Once again it was completely dark as Andie hurried in the door to the University. It wasn’t like she wasn’t allowed to be there during the night, she was contracted to complete her research and she could do the work at any hour she wanted. But she was still somewhat ashamed that her working hours had started to resemble those of Batman. Andie tried to sneak past the few classrooms and offices that were still occupied without being noticed. She still held out some misplaced hope that people hadn’t noticed her unconservative working hours, as if everybody hadn’t already caught on by the fact she was nowhere to be seen during the day. The faculty was not that big. But she still maintained the illusion to herself that she was in control of it. But as she entered her office, she knew immediately that she was beyond busted. Her small work room was one of the fancier of the faculty, one of the last ones where the fireplace was still completely usable. She was too lazy to actually light a fire in it, but now a healthy fire was roaring in it. And it wasn’t hard to guess who was behind it. “You better not be reading my emails,” she said before she even looked at who was sitting at her desk. “I wouldn’t dream of it,” Jack said in even more flamboyant manner than usual. “I’m just filling your search history with all kinds of filth.” “How nice,” Andie said while taking her coat off. “Believe me, I’m doing you a favour,” he said while she approached the desk. “You should really check some of this stuff out.” “Scoot,” she said and waved him off. Jack obediently stood up from the chair and let Andie look at the computer. It sure was not safe for work, although she wondered if it was safe for pretty much anywhere. She closed the browser. “You think that’s what I’m into?” Andie asked. “I wouldn’t judge.” Andie sighed. Jack was his best friend, both at work and outside it but he sure could be a huge pain sometimes. “It’s always the sex with you gay guys.” “Hey, don’t you judge either,” he said defensively, but his grin gave away that he wasn’t really upset. “I really should work, so you should mosey along. Thank you for lighting the fire and… the bookmarks.” “Oh, no worries. But I actually meant to ask you about these doodles on your desk. They look interesting.” Jack pointed at the assortment of circular drawings with minor alterations, scribbled in all sorts of pieces of paper next to the computer. This was clearly something that Andie had spent quite some time assembling. “Ah,” she said, slightly embarrassed. “That is something that I call a slight detour in my research.” “I see.” “I noticed that this very similar symbol has appeared in seemingly disparate cultures throughout history, just with minor differences.” “Really?” “Yeah,” she said and started to pull different versions of the drawing from the pile while explaining them to Jack. Some of them were printed and some she had drawn herself. “See here, this symbol is from just after the fall of Rome and this very similar carving is from an Aztec temple. They have all the same basic elements with minor differences and additions even though they don’t seem to have common ancestry. And here it is from Japan and this is it from an ancient Jewish manuscript. I tell you, image search is brilliant for stuff like this.” “I’m sure.” Jack said skeptically. “The interesting thing is that the symbol seems to be associated with seemingly contradictory meanings. Sin, filth, and sexual deviancy while also purification, forgiveness and healing. Sometimes at the same time. And these slight alterations seem to have some correlation with what elements of the symbols go with which meaning.” “And this has something to do with your actual research topic how?” Andie’s enthusiasm suddenly plummeted. She put down the papers she had just been so enthusiastically parading in front of Jack. The truth was, it had nothing to with anything and it was just a massive exercise in procrastination. On the university dime, no less. “I thought you weren’t supposed to judge,” she whined. “I’m not. But you should be making a presentation on your progress the day after tomorrow and I’m pretty sure that the faculty is looking for something a bit more concrete.” Andie slouched even deeper into her chair, closed her eyes and let out a painful sigh. She had forgotten all about the presentation. She really should’ve used all this time preparing for it, and now she’d have to pull all-nighters to get it done in time. Or all-dayers as it was more appropriate in her case. “Fuck me,” Andie sighed out with exasperation. “I would,” Jack said. “But you’re just as gay as I am so it really wouldn’t work for either of us.” Jack was about to turn away, when a particularly busy scribble of the symbol caught his eye. He pointed at it. “What’s this one? It looks different.” “Huh? Oh, that one. That my own version. I tried what it would look like if I crammed all the disparate elements into the same symbol.” She let out a weak chuckle. “It was actually what I worked on all last night. Good call, eh?” Jack retreated to the door. He might’ve been a bit of an arse sometimes, but he sure knew when it was time to make a hasty retreat. “Well, I’ll leave you to it,” he said as he opened the door. “Yeah, you do that,” Andie said weakly to the closing door. “Fuck,” she repeated again once she was on her own. She had had lapses of judgement before, but this was up there in scale. Her whole funding was dependent on that