Incubus

4

© A.H. 2017

Chapter Four

She couldn't stop shaking. Her eyes were focused on the dark pines passing by, but her mind was trained on something more sinister.

A vision of a dark, indistinguishable figure with glowing red eyes flashed in her mind's eye. All of the strange events happening led up to a terrifying revelation that she couldn't deny. The spell had something to do with it.

She had messed with the darker side of magic and there was no taking it back.

"Are you sure you can take this shift?" A worried voice asked, pulling Celia out of her thoughts.

She turned to face Valerie, forcing a small smile.

"I can manage. Thank you for the ride..."

After Celia had given her friend a brief, altered explanation of what happened, Valerie wasn't surprised, only worried. The redhead already knew she dwelled with witchcraft- in fact, she was the only one Celia entrusted with this knowledge. But all that Celia disclosed was that she "accidentally" summoned a demon while practicing magic.

With Celia's damaged bike and shaken state, Valerie had offered to give her a ride to work. And so there they were, pulling into the diner's empty parking lot

All she wanted to do was go back home to burn the spell book, and burn with it whatever she had summoned. But missing work meant losing her job, and she couldn't do that to her grandmother.

Celia exited the vehicle. She went to the trunk, heaving out her bike. The chain dangled uselessly.

She sighed, taking it by the handles to steer it toward the side of the diner. She hoped she could fix it. She went around the building, and leant the bike against an old brick wall. Consumed in the shade of the building, she suddenly felt uneasy. She glanced behind her back at the forest, as if sensing she was being watched.

Quickly, she walked back to the front of the diner, as if her heels were on fire. She hastily pushed through the glass entrance.

Shutting the door tightly, she turned around putting a hand over her thrashing heart.

Opening her eyes she noticed Valerie's concerned gaze on her from behind the counter.

"Celia, are you sure you're okay to work today? Customers arrive in a few minutes-"

"I'm fine, Val."

She lied through her teeth. Truth was, she was terrified. What she feared, had no name or face to put to it. Only a haze of darkness and red eyes...