A chilly breeze blew across Cobalt's half-naked form, rousing him from his slumber in a fit of shivers. Pulling the futon covers over himself, his eyes suddenly snapped open as he sat bolt-upright.

His room was a complete mess, nothing at all like the neat order he usually kept his things in. His clothes had been scattered all over the floor, his wardrobe and drawers were all lying ajar, and his window looked as though it had been forced open. Shivering, he began to panic further upon realising that his nightshirt had been torn off in his sleep.

"Wh- What the Hell...?!" the terrified Incubus gasped, hugging himself as he staggered to his feet.

Fearing that he had been robbed, Cobalt quickly sorted through the wreckage of his room, only to find that his wallet hadn't been touched. Confused, he stumbled over to the window and planted his hands on the sill. Upon looking closer, he could see a lot of scratches on his window lock, like something had been jammed into it.

Across the way, Karazelle's window slid open, right before the Succubus herself swung out onto the support beam. Gingerly padding along the strut, she hunkered down and gave her teacher a sultry smile.

"Good morning, sugar. Must say, I've certainly woken up to worse views~" she giggled, running a finger along his bare chest as she slipped into his room.

"K- Karazelle, I told you not to do this!" Cobalt chided, snatching a shirt off the floor before she could oogle him further.

The Succubus merely laughed in response, but the levity quickly drained from her face upon seeing the state that his room was in.

"Oh my. What happened in here?" she asked, plucking a pair of his boxers off the floor.

"I don't know. I think someone was in here last night."

"Well don't look at me; I checked your window, and it was locked tight."

Deciding to forego asking what she intended to do, Cobalt frowned and took stock of his surroundings. Somebody had broken the lock on his window and entered his bedroom whilst he was sleeping, and yet they took nothing from him. Strange...

"Ooh, what's this? I think you might have a secret admirer, sugar!" Karazelle piped, pointing at the door.

There, nailed to the wood, was a stained paper envelope held shut by a worn, heart-shaped sticker. The Succubus smiled bemusedly as she pulled it free, but upon noticing the terrified look on her teacher's face, her expression darkened.

"S- Sugar? You okay?" she asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

Her words barely reached his ears. Swallowing hard, Cobalt pulled the letter from her hands and slowly opened it. As soon as he laid eyes on the handwriting, his blood froze solid within his veins.

YOU look so peaceful when you slumber, my love.

MUST you tease me so? How long as it even been?

RUN all you wish; you cannot deny destiny.

"Oh no... no, not this... not again..." he gasped, swiftly screwing the note into a ball.

Karazelle tried to offer him words of comfort, but the distraught Incubus just got to his knees and began to frantically rifle through his belongings.

"What's wrong? Who's it from?"

He shook his head.

"My tie! Where's my tie...?!" Cobalt muttered, tossing shirts and trousers over his shoulders.

"Did you maybe-?"

"Karazelle, please go! J- Just get ready for class or something; I can't deal with this and you at the same time right now!"

As he searched, the Succubus simply sighed and raised her hands. Hopping back out the window, she shut it with a flick of her tail, only for the lock to crack and pop off altogether. Cobalt, however, was too preoccupied with his own tumultuous thoughts to notice. Though after around ten minutes of nonstop searching, he grit his teeth and checked his watch. His favourite tie - his lucky charm - stolen by that...!

"Oh, damn it all...!"

Throwing on a mundane necktie he found in the back of his wardrobe, Cobalt haphazardly threw on his work clothes and rushed into his kitchen. Grabbing a half-eaten sandwich out of his fridge, the Incubus stuffed it into his mouth and rushed out of his room, slamming the door behind him. As he rushed down the hall, he barged past a few half-asleep students before skidding down the stairwell, almost tripping and cracking his skull open more than once. Sliding to a halt at the housekeeper's desk, he gasped for breath and snapped his fingers, drawing her attention.

"There's been a break-in," he wheezed, bent double.

Slipping her phone back into her pocket, the matronly Glutton sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Oh really? Has anything been stolen?"

"Um... a tie...?"

"Mr. Trayer, I don't really think that's a problem worth my time."

"But they broke my window lock!"

She rubbed her eyes and yawned.

"Please, it's early. Look, I'll take a look at your window later on, just don't go causing such a stir, alright?" the housekeeper sighed, leaning back in her chair.

Her eyes suddenly widened, like she had just remembered something.

"Oh, and before I forget; this was left here for you this morning," she added, tossing an envelope onto the desk.

