"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Alva asks nervously, sitting on the floor where there used to be a carpet.
"Just like the last time you asked, there's no reason to worry" Emma responds reassuringly as she lifts up a thick, worn book from her fabric bag on her desk.
"Seriously" Alva continues. "That thing looks like it's wrapped in dried human skin while bearing a dozen curses"
"Actually," Ida chimes in, sitting on the bed on the other side of the small dorm room. "It has the wrong color to be human skin. Unless it's dyed or something". Ida is usually rather quiet, but when she does say something it's mostly strange facts about things you've never heard of - or wish you hadn't heard of. Either that or she talks about horses.
"How can you even tell?" Asks Alva. "It's so dark in here with the lights dimmed, and you don't even have your glasses on".
Before Ida answers the question, Emma decides to stop that conversation before it's too late since it's irrelevant and she really doesn't want to know the answer. "It doesn't matter - now can you two help me bring this spawn of satan into my room already?"
"Yeah, sure" Ida responds.
"I uhm... Idon'treallyknowifIwantto..." Alva mumbles while looking down into the floor.
Noticing a lack of enthusiasm, especially from Alva, Emma makes another attempt at energizing her friends. "Come on, we're gonna become. Demon. Hunters! How awesome is that?" She says proudly while waving her blonde hair and striking a pose. "Now let's go, or I will have cleared my floor for no reason".
"Alright" says Ida, bouncing off the bed. "What do you want me to do?"
"Now, Ida, I want you to..." Emma wets her finger on her tongue and flips through the pages of the demonic book to find the right instructions. "...draw a pentagram within a circle on the floor!" Emma exclaims with her finger on the page number '283' which shows a ritual to summon a very small and weak demon, according to the registry. Emma hands Ida a white crayon to draw with.
"Do we really have to do this? Can't we at least pull up the curtains for some moonlight or something?" Alva inquires, still doubtful.
Emma rolls her eyes.
"Alva, you do know what's actually going to happen tonight?"
"What?"
"We're going to scribble some chalk on my floor, light some scent candles and chant some meaningless words and then - nothing will happen. There you go, it's about as real or fake as playing bloody Mary when you were ten years old. Now can we get back into the mood and just enjoy this? Please?". Emma is stubborn and won't easily budge and is very persuasive due to her sheer perseverance.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry" Alva apologizes. "What do you want me to do?"
Emma's face lights up instantly, and Alva can't help but smile when she sees her like that. Meanwhile, Ida has finished the chalk pentagram, about one meter wide.
"Alva, I need you to place a candle on top of each point of the pentagram. Then I will lay the book open at the center, and whenever I say 'Expergiscere Layak' you will light one of the candles. When all candles are lit I will say 'Surge, Layak' and the ritual is complete. It says that a successful ritual is indicated by a temporary but significant drop in temperature and light."
"And what do I do now?" asks Ida, somehow covered in white chalk.
Emma shrugs.
"I don't know. Stand there and look pretty, I guess. You're pretty good at that"
Emma hands Alva the five candles and a lighter and clears her throat, repeating the words in her head while Alva places the candles around the pentagram.
"Are you ready?"
Alva nods.
Emma steps into the circle, puts the book in the middle and steps back out.
"Expergiscere Layak"
Alva quickly lights the first candle.
"Expergiscere Layak"
Alva lights the second candle.
"Expergiscere Layak"
Alva lights the third candle.
"Expergiscere Layak"
Alva lights the fourth.
"Expergiscere Layak"
Alva gives Emma a scared look, and Emma looks back with a face saying 'really?'. Slightly embarrassed, Alva shakes off the fear and follows along, lighting the fifth and final candle.
Emma pauses, looking at Ida who nods back, and then Alva who nods back.
"Surge, Layak!" Emma shouts with a grand gesture to go along with it, reaching her arms up toward the ceiling.
Nothing.
"Well" says Emma. "I guess that's that. Now who wants to get drunk and draw chalk dicks until we pass out?"
"Sounds good to me" says Alva with a rather shaky voice. Let me just put on a sweater, I'm getting a bit col-
Emma and Ida both freeze and stare at Alva, who is shocked herself.
"Uh, I m-mean, it's not THAT cold..." Alva says, trying to take back her statement.
The girls go silent until the eerie sound of Ida rattling her teeth shakes them up again.
"Okay, this is not fun. No. Stop this. No. Nooo no no no no. I'm turning the lights on right now."
Alva runs for the light switch, and...
Nothing. The lights don't work.
Even Ida, who is usually calm at all times, is starting to freak out. She pulls away the window curtains, but the night it pitch black and not even the moon brings any light.
Emma watches the pentagram as one of the candles stop burning.
After a short delay, the second candle is also snuffed out by seemingly nothing.
"Guys, please look at this!"
Ida and Alva responds to Emma's frightened voice and turn toward the ring of candles as the third blows out, and Ida approaches the circle too look at the book.
The fourth goes dark as well.
Shivering from the cold, Alva and Emma watch the fifth candle with bated breath as it flickers for a few seconds that feel like an eternity. Before it extinguishes, Ida tells them chilling news.
"We looked at the wrong page. This is no weak demon."