Simon’s mother had always told him people in their town were weird.

Simon never understood her. His friends were nice and everyone treated him well. Everyone said she was crazy. He thought so, too, with how often she spoke of how unsettling the forest surrounding the town was. She never wanted to move here, she’d remind Simon of that often.

But his father had a job here. So, the three of them, including Simon’s younger brother Tommy, were essentially obligated to move there.

Simon liked his quiet, peaceful town. Liked the silences she called eerie. The fact that he had to leave his friends Johnny, John Kyle and all those guys behind reasonably sucked. But he still had contact with then through his phone and they met occasionally.

Simon didn't like this silence now, as he sat, tied in a circle of blood, in his friend's basement. The chanting had stopped. His heart thrummed so loud in his ears, Simon wasn’t sure if there was no sound at all, or if the sound of his own blood pumping was simply blocking it all out.

For a long, tense moment, nothing happened.

And then, everything happened all at once. The blood rose, and chanting like screeches of creatures he wished he never saw filled his ears. Then, a person appeared in the blood circle in front of Simon. The blood that rose, fell again. Like an ocean falling to become a stream.

The person stared down at Simon. Was it even correct to call them a person? They were unnatural. Everything screamed to run, but Simon was tied. Bound like a sacrificial lamb on an alter as someone he foolishly once believed to be his friend, squealed in glee. It worked, she says.

God, he wishes it didn't work.