Janice studied the notes scribbled in the margins of her father’s textbook, trying hard to concentrate, but the beastly demon displayed on the adjacent page constantly distracted her. She glanced nervously back and forth between the writing and the illustration.

“The demon will be completely subservient in return for the gift of life.” Janice read her father’s translations out loud, hoping that it would make more sense. “It will even sacrifice its own life for its master, however, it must be commanded to do so. It does not have a mind of its own.”

The last sentence was underlined in red ink.

How is something like this real? She wondered.

Janice’s mother had given herself the task of searching for and packing essential items into bags in the possibility the family would need to urgently flee.

Joseph had wanted to stay and witness the summoning of the demon, grumbling at his father’s lack of trust in him handling magic.

“Why do you get to do it?” He groaned.

But his sister sent him away, complaining that his whining was disturbing her.

Now alone, Janice scanned the translation of the summoning spell. She held her breath as she stared at the multiple accents scattered across the phrase. Slanting lines, straight lines, dots, curving marks and squiggles served to allocate certain sounds to certain letters, but to her, they were all arbitrary.

Unsure of which accent produced which sound, she attempted the spell anyways.

Everyone is counting on me.

A flash of light sparked on the floor in the middle of her room and grey smoke began emanating as if a fire had started. Janice clasped her hands together under her chin as she anticipated the appearance of a great being. She choked on the thick smoke that filled the room. Her eyes watered and her throat parched, yet her eyes refused to close and her mouth was frozen in a teeth baring smile, waiting for the sight of the devilish demon that would be bound by a contract to serve and protect her.

The smoke thinned, revealing a slender silhouette. Janice’s heart thumped against her chest.

I did it, she marvelled.

But as the smoke dissipated, her jaw dropped and her hands flopped to her sides. A thin skeleton stood in the middle of her room. It tilted its head and Janice jolted back, swallowing a gasp.

The skeleton scanned the room, silently staring at the stranger before looking down at its own bones. It yelped and twisted its knees together, covering its pelvis with its bony hands.

“I’m naked!” It barked.

Janice was too shocked to respond.

I failed…

“Hello?” The skeleton bellowed. It crouched slightly, allowing for one hand to be removed from his pelvis to wave in the air, attempting to grab the attention of the seemingly unresponsive woman.

Janice blinked at the scene before her, processing the fact that a talking skeleton had appeared when she had tried to summon an incredible demon.

“This is really strange, but, hi. My name is Terrence and apparently I’m a skeleton.” He scanned himself up and down. “And I need clothes!” He snapped.

Janice jumped from the unexpected shout.

“R-Right,” she stuttered before bolting out of her room to find clothes for the skeleton.

The young woman returned with a traditional black tuxedo that used to belong to her father.

“He grew out of it but refuses to let go of it in hopes that my brother will one day fit it,” she said as she threw it at him, averting her eyes while he dressed. She knew there was nothing to see, but his obvious discomfort also made her uncomfortable.

“This looks horrible,” Terrence sulked.

Janice turned to see the ill-fitting tuxedo sagging around the skeleton’s scrawny figure.

“Well, what do you want me to do?” Janice scowled and rolled her eyes. “I already got you clothes like you asked.”

“Find me something else,” the creature demanded.

“Nothing else will fit you here,” the girl hissed. She didn’t have time to be arguing with this thing. She had conducted the summoning spell wrong and needed to attempt it again.

Her brother burst into the doorway, eyes wide from disbelief.

“No way,” he laughed. “You did the spell wrong!”

“Get out, Joseph.” Janice gritted her teeth, humiliated.

Joseph ignored the skeleton, walking right past it - its presence was proof of his sister’s failure - and snatched the book from Janice.

“Let me try it. I’m sure I’ll get it right,” he smirked.

Janice snatched back.

“Leave me alone. Dad told me to do it, not you. Let me concentrate.” She clutched the book against her chest, refusing to let him near it.

Her little brother turned his attention to the skeleton, intending to poke fun at her failure.

“What is it even good for? A science display?” Joseph laughed as he jabbed the creature’s ribs, eliciting a small yelp.

Joseph stepped back, stunned.

“It’s alive!”

Janice rolled her eyes. She didn’t have time for this.

“It is alive and its name is Terrence,” the skeleton said.

