"Sandwich?" Oh, right, the girl had demanded he conjure a sandwich.

"Of course, I demand a sandwich! The book said—hold on." The girl knelt down, grabbed the giant tome at her feet, and started flipping through the pages. "Yes, see, right here! It says that a summoned demon must perform a single task while confined to the bounds of the summoning circle, after which the summoner can bargain for other favors."

Jonathan peered down at the page under the girl's pointing finger. It didn't look like any language he was familiar with, although it could also have just been a style of calligraphy he didn't know. The layout of the unfamiliar words was at least similar to English, in that they ran horizontally across the page from top to bottom.

He had a really bad feeling he knew what "confined to the bounds of the summoning circle" meant. The girl was demanding he magically procure a sandwich before the invisible wall would let him go. "I don't have a sandwich. Can you please ask for something else? I could tell you a really cool secret."

The girl shot to her feet and stamped her foot. "No! I want a sandwich!" She drooped a little, indignation sloughing off her like a dropped cloak. "I'm really hungry."

Well that would certainly twinge the old heart-strings...if he weren't trapped in an invisible, magical circle created by pink chalk. "Maybe I could help with that if I could leave this circle, but I can't!"

"Of course you can't! You haven't conjured me that sandwich yet!"

"I can't conjure a sandwich! I already told you, I'm not a demon!"

The girl stared at him with suspicion. "Then why did you get summoned by a demonic summoning ritual? You can't fool me, vile demon! Now give me that sandwich!"

Jonathan mussed his hair wildly with both hands. "You are so annoying! I'm not a demon! I'm a normal guy who just got summoned by mistake! I CAN'T CONJURE SANDWICHES!"

"Well, have you ever tried?"

That brought him up short. He had not, in fact, ever attempted to conjure a sandwich out of nothing. "Why would I...no, I've never tried to conjure a sandwich! I've never tried to conjure anything! Magic isn't real!"

The girl eyed him and the summoning circle he stood on. "Riiiight. Well, I've never conjured anything myself, but according to this book demons can perform magic by tapping into the power of the Infernal Abyss. How about you try that? Because until I get my sandwich, you're not going anywhere."

"You want a sandwich made out of Infernal—you know what, fine, if I give it a try, will you ask me for something I can actually do?"

"I don't care what it's made out of, as long as it's a delicious sandwich!"

Argh, but this was stupid! Jonathan glared at the kid, and then tried to put her out of his mind. Okay, how was he going to sell this whole "I tried to conjure you a sandwich, but it failed" thing? He shut his eyes to block out the annoying vision of the little girl who was now standing arms crossed, tapping her foot with impatience. Let's see, if he were magicking a sandwich into being, he'd probably need to hold out his hand to catch it, so he stuck out his left hand, palm up. And maybe he'd need to focus the "energies of the Infernal Abyss" or whatever, so he stuck out his right hand a little above his left, palm down. He kind of wanted to pull his arms in, then thrust them out and shout "hadoken!" but she'd probably just add soup to her sandwich order. Wasn't worth it.

He'd probably need to stand here for a little bit, make it look like he'd made an effort. Jonathan furled his eyebrows. What to do while he waited for nothing to happen, though?

Hm, he supposed he had theoretically been exposed to the Infernal Abyss, although he couldn't remember it. Something had sure done a number on him, although how just looking at something could lead to coughing up blood, feeling like he'd run a marathon the previous day, and causing a complete black-out was beyond him.

Thoughts of the Infernal Abyss and whatever he'd just gone through when he'd gazed into it caused a sudden rush of panic and adrenaline that set his arms shaking, and Jonathan immediately dropped his arms and opened his eyes, gaze flitting about in a frantic effort to verify that he was still standing in the attic.

"Sorry, can't do it. Ask for something else."

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

The girl frowned. "No! You must conjure me a sandwich, demon! I know I felt something just then!"

Jonathan flat out growled. "Damn it, I just told you that I can't!"

"You didn't even try! Do what you just did, but keep it up this time."

"I can't—fine! Whatever! But when this fails, because I'm not a demon then you have to ask me something else! I want out of this damn circle."

Jonathan closed his eyes once more, stuck out his hands, and turned his thoughts to the Infernal Abyss. What had he seen down there, anyw—adrenaline spiked yet again, sending his heart hammering, but for the sake of being able to honestly say he tried, he focused on the space between his hands and imagined a sandwich there. Nice, crispy bacon, sweet tomato, lettuce, and toasted bread. And maybe some extra bacon for him, because he was feeling surprisingly hungry. Evidently getting torn out of your original reality and summoned to some whack-a-doo magical one filled with demons and pre-teen magicians took it out of a person.

