Once more, Scott was climbing up to the treehouse in his backyard. The injury in his ankle had flared down by now, but the pain refused to be forgotten, especially when he pressed his foot down on each new rung.

The warm rays of the morning sun were shining fully now, and with them had come the noise of chirping birds and cars running down Whitehall Street. Surely, people were headed to work. It had to be after 6 AM, Scott didn't think to check his phone to find out the exact time. But, before he had left the house, he had figured to bring some stuff with him, slipping on a coat for the extra pocket space.

With the sun out now, Scott wouldn't need the lantern, but he did decide to take the bell. He still wasn't 100% sure if he could trust the succubus - who was named Lynnira, he had learned - so it'd serve as protection. As the PDF that had caused this whole thing had said:

If ritual is success, succubus should answer to bell commands.

Given that there was now a sex demon lady in his treehouse, the ritual was certainly a success. So, if Scott was reading it right, he'd just have to ring the bell and tell Lynnira to back down if she got... aggressive, or anything. 

Another thing Scott brought was the hammer, but it looked like he wouldn't need it. There was a gap at the bottom of the door, beneath one of the boards he had nailed up, that was the exact right size to comfortably crawl in through. When he reached the top, he did just that, and well...

There he was. With her.

Through the cracks between the wooden slats that made the walls of the treehouse, and the small square windows cut in each one, sunlight filtered into the cramped space. Dust, with an earthy smell like timber, hung in the air. The glowing circle of runes that had been seared into the floorboards during the ritual was still there, and the succubus was still inside. Unlike last night, Scott could see her perfectly.

Sitting on the floor with her legs spread wide, Lynnira leaned against a wall of shimmering pink light - a barrier created by the circle. The display of flowers, candy, and the skull were disassembled and strewn about inside the circle, and one of the Crunch bars was in her clawed hand. When the succubus saw Scott, she smiled, brushing crumbs of chocolate off the leotard of tar she wore.

"Heyy!" she gave him a little wave. "You're back."

The contrast of her demonic appearance and casual tone threw off Scott. But he tried to reply in kind. "H-hey."

Lynnira shifted back, her grin growing. "Still so high strung, huh?"

Scott didn't know how to react to that, so he just shoved his hands in his pockets, trying to keep his cool. "Well, uh... yeah..."

Keeping her gaze on Scott, she took a bite out of her Crunch bar. It left a smear of chocolate on the corner of her lips. "You need to relax. Break the circle and I can help you with that."

As Scott watched, she poked out her tongue and licked away the smudge. He could see that it was really long, the tip forked like a snakes. 

"You... you really want to get out, huh?" eyes flicking away from the succubus, he squeezed the bell tightly. Lynnira glanced at it, becoming aware of the item's presence.

"Yes, it's rather cramped in here." she tapped her finger on the floor. "It's been a while since I've been summoned, and I'd rather like to see what's been going on with Earth."

"You've been summoned before?" asked Scott.

Yawning, Lynnira stretched up to her feet. Scott suddenly felt a lot smaller as he looked up at her.

"Listen, are you going to get me out of this circle, or send me home?" she said, impatience obvious in her voice. "Because I'm getting sick of waiting."

"Wait, I can send you home? I didn't know that was an option..."

"Make your decision already!" the demoness snapped.

"Wait!" Scott raised his voice. "No."

Lynnira raised an eyebrow.

"We've..." though he didn't know where it came from, Scott had suddenly been jolted on by a force inside his head. He needed to sort this situation out before he let some demon into this world.

"We've got things we need to settle." he sat down, crossed his legs, and planted the bell down in front of him. All the while, Lynnira watched him with amusement. "If I let you out... are you gonna run away, or anything?"

"After being summoned, a demon must stay with their master." Lynnira replied, taking a seat and checking her fingers for chocolate. When she spotted some on one, she began to suck it clean. Scott watched for a second, then averted his eyes. "That's just common courtesy." she said, with her finger still in her mouth.

"Okay. Then where will you be staying?"

"With you?" she rolled her eyes. "Duh."

Scott ignored that.

"I guess it's good Mom's gone for... well, probably the rest of the summer." that sentence was mostly spoken to himself. "But I've got a little sister. What am I gonna tell her?"

"What are you, like eighteen?" Scott nodded in response to her question. "Ooh, barely legal. My favorite."

Scott ignored that too.

"Just tell her I'm like... a cousin she never met, or something. Here to spend the summer. Easy." she waved him off.

