At first, I thought joining the Study Group for the Damned was an interesting foray into the occult. I didn’t believe any of that daemonology bullcrap, but it was entertaining to watch the other acolytes fall to the ground convulsing during our sessions, claiming to be channeling everything from Dagon to Lucifer to the ghost of Robert E. Lee. You see, I was never really normal, and the people I met at the Study Group matched my interests in other fields. Soon, however, it was a lot more than that.
But I’m getting off track. The road to the campsite was bumpy and poorly-trod, so I drove slowly; we couldn’t afford another summoning if the unhallowed materials in the back of my truck broke. The trees stood as silent, swaying sentinels, filling me with a feeling of purpose and safety (dryads were another creature Jase had convinced me of the existence of). This place in the middle of the forests of Cascadia, Jase calculated, was a confluence of the ley lines that would enable the summoning.
“Who do you think Jase has in mind?” Kassie asked as she bounced around the passenger’s seat.
“Ah, I dunno… maybe Stolas? Herbs seem like a thing Jase would want to know about.” I shrugged.
“Oh, you only know about Stolas from that internet show.” Kassie chuckled.
“Hey, I’ve been reading like I should!” I said, playfully defensive. The woods opened up into a clearing bordering a lake, where the other three of us sat fishing. The late afternoon sun scattered off of the surface of the water in a scintillating show. I pulled the truck into a good, flat spot and set it in park, taking the key out of the engine. The two of us got out and went around to the back of the vehicle, taking out the oils, pigments, and a sealed copy of The Whispers from the Dark. There were thousands of people who thought they were knowledgeable on the affairs of Hell, but I had spent many, many long nights in furious research, and I had come to the conclusion that Whispers was truly written by the right madman.
“Heya, girls,” Jase called, jogging over. With a nod, Kassie handed him the materials.
“Who’s it gonna be?” I asked.
Jase smiled. “That’ll be my surprise for our first summoning.”
“First of how many?” Gabriel, Jase’s younger brother, called from the lake.
“If our recipient gives me what I need, we’ll never need to worry about paying for these summonings again.” Jase said, quickly turning to check the position of the sun. “Speaking of, we need to set up the circle. Mickey, start clearing out the spot!”
“On it!” Mickey yelled, setting down his fishing pole and grabbing a rake. Over the next thirty minutes, we worked furiously. Kassie and I gathered firewood while Mickey and Gabriel cleared and anointed the ritual sight and Jase practiced the litany in silence. All the while, the sun drew closer to the horizon. Dusk and dawn, Jase said, were times of great magical power, as the worlds of day and night intermingled. Not only that, but it was the equinox, and thus both forces were of equal power. No time would be better for a summoning.
The time had finally come. Kassie and I set the wood into a small pyre, around which a circle of oil had been drawn in the dirt. No candles, no intricate glyphs, no Enochian chanting; that was for posers. We all fell to our knees in a pentagonal shape around the pyre and Jase opened the book, beginning to speak.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure that I welcome you to our first channeling of a spirit into the physical realm! Now, you all know my theory that the demonic powers are not evil by nature; nobody is. So, we will be calling forth a lesser demon, one who has not allowed their pride to go to their head, and perhaps we will get what we want for a lesser price than our souls.”
We all chuckled at the little jab.
“In the event that this goes wrong, is everyone refreshed on the incantation of banishment?”
All spoke their agreement.
“Good; let us begin.”
I closed my eyes and tried to wipe my mind clean. The breeze came to a sudden stop, and the birdsongs fell deathly silent.
“Great demon of the icy pit, keeper of the secrets of ailments, Raicorax, you are summoned!”
A strange thought passed through my mind, an image of a large fish from the lake struggling as it was being reeled in. However, it disappeared as quickly as it came.
“You are summoned! Come forth and allow us to greet you!”
Suddenly, I saw a light through my eyelids and felt a pulse of heat. The pyre began to crackle and pop. Then, a voice, high and trembling, echoed out across the landscape.
“Wh-where am I?”
I opened my eyes. Standing atop the blazing pyre, unharmed by the flames, was a man unlike any I had ever seen. His body was perfectly sculpted, his every facial feature placed with preternatural grace. He was a form that models dreamed of emulating. However, he was trembling, obviously disoriented, and his dainty hand covered his eyes in pain.
“Raicorax, is that you?” Jase asked haltingly, incredulous.
“Y-yes. Where am I?” Raicorax insisted.
“The physical realm, sire. Earth.” Kassie said.
Slowly, Raicorax took his hand from his eyes, revealing two piercing blue irises that seemed to know everything about me. Slowly, he scanned the Oregon landscape, and then seemed to realize something. He gasped a guttural, terrified gasp.
“No. Nonononono. Anywhere but here. You have to send me back.”
“Is this world not to your liking, sire?” I queried.
