampires who saw as little more than a perpetual snack.
A sudden vibration rubs at her leg. She jolts up right as she tries to pull an old, cracked phone from her pocket. Frail, tired fingers fumble as the phone twirls into the bed of leaves. She scrambled around to find it.
She groans as she lifts it out of the dirt. The phone's screen flickered and its speakers shrieked like a dying rat. She rehabilitates it with a few slaps to her palm.
[ Caller ID: WORK ]
"Hi! Vaele speaking!" She huffs as she answers.
"Yo, Vee. It's Kevin from the Blood Dump." a voice answers. Her shift manager at the Blood Donation Center, he always seemed more interested in anything other than doing his job.
"Oh, hi Kev-"
"Schedules changed." he cuts in. "Don't bother coming today."
Vaela winces. That meant no dinner tonight.
"Actually… oh, shit." Kevin says before snickering softly. "You're not scheduled at all. Looks like you're fired, babe."
"What!?" she cries out, "but I didn't do-"
"I don't make the rules. Maybe stop fainting whenever you see blood… in a Blood Dump. Anyway, suuuuper busy, you know how it is. Gotta go. Good luck and, um… yeah."
The line went dead and she slumped back into the leaves, staring silently at the trees above her, warm tears streaming down cold, boney cheeks. She wasn't crying, it was just her body's default response to most events in her life, which she often likens to a slow-motion car crash that just keeps piling with wreckage, day after day.
She suddenly begins to flail about on the forest floor, flicking up leaves. Every shade of green, brown and red rain down in a kaleidoscope of color around her as she screams out her frustrations.
But again, the act does little to lift her mood.
She begrudgingly lifts herself off the floor and begins to walk. But not home, if you could call a tiny crawl space beneath an apartment staircase a home. She just walked. No direction or purpose. Slowly and solemnly, she drags her feet through the forests, head hung low, the occasional teardrop falling into the crackling leaves beneath her.
Sunlight struggles to find its way through the canopy as she ventures deeper into the forest where thick roots and brambles snatch at her feet, and strange shadows flicker between the trees.
But the soft smell of sweet, ripe berries lingers gently on the thick forest air, robbing her of logical thought as she races through the woods trying to find them.
As the scent intensifies, she finds herself crawling through thick, thorny bushes to reach her prize. Clothes torn and skin scratched, she emerges into a small clearing in the heart of the woods, where a small patch of strawberries, frosted in dew, glistens in the sun.
Her body reacts before her mind could, launching itself toward the crimson delights, but as her foot hits the soft grass of the clearing, the ground swallows her whole.
Vaele rubs at the dust and grit in her eyes.
As the blur fades she finds herself in a chamber carved from ancient stone. Strange symbols and ruins etched across the walls that seemed to glow with a faint crimson hue. A staircase spiralled to the ceiling in one corner, barely hidden behind vines and roots growing from above.
At its center, a statue of a female form. Smooth, slender limbs connect to a curvaceous body blessed with an ample bosom. A flawless face smiles, upon a long slender neck, and its forehead adorned with two, great horns.
Vaele gasps as she realizes where she stood, the tomb of an ancient demon, the most feared beings in the world. Dazed and confused, she jumps to her feet and runs toward the staircase.
"Oh, darling…" a sultry voice whispers in the dark. Soft and smooth as silk. "Quite the entrance. Why so eager to leave?"
Vaela felt the powerful presence of the entity behind her. Her neck stiffened and her body froze as she felt it draw nearer.
"I'm really sorry." Vaele whimpered, hands quivering as crimson smoke and shadow oozed over her shoulders.
"Fear not, my child." The voice responds, its breath crawling down Vaela's nape. "I will help you find what you seek."
"Who are you?" Vaela whispers.
"A friend." The voice purred into her ear. "Or… perhaps a miracle. A magical gift. A birthday wish granted."
Vaela's legs move on her own, while her mind struggles to comprehend her situation. She turns to face the voice, gasping as her eyes fall upon it.
