Chapter 2: Pleasurable Company

"Come on! Do the magic, do the magic!"

On any other night, Elsa would have sent her baby sister back to her own room. They both needed their sleep, especially Anna. Tonight, though? Things would be little different. Elsa had been waiting for a chance like this. The full moon gave her room a strong white glow, so they could have some fun without turning the lights on. As long as they kept quiet, mum and dad would never know. There was still a chance Anna might say something. So, Elsa had used the best way she could possibly think of to keep her secret safe: a pinky promise.

The two of them working together would make the set up quite a bit easier as well. Moving the heavy tome or the snowflake pattern rug hiding what Elsa drew up underneath weren't quite tasks that Elsa was up to yet without tiring herself out. There was just about enough time to try once, before they both definitely needed to go to bed.

Elsa stood upright outside the magic circle she had spent the best part of two weeks drawing up. Time to see if it was ready. Extending both of her arms, opening both palms facing downwards, she focused on her hands. There was something! She pushed, and pushed, and pushed. So close!

Suddenly, it happened. The circle erupted into a blaze of bright blue flames. Anna squealed with delight.

"So cool! You can do real magic. You're a witch.!" Anna said, laughing.

"Shh! You'll wake mummy and daddy. You promised, remember?" Elsa held her finger to her lips.

Anna covered her mouth, nodding while trying to stop herself from giggling. "So- woah. What magic can you do?"

Elsa leaned in really close. "I can summon demons," she whispered.

"Woah-" Anna gasped. "Wait, aren't they bad?"

"Not all of them." Moving over to the thick tome on the floor, Elsa turned through the pages as quickly as she could. "Here. This one looks like a happy demon. We'll try and summon this one."

"Of course, it had to be a pleasure being." Elsa shook her head, giving a cold, harsh laugh. What was she thinking? If she knew she could summon magical flames, it couldn't have been that much of a leap to conclude she could summon creatures as well.

Frowning, Anna glared intently at the floor, her growth spurt apparently forgotten. The tentacles just seemed to be stuck there, almost frozen. "But why can't I remember any of this? And what does summoning demons have to do with me? I'm just- Anna. That's what you said, isn't it?"

How would Elsa explain this? While Anna did agree to entertain everything she put forward, there was only so much that could be elaborated before it went right over Anna's head. Not that Elsa held that against her, having her nose deep in the intricate details for a good while now. "You're still you, Anna. What happened that night didn't affect you, at least directly. The creature that I summoned that night was too much for me to control or send back. So it jumped into you, Anna. That's why you have that thing on your back." Elsa closed her eyes, reliving that reckless series of decisions once again.

"I- what? There's something-someone else inside of me? Why don't I remember any of this, Elsa?" Anna looked to her elder sister with pleading eyes.

Pacing back and forth while trying not to loosen her bath towel, Elsa needed to admit there was no bona fide answer to that. "Well, there's two possibilities that make sense. One idea is that you repressed those memories. Something like that would be extremely traumatic; not something you would want to remember. The other possibility? The being that now lives inside you made you forget."

Anna briskly shook her head. "How could I possibly forget?" She pointed to the growth on her back. "Hello?"

"That's true, Anna." Elsa nodded, taking another deep breath. Yet more guesswork; far from her favourite thing. "I've read that normally, one of these beings will hide completely within a person, only emerging when it needs to. My best guess is that it wasn't expecting to have to jump into a child. Normally, they enter into the person that summoned them. An adult." Another question that thrashed around in Elsa's mind: why couldn't it have been me? The conclusion she came to brought her no solace.

"Hang, on. What is this thing, anyway? I thought you said they were demons. Now, they're just- things?" Anna reached out and poked at one of the tendrils, before pulling away. Apparently, she didn't like how it currently felt. Hardly a surprise, given how cold and flaccid they appeared.

"Demons don't exist, as far as I know." Elsa couldn't imagine anyone else qualifying that kind of statement in that way. "No one knows for sure what the beings from the other world are. I could find no record of anyone who travelled to their world and successfully returned. From what little observations have been made, these things don't exist the same way we, or anything else in our world does. Instead of physical bodies, things like thoughts and emotions are given form. Joy, anger, sadness, fear. Almost anything you can think of. Furthermore, they feed off of these emotions. It sustains them. Like food for us, they seem to have their own particular tastes. One will like happiness over everything else, perhaps another will prefer anger. And so on."

"Woah-" was about all Anna could muster. Scepticism wasn't exactly an option for her at this point, but Elsa appreciated her bearing with her explanations all the same. She was more than willing to give Anna a moment to take it all in. "So, wait. How do these things know about our emotions and stuff?"

