Chapter 2 – Lukas
LUKAS
The air in the cellblock clung to me like a second skin, damp, heavy, and smelling of mildew and something faintly metallic.
And the vague dark spots splattered across the floor and walls.
..it probably was old blood. Yup, definitely blood.
Why do abandoned places always smell so off?
Was it against the rules for them to, I don’t know, smell normal or clean or like nothing at all?
Jess knelt in the center of the room, her usual nervous energy replaced by a stillness that set my teeth on edge.
White paint streaked her fingers as she smoothed the tattered edges of the scroll against the concrete floor.
Her other hand moved in steady arcs, painting an intricate summoning circle with the skills of someone who’d done this one too many times.
The one time I’d kill for her to change her mind or back out so we can pack it up and go, and here she is doing her thing with her steady hands. She was calm, cool, and collected. I checked my watch once more. Just past midnight. I groan.
“No backing out of this, eh?” I shot Darcy a look, trying to communicate that we can still go back home. He shrugs.
“Nope,” Jess simply says. “We’re already here. No chickening out.”
Like Darcy was going to go against her and side with me, at least when it comes to these kinds of things. I exhaled sharply, my breath curling in the cold air. “I don’t like being outnumbered, guys. Not fair.”
Darcy clapped me on the shoulder, his grin widening. “Since when has life ever been fair, Lukas? Don’t worry, we’ll be out of here soon enough. Now let’s get back to work, bud.”
Darcy and I returned to our jobs. We moved in silence, setting up the candles as directed.
At least with each candle lit, the darkness dissipated a little.
As instructed, we placed each one at the corner of the summoning circle Jess had drawn onto the concrete floor.
The flames from the candle seemed to stretch the shadows of the cell bars into long, skeletal fingers across the walls.
The graffiti even seemed to pulse in the uneven light, those names desperately carved into the walls that might’ve been prayers or curses.
Wonder which one of us gets to be the next name on the wall?
I couldn’t help the morbid thoughts that crossed my mind sometimes.
“You know,” I said, blowing out the last match, “if we get caught again, I’m blaming you two. My dad still hasn’t let me live down the graveyard incident.”
Jess looked up. “Relax, Lukas. The cops don’t patrol this wing after dark.”
“Yeah, because even they aren’t silly enough to wander around here at night,” Darcy muttered, zipping his backpack open. He carefully pulled out that godforsaken book that haunted our bookshelf—the one that looked like it had been bound in someone’s skin—and handed it to Jess.
Oh hell no. Nope. That thing was definitely cursed. “Why is it always a creepy book? Why can’t we, like, summon demons through something nice, like a manga?”
Jess handled the thing like it was made of glass, her fingers tracing the cracked spine before flipping to a page marked with a faded red ribbon. The candlelight caught the symbols scrawled there, twisting them into shapes that made my eyes ache. I rubbed my eyes and looked again.
I thought I saw something…
Whatever was in the air here was clearly getting to me.
“Okay, let’s go! Demon summoning for dummies,” I said aiming for a laugh, anything to cut through the some of the tension and hide my growing unease.
“Do we at least get to pick what kind of demon we summon? Because if we’re doing this, I vote for something with a sense of humor.
Maybe even a sexy demon. Nothing like the ‘Let me eat your soul’ or ‘Drag you to your eternal damnation’ type.
Hard pass on that nightmare fuel, please and thanks. ”
Jess’s fingers tightened around that book in her hands as she fixed me with a scathing stare. “This is serious, Lukas. We’re not ordering a goddamn pizza. We can’t pick and choose.”
“Well. You could’ve fooled me,” I replied, eyeing the book. “It looks like a cursed takeout menu to me with all those symbols and images.”
A sharp, loud bark of laughter burst out of Darcy, so sudden and unexpected that it startled both Jess and me.
He doubled over, wheezing, his shoulders shaking.
“Oh my God,” he managed between laughs, wiping at his eyes.
“Lukas, bud, you absolute disaster—you’re really out here trying to what?
Tinder-swipe your way through demonology? ”
Jess groaned, but I caught the way her lips twitched trying to supress smile.
