Eva POV #2
The candles surrounded the coffee table almost perfectly, and the black candle sat directly in the center beside the wine bottle. Combined with the terrible apartment lighting, the whole thing felt less like cozy self-care and more like we were about to summon tax demons.
I rummaged through the shopping bag again.
“Why is there chalk in here?”
Nina looked up.
“There’s chalk?”
I pulled out a short piece of metallic gold chalk still wrapped in brown paper.
“The weird shop gave me free gifts.”
“That sentence keeps getting worse.”
The chalk had a label tied around it.
RITUAL GRADE.
“That's not a real thing,” I said.
“Neither is ritual grade.”
“Exactly.”
I tossed the wrapper aside and twirled the chalk between my fingers.
“Maybe they expect customer feedback.”
“You are not writing a review for occult supplies.”
“Depends how possessed I get.”
With nothing better to do, I crouched beside the candles and drew a rough circle around the coffee table.
Nina glared at the circle hard enough that I started wondering if she was trying to erase it with her eyes.
“Okay, now it definitely looks demonic.”
“It’s called atmosphere,” I said defensively.
“It’s called evidence.”
Nina grabbed her phone and held it up toward me. “Smile. This picture is going to look incredible during the investigation.”
“Can you at least wait until after I become possessed?”
“I like being prepared.”
I rolled my eyes and reached for the lighter sitting near the kitchen counter. The first candle lit easily, then the second. Warm light spread through the apartment while shadows drifted lazily across the walls.
Against all logic, it was kind of amazing.
“I hate that this is working,” Nina admitted.
“Exactly. Thank you.”
The vanilla smell grew stronger with every candle I lit. By the seventh one, the apartment smelled less like a home and more like a bakery with unresolved trauma. Thunder rumbled somewhere outside.
Nina tucked her feet under herself and watched me light another candle. The face mask had finally given up and was hanging off one cheek.
“So what happened with Greg?”
I groaned. “Do we have to ruin the vibe?”
“You threw a stapler at management.”
“I threw it near management.”
“That might be worse.”
I dropped onto the floor beside the coffee table with the wine bottle in one hand.
“He told me I wasn’t a ‘team player’.”
“You threatened him with office supplies.”
“He told me my attitude was affecting the office.”
She considered that for a second.
“Good.”
“That’s what I said.”
“…Okay that one’s fair.”
“THANK you.”
The lights flickered.
Both of us glanced up before the lights steadied again. Neither of us spoke for a second.
Finally Nina frowned. “Did you pay the electric bill?”
“…Probably.”
“Eva.”
“What? The bill and I are taking some time apart.”
The lights flickered again, lingering long enough to make the apartment dim for several seconds before brightening once more. Somewhere near the kitchen, something buzzed softly.
I sat up straighter.
“That one felt dramatic.”
Nina tightened her grip on the phone. “Okay, wait.”
The candle flames shifted. Every one of them leaned inward at the same time, drawn toward the center of the circle as though responding to something neither of us could see. Even the faint hum from the refrigerator disappeared.
I laughed first. “Okay. That’s a little concerning.”
Nina pointed at the candles. “I told you this was demonic.”
“It’s probably wind.”
“All the windows are closed.”
“Then… ghost wind.”
“That’s not even a thing.”
Before I could answer, the lights went out completely. No flicker. No warning. One moment the apartment was lit. The next it wasn't.
The apartment dropped into darkness so fast my brain struggled to keep up. One second I could see Nina on the couch. Next, I couldn’t even see my own hands.
“Eva,” Nina said, her voice shaking a little now, “I hate this.”
I laughed nervously. “The power probably just died.”
Right after I said that, something moved near the kitchen. It wasn't loud, but it sounded heavy. The kind of sound that made every rational explanation pack its bags and leave.
The apartment was colder than before. Not freezing exactly, but definitely the wrong type of cold. Like standing too close to an open freezer.
Then came the whispering. So faint at first I thought it was coming from outside. But no, it was inside the apartment.
Nina heard it too because I heard her sit upright on the couch. “Eva.”
“Yeah?”
“What the hell is that?”
“I was hoping you knew.”
The whispering grew louder for maybe two seconds before stopping. Then something breathed in front of us. Slow and heavy, close enough that every muscle in my body locked up before my brain could catch up.
“Oh my God,” Nina whispered.
The candles exploded back to life. Flames shot upward all at once, filling the apartment with warm gold light so fast it hurt my eyes. Someone was sitting on my coffee table. And I stopped breathing.
