The week and a half had gone by slower than the two girls had hoped. After touring Salem and it's surrounding landscape, Eliza had taught Rose some spells.
"Look!" Rose exclaimed, "My light is so much brighter now!"
The sphere in her right hand emited a soft light, illuminating the darkening room. Eliza looked up from the strange grimoire, still trying to figure out how it worked.
"Nice! I think soon you'll be able to handle fire."
"Cool!"
The sound of footsteps on the wooden staircase filled the room, then the door creaked.
"Hey girls, I've closed shop now, fancy some dinner? I'm making burgers tonight."
They could really use some food. Rose dimmed her light and Eliza left her book on the table, and followed Sybil down to the kitchen.
--------
When they returned, the room had gone dark. It was the night of the new moon and the town was only lit by a few street lights.
"We should got to sleep now. Tomorrow we'll meet up with the owner of the bookstore."
Rose agreed and changed quickly into her nightgown. These old houses were not very warm in the winter. After tucking into bed, she watched her friend finishing her nightly ritual of changing into her pajamas and doing a small prayer to the Moon Bunny. She thought of how happy she would be if they could rescue Ino. Despite all her flaws, she was still an important part of their sorority.
----------
Slivers of scenery swirled around in her mind. The fog in Ino's head had grown thicker, making it hard to distinguish any details of the images. She squinted her closed eyes, somehow foolishly thinking it would make her see better. It didn't work, and the images disappeared.
She had grown accustomed to the darkness around her. While there was no light, there was sound and she felt the occasional breeze. Once in a while the swirling sceneries appeared in her mind, which were her only source of light. She let her body down onto the ground she couldn't see and sighed.
Maybe this wasn't so bad after all. Finally she could relax, letting go of all her responsibilities and the expectations of her family and friends. She was so used to doing better and better that she had forgotten how to enjoy life. And now that she didn't even know if she was still alive, she realized that this wasn't the life she wanted to live.
--------------
Red light woke Eliza up. It wasn't morning yet, was it? She rubbed her eyes, feeling warmth creep up her hands and fingers. Slowly she opened her eyes to see what was happening. Blazing flames were eating up the curtains and chairs, steadily gaining way to the bed. Fire!
"Rose, Rose! Wake up, now!" Eliza shook her friend, who murmured something unintelligible and rolled over. Now was not the time to be a stubborn ass!
She got out of bed and hurried over to Rose's. With all her might she pulled the girl out of bed, dragging the covers with her.
"ROSE!"
"Huh, wha-?" Still overcome with sleep, she blinked her eyes at her friend.
"Fire, Rose! We have to go!"
The girl got up and they headed for the door, but before they could reach it, Rose tripped over something.
"Shit! What the fuck?!"
She looked at her feet, noticing a glass bottle laying on the floor. Remnants of fabric were still in it. A Molotov? It wasn't broken, but the once burning cloth must have set the room aflame.
"We have to get going!"
Eliza helped Rose get up, who slightly limped from the fall. They got to the door and tried to open it, to no avail. A piece from the wooden ceiling fell down, and the girls jumped back just in time.
"Can't you use a spell to extinguish the flames?" Rose asked. In all her hurry Eliza didn't even think of that. She formed her seal and concentrated.
"Crap! It's not working!"
"What?!"
A stinging pain in her right forearm drew the brunette's attention, noticing the second scar of the crescent and cross glowing. Rose saw her friend's shift in attention.
"What's wrong?"
"I think this symbol is interfearing with my powers."
Realization set in. There was no way out now.
"What do we do?"
The fire crept closer and closer, until the girls had only the table and chairs in the corner of the room left to stand in. For some reason the flames hadn't caught on to the wooden furniture yet.
"Hey Eliza, weren't the pages of the grimoire yellow?"
Eliza nodded.
"Yeah, why?"
"Just look at it."
To her surprise, the open book's pages had turned black, with a single sentence written in silvery ink.
Call the Void.
"Call the void? What does that even mean?"
She didn't know. All she could do was to trust her instincts. And her instincts told her to perform a summoning.
"I'm gonna do a summoning."
"What? Now?"
"Yes, and I need your help."
Rose slowly nodded, not quite sure what Eliza was hoping to achieve. As long as it would get them out of here.
"Alright. Tell me what to do."
"Sure. Place your left hand on the book and your right hand in my left. I'll in turn place my right hand on the book to complete the circle. Then I'll do the summoning."
She did as she was instructed and after checking that the circle was closed, Eliza started with the spell she had used to succesfully summon frogs as a kid, obviously this time with some small adjustments for the occassion.
Oh great power of the world
From the miniscule to the grand
Lend me the power
To summon through name
Appear before me
In all your glorious nothingness
I call upon thy
VOID!
Electricity shot through Rose's arms, from right to left. It was a similar feeling to when she used her light spell, but way stronger. Eliza's power really was something. Then the book suddenly closed with a thud and a black sphere appeared, growing larger with every second, until it absorbed the two girls in it's darkness.
Comments (0)
See all