I found myself in my villa on the slopes of the volcano on Thera. The sun was just past its peak, it was very early afternoon, and it was another lovely warm summer day.

The humans in the nearby town would be making preparations for Aphrodite's festival, which was to begin in a few days. That sort of thing held little interest for me, but I thought my mater might enjoy it should she happen to come for a visit.

I was in my human guise again for some reason. I appeared as a dusky-skinned young woman with dark green eyes and long straight jet-black hair. I was dressed in finery suitable for a woman of noble birth. My white gown was adorned with silver and gold thread, I wore two gold rings and a small gold medallion hung from a fine gold chain around my neck.

Apart from myself, my villa was quite empty as usual. I had no need for servants, in fact having humans about underfoot would only bring me trouble. And as my mater frequently reminded me, I found quite enough of that on my own. I certainly didn't need to invite more of it into my life.

So I was rather surprised to sense a human somewhere in my home this fine summer day.

It took me a few moments to determine there was an interloper in my bed chambers of all places. I strode across the atrium and approached my private chambers, expecting to find a thief lurking about in search of gold or jewels.

When I stepped into the room I came up short, the sight that greeted me was perhaps the last thing I expected to find.

I was staring at myself.

For the span of several heartbeats we looked at each other in surprise, while my mind jumped from one thought to the next.

I didn't recall having a large mirror in my room.

This mirror was finer than any I'd ever seen before, the reflection was flawless.

My reflection wasn't actually mirroring my movements.

It wasn't even a proper reflection, I was finely dressed while the image before me was naked.

The me in the mirror wasn't even in a proper human guise, she had my horns and tail on full display.

That wasn't a reflection and there was no mirror, that was another me!

It wasn't another me, my duplicate was part human.

All of those thoughts passed through my mind in short order, and at long last I frowned at my imperfect twin and demanded "Who are you? What are you doing in my home?!"

She gave me a peculiar look, then shook her head and shrugged as she said something that seemed like she was asking me a question in return.

Her response was gibberish to me, spoken in a language I'd never encountered before. Fortunately the fact that she was part-human meant I was able to read her thoughts, which I proceeded to do.

I learned in short order that she and I shared the same common name, this half-human girl was also known as Mara. I found out she was from a land very far from here, well beyond even the pillars of Hercules. And I learned that the language she spoke was called 'English', and the words she'd uttered translated to 'what did you say?'

In addition, I discovered that this half-human Mara believed that my life and home were but a dream, that I was dead and she was asleep in her bed at home in her far-off land.

And finally, I discovered that she also knew my mater, and instead of addressing her as Lilith this other me called her 'Lily' or referred to my mater as her 'demon mom'.

The part-human Mara and I stared at each other with wide eyes. Apart from my clothing and her horns and tail, we did appear to be identical. If my mater were to see us, she might well believe she had twins.

The other Mara's eyes grew wider as her face paled slightly in fear. She shook her head and gasped in English, "This is fucked up!"

And with that she vanished in the blink of an eye. It was as though she'd been teleported away, except I sensed no magic in her departure.

The experience left my heart racing, and I took a step towards where the other Mara had -

• • • • •

I woke with a start. My heart pounded and I was trembling, while my body was coated in a cold sweat.

My hands shook as I fumbled around for my phone on the bed-side table, then started tapping out a few details while they were still fresh in my mind. Summer afternoon. At home on Thera. Festival of Aphrodite. Human intruder. Pillars of Hercules. English. Dreaming. Other Mara.

I stared at those last two words as a cold fear settled in the pit of my stomach.

My dreams of being the demon Mara had become almost routine, and apart from the very first one where I died they were all generally pretty good. Like nothing bad happened, they were little glimpses into the demon Mara's day to day life. Some people would probably call them boring, except I was positive they were visions into my past life.

This last one though... I felt another wave of dread through me as I thought about it again.

I was the demon Mara, that's how those dreams always went. I was her, going through normal boring parts of whatever my daily routine involved between two and three thousand years ago.

Except this dream.

I was her like usual, but she met me. And I wasn't me. I was there but I wasn't me, and I couldn't understand how that worked or what it meant.

"Mara?" Susan mumbled, her eyes half opened. "Wha's wrong?"

"Nothing," I half-whispered as I shook my head. "It was just a dream... I think."

Sue squinted at me for a few seconds, then she moved closer and wrapped her arms around me. She sounded more awake as she said softly, "You're shaking Mara."

I let myself lean into the hug but I still felt scared and confused. According to my phone it was a few minutes past six in the morning. Today was Friday, it was the tenth of July. Melissa went out last night to work, so it was just me and Sue in the big bed.

"Sorry Susan," I sighed. "I didn't mean to wake you. I'll be ok, it was just a really weird dream."

She gave me a kiss and said, "It's ok. Do you want to talk about it?"

I gulped then tried to explain it, but I didn't do a very good job. Sue stopped me every ten seconds to ask questions because it was just that confusing.

After a couple failed attempts I finally said "Ok let's try this again. Human-Mara is me, and Demon-Mara is Lily's daughter ok? Or just 'human' for the Mara who lives here with you, and 'demon' for the Mara who lived two thousand years ago on Thera. Ok?"

