Short Stories

Thirty-Two: Demon

Prompt: You and your friends decide to try and summon a demon at your sleepover. You are completely stunned when your mother appears in the middle of your room when the ritual is finished.

(A/N): Happy Independence Day!

You lay in your sleeping bag, listening to the excited whispers of your friends. You try to sleep, but their incessant chattering keeps you up. One of your friends nudge you softly and calls out your name. You grumble, "What? I'm trying to sleep." Your friend rolls their eyes, "It's your birthday. Come on! Don't you want to do something exciting?" This time you roll your eyes and sarcastically ask, "Like what? Summoning a demon?"

"...well, yeah."

"..." You facepalm hard and sigh loudly. "That's really not a good idea. Demons aren't some of the nicest people." Your friend playfully nudges you. "Come oooonnnnnnnn. It'll be fun!"

You slowly rise from your sleeping bag while mumbling a string of curses at your friends. "Fine, how do you even plan to summon a demon?"

"Oh, they," your friend points at one of your other friends, "found an article on the dark web." They grab your arm and drag you to your other friends that were forming a circle around some candles you kept for blackouts. One of your friends was holding a lighter and struggle to create a small flame. You hope that they would give up and that you would be able to sleep. Unfortunately, one of your other friends took the lighter and successfully creates a small flame. Your friend makes their way around the circle and lit up the candles.

They return to their spot, and they read out the directions from their phone. Every single one of your friends listens intently to the directions except for you. They finish the instructions, and they follow them diligently. Your friends all hold the hands that belong to the person next to them. Soon, they start chanting somewhat loudly, while you quietly mumble them. The candles start glowing brighter and red lines emerge from the flames and cross over each other and curl creating a symbol. You don't pay attention to the symbol, and the red lines shoot up like flames. The flames soon go down and the candles go out. In the middle, stood a woman with black feathery wings covering her body.

The woman stands up and the wings around her unfurl. Your friends' faces go slack while you stare in horror at the demon in your room.

"Oh, hello, honey. Why'd you summon me? I have a phone you know." Your mom pointedly asks. You stammer, and your face goes white as your friends next to you quickly let go of your hands and step back, "I thought we would summon a low-grade demon or something! Not a high-ranking one like you!" You manage to sputter out those sentences without fainting.

"Oh, since you're a demon that automatically raises the potential of the circle."

"What kind of rule is that?!"

"I dunno. Anyway, can you move a candle?" Your mom points at the one by your feet. You kick it down, and your mom breathes in a large gasp of fresh air. Your mom walks out of the circle and heads over to the kitchen. She snaps her fingers and the lights turn on. Your friends groan in pain while your eyes quickly adjust to the sudden brightness. Your mom's wings disappear, and your mom takes out an apple from the fridge. She turns towards you and frowns.

"Why're you wearing those contacts? Take them off." Your mom orders. You glare at her, "What? No way!" Your mom sighs at your response, and she snaps her fingers. You blink and feel the contacts on your eyes are no longer there.

"MOM!" You glare at her. Your piercing, snake-eyes stare at her. They glowed a menacing red. You then turn to your friends. One of them shrieks at your red eyes.

"This is your fault! You just had to summon a demon, didn't you?! I should've been more adamant on stopping you." You complain at them. You growl under your breath and then sighed. You snap your own fingers, and your friends suddenly come to a standstill.

"Go to sleep. You will not remember any of this the next morning. You will instead remember doing the ritual but nothing happening, so you guys gave up and went to sleep." Your friends nod and dutifully head to your respective sleeping bags. You turn back towards your mom, but she already disappeared. The only thing suggesting she was there at all was a bowl of a freshly cut apple. You walk towards the apple and shove it into the fridge after laying on some seran wrap. You twirl your hand, and the candles float up and land on the counter nice and neat. You snap, and the lights go out in your apartment. You head to your sleeping bag and lay there, unable to sleep.