Eldritch Exorcist

Liam was not happy with the plan. Not happy at all. They sat around the board with candles lit everywhere. Everyone except him was considerably drunker than before.

To make it worse, his brother was in an increasingly worse mood, as his chosen crush was not paying him any attention. And as if that was not enough, after a few bottles, she seemed to be coming on to Liam a bit. It was an obvious joke to get him to drink, but neither Mateo nor Daniel seemed to pick up on it, as his brother stared at him with betrayal in his eyes, while the other guy was just staring daggers.

But there was something else that bothered him. He was now sure the letters on the board were mirrored without being reflected, so that everyone was able to read them without an issue. But when he pointed that out, everyone just said it was probably some magician's mirror trick, or the letters were written in some special ink.

It was not a bad explanation. He knew that some magic tricks were done like that, but it still unnerved him, especially since other things were reflected correctly.

He would probably have already left if not for the fact that the car was his brother's and they were in the middle of nowhere.

He looked back toward the board. It had a whole Latin alphabet written on it in the middle, with a set of numbers from zero to nine in the upper part and "yes," "no," and "don't know" written in the lower part.

"Okay, soooo," slurred Chester. "We ask your Grandma, where did she keep her weed or some drugs for 'daaaark riiiitualssssss,' and then we smoke them all." He explained the plan, trying to look like a businessman in a meeting, which was far from possible with his hippy vibe, with long blonde hair and a permanently stoned facial expression.

"Good plan, Chett," nodded another person.

It was not a good plan. Liam hated ghosts. The scene of his brother wearing a bed sheet and standing at the foot of his bed sometimes surfaced in his mind, and it was making him more and more uncomfortable. He started to consider going to some other room, but being alone in the massive house was even worse.

"Okay, okay, so we light up the candles, and then what? Do we ask the ghosts about like... stuff?" asked one of the girls.

Everyone just shrugged or looked at one another.

"Okay, get your hands on the pointer thing and let's get it started." Commanded his older brother.

They all put one hand on the wooden arrow-like object sitting in the middle of the board.

But Liam did not. He was still hesitating.

"Come on, Liam, get your hand here," said Daniel.

Liam didn't want to look like a coward. Also, it was a dumb thing, but Emma was pretty, and some of the attention he got, even as a joke, didn't feel that bad… With hesitation, he finally put his hand on the planchette.

"Okay!" shouted his brother before anyone else got a chance to speak. "Ooooo spirits, tell meeeee, tellll meeeeee. How many inches is Mateo's dick?" As he asked that, the planchette started moving toward the number zero. The guys began snickering, and the girls rolled their eyes.

Everyone could see that Mateo's muscles flexed, and the thing stopped, starting to move toward number nine. At this point, some people started to take their hands off the planchette as the two guys were basically wrestling each other, one toward zero, the other toward number nine.

"That's stupid," commented Emma. "You two are the only ones interested in your dicks."

Liam chuckled at that, but quickly regretted his reaction, as the woman now locked her eyes on him. "I have a better question. Should Liam take a drink?" she said.

"Oooooo, good one," his older sibling agreed as the rest nodded their heads. They put their hands on the planchette and immediately dragged it toward "Yes."

"The ghosts have spoken," announced Chett in a ceremonial voice as Emma passed him her wine.

"No. I-I really shouldn't," stammered Liam. But everyone was already shouting, "Drink! Drink! Drink!"

It was awkward. He didn't like everyone's eyes to be on him. As if to make the situation even more embarrassing, he felt a blush coming. Finally, taking a deep breath, he took a swig from the bottle passed by Emma, as everyone else started clapping.

The alcohol was bitter and had a strange taste, but to his surprise, it wasn't that bad. He felt the warmth spread in his belly as he passed the bottle back to the girl. She smiled. The attention felt kind of good now that no one was staring directly at him.

It was weird, but for the first time, he felt like part of the group, even if just a little.

He looked to his brother with an apologetic look. But Daniel just nodded at him with a slight smile. They fought sometimes, but as brothers, he knew that when it mattered, Daniel would always have his back.

Then he felt someone staring daggers at him and noticed the other guy, increasingly drunk and pissed at any attention the woman gave to other people.

"Okay, so now do we ask about the weed stash?" chuckled someone from the male part of the group.

They put their hands on the board again, Liam now with less hesitation than before.

"Okay, so how do we do that?" someone asked, as everyone shrugged, none of them proficient in occultism.

"So we have the candles. Do we ask for the spirits to come?"

"No, I think that's a séance. I think we first ask if the spirit is here with us."

Daniel nodded. "Is the spirit of Hellen Broth with us?"

They all looked toward the board.

Even though this was a joke, there was some tension in the air.

The wooden planchette sat there.

Unmoving.

"This is stupid," commented Olivia.

The planchette moved.

But it was apparent someone was doing it. The alcohol was not helping coordination, as the person's entire shoulder moved with the pointer. After some chuckles here and there, they started to lose a bit of interest in the ghosts.

That was when one of the guys picked up the box and started to examine it, as the rest began to figure out the next part of the party.

"Hey, there are instructions here! Or something like that," exclaimed the guy, looking at the bottom of the box.

They all glanced at it. And sure enough, there was a strange rhyme written underneath the board:

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First light candle, wax and flame,

One for each present name.
Circle tight and sit up straight,
Call to Ester. Do not wait.

Place your fingers, still and bare,
On the board, she knows you're there.
Spell her name so she may hear,
E.S.T.E.R. shall set her free.

Do not speak, she shall come.
Wait in hush. Await her hum.
When you hear her knuckles knock,
Do not run and do not mock.

Choose a soul to stand alone,
Spell their name in letters drawn.
Then you ask, for the end,
"Ester, would you be their friend?"

