It was by no means a big house, it probably had no more than 2 or 3 rooms, yet in our imaginations anything could be inside. Nobody had entered or left it in years now.

“It’s not so big.”

“So run down!”

“It’s scary, can we just leave now?”

“What are you saying? Weren’t we going to explore it?”

“But its most definitely haunted! All the adults say to stay away from it!”

“Come on, don’t be a buzzkill.”

While the other kids were chattering, I slowly approach the house. It didn’t seem all that different from any other small house, except for its isolated location. The two windows it had gave no vision of the interior, as the glass was strangely opaque. For some reason, I felt strangely attracted to the house, maybe it was pure innocent curiosity? I unconsciously touched the door’s handle. It creaked open. I froze. It was not locked.

“Ah! Look at what you did! Because you kept crying, Gaius already opened the door! Wait up!”

“Hey, do you think we really should?”

“Calm down! Don’t push!”

Not wanting to be left behind, the other kids made for the house and we all started to push each other.

“Hey, you already opened the door, let me step inside first!”

“I’m just saying, don’t… push.. whoa!”

With a thud, we pretty much spilled inside the house. As expected, a single wall separated the entrance of the house from its one other room. I could describe it, but from the moment that we entered, all of our eyes were caught by a single thing: Someone was standing there, smiling.

“Oh, visitors, how nice.”

Needless to say that most of us probably didn’t even pay attention to the big horns on the woman’s temples, or the tail, or the wings. Someone was inside the supposedly abandoned house and that was enough to send all of us into a scramble.

“Aaaaah! Run away!”

“Come on, let’s go!”

“Ah, don’t leave me!”

I had barely stood up when, for some reason, I just froze up.

“So, in the end it’s just you two? How rude, I’m trying to be welcoming and they all just run away.”

I turned around to the woman that had been smiling before with her arms crossed, an indignant look on her. On the floor was a crying Aria, one of the kids, an eight years old girl who since the start had been scared. It was no wonder that she couldn’t move.

I hesitantly moved between the woman and Aria, Father always told me to protect those weaker than me, after all, even if I was a bit scared.

“Uuh… Who are you?”

Frankly, it was the best I could think of as a scared ten year-old. There was also the matter of the now-sobbing Aria behind me.

A grimace flashed through the woman’s face, followed by an expression of sudden understanding.

“Oh! You must be human children, so that’s why you’re all so rude. How careless of me. I am Countess Chirene, a High Succubus. I decided to stay and take care of this house, even after my Master has passed away.”

How to describe what was going on in my head at that moment? Well that she was a succubus seemed quite obvious, but a high one at that? Not that it mattered since at that moment I didn’t know what that implied. All I knew was this: Succubus is something that adults use to threaten unruly children. I had to protect Aria.

“Could you let at least Aria go, please?”

What can I say? It was the best a small child with trembling legs could do, it's not like biting, hitting or kicking her would do me any good, even if she wasn’t all that much taller than the average human adult.

“Hmm? Don’t worry, I’m not going to take anyone away, even though you are cute enough that I wouldn’t mind eating you up. Eh? No good, no good, I’ve just let my thoughts leak out. It wouldn’t do to scare them. I wonder if kids get these kinds of metaphors. No, no, wouldn’t it be worse if he did get it?”

At some point Chirene had turned back and started to mumble to herself, her tail swinging wildly like a pendulum. At this point, Aria seemed a bit calmer so I thought this might have been our chance.

“Aria, go, she’s distracted. Go, go, I’ll be right behind you.”

She had a half-confused half scared face.

“But, but, what about you?”

“Don’t worry! Just go!”

“Okay.”

It took some back and forth whispering, but I got her to start walking away. As she crossed the door I heard a voice behind me that made me skip a beat.

“So you’re leaving too? That’s too bad, if you feel like visiting again, don’t hesitate.”

As I turned back to look at the succubus she was wearing a huge smile. I couldn’t help but wonder if, after all, she wasn’t a bad person.

“Uh, it’s just that we were all scared because, you know, this was supposed to be an abandoned house... So, you know, we… Didn’t expect to see anyone… So…”

“Ooooooh! You’re so cuuuuute! Trying to apologize for your rude friends. What a good boy!”

My heart almost jumped out of my mouth as she jumped me for a hug. If a person’s lifespan was determined by number of heartbeats, that single moment right there might have cost me an entire year.

“Eh, O-okay, thanks?”

I was frantically thinking of how I could escape the situation, when she approached her mouth to my ear and whispered, I pretty sure that was another year.

“But you know, I am dead serious about wanting you to come back to visit. After all, I do have a very nice secret that my late master asked me to pass forward. Don’t you like secrets?”

“I… Guess?”

She let go of me and smiled again.

“Okay then, how about… Oh, right, I don’t know your name. Could you tell me?”

I couldn’t help but bashfully look at the floor. It took me a while to muster my courage and say it.

“It’s Gaius.”

“Gaius! That’s a good name! I hope we can see each other again. Just remember that this is about a secret, just between the two of us, alright?”

“Okay.”

“Good boy.”

At that moment, things seemed to be resolved, but the tension was about to jump up again.

“Gaius!”

It was my father’s voice, I remember thinking oh, what should I do, how can I explain everything?

“Uh, Dad? You know…”

“You fool! What are you still doing here? Even if you didn’t find anything, there’s no reason to keep looking. What if you actually found something? Come, let’s go back.”

“Eh, nothing?”

I looked around, and he was right, I couldn’t see anyone. Chirene had vanished. I wordlessly let my father grab my hand and take me home. As we made distance from the house I took one last peek backwards. I couldn’t see anyone, but for some reason the image of that smile popped up in my mind. I silently let myself be scolded all the way home.