Joseph rushed towards the exit.

“I don’t care.” He blurted, visibly uneasy. “I’ll give you one more try at the spell, Janice. If you get it wrong again, it’s my turn. I’ll get it right for sure.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Joseph’s eyes darted to Terence one last time before leaving and closing the door behind him.

The skeleton turned to face the stranger sitting on her bed devouring the information in the book and ignoring him.

He placed his hands on his hips. “What am I doing here?”

Still, he was ignored.

Terrence walked up to the girl and slammed his palm against the page she was reading, startling her. Her deep brown eyes met his empty eye sockets.

“Why did you bring me here?” His voice was low and almost threatening.

Janice swallowed the lump in her throat as her eyes fixated on the dark pits in the skeleton’s skull.

“I-I didn’t mean to,” she stuttered. “It was a mistake. I tried to summon a demon.”

“Well, put me back,” Terrence demanded.

“Put you back where?”

“In the damn ground.”

Janice pursed her lips and felt her whole body tense.

“What? Never seen a dead guy before?”

She looked away. She never even began to think about where the skeleton was plucked from. She felt her pulse rattle in her fingertips at the thought of the skeleton resting in a grave before she had summoned him here.

“I’m sorry,” Janice started, failing to find the right words to say.

“Saying sorry won’t cut it, unfortunately.”

Terrence stole the book from Janice and flipped through the pages aimlessly.

“Give it back!” She jumped up and tried to grab it back, but Terrence swerved away and continued to scan through the illustrations.

“If you brought me here using this book then you can put me back with it.” Frustration flecked his voice more obviously now.

Janice reached for the book again, but again the skeleton dodged.

“I’m sorry but I don’t know how to. I’ve never conducted magic before,” Janice said.

“Magic!” The skeleton scoffed, throwing the book onto the ground. “Do you know how ludicrous that sounds? Yet I have no other explanation as to how I am here as a skeleton right now.”

Janice gently picked up her father’s book as Terrence paced around the room with his head in his hands.

“Please try and calm down,” Janice said nervously.

“Calm down?” Terrence strode up to her. “I’ve been lying dead in the dirt for the past ten years before you decided to bring me here.” He barked. “You try being summoned by magic as a living skeleton after being dead for as long as I have. Calm down? I never could have thought that magic was real or that I would be raised from the dead. How could I possibly calm down?”

The girl’s bottom lip trembled and she bursted into tears. Terrence slackened, taken aback by the sudden outburst.

“I don’t know how any of this happened, okay?” She cried, bringing her hands to her face. “I didn’t know magic existed either, but now everything is going wrong and I am trying to keep it together for my family. Terrible things are happening and I don’t know what I’m doing or how to stop it.”

Terrence felt a pang of guilt in his hollow chest.

“I’m sorry I did the spell wrong,” Janice continued with a sniff. “I didn’t mean to take you from your resting place and I’m sorry I don’t know how to undo it.”

The skeleton let the girl cry for a mixture of reasons including not knowing how to console a distraught stranger and understanding that she might not want a creature like him to be near her. Although, he would not be this creature if it weren’t for her.

Janice suddenly straightened up and dried her cheeks with the back of her hand.

“Whatever,” she muttered, calming herself down and sitting back on her bed.

She couldn’t waste time. Janice located the page containing information about skeletal beings and scanned through her father’s translations. There was still hope to return Terrence back to his resting place. She flipped through the pages before reaching protruding remains of a ripped page with a note saying ‘missing page’.

“Okay, so I’ve accidentally taken you from your grave…” She began.

“Oh really?” Terrence seethed sarcastically. “I didn’t even notice.”

Janice tried to ignore both him and the guilt she felt in her chest and continued reading.

“There is no information here about how to undo the spell. But it does say that the journey from the underworld may have linked you with unexpected abilities.” Janice looked up from the book. “Alright, show me what you’ve got.”

She hoped that if he was powerful enough, he would suffice in place of the demon.

“I don’t have to show you anything,” Terrence responded.

The woman groaned. “I can’t stand you!”

“I didn’t ask for you to stand me!” The skeleton shot back.

“Can’t you at least try to be nice?”

“Oh, I’m sorry for being a little crabby after being summoned as a living skeleton when I should be dead in the dirt.” If Terrence had eyeballs, they would be rolling.

