To Summon Nightmares Read online

  Table of Contents

  To Summon Nightmares

  Book Details

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  To Summon

  Nightmares

  J.K. Pendragon

  Three years ago, Cohen Brandwein was "Ireland's Favourite Daughter", a popular teenage author and internet celebrity. But ever since he came out publicly as trans, the media's treatment of him has been less than golden, and these days, Cohen is desperate for escape.

  When he inherits an old house in the country, Cohen sees it as a perfect opportunity to escape the press and work on his new book. What he doesn't count on is becoming embroiled in a small town murder mystery and falling for the primary suspect, a man whose reality makes Cohen's fantasy books seem like child's play...

  Book Details

  To Summon Nightmares

  By J.K. Pendragon

  Published by Less Than Three Press LLC

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the publisher, except for the purpose of reviews.

  Edited by Michelle Kelley

  Cover designed by Megan Derr

  This book is a work of fiction and all names, characters, places, and incidents are fictional or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or events is coincidental.

  First Edition November 2014

  Copyright © 2014 by J.K. Pendragon

  Printed in the United States of America

  Digital ISBN 9781620044513

  Print ISBN 9781620044520

  Very special thanks to Ciara!

  Chapter One

  Jacky had crawled into Niall's bed in the night. Niall thought about waking him up and telling him to go back to the thin foam mattress on the floor, in case one of his parents walked by and saw them together through the crack of the door. But the floor was wood, and the house was old, and winter was setting in. It was cold, sleeping on the floor, but Niall knew that wasn't why Jacky had crawled into the bed next to him.

  He stirred, and Jacky's thin fingers grasped at his night-shirt, his legs wrapping tightly around Niall, muttering something soft and frightened. His hair, black and shiny with grease, fell limp in front of his sunken eyes. He was so beautiful, Niall thought, knowing that he was the only one who saw it. He wrapped his arms tightly around Jacky, wishing he could protect him and keep him safe always. But Jacky couldn't spend every night at Niall's. He would have to go home tonight. Home to him.

  "Niall!" His mother's voice from down the hall spooked them both awake; Jacky's eyes flew open in a panic. He jumped away from Niall and hurriedly scuttled under the blankets on the floor as the sound of footsteps grew closer and Niall's mother pushed the door open.

  "Morning, boys!" she announced, and Niall and Jacky pretended to wake up, rubbing their eyes and gazing blearily at her. "Oh heavens, it's freezing in here, you've left the window open all night!"

  Well, that explained the chill. She stepped over Jacky, who shrank away from her, to shut the sticky window tight. "Time to get up or you'll be late for school. No more sleep-overs if you're going to be exhausted the next morning. What time did you boys go to bed last night?" She cocked her head, hands planted on her hips.

  Niall and Jacky looked at each other guiltily. "Not that late, mam," said Niall. "I dunno, we didn't look at the clock."

  "Well, get dressed." She tutted. "Honestly, you boys don't appreciate me. You think all mothers allow sleep-overs on school nights?"

  "No, mam." Niall managed a smile through bleary squinted eyes. "You're the best, mam."

  "Well, you've got that right. All right, up, breakfast's almost ready."

  She left, closing the door behind her.

  Jacky sighed and lay back on the pillow. "Why can't I just live here with you, Niall?"

  Niall bit his lip. "Well, y'know maybe if you told her, like what's going on with your dad—"

  "She won't listen," said Jacky crossly. "They never listen, I told you. And me dad told me if I made a fuss again he'd hit me harder." He flinched, his eyes going dark. "He said he'd kill me last time, I told you, Niall."

  "I know, but I bet mam would let you stay here."

  "She wouldn't, Niall. Anyway, I don't wanna talk about it. We're doing it tonight, aren't we?"

  "Yeah, I said tonight, didn't I?"

  "You sound like you don't want to."

  "Of course I want to!" Niall jumped down onto the floor and grabbed Jacky, pulling him into a tight hug. "Hey, we've been planning it for weeks, I'm not gonna back out now."

