Gryphon

Hello there. Hopefully this is working. Anyway, if it is, I just want to say this. This is not just a disclaimer for this single chapter, but also for the rest of the story. I plan on discussing themes that I personally love to talk about when writing. Particularly the nature of good and evil, especially when that line is so thin it looks like nothing but a piece of hair. There are some mature stuff coming up, and I expect that we are all big boys and girls and can discuss certain themes maturely. So anyways, I'll let you get back to reading.

That was such a good night. Harmony’s asleep in bed with nothing bad going on at all, and I had an amazing night with Jessica. Went to a restaurant, caught up with an old friend, the whole shebang. 

I can only imagine how disappointing it would be to not witness something so life changing. If I didn’t go, then I would have stayed the same person as I was before I left. 

I’m exaggerating, of course, but it was still a night that’s worth remembering. If I ever write a book, and I include a night where even half of that stuff happened, I’d show it off, no doubt. It would be a disappointment otherwise. I mean, what else could the readers see. More tragedy? Let’s take off the covers of tragedy and cover ourselves in a quilt of wholesomeness and comedy instead.

I walk up to the porch of my house and lean against it, looking at the moon. It shines its stunning moonlight onto the streets below, turning the street a dark blue that wished it could be the daylight sky. 

As I stare up at the moon, I wonder what I should do tonight. Maybe play a few games of Call Of Duty before going to bed. A new game came out recently, and from what I heard and saw of gameplay, its absolute dogshit. I’ll probably buy it a week from now. 

Better yet, the sight of the moon brings a story to mind. The princess of a faraway planet falls in love with the prince of another planet. They are set to marry in the coming days, but suddenly, a second prince enters. The drama! The suspense! How can this be anything but a good idea? 

Sighing, I turn back toward my door. I take out my keys, unlock the door, and enter. But something’s off. I enter the living room that’s cast in the shadow of night. The only light coming in was that of the moonlight coming through an open window. It was enough to see, but my eyes had to adjust to see in the slightest.

That wasn’t the weird part, however. What was strange had to be the weird knocking sound I heard coming from the hallway. 

BANG.

Pause. I count the seconds down from ten.

BANG.

Two second apart. I did it again.

BANG.

Two seconds apart, perfectly timed. My heart rate increased and my senses went on high alert. What was that noise? In any horror movie, the protagonist would go and check the noise without even grabbing a weapon like the dumbasses they were. 

Not wanting to fall into the same fate as a horror movie protagonist, I grab the nearest weapon I could find. Sadly, the closest weapon was an anime figurine that came from my favorite Isekai series. It was the size of a lamp and cost a fortune to get, but it was either I use it, or I let myself die without a fight from whatever intruder was in my home. 

My primary worry was Harmony, however. She isn’t in the best state imaginable and can be easily taken advantage of while she’s out like a light. I swear, if they did anything to her, I’d awaken the beast within. 

I couldn’t just let them notice I’m here. 

BANG.

I had to be stealthy and see what the noise was. 

BANG.

It’s coming from the hallway.

BANG.

I creep a bit closer and look down the hallway and discover the source.

BANG. BANG. BANG.

I stood absolutely frozen out of shock and awe at what I was witnessing. At the end of the hallway, banging their head against the wall, was Harmony. She reeled her head back as far as it could go and slammed her head against the wall. Blood poured out of her forehead and decorated the wall, hiding in the cracks that formed from all the constant stress.

“Harmony!” I called out.

She turned to me, but the Harmony that I was looking at now wasn’t the same Harmony that stepped on my front porch two days ago. My blood went cold, my arm hair stood straight as a missile, and goosebumps popped up over my entire body. 

Those eyes. They were the same eyes I was drawn into like before, but this time, a layer of fear and despair barged into the party and inserted itself into the mix. Her entire body became part of the shadows themselves, her grayness nearly becoming pure black from the lack of food. 

Her tail, now completely exposed, swung in the air like a puppy thrilled to see their master return from a hard day at work. Horns stuck out of her head, and I didn’t recognize this before, but her horns were the exact same color as blood. Down to the very last pigment, it resembled the color of the liquid of life to such a terrifying degree.

