NECROCITY TIMES - Issue #1 - HALLOWEEN SPECIAL

WPRS Short - Summoning the Magistra

She is the eyes watching in the dark.
She is the 'who' when you call "Who's there?"
She fears no man or monster; she is the nightmare.
But before God or their mothers, the dying and undead alike call on her:

Magistra

Agent #2 steadied her breath and knelt on the wooden floor. Numerous candles melted down around her and painted the room in shadows as she drew a circle in chalk. She closed her eyes and pressed her head to the cold floor to pray. Her voice barely rose above a whisper as she chanted the incantation to summon her.

At once the temperature in the room dropped until her breath puffed out in white clouds. Agent #2's hands trembled against each other as goose-bumps prickled along her skin. Her teeth chattered, but still she chanted.

The shadows themselves came to life and whispered back. Black forms encroached from all sides, closing in around her and held at bay only by the dim light of the dancing flames.

She was alone now, locked in that special place between life and death.

Agent #2 kept chanting as she reached into the cooler beside her and pulled out a red sphere with shaking hands. She sucked in her breath and crushed it, letting the bright juice gush between her fingers and trail down her arm.

Red speckled Agent #2's cheeks. The drops splattered into the copper bowl at the center of the sigil.

At once, her hand glowed a bright white, pushing back the suffocating darkness closing around her. Agent #2 cried out, caught her scream in her throat, and grit her teeth.

The Collective needed her.

She needed her.

Reality seemed to rip open in front of Agent #2, as if a painting torn with a knife. She covered her face and averted her eyes downward as a brilliant light blinded her from it.

Out of the Veil, stepped the woman. Agent #2 didn't dare gaze upon her, but she could feel the Magistra's eyes narrow and her arms cross.

Finally, she was here.

"You know, I'm so grateful you're a vegetarian, my lady," Agent #2 said breathlessly, dropping the tomato.