Gesturing to her horns, Scott made his problem with that plan clear. But the succubus just smiled, and closed her eyes.

For a second, her brow was furrowed in effort. That's how fast it took. All at once, her horns, claws, and tail retracted into her body. Her long pink hair shimmered, then turned black like a trick of the light. When she opened her eyes, they were brown - matching Scott's - and she flashed him two rows of non-razor sharp pearly whites. Then, she stuck out her tongue, which was still long, but no longer split at the tip.

"Like black?" she rolled a few strands of her hair around a finger. "I can do any color you like, red, brown, blonde..."

"Black's fine." Scott said.

"Wonderful." she said. "Any more questions?"

"Well..." Scott rubbed his chin.

It'd be a hassle to have a demon around, no doubt. While she seemed pretty harmless - at the moment, at least - he'd have to convince Mona that she was their cousin, and get her food, and make sleeping arrangements, and... he couldn't think of anything else at the moment, but that certainly wasn't the end of the list.

"What can I get out of this? Having you around?" he asked. He had a feeling he knew the answer already, but he wanted to hear it from her first.

"Besides the obvious?" Lynnira winked at him.

"Uh... I mean..." he coughed. Even when he knew it was coming...

"You get flustered so easily!" the succubus giggled. "Well, I can help you with whatever you need. Anything."

Well, he certainly wouldn't mind someone doing the cooking and cleaning for him. And sex...

"Okay, okay..." Scott stood up. This was totally worth it. "How do I get you out?"

 Her smile bent with confusion.

"Wait, you don't know?"

"I..." Scott scratched the back of his head. "It wasn't really on the instructions, I don't think so..."

"Instructions? To a ritual? Where did a human- where'd you find them?"

Scott paused. "The Internet?"

Lynnira nodded. "Well then... that's odd." she pointed to the bell. "Hold it up."

Scott did as told, taking it and raising it up. Lynnira raised her finger with it, guiding him to position it over his head.

"Now... move it this way..." she rotated her finger, tracing a ring in the air counter clockwise. Scott began to move, but the succubus called out "Not yet!" So, he shifted back to his original position.

"You're gonna have to repeat after me." she said. "And follow my finger. I believe it goes 'Tulus, Ahlen, Aarus, Gusah, Lilin.'"

"Tulus, ahlen..." Scott whispered the chant to himself under his breath.

"Ready?" the succubus asked.

"Um... yes." shifting around a bit, Scott eventually settled into position.

The two began to speak in unison.

"Tulus! Ahlen!"

Scott began to move the bell through the air in a counter clockwise circle, just like he had been told. With each word, a segment of the glowing runes vanished, bursting into an intense flash of light.

"Aarus...! Gusah...!"

The bell itself began to crackle with pink electricity. In shock, Scott nearly dropped the thing - but found that the static had no affect on him. Inside the circle, the skull began to float into the air. It was sprouting black horns, not dissimilar to the ones Lynnira had.

"Lilin!"

With that, the final piece of the circle was gone. Standing up, the succubus stretched herself out, a grin widening across her face. She began to pace around the treehouse, at first slowly, but she soon picked up speed, bouncing and laughing joyously. Scott couldn't help but smile at how happy she seemed.

"Oh, it's good to be back!" returning to where the circle once was, she leaned over and picked up the skull, looking it over. "It's been way too long since I've been on Earth!"

"What's with that?" Scott pointed at the skull.

"What's with you and questions?" setting the item down in the corner of the treehouse, Lynnira moved for the exit... but Scott stopped her.

"Wait!" the succubus glanced back at him. "You can't go out with just... that on!"

For a second, confusion clouded her face. But it cleared when she realized what the issue was: her leotard. "Oh... no problem."

The tarry material always seemed to squirm around over her skin, but now it moved fluidly, shifting form like spilled oil. It split into two pieces, which began to grow and change around her form. Just as she had become human, the tar had become fabric. A crop top and a tiny pair of jean shorts, to be exact.

"There we go..." she was looking down at herself to observe the newly-made outfit, but returned her gaze to Scott. He had taken his coat off. "Aww, were you gonna give me that?"

Too embarrassed to speak, he gave the succubus a nod instead. But she walked right over and took it from him, slipping it on.

"Come on, master." Lynnira headed back to the exit. "I want to see where I'll be staying!"

Master, huh? I think I could get used to that...

glenn-fletcher

I'm sorry that this whole chapter is just basically one big talking scene. But now that all the introduction and exposition is out of the way, I promise that there'll be more... not just talking stuff!