"You want to summon a demon?!" Jessica widened her eyes.
Mical remained silent, but shuddered just imagining it.
Renato watched quietly as well.
They were all in the living room, sitting on the floor on the rug. Clara was drinking wine from a glass. On the TV, the game Sonic the Hedgehog was paused.
"The correct term is evocation," the succubus replied with a neutral expression, sipping her wine.
"And what's the difference?!" Jessica let a bit of anger slip into her voice.
"Summoning is when you call something into yourself. Evoking is when you call it outward. Basically the creature shows up, but it doesn't enter us. Completely safe."
"That doesn't sound very safe!"
"That's prejudice on your part!" Clara looked offended. "Just because we are demons doesn't mean we are bad."
"What do you think about this, Renato?" Jessica aimed her brown eyes at him.
"Well, Clara said that evoking this demon might help bring answers about me, so…"
"Well then! The house is yours and I won't argue anymore! But don't expect me to take part in this!"
"I understand."
"Please be careful. Demons are treacherous. Come on, Mical. We have something to do."
The two left the living room and went to the guest room.
"Damn it! I really should have let that girl be taken by the Watchmen! She's so annoying! All she does is complain!"
"She's scared. And to be honest, so am I."
"Do you remember the symbols?" Jessica asked, breaking a piece of chalk in half and handing one half to Mical.
"I do!"
Mical took the white chalk and approached the wall. She hesitated for a moment but soon began drawing.
Jessica climbed onto the nightstand and started drawing on the ceiling.
They were complex symbols, with triangles, dots, and intersecting lines. Sometimes they resembled runes, other times clusters of crosses surrounded by stars. There were also Latin phrases such as sicut in caelo et in terra and libera nos a malo.
"Done!" Jessica said proudly. "The barrier is ready."
Renato had pushed the furniture of the living room to the corners to make space and rolled up the rug. He stepped barefoot onto the cold floor.
Just as Clara had asked, he hid behind the couch.
It was dark.
His breathing was fast.
Clara Lilithu lit a black candle, which cast shadows on the walls, drew a triangle on the floor, and spoke some words in a strange language filled with sibilant sounds like the hiss of serpents.
Her eyes seemed redder than ever, glowing intensely in the dark.
The atmosphere began to grow heavy.
Even Renato could feel the danger increasing in waves, as if goblets of terror were being poured out. The air grew colder.
Suddenly Clara stopped and cleared her throat. She frowned angrily and looked toward the guest room where the two girls were.
"Seriously? How rude!" she complained.
"What happened?"
"Nothing, Renato! Just those two Nazarene pains in the ass who know seventy times seven ways to annoy me! Let's continue!"
Renato had the impression that a vein might burst on the succubus's forehead, but nothing happened. Yet.
The ritual continued.
An unfamiliar smell filled the room.
Renato, still hidden behind the couch and squeezed between it and the wall, tasted blood in his mouth.
He was suddenly filled with an animalistic rage.
He did not know where it came from, but it rose through his feet, twisted his stomach, struck his chest, and made his head boil. Pain appeared behind his eyes.
In his mind he saw flashes of a handsome man wearing a military uniform full of medals. A white smile with perfectly aligned teeth. Eyes that shone like those of a predator.
Renato could see the rotten soul hidden beneath the flesh, under the bones, like an X-ray.
Evil radiated from the man like an aura. It smelled of sulfur and carrion.
The man spoke from a podium about justice, freedom, and morality to an ecstatic crowd that applauded and cheered.
Then Renato saw glimpses of corpses piled in dirty ditches, burning in the streets among garbage, or being gnawed by rats.
He saw gunshots. Explosions. Screams.
He heard a child crying.
Someone shouted "please" before being silenced by gunfire.
He remembered when, as a child, he had heard his mother say the same "please" before it happened.
A tear rolled down his cheek.
The rage grew stronger.
He clenched his fists and felt the urge to punch the man from his nightmares to death.
Renato shook his head. Cold sweat covered him.
He looked at the two red eyes of the succubus and somehow felt safer.
"I remembered my greatest desire," he thought.
The candle smoke trembled in the air and began forming strange patterns. It could have been pareidolia, but the smoke seemed to resemble a face.
Or many faces.
Most of them suffering.
The two sisters sat on the floor facing each other, holding hands and praying quietly.
The walls, or perhaps the symbols on them, seemed to vibrate.
A crack appeared in the ceiling.
