Chapter Text
“I don’t think I want to do this any more.” Karl’s voice was much more confident than he felt, he was sure that his tone would give away just how little he really wanted to do this. It was a terrible idea, anyone could see that. But of course, he’d been roped into helping with their little mission.
The blonde beside him rolled his eyes, pushing up the sleeves on his horrific green hoodie. The thing most definitely needed to be washed, unless the man owned twenty of the same one. “Oh, come on. It isn’t going to work anyway, we got the book off of eBay. You really think that a demon is going to answer us?”
“I think you’re being stupid.” Karl couldn’t help the shiver that ran down his spine as he saw the sickly sharp knife Dream was holding in his hand. How the hell had he gotten roped into this??
Oh, that’s right. He was a good friend. A good friend that was willing to do pretty much anything for his stupid friends. Even if that meant trying to summon a demon for Dream’s stupid YouTube channel. Even if it didn’t work, it would still make for a funny video. Dream seemed convinced that the book he got off of eBay wouldn’t do anything, but the book itself gave Karl a creepy feeling.
It seemed to be made of real leather, thick pages with smeared brown and black ink. It may have been his imagination, but Karl swore up and down that it was cold to the touch, although that didn’t make any sense. It was probably just him being freaked out by all of this.
There was a lot of preparation that Karl had let his friend do before it came time for the actual summoning. Dream had finished the circle in chalk a while ago, the two having had been spending the last few minutes psyching themselves up to get on with the next step of the process. The pages of the book were open to a page that Karl could barely read, only the words “lesser” and “double” being abundantly clear. Dream had picked that one, a major demon wasn’t anything to play around with.
“I think you’re being dramatic. Come on, we only have a few minutes to do this before time runs out. I don’t want to have to start all over.” Holding the knife in his dominant hand he reached out with the other, holding it over the chalk circle. With a deep exhale and a wince, blood was dripping into the circle. Dark droplets splattering to the ground in an almost hypnotic way. “Alright, your turn.”
Karl already knew that he couldn’t do it, so he held his non dominant hand out to Dream. The blonde counted down from three, and Karl felt an intense sting across his palm. Immediately making a fist to fill the pain, he watched with twisted curiosity as his own blood dripped into the circle, mixing with Dream’s.
Dream turned to the next page, beginning to recite the Latin as well as he could. It sounded choppy, not at all what Karl had seen in other YouTube videos. He just hoped that this would be enough to get Dream to live him alone for a while, he was never really the type to get involved in the supernatural.
When Dream had read the last line, time seemed to freeze. Whether it was his imagination, or the fact that they were in Dream’s basement, the temperature had most definitely dropped. The two friends stood in silence, barely breathing, until it hit the five minute mark. Then Dream let out a sigh, setting the knife down on the table near their set up.
Turning off the video recording he ran his hand through his hair, glancing toward Karl with a frown. “Well, that was a bust. I guess it really was worthless. Waste of a perfectly good hundred dollars.” Despite the fact that the man had said he didn’t expect it to work, Karl knew he was disappointed.
Karl let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding, still putting pressure on his bleeding hand. “Y-yeah, total bust. Let’s go upstairs man, this is really giving me the creeps.”
“Aw, can Karl not handle a little bit of a spook?” Dream was grinning, but there was an obvious disappointment in his eyes that Karl didn’t want to think about. An actual demon in Dream’s house would have been actual hell, and he wasn’t ready to deal with that.
“It’s freezing down here, dude! I need to bandage my hand and get some pizza in me before I die!” Karl was already leading the way out of the basement, not able to shake the feeling of eyes on him. This would be the last time he’d help with something like that, he knew. His anxiety already wasn’t great, and the thought that he had just invited an actual demon to be near him just heightened it. What would they have done, had something happened? They weren’t prepared to fight a literal demon!
Dream grumbled the whole way, shutting the basement door and picking his phone up from where it was on the kitchen table. “The usual?” He looked sad, as though someone had just kicked his cat in front of him. But Karl was grateful that nothing had happened. The eerie feeling was still in his gut, weighing him down and making him feel almost sick. But pizza did sound good.
He nodded his head as he looked at his own phone, seeing a few missed texts from Sapnap, their long time friend. He hadn’t been able to do the video with Dream, so Karl had been begged to do it. He knew he’d have nightmares that night, and for a long time afterwords.
“It’ll be here in thirty.” Dream set his phone down on the counter, turning to Karl. “Mario party while we wait?”
Karl grinned for what felt like the first time that evening, hands already reaching for a controller.
Karl jerked awake, heart pounding and head swimming. His breathing was fast, and he knew that if he didn’t settle himself down, he’d work himself into a panic attack. In for eight, out for four. Or was it in for five, out for eight? Fantastic, it was currently in for one, out for one.
His thoughts were interrupted by a noise coming from somewhere else in his house, making him freeze in place. He didn’t have any animals, he lived alone, and no one had a spare key to his house. He was being robbed, or maybe even worse.
