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"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Virgil asked, ducking beneath a plank of wood as he followed Remus into the abandoned house, sat just on the edge of their village.
Remus smirked. "Of course it's a good idea!"
"I dunno," Virgil murmured, glancing around at the house. It was dusty, and dark, and had a horrible smell, like somebody had died in here and their corpse was still rotting somewhere close by. Somebody probably had died in here, given the police tape outside the building, remnants of a long since abandoned case, and the fact that nobody had lived here for decades. God, somebody had probably been murdered in here. "This place doesn't seem very safe."
"Eh, I come in here all the time," Remus said, beginning to walk up the stairs.
Virgil cautiously followed, cringing as the stairs made a creaking sound when he stepped on them, feeling as though they were this close to breaking. He breathed in and out to compose himself, before continuing his journey, trying not to think about how these stairs could give in, resulting in him falling to his certain doom. He told himself over and over that, if Remus had come here so often, then it must be safe, right? Remus was still very much alive, at all. Although, it did concern Virgil that Remus had come here before, frequently - what was he even doing here all the time?
Probably trying to summon something. Just like he was attempting to do now. God, how had Virgil managed to get himself roped into this? He loved Remus, he really did, but... he didn't particularly like his way of doing things. Definitely wasn't a fan of the chaos Remus always seemed to cause. Mundane chaos, of course - Virgil thought, at least - but it seemed as though something much worse was about to happen. Virgil couldn't shake the feeling away, couldn't silence his brain screaming as him to run, to abandon Remus and let him do the whole 'demon summoning' thing.
Although, Virgil had to admit that the whole 'demon summoning' thing did intrigue him, sorta. Like, logically he knew that demons weren't real, and at most all this would be is chanting, being disappointed, then probably being arrested by the police for trespassing. But, of course, part of him did believe in demons and the supernatural and ghosts and everything - mostly the part in his brain that conjured up demons at night so he couldn't get to sleep because if he closed his eyes the demon sitting in the corner of his room would most certainly murder him, but there was also a part of his brain that couldn't help but think that the existence of demons would be so fucking cool.
"You still have the book, right?" Remus asked, stopping at the top of the stairs.
Virgil took off his backpack and opened it, taking out a large, old book, the pages yellowing and delicate. His friend Logan had lent it to him, without Virgil explaining his intended use - trust Logan to own some ancient demon summoning book.
"Nice," Remus said with a grin, opening the door into another room, seemingly falling apart. The roof had a giant hole in the corner, allowing the moonlight to flood in, and also allowing birds to fly into the room. Remus ran into the room, scaring away the birds, then turned back to Virgil. "You can read it, right?"
"I mean, it's all in latin," Virgil said, slowly stepping into the room and joining Remus. "I can try."
"Good, you're reading then," Remus decided.
In the centre of the room, Remus had drawn a pentagram with some sort of bright red substance - paint, probably, but Virgil had his doubts. He'd also set candles around the pentagram, which he began to light with a lighter. Part of Virgil wanted to take the lighter away for fear that Remus may end up burning the house down - it was built entirely from wood, this entire place was a fire hazard - but didn't want to risk getting burnt himself. Besides, Remus must have known what he was doing, right?
"Where'd you get all this red paint from?" Virgil asked, finding the silence as Remus set everything up to be rather awkward.
"I never said it was paint."
Virgil blinked. "Oh. Uh. What is it then?"
"Blood, obviously," Remus said.
Virgil wanted to assume that Remus meant fake blood, but part of him was convinced otherwise. "Blood?" he repeated. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to dig any further.
"If we're gonna summon a demon, we might as well do it properly," Remus said, lighting the final candle and standing on the opposite side of the pentagram to Virgil.
Virgil breathed in. "Yeah, uh, about that... have you thought about what's gonna happen when - I mean, if we manage to summon a demon?"
Remus nodded. "I've been fantasising about this for years," he said, an excited glint in his eyes.
Virgil tried his best not to be alarmed at that. "Alright, uh..."
"The demon should stay trapped inside the pentagram," Remus continued. "After that, uh, we have a demon."
"Okay..." That didn't sound like much of a plan, but Virgil decided to give Remus the benefit of the doubt. This would be fine. Demons weren't real, anyway, it wasn't as if anything bad would happen.
"Read, then," Remus instructed.
Virgil opened the book, beginning to flick through the pages. "Uh, what page?"
Remus shrugged. "Any will be fine, I think."
Virgil stopped at a random page and read the words, not entirely sure if the pronunciation was right but it was worth a shot. Part of him hoped that he was reading it wrong, because then on the off chance that demons were indeed real, there was less of a chance of him successfully summoning one.
The pentagram at his feet began to glow. For a moment, Virgil stopped reading, a little shaken. That... He must have been imagining that, right?
"Carry on!" Remus shouted.
Virgil cleared his throat, then continued to read. He felt the wind pick up around him, blowing through his hair and causing a few of the candles to flicker out. He figured that was probably just a coincidence, even though that day hadn't been particularly windy - in fact, it has been a pretty warm, summery day. But it must have been a coincidence - half the roof was missing, it made sense.
But then the candles relit themselves and the pentagram began to glow again. Virgil had reached the end of the page. He glanced up from the book, noticing a shadow beginning to form inside the pentagram, a cloud of darkness slowly rising. Virgil dropped the book on the floor in shock, cringing at first at the sudden crash but thinking afterwards that maybe that was good, maybe that would stop whatever was going on. Maybe the dark figure standing in the pentagram, an almost humanoid being, shifting on the spot and changing form every two seconds, would go away.
