Chapter 3 – Lukas
LUKAS
Jess stepped into the center of the circle, the book’s spine cracking as she laid it open on the floor.
The pages whispered as she flipped through them, and the symbols inside glinted under the candlelight as if the ink was still wet.
Darcy and I took our places across from each other, the air between us thick with the scent of burning wax.
“Open your vials,” Jess ordered. “Pour the blood over the branches.”
The glass vial was slick in my grip. The moment I uncorked it, a foul stench hit me—rotted copper and something sweetly putrid, like meat left in the sun.
My stomach lurched. “Fuck.” The thick liquid oozed over the twisted blackthorn branch, the yarn soaking it up like a sponge.
A fat drop splattered onto my sneaker and coated the white shoelaces.
I shuddered. God, I needed a fucking shower.
Next year? We were hitting a goddamn party. No rituals or séances, no cursed books—just beer, vodka, and bad decisions like normal college students.
Jess began to chant.
Her voice danced through the room, syllables rolling in an unfamiliar language. It wasn’t only words—there was a rhythm and a pull, like something tugging at the base of my mind. Her eyes were shut, hands raised to the sky like she was summoning a storm.
Had she memorized this? I shot a look at Darcy. His lips moved silently, eyes closed like he was in prayer.
What the hell? When did they rehearse this?
The branch in my hand was tacky, the drying blood giving it a glue-like grip that made my skin crawl. I wanted to fling it across the room, scrub my hands raw. But then…
The candles suddenly flickered, stretching thin and igniting into larger flames as if kerosene was dumped on them.
The shadows between them twitched and twisted as the pages of the book began to turn on their own.
My heart hammered in my chest as my gaze darted from the book, its pages fluttering like wings, to my friends.
Jess’s lips still moved, whispering that same eerie chant, but her voice had changed.
It wasn’t just her anymore. Something else slithered beneath her words, a second layer of sound, guttural and wrong.
Darcy stood rigid, his fingers twitching at his sides like he was dreaming awake, his pupils blown so wide his eyes looked black.
No. No, no, no.
I took a step toward them. “Jess? Darcy?” My voice came out thin, laced with fear and dread. “If this is some absurd, elaborate joke, you got me. I’m fucking scared. You win.”
A gust of wind slammed into me like a fist. The heavy cell door shut behind me with a crack, and the impact reverberated through my bones. I jumped forward, my grip tightening on the thorny branch.
“Fuck,” I hissed.
Pain.
White-hot and sharp. A thorn bit deep into my palm. Blood welled up instantly, dripping down between my fingers, spattering onto the outer rings of the summoning circle. The dark crimson droplets sizzled against the chalk like oil on a hot skillet.
“Hey, guys? Hey! I think I fucked up…like really fucked up.” My voice trembled. Blood should not be bubbling like that on the ground.
The air snapped like a live wire.
One second, Darcy and Jess stood like statues—still, eyes unblinking, voices lost in that eerie chant—next, they gasped in unison, their bodies jerking like puppets who had their strings cut.
Jess’s knees hit the ground just as the concrete beneath her cracked with a rush of air escaping in a violent hiss, followed by a deafening boom.
“Oh my god!” Jess screamed as the jagged lines spread out like cracks on a frozen lake. Darcy lunged, catching her wrist and yanking her back toward him as the floor where she’d knelt collapsed into nothing.
I didn’t think. I threw the cursed branch—fuck this, fuck all of this—and sprinted toward them. No way was I dying alone in this hellhole. We were now trapped in the corner of the cell.
The darkness wasn’t just spreading. It was pulsing, the candles long-extinguished.
Thick, dark, shadowy tendrils seeped from the widening fissure, curling like smoke but heavier, denser. The concrete crumbled at the edges, chunks breaking off and vanishing into the abyss without a sound. No echo. No impact. Just…gone.
I grabbed onto Darcy’s arm hard enough to bruise, my nails biting into his sleeve. Jess clutched his other side, her breath coming in sharp, panicked hitches. We stood frozen, three buffoons trapped in a nightmare of our own creation, watching as the void stretched wider.
I glanced towards our only exit. “Guys, we’ve got to get out. Now.”
Jess whirled on me, her eyes wide and filled with fear, her curly hair making her look wild. “How, Lukas? Look!” Her boot slammed into the metal door with a clang that vibrated through my teeth. It didn’t even budge. “That door is not just locked—it’s fucking sealed.”
Sealed?
“Darcy!” My voice cracked. “Bud, what the fuck—?”
His pale skin gleamed in the moonlight as he pressed both palms to his eyes.
“Airflow.” His voice sounded thin, panicky. “There’s—there’s got to be vents, right? Maintenance access—something.” He shook his head, his dark hair cascading over his forehead. A weak, hysterical laugh bubbled out of him. “No. This is a cell. I’m stupid. Okay, new plan….”
Yeah.
My best friend was just seconds away from completely losing his mind.