"Ok," she nodded. She still had her arms around me and she gave me a gentle reassuring squeeze.

I took another deep breath then said, "So I dreamed I was Demon-Mara again, it's been happening a lot lately. I was her, in my villa on Thera. It was summer, the festival of Aphrodite was going to start in a few days..."

My voice trailed off and I frowned, "I think it was today? I think in the dream I knew it was today? Like the tenth of July, except instead of being now it was twenty-five hundred years ago? Anyways..."

By the time I finished describing the dream to her, Susan was staring at me with a confused look on her face again.

"Do I have to make a diagram or something?" I mumbled. "I don't think I can describe it any better."

Sue shook her head, "No I got it Mara. But I don't understand it? I mean, I understand what you're saying but I don't know how that would work? Like you dreamed you were her meeting you? And the other you thought it was a dream while the her-you thought it was your normal life in ancient times?"

"Yeah," I gulped as I looked at her. I still had that cold fear in my stomach and I didn't even know what to think or do.

"I don't know what it means Susan? I feel like... I don't even know how I feel? I was her and I met me but I wasn't me because I was her. And she didn't know me but I think maybe the other me knew her? It started out like all the other dreams at first, but it can't have been something that happened to her in the past because now-me was there right? And now-me thought it was a dream. But I wasn't now-me I was her..."

A little shock of fear went through me and my heart started pounding again. I looked at Sue with wide eyes as I asked, "What if I'm not me anymore? What if I'm her? But if I'm her then what am I doing here? And what happened to me? How can I be her when I'm supposed to be me? I don't know who I am anymore!"

She pulled me into a tighter hug as she tried to calm me down while my heart kept racing, and I was probably shaking again.

"Shh Mara," she said in a gentle voice. "You're going to work yourself up into a panic attack. You're you ok? It was just a dream, dreams rarely make sense. And I promise you're really you. You're my girlfriend, you're part of the DLP, and you're you. Now take some deep breaths and try to calm down ok?"

I took a couple deep breaths then nodded "Ok Susan, I'll try. What does it mean though?"

She shook her head again, "I don't know? Maybe it doesn't mean anything, like I said dreams don't always make sense. Lily might have some ideas though, perhaps you should talk to her about it? And actually, maybe your mom could help too? She's studying psychology, she probably knows about dream interpretation."

I sighed, "Lily doesn't like to talk about this stuff, it upsets her. And I can't tell my mom about it either. She doesn't know about Lily's daughter, and she'd freak out if she found out I thought I was demon-Mara in a past life. She'd have a double freak out if she found out Lily named me after her daughter and made me look like her too."

"Everyone ok?" Amber asked from the doorway. She was wearing a nightshirt and looked like she'd just got up, with her hair all messy.

"Mara had a disturbing dream," Susan replied. "She's a bit upset right now."

The small succubus came and joined us on the bed and hugged me as well, so I was sandwiched between them both.

She gave me a kiss on the cheek and whispered, "It's ok Mara. We're both here for you."

"Thanks Amber," I said with another sigh.

I was starting to feel a little better, it was hard not to with two gorgeous girlfriends both hugging me. And as I felt better, I also started to feel a little silly. I was supposed to be twenty years old, and there I was making a big fuss over a bad dream.

I blushed and apologized, "Sorry I woke you both up over something so silly. Can I make it up to you with some nice breakfast?"

Sue grinned, "All will be forgiven if you make us pancakes and bacon."

"I might be convinced to have a pancake," Amber agreed with a smile.

We all got up and I put on a nightshirt before heading downstairs, while Susan remained naked for now. Within a few minutes the tall curvaceous redhead had a mug of coffee in hand, while Amber and I both had some juice. And the two of them stayed with me in the kitchen as I started making a pancake batter and got a couple pans heating on the stove.

Soon enough I had bacon frying in one pan while I cooked pancakes in the other, and stacked them up on a warm plate.

"Are you sure you only want one pancake?" I asked Amber.

She nodded, "Yeah that'll be perfect."

Susan frowned, "It feels like you haven't been eating much lately. Everything ok?"

The small succubus blushed slightly as she admitted, "I barely need to eat at all anymore, since I became a full succubus? Since the last new moon I've only really needed to eat once or twice a week."

After a moment she grimaced and added, "That'll probably happen even less often as I continue enchanting and selling more products? Sooner or later I'll hit a point where I don't need food at all anymore. I'll still eat now and then to be social though. I'm not going to give up sushi any time soon."

Me and Susan were both quiet for a few seconds, then Susan responded "That makes sense. I should have guessed when you told us you went all the way, that it'd do something to your eating habits."

Amber shrugged, "It's fine. Like I said, I can still eat if I want. I still enjoy the taste of food? It's just my appetite that's changed."

When the food was ready I served it up and the three of us sat together on the sectional as usual. Susan and I both had a couple pancakes and a couple strips of bacon, while Amber enjoyed her single pancake.

As we ate the three of us talked about our plans for the next few days. We had Amber's family coming over for dinner on Sunday, then Monday the DLP was going on a field trip to an amusement park.

And I'd all but forgotten my strange dream, which was just the way I wanted it.

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