The Summoning

III - The Offering

A form manifested into the center of the pentagram as I scooted away into the corner. It seemed that it was something that the men weren't expecting. They had been trying to get to me, considering I was the closest to the exit, but the wall of flames dancing around the pentagram blocked them from reaching me. 

The dark form in the center of the pentagram didn't move for a moment.

"What the hell?" One of the men spat and my heart rate raised. Is this not what they expected?

In the dark of the room, I didn't even notice a form closing in on me before a hand closed around my wrist. I screamed, lashing out at the figure and found that there were two of them crouching over me. My head whirled and I nearly fainted at the sight of two hooded and masked figures. 

Be not afraid, Child. An ethereal voice was in my head, all around me, in me. I couldn't tell whether the voice was male or female, it was a hissing whisper. This is my vessel and the disciples of Sleep.

The man clutching my wrist crouched to my level, raising his other hand to my cheek as he seemed to examine me. His hand loosened it's grip, only to wrap an arm around me and pull me up to my feet.

"You're not gonna wanna see this, Love." His voice was deep, with a slight accent to it that I couldn't place at the moment.

At this moment, the figure in the center of the pentagram rose to it's feet. It was a man cloaked in a back robe, the hood shrouding his face. By this point, the men that kidnapped me had found that there was no escape. They darted in a corner back and forth like trapped mice as the hooded figure turned toward them, but not before it cocked their head in my direction, as if curious about me. 

The flames licking around his arms illuminated the black paint trailing down his body, but he did not flinch away from the bright flames spreading around the dark basement. 

His hand shot out to the men cowering in the corner and the ceiling above them gave way, wood and dust flying in a fury around them, but it wasn't the wood clattering around them to be worried about - it was the tentacles of darkness that shot through the ceiling. The darkness hooked them in its tendrils and their screaming became distant as they were whipped through the splinters of ceiling and out of the gaping hole. 

I couldn't help the scream that tore from my chest, falling to my knees, and the man crouching next to me covered me in a hopeless attempt to shield me from the horrors of the tentacles dragging my kidnappers into the darkness. Their screams faded into the catacombs of the building. 

I lost consciousness, tumbling into a darkness as the man caught me in his arms.