With closed eyes and a slight frown, Elsa sighed. Perhaps she had been too hasty, agreeing to provide answers she didn't even have. "Okay, imagine you lived in a world where there was almost no food left. You would have to do anything to eat, and therefore survive. Kill, steal, lie, you name it. Then, suddenly, someone opened up a door in front of you. Through that door, there was mountains of food. Everywhere you looked, more of it. You could not only eat to your heart's content, you could pick out all your favourite foods and never run out for the rest of your life. That's how I believe they view us."

"So we're just food to them? How awful." Anna looked down at the circle. "Why would anyone want to summon one of them here?"

Elsa cringed just a bit. Somehow, Anna avoided accusing Elsa of what she did all those years ago. Did she deserve such understanding? "Our feelings and emotions are food to them, not us directly. Since our emotions and thoughts take almost no effort for us, we act as a fountain of sustenance for them." Elsa walked across the room in short steps, opening up one of the old tomes resting there. "What's referred to as a summoning might simply be someone opening the door for them. A chance to gorge on all the energy they would want would be too good to resist. In return, it appears as though some of the energy leaks out into whatever happens to be around the being in question." She snapped the book shut. "In short, the being inhabits the body of the person who opened the portal to their world. It feeds off the thoughts and emotions of the person, and that person in turn draws strength from that energy."

"I- I think I understand." The tentacles seemed to be moving all of a sudden. For now, they appeared to be slowly retreating back into Anna's body. "Wait, though. Why did it jump into me? Didn't you bring it here?"

Damnit! Elsa walked right into that one. There was no way of avoiding the issue now. Not to mention she swore to tell the whole truth. "Well- you see." She clasped her chin. Anna would understand. She always seemed to understand. It was here that the conversation would start to become especially uncomfortable. "I believe- at least at the time that you were the more attractive target. This one in particular is one that feeds on more positive emotions. While I was starting to panic because the 'summoning' wasn't going as planned, you probably weren't even aware that anything was wrong. Even without that, you've always been so- upbeat, even with all of this. Even after what I did."

Anna stared into the floor. How was it that hearing about how optimistic she was made her seem so listless? "So- it was because of me?"

"No!" Elsa cut in forcefully. "Don't ever say that, Anna. I made the decision to use powers I couldn't possibly understand. Then to bring you right there where you could get hurt. Where you did get hurt."

Through her watery eyes, Elsa barely noticed Anna come up and wrap her arms around her. "I know you'd never try to hurt me. You made a mistake. This must have been hard for you as well."

"Anna-" how was it her little sister kept managing to exceed her expectations? Holding the tears back was next to impossible now. "Remember all the things we wouldn't let you do? You were always so upset when we couldn't let you have a sleep over."

Somehow Anna managed a gentle laugh at that. "You didn't have any either, just so I wouldn't feel left out."

With a loud sniff, Elsa managed a smile. "I always thought you'd bought into my excuses. What about the time you wanted to learn how to surf with Ariel and Mona?"

"Well." Anna shrugged. "I was just a kid. I would have just kept falling off anyway."

Elsa groaned. "That's not the point, though. Being a child is supposed to be about having fun and learning from your mistakes. I took so much of that away from you, Anna. Not to mention this awful medicine you made you drink. Every week! Just smelling this stuff makes me shudder. How could you possibly hold out that long?"

"Hmm." Anna stepped back, staring at the ceiling for a moment. "Well, I think deep down I knew that it could be worse. You all still loved me. I just knew you did. So there must have been a good reason for all that. Right?"

"Right." The medicine. The one both her parents and then Elsa had to toil away at each week to make just right. Not that she would ever complain about something so insignificant. "That was to keep the being inhabiting you asleep. Or the closest thing they can be. As long as you kept taking more every week, it just would have stayed asleep for the rest of your life." Elsa managed to lock her eyes with Anna's. "Before you say anything, I know that I would have tried to get out of taking it sooner or later as well."

"I guess," Anna finally said, sighing. "I guess I'll have to start taking it again, won't I? I'll do it, if- if that's what it takes."

Elsa firmly shook her head. "Perhaps not. There is one other option. It's- complicated, and there's no guarantee it will work. I spent the last three years looking this through, and there's no other way. I don't want you to have to keep suffering like this, but-"

"But what? You can't say that then not tell me!" Anna insisted.

"Fine, give me a couple of minutes. If you really want to do this, we won't have long." Elsa was ready to do anything to atone for her mistake. Anna, though? She wasn't quite so certain.

Anna sat on Elsa's bed. How long ago was it that she knew how that felt? Her parents had firmly kept them apart, then Elsa locked herself away. It was only now that she knew why. Most of why anyway. Trying to ignore the tentacles of something else that existed inside of her starting to slowly sway back and forth, she still tried to take it all in.

