The sun sets, ending the day for good. There will never be another day like this. There will never be another day with the same set of numbers. Events might be the same on another day, but not exactly. Each day is unique. No one ever does the same thing twice. Just like how there will never be the same set of numbers again unless time itself resets. 

Meanwhile, as I’m staring out of Ty’s bedroom window, my eyes fixated on the orange sky, Harvey watches the recordings of a street intersection. The playback speed sped up by nearly three times, so an hour passed by in just a few minutes. Anytime he spotted someone walking down the street, he would back up the recording and slow it down to normal. He’s done that several times now, and so far there’s been no sign of Ty.

I don’t know what’s on screen now. Harvey could be just watching as cars drive by at speeds that turned big hunks of metal and plastic into lights, or he could be watching a homeless person eating a dead rat off the street. Either is a likely possibility, cause I’ve seen both on that screen. 

Meanwhile, I stare out the window, hoping to see Ty jump into his backyard. There’s nothing back there except overgrown grass and a single rose growing to the side. The orange sky slowly fades into a despair filling violet, then prepares to turn to black. 

“Ooh.” Harvey said.

I turned from the window and looked at the screen. I expected Ty to be there because of what Harvey just said, but instead, it was just another homeless person. They were walking down the street, covered in a cloak. They walked with a limp and disappeared down an alleyway.

I groan, disappointed at the lack of results. It’s been several hours now and nothing substantial has appeared on screen. By this point, I don’t even think he’ll appear on any of these. At most, there might be a glimpse of him, but it would be so little that we wouldn’t be able to identify him until it’s too late.

My hope spiraled ever downward into the dark abyss. I don’t want to believe that warning the voice spouted, but as the clock ticks forward, despair filled my heart. Am I responsible for the first person who ever showed any care toward me meeting their end? I raise the palm of my hands and stare at them. They’re still their natural color, but that could just be my imagination. 

“Hello again everyone!” The door burst open and Karina barged into the room with plates in her hands. “It’s time to eat.” 

She placed Harvey’s plate down beside him. He never once looked up from the screen as he scanned every significant detail with eyes of a predator. On his plate was a weird combination of noodles and hamburger meat coated with liquid cheese. 

Karina removed a plate that was resting on her arm with her free hand and she made her way to Ty’s bed. She sat down and placed the plates beside her. When her hands became free, she looked at me and patted the space beside her. A warm smile filled with optimism and hope spread from ear to ear, and I couldn’t help but calm down upon seeing it.

I walked over and sat down, grabbing the plate. A silver spoon’s buried under the heaping pile of food that was stacked so high it nearly topples over. 

“I don’t really need to eat, but thanks for the food, anyway.” I thank her. I picked up the spoon and prepared to take a bite, but before I could eat it, Harvey gasped, drawing my attention.

“Did you make this Karina?” Harvey asks with shaky breath.

“Yes, I did. Aren’t you proud of me? You didn’t have to cook for me this time.” Karina says as she eats a huge spoonful of her meal. She hummed in delight as the food melted in her mouth.

Harvey wasn’t even looking at the food, much less attempting to eat it. In fact, I think his chair is farther away from that specific corner of the desk. I look at my plate, and dread fills me again. I take my spoon, scoop up some noodles and meat, then bring it closer to my mouth. My lips cover the spoon, and it touches my tastebuds. As soon as it touched my tongue, I could taste the absurd wrongness immediately.

There was so much salt in this dish that I couldn’t even taste the cheese, let alone the meat. I glared at Karina, who was eating away with a smile on her face. That devilish smile that basically poured an entire salt shaker inside the meal was the only thing on my brain. Was she trying to kill us?

Not wanting to upset her, I begrudgingly chewed the food and swallowed. My throat burned from all the salt scraping against it. The aftertaste was somehow even worse than when it was on my tongue. I set the plate on the table next to Ty’s bed and laid the fork next to it.

“I’m not really hungry.” I make the best excuse for myself as I can.

“I habin see you eat a day,” Karina says with her mouth full. She swallowed and spoke normally again. “What do you mean you’re not hungry?”

“Cubbi don’t actually need food to survive. We only eat through sexual means.”

“So, what happens when you eat normal food?” Karina eats another spoonful of her meal.

“The same thing that humans do. We need to use the bathroom.”

Karina’s head perked up when she heard that, and she swallowed. I don’t think she chewed too well since I could see her throat bulge as she swallowed too much stuff. As soon as it went down, she doubled over and coughed like a maniac. I was worried for her for a few moments, but she quickly sat back up and looked at me with curiosity.

