My Demon

3. Evocation

Once again, the brunette woke up like any other day.

She looked around, very cautiously, but at no point did she see the black-haired boy, so she sighed and thought he would have returned to his world, which she was thankful for.

The girl stretched out on her bed and snorted softly, today she had a feeling today was going to be a really long day.

She threw off the sheets that covered her body, revealing a pale pink nightgown with some feathers scattered around the garment as a pattern, something that made her look extremely adorable. The blue-eyed girl ended up yawning, closing one of her eyes, and then got up to go to the washroom, a shower in the morning was always good for her.

She went into the washroom, slowly undid her clothes, grabbed a scrunchie, making a bun on the spot so that when she stepped into the shower and turned on the showerhead, her long hair wouldn't get wet.

She opened the screen and entered the small cubicle, a few moments later, she turned on the hot water tap and let the small drops of that warm liquid run all over her body, her eyes remained closed, feeling the gentle touch of the liquid pearls on her figure. Whenever she entered that small place it was as if her problems disappeared, even if only were for a few moments, she could feel it, she felt calmer.

Free from thoughts that made her feel depressed.

“If only every day were like the moments I spend here,” the girl whispered as she opened her eyes and turned away a little to avoid getting her hair wet.

For a few moments, her gaze remained fixed on a dead spot on the tiles, but after feeling a slight shiver, she looked around and seeing no one, simply continued showering normally.

The minutes were passing, and now she was rinsing the bath gel off her body slowly, so she wouldn't have to leave that little paradise, although she knew that sooner or later she was going to have to leave... The moment she stepped out of the shower; all her problems would come crashing down on her like a bucket of ice water.

For the second time that morning, she sighed, turned off the tap, and grabbed the towel she had left on the screen. She rolled herself up in it and stepped out of the shower as the occasional drop of water continued to run down her body.

As she passed in front of the mirror, she stopped in front of it, seeing it completely fogged up, she carefully brought her hand closer and wiped it so she could see herself reflected in it, “Since when have I been in such a pitiful state?” She left that question in the air, observing how her tanned skin had taken on a paler tone and after de shaking her head, she simply took the nightgown in her hands; she would have to take it to the laundry bin later.

She stepped out of the small bathroom, letting the steam spread lightly through the rest of her room. She didn't even take two steps into the room, when just as she was about to remove the towel covering her body, she heard laughter echoing right next to her. “Wow, what a view angel~”, the demon had returned to the room earlier than she had planned, not seeing the girl at the moment he arrived, he thought she would had left. Instead, hearing the sound of falling water a wicked smile had formed on his lips. He just had to wait patiently to see her. And perhaps he would be able to make the young one angry sooner than he imagined. “But you know what would look so much better on you? For that to be cut of the way~”, he said, pointing to the towel that reached a little below her thighs.

“I know, kitten, but this is a sight that you, unfortunately, will never see”, she said, passing by the demon, who didn’t make no attempt to avoid scrutinising the mundane girl's body with his gaze.

A sly grin sat on his lips, and he reappeared in front of the girl, but this time, he was looking at her upside down.

“Unfortunately for you, my dear Caeli, I'm here because of you, don’t you remember?” He said with a smirk that showed his white, sharp teeth, causing her to frown noticeably.

However, the female walked past him and grabbed a particular outfit from the wardrobe and then went to the washroom to change. She glanced sideways at the demon before closing the door, and he wagged his tail in amusement at seeing her in such a state of latent annoyance.

“Try to come in here and I'll rip off something you hold dear,” she said in a threatening tone that made the jet-haired boy feel a shiver down his spine and cover his crotch with both hands in concern, but when the door was closed again, he couldn't help but start laughing out loud, making the vein in the girl's forehead pop.

And there she remembered the day she decided to do the stupid summoning that brought that damned demon into her life.

º º º º º º

After what happened with Orfeo, I simply cut myself off from the outside world.

