TE INVOCO DEMONES INFERNI
CHAPTER NINE

Dani was greeted by the look of unbridled concern on Nick's face as she neared him at the river. This was soon followed by a stream of words that Dani was too confused and stressed to hear or pay much attention to. She was too consumed by her questions about her father, the things she saw in his office, and what she'd heard him say on the phone. Her brain was racing as fast as her heart; she had practically sprinted to Sweetwater River upon hearing her dad's plans to meet someone at the river. This could finally end all the secrecy and half-truths that people were constantly throwing at her, but part of her was unsure of whether she really wanted to know what her dad was up to. The gun she found and the whole mention of some sort of ritual was what was putting her most at ease. Nick was always there for her, though. Dani knew that he'd help her through it.

"Dani, did something happen?" Nicholas's tall frame towered over her, strong hands gripping onto her jittery shoulders to stop her from walking. "Can we just stop for a second?" Dani took the time they were still to catch her breath and try her best to tidy up the mess that was her mind.

"Tell me what's wrong." His honey-brown eyes stared into hers with a sincerity that momentarily hypnotized her, his hands slightly looser on her shoulders, now more comforting than intercepting.

She hadn't realized that her muddled, anxious thoughts and her unplanned rush to find out what her dad was up to had forced an unnoticed glossiness into her eyes. She hastily blinked them away and tried to focus on coherently explaining everything to Nick.

"My dad... I went into his office and there were these symbols and like, pentagons with other shapes inside them and he had a freaking gun too." Dani tried to recap all the images of the things she had seen in his private office. Her voice rose in volume as she went on.

"Loads of people have guns here. Does he hunt?" Dani could tell that this was just one of Nick's attempts to calm her down by helping her come up with a rational and least freaky solution.

"No, Nick. It had those weird symbols on it too. And his books... they were all in Latin or something. I didn't even know he could speak Latin! We're basic people; we speak English and only English," she exclaimed, a surge of anger and confusion rushing through her veins.

"Hey, it's okay. We'll figure it out, alright?"

"He was on the phone with someone... they're going to the woods. Something about a summoning spell?"

It looked as though a lightbulb had struck in Nick's head as Dani continued to describe everything, his soft eyes now seemingly more present and serious. The expression on his face immediately set off some sort of alarm in Dani's head and she instantly stood straighter, the apprehensive frown reappearing on her tired, sweaty face. "What?" She asked, "Do you know something, Nick?"

"No, I just... let's just go on our date now, okay?" He brushed it off quickly and picked up Dani's fidgeting hand to give it a gentle squeeze. "It's probably nothing."

"You promised you'd help me figure all this stuff out," Dani huffed, raking her hand through her hair. She wasn't frustrated with Nick at all. With her thoughts chanting in her head, bouncing around like a basketball, and how much in a rush she was to find her dad and catch him doing whatever it was he was going to do, Dani was just so disarranged.

"You don't have to come, Nick. I'll just meet you at the carnival later."

Without another word, she turned around and began walking into the crowd of trees. She didn't even consider how huge the woods were and how difficult it would be to find her father in such a mess of trees and bushes. She was too occupied with the adrenaline incessantly pumping through her that it hadn't even crossed her mind how groundless anything she was doing was. She was too busy trying to organize the clutter in her head, she hadn't even noticed Nick was right beside her as she walked, his legs clearly working hard to keep up with her pace. This was Nick, though; of course, he wasn't going to leave Dani alone. Especially not in the woods that Dani had visibly shown several signs of uneasiness toward. No one knew what hid behind the tall, towering cluster of trees, in the dark, dreary woods, and Dani she was perfectly happy not knowing. But answers hard to get, and Alicia had some answers write at the tip of her fingers. All she had to do to get them was going into the woods that she never wanted anything to do with.

"You probably just misheard your father, let's leave." Nick tried to reason. If Dani didn't know any better, she'd have thought he was trying to stop her from getting the answers she desperately needed. "There's nothing in the woods, Daniella."

"How would you know that?"