  "Bet y'are though," said Jacky, sniffling.

  "I'm not." Niall took Jacky by the arms and looked him firmly in the eyes. "I'm not just gonna abandon you, Jacky. Whatever it takes, I'm gonna take care of you. I love you."

  "I know." Jacky sniffled again, rubbing his eyes. "I just can't go back there again. I can't keep lettin' him—"

  "You won't." It hurt deep in his heart to see Jacky cry. He couldn't stand it. He pulled Jacky to him and kissed him hard, hoping it would stop the tears and take away some of the fear. "Listen, I got it all planned out. Everything's ready. I'm gonna be there, tonight at midnight sharp, okay? We're gonna do it."

  "You promise it'll make him stop? You promise it'll work?"

  "I promise, Jacky. I know what I'm doing; I've been studying this stuff for years, you know that. Magic works, I've tried it. You saw the stuff I can do."

  "It's just little stuff." Jacky crossed his arms.

  "Yeah," said Niall, feeling a bit offended. "That's just 'cause I haven't tried anything big yet. Look, if you don't believe me, I'll prove you wrong tonight. Right?"

  "Yeah." Jacky sighed and turned away to look for his clothes. "I hope it works, Niall. I dunno what I'll do if it doesn't."

  "It'll work," said Niall. "Don't worry."

  It was impossible to concentrate at school. Niall's mind was running through the ritual in his head, remembering all the incantations. He'd be reading them out loud from a book tonight, but he had memorized them all anyway. He doodled the summoning circle in the margins of his notebooks, over and over again, so he'd have it perfect. It had to be perfect.

  Jacky wasn't in any of his classes this year. He had been in years past, but last year Jacky's grades had slipped, and he'd been placed in learning support. Niall had tried to help him. Tried to make him learn. But his attempts had only been met with acidic responses and eventual tantrums from Jacky. He was smart, but no one could make him learn. So Niall had decided to leave it alone. He would learn when he was ready. And this, he thought, this might just change everything.

  Jacky met him at lunch, in their usual spot outside the gymnasium. It was a corner than no one ever came by, so they were in relative privacy. He leaned his head on Niall's shoulder and sighed. Niall drew him close, savouring the moment of aloneness. "How's class?"

  "Just stupid," sniffed Jacky. "I can't really think, I'm so excited."

  "Me too. I've been practising."

  "I got on the computer a bit." Jacky stiffened a little and leaned away from Niall to grab his bag. "I printed out some stuff."

  "What?" Niall leaned forward.

  "Well, I thought..." Jacky pulled some papers out of the bag, printed articles. "I thought we might make a last minute change."

  Niall bit his lip. "I don't... I don't know, Jacky. It's kind of a delicate thing."

  "It's just, who's the one you want
to summon? Densel?"

  "Denusel," corrected Niall. "Well, he seems best; I mean, I looked him up in a bunch of different demonology books, right? He's supposed to be really good at persuasion and mind control, so I figured he'd be a good fit. Plus it said he had an even temperament."

  "It's just..." Jacky frowned, chewing on his nails. "He's not supposed to be very powerful, is he?"

  "He'll be powerful enough, Jacky; it's all relative. This is a really simple request, like a small transaction. The more powerful demons are much more dangerous, and they do much more powerful stuff."

  "Yeah, but if you do it all right, it'll be fine, right? It won't be able to hurt us."

  "It's... sure, but we don't need to—"

  "Because I looked it up, and I found this." Jacky shoved the article at Niall. It looked old, like it had been photocopied from a book, but not one that Niall had ever seen before.

  "Khireneth," he read aloud. "Notably powerful demon, recordings include... no, this is no good. It doesn't say anything about his power level or what he does."

  "It does down here, see?" Jacky pointed. "Look, it says he calls himself Champion of the Oppressed."

  "Sure, but that doesn't mean anything, demons are all liars. They're bad, and dangerous unless you know how to contain them."

