Chapter Carlos 2

An old friend has returned to the city and Carlos infiltrates a party in hopes of stopping a demon.

Two days ago.

The suit, he had picked out from Cavelier’s; an expensive store with expensive tastes. It was brown on the vest and a shade darker to black on the inside shirt that it mostly covered. The harmony brought out an attempt at color while still championing “formal” and “black tie.” The undershirt comforted his skin when he had first tried it on. The tie itself was silk and was a black void. It squared off at the shoulders and ran down sleek on every measurment he could get out of it.

“I can’t tell if the suit is wearing you, or you are wearing it. The two of you compliment each other so well.” It was a voice of nostalgia. He had picked a similar outfit at his prom when he took Anna out. It was the night he lost his virginity to her. This outfit brought it back to him.

“I will take it.”

The resturaunt they were to meet in was brightly dim. The music on the piano playing in the far corner near the open glass walls was describing a sunset. The waiter in an old fashion suit walked with trays of expensive wine and champeign. His feet clicked softly on the reflective wood floor. Each table sat several feet from another allowing for maximal movement should any couple wish to dance without intueruption. Outside, when it was night, two glass doors would open and the sounds of a well designed artificial waterfall would resonate in the area.

The House of Charlemagne it was called and it two stories tall without an actual second story. It was built not that long ago but quickly became an establishment in the old city. Any good plate would get a customer fifty dollars per person. The waiters licked their lips at the tips they hoped they would receive and the musician hoped some day someone would pay for his art school tuition. He was lucky the violin and strings trio was not playing this night. Business usually picked up by sunset and continued into the long hours of the early morning.

Carlos came here partially to impress his ex, the reason for that he did not really understand, and the other was the beautiful rib-eye steak that he could hear his stomach calling out for. There was the sound of the occasional claning of silverware and plate and some polite and posh conversation thrown in. He closed his eyes, and he felt the auras of those around him. His trade craft, he loved to read people. He slipped in to an elderly couple. Their energy was worn out, a bond absolute but it was tapped of life.

“Another affair Harold?”

“She was just a pool cleaner?”

“Let me guess Harold, she bent over and her pool cleaning shorts said, ‘we must fornicate immediately or I will die.’”

“Not die…”

“Harold, I must insist you keep it in your pants. We are hosting a party next week, who knows what the Mandell’s would say should they hear of this.”

Too much investigating. Carlos pulled back as quick as he could from that conversation. Anna was late. He found himself again closing his eyes. He tuned his fingers as if they were antenaea to get just the right frequency. His fingers rolled up, and then he rolled one down. The colors and energy were bleeding out of his radar and dancing around them.

He sensed some fire, passion. It was a one night stand featuring a wealthy lady and a younger lad who just wanted to get a job. She was lusting so hard he could almost feel it threaten to invade his own aura. The young lad was nervous and full of a false hope that his life would be looking up. Shame was in his future.

Another switch. Two people, servers were talking about a basketball game. They were close. Their auras matched and overlapped with a yellowish green. The two servers had the same personality type and were clearly best friends. Carlos remembered when he, Jules, and Lawrence were like that. Such a sad thought, he felt himself growing more distant to Jules with each year.

What was worse was the distance with Anna.

“Your table is over here ma’am “

He noted the name, and got mad at himself for speaking the devil’s name and she came. Anna had a polite smile. It was accentuated by her hair style of the day; dark hints of azure and curls. Her outfit said she was unapproachable but the flash of brilliance in her eyes were betrayals of the former concept. She didn’t wear much make up today. It made him happy. He was used to her being dolled up, hiding her insecurities.

Did she not care? Or was this a sign that she did not need to be pretty for him? He did not know and was wondering how he should stand up for her. He pushed out his chair and got up. His eyes met her. Her eyes averted for a split second, and she wrapped her arms with him. They lingered for a second more than they usually do as he hugged her. He took it as a sign that she might be friendly tonight.

She sat down with a smile, and he followed as well. They both sat there for a moment of silence. Sometimes he found their silences comforting, sometimes ackward. He never knew how she was feeling about them, but he decided to always be calm and never overanalyze.

