Night of the Living Bacteria

Chapter Seventeen

Ashley

There was a low grumble that echoed through the chamber as the three of us watched the glowing eyes come closer and closer.

"What are we going to do?!" Olivia whispered.

"I don't-" An idea popped into my head. I pulled out the knife and flicked it open. In the other hand, I held the spell book, scanning through the pages for a spell that would kill that thing.

I felt another hand grab the knife and pry it from my fingers. Their hand was a lot warmer than mine. I did not look up. Come on, there's got to be something in here! I continued to flip through the pages as the golden-eyed thing now towered over us.

It screamed. The scream was human and so high-pitched I could feel my eardrums pounding. I felt a cold energy sweep across me as it ran a black arm through my body. The thing was made of some kind of dark energy, and I felt it for a moment as the arm passed through me. Finally, I laid my eyes on a helpful page.

"Depellere Tenebras!" [it means 'get rid of darkness', I hope] As I yelled the words, I raised my eyes to the large golden ones the monster in front of me held. I stared into its depths as it began to disperse. The being was terribly sad; and angry. It faded into nothingness, then, with a small, defeated cry. Black and golden dust sprinkled onto the tiled floor in front of us.

"I think that was the thing my aunt's friends summoned." Jayden whispered, handing back the knife. "I think that was a demon."

"That wouldn't make sense, though. I think it's more likely it was a ghost of some sort." I stuffed the spell book back into my bag along with the knife.

"Why would you believe that?"

"There's a difference between summoning demonic entities and dead ones. Demons are usually summoned before or during a storm, that's what the spellbook said. Ghosts are summoned during a full moon when the barrier is dissolved."

Olivia rolled her eyes. "This is not the time to make a Ghostbusters reference."

I motioned to my bag. "The book said that, not me. The book said that the best time to summon a ghost is a full moon on October thirty-first. Full moons on any other day are only good for summoning certain types of ghosts. The barrier is completely gone when there's a blue moon on Halloween."

"Isn't there one this year?" Jayden asked, switching off his flashlight and walking down the tunnel we came from. The rest of us followed.

"Could be," I said. "I don't know."

Olivia groaned. "We are not summoning a ghost, okay? If a ghost can do things like that-"

"We aren't going to." Both Jayden and I exclaimed.

"But, we should probably make sure nobody else does." I stared at the rocky ground.

The rest of the walk back was silent. Nobody had much to say. Anything we thought was worth saying had already been spoken of. As odd as it sounded, though, I had enjoyed the danger of that moment. But I wasn't willing to risk the chance that if I summoned something else, it could be too strong to defeat. I didn't want to jeopardize this entire school like Jayden's aunt and her friends had.