He sighed when Dani kept quiet and began to walk even faster. "Leesha, come on. It's not safe here and you don't even know where you're going."

"So, help me then!" Frustrated by all the setbacks and delays, Dani groaned and stopped walking. "I need to know what everyone is hiding from me. My dad is in here somewhere, doing some shady crap and I want to know what it is. You know me well enough to know I'm not going to give up."

Submitting to Dani's wishes, the boy sighed and bobbed his head in agreement. Dani knew very well that although their relationship was only just beginning, Nick cared about her too much, and while she did feel guilty for constantly dragging him into this, she needed the truth and she knew Nick was the only one who would be willing to help her with it. "Fine. But if your father is actually here, we're staying out of it, alright?" He held his hand out for Dani to hold. "And don't do anything crazy."

Eagerly, Dani nodded. Taking his warm hand, the two began walking. At first, Dani thought that their walk was aimless– that, clueless to where they were, they were just improvising the directions they were going in. After a few minutes of roaming around, Dani began to notice that Nick had actually been taking lead the entire time. She was tempted to ask why he seemed to know the woods so well, but she bit her tongue and decided to focus on finding her dad. In fact, she had been so focused on their rushed trip to find her dad that her distaste toward the woods (especially when it was already so dark outside) had seemed to be put on hold. That was until she heard a loud rustle and what sounded like feet shuffling against the wood chips on the floor. It wasn't anything loud or unusual enough to raise a red flag, but Dani already wasn't getting such a great feeling from being here, thanks to the cold wind that sent goosebumps down her spine and the whispers that the dry leaves on the ground made as they moved around. Naturally, her body stiffened as they continued to walk.

"What?" Nick stopped to attend to Dani who's face held an evident look of agitation; eyebrows furrowed, eyes darting around everywhere and her upper teeth biting her bottom lip. Both of Nick's hands were clasped onto Dani's arms as a form of support and comfort.

"You didn't hear that?"

He shook his head, dragging his eyes away from Dani's to briefly glance around. "Are you sure you don't want to go back?"

She was so close to nodding. So close. But before she could even make even a minuscule movement or utter a single word, Dani felt herself being towed by Nick behind a large rosebush, as though she were as light as the wind. "What the hell, Nick?"

In their squatting position behind the bush, Nicholas held his finger in front of his tightly shut lips, signalling for Dani to be quiet, before pointing past the bush. Confused, she frowned and ascended slightly to peer over the top of the flowering shrub. Her father stood in plain sight, a big shotgun in his hand. What was even more surprising– shocking enough to make Dani lose balance in her uncomfortable position— was the fact that her brother, Calum, stood directly opposite her father. He had a large book in his hand, similar to one of the dusty, old, brown ones Dani had seen in their dad's office.

"What's my brother doing here?" Daniella whispered to herself as she ducked back down. She quieted when words began to leave her brother's mouth.

"After this one, we need to keep our eyes open for any others in Greendale." She heard her father say. Calum nodded. "Let's begin."

"Te invoco Demones inferni..." Calum began, eyes tracing along a page in the book. The way he stood tall and didn't stutter a single bit as he read the sentence made it seem like he had done this many times before. It was a thought that made Dani shiver anxiously. "Ad constringendum, ad ligandum eos pariter et solvendum: Et ad congregandum eos coram me..."

Chewing on her bottom lip, Dani glanced at Nick. He was listening intently to the Latin words that Calum was speaking. It was almost like he could understand what he was saying like he knew what was going on. Dani couldn't decide whether she wanted to know what her brother was saying and doing or not. Goosebumps spread across her body and she trembled once again, pulling her sleeves down over her cold fingers. When she diverted her attention back to her brother and father, she discovered that her shudders were not caused by the strangeness of everything that was going on, but the whirlwind of leaves that floated towards the sky right between Calum and Matthew Monroe. Dani stumbled back, the strong force of the wind pushing her onto the floor.

"Careful," Nick said quietly. His eyes were still glued ahead, watching Calum and Dani's father perform the strange ritual, but his arm was wrapped around her waist to help her remain steady.

