Page 2 of The Demon's Vow
“I’m with Lukas. I’m also getting hungry. Actually, are we even headed in the right direction?” Darcy asked, squinting at the glow of his phone. The screen cast his face in an eerie blue pallor, making him look paler than normal.
Jess shot him a withering look. “I’ll let you guys know when we get there. We’re headed toward where the energy is strongest. Until then, please be quiet. We don’t need to be chased out of here by cops...again.”
“We’re here!”
Jess’s whisper cut through the silence like a knife. She’d stopped abruptly in front of a cell at the far end of the block. The door hung crooked on its hinges, half-open like a broken jaw, creating a black abyss that swallowed our light.
“Let’s set up.” Jess walked right in with Darcy close behind.
I hesitated. Something seemed off. I didn’t know if my hunger was getting to me, playing tricks on my mind, or if there was some kind of noxious gas in the air fucking with me. But suddenly I was thinking that maybe this was all a big mistake.Why am I being such a chicken? Nothing is really going to happen.I cautiously stepped inside.
“Fuck, man!” My breath fogged in the air as an unnatural chill gripped me. A violent shiver racked my body, my teeth clattering before I could stop them. “Why the fuck does this room feel like a freezer?”
It was the kind of cold that didn’t just nip at your skin but slithered beneath it, coiling around and settling in your bones. The fine hairs on my arms stood rigid, and I noticed the room’s dusty, broken window. I checked my watch.Midnight on the dot.Maybe the temperature drop is not too unusual for this hour?I glanced down at my hoodie with a sigh. I knew I should have at least packed a light jacket, but oh well.
“Hey, Jess,” I muttered, my voice barely audible. “You feel that?”
She didn’t answer. She was focused as her flashlight flickered over the walls, revealing deep gouges in the stone—long, frantic scratches, like something had tried to claw its way out. I lookeddown. The floor was streaked with dark stains, the concrete pitted and rough underfoot.
“Something is off here.”
Darcy stopped rummaging through his bag and looked up at me, a small smile on his face. “Interesting…” He took a moment to look around before turning back to me. “Yes. Something is off here. I can’t sense it to the same level as Jess can, but if you’re picking up on something too…we found the right spot.”
The back of my neck prickled. “Found what?”
Darcy’s smile vanished. He swung his light towards Jess, the beam illuminating her, catching the dust motes swirling around between us. Jess flinched and covered her eyes.
“Jesus, Jess! Did you even tell him why we’re really here tonight?”
Jess bit her lower lip, looking sheepishly at me. In the erratic flashlight’s glow, I could see the guilt lacing her face. Her fingers worried at the frayed edge of her cloak, pulling at the loose threads.Oh no. That was one of her tells. Fuck me. She’d been hiding something…something big.
I let out a loud sigh, shaking my head as I pushed myself up from the cold concrete wall. My sneakers scraped against the floor as I made my way to the opposite side of the cell. I sat down across from my friends. “Okay, guys. What exactly was I supposed to know that youbothdecided to keep me in the dark about?” I winced. My voice came out much louder than I’d intended, bouncing off the concrete walls in the small space, making the echoes sound much harsher.
I crossed my arms tight against my chest, my fingers digging into my skin. I glared at both of them. “Is someone going to explain it to me? Are we not doing another séance, like last year? And just for the record, I’m not helping you two bury a body, just making that clear. Not crossing that line.”
Jess and Darcy shared a quick look before Jess moved toward me, her blonde curls bouncing with each step—those perfect spirals that always smelled like vanilla and made her look unfairly angelic whenever she pouted.Oh, that damn pout.With that innocent face and those baby blue eyes, all wide and imploring—a deadly ass combo, may I add—it was impossible to stay mad at her, and she knew it.
She down sat cross-legged in front of me, the hem of her black lace skirt brushing my knees. Before I could react, she reached for my hands and gently pulled them from their defensive position against my chest.
“Lu,” she started.
Fuck me.She was using my nickname…
“That’s not an answer, Jess.” My voice had lost its edge, replaced by something more vulnerable. The draft from earlier returned with a vengeance, slithering down the back of my hoodie like cold fingers.
“Fine! We-we’re summoning a demon tonight.” Jess’s voice dropped to a hushed whisper. “Or at least, we’re going to attempt it.” Jess gestured around us at the decaying walls. “That’s the real plan for tonight. No ghosts this year. The veil between our world and the other side is weakest on Halloween. And according to our sources, we needed a place with suffering—anger, hatred, lots of negative energy. So, we picked this place.”
“And you didn’t think to tell me all this because...?”
“I dunno...” She forced a laugh, but it came out brittle, crackling at the edges. “We didn’t want to scare you off. This is kind of our thing now, right? Our little Halloween tradition. Even if this time it’s...well, more serious. Like, really serious. We still wanted to keep it fun and have you here with us.”
“Oh.Oh.” I couldn’t help the laugh that escaped me. They thought I’d be scared? I was low-key offended. “And why wouldI be scared? Worst case scenario, we get busted by cops again. Not, you know, get eviscerated by an actual fucking demon?”
Jess reached out and squeezed my knee, her grip just shies of painful. “Lu.” Her dark eyes locked onto mine, unblinking. I swallowed. Fuck, she was serious about this. “We won’t let anything happen to you. We promise.”
In theory, those words should have been comforting, but the way she dug her nails into my leg through my jeans told a different story.
Jess suddenly sprang to her feet, clapping her hands together with forced cheer. “Okay, boys! Now that we’re all on the same page,” she shot me a pointed look, “let’s get summoning!”