presentation and she sure didn’t want to return to teaching quite just yet. Andie took the scribble Jack had asked about and studied it as she went to the fireplace. She had spent the past week on this completely inconsequential finding and for some reason she had real trouble letting it go. It was like there was an urgency to her curiosity. She knew she’d have quite a lot of trouble concentrating on the presentation. It wasn’t like she had to write all kinds of stupid research reports every couple of weeks anyway, so it wasn’t very motivating to have to do even more. The fire sure was soothing, though. She didn’t know what had given Jack the idea to light it, but she appreciated the calming glow. At least it was going to be warm and cozy while working her little butt off. “Yeah, this was a great idea,” she muttered to herself as she threw the scribble into the fire. Andie had just managed to turn away from the fireplace when a blast of air knocked her down to the floor. She turned to look at what was happening, but all she could see was blinding light. Gasping for air from the shock, she tried to make something out from the light. But even if she tried to block some of the it with her hand, there was only blinding brightness. Pushing herself further away from the fireplace, she tried to remember where the fire alarm triggers were. She knew fires could start suddenly and violently, but this was just unbelievable. What could’ve been feeding such a violent fire? All she did was throw a small piece of paper into it. She was just about to get up to run when the light started to fade. And slowly, a figure began to emerge from the bright void. The figure was mostly without form at first, but as the light faded, its true form slowly appeared. It was definitely human, or at least humanoid. Clear feminine curves were the first thing that drew Andie’s attention and as the figure became more and more distinct, she was completely transfixed. Eventually the light retreated back to the cosy fire it had been before. Andie looked around her and was surprised to see that everything was still in their place. The fire alarms hadn’t started and the windows had not shattered. It was as if the blast had only affected her. But she soon forgot all about her surroundings as she took a closer look at the creature. It was weirdly familiar although many things about it were alien. It had these beautiful curves on its hips, legs and voluptuous breasts. The breasts were so perfect in shape that they were like sculptures. But what made them alien was that they didn’t have nipples. They were smooth, beautiful skin throughout. As the creature was all around, there was nothing resembling clothes on it at all. And the eyes. The eyes didn’t resemble human eyes much at all, but it was still easy to make out that the creature was staring right into hers. The stare was so intense that it was like the creature was digging into her soul. And for all she knew, maybe it was. “You summoned us,” it said, with a voice that was neither male or female, but still distantly human. Still dazed, it took Andie a while to process that she had been addressed to. “Wu…What?” was her response. “You have produced the rune and you have destroyed it in a blaze,” it said. “You completed the ritual. And we have come.” “It was just a doodle! I don’t know anything about summonings or rituals!” “The intent is meaningless,” it said, strictly. “The only thing of relevance is lust. You possess that lust and thus we have responded.” “What… Who… What are you?” “We are Ixunia, the dark desires of many become one. And you belong to us now!” Andie was just about to retort with something when Ixunia made a circular gesture. She could feel something wrapping tightly around her wrist and then shooting a rope firmly into the wall. Ixunia repeated the gesture and the same thing happened to her other wrist. This time when the other end of the rope shot at the opposite wall, both ropes tightened and lurched her upwards and forwards so that she was now on her knees, arms stretched to opposite sides of her. At the same time she could feel restraints grabbing her ankles, securing them tightly to the floor. “Wha… What is this? What are you doing to me? How is this happening?” Andie asked with increasing alarm. “So many questions,” Ixunia muttered. “You will get all the answers you are looking for. But they can be told so much better in other ways than with words.” “What does that mea…” Andie’s question was interrupted when Ixunia made a gesture with their fist and she could feel her mouth filling up with some kind of firm material. Once her mouth was full enough to force her jaw open, a web formed around her head, keeping the stuffing tightly in place. It had just enough give to allow her to move her jaw slightly and breath around, but she couldn’t make anything close to intelligible speech. As Ixunia approached the now utterly helpless Andie, she could see that their fingers were unusually muscular and long. Ixunia slid one of those intoxicating fingers down inside the collar of her shirt and ripped it open in one smooth movement. Andie let out a yelp, but not of alarm. The helplessness of the situation and the dreamlike quality of Ixunia had made her drop down her defences. The restraints somehow made her feel safe in this strange and precarious situation. But paradoxically, the creature filled her her mind with trust.
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