  "I know, you told me, but you do, right? I just..." Jacky swallowed. "I want to make sure it works. I want to be sure."

  "I am sure."

  "Niall, I want to do this one."

  "No."

  "Please. Please, Niall," Jacky blinked and a tear rolled down his face. "It has to work. There's no other way. My dad—"

  Niall felt his heart clench up. He hated that man. And he hated even more that there was nothing he could do. Jacky wouldn't let him tell the teachers, or the police or anything. Not since he'd come to school with a black eye once in fourth grade and the teachers had sent a social worker to their house. Niall didn't know what Jacky's father had done to him as punishment, but he never talked about it. And when Niall even suggested telling someone about it, he went white as a sheet.

  Niall hated feeling helpless. That was probably why he had taken up magic. It gave him a feeling like he had some control over his life; that he could help. And he could help. If this summoning went well... well, why couldn't they summon a more powerful demon? The transaction would be the same. And it would be a for sure thing.

  "Okay," he said. "Okay, Jacky, we'll do it."

  *~*~*

  He nearly tripped several times on the long walk from his house to Jacky's. He'd left a little after eleven at night, when he was sure his parents had gone to bed already. They slept early because his father worked a morning shift at the nearby prison, and were often asleep before Niall anyway. The climb out his bedroom window had gone surprisingly smoothly, but he'd neglected to bring a torch, which was proving to be a fatal mistake.

  "Ow!" He stumbled over another rock and nearly fell, the bag of supplies heavy on his back and throwing off his balance. The dirt road was uneven and peppered on the sides with brambles and rocks and the occasional fence. It was a peaceful walk, other than the rocks, no vehicles to drive by at this time of night and wonder why a sixteen year-old was walking along the road in the middle of the night.

  He stared up at the night sky, the gloom of clouds breaking occasionally to reveal the deep blue sky and twinkling stars. He was never out this late, and the view was glorious. "Ouch! Christ!" He nearly fell to the ground again and forced himself to stare at the dim path in front of him, away from the endless sky.

  He could see the dark shape of trees and Jacky's house up ahead and pulled out his mobile to check the time. Nearly midnight. He stopped for a moment to let his eyes adjust back to the dark, and then hurried on.

  Jacky was waiting for him on the back porch, like they'd planned. "You're smoking again," said Niall, eyeing the glowing ember in Jacky's fingertips. "Why d'you have to do that, Jacks?"

  "I'm nervous." Jacky dropped the finished cigarette and ground it under his foot. "'Sides, he likes to punish me for stealing them whether I do or not. Might as well get the benefit out of it, right?"

  "Make yourself sick," sighed Niall, and Jacky nodded at the heavy pack on Niall's back.

  "It's all in there?"

  Niall nodded. Adrenaline was coursing through his veins. His first summoning. Excitement and terror were sizzling through him like sparks. He felt almost overwhelmed with the anticipation. "Your dad's asleep?"

  "Drunk himself into a stupor." Jacky lifted his shirt a little to show Niall the newly forming bruises on his pale ribs. Niall longed to kiss the bruises better, but he knew Jacky didn't like them touched. Besides, this wasn't the time for sex. "He's upstairs," said Jacky. "Like I thought. Come on, cellar's this way."

  The rusty lock rattled a little as Jacky unlocked it, and Niall looked around nervously.

  "It's fine," Jacky reassured him. "He's not waking up tonight."

  The door creaked open, and Niall had to run to catch it from slamming down. Skinny limbs trembling, he and Jacky pushed it back into place, sliding under as they did so, and let it close on top of them, leaving them in utter darkness. They sat on the dusty cement stairs for a little while, breathing heavily until their eyes adjusted to the darkness, and Niall could make out the stairs leading downwards to the cellar. He'd been down here before, always during the day though. They had played down here as children, and then later used it as a hide-out for secret make-out sessions.