“Wait, then, how does your system work? If you can eat and shit, then why do you not get any energy from it, but you do get energy from man juice?” 

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t really know either. For the longest time, cubbi have tried to decipher how our body works, but we have had zero results for thousands of years of research.”

I remember when my tutor showed me the x-ray of a cubbi and a human side by side. Before then, I always expected our body was so jacked up inside that it hard-wired our organs to gain energy from sex. When I laid my eyes on the x-rays, I was shocked by what I saw.

Both inside and out, our bodies are virtually identical. The only difference is that in cubbi our tailbones actually have a tail growing out of it. Otherwise, our bones, organs, and other interesting features about us remained intact. There was no reason for cubbi to have extremely tough skin and immune system, and there especially wasn’t a reason for us to only gain energy from absorbing fluids. 

There was a theory that my tutor proposed to me when she showed me those x-rays. The theory she came up with is that cubbi aren’t just related to humans on the same evolutionary path, but we are evolved from humans. But there was always a problem with that theory that both she and I pointed out.

Humans aren’t an old species. At the most, humans have existed for only over a couple hundred thousand years. They evolved from apes, but it wasn’t instantaneous. It took millions of years for that evolution to happen, and it was from several hundreds of minor changes impacting each other one after the next.

So, how can such drastic changes to humans happen so quickly? Changing the entire system with which a species eats and gains their energy isn’t something that can happen in only a few thousand years. To this day, it’s still a mystery as to how cubbi even came into existence. 

“So, do you have some of Ty’s semen around?” Karina asks.

I shook my head. “That’s not how it works, either.” 

Karina’s face scrunched up. “But don’t Succubi gain energy from sex juices and all that stuff?”

“Yes, and no. We do gain energy from the opposite sex’s sexual fluids, but it has to be through sex. We’ve already attempted storing our fluids multiple times, and it never works.”

Despite being a cubbi, I know so little about our own species. No matter how much research we put into figuring out how our body works, nothing ever seems to stick. Someone comes up with a hypothesis, tests are done, it’s proven wrong, and the cycle repeats. The leading cubbi scientists have exhausted nearly all of their resources, and our options are running out.

“So, without Ty, what will happen?” Karina’s voice is a lot softer than before. The excitement at seeing such a specimen quickly vanished with worry as she wondered how long I have left.

“Nothing really too bad. I’ll get sick, but beyond that, I’ll be fine for at least a few weeks.”

Karina sighed with a breath of relief. I don’t want her to worry about me. I’ve seen what happens when people worry about inconsequential things way too much. She’s a gentle and caring soul, and I don’t want to be responsible for damaging it, even though I suspect it’s already broken.

Suddenly, her eyes opened and a smile spread across her face. “Why don’t you and Harvey get it on if you’re that hungry?”

As soon as she suggested that, Harvey turned back to look at her. “I’ll pass on that one.” He turned back to the screen and said nothing else to elaborate.

“Why not? Don’t you want some pussy?” 

“It’s not that I’m against the act itself, it’s who I’m doing it with.” His voice hadn’t changed, but I could sense a hint of hostility in it. “Karina, you’re new to this situation. I wouldn’t recommend for you to barge your head in something you have zero experience in.”

“What’s the problem?” Karina turned to me. “Don’t you agree?”

I don’t say anything. I can’t say anything. My body is so overcome by disgust that my body would go to someone like him. Karina could see the hatred in my eyes, and she backed down before she could say anything else.

“The problem here is who she is,” Harvey continued. “She’s a cubbi. Frankly, I wouldn’t shed a tear if she drops dead where she stands.”

Karina stood up with a fire in her eye. “How dare you say that!” she shouted. “Apologize to her now.”

Harvey chuckled, then paused the video. He spun the chair around and faced Karina. “I won’t apologize for anything. You don’t know the extent of what her being here means. She knows it too, but she just won’t tell you.” 

“If that’s the case, then why are you helping her? What do you plan on doing? Find Ty, then hide it from us until the very last second, just to mock her. I trust you, so why are you saying this?”

“I’m doing this because I don’t want anymore people to die.” Harvey snapped. “Let me tell you the truth of what happens when she goes hungry. The first day passes, and nothing too bad happens. It’ll just be a normal day, though she’ll end up being more horny than usual. The second day will come by and she’ll begin falling sick from her hormones acting up as her body tells her to eat right away.