“I always told you minimal make up was the way to go.” Carlos opened up the line of conversation.

“You always say that, half the time I wear an extra layer just to drive you crazy.” She did a light giggle.

“Yeah, but I always think its your inability to pick a look. I mean your hair right now is a perfect example.”

She grabbed her hair and gave him a bit of a glare. “This, is one of your favorite colors and mine. How dare you mock me for this.”

He shook his hand in front of his face fending off the notion that he was insulting her. “That is not what I meant. You just like changing your looks all the time and I perfer the old you.”

She laughed heartily, the sound almost deafening. He did not understand why. “I saw the once over you did when I walked in the room. I guess I nailed it. And you want to make jokes about my apearance. Let’s be honest. If we were not here, in this room, right now, you would totally want to bend this,” she playfully motions across her body, “over and do things unforgivable to the common man. I know that look. That was the look that used to say, ‘Its go time!”

Carlos started to blush and the sheer level of the giggles she tried to contain were set free on the world. It made her laugh more because his tan skin was somehow managing to get extremely red even for his strange standards.

There was then another silence between them. It was a nicer silence, perhaps more for him who needed to cool down after being embarrassed by her strategic teasing. The music was beginning to get a decent sound in on their non conversation. It lingered and swayed and Carlos seemed to be at peace. If he allowed himself to admit, this was his vision of heaven. He wouldn’t let himself admit such; music, fine dining, and the company of a beautiful woman on a nice night as heaven. Anna herself though seemed to withdraw for a moment. She picked up a glass of ice water and began to gaze in a trance like state as she shook it.

“Penny for thoughts?” Carlos asked nicely.

She just smiled and stopped. For a brief moment, Anna looked like she wanted to lean in and start a conversation but she decided to stay neutral.

The waiter moved into position, “Can I start either of you with a nice drink? We have a lovely wine menu and…”

Anna was blunt in interrupting him, “Red, something from the 1940’s if you have one. I am sure you do.”

“I will actually have a rum and coke if you don’t mind.” Carlos shrugged. “If that isn’t too much alcohol for me.”

He took their wine menus from them. “I understand. I will be back with your drinks in a minute. Until then.” The waiter bowed and began to walk away.

“Your obsessions with the fourties is the strangest thing in the known world.”

“World War two came to its end, the era of the cold war was set to begin and everything that lead to todays world was set in that era. Six degrees of seperation, if you want to look at history and see pieces of it, I feel that is where we can be most connected with it.”

“But you could say that about any decade. Like the hippy movement of the 60’s and 70’s. The attempt of the future is now mindset of the 80’s, the digitalization of the 90’s and the past modern decade.”

“And all that is very well, but had the 40’s gone another direction, we could be living in a completely different world.”

“We could say that again about the 60’s the 70’s and the…”

She was speaking faster with each interjection, “But the 40’s was the birth of the post imperialism world. It was a mindset that had been apart of history since the dawn of man. Yes, you have the cold war after, but…”

“So you want to get drunk to an era that only you feel is the end of man’s imperialism? That is f*****g stupid.” Carlos began to laugh.

“If you were a fan of spiderman, you would want to drink to the 60’s.” Clearly that was a jab at Carlos’s childhood but it was felt like a low blow and he would not feel the need to stand for such offense.

“The sixties also saw the rise of the X-men, it was a great decade for comic books and the world of super heroes!”

Anna casted her glass of water aside and gave him a stare down. She then sat up proper, composed herself, put her napkin in her lap. She was acting prim and proper but Carlos knew this was a lie. The gloves were coming off. She did a fun tilt of the head. To a novice it looked like an intelligent person wanting to reflect on a thought. In reality, the chamber was being loaded with an evil bullet and Carlos heard the click of the gun.

“Just what is your obsession with super heroes?”

“I have no obssession with super heroes.” He tried to scoff off any notion that he might have an inner nerd.

“We both remember Lancelot the Spear.”

There was a silence again. Carlos wasn’t sure what type of silence there was but she was smiling at him, staring deeply into his eyes. He was certain they were less those eyes of love and the victor scanning her opponent for the look of defeat that should be in his eyes.

