Luckily, she stops doing... whatever this is, pretty quickly this time. I guess she wasn't as hungry?

Halloween licks her lips languidly as she disengages from me, staring into space. For some reason her pupils became glassy and dilated.

"Ahh," she says to no one in particular. "That hit the spot. I'll never be able to drink that garbage the dealers dilute with ether again. Now that I've tasted the real thing, I'm even starting to believe the rumors that 'Preserved Human Mana' is actually aerosolized Nether Rat dung. I had no idea what I was missing before. Fresh, natural human Mana is so delicious. No impurities at all, never even touched the air, did it?"

She looks at me before continuing, wearing a wan smile. She just said more words than everything she's said before combined. Maybe she's in a good mood now. I'd better stay quiet in the hopes she gives me some more information. Even though it's all nonsense... well, maybe I can't really be sure that it's nonsense anymore.

"I admit even I was surprised, but it's quite fortunate you survived the summoning. I'm so lucky. To be able to eat this well from now on... buuuurrpf." Her sentence ends with an incredibly unflattering belch.

Hey, she said something kind of concerning at the end there. Before the belch, that is. Ummm... I'm happy you want me to stay, but maybe you should get my opinion first?

"Anyway... I'm feeling pretty generous right now, so I permit you to ask a few questions. We've got nothing but time... huehuehue."

My god, that laugh... I don't even know what to say.

"How many questions?" I ask, hopefully.

"A few," she answers unhelpfully, with an infuriating grin. "That was a question, by the way. You have 'a few' minus one remaining."

Why are you such a bitch? I think, but heroically manage to avoid saying it. Shit, that was a question too. I almost fell into her clever trap again. Why am I having such a hard time being positive?

Questions, huh... there are plenty of good ones. Actually most of my thoughts are questions, lately. I'll try to maximize my gains by asking the most important ones. A few are definitely at the top of my mind:

[*]Where am I?: This was the first one to occur to me when I appeared here, but it might not be the most helpful. She might also respond with something like 'my cabin', and do the cartoon villain laugh again. I want to avoid that at any cost.

[*]How did I get here?: This question might also end up answering the above question by accident. A superior multi-faceted play.

[*]Who/what are you?: I have a feeling she'd respond with another snide non-answer to this question, so I'll forget it.

[*]How did I get here?: This question might also end up answering the above question by accident. A superior multi-faceted play.

[*]Sucking on my navel, WHY?: I'd like an answer to this one for the sake of my mental health. It's embarrassing to admit, but I kind of lack sexual experience, and to have this keep happening without explanation is actually taking a greater toll on my sanity than the existence of six eyed insect boars and carnivorous fruit.

[*]Why am I chained here?: The answer here is probably related to the above question, so forget it.

[*]What's your name anyway?: It's about time to move on from 'Halloween'. Seriously.

There are other ones, of course, like "Could you possibly unchain me and let me go," or "Could you please stop torturing me," but even I can tell those questions are a waste of time. Are you proud of me, Mom? I'm learning!

"I'm rapidly feeling less generous," she says impatiently. "Quickly."

"Oh, uh," I say in sudden panic, and quickly try to come up with something.

"Uh. What is 'Mana'?"

Shit, that wasn't even on my damn list. Pathetic, Jonathan. Just pathetic.

"What is 'Mana', you say..." she pauses thoughtfully. "I was sure you would start with something like 'Where am I?', so I could respond with 'my cabin,' and laugh at you."

As I thought.

"Mana is the primary food source and fuel in this plane. For instance, when I perfectly cooked your meal just now, I transmuted flame by converting a portion of my Mana supply. Mana is regularly generated by souls from the Prime plane, but the demonkin of this plane can't create it naturally. Excess Mana does filter down to this plane from the Prime plane, but since everything living here needs it, demand is obviously much higher than supply. Mana can't actually be seen with the eyes, but it's not hard to feel it in the air if you have good senses. Supposedly if it could be seen, it would look like clouds, or maybe like your cotton candy. Oh, it also tastes really good. It might taste like cotton candy too."

She's giving me a predatory look again. Please don't get distracted, Halloween. I need you to focus.

She said Mana couldn't be seen just now. I thought the blue stuff I see swirling around sometimes might be Mana, but I guess I was mistaken.

Um... there was something about alternate planes, and demons, I guess... Oh well. Let's just accept it already and move on. I'm a forward-thinking guy.

"Anyway, now that I have acquired such excellent livestock, my Mana troubles are over for now. Technically I can extract Mana from you through any orifice, but naturally, none of the other ones are acceptable. If you ever try to revisit this in the future, I will immediately slice off one of your fingers."

"Obviously you should continue doing it the same way, it's the only way after all. Rather, please do so, I insist."