He was having a difficult time concentrating, what with struggling with his fight or flight instincts, but then something red flared in the darkness behind his shut eyes.

It was the strangest sensation. Normally when his eyes were shut he couldn't see anything other than the occasional mote of color drifting across the backs of his eyelids. Now, though, he swore he could see something almost like dark red smoke drifting upwards several feet in front of himself. It was incredibly disorienting, but he tried to watch it and as he focused, it began shifting towards him as if a breeze were blowing it about, even though the air in the attic was completely still. Jonathan watched the smoke, curiosity starting to outweigh his panic.

Right up until it brushed against him and a raging torrent of pain rocketed through his entire body, sucking up the red smoke in an instant before leaving him staggering and desperately trying not to drop the sudden weight that had materialized between his hands.

Jonathan opened his eyes and stared in disbelief at the giant sandwich he was holding. What in the—

"Finally, my sandwich!" The girl rocketed right over her painstakingly drawn chalk marks, scuffing many of them into oblivion, and grabbed the sandwich out of Jonathan's hands before plopping down in front of him and immediately starting to scarf it down. He barely had the chance to notice that whatever was in the sandwich, it was decidedly not a delicious BLT like he'd been imagining.

That wasn't the important thing, though. She'd broken the circle, which had to have meant…success! He was able to exit the chalk marks that had magically confined him before.

Oof, though he was feeling like he'd been run over by a truck or something. He barely made it to a nearby trunk that stood just outside of the mess of chalked symbols before collapsing into a seat on its top.

He took a few moments just recovering. He'd…just done magic, hadn't he? He wasn't really sure how, or why the sandwich didn't look anything like what he'd pictured, or why it had hurt so damn much, but he had undeniably created a sandwich from nothing.

That…was actually pretty cool. He wasn't eager to do so again, because hey, pain wasn't his thing, but would he be able to just summon food if he was ever in a real pinch? That was amazing. Though that red smoke stuff he'd seen with his eyes closed was a little concerning. It was hard to tell without any reference, but it felt like it was emanating approximately from where the girl had been standing. That meant that maybe he wasn't actually able to perform magic on his own, after all.

He might be stuck here, but at least he wasn't going to starve.

…nope, not going there! That giant head's revelation that this was now his new world—and that he would end up horrifically, stink-ily dead if this little girl banished him—were not things he was going to be able to handle thinking about without majorly freaking out. Which…he kind of felt himself starting to do. Distraction time! He looked around the attic, which was still cluttered beyond belief. Not much help there, although from this new vantage he could see that there was at least a way out of the attic; beyond the chalked summoning symbols there was a ladder lying next to a closed trap door.

That was a bit weird. Why would the little girl have pulled the ladder up after herself? It looked pretty heavy, too; that couldn't have been easy to do.

He needed some answers, if only his summoner weren't busy stuffing her—oh, she was done. Wow, she really ploughed though that sandwich with gusto.

The girl burped mightily and flopped backward, sending up a poof of pink chalk dust. "That. Was. The literal best."

"So glad you liked it," said Jonathan acerbically. "Now, you owe me some answers, little girl." He paused briefly in thought. "Also some clothes."

The girl sat up like a mousetrap shutting. "Oh, right! We haven't made a proper contract yet! I'm sorry, but I really needed that sandwich."

Jonathan stared at her, puzzled. "Contract? I just said, I want answers and clothes."

"Just because I'm hungry doesn't mean I'm dumb!" the girl exclaimed. "I'm not giving you a thing until we've hashed out our contract."

"What, seriously? You summoned me here for no reason except to extort a sandwich out of me, and you're not even willing to let me get dressed and give me some answers?!"

The girl stood up and glowered at him. "I know your ways, you wily demon! Just because you look like a scrawny old guy doesn't mean you're not still a demon through and through!"

"Scrawny…old?! And I'm not a demon, you recalcitrant munchkin! You summoned me here from another world! I'm just a normal guy!"

The girl rolled her eyes. "Sure you are. So then how did you harness the energies of the Infernal Abyss to conjure me a sandwich just now?"

Jonathan wanted to scream, but he was the adult here. He wasn't going to scream. "Look—"

"Plus there's no way my summoning circle had enough power to pull someone in from another world. How would that even work? I don't think even a magister of the Fractal Gardens could manage something like that, and this is my first ever demon summoning. You're just trying to take advantage of me because you're a demon!" She stuck her hands on her hips and looked triumphant.

Jonathan screamed.