His growing panic surfaced as a fight or flight response, the man getting out of bed slowly and grabbing the baseball bat he kept by his bed. Truth be told he didn’t even play ball, but he was incredibly paranoid on a good day. And it seemed as though he was right to do so.
His bedroom door creaked slightly as he opened it, making Karl cringe inwardly. The hallway was illuminated, more noise being able to be heard with the door opened. The kitchen light was on, he could tell. He really didn’t have much to steal, some basic game systems and a nice tv, but no jewelry or cash laying around. But if his snacks went missing, he would start swinging.
Bat resting against his shoulder, Karl crept down the hallway, letting out a breath. He should have called the police, he knew that. But he didn’t, so here he was.
Tiptoeing in the dark while someone stole his cheese puffs. He moved as quickly as he could, turning the corner and raising the bat above his head, ready to bring it down on-
A teenager. The kid couldn’t be over 16, wavy brown hair bobbing as he chewed. A hand came up, waving quickly before going back to his task, which was reaching into the cabinets and frowning when he apparently found nothing that looked good to him. “Hate to tell you, boss man, but you’ve got shit food.”
And uh. Okay. That was certainly something. It was the middle of the night, yet the child that broke into his home didn’t seem fazed by that in the slightest. Maybe Karl’s brain was short circuiting, maybe he was still dreaming. Then the kid grinned at him, and there’s no way in hell that those teeth should be that sharp, holy shit.
“You good? I already ate your pop tarts, you should buy more tomorrow.” Then he jumped, sitting on the counter with a thump as his feet his the cabinet.
And Karl was a very strong, very smart man. So when he turned and ran from the room, it was absolutely planned. Not from fear. His bedroom door slammed and locked, he slid down the door, knees tucked close to his chest. His phone was on the side table by his bed, charging where it always was and out of reach.
Another noise sounded from the kitchen, making Karl jump and let out a gasp. This wasn’t happening, there was no way in hell. He didn’t realize he was completely frozen, eyes staring at nothing in pure fear for whatever was in his kitchen. Until a hand settled on his shoulder, making him jerk out of his thoughts with a scream.
“Hey, hey! Calm down, I’m not here to hurt you!” The teenager was somehow in his bedroom, despite the door being locked and him still sitting against it.
Karl took a shuddering breath, pulling his arm away from the kid before speaking. “Why, why are you here? What the hell are you?!”
The kid tilted his head, reminding Karl vaguely of a curious puppy. “Big man, you’re the one that summoned me. I should be asking you that question.”
The weight on Karl’s chest was enough to make it hard to breathe, staring at the boy in the darkened room. “I. You, uh. I summoned you?” His voice was shaky, and he was on the verge of tears, and for the love of god, there was something in his house that was decidedly not human.
“Yeah!” The boy reached above Karl, making him flinch, only to turn the overhead light on. He looked almost sorry, like he felt bad for something. “I didn’t mean to scare you, I was just really hungry.”
Karl stared into green eyes that looked a little too animalistic to be human. Slit pupils that reminded Karl of a cat, watching its prey before attacking. “Are you here to hurt me?” His heart beat was in his ears, certainly not doing anything for his pounding headache.
“I wouldn’t be here if not for you, big man.” He shrugged, as if he was also not sure why he was there. “I’m Tubbo, by the way.”
He studied Tubbo for a moment, before licking his lips. “Karl Jacobs.” He sat up more against the door, starting to stand, but his legs were still weak.
Tubbo reached a hand out, which Karl pointedly didn’t take. “It’s nice to meet you, Karl.” He glanced around before sitting on Karl’s bed, staring at him from the mound of blankets.
“Why aren’t you with Dream? He did the spell as well, it was his idea.“ Maybe he wasn’t making sense. Maybe he still wasn’t sure that this was real.
“Dream? Oh, that must be where Tommy is!” Tubbo’s voice seemed a bit lighter at the mention of the name, not that it made Karl feel any better. “We’re a package deal, you summoned me, and your friend summoned Tommy!”
Karl just stared blankly, making Tubbo sigh and start again. “Your blood summoned me. Tommy was summoned by someone else’s. That’s why it took double the blood, did you just skip over that part or something?”
Karl was finally able to stand, watching the demon’s every movement. “We uh. Just kind of skimmed over it?”
Tubbo’s smile dropped, an unreadable expression taking over his features. “You just skimmed it?”
Karl nodded slowly, watching as Tubbo ran a hand down his face. “I fucking hate humans. You’re all stupid, you know that right?” Before Karl could respond Tubbo picked up his phone from the night stand, the phone unlocking as soon as he touched it.
“Call your friend, I miss Tommy.” Then the phone was flying at Karl, the man barely catching it before it fell to the hardwood floor.
The contact was already up, how Tubbo had done that so quickly, he had no clue. But he nodded, knowing better than to argue with a literal demon. Before he could hit dial though, his phone began vibrating, Dream’s name popping up on screen.
He answered with a shaky hello, flinching when a crash sounded from the other side of the line. Dream hissed something between grit teeth, before clearing his throat.
“Hey, Karl. I think we have a problem.”