"Silence, livestock, I'm speaking. This brings us to your responsibilities. I accidentally very purposefully saved your life by summoning you when you were about to die, and even healed your head wound afterwards. Therefore, I'll have you remain here as livestock for the next 969 earth years to repay me for my benevolence. Supposing your physical body dies before the 969th year, I'll collect your soul and continue collecting repayment. Naturally, I can't let you move too far from my sight for your own safety, because the intelligent demonkin will immediately kidnap you and abuse you very horribly like a slave. The stupid ones will just eat you. Though I myself count as an intelligent demonkin, I am obviously also much more compassionate, generous, and beautiful than those you'll find outside. So I'm afraid I can't remove your manacles safety harnesses until you die of old age. For your own safety."

Since she insists so much, she must really be worried about my safety. My attitude starts to warm toward her a little bit. I see, so even though she seems somewhat sadistic on the surface, she's a complex person who can be kind when it matters. It's not good to be too suspicious after all. I feel guilty now for my disrespectful thoughts.

Still though, I think 969 years is a little too long. I will negotiate for a better deal later. Don't worry mom, I remembered not to let people take advantage of me.

"By the way, you have an extremely large Mana capacity compared to normal demonkin, partially because as a human, your soul produces it. But even compared to most humans you should be exceptionally tasty gifted because your container, your soul, is much larger than the average human soul.

Human souls grow larger and more delicious when enduring suffering, so that's the likely cause for your situation. Oh, but it's no good if your soul snaps and starts resenting the world, because the vessel will rupture and leak Mana everywhere. So don't lose hope! Everything will work out in the end, or something! With good karma, the universe will provide! Whatever doesn't kill you will make you stronger! Keep fucking that chicken!"

She's right, I have to stay positive. What a nostalgic, familiar message. It's almost like she has the same memories of some of the self-help seminars I've attended.

Actually, what was that last thing she said? Where did that come from?

"I'll answer one more question you didn't ask, but only because it's more amusing a more solid foundation of trust if you know the real circumstances. The the thing is, after the summoning, I got really hungry due to the summoning circle requiring more Mana than I thought it would. It seems you also lost nearly all of your Mana in transit."

"In other words," she said, pausing for emphasis. "The final result was that I also gleefully accidentally consumed part of your soul when the Mana dried up. A small part."

"You ate a piece of my soul?!"

"Don't get so upset, I just gnawed on it. It's not like you noticed it was gone anyway. I do apologize though," she says with her eyes sparkling. I assume they are tears of remorse.

"Well, alright." I quickly back down after thinking about how she'd saved my life, after all. I should cut her some slack.

She looks kind of puzzled for a moment, as if she expected me to resist more. Clearly she must be used to dealing with unreasonable people who don't live positively. It must have been difficult.

"...There are benefits, though! After consuming a piece of your soul, I could speak your language, enabling this very conversation. More importantly, I gained access not just to your excessive memories of pop culture quotes, cat videos and internet memes, but also to all of your most horribly embarrassing memories of your life on Earth, especially the ones you repressed! There's so many that I can't possibly look through them quickly, so please wait patiently as I enjoy revealing your darkest secrets one by one!"

Halloween cackles madly like a witch.

I'm having a little trouble interpreting this positively.

... I guess I have to revise my opinion and acknowledge that she's more than just slightly sadistic. Fortunately I have no idea what repressed memories she's talking about. I don't have something like that. Shut your mouth. There's nothing there. My life has been a string of relentless positive energy.

If I kill her now, she'll never reveal what she knows, I think in a moment of insanity, before remembering how she turned the insect boar into a cubist painting with her bare hands.

Ugh, let's be positive. Keep fucking that chicken. Everything's just fine. Let's repress this conversation.

And... memory forgotten.

"Got anything else... to ask?" Halloween finally says, gasping for air and wiping red tears out of her eyes.

Uh... right, there is one more thing isn't there. I'll ignore the blank spot in my memory from just now.

"What's your name, anyway?"

"Ah! A name!" she says, as though it had just occurred to her. "That's right, humans use those things, don't they!"

"Uh, yes? Do you not? How do you even talk to each other?"

"Oh, just normal pronouns, like 'him', or 'her', or 'slave', or 'worm', you know, just completely normal pronouns."

"Even friends? Family? And some of those weren't pronouns!"

"Well, we don't really have things like 'friends' or 'family', you know. Those concepts are kind of a grotesque human perversion, you know. Frankly, those words make my stomach turn, so don't bring them up again."

Oh, I see, I hear what she's saying. She's only interested in a romantic relationship, not interested in anything platonic. No need to tell me twice. I'm definitely perceptive when it counts. I'm flattered by her attention, but I'd prefer if she started acting a little less threatening.

"Anyway, if you want a special name to call me, you may call me 'Great Mistress'. No, that will get old. Maybe 'Black Queen'? Oh, how exciting!" she starts mumbling to herself, not listening to me. She seems pretty excited.