8:10 am

“Books, books! Lili! Where did you put my anthropology books!?”, Ella screeched at the top of her lungs.

Lili turned the hot shower off and laced her fingers through her wet hair, feeling refreshed after last night. It was really weird how she couldn’t remember anything of the dream that made her wake up all sweaty and hot. And wet. Feeling goosebumps creep on her wet skin, she grabbed the towel, dried herself moderately, tying her wet hair with it and reached for her toothbrush. She was rinsing her mouth when she heard Ella scream again from the other side of the door.

“I swear to God, Lili! If you had lost my books again-”

Lili opened the door suddenly, having the other girl fall on her naked body mid-sentence. She was a few inches taller than Ella so her face landed right on her chest. She smirked as she noticed Ella’s ears turn red and her pouty mouth go speechless.

“You were saying?”, she mocked Ella, shifting her weight on her hips and leaning against the bathroom door frame, all naked and proud. She couldn’t help but let the smile creep on her face as the fun-sized woman gathered herself up, still beet red from neck up.

“Not f-funny, Lili!”, she abruptly turned her back to Lili to hide her embarrassment, pretending to search for her books on the nearby study table. Chuckling, she sauntered in front of the flustered woman, making sure she caught a nice look at her derriere and bent to retrieve the books Ella was searching for, from the lowest drawer of her own study table near her bed.

“Uuuhhhh…”, Ella stammered and without even turning back, Lili knew that her mind had crashed. “There they were!”, Ella found her words. Ella was too cute when she was flustered that Lili couldn’t help but tease her only a little more.

She quickly grabbed the books from her hand and mumbling a ‘thank you’, she rushed out of our room. After watching her leave, Lili felt a lot better than when she woke up, feeling a huge blanket of weight in her mind. Now that Ella was gone, there’s no need to stay naked, is there? Walking to her closet, Lili pulled out two underwear sets. Black or blue?

“Well, I feel lucky. Let’s go with the black two-piece.” Quickly slipping into the panty and snapping the bra on. Lili heard her phone alarm go off, alerting her that it was already 8:20 and that she was late for the special seminar starting at 8:30, while she was drying her hair with the hair dryer. “Oh shit! I’m late!”, again.

Pulling out the first pair of leggings and t-shirt she saw and pulling her fur coat, slipping her phone into its pockets, and boots on, Lili was ready for a day out in mid-November. The climate wasn’t as cold as it would be in the forthcoming Winter but it still deserved a coat to be worn.

Grabbing a notebook and pen, she was off and about to the seminar hall, which was a 15 – minute walk away from her dorm. And she had only 5 minutes left to reach it. For a moment, Lili pondered on whether she could use her magic to teleport there. It would consume time and she could reach inside without having to utter any stupid excuse, especially in front of a special guest.

“Hmmmm…”, she stood there, still calculating the probability of not getting caught for appearing out of thin air, when she heard a group of students storming out of the dorms.

“What…??”, she stood there, now confused, when her phone alerted her that it was already 8:30. Snapping out of it in a split-second, she started running, thankful for her lighter load to carry, only praying, “Holy Hell, save me!”.

*Monologue - Lili*

Um… Yeah. Did I say ‘use my magic’? Damn right, I did! So, before that, let me introduce myself.

“Hi. I’m Lili. I study Management Studies at the Florence Institute.” Yes, we’re based in Italy. “I’m a sophomore and I have one more year to become a management graduate. I live in the dorms with a one another person, who you met earlier. She’s Ellaria, Ella for short. She is a very shy, country girl.”

Now, about the magic part, it’s more technically called as my ‘efficacy of incantation’ but sure, in simple terms, magic.

I am currently trying to cover a 15-minute distance in 0 minutes. But! I might have time to explain why I am able to use magic. Well, this is your ordinary Earth as you know it, in which there are bound to be things that are out of reach for a normal human’s mind.

We live in a world where there are actually 3 realms and 1 sub-realm. As you, intelligent people, would have already guessed, the three realms are the Heaven, the Hell and the Human Worlds. These 3 realms have a leader representing themselves. And just how the Human realm is divided into several countries or territories, the Heaven and the Hell have their own divisions called kingdoms. The citizens of the Heaven, Hell and Human realms are called angels, demons and mankind, respectively.

Heaven has totally 8 kingdoms namely Light, Kindness, Love, Gratitude, Purity, Truth, Humility and Peace, with Light being the largest kingdom overlooking all other kingdoms. Similarly, Hell has 8 kingdoms namely Darkness, Envy, Wrath, Sloth, Greed, Pride, Gluttony and Lust, with Darkness being the largest kingdom overlooking all other kingdoms. Every kingdom has their own king/ruler because every king is given their own method of reign. Some are democratic while some are led by dictatorship.

In order to bring upon fair reign to the citizens of all three realms, God created a sub-realm to overlook all of the three realms and that sub-realm is called The Link. Because they act as a platform of link between all three realms. They control and handle the disputes between the realms and act as a sort of common ground for them.

The Link is theoretically a group of people acting as council members called the juries with God acting as the jury head. But in practicality, the Link is literally a common ground, a patch of land between the Heaven and the Hell realms. There lives all of the council members.

Now that, I’ve given a relay of how this world is set up, you would be curious as to know who I am, actually. Then, let me introduce myself properly, this time over.

“My name is Lilith. I am a succubus and the princess to the Lust kingdom in the Hell realm. And, also the princess to the Light kingdom in the Heaven realm.” If you’re even more confused now, worry not. I will explain further. I really love doing the explaining part, especially in a more relaxed place.

And I made it to the 8:30 am lecture at 8:44 am. Standing in front of the huge double door of the hall, I was now wheezing. Well, one thing is clear. I’m a succubus in much need of exercise.

Slowly, pushing the door inwards to open it as it creaked in its hinges, I was already practicing an apology, when the first thing I noticed was that the hall had gone entirely silent. And then the stares. Crikey! I loved attention but this kind was just awkward. I was partially inside the room when I noticed my professor on the podium giving me the “You’ll have to give me an excuse later, young lady” look. But he wasn’t alone. Of course! The guest speaker was there!

I was completely inside when I finally noticed the pair of really rich shoes supporting legs clad in very beautifully cut pair of black trousers. As my gaze moved up, I saw even more beautifully cut designer shirt in light grey with expensive cuff links. He had his coat roughly on his forearm and another hand inside his trouser pocket. His posture showed that he was also looking at the door, at the sudden interruption, at me.

I had already reached the aisle of seats immediately near the door when my gaze shifted upwards to his collar. Damn, that was one ripped man. My eyes wandering to see exotic tanned skin, a sculpted mouth set in a half smile, clean shaved cheeks, a sharp Roman nose and his eyes. My breath caught in my throat and my lips sunk down, I didn’t even know they were smiling up until then. His eyes were hazel. They were like the richest pools of the oldest, preciously preserved champa-

Zing!

“Zing?”