ZB1/ZeroBaseOne Oneshots

Bored | Taerae x Ricky

It was another lonely night for Taerae. Lying in bed, staring up at the blank ceiling of his dorm room, he couldn't stop thinking about how awful his summer had been so far. He spent the days wasting away in the heat, his body hunched over at his desk, reading up on quadratic fractions and nuclear fission. There was literally nothing else for him to do, other than study. It may have been less painful if his friends were here, but they had all gone home to spend this time with their families, and where were Taerae's parents right now? Oh yeah, frolicking around Europe. 

Only two weeks had passed, but he couldn't take much more. If he had to read one more page of The Great Gatsby, he was going to slam his head into a wall. His summer shouldn't be spent studying, I mean, it goes against the whole reason Summer break exists in the first place. There had to be a way of making his days more exciting, but how? It took a little while of thinking, and a convenient head turn towards his roommates side of the room, for a light bulb to go off in Taerae's head. 

You see, his roommate Hao loves the occult, and it was something he never really understood about his friend. Hao would regularly talk about summoning demons- just the good kind, he'd say. The ones that bring good fortune, or are fun to talk to. Taerae wasn't superstitious, or was even sure he believed demons were real. Honestly, he had kinda assumed there was some sort of hallucinogenic in those lavender candles Hao loved so much, and that he was simply imagining meeting those demons. He never thought he'd take an interest in the practice, but as the clock ticked scarily close to midnight, Taerae found himself flicking through Hao's spell books.

It was a lot more complicated than he expected. The method in itself wasn't that difficult, but there were a ton of rules he needed to follow, or else, he'd summon, as Hao described, a terrifying, three eyed spider creature [NEVER AGAIN!!!].  To make it slightly simpler to follow, he wrote down a quick cheat sheet of everything he'd need and everything he had to do. 

With a bag full of supplies, Taerae carefully pushed his door open, met with the eerily silent and pitch black hallway. Students aren't permitted to leave their rooms past curfew, so Taerae was very cautious as he made his way down the hall. Apparently he needed to do the ritual somewhere quiet and away from other people, and it's not like he wanted to summon a demon in his bedroom anyway. He settled on the old auditorium, which was currently under renovation. 

Standing in the middle of the dark stage, Taerae plopped down his bag of supplies and got to work. First he laid down a large ring of salt, then drew a circle with chalk inside it, followed by a large inverted pentagram- Hao said to put a lot of heart and soul into it, so the demons know he cares or whatever. He put a candle at each point of the pentagram and one in the middle, lighting them with a single match. The circle now smelt firmly of lavender. The last thing to do was to put an offering in the middle. Hao had a really long list of different offerings, but Taerae only had one thing on that list, dark chocolate. So, he placed a half eaten bar of dark chocolate in the center, and stood back to admire his creation.

Not bad, he thinks to himself. After double checking the cheat sheet, he was sure he did everything right. This meant he could finally start the ritual. To summon the demon, he needed to chant this short sentence of words he had no idea how to say, and almost immediately, he messes up. About to start over, all of the candles in the room flicker widly, and he could have sworn he felt a shiver race down his spine. It was weird, but probably just a coincidence, and Taerae starts again. When he successfully chants the sentence five times, like Hao had instructed, nothing happens. He stands there confused, chewing on his bottom lip, glancing around the auditorium. Wasn't this the moment when the demon shows up? 

"I knew it wasn't real." Taerae mumbles to himself, irritated that he ever believed there was a chance this could work. Crouching to the floor, Taerae was one sharp exhale away from blowing out the candle, when suddenly, a beam of red light went shooting around the ring, sprinting to each corner of the pentagram, until it held a solid glow. "Holy fuck." Taerae never swore, but this was one of those occasions, where it was definitely justified. He stumbles backwards, heart racing, stomach in knots. The brunette was a bundle of nerves, waiting and waiting for whatever would happen next, but it wasn't what he expected at all.