“Hey,” I said, raising my hands in mock surrender, “all I’m saying is, if we’re going to do this—you know, summon some ancient, unholy entity—can’t it at least be hot? Is that really too much to ask?”
Darcy snorted, but the sound died abruptly when a sudden gust snuffed out one of the candles.
Three sharp gasps cut through the dark. We froze.
The remaining flames danced violently. I pushed to my feet, the bone-deep chill from the concrete floor rising through my worn jeans as I moved to relight the extinguished candle.
“Oh, cool,” I said, striking another match to relight the candle. “The spooky stuff already started. Nice.”
Jess rolled her eyes before she exhaled slowly. “Okay, everyone ready?”
Darcy and I exchanged glances and nodded.
“Let’s begin. Take your positions.”
Our shoes scraped against the floor as we took our spots.
Jess handed each of us an item. Mine immediately snagged on my hoodie’s sleeve, a jagged black thorny branch wrapped with coarse gold, black yarn, and what looked like matted animal hair. The fibers stuck to my sweaty palms.
Darcy recoiled. “Fuck’s sake, where’d you get this, Jess? I thought we had everything we needed?”
“It’s doesn’t matter now, just that we need this.”
She turned to me. “Lu,” she said, grabbing my wrist. Her pupils were blown wide, the blue of her eyes almost completely gone. Just black orbs in the candlelight catching the whites around them.
“Do. Not. Bleed. On. This.” Each word came out sharp as the thorns. “We don’t need actual human blood in the mix. I have no clue what that would do to you—or to us.”
My stomach dropped.
“You’re joking.” The stick trembled slightly in my grip as I stared at the three glass vials she’d just pulled from the small pouch around her waist. The dark liquid sloshing inside looked way too thick and too close in color to real blood to be anything else. “Oh, tell me that’s not—”
“It’s pig’s blood, chill,” she cut in too quickly, handing me a vial.
My shoulders sagged with relief. “From the butcher shop near campus.” Her thumb rubbed compulsively over one vial’s label where the word “animal” was visible beneath old scratched-out ink.
My shoulders dropped, the tension draining from my muscles like water.
A shaky laugh escaped me as I wiped my palms on my jeans.
“Well, thank fuck,” I breathed. The adrenaline spikes and subsequent crashes were starting to leave me a little lightheaded.
“Is there anything else you forgot to mention, Jess?” Darcy’s voice cut across the room, sharp.
We both turned to him. His usual laid-back grin was gone, replaced by a clenched jaw, and his fingers tapped an impatient rhythm against his thigh.
His long, dark hair obscured his face, but we didn’t need to see it to know he was pissed the fuck off. And worse? I didn’t blame him.
Jess sighed. “I’m sorry, Darcy.”
“So when were you planning to tell us the summoning circle needs blood? Should Darcy and I prepare ourselves for another last-minute surprise?” My voice dripped with sarcasm.
Jess never kept secrets from Darcy. He was her literal shadow, her partner-in-crime.
My throat went dry. Whatever the fuck we were doing right now might actually be more serious than first I thought.
Jess finally looked at me, but her eyes flicked away just as fast, focusing on the summoning circle like it’d save her from this conversation. Her fingers worried at the edge of her cape. “I didn’t want you two freaking out…prematurely.”
She sighed and walked over to Darcy. The silence stretched as she crossed the room, her steps hesitant like she was walking toward a wounded animal. “Please,” her voice was soft, pleading, “forgive me.”
Darcy’s shoulders sagged, exhaling a slow breath, his anger visibly draining from his posture. When he finally spoke, his voice had lost all of its edge. “Don’t do that again, Jess,” he said, softer now, almost tender. “We’re partners.”
“I know.”
While I was glad they’d made up, I was low-key fighting the urge to gag. Enough with the fucking heart-to-heart.
“Okay, lovebirds,” I clapped my hands together.
“You’ve had your moment and made up. All is forgiven.
I’d say get a room, but can we focus on the fact that we’re standing —” I gestured to the candles, the markings on wall and the floor, the items in our hands “—in whatever the hell this is? I’d like to get this ritual started and get on with our night. ”
Jess whipped her head around. “Oh my god, Lukas. Fine!”