“Lancelot the Spear has no bearing on this conversation. And I am going to have to put my foot down on that. I know you would love to shove some old memory of days gone by but The Spear is old news and I wont let you keep holding it over my head. I am a grown man. I have a nice house. Beautiful house. Two stories. I drive a nice car and have a great job.”

“You kiss a*s for a living. And get paid for it. You are literally, the definition of, a professional kiss a*s.” She stopped and did a look around the room.

“What are you doing?”

“I see a lot of people, you missed the entire set. Start puckering.”

“My job is vital to the work we do.”

“And Lancelot? Is he vital?”

“No. That is why we never hear from him again.” He spoke with a slight sense of regret on that last one. Anna leaned forward again. There was a strange warmth to her leaning forward. Should he meet her? Should he go halfway and the two could just stare in each others eyes?

It was slight at first. Carlos sensed an aura incoming. It was a tragic aura, one who felt like their life was destined to be a servant. It was the waiter. He had come with their drinks. Anna shifted her eyes first as if to make contact with this being. Carlos turned around before the waiter announced his presence.

“Your drinks. One 46’ Chateau Montrose and a Caribbean Rum and soda.”

A sense of sarcasm hit Carlos and he couldn’t resist. He turned around slightly and looked the waiter in the eye. “Um sir,” he proceeded to ask. Is the coke of a good vintage?” The line must of worked because he realized Anna couldn’t help but let off a little laugh. The Waiter acted unphased and perhaps for the best. It showed professionalism. He just nodded and asked if they were ready to order food.
“I think we might need another minute my good sir.” Carlos tried to pat the guy. Again the waiter seemed unmoved.

“Very good sir.” The waiter bowed with grace and proceded to withdraw.

The two of them were once again alone. They had nothing in the world to worry about but each others company. On this night, that did not seem like such a bad punishment. She sipped the glass in a refine manner. She closed her eyes softly like she was leaning in for a kiss. The expression of her eye brows shifted up fortelling the wave of flavor and contact wthat was made with her oral senses. He could tell what part of that drink was flavor and moment of the alcohol contact.

On that note of alchohol, he looked down at his beverage. He figured one throw back might be nice, allow for some relaxation. He reached his hand slowly to his beverage, not even looking onve at the menu. A gesture to copy the drinking as one. She put her glass down instantly without a single noise. His skin made contact with the glass when she spoke simply. It stopped him dead in his tracks.

“We found him.”

“Is that what this is about?” He looked her in the eye, serious now, hand frozen in place like stone.

“He is currently making rounds in Washington but if we act now, we can reel him in. His trail of destruction is there. It took me a lot of digging but I found the pattern and I can trace it to a group of people.”

Now Carlos was certain this was the “he” they were talking about. It hit more like shock than the moment he spent most of his adult life waiting for.

“Ogsam.” Carlos muttered the name softly.

He knew she would confirm it, and the nod of her head just hit home. This moment was finally coming. She reached into her black suitcase and put a set of files on the table.

“The Demon known as Ogsam. The Greed Demon. However he is moving around, it is with this group of people, and I am almost certain he is charading as one of them. I do not know which and no matter how much research and resources  could move, we hit a stalemate. If it wasn’t for the fact that we know demons to exist, all these cannidates could be written off as definitively human.”

“How do you know its him though?” Carlos picked up the pictures without reading the background files. He wanted to see if he could spot his enemy strait on just by looking upon his visage. Nothing. The pictures could not speak to him.

“When these people move, people die. They don’t just die though, dynasties are destroyed, groups, major ripple effects. Its one thing for a CEO to fire an employee and then you have a downward trend. With these guys, we can follow the destruction down, and down, and down until we are seeing murders, suicides, affairs, and entire houses and families disappearing. It is an exclusive kind of pattern of chaos that is well hidden enough that no one would see it at the top level, but dark enough that a demon would make its playground.”

“You seem certain this time. Why?”

“It is him. I can sense it.”

He took in a much needed supply to his brain of that evil coctail. It worked for a second, then it hurt. Anna had once said she came from a line of psychics and mystics; a different breed than their battle mage brethren. When she claimed she could sense something, a perfect ten times out of ten, she was right.
So, he told himself, once again they would have to face off.