Elsa could do magic. Real magic. With that magic, she pulled or maybe just invited some being which jumped into Anna's body. For all these years, it took the form of the rash-like growth on her back. Only now it was awake, it took the form of these- tentacles? That part didn't seem to make much sense. Weren't they just supposed to live quietly in one person and feed on their feelings? This didn't seem to help much. At all. Maybe there were arms, doing what she couldn't do. Or didn't want to. She certainly didn't want this thing in her any longer. What would the cost of such a thing be, though?

True to her word, Elsa returned a moment later, now wearing a full bath robe instead of a towel. That couldn't be all she did, was it? Maybe Elsa needed some time to prepare herself for this plan as well.

"First of all, I need to explain more about what specifically currently inhabits your body." Wasting no time, Elsa lifted the heavy tome from the floor, away from the circle. "You probably heard me refer to it as a pleasure being."

Anna did remember, but why that specific word? There was a place her brain was taking this, even though she didn't want it to. "Elsa, you said- you said it jumped into me because I was happier, right?"

After a slight stall, Elsa nodded. "That's true, but there's more to it than that. None of our basic emotions are ever that simple, though. In this case, there's a number of different kinds of joy. Some being more... potent than others. Not only that, but some of these beings have more refined tastes than the simple base emotions. This one in particular finds one kind of pleasure the most irresistable."

It was a good thing Anna couldn't see how red her face suddenly became. She did notice herself flinching. "You- you mean- sex?"

"Correct. I understand this might be difficult to talk about. You have to trust me, this is important." Anna was rather unfamiliar with the subject due to her overly sheltered life. To have it come up now wasn't an entirely unexpected conclusion, but an uncomfortable one all the same. "It's quite likely the most overwhelming kind of pleasure there is. I imagine." Why did Elsa need to add that last part? Had she really not- "the point is, this particular being finds that particular sensation to be the most, appetizing. Not to mention irresistible."

The room seemed to heat up all of a sudden. "So, you're saying that it feeds on- sex?" That seemed incredibly bizarre, yet at the same time- cliché. Apparently, 'sex sells' wasn't even limited to their own dimension.

"It's the feelings of intense pleasure we derive from sexual intercourse, but otherwise, yes." It was now Elsa's turn to become flustered. "So, if you had, you know, got together with someone, that would have fed the being that lurks within you. Perhaps enough to awaken it, medicine or not."

"Wait wait wait. Are seriously saying that I can never have- or I'll-" Anna stammered.

Elsa shook her head with a deep frown. "Please, Anna. Don't interrupt me. That being said, that's not entirely incorrect. If you were to, well, human sex with another person? That would feed into that other being." Anna titled her head. Human sex? What did Elsa mean? "This particular being is able to obtain it's emotional energy from other people nearby, not just its host."

All of this still didn't quite make sense. "Wait, so it can draw energy from the person I'm with as well?"

"Well, no. Not like that, anyway." Elsa grumbled, and Anna really wished she could understand what she meant. Not a comfortable subject for either of them. "It requires direct contact in order to receive the energy. Hence, those." Elsa pointed to the tentacles that were still pointing out of each of Anna's side.

"Wait, so you're saying that if they're touching someone when they're-" Anna's words dried up, as Elsa's glare, somehow gentle yet fierce at the same time, pushed through. Clearly Elsa was having none of Anna's attempts to dodge what she was insinuating. "No. Nonononono. You can't seriously be saying that these- things would go into-"

Elsa nodded. "But I am. What other reason would they be shaped like that? Besides, what better way to extract those kinds of feelings and emotions than by evoking them yourself?" What kind of creature was this, anyway? On the one hand, it sounded like a sexual fiend. On the other, if it could only extract pleasure.

"That- that makes no sense. Look at these things. Feel them. They're horrible! No one in their right mind would ever think about." Anna grabbed on and shook it gently. Yep, still felt pretty gross.

"They are now," corrected Elsa. "They only thing is, they're been in a forced sleep for years. They don't have a lot of energy right now, which is why they can barely move right now. It took all the energy it had to burst out like that, and it will take more if it wants to try anything."

Anna glared back at Elsa. "Good! I don't want these things doing anything to anyone! I won't let something inside of me do that, even if it means drinking that sludge."

"Well, I'm afraid you're not going to like this next part." Flicking through the pages of her book one more time, Elsa sighed. "The only chance we have of getting rid of it for good is to do just that."

"What? No! I'm not going to force anyone to go through that for me. Ever!" Anna folded her arms and huffed.

Elsa sat down next to Anna. "I don't think you understand, Anna. This being looks for participants, not victims. It would much rather use persuasion than trickery or force, as that gives it the exact thing it wants."

"Well-" What if it was more the idea being so strange that Anna wanted to reject it. Sex was supposed to be between, well, two people. Anything else was either fictional, or completely unacceptable. " Okay, say these things do get less- disgusting. It won't hurt anyone if does that? You're sure?"

