Daily Life With A Lilim Halloween Special Part 2

~Ezraphel’s Trick~

The Next Day…

Stanley ended up working well past midnight into the AM and by the time he finally went to sleep it was close to sunrise. This of course led to him sleeping literally half the day away which he realized was a mistake upon waking up, taking a gander at his room then looking at the time.

“This is going to become a thing isn’t it?”

Those were the first words out of his mouth after he woke up to find that his girlfriend had once again done some redecorating while he was asleep. Fortunately said redecoration wasn’t anything too outlandish like say…a magical forest. Oh no at least this time he was in a house just not the one he slept in. If he were to make a comparison his room now looked like the set of a period drama or rather in the context of this particular day it looked to be the set of a horror movie that happened to be taking place in the 19thcentury or whenever the Victorian era was.

Stanley didn’t even bother paying any more attention to the architect, not that he had any interest in it to begin with. Unfortunately things didn’t become any better when he opened his door he came upon an unfamiliar hallway. That’s when he realized that Ezraphel didn’t just decorate his house, she damn remadeit.

“God dammit Ez” looking both ways f the hallway Stanley really had no idea which way he should go.

*RING*

Stanley flinched as the sound of a generic high pitched ringing came from the room he woke up in. Specifically it came from a black telephone located on the nightstand he had overlooked.

Crossing the short distance he picked it up “hello?”

“Good morning Stanley~” came Ezraphel far too chipper voice.

“You have thirty seconds to explain yourself.”

“I told you Stanley if I didn’t get a treat you would get a trick.”

“And to think I felt bad enough to give you the rest of the week.”

“Wait what? That was an option!?”

“Not anymore.”

“Dammit!” he raised an eyebrow at that having not heard her curse before even if that was the most PG of them all “oh well, I’m sure after this you’ll be wanting a stress reliever.”

“And what the hell is ‘this’ supposed to be?”

“Oh just a little something I’ve put together while you were working last night. I based it off one of your videogames”

Stanley suddenly felt dread creep up his spine “which one?”

“Resident Evil.”

At that Stanley took a deep breath and closed his eyes “what?”

“I’m sure you are very familiar with this game Stanley.”

He was.

“What am I doing here Ez?”

“To play the game of course however in this case the name of the game is escaping the castle.”

Stanley didn’t dare ask if that was it because as someone who played all the Resident Evil Games he knew that it was far from that simple.

“Of course you will be met with obstacles in the form of enemies to battle or escape, traps to evade or disarm and puzzles to solve.”

‘Typical RE’ he sighed.

“Fine”

“Huh?”

“I’ll play your game.”

“You will? I mean -ahem of course you will!”

“So do I get a weapon or what?”

“Weapons, ammunitions, items and currency will be scattered throughout the castle as well as safe rooms.”

“How will I know a room is ‘safe’?”

“My visage will be represented on the front of the door.”

“Cool” he rolled his eyes “so what constitutes as a ‘loss’ here?”

“Getting captured and brought back to me.”

“Say no more.”

“Aw~”

“Is there anything else I should know?”

“Hmm nope, good luck Stanley~”

“Wait” looking at a close analog clock and noticing the time “what are you doing right now?”

“Oh Stanley~ over the phone?”

‘This woman…’

“This isn’t a segue into phone sex Ez, are you going to give out the candy to the kids?”

“Oh, well of course I will.”

Stanley growled under his breath away from the transceiver before speaking “don’t make it weird.”

“What do you mean?”

“I…” he trailed off in a sigh before continuing “just don’t give them any reason to think you’re anything more than just an eccentric woman.”

Ezraphel scoffed over the line “oh please Stanley this isn’t my first ‘rodeo’ as it were. I will be fine.”

“Alright I’ll trust you. Don’t fuck it up.”

“I wo~n’t buh-bye now.”