A drop of sweat slid down my temple. A powerful wet and earthy scent arose from the abyss and clung to the air in the room—along with something older, something that didn’t belong in this world.
Deep, rumbling breaths filled the air.
Not from the shadows...but from below.
A splintering crack echoed through the air. My head snapped toward the hole just as black talons erupted from the darkness, each claw thicker and longer than my fingers.
The concrete groaned as those hooked claws dug in, pulverizing it as if it were sand.
Chunks of rubble rained down as the thing hauled itself upward, muscles rippling beneath the purplish, almost black skin.
Every heave made the floor tremble under our feet.
We tried to scramble backward in unison, our shoulders slamming into unyielding brick wall. Trapped.
Jess’s whisper cut through the chaos, her voice laced with a horror and awe. “Holy shit...it worked. We summoned it.”
Darcy’s response, in contrast, came out flat, defeated—the kind of calm that only comes from absolute certainty. “And we won’t live to tell anyone.”
Dust rained down around us as the figure rose to its full height—and kept rising.
It stood a breath-taking eight feet tall, a living, breathing statue made of black marble come to life.
My gaze traced the rippling muscles beneath its strange skin.
The ceiling forced it to hunch, but even bent, its presence swallowed the room whole.
It wasn’t just its size—it was the sheer gravity of its presence, a pressure that stole the air and demanded every ounce of my attention.
Moonlight glinted off the elegant curve of its horns like polished onyx. Long, inky black hair fell in thick waves around a face that shouldn’t have been beautiful.
My breath caught.
High cheekbones, dark full lips, a powerful jawline sharp enough to cut glass—this was a monster. A beautiful monster.
The eyes...black sclera with golden irises and slitted pupils reminded me of a cat.
Large, leathery wings folded behind him, and his body was draped in dark robes and jewels.
I was reminded of those fantasy RPG games I used to play in high school, where you can create and play beautiful, otherworldly characters.
Unnatural. Inhuman. A demon.
Yet utterly captivating.
A hot flush spread through my body. I had no control over this sudden reaction.
This was wrong, so wrong—a useless mantra against the wave of confusion that filled me.
He took a step closer. I was prepared to be assaulted by the scent of sulfur and smoke…
or whatever the hell it was made from. Nope, instead an earthy scent filled my lungs, both dizzying and intoxicating.
“Who...” His voice reverberated through me. I felt it deep in my chest. How? It was all velvety yet sharp as knives. “...dared call me with their blood?”
A whimper tore from Jess’s throat, the kind a caught animal makes when a predator’s shadow falls over it.
Beside me, Darcy stood stock-still, his fingers locked around my forearm, his nails biting deep into my arms. Terror turned my own limbs to lead.
I could hear my own pulse hammering violently in my ear.
I was literally seconds away from either vomiting or blacking out.
Yet beneath the fear, something hotter and far more dangerous uncoiled—a traitorous pull low in my belly, magnetic and inevitable, as those inhuman eyes pinned me in place.
The demon’s lips curved. A smile? No, that’s not right. Definitely not a smile. More like a revelation. Razor-sharp teeth, black as a moonless night, glinted in the dim light.
“Ah.”
The word crawled down my spine, spreading like warm liquid, intimate, curling around my ribs like a possession…a claiming.
“There you are, my mate.”
What the fuck? Mate?
“How touching.” His voice purred, deep and smooth as aged whiskey, a sound that shouldn’t belong to something that looked like him.
“Loyal companions are so rare among your kind. Most would have attempted to flee and left the others to be captured and devoured. Yet here you all are…cowering together. It’s almost admirable. ”
His long arm moved with a controlled, deadly grace as it stretched toward us.
I flinched back, but there was nowhere to go.
A claw-tipped finger gently brushed a strand of my dirty blond hair from my sweaty forehead.
My eyes screwed shut. I wanted to scream, but my voice tangled in my throat.
If only this were a nightmare so I could disappear from this moment.
I prepared myself for searing hot pain or to be shredded like some flimsy tissue. Fuck me, what a way to die.
But…his touch wasn’t harsh. Instead, a trail of heat and electricity danced over my skin and sucked the air from my lungs.
“But they are unnecessary. I desire only one of you. Begone.”
A sudden gust of wind howled through the cell. The door beside us exploded inward with a splintering crack.
“Lukas—!”
Jess’s scream was filled with pure terror.
I spun, my heart a frantic drum bashing against my ribs, just in time to see Darcy’s hand clawing at the empty air between us, his brown eyes wide as an invisible force snatched them both from the ground.
They tumbled backward into the dark hallway like dolls, dragged out as if they were attached to a fishing line, their screams echoing from the hallway in the dark.
The door slammed shut. The silence left behind carried a finality that left me paralyzed.
I was going to die.
Hi, I am Lukas, aged 22. Barely lived life, and I’m going to be killed by a monster I helped bring into our world on Halloween like some B-tier thriller. My friends are probably dead, and I’ll be joining them soon.