"Maybe this will finally get them to leave me alone." She muttered. Eloise lit the last black candle around her makeshift summoning circle, the flickering flames casting ominous shadows across her basement walls. She took a shaky breath as she looked down at the strange symbols scrawled on the floor in chalk, wondering if she was truly desperate enough to go through with this.
After years of being bullied and ostracized in her small, religious hometown for being queer, she felt she had no other options left. She was tired of living in fear, of jumping at every loud noise that could be one of her tormentors. She just wanted it all to stop. So tonight, Eloise turned to the only solution she could think of - the occult. She'd found a ritual online for summoning a demon, and despite her skepticism, she felt she had to at least try. What else could she do? Her conservative, devout family offered no support or acceptance. The teachers did nothing to stop the bullying. She had no friends to turn to.
She brushed a strand of raven black hair behind a heavily pierced ear and straightened her black lace dress before picking up the crumbled sheet of paper she printed out containing the instructions for the ritual. The latin words looked cryptic, but she slowly sounded them out, stumbling a bit over the pronunciation. "Ex inferno, ex tenebris, veni ad me, daemon!" She yelled as sne finished the incantation. the candles flickered ominously. Eloise held her breath, waiting.
A minute passed, then two. She sighed, feeling stupid for believing some silly ritual could actually summon a demon. It was just her desperation for someone, anyone, to finally understand her. She started blowing out the candles, disappointment washing over her.
But then, the candles suddenly flared, and a cold wind swirled through the basement. Eloise stumbled back with a gasp as a humanoid figure materialized within the circle. It was the demon she had tried to summon! Shocked that it had actually worked, Eloise stood frozen unable to speak.