Frey has a bad feeling.

That very night, I tossed and turned and cringed at the memories that would just not go away. It reached the point where Cake, who was sleeping on my bed, got up and went to lay on my desk chair instead, far away from me.

But come on! What got into me that would make me say something like that? Dissing someone else’s guitar skills as a comeback and going ‘it’s not a threat, it’s a warning’ all menacing-like. I even tried to push the intimidation factor with muscles! I’ve never hit anyone before! I don’t even know how to throw a punch! It felt right in the moment, but looking back I couldn’t help but be embarrassed. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were rumors about it the next day. Julian would no doubt tell people I tried to threaten him, all while making me look like a clown.

UGH! Begone shame-filled thoughts and let me sleep!

Thankfully, it didn’t take as long as other times. Maybe the… excitement of the day exhausted me. I realized I’d fallen asleep when I opened my eyes to the sight of a shadowy spirit floating in front of me, spinning in place clockwise with arms and legs crossed. I’d seen this once before.

I sat up on my dream bed and turned to Frey. “What are you thinking about?” I asked her.

“I’m conflicted!” she said. Her shadowy face looked like it was frowning and pouting.

“On?”

“You stood up for yourself today, so I’m kind of feeling like a proud mother. You also intimidated the piss out of that jerk, which is just cum in the pussy, or icing on the cake as you humans say it.”

I decided to pretend like I didn’t hear that distasteful saying. “I think I just embarrassed myself.”

“Even if you did, which I disagree with, it doesn’t matter. You told the guy to fuck off, and that takes courage. Sure, sure, there are times when the bigger man keeps quiet, but there are also times when you have to kick assholes down a peg or two.”

I sighed heavily. “Whatever. I’d rather not think about it.”

“But we have to,” Frey said. Her shoulder drooped and she stopped spinning, but she kept her arms and legs crossed. “I’m hopefully wrong, but… Oliver, did I ever tell you how spirits like me possess humans?”

“If you did, I forgot.”

Frey became bashful all of a sudden. She scratched her cheek and rotated her neck as if buying time. “We… Well… The human psyche is strong, see? So for a spirit to possess a human… It needs to find an opening in their state of mind, a weakness. Frustration, deep-rooted desires, anger… lust.”

“...Oh.”

“Yeah. I possessed you in a moment when you were feeling deeply horny and frustrated. A moment of weakness where you wished you could have any woman who crossed your path. Hell, I remember you wishing you could have like 20 women.”

My face burned with shame.

“Spirits like me take advantage of those feelings. We make them stronger to guide our hosts to do what we want them to. In my case, I wanted you to have sex, so I made you hornier than usual and aided you with subtle, pheromone-like magics along with the body enhancements. It was a bet that took everything I had left in me but paid off in spades.”

“I get it, I get it. So? What’s your point with this?”

“Oliver, I told you before. I’m not the only spirit out there capable of possessing people. Nor are spirits limited to be sexual in nature.” Frey sighed. “Those who know about the supernatural call my kind Spirits of Lust because we’re succubi or incubi who have become spirits. Of course, there are other kinds of spirits, like… those who take advantage of people’s envy.”

I blinked. Realization slowly began to dawn on me. “W-Wait. You’re not saying that…”

“If that jerk, Julian, is as envious of you as I think he is, then it’s possible he could become a prime candidate for possession by a Spirit of Envy.”

A knot formed in my throat. I swallowed hard to make it go down, but it wouldn’t.

“I’m mostly being cautious here. Just because you feel some jealousy doesn’t mean you become emotionally weak enough to be possessed. Like I said, the human psyche is fairly strong. Besides, spirits as a whole are extremely rare, and Spirits of Envy even more so. The chances that the jerk would be possessed are ridiculously low, but… if there was one of them around, they may at least be paying attention to him.”

“And… You think if one possessed Julian, he would use whatever powers he gained to do something against me?”

“Bluntly, yes. I’m not the best mind reader around. I can barely manage it sometimes with the girls with whom you’ve formed a sex link with, or when someone has very strong sexual desires. However, I’d like to believe I’m good at reading people without those powers. Julian is jealous of your relationships, but I’d say he mostly envies your guitar skill and the way people see you. People like that often take one of two paths. They either work towards becoming better than the one they envy, or they try to bring them down and ruin them. What do you think the jerk would do?”

There are times when I choose to believe in the good inside people’s hearts, but I’m also not THAT naive. If Frey was reading this correctly, Julian would definitely try to get back at me. Hell, he was already trying and he didn’t have magic powers yet.

The first thing my thoughts went to were my girlfriends. If someone wanted to hurt me, that was where they should aim for. Either them or my friends and family.

“Is there… Anything we can do to prevent this?”

“You could try to become friends with the guy and try to make his envy go away.”

“I mean… I g-guess I could… try?”

“Oh wow. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you make such a disgusted face. It’s pretty funny, actually.”

“Sorry, but my gut feeling is telling me that wouldn’t work. Besides, I kinda hate the guy. I’d rather not have anything to do with him.”

Frey nodded. “Yeah, I wasn’t banking on that plan, either. Anyone with emotions strong enough to get possessed by a Spirit of Envy wouldn't let go of them so easily.”

“So? What can we do? There has to be something. Now that you’ve told me, I’m not willing to risk anything.”

“Hey, I’m with you, okay? We both have a pretty good thing going on here. I don’t want to lose it any more than you do.” Frey sighed. “If we can’t prevent him from getting possessed, then we’ll have to take defensive measures.” She groaned and scratched her head with both hands. “Dammit! This’ll take some time, but worse than that, it’ll take all the energy I’d been saving up!”

“Please, Frey,” I begged. “We can always start saving energy again, but I… We can’t risk anything happening to them.”

“I know.” Frey sighed again. “And even if nothing happens, having that defense system in place won’t hurt. Ugh. It’s at times like these that I wish I was as strong as Lady Ishtar…”

I tilted my head. “Who?”

Frey flinched, then immediately waved dismissively at me. “A very strong Spirit of Lust. Don’t worry about it. It’ll take me three days to get everything ready, so stay on guard.”

Frey was always like this. She really didn’t want me involved in the supernatural world more than I had to be. She only ever told me very basic things or let something slip once in a while, but it was becoming clear to me that she knew a lot.

Honestly, I still couldn’t decide if I wanted to know more or if I was okay being kept in the dark.

Author's Note: Connections and references to the William story will be kept to a minimum. My objective is not to make that story required reading to understand what's happening here, but to use the setting I've been building to give the idea of a larger world out there that Oliver will only see glimpses of. Anything that goes in too deep here should have it's own explanation. That said, the plan is to keep Oliver's story as a full slice of life, but I want to add more supernatural elements to have some more interesting scenarios. And if you happen to be up to date with the William branch, then I hope you'll enjoy hearing familiar names and/or plot points be brought up here.

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