Commissioned [completed]

Chapter 35 - Midnight Paper

"_______! Tesoro!" he shook you.

"Hmm?" You stretched lazily. The lights were all turned on and blinding, and your left ear rang annoyingly.

"Something is wrong; Sodo was supposed to check in half an hour ago."

"Huh?" You sat up suddenly, and you still had a slip of denial. "Is he sulking?"

"No, he must follow through with directions no matter how shitty he is feeling." And suddenly, Terzo had an occult-as-fuck knife in his hand.

"Sodo isn't responding, so pope-knife?" You furrowed your brow.

"Athame."

"Aah, of course it is." You nodded, "Hoh, that's a lot of fucking blood Terzo; what the hell?" Your heart jolted to life. You scrambled to your knees beside him. He was bleeding directly onto the carpet with a slice out of his lower arm.

"Summoning a protector," he murmured, closing his eyes, ears beginning to point.

"But we have like eight," you scampered to your bag and pulled out your own knife like that would help anything.

"I sent out a message, but no one is responding...." He trailed into Latin and held a hand over the blood stain, arm still dripping.

"No one?! What does the at mean?"

He kept chanting and shook his head, looking up at you.

You ran a hand through your hair. Panic was at bay, but you could feel it beginning to bite at your toes; the ring in your ears was hitting a crescendo. There was a shift in the moonlight through the blinds, a shadow passing by. You spun to face the window. "Oh, get fucked." You held your dagger in both hands.

You peeked behind you to check on Terzo's blood loss and saw that the stain on the carpet was gathering, forming into mass. With a rippling sound that had you snap to face it, something was shoved under the doorway. A piece of paper. A note? You took steps towards it.

"Don't." Terzo paused in his incarnation to warn, and you became stock still.

From what you could see, the note had red ink symbols and some kind of circle. It wasn't likely ink come to think of it, and as you thought on in, a holy light shone suddenly from the circle's centre. The room's lights cut, leaving the summoning as the only light source. You squeaked at the suddenness.

What was the rule one of the summoning circles again? No, kiss-kiss? No... smudging the circle. You immediately went to scuff the page with your shoe and tried to rip it when it didn't move. But it was melded to the carpet. "Uh, fuck," you darted around in a circle looking for anything.

"Oh, shit." A silken white, a six-fingered hand appeared in the circle, pulling it wider. You grabbed a glass of water from your nightstand, hurried over and dowsed the blood-inked paper with it. The hand snagged forward and grabbed your ankle, all six elongated fingers enclosing around it. It tugged, and you lost balance. "Ah!" You yelped and fell to your knees.

The blood-ink smeared the paper blurred and washed away. There was a screeching, less angelic than you imagined it would be and more harpy-like. The holy light blinked out of the circle. The arm slanted before it dropped to the side, severed from its owner. Silvery blood spurted from the convulsing arm. You kicked it away, revolted and crawled back to where Terzo was summoning.

You were both silhouetted in only moonlight. Terzo couldn't speak; he was still summoning and could only check in with a nod.

You nodded in response. Terzo's blood mound was about the size of him then. Forming into something hunched and humanish. It was wet and glistening with crimson. "I... need to do something.. I'm going to yell at Sodo," because that's what your panic-addled mind thought would be most productive. You skidded to the nightstand and tugged your phone from the charger.

You rubbed at your infernal ear to try and stop the ringing—then you were grabbed. You screamed. The spare arm was skittering about and then had your wrist. In the sudden panic, you raised your knife and pierced it through the forearm, pinning it to the ground before clambering away. "Fuck that," you panted.

Terzo nodded vigorously as his summoning became a naked, grey ghoul. Their eyes were closed, tail wrapped to them, foetal.

A fluttering noise came as another piece of paper slipped through the door, then another by the window. In unison, both shot the room with holy light. You tucked your phone in your bra, scrambled back to your feet, dove for the discarded glass, and ran to the kitchen to gather more water. You tossed the glass as you found a jug which you hurriedly filled, but as you returned, two more summoning circles had slipped into the motel room. "This is some Harry Potter bullshit!" You cried as you wet as many as you could. Hands appeared from the circles, and some arms were left bodiless and fidgeted around the room. A panicked sweat was pooling at your back, but you were beginning to gain confidence. If this was all they had, there was a kind of relief. You stepped on your fingers and stabbed through palms.

"Terzo," the ghoulish creature had a slight jeer to his voice. "How are we doing it this time, huh?" A wild grin took over his face.

"Special," Terzo began, "we need a lot of blood." There came a loud bang from the front door.

"Oh-Hoh! Which artery? Where do you want me~?" Special chirped. And the windows imploded inwards simultaneously, and the bathroom door exploded outwards. "Really stepped in it this time, haven't we?!" The naked ghoul laughed, unaffected but the sudden carnage surrounding them.

Silken angelic husks poured in from the bathroom, and humans in police uniforms came from the windows. The front door was torn off its hinges, and more uniforms entered the fray, holding a battering ram. There were hands and arms—you broke the glass jug for a weapon and thrust it uselessly at incoming limbs before you dove for your blade. There were too many bodies; Terzo was doing something, and his chanting rang out. Police and vessels were falling, but you were being tugged backwards. "Terzo!" You yelled.

"_____!" He called back.

You recognised the face of Brennan Mulwater pulling you backwards. You wildly struck at him with your blade but felt your limbs seized by more officers.

There was a blood-curdling scream as if the newly summoned ghoul had been impaled somehow. There were too many bodies to know for sure. You tugged fruitlessly and reached for the space where you thought Terzo was. "Terzo!" You screamed again, and you were yanked out the door. Your knife fell from your hand in the struggle. Your ringing ears hit a pitch, and you felt a drop of blood dribble down your jawline.

"______! Hold on!" The room darkened further, and then there was yelling. The scream of officers and angelic messengers cut the night's air. And he was gone. The quaint doily motel on the outskirts of town was gone. The sewer scent infiltrated your nose, and you were faced with a sodden, bloody brick wall, Brennan Wulwater's horrid arms pulling you backwards. Water rancid splashed around your bare feet, slime between your toes.

"What did he just do?!" Mulwater demanded as if you knew anything.

"Probably something special," you hiccuped. You tried to elbow backwards, but Mulwater secured you in a headlock in the struggle, roughly squeezing your throat. You kicked filthy water at his uniform in defiance. "How are..." you began to wheeze, "Your fucking eyes, you prick?" You clawed at his arm, your dagger lost in the fray.

"They'll feel a lot better," his grip in your throat tightened, "when this is all over."

You struggled and gasped. Stars hindered your vision, a purple haze blooming. "Fuck... yo..." and you were gone.