IDOLS

Chapter 9 - Backyard

July 4th, 2023
Greyville, New York
12:00 AM
People remaining: Lia, Mel

The time is now midnight. Lia and Mel have spent the last hour and a half triple checking that they have everything they need before they go outside. The three idols? Check. The triangle? Check. The idol board? Check.

Before opening the back door, Lia decides to look around to find anything important that's in the house.

Mel: "Lia, I don't think we're supposed to take anything we don't need outside."
Lia: "Of course not; I just wanna see if there's anything we might need later on."
Mel: "Like what?"
Lia: "I have no idea, but there's gotta be something, right?"
Mel: "If it was important, the note would have said something. Now come on, it's midnight. We need to get outside so we can go."
Lia: "Okay, fine."

Mel picked up the idol board from the kitchen table where she put it down, making sure nothing fell off, while Lia twisted the door handle, which was surprisingly not stuck at all, and opened the door.

Lia: "That was easy. The door didn't even creak."
Mel: "Lia, let's go."
Lia: "Ay ay. captain."

The girls made their way to the firepit and Lia took out the folded piece of paper before Mel placed the board inside.

Lia: "Okay so the note said one of us has to read it out, right?"
Mel: "Yeah."
Lia: "What if I read it, since you carried the board all the way down here?"
Mel: "Seems fair to me."
Lia: "But first, we need some stuff to burn."

Lia and Mel spent a few minutes searching for sticks, dead grass and leaves, pieces of tree bark, and anything else that could burn. While looking, Mel found a box of matches conveniently on top of a pile of sticks.

Mel: "Perfect!"

Lia and Mel set everything they collected on top of the idol board.

Lia: "You ready?"
Mel: "Yeah. I could ask you the same thing since you don't know what you're about to read."
Lia: "Yeah, yeah."

Mel lit one of the matches and tossed it into the firepit and Lia began reciting.

Grand spirit, grand spirit, I summon thee.
For the sake of your idols, I've killed three.
I took a soul from someone still alive,
who will now be killed so I can survive.
I've set a fire for your idols to sit,
that way my soul will never be split.
You gave me a job, in which I played the role,
and now you may take the last living soul.

At that moment, the fire seemed to pull Mel in like it was a black hole.

Mel: "Lia, what's happening?!"
Lia: "I don't know, I just read what was on the paper!"
Mel: "Oh my god, I'M THE SACRIFICE!!"
Lia: "Mel, no!"

And just like that, Mel was sucked into the flames, her screams of agony hitting Lia's ears like a thousand knives.

Mel was dead.

Once Mel's screams ceased, the fire then started to somehow grow taller, changing colors from a light orange into a deep, blood-red hue.

Soon enough, the red flames started to develop a face and arms.

That's not who I think it is.

But it was. The grand spirit was now standing before Lia.

Lia: "How's this possible? This whole thing was to get rid of you!"

The Grand Spirit: "It was. I gifted Margaret a little bit of power, and she used it for evil. I decided that if she summoned me so she could be evil, I would need to be banished by someone more good-hearted than she could be."

Lia: "So, how did this even happen?"

The Grand Spirit: "I pulled some strings. You don't need to know the exact details, though. Thank you for collecting the idols and effectively banishing me from the house. If you don't mind, I have to go now."

Just like that, the grand spirit's fiery apparition burned out, leaving the firepit empty, besides the charred remains of the sticks and leaves that were burning before. Mel's body was gone.

Lia fell to the ground, looking at the empty firepit as she lost consciousness.