The Demon's Mark

Promises and Hollow Goodbyes

Jack stood in the doorway of their apartment, the place that had been filled with so much warmth and laughter not too long ago. He used the boot on his foot to hold the door open- his cast on his arm also providing support.

The apartment was now just a hollow shell. He took a deep breath and stepped inside, shutting the door quietly behind him, as if afraid to disturb the silence.

The emptiness of it all swallowed him whole. Every item in the room was exactly where they had left it — the half-finished puzzle on the coffee table, the blanket Kyle used to curl up in, the book he was reading set carefully on the arm of the couch. The photo frames on the walls documented their life together.

"Hey," Jack murmured to the room, his voice cracking. "I'm... home."

The silence that answered him felt deafening. He walked to the couch, the same spot where they'd sat together, watching movies, arguing playfully, planning their future. He collapsed into it, clutching one of Kyle's pillows, breathing in the faint scent that still lingered.

"What would you do if you were in my place?" he whispered into the quiet. "Would you... would you move on?"

But even as he asked, he knew the answer. Kyle had always been the strong one, the one with a steady resolve and a hopeful heart. Jack knew Kyle would've wanted him to live, to fight his way through the pain and keep going. He'd tell Jack to find joy again, to make a new life — but that thought was impossible. It was like trying to imagine sunlight in the middle of an endless night.

Jack just stared at the empty space in front of him. Minutes turned into hours, and he remained there, unmoving, his mind spiraling back into a loop of questions and guilt. Why hadn't he been able to save Kyle? Why was he still alive when the only person he wanted to live for was gone?

He turned on the TV, searching for anything to distract him, anything to pull him out of this black hole. His fingers mindlessly scrolled through the options until he landed on a documentary about the occult. Something about spirits and rituals. He wouldn't normally watch something like this, but in his state, it felt... comforting.

Jack's interests were a bit morbid these days.

A voice in the back of his mind whispered that maybe, somehow, this would give him answers.

Jack leaned forward as the narrator spoke about a woman who had summoned a demon to save her lover from death. The documentary treated it with eerie seriousness, as if the impossible was somehow within reach. The ritual had cost the woman her life, but the documentary claimed that it worked — the lover's soul had returned, if only for a fleeting moment.

Jack's heart pounded as he listened. Could he... do the same? It was ridiculous, impossible, but the idea took root, wrapping around his grief and pulling him into a frenzied obsession. If he could have just one more moment with Kyle, one chance to say goodbye, to make things right... it was worth any cost.

"I'd give anything," Jack murmured. "Anything to see you again."

As if in response, the room seemed to shudder, a chill creeping through the air. Jack pulled out his phone, searching frantically for anything related to what he'd seen. Hours passed in a blur, his fingers flying over the screen as he read about summoning rituals, dark magic, ways to breach the veil between life and death.

Finally, he found it. A ritual that claimed to call back a soul. It was obscure, buried in a tangle of ancient texts and forgotten lore, but it was there.

Jack stared at the screen, his breath hitching. He could barely make sense of the words, the Latin phrases and strange symbols. The mention of a demon named Alexium.