“Harmony?” 

Her head shook like mad, as if she were trying to force herself to go two different directions. Her eyes were the same, never agreeing on the same way to look. When the left eye looked up, the right looked left. She grabbed her shaking wrist so tight and forcefully that blood began pouring from it as her fingernails dug into her skin.

She banged her head against the wall one more time, then came charging at me. I fell to the floor and scooted backward as quickly as possible, a scream tearing itself a pathway up my throat. Before she could get to me, she stopped in front of my bedroom door. 

Her body began shaking again. She looked straight into my eyes for the first time in a long while. Tears erupted from them like a fountain. 

“Run!” Harmony yelled as she tossed herself into my room. 

She didn’t need to tell me twice. I stood up and tried to make a break for it, but my legs didn’t seem to work well when under intense situations. They shook so wildly that as soon as I stood up, I fell back to the ground. 

Before I could even move, I heard the sound of footsteps coming this way. In a panic, I went for the first hiding spot I could find. I dived under the coffee table and curled up into a ball while grasping onto the anime figurine. I didn’t know if I’d be able to hit Harmony with it if the time called for it, but having it with me at least made me feel safe.

I could hear footsteps run at full speed and enter the living room. I look out from under the table and see Harmony’s feet stop at the end of the hallway. With one step at a time, she went from the hallway entrance and into the kitchen.

My blood ran cold as I saw her walking through the kitchen. I’m just a few feet away from her, and if I’m caught, who knows what she’ll do to me. Who am I kidding? I know exactly what’ll happen if she catches me. It’s not exactly rocket science.

She turned on a dime, her feet facing toward the table. I held my breath and tried to will my heart into slowing down. She’ll hear the slight beating of my heart. Calm down, for fuck’s sake. 

She began moving, making her way into the living room. Please don’t find me. I’m terrified, not just because of what she’ll do if she finds me, but by what I’ll have to do to get away from her. 

“I know you’re here.” 

As soon as Harmony said those words, a scream rose from my throat and I had to force itself to stay inside. It’s not like it helped any, since she began speed walking to the table. There wasn’t any time to do anything except pray to whatever God I worshipped. However, I’m an atheist, so that prayer time was filled up with me lamenting in my fear. 

She grabbed under the table and tossed it away, exposing me back into the moonlight. As a last stand, I gripped onto the anime figurine and swung it as hard as I could. 

Harmony pulled back her fist and hit it as hard as she could. If a human would do something that stupid, they’d break their hand. However, she’s far from human. Instead of her hand breaking, the entire top half of the figurine shattered and flew everywhere. A shard flew and cut my cheek before landing behind me and imbedding itself into the floor.

Harmony dropped on top of me, and we locked eyes for a second. Whose pink, heart-shaped eyes were those? They definitely weren’t Harmony’s. They were corrupted, the compassion and love for all life vanished, replacing those wholesome characteristics with horror and the want to feed. 

“You got away from me for too long.” The imposter spoke. “You’re mine now.”

She grabbed onto my pants and pulled them down, exposing my shaft. I didn’t imagine my first time being like this. If it was going to go down, the way I wanted it to be was two perverts melting into each other as we went on all night and day. 

However, here I was, flat on my back, completely soft as a succubus dropped her skirt. Her vagina was in full view, and in a normal situation, I’d get so hard I’d burst the same second as I got hard. Instead, it stayed as limp as a worm.

I was waiting for it, gritting my teeth for the pain to start and for my body to get tossed around like a doll. However, the moment didn’t come. Instead, Harmony just sat on top of me, not looking into my eyes, or even at my penis. 

I tried to take a look at her face, and what I saw haunted me for the rest of my life. Her smile, stiff and in constant pain, looked so desperate and heartbroken. Her teeth constantly grated against each other. 

One side of her smile twisted into a devilish grin that would scare people of all ages for years to come. With a devilish attitude to back it up, it preyed upon the sanity of its host, and forced them to do such awful, heinous things for its continued survival. 