For one absurd second, my brain got stuck on completely useless details. The black clothes. The dark hair falling across his forehead. The gloved hand resting against his knee like he'd been sitting there all night waiting for us to catch up.
Then I saw his eyes. Glowing red. Not a trick of the light. Not a reflection. Just glowing. People’s eyes should not do that.
Nina made a noise that sounded medically concerning beside me. But neither of us dared move.
The stranger's gaze moved around the apartment. The candles. The wine bottle. My poorly executed attempt at accidental summoning. Then his attention landed on me.
His expression shifted. Not angry but visibly offended.
“…Vanilla candles?” he said.
For a second, I thought I'd misheard him.
“What?”
“You summoned me with vanilla candles?”
Nina pointed at me so fast it might as well have been rehearsed.
“THIS WAS HER.”
“I DIDN’T KNOW SUMMONING WAS REAL.”
The stranger closed his eyes and rubbed a hand across his face as though I'd personally given him a headache.
“This is humiliating.”
I should have been focusing on the fact that a demon was sitting in my living room. Instead, my brain kept circling back to the glowing eyes.
I raised my hand. "Okay. Quick question before I panic properly.”
The stranger met my gaze.
“What exactly are you?”
He regarded me for a moment, looking entirely too comfortable sitting on my coffee table.
“…Currently?” he said. “A demon questioning every decision that led me here.”
Nina finally seemed to remember that running away had been her original plan.
“Nope. Absolutely not. I’m leaving.”
“You can’t leave me alone with the demon!”
“You bought a demon home, Eva.”
Chapter 2
Eva POV
“I DIDN’T KNOW THAT WAS AN OPTION.”
Nina was already halfway to the apartment door. Then apparently deciding she wasn't leaving me alone with a demon, she stumbled back and grabbed my arm hard enough to hurt.
“We are way past discussing options, Eva.”
Meanwhile, the demon remained exactly where he'd appeared, sitting on my coffee table with the calm patience of someone waiting for a delayed train instead of an ancient supernatural entity dropped into a stranger's apartment.
His glowing eyes made it difficult to think, which was impressive because reality had already been difficult to process since he'd appeared.
For a few seconds, nobody moved. Candlelight flickered across the apartment walls while the smell of vanilla lingered in the air. Twenty minutes ago it had felt cozy. Now it seemed like evidence for a serial crime.
The demon's attention drifted toward the wine bottle beside the coffee table. Then to the circle of candles surrounding it. Then to the gold chalk on the floor.
Something in his expression shifted.
“This explains a lot,” he muttered.
“No actually,” I said, cutting him in between. “This explains NOTHING.”
My voice came out sharper than intended. At that point I was willing to accept demons, glowing eyes, and apparently the existence of Hell. What I was not willing to accept was the possibility that any of this made sense.
Nina grabbed my arm hard enough to hurt.
“We need to leave.”
Her fingers dug into my sleeve as she tried pulling me toward the door. The panic in her voice finally cut through my own shock. Nina wasn't dramatic when things got serious. She was dramatic when someone ate her leftovers. The genuine terror on her face did absolutely nothing for my peace of mind.
“And go WHERE?”
“Outside!”
“There’s still a demon in here!”
“Yes, because YOU brOUGHT IT HERE.”
I opened my mouth to argue but realized that she definitely had a point. And,I hated that point.
The demon's attention shifted toward us.
“I don’t appreciate being referred to as a thing.”
Out of everything that had happened in the last five minutes, that was the part my brain decided to focus on. Not the glowing red eyes. Not the fact Hell apparently existed. Not even the demon standing in my apartment.
The demon was offended by bad manners.
“…Okay, hearing you talk normally is deeply upsetting.”
The demon released a slow breath and pushed himself to his feet.
Up until then, he'd been a problem sitting on my couch.
Standing up turned him into a completely different category of problem.
The apartment felt smaller around him, as though the walls had quietly moved inward while I wasn't looking.
Even the candlelight seemed different now that I had something much larger to compare it to.
Beside me, Nina made a noise that belonged in a survival documentary and started dragging me backward toward the kitchen.
Her grip tightened around my arm hard enough to leave marks, and for the first time since I'd met her, I couldn't tell whether she was trying to pull me to safety or use me as a shield.
“Relax,” he said. His voice carried the same mild irritation someone might use after being interrupted during a meeting. “I’m not here for souls.”
Nina didn't stop moving.
“Great,” she whispered.
Her fingers tightened again.
“The demon has standards.”
And I stared at him. My brain was still trying to catch up with reality.