Page 143 of Devil Inside

Fingers crossed.

I’ve brought my Leatherman with me into the circle, with all of its handy implements. This requires a knife, so I tug the blade up from the cross-section of tools, snap it in place.

I’m sitting cross-legged in the center of chalk. Palm open, I glance at my hand. Just take in the skin for a moment. My scars. I can barely remember all of them at this point. The strips of tissue, pale and slim, trailing across my wrist, clustering at my knuckles. So many.

What’s one more scar? At least this one will have a story behind it...

Hey, kids, guess how I manifested your mother?

I take a big swig of the scotch, liquid courage, then one last deep breath before raking the blade directly across my palm. The sting is instantaneous, drawing blood. I hiss as I squeeze my hand, tight, letting the blood drip over the floorboards. The pattern it manifests, red freckles against the wood, a Jackson Pollock pentagram.

I go back for the scotch and polish it off in two gulps, feeling the fire work its way down my throat, and now I’m not feeling much of anything anymore. No pain.

The things we do for love.

I glance over my shoulder one last time, just to make sure I’m alone. No one else here but me and my inner demons.

“I summon them,” I recite, “I call upon them, I bind them to me.”

The ritual calls to repeat this recitation three times.

“I summon them, I call upon them, I bind them to me.”

Once was enough to feel like a complete idiot. The second time around only reaffirms the first.Second verse, same as the first.But by the third, my God, let me tell you.

“I summon them, I call upon them, I bind—”

The room pitches a bit. Maybe I’m just drunk, but it tilts. Something shifts behind me. The room. Something is in the room.

With me.

I can feel it. Know it. In my bones. I turn. Strain my ears to hear.

Silence.

“Hello?”

Nothing.

“Lilith?”

Absolute quiet. A pin-drop stillness settles over the space.

What do I do now? Wait, apparently.

“Lilith, are you here? Can you hear me?”

I let the minutes tick by, anticipating some sort of response.

“Lilith, I’m... I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to push you away.”

Didn’t mean to exorcise you.

“I want you back.”

Back inside.

“Please?”