The other side twisted into a depressed and terrified frown that would make people of all ages pity this poor woman. Unable to fight back against the curse that has plagued her kind for hundreds of years, she still tried to fight against it despite knowing the futility of her very existence.

Two sides of the same coin, one fighting for a noble goal such as changing the minds of people that are terrified of their species, and the other willingly diving into what makes their species so demonized in the first place. One fights back against their nature, ignoring their uniqueness. The other diving headfirst into their nature, ignoring how that nature is hurting others. When the coin is put into the hands of someone that the coin trusts, they ask to be flipped. It soars into the air and falls back into the hands of the person. They close their fists before they see the result. And slowly they open their hand, and a smile appears on their face.

“Harmony.” I say. She takes a look up at me and I could see her eyes widen. I don’t blame her. It takes a brave man - let’s be honest here, a stupid one - to smile in the face of their inevitable demise. “Remember what I told you. No matter what happens, I’ll never be mad at you.”

Her eyes softened, briefly turning back to those compassionate eyes. Sadly, as life demonstrates by allowing the mere concept of existence, good things don’t always last forever. They turned right back to those heartless eyes, and her half smile half frown turned into the grin of Lucifer himself. The coin dropped on tails.

Harmony grabbed the side of my head and I could feel the pressure of her grip. If she so much as grips a bit harder, her fingers would pierce into my head. 

Before I could scream from the pain, she nudged my head up, and we stared into each other’s eyes. I could feel my sanity lose grip on reality by the second. My mind could only see those pink hearts and I lost all feeling in my body. The pain in my head vanished as my consciousness swam into the void of ignorance. 

With my consciousness now gone, the only thing that filled my head were the primal desires of ancient humanity. Much like the animals we eat nowadays, humans were the same hundreds of thousands of years ago. We only thought about eating, sleeping, and making it through the next day. Another thing that would pass through ancient human’s brains was the process of reproduction. That primal urge welled up inside me and let loose as my only desire in life changed to bearing offspring. 

My penis finally came erect, and she lowered herself onto it. I don’t remember much about this moment anymore. I was so lost in those eyes that the only thing I could think about was sex. 

However, one sensation managed to pass through all the barriers. I could feel something wet fall onto my chest. 

***

My eyes opened, and the pain rushed into me in an instant. My legs, arms, chest, and especially hip hurt like hell. I looked at my arm to see what the hell happened, and I gasped at the sight. All along my arm, tiny dark and red spots formed like a cow’s spots. Bruises covered my arm, and every time I tried to move it, a searing pain would flow into me. 

I attempt to stand, but it took so much effort in order to even get on one knee. With every movement of my body, a wave of needles stuck into my skin and refused to pull out until I had already become numb enough to not feel the initial pain. 

Eventually, I manage to get on my feet, and I look around me. I remember how I got into this situation, but I don’t recall what happened throughout the ordeal. Harmony was nowhere to be found, and the smell of semen and blood was the only thing to keep a record of the event. 

I look at the ground and see something. A white glob sat on the ground, and another one after that. I traced all the spilled remains of cum all the way to the front door that was left slightly open. I begin walking to the door, hoping that she hadn’t run away.

I open the door and exhale a breath that I had been holding for a while. Harmony sat on my porch looking up at the stars. She didn’t have her skirt on, so her vagina was bare for anyone to see if they looked out their windows. She didn’t care. There were other things on her mind. 

Her previously gray skin transformed back to normal, and her eyes finally looked like they weren’t filled with hunger anymore. Her tail swayed in the cool night air, the heart tip dipping low. Things finally turned back to normal, at least for now. 

“When I was a kid, I would always look up into those stars.” Harmony said. “They look so beautiful. What would it be like if my feet could grow rockets and I could fly. I could touch those lights then, couldn’t I.”

“I’ve always wanted to live a life amongst those stars, like Falya. You know who she is?” I shook my head. She didn’t see me do it, but she explained anyway. “She’s supposed to have been the very first cubbi. A woman who spoke with the Gods in order to gain strength, intelligence, and perseverance surpassing any human. When she died, she was welcomed into the realm of the Gods, becoming the God of all cubbi. At least that’s what the texts say.”