“Then the third day comes. If a cubbi doesn’t eat within three days, they’ll fall extremely ill and pass out. They will wake soon, however, but they won’t be the same. Their instincts will take over and their body will go against all semblances of morality. In order to satiate their hunger, she’ll go out and kill the first person she sees by raping them. Haven’t you seen the murders?”

Karina scoffed at what he implied, but I had no clue what he meant. If I did, then would I scoff as well? 

“You think she’s the one behind them?” 

Harvey shook his head. “No, cause why would she be so desperate to find her food source if she could just go out and kill? What I am saying is that there will be more murders if she goes without eating for three days. If we can’t find Ty by then, and it comes down to either our lives or hers, and I’m making the correct choice.” Harvey pulled up his pants leg and my muscles tensed up.

Around his ankle was a holster containing a weapon that I feared more than anything. In a hand to hand fight, human versus cubbi, the cubbi will win by default. Humans just aren’t equipped enough to deal with our increased strength and durability. However, give that human a weapon, and the tides will turn.

Around his ankle was a pistol that was perfectly concealed by his pants legs. No matter how tough my skin is, a bullet being fired at me with such extreme force will shatter me. Karina gasped when she saw the pistol, and I couldn’t do anything but sit as still as possible, knowing that it could be pointed at my temple in only a second.

“Either one of two things will happen when we get to the third day. As soon as she passes out, we’ll leave the room and barricade her in. Once the fourth day comes, and all her remaining energy drains itself trying to break out and kill me, then she’ll die. However, if she breaks out, I’ll shoot as soon as I see her.”

He dropped his pants leg, and the pistol covered itself up. There’s a saying that exists that I would very much like to kill. The saying, out of sight, out of mind. It can go suck a dick, cause that pistol is still fresh in my mind. 

Karina huffed and left the room. I can understand her frustration, but I can’t help but agree with Harvey. If we have sex, then my hunger will take over and I could end up hurting him drastically. If that happens, then it could affect his ability to pay attention to the cameras which could end up taking longer to find Ty. And if there’s anybody that I would refuse to give my body to, it’d be the people that are related to the assholes with money.

The room fell silent, filled with tensity so grand the pressure crushed me. I didn’t know what to say, so I just sat there and waited for him to tell me Ty appeared on screen. Then again, my curiosity was getting the better of me as my mind constantly reverted back to what he said about murders.

“What did you mean about murders going on?” I take my chance and ask him. 

He stayed silent for a while longer, then began speaking. “I don’t know how you don’t know about it. Considering your situation, I would’ve assumed you would keep tabs on the media.”

“Well, I have much bigger concerns.”

“And those bigger concerns are a lot smaller than you think.” The room returned to being silent for a bit longer. “There has been a spree of murders happening around the city. All of them indicate they were raped and are either young adult or middle-aged men. I think you know the problem with that.”

I know exactly what he means. After everything I did to keep my secret in check, it could all far apart thanks to something out of my control. 

“I have a question for you.” Harvey pauses the recording again, but doesn’t turn around like last time. “Did someone else come with you to shore?”

The room entered the third phase of silence. Somehow, this one was even more unbearing than the others. I scratched the back of my head while looking outside.

“I didn’t take anyone with me, but there was a stowaway on the boat that I came here on.”

This time, Harvey turned to face me. “What did you do to this stowaway?”

I remember the last thing that happened to me on the boat. The feeling of joy seeing the human world, only to be cut short by terror as someone pushed me into the sea. If it weren’t for the fact I took swimming lessons long ago, I would’ve drowned in the abyss. 

“I couldn’t do anything. The only reason I figured out there was a stowaway was because I had water entering my lungs as soon as I laid eyes on the city.”

He shook his head, disappointed by my words. “This is one of the many reasons you should’ve stayed on that island.”

“And just let my species continue to suffer?”

He’s shown his knowledge of my situation, so I don’t have a shred of doubt anymore. He knows the reason I’m here, yet he continues to disregard the situation as if it doesn’t matter. It does matter. If I do nothing to help my people, then what was my life meant for? Who will help them escape that island?

“I know you know the consequences if you, or your little stowaway, are caught.” Harvey continues. “You’ll die, true, but it won’t be just you.” He turned back around to stare at the recordings once more. “You should’ve stayed on that island of yours. If you don’t want to risk the entirety of your species’ lives, then take this advice from me. Find that stowaway, tie yourselves together, then burn yourselves alive.”

After that, there was no more room for talking. Not anymore, at least. All I could wonder about was the absolute worst thing that could have happened to Ty. He’s young looking and disappeared pretty quickly and out of nowhere. The voice’s warning rings in my head, and as far as I could tell, it came true.