Janice clicked her tongue in disdain, a harsh “tsk” sound escaping between her teeth. She turned to the demon page and looked at her father’s translation again, trying to remember how she pronounced the spell the first time. She inhaled shakily and uttered the phrase with different accents compared to the initial cast, but the skeleton asked her a question during her incantation, resulting in her attention diverting for a split second and her pronunciation to diverge from what was intended.

She immediately scowled. “What do you want?” She hissed at him.

“I just want to know what you’re doing.” After a moment of hesitation, he spoke again. “And why your skin is turning purple.”

“What?”

Janice examined her arms to find her usual tan gradating into periwinkle. Jolting up, she used her hands to swipe at her arms, as if attempting to brush the colour from her skin.

“What is going on?” Janice’s voice squeaked with panic.

But the skeleton began laughing, clutching at where his stomach would have been underneath the tuxedo.

“Don’t just stand there and laugh!” She barked. “Do something!”

But Terrence continued to laugh. “What am I supposed to do?”

The girl could feel tears welling up in her eyes again. Nothing was going her way tonight.

“This is your fault,” she said.

“My fault?” Terrence’s laughter began to die. “How?”

“If you didn’t ask dumb questions and distracted me while I was doing the spell, I would have summoned the demon by now.”

She shoved the illustration in his face for him to see. Terrence’s bony fingers brushed against the top of the book, gently pushing it down so that he could see the stranger’s frustrated expression.

He tried his best to be serious, but the colour of the girl’s skin combined with her knotted eyebrows and frown made her seem like a cartoon character. His attempts to conceal his laughter only resulted in uncontrollable howls.

If she wasn’t so purple, Janice’s cheeks probably would have been red.

“Shut up,” she commanded. “You are such a nuisance. I can’t stand you.”

Terrence inhaled deep breaths to compose himself. Once successful, he responded. “I didn’t ask for you to stand me.”

“Can’t you at least try to cooperate?” Janice begged.

When the skeleton opened his mouth to answer, he was cut off.

“You know what? Forget it. I don’t want to hear another word from you. The best thing you can do is stay silent. Do you hear me? Not a single word.” Janice waved a finger at him, as if she was lecturing a naughty child, and then pressed her finger to her closed lips.

For a moment, Terrence simply stared, but soon one hand was over his mouth and the other was held up defensively as if to swear he would never speak again.

Satisfied, Janice attempted the spell again, changing the accents once more.

“Third time lucky,” she muttered.

The two waited in silence. Was this how a frightening demon entered the living world? Janice still held onto hope until Terrence finally spoke.

“A bubble,” he said, pointing to the ceiling where a bubble was gently floating.

Janice scowled. She had failed the summoning spell yet again.

“I told you not to speak.” She shot at Terrence, deciding to take her frustration out on him.

He shrugged. “Then who would tell you that you’ve changed to a darker shade of purple?”

Wide eyed, Janice could feel the anger in her chest build as she saw he was right.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She shouted.

“You told me not to speak.” He shook his head in disbelief. “I was just doing what you told me to do.”

The girl held her hands out in front of her, flipping between her palms and the back of her hand. She was convinced she looked like an eggplant. Still, the bubble made its way towards the ground.

“Have some common sense.” Janice barked at him. “Do you keep your mouth shut only because I tell you to?”

“Seems like you want me to do whatever it is you say.” He shot back.

Janice strode up to the skeleton and looked up at him. “Excuse me?”

“Speak when you want me to speak. Don’t speak when you don’t want me to speak. Well I’m sorry Your Highness -” He bowed his head, crossing one arm over his abdomen while the other hung in the air; exaggerated and mocking. “I’ve been a bad subject and will listen to your every command from this moment forward.”

He shot upright angrily, popping the bubble with his skull without noticing that it had floated so close. The iridescent bulb released a fine powder upon bursting that sprinkled down onto the skeleton and the girl. Janice’s legs suddenly became weak, dragging her to the ground. She clutched onto Terrence’s lapel for balance but her eyes began to close as an immense tiredness overcame her. Terrence’s legs finally gave way and the two went crashing to the ground, falling asleep on top of each other as the sleeping dust settled on their crowns.