While the grayness continued to rotate at an immense pace, Dani noticed the slow change in colour that started from the top of the spinning smoke. The gray darkened to a black, starting from the top and descending to the bottom until it was all black, and as it did so, the size of it began to shrink as well. It slowed and slowed until a dark, smokey figure with particles floating around it took form between the two men. Its face was unidentifiable, but just from seeing its back and the way it made its appearance was enough to send Dani into a complete state of shock. It was a darkness and emptiness, no bigger than two tall men put together, but it felt like the entire woods was filled with its presence. It had no shape– not a single feature. There was no chance that it could be even a tiny bit human. This gloomy and misty figure that showed up just after a few Latin words were spoken was exactly what Dani thought lurked in creepy woods like these. With her breathing noticeably sharper, eyes watering as though she had jumped into a salty ocean with her eyes open, and her chest heaving, Nick quickly held a hand in front of Dani's quivering lips to silence her from the scream he was sure was about to leave her mouth.

"Hey, calm down..." he hushed, his hand still clasped against her mouth and the other squeezing her hand reassuringly; something he had been doing nonstop for the entire time they were hiding. It didn't exactly help, but just the reminder that Nick was with her was calming enough for her to refrain from screeching and revealing their position. "We'll get out of here in a second. As soon as we can move without being seen."

Between trying to comprehend what was happening with her brother, dad and this horrifying inhuman thing, wondering how she was going to act with her family after this insane event, and how Nick was so calm throughout all of this left Dani at a loss for words. The previous tangle of thoughts in her head was nothing compared to how messy it was now. She couldn't even form a remotely intelligible thought. All she could feel or understand was that her heart was beating at an extremely unhealthy place and she wanted to leave. She was so terrified by the creature that stood only meters away that she couldn't even manage to blink. She was paralyzed, staring at the utter all-consuming nothingness as though any second it could whoosh toward her as quickly as it had been summoned by her family.

"I really don't like this." Dani could feel her entire body shaking, and apparently, Nick could too because he picked up her hand and intertwined his fingers with hers. No matter how many times Nick gave her hand a reassuring squeeze or put on an unconventionally brave face, nothing was going to provide Dani comfort. At least not until they escaped this nightmare.

As though things weren't already bad enough, Dani once again peeked over the bush with Nick, confused as to why her brother and dad were now chanting something together. Spellbound, her irises were stuck on the two men, not a single blink or loss of attention. Calum was using the book again, but her father seemed to know it by heart. She was really starting to wonder how many times they had done this and why. What even was this creature? Just the thought that there could be more of them sent tremors throughout her body.

This time, the chant was louder, more intent and determined. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica. Ergo omnis légio diabólica, nos exilium vos." Again, not a single stutter or look of uncertainty as they spoke the abstruse spell.

It was like a replay button on a television remote was pressed when the dark figure began to spin itself into a whirlwind. Its pace was notably faster this time; fast enough to steal the balance of both Dani and Nick as its force blew past them. Just like Dani and Nick were doing, Calum and Matthew held their arms in front of their faces to block out the strong rush of air that spat small pieces of wood and sand into their eyes. By the time Dani looked back up, it was gone, like it had never been there.

_____ ♔_____

→ author's note

to anyone who's wondering, the approximate translations to those two latin phrases (the first is a summoning spell, the second is an exorcism– both made up of bits and pieces of different spells from supernatural and modified slightly by myself with the use of my best friend, google translate) are:
"i call upon the demons of hell... to tie to bind them, and to pay, to gather them before me."
and
"we exorcise you, every impure spirit, every satanic power, every incursion of the infernal adversary, every legion, every congregation and diabolical sect. Therefore, diabolical legions, we banish you."

anyways, i hope you enjoyed this chapter! i really loved writing this one because it as leaning more toward the action and supernatural bits of it. the next few chapters will have similar themes and i'm so excited to write them.

votes, comments and follows are always more than appreciated! thanks for reading.