Death Wish

Chapter 27

It's been a long road.

The reality of how much time that's been put into this suicide mission sinks in as we stand together in the basement.

I push a final chair away from the center of the room to make space for the curse. I heave a tired huff as the furniture wood squeaks warily its entire journey to the corner. With a final shove, I wedge it into its respective new home.

"There." I pant and crash into it to sit on it, "All done."

"Hardly." Ray sighs. He looks over the opened area critically, on one knee with a measuring tape to assure the requirements will fit in. After a moment he lets go of the tape to let it zip back into its roll. He glances back to us, "We still have a whole pentagram to draw."

I sulk and look to my feet in dismay. This curse is going to take ages. Yet right on time with Ray's commentary and my evident sluggishness, a smart ass comment comes our way.

"I wonder who's gonna draw..." Frank sarcastically chimes from the top of the stairs.

I frown and look up from my shoes. "Wait...you..."

He plods the rest of the way down, "Yeah, yeah, you missed my lovely voice..." He waves me off, "Let's just get off our asses, huh? We're bout to make history here."

I immediately get up from my seat, both grabbing the Book of Curses and a charcoal stick on the way up. Everyone else moves along to grab the orbs, Auctor Vitae, Morgan's blood, Mikey's journal, and a few handfuls of firecrackers and matches.

As the five of us work, time stretches too slowly. Countless specific measurements must be taken. It doesn't take long before I'm dragging.

I scoot along the floor as I etch a circle, "Y'know I thought this would go a lot faster...like a montage or something..."

"You, sick of drawing?" Mikey smirks.

I turn to him, "You remember that?"

He pockets his hands and feigns a dramatic sigh up at the ceiling, "Damn, Gerard, I'm not that clueless."

We exchange a few laughs at the remark. I smile to myself as I finish the circle and plop down to sit in the center of it and begin drawing out the lines. "You're not different at all," I say, switching from observing my work to the ghost's smile.

Mikey shrugs, "I wouldn't know if I was."

"I'm just glad we don't have to worry about it so much anymore." Ray comments. "Once we do this, we can go back to reality."

"If I'm strong enough." My gaze drops from them back to the charcoal. "Book says not many humans can do the curse."

"Maybe they only recorded weak-ass humans." Frank offers.

I want to take the joke, but something in me won't let it happen. My chest almost feels heavier as the subject loses its light tease. "That'd work out perfect, but...I dunno." My smile falters, caving in at last. I'm inevitably feeling the immense pressure of what's to come now. 

This is one of the hardest curses to administer and almost always needs the help of a powerful fallen angel. We can't possibly get help from them, we burned their house down. 

I can't help but feel doubtful about it all now. We wasted so much time on this curse and it might not be any good at all. If I can't bare it, it'll kill both me and my brother's chances of ever getting back to life. I'll wake up just like him because of what I did in the Pit of Monsters. I'll be damned and forget everything about him before I can do so much as try to save him again.