I’m so terrified, I don’t know what to do and I’m scared it’s already too late.
This all started around two weeks ago. I was at my best friend Hannah’s house, and she was getting ready to move to university. We’ve been friends for as long as I can remember, we did everything together, we went to the same schools and got our first job together, though that wasn’t hard in such a small town. She had decided the next stage of her life would be to move to a university on the other side of the country, in a big city. I can’t say I was too pleased about the news, but I wanted to support her through everything. So I decided I would stay at her house to help her pack the weekend before the big move.
We thought having two people would speed things along, but we couldn’t help but get distracted by everything. We’d been through just about every school planner, photo album, and diary entry we could find. Just before we gave up for the night, Hannah called over to me.
“Hey Kate, take a look at this” she was showing me a postcard sized book. It was bright red with a scribbled drawing of a black cat on the front. The title was written in black curly letters, almost like fancy old-fashioned handwriting ‘The Little Book of Black Magic’.
“Where did you get that?” I asked.
“Not sure, I’ve had it since I was a kid. Wanna try it?”
Something you should know about Hannah is that she’s fearless. She watches horror films as a form of relaxation, whereas I jump at the slightest noise. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of black magic, even if I didn’t really believe in it. Something about it gives me the creeps.
“I’m not sure, that kind of stuff freaks me out” I said, not wanting to sound like I was already spooked.
“Come on, it’ll be fun!” She insisted.
I hesitated before I answered.
“Okay but after this we’re going to bed, it’s already midnight and I’m getting tired”
“Yes!” she shouted, maybe a little too loudly, she lived with her parents and they were already in bed, “midnight is the perfect time for a ritual, you know”.
We dropped what we were doing and sat on her bed together, leaving her room in a mess. She started flicking through the book as I watched over her shoulder.
“Ooh what about this one? ‘Evil eyes’, it’s called” at this point Hannah was grinning from ear to ear like a child. This was her perfect idea of fun, although for me it might have been my perfect idea of hell. I didn’t know how long it was going to be until I could see my best friend again after this weekend though, and I would do anything to make her happy.
“Sure, whatever” I just wanted this to be over as soon as possible.
“All we need is a candle! Do you think a vanilla cupcake one will work?” Hannah was already standing, walking over to grab the candle off of the cluttered chest of drawers.
“I don’t see why not” I replied, standing up to join her.
Now, I don’t want to write the rules here because I want to do everything in my power to stop people from trying to recreate this dumb ritual. But to keep it short, we had to sit facing each other holding each other’s hands with a lit candle in the middle. Once we were ready we would say the phrase “Take my eyes and blind me with darkness” in unison, then blow the candle out and wait. The book didn’t actually say what was supposed to happen after that, but the whole idea was that you’d be giving a demon permission to use your eyes, or something like that.
So, we did everything perfectly, then sat in the darkness waiting for something to happen. Of course none of us actually believed this would work, so when a few minutes of silence passed and I started hearing Hannah giggling, I knew it was finally over and we could go to bed.
“Do you think it was the vanilla cupcake scent?” She asked, still giggling as she stood up to turn the lights on.
“Who knows, maybe the demon is more of an Old Spice fan” I replied, feeling relief that it was over with. I knew nothing would happen, but I don’t like the idea of sitting in the dark trying to summon a demon. The rest of the weekend after that was uneventful, we finished packing and I said my goodbyes to Hannah as she left to move on to the next stage of her life.
Things seemed to go on as normal, except now I didn’t have my best friend around to spend all of my time with. That was until the following Tuesday, when I received a message from Hannah.
Hannah 10:08am
hey dude i had the weirdest dream last night
Kate 10:11am
Oh?
Hannah 10:13am
yeah, i was watching this creepy-looking old dude walk non-stop for HOURS down random roads and motorways from behind, like a drone following him
but somehow i knew he was going to my house, you know that weird dream logic where you just seem to know things?
Kate 10:17am
Sounds like you’ve been watching too many horror films again haha
Hannah 10:17am
yeah ur probably right lmao
After that, Hannah began telling me that she had the same dream every night, the roads would change but she’d be watching this man walk for what felt like hours. This went on for about 3 nights before she told me that she started recognising the roads, he’d walked all the way to our little town. She was getting pretty freaked out by this point, and I think for the first time in my life I was the one who was having to calm her down, instead of it being the other way round. We chalked it up to the stress of the move. After all, it was her first time outside of our town and now she was living alone in a big city.
When Friday came, I was woken up by a phone call. As I blinked away the tiredness I could see it was Hannah calling.
“Hel-” I was interrupted as soon as I began to speak.
“My parents’ house was broken into last night” Hannah sounded like she’d been crying. Her voice was shaky and quieter than usual. The only time I’d ever heard her like this was after her grandma’s funeral a few years back.
“What?!”
“Nothing was taken, but the door to my old room was open and my bedsheets were pulled back, they couldn’t find anything on the neighbours’ doorbell cameras”
“That’s so scary, why would someone do that? Why only your room?”
“Kate, this sounds crazy, but I can’t help but think it’s related to the man I’ve been seeing in my dreams”
I couldn’t fault her logic, I’d probably be clutching at straws for any explanation too. I knew that was just a coincidence though, there’s no way, right? I visited her parents that day, it was just as Hannah said. They had somehow managed to sleep through the whole thing, the only thing that tipped them off was that when they got up in the morning, the front door was unlocked and Hannah’s bedroom was a mess, her bedsheets were in a pile at the end of the bed, and her wardrobe doors were open. It was like whoever it was was looking for her.
Hannah’s dreams didn’t stop there.
Hannah 9:42am
he’s on the move again
Kate 11:31am
Sorry, I slept in. Who is?
Hannah 11:44am
i’m having the same dream again dude, i can see this messed up man from behind and he’s just walking
he’s leaving our town
kate i have such a bad feeling about this
Kate 11:56am
Hannah, don’t you think with the stress of moving in and the recent events, this might just be your brain’s way of coping with it? I know it’s scary but how would that even make sense?
Hannah didn’t reply after that. We stopped talking for a few days. I think she was angry at me because I was invalidating her feelings. But how could I let her believe that her dreams were somehow predicting the future? She’d been through so much and she must have been extremely stressed. I thought if we just gave it some time, things would get better. Looking back, I wish I’d tried to reach out more. I couldn’t have known what was going to happen.
——————————-
I had the worst phone call of my life two days ago.
Hannah was found dead in her room. They found no evidence. I wished I was dreaming, I could feel my life come crashing down within those few minutes that I was on the phone. It wasn’t until they told me that her eyes had been cleanly gouged out of the sockets that it hit me. The ritual. It had worked, she was watching the demon come to take her eyes that she’d offered just a week earlier. Her dreams were a warning. I wish I’d taken her more seriously. When the phone call ended, I was staring at my phone screen, unmoving in total shock. That’s when I noticed I had message notifications and 3 missed calls from Hannah. I hesitated before opening them.
Hannah 4:44am
he’s here
i watched him walk here in my dream and now there’s someone at my door please help me
*Missed call from Hannah
kate please wake up
*Missed call from Hannah
*Missed call from Hannah
there’s someone in here with me
I don’t know how to process any of this. I’ve lost my best friend because a stupid ritual in a book we thought was for kids. I thought the worst part was that no one believed me. That was until I went to sleep last night.
I dreamed of a man walking for hours, but this time I knew he was coming for me.