Summoning The Sins

Chapter Two: Instructions

"So, what do we do first?" Connor laughed nervously before biting his lip.

"Oh... Well, we need to say hello." Shane said with a shrug. Now that we were beginning the game, there was an hint of nervousness in his voice.

"How do we do that?" Mark asked.

Shane nodded, biting his lip. "Just kind of... Jump into it, you know?" He shrugged, "Let me lead the session, guys."

"By all means." I said, looking at the small piece that we all were in contact with. This felt weird. Why couldn't I be at home in the comfort of my oddly fitting butt chair?..but why should I be so concerned? It's not like I believed entirely in this...

"Hello spirits of Mark's house!" Shane called out, making me jump slightly as I was pulled from my thoughts. Shane was looking around the room as he spoke, "We'd like to say hello!.. Does anyone want to talk to us?.."

"We just want to say hello!" Mark repeated with a side look at Shane.

Shane just shot him an irritated look back. "You do better then." He said lowly.

Mark shrugged. "This is a newer house, man. There's probably not even any ghosts here. But if there are, I'd love to know your name." Mark added with a look up to the ceiling for some reason.

"Smooth." Connor said with a nervous laugh. Troye reached for Connor's free hand and squeezed it lightly. Connor smiled nervously at Troye.

"Is there anything here?" Chris asked.

"It certainly doesn't seem like it." I sighed. The game piece was going nowhere. No question was envoking a response. Not that it would if anything was here...

"The spirits are sure they don't want to speak?" Troye asked the empty air.

"To none of us?" Connor added.

With Connor's words, the game piece began to slowly drift across the board. Connor let out a yelp and his eyes grew wide. He looked between all of us before looking back down.

"Haha, very funny guys." I fake laughed, "Now stop, you're freaking him out."

Shane shook his head with wide eyes as the piece continued to move. "I'm not doing it..."

"I'm not." Mark shook his head.

"Uh-uh." Chris shook his head too, looking between all of us.

"Guys. It's not funny." Troye was starting to look anxious as well now.

"No one is doing it!" I exclaimed as the piece stopped. It had moved to the word 'yes'. Eyes slowly trailed up to Connor, who was looking extremely stressed out. He looked between everyone, shaking.

"S-so you want to talk?" He asked, silently mouthing 'what do I do?'.

"You want Connor asking the questions?" Shane asked hesitantly.

The piece moved again, at first, slowly away from the 'yes', then immediately back. Connor let put a nervous squeak.

"He wants to talk to you, babe." Troye said, squeezing Connor's hand again. Connor shook his head.

"I don't wanna..." He said softly.

I looked down at the board. I didn't want Connor to feel this uncomfortable... "You're not willing to talk to anyone else?" I asked the board. I was surprised when it moved at my voice. Instead of going to the yes or no, it began to spell something out.

N
O
T
H
I
M

"Not him?" Chris whispered. He looked up from the board and exchanged galnces with the group, "How many are there?"

"Ask him, Dan." Mark encouraged, "It's talking to you now..."

"Great..." I mumbled with a roll of my eyes. The guy that doesn't believe is up to bat, okay. I sighed, "How many are here, then? If it's more than one?"

The piece moved again. This time, to one of the numbers. 6.

"Well if three's a crowd, I can't imagine six." I tried to joke, but no one else at the table really laughed. Chris seemed to be silently counting us.

"Guys..." His voice came out a bit shakey, "There's six of us..."

"But Dan asked how many of them." Troye argued.

"Maybe it just got confused." Connor spoke almost silently.

"Or there's one for each of us..." Shane said nervously. The board seemed to hear that. The piece shot down to the 'yes'.

"Well, shit!" Chris shook his head, "That was unexpected and... Well... I'm a bit creeped."

Connor was shaking. He looked close to retracting from the game piece. "I don't wanna play anymore." He said, his shakiness spreading to his voice. Troye gave him a sympathetic look.

"We-we have to say goodbye before we stop." Shane said, beginning to move the piece away from the the six. He cried out when the piece shot away from his and all of our fingers, planting itself on 'No'.

"This wasn't supposed to do anything." Mark said with a nervous look in Shane's direction.

"Usually it doesn't!" Shane exclaimed. He was running his fingers through his hair, "Oh shit... What does it want? They- what do they want?"

"Bloody hell!" I gasped as the piece began to move on its own, without any of us touching it. It began to spell something out again.

T
A
K
E
N
O
T
E
S

"SOMEONE GET A PEN!" Shane yelled, beginning to twist where he sat looking for a pen or paper. Troye had one behind him. Mark jumped up and grabbed a spiral notebook from a shelf and handed it to Shane. The piece began to move again and Shane scribbled furiously after it. We were all silent, simply watching it happen It seemed like hours before the piece stopped. Shane was scanning over what he had written.

"Well?" Chris finally asked.

Shane was shaking his head, looking at his words.

"Tell us before we die of anticipation, Shane." I pushed. I was feeling a bit jittery about it myself. I mean, I just saw something to move on its own. Things didn't just do that.

"It...It's instructions." Shane finally said, looking up at the group.

"It's what?"

"Instructions! T-t-to summon..." Shane looked back down at the paper. Mark gently took the notebook out of his hands and began to read it. His face became a bit pale by the time he was done.

"How to summon sins..." Mark said silently.

"Sins?" I questioned, lifting myself a bit to look at the paper.

"Like... Like the seven deadly sins?" Troye asked, holding Connor close to him.

Chris shook his head. "No... No there were only six of them!" He exclaimed, looking around the empty room. "It can't be that..."

I shook my head, "Are there any other types of sins out there?" I asked, "It has to be that."

"But why did they give us this?" Mark held up the notebook, shaking it slightly. "Why do they want us to summon them?"

"Not just summon them, but summon them one at a time..." Shane added quietly.

"You said what now?" Connor's head snapped in Shane's direction.

Shane looked over at the paper, "It specified individuals... We need to summon alone..."

Connor shook his head vigorously. "Uh-uh. Fuck no! I'm not... With the demons and the..." He didn't finish. He simply held Troye and hid his face in Troyes's shoulder.

"What the hell do they want?" I questioned, feeling a bit apprehensive myself. Individual summons. What the hell was that? Haven't they ever heard of all or nothing? We're all in this together?

"It's what they said..." Shane said, just above a whisper.

We all grew quiet. Why was it so important to tell us how to summon, then say we had to do it on our own?.. What had this game gotten us into?..