Whenever the alarm rang to get up, I stayed in bed, luckily those days were holidays and I didn't have to attend my classes at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

Although if there were any I wouldn't have gone either, I wouldn't have been brave enough to go out and see him in too many classes. Because, yes, I had the unfortunate luck that my ex-partner went to the same university as me and on top of that to the same degree and the same course.

To be honest, I didn't eat, I didn't sleep much, and I really looked like a vampire because of my schedule -considering that nobody saw me, although they didn't see me at night either- apart from the fact that I could and can walk in the sunlight, and I don't need blood as food to live.

But as for everything else, anyone would mistake me for one, my pale skin, coupled with the dark circles under my eyes, as well as the blanket I wore as a cloak all the time. Depression at that moment had filled every particle of my being, it had been a two-year relationship.

It was true that first of all, I hated that guy, we couldn't even see each other, I hated his cold and harsh attitude. He hated my warm and cheerful personality.

We were like water and oil, beings that were made to repel each other...

Instead... I hate to remember that day when my feelings blossomed. In moments like these, even now, after all, I still loved him. But this was not the story of how much I longed for that brown-haired, cold-eyed boy, but how I met that eccentric, egomaniacal cat.

I had been locked up at home for a long time now, since everything I mentioned before.

Both, my mother and Akane were too worried about me, but even with their constant support of: ‘It's going to work out, honey’ from my mother and ‘He's an i***t who doesn't deserve you!’ from Akane.

It didn't quite do the trick, because I was so shocked and so hurt to know that, after so long of being with Orfeo, out of nowhere, he had ended everything we had built...

It was simply impossible for me to make even the slightest effort, even to leave my room to make myself a cup of coffee, or tea.

Then, one day like any other - one day when I hadn't even thought of getting up- my dearest friend came bursting through the door to my room.

“Caeli!” She shouted at the top of her lungs making me jump out of my bed and look at her with a frown, “I have the solution to your problem my dear!” Said the redhead who jumped on my body that was on the bed in a fetal position.

“Haven't you ever been taught to knock before entering a room?” I asked, arching an eyebrow and waking up in my seat.

“No, they never taught me, my dear. Now listen, I have something that can solve all your problems,” I simply sighed.

«What could she have come up with now?» I thought, shaking my head and getting up to look her in the eyes. “All right, show me that thing that 'can solve all my problems',” I said, wiggling my fingers in inverted commas. She smiled and instantly turned to look for something that was apparently in her bag, I moved slightly so I could see what she was doing, but before I could complete my action, she turned around with a small bag in her hand. “And.... How can that help me?” The journalist snapped, staring at me, as if to say 'If you don't take it and look at it you'll never find out'.

Once again, I sighed, took the small bag and opened it. One of my eyebrows arched, I reached into the small bag and took out a small dark ring with green glitter, with the mark of what looked like a demonic beast in the middle, and a small piece of paper. I took it and as I began to read it, I laughed lightly, “This is what I'm going to make myself for dinner,” I said looking at my friend who frowned at me.

“Don't be an i***t Caeli!, this is to summon a demon!” I looked at her incredulously at what she was telling me.

Did she really think that such stupid things were going to fix everything?

“Don't look at me with that face Eli, you’ve got nothing to lose, do you?” She said, looking down and then at me. Giving me a few seconds, I sighed and left it all on the bedside table, maybe I'd throw it away as soon as she left “If you even think of throwing it away, I swear I'll kill you”, or maybe not...

“Ah... Ok, how did you get this?” I asked her with my head tilted to one side and she smiled.

“I bought it in an occult shop, the woman was super nice and pleasant, and she told me that if I did what it said on the paper I would get whatever I wanted,” she said very innocently and I arched one of my eyebrows.

“How much did all this cost you?” I asked her and she was silent, “Better you don’t tell me”

“Who cares what it cost me, but come on! It won’t hurt to check.” She pouted tenderly in my direction and then sighed heavily.

“All right, all right, I'll try it and let you know,” I said calmly, and we both started laughing.