With a slight smile, Elsa tapped her head with her finger. "Again, that wouldn't do it any good. I'm sure you understand how difficult it might be to persuade anyone to agree the first time. If it gives a pleasurable experience, it can harvest energy much more easily." Elsa reached her arms around Anna, avoiding the tentacles for now. "I know this may be hard for you to believe, after all the misery that we caused you, and all the trouble it took to keep it from doing anything. But you were a child back then. Allowing it to act freely could have done immense damage, to you and others. Things are finally different now. It's up to you what you want to do now."

This whole thing still went far beyond the pale, but Anna wasn't about to reject it just on that alone. Even after all the years of lying and hiding, she couldn't bring herself not to trust her elder sister. If this thing wasn't going to hurt anyone, maybe it wasn't quite so awful as it first seemed. The only problem was it was still basically a parasite. One that forcefully entered Anna. What it did with someone who summoned it into their body was its own business, but Anna was done with it.

After a moment of silent thought, Anna pulled away and got it. "Alright, alright. So why should give this thing what it wants?"

"We have to set a trap." Elsa's serious tone had returned, as she moved to the circle. "Right now, the being's main focus will be to try and rebuild its strength. Even as weak as it is now, it's almost completely attached to your body. Removing it will be impossible. We need to get its guard down, so we can forcibly remove it from your body and send it back to its dimension. To do that, we'll need to gorge it on pleasure based energy."

That honestly sounded ridiculous, but Anna didn't know nearly enough on the subject to question it. "I think I understand. So, if I just experience enough pleasure as you said-"

"I'm sorry, Anna." Elsa cut in, looking downcast. "It can't be you. The being is always completely attached to you, so it already absorbs any emotional energy you give off. For this to work, the being has to focus its attention onto absorbing energy from someone else."

"Wait, what? Who?" Anna could think of no one. They had no social circle to speak of, especially since they moved. No one except- "Elsa, you can't seriously be suggesting-"

"Who else is there, Anna? Who out there would be not only sympathetic to our situation, but also willing to help us?" Thinking about it, Anna wanted to bring up the fact she hadn't been given the chance to make those kinds of friends. What difference would it make, though? This was simply too strange. There was no telling how a normal person would react to all of this.

"You're sure about this?" Anna mainly asked that because it was more difficult to ask the real question: was Anna ready for this? There was a burning desire in her to end the blasted growth that had caused her so much misery over the years. A horrible 'infection' with a treatment that tasted like death itself. There was every chance this would be the only opportunity they had to end this all.

A simple nod told Anna everything she needed to know. "This is my responsibility, Anna. This all started because of the mistake I made. If nothing else, it would be unforgivable for me to push this burden onto anyone else." She gave Anna the warm smile she missed so dearly. "I promise you, I'll be alright. That being will do everything possible to satisfy me, not cause harm."

Maybe that was the problem. For this to work, Elsa would need to have what Anna could only imagine to be a very sexual experience. Right in front of Anna, no less. Even if she covered her eyes and ears, her head would be filled with thoughts of Elsa, and what she was doing. What could very well be Elsa's first time would be with a interdimensional being that lived inside Anna. Their own dark, lewd secret.

"Well, I guess if you're sure about this," Anna trailed off.

Elsa walked up, sensing the emotional turmoil that Anna's face quietly cried out. "What is it, Anna? I want to fix this. All of this. But I don't want to force this on you, okay?"

There it was. The thing on the back of Anna's mind she couldn't quite explain until now. After all this time, here Elsa was, trying to comfort her. No more lies, or evasion. No more trust expected, but never given. Just talking openly to each other. Trying to help each other through this. They were sisters again.

Going through with this plan could take that away, all over again. Raise another invisible wall between them, this one ever harder to break. That thought brought more tears than Anna could contain. "E-Elsa. Can you promise me. No more hiding from each other? No more secrets? I- I don't want to do this, then- then we just-" the rest of her words were lost in a rounds of soft sobs. "Go back."

"Anna. Anna." It wasn't until Anna controlled herself again that she heard Elsa again. "I know I've hurt you. That's why I want to do this. Whatever happens, we'll work through this. In fact, I'll work harder than ever to make up for all the times I couldn't be there. If what happens is too much for you, we can stop. And I'll fix everything. Promise."

With a smile, Anna shook her head. "Thank you, Elsa. But once we start, there's no stopping. I won't let you make this sacrifice for nothing. We might only have one chance. Right?"

"You were always so strong. So brave. For me. For mum, and dad." For a brief moment, Elsa shared in the tears. "Then let's get started. Together."

"Together," Anna whispered. This was the strangest, most difficult night of her life so far. In both counts, it was about to become even more so. None of that mattered now. She had Elsa at her side at long last. With that, she could take on the world. Or any other that happened to be out there.