“It came at a price, and this was the result. If we don’t feed from sex, we lose our sanity until fed again. When we lose control, we either get our food, or we die such miserable deaths where going insane would be a good end to the story. At least then we wouldn’t have to feel the pain.”

“Then, a few years ago, I bought a book. I don’t remember what brought my interest to it. It was in the human section that was shipped from overseas, and I was never the most avid reader, but I like to believe that Falya brought me there. If it weren’t for that book, I wouldn’t have chosen this path.”

“Let me guess.” I spoke up for the first time since coming out here. “It’s Loving Gates.”

“Yeah, I’m guessing you read the book too?” I stay silent. “Well, when I read about Eisha, and her effect on Lucas, I wanted to be just like her. She took a no good punk, introduced him to reading, and changed his life for the better. I want to be just like her.”

“There was something she said that I’ve always loved. ‘When I stare into the sky, I don’t see nothingness of azure and black. I see worlds waiting to be explored. The distant stars have a story to tell, of accomplishments and failures, of tragedy and comedy-”

“‘Of battles won and lost. They may be barren wastelands, but in our imaginations, they’re a brand new story that goes out so far they calculate distance in years. Don’t let that curious nature of yours die now, Lucas. You are meant for so much more than you think you are.’” I finished for her.

“I thought you hated the story. Why would you remember a quote from a book you hate?”

“Because I’m the one that wrote it. Didn’t you read the author’s name?”

Harmony was silent for a moment, and I looked at her. She was looking at me like I had just lost it. I can guarantee her that I’m completely sane, thankfully.

“Wait, there’s no way.” 

“Yep, I’m the dude that wrote that shit.”

“But I thought you hate tragedies. That entire book builds up on the fact that Eisha dies in the end. Why would you write it like that?”

I tried to shrug, but my shoulders wouldn’t let me. I’m surprised that none of my bones were broken from the way my body looks and feels.

“I was in a bad spot at the time. I wrote exactly how I saw the world, and it just so happened to sell so well that it made its way over to a continent no one knows about. And now you’re here where the author that wrote the book you care so deeply about lives.” I look up into the stars with Harmony. “Life sure is a bitch, ain’t he.”

Silence persisted so long that I thought I had gone deaf. Silence like this isn’t possible. No insect buzzed, no animal cried out, no car passed by, and neither of us spoke. It was like the end of the world was upon us.

“I know that you said you wouldn’t hate me, but are you sure you won’t reconsider it?”

I couldn’t help but laugh, which then made me cough, cause laughing hurt like a bitch right now. Even my stomach was in no form to keep up.

“Nah, I get it. That wasn’t you. You had no control over your body at the moment.”

“You know that’s what victims say when they’re defending their rapist. They were drunk last night, so that makes it less bad somehow.”

“But you’re different. I know you’re a good person underneath that. Even still, a man drinking because they made the choice to do so is different from a person’s body being completely taken over against their own choice. That’s the way I see it, at least. There may be some people out there that would think you’re an awful person, and they may have a point, but I don’t give a shit.”

Silence persisted again, but this time for a much shorter period of time.

“So, what do we do now?” Harmony asks.

“Well, we wouldn’t want you to get that bad again. Since we’re starting fresh, I can feed you every day from now on.” 

“So you just want to fuck every day?”

“It’s either that or we repeat this night day after day.”

Harmony nodded. “I get it, but it’s not like you’d be doing it with a normal human. Cubbi have a natural tendency to be the more dominant one during sex, which is why I haven’t tried it with you the day we got to know each other.”

“You know me. I have a lot of fetishes. I am a bit of a masochist, you know.”

Silence once again, but then Harmony began chuckling, until she burst into laughter that warmed my ears. It was nice seeing her like this again, all happy and not depressed. Then again, she’s probably just doing what everyone else does and bottles it up. Who am I to say anything about that. I’ve been doing that shit for years now as well.

We make an agreement before heading back inside. We’ll do it at the time we wake up, then one more time before bed. So I’ll be getting more action every day than I have been my entire life. What a treat.

We head back inside and go to bed. I had no dreams that night.