Senior year of high school had been a blast. He spent a lot of his times hanging with the university crowd. He was a mature looking 17, getting ready to stride onto 18. This let him get into parties, drinks, and games. This particular set that he had headed to this night was a frat party. Drunken s***s making out, orgies in back rooms, and shots for days were all garenteed if he could work his way inside. It was Laurence who recommended he pick a university jacket; one that would celebrate the football team. He walked up, looked cool, and the doorman let him in without a second thought.

Him and Anna had hit a slight lull in their relationship. Prom had since passed, and the gang had been debating what they should do now that they were entering the whole “post school” phase. Laurence wasn’t sure he was ready to further his education. Jessica already had three colleges lining up for her. Anna toughed that she was able to get a scholarship set in stone. Jules, he would just look up with his curly hair, and shrug. “You know, I never gave it much thought.”

It was like a break from the action had left Carlos with time on his hands. Time and a yearning to find out on his own what he wanted to do. So at night, so often, he would find himself walking the campus, knowing the people and the culture.

This night however was almost official business.

Two months ago, they killed a warlock. No. They didn’t just kill a warlock, they killed a person. Jules had said with calm eyes, “He was the enemy. And he would have killed us.” Carlos had seen things that would drive a man crazy, but now he was in a set of debate, continue down the path or maybe live a human life.

He found himself drifting in and out as Carlos the person, Carlos the hero, the lover, the battle mage, and just a teenager. Three days ago there had been rumors of a group of students trying to summon a demon. It started out like a petty child’s game. However the cities energy kept shifting, until the dark surge revealed its true nature. Anna and Jessica had spent the last night trying to zero in on the source. Carlos knew the truth though; rich kids wanting to stay rich and not on daddy’s dime.

If the demon was going to be summoned, it was going to be tonight when the new moon hit. He had an hour to infiltrate the party and stop whoever was going to invoke the demon’s name and summon him. Carlos let the door close behind him and the haze of the inside hit him instantly. He waved his hands to get off the smoke and tried to think through the atrocious music. No doubt some great poet wrote words to these songs that must be heard, analyzed and debated over, however all the sound he could hear was the beat. The beat swayed the people standing there with nothing to do but bounce up and down in a slow rhythm that just made them all look like fools.

Carlos was always more into the ballroom style dancing, but he figured to each their own. Two girls bumped his shoulder as they ran by. They were running to the bathroom together, a private conversation needing to be had and he just happened to be in their way. One looked to him without really looking at him, the effects of the alcohol. She then turned and giggled as they slumped away.

Red cups just filled his eyes and he wondered who was the genuis who was actually able to buy all this booze for all these teens. He knew Freshmen when he saw them, and there was a legion of them here.

“You made it!” A voice from the distance reached out for Carlos.

Carlos cut through the crowd to meet his acquantance. The two shaked hands and then turned into a bromanctic hug. “Didn’t think you were going to come. So have you decided to pledge yet?”

The Frat House leader, his name was Brayden, he was a senior and had the world on a string. Carlos had convinced him that he was a hot prospect. Their conversations and time together seemed so natural, had the situation been set up, they could be best friends. Carlos needed Brayden for a different purpose tonight. He was hunting, and he needed to break the ice.

He took down a drink. It was meant to be strategic but his constitution was weak on this night. One drink turned into three. Three drinks and some strange pill he vaguely remembered ingesting, he thinks. An hour later there was this cute girl with a set of curves that just boggled the mind. She was a present that was begging him to be opened but all he could do was sway left and right behind her like a moron engaging in some weak ritual.

The next drink was weak enough that he felt he was actually sobering up. That did not stop him from mosh pitting as a song he heard three times since he entered decided it was his favorite song in the world. He decided this was the greatest moment of his life.

No, he was leaning against a wall and the world was moving while he was still. This was the worst moment in his life. The song he heard on the audio was a song he remembered singing with his friends in the car. Damn, he never realized how horrible this song was.