Now she'll speak, if she does come,
You may ask her things, but some.

But mark this line, it's not pretend:
She must become that person's friend.
No trembling voice, no second guess,
No pulling back beneath your breath.
For if you flinch, or stall the thread,
Ester takes you home instead.

There was a bit of silence as everyone stared at the board.

"Well, that's creepy as fuck," said Emma.

"Yep. Who wants to talk to Ester?" smiled Mateo. "Maybe she has some weed around the house."

The atmosphere relaxed a bit as everyone chuckled.

"Should we do it?" asked one of the girls in the group, hesitation written on her face as she looked around.

"Yes!" Mateo answered firmly. "Or are you all scared?" he finished, looking at the male part of the group.

They all snorted at that. "Okay, let me get some more candles," said Daniel.

Liam didn't like the idea much. That creepy rhyme and the atmosphere of the house did nothing to help. He looked around, now noticing they were sitting in the living room lit only by candles, with the dancing fire casting moving, long shadows everywhere.

He was about to propose they should stop, but everyone else seemed to be having fun, the guys trying to scare the girls as they started to perform slurred ghost noises. He did not want to stop the party or come off as the chicken, especially now that he felt at least a bit like part of the group.

Finally, they had enough candles to start as the instructions said.

"Okay. Put your hands on the thingy."

"Planchette," corrected Mateo in a know-it-all voice.

"Plant-Chett's dick in your mouth—"

"Shut the fuck up!" Mateo snapped as the rest of the people started laughing. "Gottem." They screamed as the atmosphere was now completely relaxed.

Emma took a swig from the bottle and placed her hand on the contraption as the last person aside from hesitant Liam. Looking at the fun everyone was having, he finally relented and also touched the pointer.

As there was not much space left, his hand almost rested on the girl's, to Mateo's growing anger. He saw that he took another swig, this time from a whiskey bottle.

"Okay, so we have the candles. So, now we call Ester?" Chett broke the silence.

"I think so," answered Daniel.

"Is the spirit of Ester here with us?" asked Chett as everyone looked around.

Nothing.

"Why are we wasting our time again?" asked one of the girls.

"It's entertainment. Okay, now we spell the name and await a knooooock," said Daniel in a spooky voice.

And so they started to spell:

E
Liam was feeling increasingly sick for some reason.

S
His thoughts started running through that memory once again.
T
His palm was getting wet as he felt his heart speed up.
E
'Should he take his hand off?' Was the dominant thought going through his head now.
R
He got goosebumps, like something had just happened.

And—

Silence.

They waited in tense stillness.

"Are we serio—"

"Shhhhh," someone silenced another person.

And then it happened.

Knock
Knock
Knock

They all jumped into the air, looking at the source of the sound, which was a window.

The thing was outside.

In the night, hidden in the darkness.

Everyone was frozen in place, ready to run.

Knock

Daniel regained his composure first as he jumped to the light switch, to shine light on what was outside, knocking on the glass.

He flipped the switch—

And they all saw a bird, trying to get inside, testing the glass with its beak.

"Pffffff. Ahahahaha!" Everyone burst into laughter as the tension was now gone.

"I think someone shat my pants," said Chett.

Everyone was laughing, feeling the adrenaline give way, smiles showing on their faces.

Liam also relaxed. This was so stupid. Why was he so tense before? He smiled and started laughing, catching the eyes of Emma, who passed him the bottle. He took a small, hesitant swig, still not used to alcohol.

As he tilted the bottle, he thought he heard another, much quieter knock. But he assumed it was the bird again, so he just smiled and passed the bottle back.

They sat back down.

"So, anyone wants a ghost friend?" asked Daniel.

Mateo locked his eyes on Liam, a nasty smile showing on his face. "Hey, didn't you ask us to try and be friends with your younger brother because he's a bit of a loser and doesn't have friends of his own?" asked the guy, the atmosphere immediately becoming awkward.

"Fuck off, Mat. You are drunk," said Daniel, looking at his brother, who seemed to become a bit smaller, looking at him with a question clear in his eyes.

"Yes!" exclaimed Mateo as if he had arrived at some answer, not interested in shutting up. "No wonder she's trying to make him drunk, so that he relaxes a bit and we don't have to pretend to be friendly."

"Mat," barked Daniel. People were looking around, not knowing what to say. It was true that Daniel asked them to befriend his brother so that he would relax a bit, but this was a step too far.

It was Emma who replied. "I'm drinking with the kid," Liam winced a bit at the word kid, "because I like partying with people who aren't loud assholes," She barked at Mat as he looked at her, not catching the suggestion.

"Here, let me help you with the friend situation," said Mateo as he took the planchette and went for the board.

L

Liam felt wrong, his fear of ghosts making itself known once again. As the rest sat in awkward silence.

I

"Stop," he said, unsure of himself.

A

He felt a wave of fear as he went for the boy's wrists. "Yeah, cut it out," said Daniel, more to support his brother, as he clearly did not believe in the whole thing.

Liam got the guy's wrist.

But seeing it was getting to him, Mat only continued with more strength, dragging the planchette to the last letter with one smooth motion.

M

Liam felt anger and fear. He did not want to be any ghost's friend. He did not want anything to do with any ghosts. Revulsion rose in him.

"Now you can ask about the weed," snickered Mat in the awkward silence.

"Fuck off," barked Liam, fear speaking for him. "I'm not speaking with any ghosts. It's not funny."

Bang! As he said that, the windows opened as the wind picked up. They could hear some other doors and shutters slam open, creating a draft. The strong gust ruffled their clothes.

To his growing fear, Liam noticed that the howling wind sounded strangely like a wail.