To Summon Nightmares Read Free Page B

grabbed him with his cut hand, smearing their blood together. The demon was at the edge of the circle, farther than he should have been able to go, holding a palm up to Jacky. Blood dripped from a sharp cut there, glinting in the candlelight.
    "No, Jacky!" cried Niall, but Jacky reached up and pressed his palm to the demon's.
    "Say the words," ordered the demon. "Release me, and it shall be done."
    Jacky said the words, quickly and effortlessly. He must have memorized them, too. Or the demon had given them to him. His voice was liquid and gravel and then Niall felt chalk in his throat again, and he began to choke. Darkness swooped over them, the candles extinguished. Niall choked again, harder, desperately drawing in a breath. And then it felt as if, along with the air, the darkness entered him, pushing itself deep into him.
    Then the pain began, and there was nothing else.
    *~*~*
    His body felt stiff when he awoke, but for a moment all he could feel was relief that the pain from last night was gone. It had gone on for hours, ripping through his body, pain like he'd never felt before. He'd broken his leg once, when he was eleven, and the pain he'd felt then was the closest he had ever come to this. But he hadn't wanted to die then, hadn't wanted it to all be over, just so the pain would stop. Last night he'd wished for death, wished he had never been born. But still the pain had continued, white hot and burning and tearing him apart from the inside. He'd been unable to see, unable to feel anything but the pain, and to hear his own screams mixed with Jacky's for hours and hours. When sleep had finally come, he'd clung to it desperately, letting it drag him down into oblivion.
    Now it was all over. The pain was gone, blissful relief in its stead. There was a light shining, insistent, behind his eyelids, and he was stiff from lying on the cellar floor. He opened his eyes and coughed at the dust that he lay in, looking around for Jacky. Light streamed down from the open cellar door, sparkling on the dust motes. The remains of the summoning lay strewn about him, melted candles and lines of chalk, scuffed and smudged by his writhing in the night. His bag lay open, its contents scattered and he noticed, his mind still hazy, that his books were missing.
    His eyes were stinging from the dust. He rubbed them and rolled over onto his back to stare at the ceiling. The light bulb was still burning, dim compared to the bright morning sunlight. Where was Jacky? He must have left, because the cellar door was open and they'd closed it last night. Why hadn't he woken Niall up?
    The sound of his mobile ringing startled him. The ringtone was familiar, oddly so, as if it belonged to something from a past life. It was coming from his bag, where he'd stashed his phone last night. He leaned towards the bag, several meters away from him, and suddenly the phone was in his hand.
    What? No, that wasn't right; it had been in his bag, across the room. He stared down at the phone in his hand, the small screen lit up with an incoming call from his parents. Shit, his parents. He flipped the phone open and held it to his ear.
    "Hullo?"
    "Niall, thank god! Where the devil are you?" His father's voice was loud and angry with a note of panic.
    Niall groaned, rubbing his eyes again. "I'm fine, dad, I'm at Jacky's. I—I spent the night."
    He heard his father relay the information to his mother, and then her sigh of relief. "What kind of game are you trying to play, son? You have to tell us where you're going, you know that!"
    "I know Dad, but it was important." Niall screwed his eyes shut, trying to think. There was something he was forgetting. Something important.
    "Oh? And what was so important?"
    "I have to," Niall shook his head. "I have to find Jacky, Dad, I think he's done something horrible."
    "What? All right, Niall, stay there, your mother and I are going to come get you."
    "I... all right." He had begun to shake, as if his shoulders could no longer