There was a click followed by silence which had him staring at the phone, no dial tone? Then again the thing wasn’t even hooked up to a landline so…

“Whatever” putting the phone back he looked around the room “Resident Evil huh?”

Now that he said it out loud the place does bear a resemblance to Lady Ds castle…or maybe it was just generic enough to be the default architecture choice in this instance. Either way if Ezraphel was faithful to the games (even if it was just the most recent one) then the next logical step to take here would be to loot the place for every scrap of valuables.

The worst part is he couldn’t speed run this so unless there was some time dilation shenanigans at play it meant he would be missing Halloween tonight.

“I should have asked her about that” he cursed the missed opportunity.

As for his thoughts on this turn of events Stanley was…surprisingly ambivalent to the situation. Yes he felt annoyed that she would just thrust into this again without asking but he actually liked these little jaunts of adventure she forced upon him. There’s a reason why virtual reality is considered by most to be the pinnacle of future gaming. There is a certain kind of excitement to be had with living out your favorite games in a safe and controlled environment.

Stanley wouldn’t have picked Resident Evil as his first choice because for as entertaining as the games are the premise was scary as fuck. He didn’t care who you are no amount of B-movie camp can hide that shit in real life. Of course he didn’t think Ezraphel would utilize the monsters from that series as they were so he would most likely be looking at lewd renditions of them. But still even the lewd renditions of Resident Evil monsters are kinda…

“I need a weapon” as he said this he checked one of the drawers in the room and found a switchblade knife to which he scowled “I meant a fucking gun, gah!”

No such luck with that and in the end after checking everything that can be checked Stanley found the aforementioned knife, half pistol clip of BB pellets, seven silver coins and a larger than average gold coin with helm on it. The last thing he gained was after checking the closet to find new wardrobe, the only wardrobe to be exact. Two minutes later and he was wearing a yellow cotton jacket over a grey hoodie, blue jeans and brown shoes.

He was dressed as Ethan Winters in Resident Evil: Village.

Stanley noticed that he seemed to gain knowledge on every item of note he picked up which was mildly worrying. Yet he purposefully overlooked the negative implications his pessimistic mind could conjure to focus on how it would relate to this challenge. On the one hand it would come in handy for discerning what he should or shouldn’t keep since he didn’t exactly have a hammer space inventory. On the other hand it will make completing this ‘game’ all the more tedious especially since he was planning to take things slow before.

Resident Evil can be very unforgiving and considering what’s at stake Stanley was going to play it safe by going at this as if it were on the hardest difficulty. There is no speed running things here but he supposed it will depend on how things go in the next hour.

‘I can’t believe she went with Resident Evil’ he shook his head.

Even if she gave him a heads up about pulling this stunt he would never figure her to use this franchise out of all of them. First off Ezraphel had little interest in videogames which, not gonna lie, made him sad but even if she was interested past experience told him she would not like the Resident Evil games. To make an adventure based on a franchise that is traditionally zombie shooters well to that he had to say…

“Well played Ez.”

But of course once he got out of this he would distribute the appropriate punishment.

Meanwhile…

*Shudder*

Ezraphel suddenly felt a spike of coldness run down her spine that filled her with both dread and excitement.

‘It felt like Stanley’

She could always tell when he’s thinking about something fun that was directed her way. And with how the aftermath of her last adventure went Ezraphel felt herself squirming in anticipation just thinking about what he would do to her once he completed her game. Said ‘game’ wasn’t easy to set up despite her abilities especially since this was technically a last minute thing. Technically as in while it did take a few hours or rather all of the previous night since her Stanley retired to set it up she was working in a dimension where she effectively controlled time so…

In any case the real burden came with getting through this ‘Resident Evil’ series of games starting with the most recent one which featured that one woman. Funny thing is she found said woman whilst looking for a character which she could assume the appearance of since she has it on good authority that men of her Stanley would be fond of her dressing up as the characters from his beloved videogames. The women online seem to have figured this out and have built followers of thousands just based on this act which they refer to as ‘cosplay.’

