Today was the day I found 'her'. In a puddle of her own making, formulated by a collection of various fluids. Salty tears dripping onto the bathroom tiles with mucus swinging to and fro hinged loosely from within her nostrils, her pants and shirt strewn across the top of the stall, and her underwear ripped and torn savagely by a pack of wild demon dogs. It was a setting and experience I was all too familiar with now.
I remember feeling a swirling whirlpool of emotions during my encounter with the succubi: Fear, disbelief, intrigue, pleasure. Not tears, though. Never during that assault by them did I feel genuine, heartbreaking distress. Not like this. Maybe that was something wrong with just me. Maybe this -I found myself gesturing to an audience of none- was what I was supposed to feel when I'd gone through it myself. The scene on display before me, though, was far from erotic. It was leaning intrepidly toward the sensitive and lingered heavily in the air with shame. Someone else had already gotten a hold of the business card and used it.
'This was my fault.'
"Hey," I said gently, kneeling down and slowing my descent diagonally toward her, "my name's Jasper."
I extended my hand out, waiting for permission to place it on her back. Despite the serious nature of her sorry state and the clear evidence that pointed toward Kabo and his goons, my body could restrain everything about its actions except for one thing. Blood flow directly to my sex organ.
'What the fuck is genuinely wrong with me?' I thought to myself, knowing fully well this wasn't the time nor place for it.
She was objectively attractive. Not necessarily model status, but voluptuous curvature, a smooth and clean face, and the current presentation of her direct access was something I couldn't exactly just pretend wasn't there. In the same breath, she started crawling across the floor seductively toward me, knocking me onto my behind and pressing her palms to my inner thighs for her fingers to begin working their way toward my zipper. I had to admit that the tears and demeanor were turning me further on in a way I wasn't really proud of.
"W-wait. I know what's going on, and you don't have to do this," I muttered.
My admittance of insider knowledge still wasn't halting her.
*ZIP*
"STOP!"
Whatever it was behind the single word command that worked, held some kind of power as she scrambled backwards until her back hit the bathroom stall.
"I don't understand what's happening to me!" she cried out.
I zipped my pants back up and rushed to her side. I didn't wait for permission this time to console her and wrapped my arm around her shoulder and pulled her tightly into my chest.
"Just listen to the sound of my heart," I instructed.
Her withdrawal acquitted as she allowed me to wrap her securely in my arms. Then I just stayed there. I don't know exactly how long we were there for, I just knew I needed to be there. It didn't really matter if there was an influence of guilt laced into my motivations to protect and comfort her. The only thing that mattered was that she had someone who wouldn't take advantage of the situation she placed herself in.
'Well, not the only thing.'
"Hey," I lifted her chin to look up into my deeply emerald eyes, "you wouldn't happen to know of a little yellow business card by chance, do you?"
She shook her head no, but a twinkle of recognition fell like a shooting star across her blackened pupils' sky.
"I really need that card," I pressured, making certain that the stubbornness of my request wasn't contingent with the empathy I was lending her, "it's important. Please."
"So do I," she squeaked, the first words I heard from her vocal box.
I didn't understand the contradiction that was occurring. It was like watching a horror movie where you know the protagonist is doing something that makes zero sense whatsoever and would ultimately lead to them suffering from the consequences of their own actions, but they continued to do it anyway because that's what was scripted for them to do so. Likewise, and to be fair to movies, the plot would completely fall apart without them.
"Just tell me where it is," I pleaded, "I need to know that it's secure."
She pointed up toward the bathroom stall above us, her pants dangling above; a phantom criminal sentenced to death. My instincts and nervous system were buzzing, prompting me to jump up, confiscate the card from her, and rip it to shreds. My brain was better than that, though. It stayed with her in the restroom, overriding my bodies desires and forcing me to hold her fast against the raging storm of uncertainty she was bound to be feeling.
"Can you help me find my glasses, Jasper?" she asked after some time.
"Of course I can," I replied, happy to help.
It was probably a lot easier said than done for her if she were actually in need of them, but it'd be no problem for someone like me who was graced with 20/20 eagle vision. It took me less than ten seconds to scan the room and find them kicked over the span of the room and in the far corner under the sinks. Could it be that her inability to see her demon benefactors lent to the negative interaction she'd had? Maybe she'd genuinely thought she'd been assaulted by other humans in the school. That would be more terrifying, I'd think, than recognizing that Kabo had sexy demon enforcers that he could dispatch on a whim.
"Stay right here," I began as I departed her embrace to retrieve her effects, "I'm going to get your glasses and your pants for you, ok?"
I stood up and pulled her pants off the stall. I folded them over my left arm as a butler might with their employer's towel, then I crossed the floor to the corner where the glasses would be. I knelt onto my left knee, being careful not to drag the legs of her pants on the ground and contorted myself to look under the sink embedded counter.
There in the corner of the women's restroom lie a pair of thick, black framed, circular glasses. A unique pair owned by only one person I knew...
'Levi.'
He had taken the card of his own volition only to turn around and use it on himself, even after everything I'd been through the day prior. Yet, he needs it? My head was spinning as I reached under and grabbed his glasses in my right hand, accidentally banging my head against the bottom edge of the counter in the process.
'Ow, that fuckin hurt.'
I rubbed the top of my head with my wrist while I turned to face Levi.
What ever could have prompted him to do something as stupid as this?