Floating gently on a crimson cloud of curling smoke, a succubus descends before her. Deep, red irises eye her from foot to forehead. She nibbles at her lower lip as she moves closer, reaching out a hand.
"I-I'm sorry." Vaela whimpers as the demon's fingers caress her face, gently wiping away dirt and dry leaves.
"You poor thing." The succubus cooed, "So beautiful, and yet so much suffering."
Tears well in Vaela's eyes as the succubus leans in close to her and reaches out a hand revealing an empty palm. Moments later, with a poof of crimson smoke, an hold an enormous strawberry pointed toward Vaela.
Vaela whimpers as the smell assaults her senses, urging her to devour the delicacy. The demon watches on with a soft smile.
Though she had little education, even she knew, accepting anything from a demon was a recipe for disaster. But she had already given up on living anything but a life of misery. There was nothing a demon could do to make it worse, she reckoned.
She warily plucks the strawberry from the demon's palm, shifts it slowly to her mouth and sinks her teeth into it. The eruption of cool juices and sweet flavours hits her, overwhelming her with its pure, natural flavor. She falls to her knees, body quivering as she is unable to contend with the overpowering feelings that soon possess her, tingling through flesh and bone, caressing the very fabric of her being. A deep, sensual moan escapes her as the masticated flesh of the berry slides down her throat and warms her belly.
"Delicious…" she whispers, panting as sweat collects on her brow.
"Almost… orgasmic… wouldn't you say?" The demon murmurs as it floats around her head, its words oozing into her ears. "Do you want more? Do you want it all? Everything? Kiss me… and together we'll make this whole world your strawberry."
Vaela turns toward the succubus. Sultry and seductive, its smokey eyes gaze at her as soft, wet lips part and shift closer. Vaela hesitates, but the demon's eyes have already captured her heart and mind, robbing her of conviction.
Lost in a dream of crimson kisses and slithering tongues, Vaela relents, submitting to the demon's touch as its mouth locks on to hers, sealing the deal of their infernal contract.
Her eyes fall close, her mind sucked into a shimmering light as her body fades from existence.
Soft, silken fabric suddenly caresses her skin. She peels open blurry eyes as she lifts herself up into a seated position to find herself sitting in the center of an enormous bed covered in the softest materials she's ever felt.
Her body feels strange. Lifting the covers, she stares at herself in bewilderment. Her frail, flecked and malformed frame was nowhere to be seen. She stares down at gleaming, unblemished, peach-pink skin. Jumping to her feet and tossing away the thick covers, she gasps as she pokes and strokes at her flesh.
Tall, slender, voluptuous. Like an ancient sculpture carved in reverence of angelic beauty. Looking around wildly for a mirror, she realizes she lay in a grand, gilded bed in the center of an even grander bedroom.
Polished marble, laced with gold lined the floors and walls, the ceiling presented an intricately carved collection of angelic scenes, ceiling to floor windows lined one side of the room showing scenes of a massive, magical forest outside. A bank of doors covered the other side of the room, with dozens of interesting and opulent decorations perfectly placed everywhere in between. In a corner, she glimpses the reflection from a tall, full-length, 3-sided mirror.
She leaps from the bed and shuffles to the mirror, yelping as the cold stone bites at her toes. Her breath choked and goosebumps erupting across her skin, she stares at herself awestruck and bewildered.
"Is this… me?" she whimpers as she twists and turns in front of her reflection, plucking at her bottom and flinking around her breasts.
Her mouth curls into a wide grin, her eyes narrowing as she intensely inspects her new body, biting and licking her lips as she traces lines around her supple skin.
"Fuck! That's hot." she giggles as she does a little bounce and dance.
"You like?" the demon's moans as she pokes her head out from behind the mirror, smiling like a Cheshire cat.
Vaela snatches her breasts and crotch as she yelps in surprise.
"Oh, please don't hide it, darling." The demon smirked. "You are my best work. The world must know of your beauty."
"What do you want?" Vaela asks, quivering as the succubus looks on, beaming.
"Not much, kitten." she mutters with a grin. "Only… everything."