After that strange conversation, we spent a few hours that day talking about what had happened during that month, she completely avoided the subject of boyfriends, something for which, without any doubt, I was completely grateful.

We spent so many hours talking, and at the end of the night, my mother told her she could sleep over, but she refused because she had to go back to her own place.

Although when I saw her smile and saw her phone and the various messages she had exchanged with her boyfriend, I shaked my head. She never knew how to lie to me well.

Once again, I sighed and shook my head, and when my friend left, I turned to head to my room, again.

“Darling, do you want me to make you some hot chocolate?” As always my mother tried to help cheer me up.

I looked at her out of the corner of my eye and with a big smile I denied, she looked at me with her big green eyes, she slowly approached me and hugged me, I didn’t wait a moment befor reciprocating that warm gesture, I hid my head on her shoulder, while I let her slowly caress my hair, and she whispered, “Don't worry my love, everything will pass and it will get better, you'll see,” she whispered, trying with all her might to cheer me up.

Ah... but she didn't know how wrong she was, because the following days I tried to get out of the house and go somewhere to cool off.

But always, always I met him and his icy gaze, which before seemed to me as warm as a ray of sunshine. My heart stopped every time he saw me, I would unconsciously turn my head to pretend I hadn't seen anything. And sometimes, I thought I saw him with a saddened look on his face, but it wasn't as if I could stare at him, I wasn't able to, nor did I have the strength.

From time to time, I could see him trying to get closer to me, I guess trying to talk to me or tell me something that might bury me deeper in the mud. Instead, I would quickly set about doing something, and I would quickly finish whatever I was supposed to do, and I would run out of there with my heart pounding.

I couldn't bear to see him, every time I did I felt my chest shrink and I started to feel awful. It was horrendous, and it just made me want to lock myself back in my house.

Which I did...

It wasn't even a week before I was locked in my house again, it really was a sickening feeling, in those moments that I saw him, all the memories of that day when he broke my heart were hitting me in my stomach and slowly tearing my soul apart.

In that instant, I was lying on the bed; my body draped over it; my eyes were swollen from crying, as I looked up at the ceiling.

That day I had been crying from morning till evening, and I already felt my eyes stinging so much that I put my arm over them. “I really mean it, why is it that nothing goes right for me?” I asked myself, and then I felt something fall on my forehead.

After a shriek I got up in fright and looked around, finding on my bed the bag I had left on the bedside table, the little bag Akane had given me the week before. Strangely, I took it between my fingers and stared at it.

«How did I drop it on my forehead?», I thought, sighing softly before shaking my head and shrugging my shoulders.

Actually, what could happen?

I opened the small bag and took out what was in it: the ring, the note, a cat-tail, four black candles, plus some charcoal.

I looked at the note and sighed. "Are you serious?" I asked, not believing that I was about to do this "evocation".

I took a blank A3 sheet of paper, and the charcoal and began to draw what was written on the little note. When I finished I looked at the drawing, it was a paw print with a tribal drawing of a cat in the middle, I arched an eyebrow and left it in the middle of the room.

I took the four candles and left them at each end, I lit them and turned off the light in the room, which instead of being dark was dimly lit by the candles.

I looked at the note and sighed, took the cat-tail and burnt it with the flame of one of the candles, left the ashes on the drawing and looked at the note one last time. “God. This is going to be the most embarrassing thing I've ever done in my life...” I put the ring on the ring finger of my right hand and closed my eyes to start reciting the exact words.

“I, Caeli Bellini, wish to make a deal with the demon of apocalypse and destruction. Please show yourself to me and grant my wish,” I slowly went down and took the ash from the previously burnt plant and drew upside down cross in the centre of my chest, sighed and with some ash left over I drew the cat print in the place I preferred, -that is on the left side, on my hip- and when all was done, I whispered the necessary words in Latin to "invoke" the demon. “In the name of the god of calamity and the goddess of doom I invoke you, cleric of pain and death, help me to fulfill my wish, and in return I will grant you what you ask of me...”, when I finished I slowly opened my eyes.