Remus grinned. "We did it!" he exclaimed, excitedly.
Virgil stopped back. "Uh, what- what exactly did we do?"
"We summoned a demon!" Remus said, bouncing up and down on the spot. "We actually did it, Virge!"
Virgil tried his very best to remain calm, but couldn't stop his arms from shaking. "Wh-What do we do now?" They couldn't just keep this demon around, could they? Christ, the demon could kill them at any second. How had they even done this?
Remus hummed, standing still for a moment. "Huh. I don't know. I didn't actually think we'd get this far."
Virgil's eyes widened and he leaped back again, backing up towards the wall. The book was on fire. Shit. Fuck - the whole room was built out of wood, this-
"Remus, we really should-"
Remus fell to the floor. The shadow had disappeared. But the fire didn't appear to be calming down any time soon. Virgil rushed over towards Remus and hoisted him up, leaning his body against his own. Remus was unconscious - great, just great. They had to get out of here, before they both burnt alive. Virgil attempted to carry Remus out the room and down the stairs, moving slowly underneath Remus' weight but escaping from the fire nonetheless.
But before they made it out, Remus' eyes opened, and his body heated up, forcing Virgil to let go at the sudden heat against his skin. Remus rose a few feet into the air, his eyes glowing red. That... That wasn't natural, was it? That shouldn't be happening.
"Remus, we really should-"
Remus shot down towards Virgil, grabbing his arm and digging his fingernails into his skin, causing Virgil to cringe from the pain. He still couldn't stop shaking. At any moment, he figured he'd probably start crying. He tried to repress that.
Remus wasn't looking like himself, not at all. Well, the red eyes probably said enough, and the fact that he was hovering in the air, his hair floating around him. But he also had black marks beginning to appear on his skin, drawing in over his face. He grinned, and Virgil noticed that his teeth were now pointed - not teeth, fangs.
Virgil tried to move, tried to run away, but he was frozen in place. He tried to call for help, but no words came out. This... This wasn't good. Fuck - he knew this had been a bad idea. He'd told Remus over and over again that this was a bad idea, and yet here he was, probably about to be killed by Remus, or... or by whatever had taken over Remus' body.
This wasn't Remus. This... This was the shadow demon, wasn't it? It must have taken over Remus' body. That was... Well, it wasn't exactly a logical explanation, but it was the only one that made sense. Remus was fucking possessed by a fucking demon. Brilliant.
Darkness escaped from Remus' mouth, heading closer to Virgil himself. Virgil held his breath and back away as much as he could. Just before the shadow reached his skin, he finally found the strength to pull himself away from Remus and dart out the door, tripping over as he ran out into the front garden onto the cold, hard concrete.
He scrambled to his back, trying to sit up and look at the building. The top floor was completely on fire now, and the house seemed close to collapsing. Maybe... Maybe that would be good - it would get rid of the demon, at least, but... Remus was still in there. He may have turned into a demon or whatever, but... it was still Remus. Virgil's best friend. If the building collapsed, then Remus would die as well.
Well, not anymore. Remus - no, the demon came flying out the house, straight towards Virgil still laying on the ground. He tried to back away, but Remus grabbed his shirt, pulling him up and holding him in place. Virgil really was crying now - perfect. The building behind them collapsed, a raging fire still burning. Virgil could hear sirens in the distance, so perhaps somebody had already seen the fire and alerted the emergency services. But, in all honesty, Virgil had more important things to be worrying about than the burning house, like the fact that an actual demon was about to murder him.
"Remus," he said, one more time, "you-"
And Virgil fell to the floor, a sharp pain soaring through his spine upon contact with the concrete. He looked back up at Remus, who's eyes had stopped glowing red now, thank God. His face was right above Virgil's, their noses almost touching, and that's when Virgil realised that Remus had fell on top of him, his hands resting either side of Virgil's body. He looked... confused. Scared.
Virgil shuffled out from under Remus, getting up into his feet, and helping Remus up afterwards. He glanced behind Remus, seeing that shadow demon again, escaping into the sky. It was gone. They were... They were safe.
Virgil threw his arms around Remus, but Remus pushed him back, moving away from him.
"I-"
"Remus," Virgil breathed. "You're..."
Remus brought a hand up to his arm, rubbing it gently. "I'm sorry. That- That was a bad idea."
"Yeah, no shit," Virgil said without thinking, immediately regretting it as he saw Remus flinch. "I- I mean... We should get out of here."
Remus was shaking. Actually shaking. Virgil had never known Remus to be so afraid of anything, afraid of himself.
"Y'know, fire and all," Virgil said, gesturing to the fire behind them, illuminating the night. Virgil stepped towards Remus, gently taking his hand. "Also, pretty sure the cops are coming. So, y'know, we should probably scram."
"I could have killed you," Remus said, quietly.
Virgil didn't quite know how to respond to that, so instead he just dragged Remus away from the scene, quickly picking up speed and running back towards his own house. Remus followed, but stayed quiet.
Before Virgil got home, he stopped, going to sit down on a bench on the side of the street. He pulled Remus close to him, hugging him tight. Remus' face was wet with tears, and the shaking had only gotten worse.
"No more summoning demons, yeah?" Virgil asked.
Remus chuckled lightly, but it came out as more of a sob. "Yeah. Agreed."