Chapter 2: Erin

“This is a prank,” I said, tearing my gaze away from the talking shadow to Megan. “Tell me this is a prank.”

But Megan hadn’t moved, wasn’t speaking. Just stared at the humanoid-shaped shadow with rounded eyes.

The shadow looked around the room with a bored expression—or so I assumed, as it was hard to make out the finer expressions of a shadow. A freaking talking shadow. This had to be a joke. This absolutely couldn’t be real. My brain whirred through possible logical explanations as the shadow tested the constraints of the salt circle. Dark digits splayed against an invisible wall, all that was separating the dark entity from Megan and me.

“Well?” The shadow spoke again, its tone surprisingly deep and smooth for a being without visible vocal cords. “What will it be? Riches, fame ... love?”

Megan finally woke from her stupor. She fumbled around before pulling out her phone, the whites of her eyes visible in the screen’s light. “You’re not from Earth, right?” It looked as if she was taking notes or trying to take a picture—I couldn’t be sure.

The shadow cocked its head. “Knowledge is what you seek?”

I squinted at it, trying to make sense of the situation, but things were moving too fast. “Wait. I don’t...” My jaw felt tight. “I don’t think we should engage with it yet. Is there something in the book that explains this? Like how to get it to leave?” The shadow swung its dark head toward me, and I swore every hair on my body rose.

Megan shot me an incredulous look. “Something amazing is finally happening, and you want to just, what? Tell it to go home?” She shook her head, turning back to the shadow. “My name is Megan, and this is—”

“Stop it,” I hissed. “Don’t tell it our names!”

The shadow ignored me and bowed, creasing at the hip like a folded piece of paper. “Some call me Dezmandaro. You may call me Dez.”

“Dez,” Megan said, with an awed smile on her face. I didn’t know how she wasn’t completely freaking out. I was freaking out, searching for some kind of logical explanation. A gas leak? Were we experiencing some bizarre, shared hallucination? Perhaps the food we had tonight went bad?

“Where did you come from?” she asked.

“I came from The Higher Realms,” he said as if we knew where the hell that was.

Megan’s breath stuttered, and her fingers flew at her phone. “You ... you’re not human, right?”

“I’ve been called many things. God, alien, demon, angel, fae, monster—take your pick. However, human has not been one of them.”

That wasn’t helpful at all.

“Do you know—”

“You summoned a demon to interview it?” I interrupted, staring at my friend. Was this really happening? Was there seriously some strange monster—whatever the hell this thing was—standing in my small living room in the middle of some flimsy salt circle?

Megan scowled at me before pulling something up on her phone and showing Dez, whose shadowy head tilted at. How was she acting so normal? I thought about turning on the overhead light, but would that send the entity away? Is that what I want? The fortune teller’s warning hovered at the forefront of my thoughts.

In a panic, I flipped the switch closest to where I sat, still semi-crouching on the floor. The room flooded with light, and Megan gasped. I hoped the shadow was gone, dissipating in the light, and this whole crazy fiasco was over and done with.