Cobalt's legs nearly buckled upon seeing it. It was just like the one on his door; worn, smudged and held shut with a heart sticker. With shaking hands, he picked it up and opened it.

I am shaking with excitement even as I write this.

CAN you feel it too, my love?

NO, perhaps not. Perhaps you've strayed these past few years. They seem

LONGER without you by my side. But you know that I couldn't possibly

STOP my undying love for you.

IT isn't your fault. You're a soft man. That's why you have me.

Ripping the letter into a dozen pieces, Cobalt scrunched it all into a ball and hurled it into the housekeeper's wastepaper basket. Before she could question him, he slung his satchel over his shoulder and dashed out of the entrance hall.

Not this. Not now. He had barely been one week on the job, and already his past was creeping up on him.

"Agh... Get it out of your head, Trayer... You've got classes to teach..." he breathed, tugging at his uncomfortable tie.

But his words didn't comfort him at all. Glancing back over his shoulder, the Incubus swallowed hard and marched down the gravel path. Despite the temperate weather, he couldn't quite shake the shivers wracking his whole body...

------

Karazelle didn't show up to homeroom, a fact that irked Cobalt more than it should have. Perhaps he shouldn't have gotten so annoyed with her that morning, but those letters had set him so on edge that he jumped at every shadow. He tried to keep his thoughts to the task at hand as he headed to his core class' Language lesson, but before he even opened the classroom door, the clamour coming from within told him that something was amiss. Swallowing hard, the Incubus pushed the door open and stepped inside to see the entire class clustered around the blackboard, murmuring and taking pictures with their phones.

"Um, what's going on here?" he asked, walking up the centre of the room and placing his satchel atop the teacher's desk.

Arnn Srenth wormed his way out of the crowd and jabbed a thumb at the board.

"See for yourself, man." he replied, adjusting his glasses.

He strained his neck to see what the issue was, but upon laying eyes on the blackboard, Cobalt direly wished he didn't. A message had been carved into it with some kind of sharp tool, reading:

I am the one to call herself Cobalt Trayer's loving wife, no other. I

AM the only one worthy enough for him.

SO heed this message, deceivers, and heed it well; lay a finger upon him, and you won't live to be

SORRY you were ever born.

"This can't be happening..." Cobalt breathed, his knees going weak.

The erratic spacing of the lines, the unusual capitalisation, the jagged sentence structure... It was all too familiar in the worst way possible.

"A- Alright, everybody back to your seats! Nothing to see here!" the Incubus cried, his cracking voice betraying his fear.

Shooing his students away from the blackboard, he reached behind and unhooked it from the wall before laying it face down on the floor. He swallowed hard and sat at his desk, strumming a pen against his palm in an effort to calm himself down. As he scanned his indifferent pupils, another realisation struck him.

"Wait... where's Adeline?" he asked, pointing to Jelli's empty seat.

"Who cares?" Whitney Brode called from the back of the class, earning her a round of laughter from her orbiters.

This wasn't right. First Karazelle didn't show up, and now Jelli was missing despite having attended homeroom that very morning. But he couldn't afford to lose his nerve, not while he was barely a week into his career. Pulling out a book from his satchel, he took a deep breath and opened it.

"A- Alright... turn to page thirteen, and we'll get started on some of the more well-known poems, starting with Oni battle-chants..."

The class went by in a blur, not that Cobalt could remember any of it. His mind was too preoccupied with everything that happened that day, and his students were in no rush to get him to focus on the lesson at hand. Even as the schoolbell rang and they all filed out to attend their Applied Demonics lessons, the Incubus sat at his desk and stared at the blackboard. With the next timetable block being a free period for him, he ambled over to the staffroom and got himself a cup of tea in order to steady his nerves, but that didn't help much either. An hour passed, and he had barely finished half of it.

Eventually, his final class rolled by; the end of day homeroom. Nervously, he pulled out his register and began calling his students' names, but trailed off upon noticing yet another absence.

Izzbelle was a loud girl, and the silence left by her empty seat was deafening.

Karazelle, Jelli and now Izzbelle... Cobalt was beginning to see a pattern he didn't like...

"Everybody, just... just go. I- I need to clear my head..." he mumbled, grabbing his satchel and slumping out of the room without another word.

His footsteps echoed loudly off the stone floors as the Incubus left the school building, his head throbbing and his blood still running cold. But as he slowly made his way down the gravel path to the dorm buildings, a tall figure stepped out from behind an ashbirch and halted him in his tracks.