At one point before all of this had happened, Baal’s portal opening and us even finding the place this horrible ritual; Auntie M gave me the run down on the ritual itself. More often than not, there weren’t any real specifics that had to happen. For example; sacrifices didn’t all have to be women or virgins or whatever. It was yet again, all about the blood but usually just the quantity of it and the being it came out of. Humans were obviously the most sought after sacrifice subjects, but there were occasions when otherworldly beings and monsters blood was required. The blood of magic users however was a premium and funnily enough, Bruce had found one that worked as a barmaid in one of the local pubs.

The woman wasn’t a full blown magic user like myself, my Aunt or any body else from our Coven; but she was a medium. I could sense her brand of magic emitting from her; familiar; but different to mine. When Marcus managed to get her restraints off and get her on her feet, albeit a bit unsteady; that’s when Baal started to go ape shit. Bruce had gathered all the bodies he needed for his ritual which aligned with his own preference, which was young women. And now they had all gone thanks to us.

But unfortunately the ritual could still probably go ahead as there were a few of us in there who also happened to be magic users. Thankfully Arne had a good hold on Bruce, waiting for my Aunt to give him orders on what to do next. Bruce wasn’t going to last much longer as Baal’s energy which manifested as the “Blight,” was affecting him quicker than the rest of us. I don’t even think it was affecting me at all to be honest which was weird. I knew my Aunt was trying to hold out against the barrage of nasty, sickening energy coming from Baal and use her energy to to stop him from going balls to the wall, full on Super Saiyan or whatever; but Auntie M was expelling her energy at the same rate; if not more than Baal. There was every chance that she could knock herself out and that would leave us all up shit creek. She was essentially waiting for Baal to finish off his own minion Bruce, so she could use his death in her spell to boot Baal back in to hell and shut the portal.

‘Maddie, use your spell now. I can’t keep this up much longer.’

I heard my Aunt’s voice inside my head telling me to use the binding spell on Bruce who was now looking even more worse for wear. I could see he was chanting something, only weakly though as Arne still had him in a headlock, keeping him restrained. Arne was having some problems with the blight on his arms, but it also seemed like whatever Bruce was chanting was causing Arne a little discomfort too.

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I had to concentrate, really concentrate as I had to keep myself protected with my shield and do the rest of my spell at the same time. I already had my scrap of paper ready with Baal’s portal sigil drawn on it as best as I could manage, then taking out my penknife; I drew the blade along the palm of my left hand, squeezing it in to a fist so my blood would run on to the paper. I chanted “I bind you Bruce to this sigil” over and over until the lines drawn on the paper began to glow and glitter with a golden hue. The paper then erupted in to flames, turning to ash in my right hand. I grasped hold of some of the ashes then smeared the ash over the actual signal painted on the floor.

The floor shook when I made contact with it with my ashy hand. Baal’s head turned to me at breakneck speed, which threw me off guard. Then I could feel his energy increase yet again to the point where I really wanted to throw up, his eyes bored through me with a ferocity I’d never felt before. In fact it felt worse than a gaggle of the bitchy girls at school, eyeballing me for some reason on the way in to class or something. Like you had done something wrong any everybody was judging you over it. The demon right now was judging me for having the gall to even attempt to send him back from where he came. It made me hesitate for a moment, but then I remembered that what I was doing was really important. I carried on concentrating on my spells and looked at Bruce who was now an even worse colour than before.

Arne’s arms were continuing to gradually turn black but Auntie M was looking like she was on her last legs. I felt her energy beginning to dip slightly and her left eye was twitching as if she was struggling to keep it open.

I saw this happen for the briefest of seconds before yet another weird sensation came over me. I felt like I was being pulled backwards by my shoulders. Like someone or something was forcibly pulling me out of the way. I could feel delicate fingers grip my shoulders and tug me back with some force, but when this happened, I ended up looking at my body, with my hand still touching the sigil. I was out of my body, my spirit or my essence or whatever had been removed and was now viewing the whole scene from a few yards behind. Gathering my senses I spun round to see what was behind me only to come face to face, with my other Aunt.

‘Auntie… Monica?’

‘Hey sweetie, need a hand?’