Hire an Incubus

17

Lisa stood from a distance, looking on tearfully as the bars closed on Achilles. She felt simultaneously terrified and distraught as he sat on the metal bench, his wrists cuffed. He hadn't broken eye contact with her since they had marched him off, in fact he hadn't said anything. What freaked her out the most was his lack of a reaction. He hadn't fought or protested in the slightest in the corridor, he had just went with ease.

Now he was sitting looking at her, and he didn't look betrayed or shocked, in fact he didn't seem to be processing any negative emotion. He looked calm and it unnerved her. Red eyes, unblinking, he continued to stare at her.

Alma stood at her side, her hand on Lisa's shoulder. 'Lisa, come on, you don't need to watch this.'

Lisa shrugged her hand off. 'No, I think I do, for my own good.'

Two of he guards grabbed him by his forearms and hauled him up to his feet. He dwarfed them, he was easily taller than them by a foot. Just as they were about to lead him away, eyes still burning into hers, he smiled wide at her and she heard him speak.

'I'll be seeing you soon Lisa.' 

It sounded like a threat.

Lisa stood there for a moment or two, slightly stunned at what she'd just heard. It was like he had changed in those five short minutes in the hallway and now it was ruined forever.

Alma spoke again. 'Lisa, the best move for us now is for us to relocate you to a new city, somewhere he can't find you if he was to escape again.'

Lisa sat silently through the whole process. She sat with Alma while she explained the dos and don'ts of relocating, but it didn't seem to be going in. She was going to have to leave, disappear without a trace. Alma had handed her train tickets and keys to a new house, and they even provided a company car to bring her back to what had been her old flat so she could could pick up some possessions.

It wasn't the apartment that Hire an Incubus had given her, it was her original one, where this whole thing had started. As she paced around the flat, picking up items which she supposed she should take, she couldn't help but let her mind wander to when Achilles had first showed up in her flat and how she had done everything wrong since.

Once she had her bag of things, she only had one more stop until she was going to leave the next day.

'Hi stranger.' Alison said as she opened the door to Lisa. 'How are you doing?'

Alison sat quietly and listened as Lisa told her everything, Debbie, the forest, Hercules.

'It sucks real bad Lisa, I hope you're okay.' Alison rubbed her arm comfortingly, 'I can't believe you have to go.'

'I have to.' Lisa said quietly, 'At least we have tonight. I'm sure you can visit?'

'I'm sure I can.' Alison said quietly, probably knowing full well that it wasn't going to happen.

They spent the night together just watching movies and talking and for a while everything felt normal, like things had been before this mess, and it was nice to escape for a bit. But when morning came, Lisa couldn't avoid reality, and unfortunately for her, things were only getting worse.

'Lisa!' Lisa could hear Alison calling out from the bedroom, 'Where are you?'

'Uuughh.' Lisa groaned from the bathroom, where she was hunched over the toilet, just after throwing up.

'Jesus Lisa, what's wrong? Do you have the flu?'

'I don't think so.' Lisa groaned, 'I doubt it's food poisoning because I didn't eat anything funny.'