Well that was underwhelming…

What am I thinking? Of course it wouldn’t work- I knew that…

I just wanted to do something fun- something new that’s all…

There’s nothing wrong with that, is there?

I had insisted to the others that we were too old to be trickle-treating but now I wonder if I don't regret that…

My parents would be pissed if i woke them up sneaking but at least they don’t care about me being out late. Fortunately I know the house well enough to get through it without making a sound.

I crawled into bed and soon fell asleep, but I found myself awake what felt like only minutes later.

My room was dark, darker than it should be even at this time of night. I thought at first something might be wrong with my eyes but after a while of failing to adjust to the gloom, I started to feel that something else was off.

When I lifted the curtains to look outside I saw that beyond the window was nothing but black, as if my bedroom was floating inside a void.

This… can’t be real right?

A tiny sound made me shoot my head back around. There was a black patch in the corner, darker than anywhere else in the room, even than the shadow under my wardrobe.

It may as well have been a hole into the abyss outside.

It was much too large to be anything I could have tossed on the floor but… then what else could it be?

As I looked longer into the solid clump of shadow it seemed to grow even darker, my eyes may have been adjusting to everything else but that thing was no less distinguishable.

I had focused so much on the spot that It took me longer than a second to register the long dark hand rising up from beside my bed, right in front of my face.

A scream burst from the top of my lungs, but no sound left my mouth.

“I understand you’ve been trying to contact me.” Said a low voice from under my bed.

“w-what?”

“You attempted to beckon me tonight? Is that not correct?” the hand pointed at me. It was greater than that of any regular human though not by a lot, its digits however were very clearly unnaturally thin and disproportionately overlong.

Oh God.

“I-I well- I… I’m sorry please forgive I- I didn’t-“

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“-Shhhh” It pushed a finger close to my lips, not close enough to make contact but I could feel a chill radiating from it’s skin, if it even had skin. I prayed that it wouldn’t move any closer, somehow I knew more than anything in that instant that it would be very bad if it touched me.

“You misperformed the ritual…” It spoke again.

“P-pardon?”

“You must make the appropriate sacrifices in order to call me.”

Uh oh.

“Your offerings were… insufficient.”

“oh right, well y-you see-“ I began.

“-It was a matter of… technicality. You were quite close.” It interrupted me.

“Eh? seriously?”

“You have to make a sacrifice of vitae for the first summon.”

“I’m sorry, what is that?”

“Living material.”

Oh no…

“I see and eh… what does that entail exactly?”

“A living thing, or a significant part of one, ideally still alive or only recently dead.”

“What about Heather's meat?”

“The beast it came from died years ago.”

“oh… ew… I-I guess my blood wasn’t enough?”

“It was accepted as a separate requirement of the full ritual.”

“Wait, What’s the full ritual?”

“Your wish of course.”

“So I can… wish for anything?”

“Of course not. But I can give you what you want.”

“I… I’m sorry, what do you mean by that?”

It remained silent for a moment, its digits independently flexing as if in individual contemplation. There was almost certainly something very wrong with this hand even beyond its bizarre proportions, discerning whatever that was however; would be impossible from only its silhouette..

“Can I grant you wealth beyond imagination? No. Can I make you the apple of every man's eye? No. Can I take you back through history? No? Can I make your enemies squirm and writhe with the most exquisite suffering you can conjure in your imagination?”

It made a twisting gesture with its spindling fingers.

“Yes.”

“I uh… how exactly do I do that?”

“There are three requirements.” It held up three fingers.

“The first is a sacrifice of vitae, as aforementioned, the second is the offering of the self which you have fulfilled this with your blood, the third is the offering of the other, which in this case is a piece of the one you hold in contempt, the hated foe that you wish to curse.”

“How am I supposed to get her blood?”

“A hair will suffice.”

“Really? That’s all?”

“that is all.”

“there's really no other requirements?”

“you must also desire it, with your heart and soul, but I can tell that won’t be any trouble for you.”

“alright… well… that’s good…”

“If that is all, I’ll be… waiting…”

The dreadful hand receded below the side of my bed and as it did it seemed to draw what faint ambient light that remained with it, the pitch darkness swelling from the corners as it did so, like it was pulling on the edges of a shroud of pure blackness and casting it over everything.

And then I woke up.

Jesus christ…

I knew without a doubt that wasn’t an ordinary dream but one of the sort we had been warned about, an Onierius. A vision of communion with the unnatural world, most well associated with demons, or other unknown things from the Field.

Kestrel insisted we report this to their information offices but even if I hadn't been the one to invoke it in the first place, you wouldn't catch me dead running to them.