I looked around me, as if waiting for something to happen, instead and as I guessed, nothing happened. “A real stupidity...” I said exasperated and shook my head, but, at that moment, the candles suddenly went out. “What?” I whispered, looking around in wonder, for there was no draft to put them out.

“If the windows were closed... How is it possible?” My body trembled softly and when I went to open the windows, my heart stopped as I saw the flames of the candles suddenly light up with an intense green colour, I jumped in my place and tried to move away from there.

But something stopped me, or rather, my body didn't react, it wouldn't move, even though I was screaming for it to run away from there. “What the hell is this?!” I shouted trying to move, but there was something that completely stole my breath.

I watched as the four candles slowly approached the drawing of the tribal cat and my eyes widened in surprise as the drawing, -which I had drawn with my eyes closed-, burst into flames showing a deep toxic green colour and the figure of the cat showed an elongated smile.

After that, the candles moved far enough away to form a square, the fire connected, letting the flaming drawing rise slowly in the air, it started to burn, and when the ashes touched the ground, a flame arose, without burning anything, but making me jump in my place scared, since I didn't want to believe what was happening.

“T-This is not possible...” «Damn it, move your arm and pinch yourself, this can’t be happening!» I screamed in my head wanting to believe that this was not real.

But my pupils contracted as soon as I saw how a shadow of something, or rather someone, began to emerge from the flame. It slowly ascended until it levitated in the air, and after leaving it completely, the ‘portal’ closed, and the candles continued to glow with that greenish colour.

The figure in front of me, opened his eyes showing me that deep colour that a few moments before the drawing had shown me.

He descended until he could rest his feet on the ground and, after smiling, he approached calmly until he was in front of me.

If I were to say that I was not breathless at that moment, it would be a complete lie. There, one step away from me, stood a demon, with a mesmerising smile that showed his white row of teeth, it was a young jet-haired man with messy hair.

On his head, pair of long horns protruded clearly, his ears were pointed with a little fur over them.

Something brushed against my waist and when I looked down, I saw a thin, elongated tail pulling me closer to him. His hand slowly descended, with his claws were caressing part of my skin, sending shivers down my spine at the act, as I was wearing a sports b*a and red shorts my cheeks turned the same colour as them... If this was true, and it was really happening, I had chosen the worst outfit in the world!

The boy or demon or whatever the hell that was, smiled slyly at the colour of my face and stopped his hand on the pattern I had made with the ash, just above my hip. He slowly ran three of his claws across it, creating a horrible burning sensation on my skin, as well as on the finger where I wore the ring.

I wanted to scream, but I couldn't, it was as if my voice had been torn out of me. My eyes connected with his and I felt my heart begin to race, because with the little light that the candles gave, that attractive face together with his smile and his vibrant gaze, made my body want to faint, the contradiction was that I could not do it, so I just stared at him.

He brought one of his fingers to the cross she had drawn in the centre of my chest and when he touched it, it began to glow with great intensity and I felt a tingling sensation run through my body, the opposite of what I had felt with the previous drawing, which was now more like a tattoo on my skin.

When he moved his finger away from the drawing on my chest, with his thumb and forefinger he took my chin and lifted it up several centimetres, he began to slowly move closer to me, while our eyes were still connected, and our lips were subtly brushing against each other. “I have heard your prayers, I will grant you my power to fulfill your wish, but in return you must grant me something of equal value.”

At that moment in my head, the word ‘no’ kept repeating itself, because... who would make a deal with someone unknown to them?

But more important than that was the surprise of seeing that... The damned demons really existed! And I had one in front of me making a pact with me!

And, leaving me even more surprised, my head simply nodded at what he had said. Before I could say or do anything, he slowly placed his lips on mine causing my eyes to widen even more as his arm went around my waist and his tail went around one of my legs.

It was a simple kiss, but I felt my whole body begin to tingle from the contact, as if a wave of electricity was disabling my muscles and my thoughts.

