Page 31 of Demon's Desire

Kelly looked over at me. “I don’t think we’ll find a better option.”

I pursed my lips and looked at the three of them. Mica was right. I wasn’t the only one affected by this. And Kelly had a good point. It took us a while to find this option, and it still seemed like a long shot.

“All right,” I agreed. “We’ll do it tonight.”

Torie wrapped her arms around my shoulders. “Everything’s gonna be all right, Mia. I promise. We’re not gonna let anything bad happen to each other.”

I hugged her back and told myself she was right. We would succeed through the sheer power of friendship and love or something like that. I wasn’t sure I really believed it, but I kept saying it in my head either way. We needed to try something, right? I couldn’t live like this forever. Getting hit on by this suave demon, having it possess my friends, setting fire to places and putting people in danger… We needed to end this.

Torie and Mica got all their things together, and both went back to their apartment. They said they’d be back around seven-thirty. The sun was setting tonight just before six, so by then it should be pretty much all moon.

I spent the entire afternoon sitting on the couch with Kelly. The only time we separated was when one of us had to use the bathroom, and even then, the other one would stand outside the door. Kelly was trying to make sure I was as comfortable as possible since she knew how freaked out I was. She was confident that this ritual thing would work, and I tried to take solace in her confidence.

Around seven-thirty, Mica and Torie came back over, and Kelly let them in.

“All right,” Mica said softly, coming over and putting a hand on my shoulder. “The moon is up. It’ll be fully night in about forty-five minutes. Want to get ready?”

I stood up slowly and nodded. “No. I don’t. But we should anyway.”

“Mia–” Kelly began, but I cut her off.

“It’s okay,” I assured her. “This is a weird, scary situation, and I’m never going to be any more ready for it than I am right now. Let’s just get this over with as quickly as possible, all right?”

Everyone hesitated for a moment before Kelly nodded quickly. “All right.”

We moved the couch against the back wall so the coffee table was alone in the middle of the room. All the shelves and things were already against the walls. We were more than halfway unpacked now, and the remaining boxes were pushed into a corner, so we had plenty of room. We all sat on the floor pillows around the coffee table. The candle was in the center, with four pieces of quartz sitting around it, one for each of us. We sat there for a while, and everyone tried to make me feel better until there wasn’t a hint of sunlight left in the sky.

“Everyone ready?” I asked, looking over at Kelly.

“Yes.” She pulled up the book on her laptop and opened it to the chapter on the ritual. “Mica, light the candle.”

He pulled out his lighter and lit up my blue Mt. Fuji Yankee Candle. The ritual didn’t say anything about what type of candle, so we figured this one should work. It was just supposed to tell us that the demon was in the room.

“All right.” Kelly looked closely at the book. “So it says that any non-standard activity with the candle flame should be proof that a demon is among us. What counts as non-standard candle activity?”

I felt the hair on my arms stand up and frowned suddenly, looking over my shoulder. We still had the overhead lights on, so I could see very clearly that nothing was there.

“What’s wrong?” Torie asked quickly.

“I don’t know…” I muttered. “It felt… Nothing. Nevermind.”

It felt like someone was behind me. It still felt that way, but I was probably just psyching myself out. I turned back around and looked at the candle flame. It was shifting the way candle flames normally did– swaying from side to side.

“Should we… talk to it?” Mica asked quietly.

“Um…” Kelly zoomed in on the page. “It… doesn’t say. It just says that if the demon is present, it will interact with–”

In the middle of her words, the candle flame suddenly went out. When it did, Kelly and Torie gasped. I frowned. I’d seen candles burn out before. This… wasn’t that. It had been extinguished. On purpose.

“I’d say that’s nonstandard,” I pointed out.

“Y-yeah.” Torie nodded quickly. “So… it’s here. What now?”

“Someone needs to take the item that the demon has touched in their hand,” Kelly read.

I grabbed the piece of newspaper that I’d wrapped the glass in and slowly took it out, making sure to hold it flat so it didn’t cut me. It was the largest piece we could find. I didn’t know if that mattered or not.

“All right,” Kelly continued. “It needs to be held throughout the entirety of the ritual.”