His mission was a failure. He wasn’t even thinking of his mission, he was just waiting for this hell to end. Girl walked by with a killer a*s. Nice. Another nice a*s walked by, no wait, it was a dudes, never mind. He closed his eyes as he felt the coldness of the floor reach through his pants. His head was leaning against hard wall. His back was in a slight level of pain.

He had to focus on astral projection, leaving his body behind for just the moment. It was hard when he felt like he couldn’t think strait. His soul was bouncing around trying to gather enough focus to get out. His breathing slowed and he thought of himself in yoga. “Now, do a warrior pose.” He envisioned himself stretching out on a matt, leaning forward, his arms extended to a crystal clarity smooth music in the backdrop. The sun was setting out the windows of the glass walls.

In the real world, he fell out of his own body. Astral Carlos had achieved his first goal. He was shocked how quickly he felt his ability to actually have coherent thoughts return. His spirit looked around, as people moved about so quickly and disorderly that he felt like he was trapped at a subway platform. He looked back at his physical self. It was a pitiable sight, one that had reminded him that none of this was his finest hour.

He looked around and tried to sense the auras of those in this frat house. It was deafening at first, the entire spectrum of feelings and state of beings. There were the happy people, sad, depressed, and worst of all; plenty of emo folk. That wasn’t what he was looking for. For one willing to summon a demon, there was a good chance that there was a connection to the demon world. Carlos had to find that. He knew he would need to take a walk around, but he felt uneasy leaving his physical body by itself, slumped in a corner.

“Oh, poor pitiable self, we only have shortsightedness to blame.” His spirit began its walk. Each step was made to be careful for he did not want to accidently allow himself to slip into another souls residence. Possession usually had to be intentional for it to work, but the object of the possessed had to be spiritually vulnerable to be open for it. In a case of a room of people drunk, on drugs, and overall happy insanity, a mistake on his end could lead to some nasty business if he didn’t watch himself.  

There was an open space, a hidden room around the corner of the kitchen. Five calm souls were sitting down talking. Best place as any to begin some eavesdropping. If he properly whispered in their ears, he knew he could influence the flow of conversation. This was his best investigative tool since his physical self was kind of useless at the moment. He walked past a couple of people trying to debate how to blend a new set of shots together to create the ultimate drink. As he passed he realized one of them felt a cold shiver. Interesting, one of them is more sensitive to the supernatural. Maybe he should make a note of that.

In the corner room he saw a group of girls, all sober. They must have been the designated drivers or perhaps, the more boring squares of the entire lot. He found a chair in the corner which no one sat, and brought himself down on it. They were talking calm, one at a time. He would have wagered a couple of them knew each other before hand. The others must have been found due to a core interest in not being on that dance floor.

“We didn’t break up right away.” A smaller, plain girl said to the group. She continued, “I mean you and Tom just went to the breaking point once you realized he was not meant for you. For me, it was at the park.”

They were nodding their boring heads in response.

“What happened there?” One asked.

There was a pause. It was the shameful type pause. Carlos found himself leaning forward. Why did he get involved in useless lady gossip about guys? However he realized he stumbled upon a conversation that had hit some sort of climax. She held her drinkl and began bouncing her knee up and down like it wanted to run away from her. He could sense her aura. It was getting weak, sad, humiliated.

“He tried to rape you?” Another asked.

“No. But someone did. And Wills, he instantly ran away. Didn’t even try to protect me. The look he had whem he left, it said, ‘I don’t care.’” She instantly started to go into tears. Another girl instantly hugged her, and the sobbs turned loud. Carlos felt like hell for getting involved in this conversation that was clearly above any level of his business. It almost made him feel filthy when it continued.

“Wait, you said ‘tried.’ Did something happen?”

The tears started to fade away and a slight smile came to her face. A strange almost fondlike memory perhaps?

“Have you ever heard of Lancelot the Spear?”

Carlos’s eyes went wide.

“You mean the guys they say that runs around in medieval armor with a giant spear?”

“He is real.” The poor girl said. He randomly showed up, as if waiting for this, and grazed a scar across the guys cheek.

“I thought it was a campus myth. You are telling me you met the man1? What did he look like?”

She elaborated, “I never saw his face. But he saved me.”

