For all they had done for me, they deserved countless more years of feelingwhole. Together.
So, once again, I found myself sitting in a salt circle (more like a salt oval, but who’s really keeping track). I’d timed it so I could start the incantations at three am, or what was better known as thewitching hour.If I was going to give this ritual a second chance, I might as well go turbo spooky and use every available tool in my arsenal.
It just turned out that I had very few “tools” at my disposal. For a girl with an endless supply of candles, I wasn’t sure how the onlyblackcandle I had in my possession was a phallic candle that Esme had gotten me as a gag gift for my last birthday. “It’s pretty and it’s big and it smells unbelievable. Don’t sit on it, though, that’ll fuck up your pH balance,” she had said in between mouthfuls of my grandmother’s blueberry pancakes whilst I tried not to die of embarrassment.
I set the candle next to the bottom half of a silver trinket that moonlighted as a silver bowl for the duration of the ritual. It was no larger than the palm of my hand, but again, the instructions really should have been more specific. I looked down at the tattered teal book, my last desperate plea to the universe, before letting out an exasperated sigh.
Quincey, you’re not right in the head.I told myself, preparing for the inevitable disappointment I’d feel when this futile endeavour turned out exactly as I expected. I looked up at the black and white photograph of my grandparents hanging over my kitchen table before trailing the palm of my hand over my face. “Please, please,please,” I whispered softly before reopening the book.
I’d already collected all the necessary bits for step one, so I made quick work of cutting another lock of hair and lighting the cock shaped candle, fighting the smirk that tugged at the corner of my lips as I did
Step 2.
Light the black candle and whisper into the flame.
“Demon of darkness, Prince of Hell
I beckon you forward, with one simple spell.
Through the veil of night, I seek you out,
Dedicated till the end, on my knees devout.”
I took a deep, steadying breath.Don’t get your hopes up, okay.I repeated the mantra in my head whilst repeating the incantation as clearly as possible, keeping my eyes firmly shut so as not to throw off my already waning concentration.
Step 3.
Place each strand of hair into the fire.
I actually did need to open my eyes for this bit. I was clumsy, had no insurance, and had no intention of setting everything I currently owned on fire. The locks of my hair fizzed at the ends, and a slightly acidic smell crept up my nose. I’d just washed it, so alongside burning hair, I was likely burning away whatever residual chemicals still clung to the strand.
Step 4.
With your hands hovering above the water, chant the final incantation and summon the demon.
“In the very fibres of my being, exists both want and greed,
It’s three wishes I seek, and three wishes I need.
In pact, we’ll be tethered, all wishes made whole.
In return I offer everything, everything, and my soul”
I held my hand over the tiny trinket and spoke the last few lines of the incantation. Trading one’s soul seemed like such a massive request in return for three wishes. The genie inAladdinhad done it for free, for fuck’s sake. But this wasn’t a children’s movie, and a lot of the time, life didn’t have those neatly tied up happy endings that everyone held out for. Life was hard, cruel, and painful. But I’d happily trade my soul to take Maura’s pain away.
I cracked an eye open and thenanother?—
Just like the previous night, a large clang carried through the silence of my apartment, followed by a slightly overweight black cat emerging from the veil of my patterned curtains.
“Mortimer?” I looked down at the cat suspiciously. He approached slowly, taking in the picture in front of him before settling me with a look that was quintessentially cat, unimpressed and slightly disgusted. It was a look that saidwhat the fuck are you doing?And given that I sat in the middle of my dark apartment with nothing but a salt ring around me as if I was fighting a siege against a rogue army of snails, it was hard to argue with his points.Telepathically, of course.
“Now you are going to think I am crazy, but I’m going to ask one time, just to be sure,” I said, standing up and taking the black cat with me. He might be an outdoor cat, but he’s an absolute slut for a cuddle. “You’re not a demon, are you?” I whispered. “If you are, you can tell me. I won’t tell anyone.”
He meowed once before jumping out of my arms and onto my forest green sofa, where he proceeded to stare at me, his amber eyes clear in the darkness of my apartment. I sighed, stumbling slightly before flicking on a small table light in the kitchen. “Well, at least we tried. So much for maledictions and hex?—”
The knock on my door was loud. Aggressive. Frightening.
I whipped my head around so fast, I almost gave myself a crick in my neck as I stood, staring at my door.What the actual fuck?