  "This way," said Jacky, leading him downwards. He grasped the yellowed cord hanging from the ceiling and pulled, flooding the cellar with dim light from the bare, dusty bulb. Old boxes and skeletal wooden shelves cast long black shadows into the dark corners, and they seemed to move. Niall told himself that it was just his eyes playing tricks on him, but he was anxious to get this over with now. He pulled the heavy pack from his shoulders and set it on the ground, crouching to remove the contents.

  He pulled out the heavy old book with the summoning ritual (to blame for most of the heaviness), and another binder with instructions he'd printed out online. Then there were the candles, a sturdy lighter, two boxes of white chalk, and a knife to cut them open with. Finally he pulled out a tape measure and enlisted Jacky's help to create the summoning circle.

  "Does it have to take this long?" asked Jacky, after about twenty minutes of measuring and planning. "You haven't even started yet."

  "It'll be faster once I've done the prep," said Niall. "It has to be perfect, Jacky, it's very important."

  "I know," Jacky wandered over to look at the contents of the book in the dim light. "I'm just nervous."

  "Me too." Niall straightened up and went to the bag, pulling out the first box of chalk. He dug the knife into the thick cardboard of the corner and sliced it off, creating a small spout for the chalk to pour through. "Okay, now to business."

  He drew the circle, walking around the circumference and pouring the chalk over the lines he had traced in the dirt, the box in one steady hand and a paper with the image of the circle in the other. It had to match perfectly. Once he had drawn the main lines, he moved onto the details, opening the second box of chalk along the way. He was glad he'd thought to buy two.

  When the time came to print the demon's name around the circle, he hesitated. He could just do Denusel; Jacky wouldn't know until it was too late. But no, he couldn't deceive Jacky like that. He'd decided on Khireneth, and Khireneth it was going to be. He printed the name in neat block letters, one on each side of the circle.

  Jacky was bored at this point, sitting on a crate and watching Niall with his chin in his hands. "A year off each of our lives," he said. "You're sure that'll be a good enough sacrifice?"

  "That's what it says in the book," said Niall distractedly.

  "But what if we're meant to die tomorrow? What would happen then?"

  "Then he'd probably refuse the offer. But it wouldn't matter that much anyway, since we'd just be dying tomorrow."

  "How would
he know, though? Can demons see the future?"

  Niall stood to survey the circle once more. He almost had it right, but he had to be sure before placing each line. The chalk wasn't forgiving. "Some of them, I think. I don't know, they all have different powers."

  "Wouldn't it be nice to have magical powers, Niall? I mean, not like the little spells you do, but real magic. Could solve all your problems that way."

  "Mm, I imagine it'd drive you a bit evil, honestly." Niall stepped forward, carefully placing his feet in the space between the chalk, leaning forward to draw another precise line. "I mean, if you think about it, demons are probably evil because they have so much power, not just because they're a naturally evil race. Power corrupts you, right?"

  "Not always, I don't think. Some people with great power do really great things. Like superheroes."

  "Superheroes aren't real, Jacks. Okay, I think I'm done."

  Jacky rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you say you're done, but you're gonna look it over another ten zillion times first; I've seen you do this stuff."

  "Yeah, you're right." Niall stared at the circle on the floor, and then back at the paper, then back at the floor again, until the image was burnt into his mind. He went and picked up the book, and stared from the image on the page, and then to the floor, and then to the page again. Impatience gnawed at him, but he ignored it. This was very, very important.

  At last he pronounced himself properly done, and Jacky jumped up to survey it. "It looks awesome."

  "Now I just have to place the candles."

  Jacky sighed. "That'll take another age, won't it?"

  When it was at last complete, Niall looked at his mobile, surprised to see that it was nearly 1:30 in the morning. He didn't feel tired at all, his body practically vibrating with anticipation. "All right, let's do it. Jacky, come stand over here. I need you to read with me. Did you memorize the lines like I told you?"

  "I did actually."

  "All right, stand here, Jacky." Niall took Jacky's hands in his and kissed him. "I love you."

  Jacky's lip was trembling. "I love you too, Niall, and I'm sorry about this."