Then, after a few seconds, my eyelids began to feel heavy, as heavy as if I hadn't rested for months, and before I knew it, I fell unconscious in the arms of this handsome boy.

[…]

When I woke up tucked up in my bed I just thought it all had been a dream, one that I would soon forget about.

That day I was -for some reason- strangely happy, I had left my house, I had talked normally and had a drink with Akane, chatting about everything and nothing at the same time, surprising her by seeing me so calm and cheerful, just like I used to be.

“You look different...” She said, staring at me as if trying to scrutinise what had happened.

“In fact… Yes, and I don't really know why,” I said with a laugh, and soon the redhead looked at the ring on my hand and gasped in surprise.

“Did you try it? You have to tell me everything! Did it work?” She said bombarding me with a lot of questions and I could only shake my head and laugh softly.

“No way, it didn't work, you've been conned, my dear innocent friend,” I said, laughing softly.

At that, the young journalist pouted and kicked the ground angrily, but even so, after giving her a brief explanation of what happened, she hadn't asked me any more questions, and we simply continued talking about everything and nothing.

Of course, I couldn't have been more wrong, because when I got back home, I felt a noticeable burning in my hip, so I ran to the bathroom to see what had happened, and my eyes opened in surprise.

“It can't be...” I whispered astonished to see that ‘tattoo’ engraved on my skin, and soon ran to my room to calm down and think about what I had done the day before.

But when I found a black cat lying on my bed, and my jaw dropped. For all the windows were closed, and I doubted that my mother had brought an animal to home.

As soon as the feline opened its eyes stared at me, making those green eyes look too familiar for some strange reason. That was not the best thing of all. The best part was to see how a black and green energy intermingled around the animal's body reveal the boy who had shown up in my ‘dream’.

He was smiling teasingly as he wagged his tail from side to side playfully, there I tugged sharply on one of my checks, and as I realised the pain, I knew I wasn't dreaming...

He was there, lying on his side on my bed, staring at me as if he was waiting for something. “Who are you? And what are you doing here?” Was all I could utter at that moment, and then he said in his velvety, manly voice.

“I am the young man that every woman would wish for in her life, I am the demon that can grant any wish, I am here because you summoned me to grant yours, and to finish, I will say my name,” he got up from the bed and stood in front of me making me take a step back. “I'm the bad luck cat Thomirchotch and as I know you won't believe me, dear Caeli,” with a single finger he made my body rise in the air and lay on the bed, at the same time he lifted part of my jumper to let me see with horror that tattoo that I hadn't seen in the morning. “This and the ring you wear on your finger, prove the pact we sealed yesterday together,” I looked at the ring on my hand which was now a blackened greenish hue, but with the beast's imprint shining subtly. “I am at your service my lady~, ask me whatever you wish, and in return you will only have to give me two things,” I arched an eyebrow and looked at him without understanding what he meant. “To simplify, when I know the desire you want, which I see quite clearly in your mind, and I fulfil it, you will give me your body and soul.”

At that moment I said nothing, my mind had gone blank, which the demon found too funny. But disconcerting him enough, I got up and took from the bedside table a small necklace that my mother had given me many years ago with a cross on it, when I showed it to the jet haired boy, he quickly moved away from me because of the cross on the pendant. After that, he started shouting incoherently and I just grabbed the bridge of my nose.

It was impossible to believe that this was happening.

[…]

And now, here I am. In my room with an overly irritating demon, who is hounding me at every turn, all so that I could tell him my desire and he would possess my body and take my soul.

In the end I was convinced that this was not a dream, as it was clearly impossible for it to become one, even so, it still seems too unreal to me.

“If God really exists, he has no pity for me at all...” I thought to finally put on my necklace and leave the bathroom, watching the jet-haired man move away from me so that the cross wouldn't touch him.

And after exiting the room so I could leave, I heard a cry of rage and I laughed softly.

But all I could hope for was that, in time, everything would get better. Yes, all I could do was wait.