Raicorax paused, collecting himself. Then, he spoke, enunciating every word with utmost care. “There is a reason why not even the Morningstar himself dares to tread these lands anymore. You have to send me back to the pit, or else he will come.”
“Who?”
“The Destroyer.” Raicorax spat out the word as though it pained him to say it.
Jase took the opportunity to step in. “Everyone, recite the incantation with me!”
Unwilling to attract the attention of some higher, darker power, we sprang into action. All in unison, we fell on our faces and began the recitation.
“Raicorax, your presence is unwanted,” I muttered, “you must return to Hell from whence you came. Go; you are ba–”
SILENCE. The word echoed through my head, briefly so loud that it overwhelmed all rational thought. The final syllables of the spell caught in my throat and I couldn’t muster the will to finish.
A wooden door slammed loudly behind me, but there was no cabin in this campsite. Turning around, I saw another enter the site. A taller man with rosy skin and neatly-combed blonde hair strode confidently towards us, wearing a perfectly-tailored three-piece suit and a pair of aviator shades that obscured his eyes. He would have seemed attractive in a far more approachable way than Raicorax, but there was something cruel about his smile and his gait was almost robotic in its evenness and rhythm.
“He’s here.” Raicorax whimpered, his cheeks glistening with tears of terror. I tried to stand, but found that my legs were like stone, sunken into the ground.
“Oh, don’t be so serious; you knew the risks when you fell.” the man spoke, his voice deep and soothing to the point of almost being sultry.
“Please, I didn’t fall, I was born in the pit…” Raicorax tried to explain, tried to plead, but the intruder halted him.
“Unfortunately, Raico, you know the rules. It’s sad, honestly, that you had to corrupt these poor souls,” the man turned and pointed his finger once at each of us, “eenie, meenie, miney,” his finger landed on me and he walked within a few feet of me.
“Except for you. You’re the one he didn’t get to, right, kiddo? Speak.”
The lock on my larynx came undone. “Who are you?” I asked.
The man locked eyes with me from behind his sunglasses, his stare cold and unflinching. Leaning down, we came nose to nose. “You are the one he didn’t enthrall,” he began, “right, kiddo?”
“Yes, sir.” I blurted out.
“Good girl,” he patted my shoulder twice and began circling Raicorax slowly. The demon could only follow him with his eyes, apparently just as transfixed as I.
SHUT YOUR EYES. Once again, the response was autonomic, as my eyelids slid closed without so much as a thought. However, the command was more focused this time, as though it had been directed at me specifically.
“Welp, you know what happens now, Raico.” the man mused.
“Please,” Raicorax sobbed, “I have a family. Just let them send me back, please!”
“Oh, Raico,” the man’s voice was full of false pity, “that’s what they all say.”
Then, a near-indescribable light consumed my vision. The strength of the radiance pushed on my very being, a fire that burned at my mind rather than my body. For a moment, I buckled under the force, and my whole body came alive with pain. The last thing I heard was the rising, wailing death scream of a demon.
Then, a hand was on my shoulder. “You can open your eyes now.”
Looking back, I saw the man standing beside me. His body was transparent, but not in the sense of being clear. Rather, it was as though he was no longer fully in my world. Then, I looked around. The trees surrounding the campsite were utterly scorched and devoid of leaves. The grass crumbled to ash beneath the man’s shoes. The only places left unharmed were five shadows burned into the trees, one for each of my friends and one for Raicorax.
The realization of what happened left me wanting to vomit. “Wh-why?” I asked, just barely holding myself together. Instead of answering me, the man simply laughed.
“Oh, you’ve really done me a favor, kiddo! I haven’t gotten my hands on a real demon since I bled that pig Mephistopheles dry! It’s been all just vampires and fae for centuries now, and it just gets so boring, even if it still is the boss’ will.”
“What in God’s name do you want?” I asked. I hadn’t much mental strength left, and it was all I could do to keep from breaking down in tears.
“Well, right now, I want you to do something for me. How about you take this little gift I’ve given you by sparing your life and spread this occult stuff around? With a whole army of people like you draining the pits of Hell dry, I’ll have a field day! You don’t want to leave me without a job, do you?”
“No… sir…” I said, trembling.
“‘Atta girl,” he said, beginning to walk off, but then remembering something, “oh! Name’s Michael, if anyone asks. See ‘ya!”
Then, he… left. Somehow. There was no method by which he left, but he didn’t just vanish into thin air. In that dichotomy, he took a third option. Suddenly, I was able to move, and sprang up, running around the campsite, looking everywhere for my friends, but they were truly gone, the only evidence of what killed them being the smoldering trees and the paint peeled off my truck.
So now I’m writing this, sitting down and trying to figure out who the Hell this “Michael” is. Of course, Michael the Destroyer only returns one result, but that just can’t be. It shouldn’t be, anyways. All I can think of is that horrible burning light, and of Raicorax’s last moments. I don’t know where to go from here.
Oh, God, what do I do?