The floor grew colder and trembled slightly, as if struck from below.
"It's trying to force its way in," Mical whispered with a trembling voice.
"It won't succeed," Jessica replied through clenched teeth.
"Abigor," Clara hissed. "Don't be shy."
"Clara?" A deep voice came from the darkness. "Is that really you?"
"Of course it's me. Who else would it be?"
The smoke gathered into a single point, spinning into a sphere about the size of a soccer ball.
It became dense, like the black smoke expelled from factory chimneys.
A leg came out of it.
Then another.
Then a torso.
Within seconds a man stood there.
He was short. Perhaps no more than five feet three inches tall. He wore prescription glasses.
He approached Clara and inhaled deeply.
"Wow! I missed this pleasant smell!"
"You flatterer, as always," Clara said, appearing slightly flushed.
Renato frowned.
"But something bothers me," the demon said. "I think you know what it is. It's not very polite to have an Enochian barrier when you call a demon, is it?"
"Don't worry about it. Just two scared girls who don't know how to enjoy the opportunities life offers."
"I see." Abigor grimaced as if tasting a lemon. "Anyway, why did you call me? I bet you need a favor."
"Oh, so I can't simply have missed you?"
"No."
"Well, as you probably suspected, I do need your help with something."
"I see. And what can this humble demon of war do for a beautiful succubus like you, Clara Lilithu?" he asked while walking toward the wine bottle.
"I need you to investigate something for me."
"And why me? Investigation is not exactly my specialty."
He took a gulp straight from the bottle.
Clara smiled.
"As you know, I haven't been in contact with many demons lately. And among the ones I can safely approach, you're the smartest. Besides, you have excellent contacts down there and up here."
"Yes, I know. I just wanted to hear you say it."
He placed the now empty bottle on the floor.
"But how long has it been since we last met? Since that little thing at the end of the thirties? How can you be sure I didn't join Satanakia's side?"
"I trust your common sense."
"I see." He smiled. "So what do you want me to investigate?"
"Renato. You can come out."
Abigor frowned in confusion.
Renato stood up and turned on the light.
"What the…"
"You didn't sense him, did you?" Clara said, almost bragging.
"You hid him with magic?" Abigor approached Renato.
The boy instinctively stepped back but allowed the approach after a stern look from Clara.
"No. I found him like this."
"Did you take him to Alana?"
"Yes."
"And what did she say?"
"Nothing. She just pulled out a .38 and tried to fill his head with holes."
"Oh, I love those guns!" Abigor sighed romantically. "But what happened next?"
"She tried to write some kind of message with her own blood but couldn't finish it. She wrote 'Arin' and then died."
"Arin? What could that mean?" Abigor looked increasingly interested.
"That, my dear demon of war, is what I want you to find out. It seems Alana saw something chained in gold inside a diamond cell, and apparently that thing killed her."
"Gold and diamonds, huh? Diamonds are the hardest thing in creation. If you arrange the atoms properly, even the strongest entities couldn't break them. And the gold, I suppose…"
"Hyper-decayed gold. That's my guess too."
"Hyper-decayed gold? What's that?" Renato thought it was time to speak.
Abigor answered with a silent look of contempt.
"Hyper-decayed gold is a variety of gold. An isotope, as they call it nowadays. Extremely rare. I think there are only about three grams of it in this galaxy," Clara said. "What makes this isotope special is that it can nullify spiritual powers, magic, spells, curses, and anything like that."
"How cute," Abigor said. "You answer the primate."
"Isn't talking to primates basically what you do best?"
"Important primates with access to nuclear weapons. Nobody cares about the lower-class Homo sapiens. In fact, promoting the genocide of the rabble is what I do best."
Clara forced a smile.
"So? Will you help me?"
"Of course. I would never say no to friends."
"I appreciate it."
"No need. As you know, it will cost a price."
"I know. What do you want?"
"A night of agonizing sex with a succubus would be a fair price."
"Hmm… no. Choose something else."
"A squeeze of your breast?"
"Hmm… let me think. Fine. I guess that's acceptable."
"Okay! Deal!"
"Deal."
"It would be good if you let me take this primate of yours to run some tests…"
"That's not happening. The primate is mine."
"I understand."
Abigor's image began to blur into smoke, his body growing transparent.
"Oh, and I almost forgot! Satanakia is crazier than usual! Be careful, Clara Lilithu!"
Then he disappeared.