One of the largest gripes she had with earth was how they portrayed monsters in the mainstream. Of course she understood that much like in the era before her mother’s reign they were just going with what they are like but it’s hard for her not to take umbrage. It is especially grating to see the correct representation for mamono be cast aside and seen as incorrect, weird or even disturbing.

Why they would find the savage and grotesque forms of monsters to be fine yet the lovely forms of mamono to be disturbing truly blows her mind. Ezraphel was certain that those people would be singing a different tune for their presence if they were suddenly faced with them in real life. As for the enlightened individuals who prefer monster girls she would very much like to introduce them to actual mamono.

But back to the game, once Ezraphel got over the misrepresentation issue she found the game to be rather enjoyable and even compelling. The tale of a man’s journey into places unknown whilst braving horrors all to find his kidnapped child? Ezraphel was very much a fan of stories like this and the setting provided some interesting ideas to work with.

When all is said and done Ezraphel had a blast preparing this game for her Stanley using the ‘mechanics’ of the game while mixing the setting with her home in Eos.

Hopefully she nailed it well enough that her Stanley would appreciate her efforts. She also hoped that it would keep him sufficiently distracted long enough for her to complete her other endeavor. Just then the sound of grandfather clock chimed rather loudly, it was now six o’ clock which meant it was time to begin~

Chuckling to herself Ezraphel stepped through the portal into the living room where four individuals were seated watching TV. Three of them seemed to be children dressed in costumes that hid their face however the third was different being a grown woman. She was a fair skinned with short blue-purple hair and grey eyes wearing a grey high cut strapless latex bodysuit under a short dark open leather jacket, fingerless gloves, dark low cut tight pants and boots. The outfit was form fitting outlining her curvy and voluptuous figure, the low cut pants combined with the high cut body suit and short jacket exposed the side of her thighs giving her a provocative appearance.

This woman was a Golem in fact she was the very first Golem Ezraphel created months ago for the Easter egg hunt. Ezraphel couldn’t bring herself to destroy her since as this was the first time she was creating a Golem and she put more into her than was necessary giving the Golem a certain level of sentience. Since terminating her at this point would be akin to murder Ezraphel instead put her in stasis while she figured out what to do with her or rather figured out how to explain her existence to Stanley without him ‘freaking out.’

“It is time” she spoke and the ‘children’ got up from the sofa. Unlike their adult counterpart Ezraphel gave these Golems a rather rudimentary intelligence. They were created for a single purpose with no path to evolve beyond it or the ability to gain sentience.

“Is everyone ready?” in response the children held up decorated bags to which Ezraphel’s smile widened “excellent~”

Stanley said that if she wanted she could go trick-or-treating but he never said that she couldn’t send out proxies~

“Fufufufu”

She began chuckling to herself like an evil genius however paused once she saw the adult Golem giving her a look that despite being neutral was laden subliminal judgment

“Ahem” coughing into her fist while straightening her posture Ezraphel adopted a regal disposition “now to go over the fine points of the plan, visit every house, receive your bounty, only deviate if it gets you more and be back with it by nine o’clock, ten at the latest. My Stanley should be finished by then.”

Another nod.

“Also” her expression turned dark “there is a potential for you encountering ne’er-do-wells who like to cause mischief. Should you come across any and they threaten you or the bounty you have my permission to teach them a lesson.”

*Nod*

Ezraphel frowned “you can speak you know, I gave you a voice for a reason” The Golem simply blinked causing the Lilim to sigh “you prefer playing the mute? Fine…actually it would be better if you did since people are less likely to have a conversation with you.”

She cupped her chin for a bit before snapping her fingers and a shimmer appeared over the Golem’s face who blinked away the spots.

“There now you will be able to convey your intent without words” in response the Golem gave a low bow to which Ezraphel raised her head high “you’re welcome now go and happy trick-or-treating~”