SUCCUMB TO LOVE
A VALENTINE'S DAY FANTASY IN THREE ACTS
By Roy Hoffman
{Disclaimer: All the beings in this tale are over the age of eighteen. Honest. I checked their I.D.s)
ACT THREE
At the Halfworld Tavern and Grill, somewhere beyond time and space.
Erin, a Cupid sat on a booster seat sipping from a goblet filled with the finest distilled Hesperian ambrosia. He shared a table with Ashley who nibbled at a plate of deep-fried nectar. Ashley, a Succubus/Incubus was fashionably androgynous in the shape of Ziggy Stardust. Next to them sat a red bearded man wearing a red square-cut coat, richly laced with gold, a cocked hat, and buckled shoes drinking directly from a bottle of whisky. This was Ewan, a Leprechaun who favored the traditional garb of his people.
Erin turned to Ewan, "I did my task, completed my Dare. I brought out the taboo love that these good people so carefully hid, even from themselves, and let them have a night of love they will long remember."
Ashley smiled, "Yes, and for the most part you did a good job of it and made my Dare a bit easier. I fed those desires and gave them a great Illusion. A combination of dream and physical sex that they will remain uncertain if it was entirely a dream or if something truly happened. Now those lingering feelings make them hover around each other, circling closer and closer. They will aching to give into that taboo love once and for all. Yet I don't think you deserve full marks for Joshua. His love for his dead wife was so strong it took me forever to manifest Izzy's form.
Erin flushed angrily. "He got there in the end, didn't he? He willingly made love to his daughter, which was the point of the Dare." He took a drink of ambrosia and shook a tiny finger at Ashley. "Besides, you got a little sloppy with your timing and overlapped Joshua and Izzy's encounters. That mortal caught a glimpse of you."
Ashley looked slightly abashed but played it off. "That was planned. To further confound the mortal."
"Uh huh," Erin said with obvious disbelief. He turned to Ewan, "But you, my Trickster friend failed. You chose Truth, and as far as I can tell you haven't achieved that! Aside from that bit with the hymen, which was inspired, I admit, you did little. They still don't know the Truth about their Love! I half expected you to apport back the semen that Ashley collected and deposited in the wombs of the daughter and the mother so that they would know that the sexual encounter had been real, or real enough."
Ashley sighed "Yes, that was a wasted collection and deposit considering Joshua and Cassandra's conditions.
Ewan batted away their jibes with a sharp wave."Bah, having them drip semen after their Illusions would be too easy. In addition to my jiggery-pokery on Izzy's hymen, I did some other wee biological manipulations. Ah, that poor darling man, Joshua wrecked his marriage because he insisted on having a vasectomy, I fixed that little problem for him. And that poor lass, Cassandra suffered torment and felt like a failure as a woman because she had early menopause. Well now, I repaired that wee bit of trouble as well. So let's look at the results that took place a half tick or so after you finished your Dares to see the Truth revealed. 'Tis about a month and a half in the moral realm." A sly trickster's grin and mischief flitted across his face. "I believe the mortals call this April Fool's Day"
Ewan poured a dollop of whisky onto the wooden table and waved his hand. The puddle of liquid revealed Cassandra garbed in scrubs sitting in a Doctor's office. The three observers felt waves of fear, tension and grief radiating from her. They feasted on the succulent emotions.
A young man in white lab coat came into the room, his picture I.D. said he was Tom Smith, M. D. came into the room. Cassandra sighed at his age. To her, it looked like he was just out of high school. That made her think of her son. She smiled although her happiness was tinged with worry. What would happen to Jeremy if what she feared was true?
Dr. Smith was smirking a bit which Cassandra found irritating. He said, "You know you could have saved yourself the cost of an office visit if you had used a home test kit."
"What?" She couldn't believe how callous this young doctor was being. As if possible cervical cancer was something to joke about.
"A home test. They are very accurate nowadays."
"A home test for cervical cancer?" she asked angrily.
Dr. Smith was so taken aback by her outburst that he started. A bit flustered after that he stammered, "No, not cervical cancer. You're just pregnant."
Cassandra almost fainted, "What did you say!"
The doctor composed himself, "I understand it may be a bit of a shock but even at your age you should be able to have a healthy baby."
Cassandra overlooked the crack about her age. She was only forty-one. "That's... That's impossible. I had an early menopause."
Dr. Smith frowned and sat down to scroll through his tablet. He scanned her records. "Ah, Okay. Hmmm. It's possible, probable I'd say, that you were misdiagnosed because you are definitely pregnant. Six to seven weeks, I'd say."