The Other are the stuff of nightmares. When summoning, it's always best to call on something specific. To channel your energies into something concrete, with a goal and sentience and purpose. Because otherwise, you'll end up with one of The Other.

It has the form of a human male, maybe a few years older than myself. Its brown hair is mussed, as though it has been through a wind tunnel. Some strands of hair hang down over its forehead. Its eyes are a warm, rich brown that belie the infinite evil that must surely lurk behind them. It's wearing a lilac button-up shirt with "Scorpio Corp" embroidered on the chest in black thread.

Hands in its pockets and shoulders relaxed, it looks congenial, bored even.

But the sense of wrongness fills the room in a way that I can't explain.

The Other should not be here.

I quickly step into my room and close the door behind me.

"Lovey, are you the one who summoned me?"

I don't answer, throwing my backpack onto the floor by the door and walking straight over to my bookshelves. My mother's grimoire will be here somewhere, and I'm almost certain that there's a banishing spell in it.

"You have an interesting home."

The Other's voice has a honeyed texture. In fact, that would be an accurate description the being as a whole. Thinking feels like wading through treacle in its presence, and its appearance is unthreatening. I must remember that this thing is a threat.

Besides, my home isn't that interesting and it can only see the living room/kitchen part, complete with a ratty couch that I found in a skip and a TV that is so small I can't read subtitles on it.

I find the grimoire wedged between a tattered copy of Frakenstein and a cook book. It feels weighted in my hands as I turn back to The Other.

"Aren't you going to introduce yourself?"

I remain silent. I check the lines of salt on the floor for where I made my mistake, but everything looks like it should. The circles and runes and sigils all aligned correctly and unbroken. There's nothing amiss.

The Other should not be here.

Well, soon enough it'll be gone.

"Come on, dear, it's a bit rude isn't it? I've been hanging around for hours waiting for you to come back. Like you're meant to summon and wait for the person to come back you know?"

I flick through the grimoire until I find the spell of banishing. It's meant to be for bad vibes or minor pesky spirits, but I suppose it'll do for this thing too. I certainly don't want it to hang around.

I place the book on the coffee table and begin to collect the things it says I need. White sage incense, purified water, crystals, all laying scattered around my apartment on various shelves and cupboards.

"You should keep that stuff in a chest or something, you know? It'd be less cluttered. Unless you like that cluttered witchcraft look I guess. Some people are into this stuff for the aesthetic I suppose."

I return with the items, staring The Other in the eye. It must realise what is about to happen, but it looks unbothered.

I read through the instructions a few more times, then settle myself on the floor, arranging the items around me. Just a few more minutes and this abomination will be gone.

I close my eyes.

Salt, candles, water, breath. I make sure that each element is called on, brought forward, my intent driven towards making this creature leave.

I clench my eyes tighter shut as I feel a cool breeze on my face.

This wasn't what I wanted. I wanted a guide, I wanted someone who respected the traditions of the past and how things were. I wanted something that would help me restore who I am and-

"Er, I wouldn't do that, you're going to-"

Ignore. Ignore ignore ignore. I cannot listen to it. It's only trying to assure its own survival on this plane.

"Mate, listen, you really need to stop what it is you're doing because it's reacting with this other thing you've got going on and-"

The sound of shattered glass fills my ears. My eyes snap open and I throw myself to the side, covering my face as shards scatter around my room. The threadbare curtains flutter inward as the cold October air rushes into my room.

The Other is still there, though it has been thrown from the circle as well. It is already climbing to its feet though, its hands clenched in fists and eyes wide and unblinking at something else that's in the circle.

"We have to run," it says, turning to me and grabbing me by the hood. I choke as I'm pulled to my feet.

I barely get a glimpse of the thing that is starting to fill my apartment as I'm manhandled out the door. It is dark, and large, and makes a sound that is somewhere between nails on a chalk board and a rattlesnake.

The Other slams the door behind us, putting its hand against it for a moment and closing its eyes before it shoves me towards the elevator.

"Where's the nearest church?" It demands.

I shrug. "I don't know. What is that thing?"

The Other shakes its head. "No time now. I'll explain later. Start running."

I can't let it escape. No matter what it is in my apartment, I also can't let one of The Other run around unchecked in this world either. For a moment I'm torn between staying and dealing with whatever it is in my apartment, and chasing after The Other.

But at least I know what The Other is, and that's what finally settles it for me.

The elevator doors open just as I catch up to it, and we step into the elevator as one just as the door to my apartment blasts off its hinges.

"Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope."

The Other doesn't hesitate, pressing the ground floor button and the close door button simultaneously just as tendrils of darkness begin to creep around the doorframe. The lift doors close before I can get a good look at the thing and The Other slumps against the back of the lift in relief.

"What was-"

"Honey, we don't have time," The Other says, though a smile curls at the corner of its lips. "Once those lift doors open we need to run, and run as fast as we can to the nearest holy place. So you better find out for us where we're goin' on that little box thing all you folks like to carry around."

Box thing?

Phone.

I pull my phone out of my pocket and quickly google "local places of worship".

"There's a pentecostal place about two kilometers-"

"Oh definitely not. I want to know if you start speaking in tongues whether or not it's the Lord or the Devil," The Other says, its eyes now watching the elevator numbers count down. "Next nearest?"

"Er... Quaker Meeting House?" I suggest.

"Perfect."

The door dings open and The Other takes off running immediately out the door, leaving me to hit for the directions and turn on the speaker phone to keep up.

And so we spend the next fifteen minutes running full tilt towards the Quakers, but from what, I do not know.