The horn-adorned blonde on the ground was groaning in pain and neither arms, legs nor tail did more than a slight twitch every now and then. Adrien didn’t know how long she was lying there, but she felt that she could finally feel something in her body beyond pain. Slowly, she dragged herself to coach but realized that she didn’t have the strength to pull herself onto it. Instead, the succubus sat up and rested her back against the comfortable piece of furniture.
Despite moving just about a meter, Adrien was completely spent. Her head was swimming and she only managed to take short and shallow breaths. Her hands were shaking like leaves. Not that she noticed. She just barely survived her own curiosity. The thoughts inside her mind went in circles.
‘What was that spark? It nearly killed me. It felt pure and gold and beautiful. But it burned in my eyes like acid. Its power was overwhelming. And it nearly tore off my hands…’
On and on her mind went, until she lifted a hand to brush her long hair out of her eyes. Seeing the pink skin brought her back to the present, though it did nothing to calm her down. The shock of her near-death experience was merely being replaced by constant worry about her lack of knowledge.
Deciding to turn back, her fingers moved the base of her skull and tried to impart her desire to take off her skin. The thought that her male body was her ‘real’ or ‘original’ body was already starting to feel odd. It felt like her succubus body was every bit hers as her male human one and that didn’t help her peace of mind at all.
At least the skin was cooperative. It only took a few seconds of gentle prodding for the head part to form a gap. Gripping them and pulling them apart wasn’t hard either. As Adrien pulled the skin of the head forward, the skin came back to life again. Tendrils detached from his mouth, nose, and tongue, while the ‘contacts - for lack of a better term - were pulled out of the eyes. In essence, it reversed what happened and with the same care but much greater speed.
The head was off quickly and Adrien felt like himself again, despite still having the body of a gorgeous, pink skinned woman. He gently placed the head behind him, already noticing that the pain around his head simply vanished, and continued. The body came off as obligingly as the head, although it proved disturbing for Adrien to see his member slide out of the skin and into existence. He quickly inspected his crotch, to make sure the magic skin hadn’t left some surprises behind.
Not finding anything, the teenager sighed audibly. He picked up the skin, folded it and put it back in the wooden box. Next to it were still the clothes that came as a ‘bonus’, and Adrien lamented not even trying them on.
But first, he had to find out what happened. Until this day, he had been convinced that there was no magic. Now he knew otherwise, but he also knew that magic could very easily hurt and even kill him. What could happen to him down the line? What effect would this have on people around him? Was indulging himself worth all this?
He put his own clothes back on and placed the head back in the wooden box. With it in hand, he opened the door and left the room.
As he wandered through the store looking for the shopkeeper, Adrien noticed more and more how… mundane his body felt. Everything had felt more vibrant as a succubus. And he hadn’t even noticed it! It had felt like that’s how Adrien should experience the world. Now, being himself felt like being punished.
There wasn’t time to dwell on this, however, because he could see the shopkeeper just showing another customer out. The Caribbean man had a thoughtful smile on his face as he turned to face Adrien.
“So, you are still alive, my young friend. Are you hurt?” he asked with just a hint of concern.
“You knew what I did? Why didn’t you stop me!?” Adrien demanded.
Raising his hands in a placating gesture, the shopkeeper answered (with far too much humour, as far as Adrien was concerned): “I didn’t know nothing. It was just hard to miss the magical explosion from my break room.”
That deflated the teenager a bit, but he was still plenty upset. “Still, you could have warned me about trying too much magic.”
“There was no reason to warn you, or so I thought. The skin confers instincts and powers, but not knowledge. I didn’t believe that you could do more than maybe try a hypnotic gaze,” the shopkeeper explained earnestly. “Why don’t you explain to me what happened in there?”
And so Adrien did, with as much accuracy as he could. He even mentioned masturbating, which caused a chuckle and a comment about merchandise which would improve that ‘experience’. However, once he got towards the end of his tale, the shopkeeper’s expression grew serious.
“What a curious person you are, young Mr Greenfield,” he stated and Adrien didn’t know whether he meant that Adrien was inquisitive or very odd, “You shouldn’t have been able to change your shape so easily, let alone focus what little power you had into a fel orb.”
Adrien assumed a fel orb was that green ball of energy and asked about the other thing on his mind:”What was that strange energy?”
“A vast and pure power, that burned you, a succubus, like fire. Can you not guess what it was?” When Adrien shook his head, the man continued, “It was your soul. A human soul has vast power, but humans themselves can almost never use it. As unlikely as you using your succubus abilities from the start was, using your human soul to power it, should have been all but impossible. But if you take the skin, you needn’t worry about your soul killing you.”
“What do you mean by that?” Adrien asked warily
“Curious and curiouser indeed!” The still quite intimidating man put his hand on Adrien’s chin and directed him to meet his eyes. He looked for nearly a minute before he let go and said,”You, Adrien, are a very strange one. You come from a reality with barely any magic, yet you are quite talented at directing it. You didn’t know what kind of establishment this is and yet with nearly no encouragement accepted what I offered.”
“You’re not answering my question,” the teenager noticed.
He grinned widely and his eyes sparkled. “I haven’t, have I? For an item such as the succubus skin, the price is a lease on your soul.”
Not a day ago the prospect of selling or ‘leasing’ his soul would only make him roll his eyes. Now, though, Adrien’s eyes widened, before his blood ran cold and shock froze his expression.
“THAT is the reaction I expected when I gave you the box,” The shopkeeper said with a satisfied smile spread across his face.