Carlos’s spirit stood behind her, “feel better” he commanded, and patted her on the shoulder. At once whatever ill was suffering her at the moment instantly faded away.

He then sensed the first flash of the aura he was looking for. It was loud, a bright darkness, and it permiated from a guy yelling at the bottom of the stairs going up. Carlos ran to his body. What was going down was happening now unless he was wrong. With time being such a factor, he hoped he wasn’t getting it wrong though.

With renewed strength of character, Carlos’s body awoke and stood up. His eyes looked glazed. His brain was still foggy. The sense of urgency and the will to fight was there. His first steps were stumbling but they improved with every moment. He brushed past the crowd. The song, he could not hear any type of beat to and he didn’t care. People who were in his way seemed to move like the Nile. He was at the steps, but by then his victim  ran up the stairs. He braced his arm against the wooden railing. This was going to be a struggle he knew, but he could do it. This man had killed vampires, demons, werewolves, a simple staircase was not going to win. He conquered the flight of stairs in five seconds and reached to the second floor.

A door closed in front of him. The evil aura was growing now. He swaggered unafraid. The door that lead to some unknown mischief was getting closer until he stared at the wooden plane with a number he didn’t give a single cent for was in front of him.

He placed his ear against the door, listening.

“I assure you this will be the end to all our problems!”

“I really do not feel comfortable about this. My dad says…”

“If you keep doing what daddy says, your life is going to consist of you shoveling his s**t. And then one day he will die, and you will be shoveling his s**t from beyond the grave. Come on lads. Where are the balls in this group?”

Clearly that was the voice of the leader.

“I say we do it.”

This voice was different, a negotiator personality. Screamed of a suckup and a yes man who never made a decision in his life.

A fourth and final voice spoke. “All I care about, is this garenteed to work. I don’t really believe in magic and summoning and all that.” He was trusting, smart, and was a person who just wanted the strait and narrow.

The leaders voice. “Ogsam will take care of all. We just need to do the ritual proper and we will never need for money again. He will make us all rich beyond our wildest dream.”

Carlos narrowed his eyes. He could feel the sense of battle coming. He wasn’t sure how he should deal with it. Should he tell them not to do it? The aura coming from the room was dark, and its influence was growing. It was not as if Ogsam was going to be summoned, but if he was already at the gate touching his victims souls to his whims. With each second that was passing, the demonic energy was inhaling and exhaling.

Ogsam was going to be summoned unless he could stop the actual ritual. That was where he would strike. They might do something stupid if he confronted them directly, but if he caught them in the act he could disrupt them sending the demon back to its realm.

“It is time.” That was all the voice said, and at once the aura stopped moving, it stopped warping and forming in and out. It had reached its final density and mass. This is what Carlos would have to stop.

In an instant the door opened and a group of figures walked out of the room in single file. They wore uniforms, jackets, and the man in front wore a hate with his fraternity logo on it. Carlos was behind them. They could not see him for he was invisible. One of them could sense him. The nervous looking one at the rear looked back to where Carlos was standing and a chill went up Carlos’s spine.

Carlos couldn’t see. It was the curse of going invisible, he had to keep his eyes closed. Maybe it didn’t work? They kept their walk going and went down the stairs. Carlos opened his eyes and leaned on the wall. He let his breath leave his body for a moment. One of the scarier moments in his work, putting faith in things he barely understood. Jules once explained the reasoning to a detailed tee as to why the eyes had to be closed and how it all worked in the bigger picture. Details always went over Carlos’s head.

He chased after them going down the stairs. They went through like an army line formation through the wall of drunken debauchery, tragedy, and soon to be regretful memories. He slowly walked unsuspiciously around the hurdle of bodies all moving to chaos. They were near the door. One said goodbye to the bouncer and they left.

Carlos walked by the bouncer and just put his hand on the bouncer’s shoulder. “I am not worth remembering.” As soon as Carlos left, the bouncer just stared strait on like he had no idea that he was clearly chasing his prey.

The outside air was different. The moon’s malice reminded him what he was going against. He would fight nature, and vowed he would defeat it. He looked at the speckled night sky and the stars seemed to provide a mere backdrop for the arena that was to come. Just how epic would it be?

Another random thought appeared in his head. Would he die tonight? The star speckled sky seemed to change its theme. He couldn’t afford that much doubt in his mind.

He had made his way to a mostly deserted public park. It was well kept, calm atmosphere and a random person just sitting on a bench for no reason. His steps were getting louder. This setting too was disappearing with each moment. The destination was drawing closer. He could see them up ahead. They were walking in single file; kids on a mission.

Carlos knew the layout well, and as they took a left on the small pathway and it donned on them they were going to the basketball gym. It was closed but that was of no consequence. This would soon be a very private affair and they would have it out. The Final Countdown was playing in his head. The rest of the tailing them, all the way down to its conclusion was a formality at this point. The end game was here.

A green building with a white painted lower half was in front of them. The University Mascot, the Shining Warrior with its cheesy grin observed all in his domain from the center under the roof.

“S**t the door is locked.”

Carlos quickly braced himself behind a tree.

“Duh dumbfuck. Why would they keep it open!?

“You need to shush, there is a thing called security.”

“Ogsam must be summoned on this night. We knew we were going to break in. So all of you calm the f**k down. I got this.”

The shadowy figuring of the leader said some words in a foreign language. Carlos knew the spell though. It was a dark encantation to open locks. There were multiple magical ways to open locks but this was the more dangerous path although it was still novice material. The lock opened.

“How did you do that?”

“It’s all in the book. I told you, I got this.”

Carlos spotted the book hidden under the guys armpit. That was the source he was looking for. He could ambush them now and steal the book, destroy it, go home with the win.

It was as if the book sensed him and a defense mechanism kicked in. Carlos’s vision became blurry. He heard the door close in front of him and as he tried to chase after the bundle of blur, he ran into the outside wall of the gym. The cold steel was pressing through his clothes and he ran his fingers to feel what he was touching. The shade that was growing over his eyes and thoughts was strong.

The demonic energy was a defensive tactic. The counter to demonic energy was light, and he would just have to focus on adding that element to his aura as a barrier. Easy to do, if one can focus. He felt the cold wall onto his pressed hand. He clung to that sensation and pictured a white light starting at the tips of his finger and the center of his palm, cleansing his body bit by bit until it enveloped him. The haze was disappearing until a new calm hit home.

There was a creek next to him and the door slowly opened by itself. It was time for battle.

Carlos looked down and stretched his fingers. He flicked them like a gunman would getting ready for a gun battle. The sounds of the encantation were growing louder. He almost walked through the door when it hit him.

A greed demon is a master manipulator. It looks to the most base needs humans desire and plays to them. It can confuse, play with, and tune the minds of those around him. If it was a higher ranking demon, upon contact, he would implant a legion of false memories and one could very well think they were life long friends. If this was a case, Carlos knew he would not be able to trust what he saw when he walked in the room.

He wrote the number four into his arm with a pen. That was right. There was four of them. If he surprised them mid summon, he could disrupt them, worst case scenario, kill the demon while it was coming. He turned the corner and walked into the room with gusto. Five university frat students looked at him in unison around the circle.

He wasn’t too late! He could still stop them.

“I need you to stop doing it!” It wasn’t his best heroic line, but it would have to do.

They just stared blankly.

“Ogsam will destroy you. Demons cannot be trusted. Especially one that is designed to manipulate the evil within men to grow.”

The leader stood up. “How do you know of Ogsam?”

“A tier three demon. He focuses on greed. That is why you are all here, is it not? You want the high life in a gluttonous capacity. That is the tie that binds you. And that is why you want to summon him. He will fill your life with all the money and power you could want.”

“You should leave. You will be hurt. Continue the incantation boys, some nerd is trying to stop us.”

The four others simply continued to look down in the circle and began chanting the creatures name. Carlos was naturally insulted by this. He was not just some nerd. He would admit he might have some nerdy moments but that was more due to the influence of his more nerdy friends. The leader motioned once, and Carlos felt himself pressed to the floor. He braced his arms so his body wouldn’t get hit and saw the number four on his arm. But there were five…

F**k.

Author's Note

First draft but feel free to be brutal.