The Lost Boys | A Summoning
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xp_logsBilly and Tommy try a spell to commune with whatever is behind the sigil they keep seeing. That was a mistake.
Magic wasn't actually real, Billy kept telling himself. There were scientific explanations for his mutant powers, whatever those powers were. And probably a similar answer for the mysterious connection he shared with Tommy. All the library books they'd taken were gobbledegook. The lady at the store from whom they (Tommy, actually) had stolen the "spellbook" was also clearly a snake oil seller. Broken life lines? What does that even mean?
Still, the strange symbol that had at first just shown up in the magic 8-ball was now appearing everywhere the boys looked, or so it seemed. In the MSNBC chyron when Billy's parents watched TV, in rapid TikTok scrollings, in the clouds. Billy was sure he'd even seen it scrawled into the tub of cream cheese he opened this morning to spread on his breakfast bagel. And the filched spellbook was the first substantive lead they had found, as there was a whole chapter about the "cosmic concepts" the shopkeep had spoken of. None of it made any sense, but there was a ritual at the end of the chapter that would supposedly commune with these forces. Complete mishegas, of course, but what else could they do but try it? Who knew how much longer they could maintain this charade of Tommy as his cousin before he was discovered, and for all the bickering squabbles they'd had over the last few days, there was one thing Billy knew for certain: he couldn't let Tommy go back.
The ritual didn't call for much materially, just some candles and a large rendition of the sigil itself. While Tommy traced the design on several sheets of notebook paper and arranged them on Billy's bedroom floor, Billy filled his menorah with nine rainbow-colored candles and lit them.
"Ready?"
Tommy looked around at their setup dubiously. “I guess.” It didn’t really seem like how people summoned demons in the movie. Needed more candles and blood.
Maybe those components were called for, because reciting the incantation as directed seemingly accomplished nothing. Billy repeated it and again, even reaching out for that slippery, maddening potential that let him do whatever it was he did. He might have lifted the menorah off the ground an inch or two, but otherwise, nothing nothing nothing.
"I knew this wouldn't work."
“Bruh.” Poking at the candles, his white haired counterpart let out a sigh. “So it really is a bunch of hocus pocus then? And we’re sharing a joint delusion.” Saying he broke out of prison to chase a fake magic symbol didn’t seem like it was going to help his case once he was finally apprehended and sent back to the clink.
Before Billy could respond, the lamp on his desk flickered. A cold draft seemed to enter the room and chill them both to the bone.
The boys shared a look of bewilderment at the sudden vibe shift. After blowing out the candles for safety, Billy stood up, feeling a bit wobbly on his feet. "Does it sound . . . quieter to you? Like, where did the birds go?"
And the rest of Billy’s family. The faint sounds of the twins’ video game and Jeff and Rebecca in the kitchen had disappeared, leaving an eerie silence behind.
Tommy crept towards the door, listening against the wood for any sounds. “This is… weird.” He glanced at the sigil on the ground with a newfound nervousness.
It was not time to panic. Yet. Maybe it was just a standard brownout and everything would be back to normal in a minute. Billy went to the window to peer at the rest of the neighborhood, see if this was happening all over the block. "It's very foggy outside," he observed. "I can't see more than the yard. Maybe a storm is coming?"
But hadn’t it been sunny just moments before? A bad feeling was building up in his stomach, energy fizzling beneath the surface of his skin. Something wasn’t right. Tommy nodded towards the door. “We should go down and check.”
Neither boy seemed enthused by the prospect.
Not that he knew what he would do in the face of a threat, but Billy searched for his power again, anyway, just in case. He opened the bedroom with a faintly glowing hand and peaked out before the pair stepped into the hallway. They were still in their home for sure, but there was no response to Billy calling for his parents and brothers. He and Tommy exchanged another look of trepidation before they slowly descended the stairs. The instant their feet hit the landing, the silence was broken by the raucous chime of the doorbell.
Tommy nearly blew a hole in the wall with how bad it scared him. “Fucking hell. That better not be your nosy neighbor.” Not that he believed it for one second. A cursory run through of the house had him back next to Billy in a few seconds. “Your family isn’t here. Dude.”
"What? That's . . ." The bell rang again, and Billy took a step back up the stairs, away from the front door. This scene was straight out of a horror movie. They were going to open the door and the masked serial killer on the other side would rip them to shreds. And this wasn't even going to be a good horror movie. This was a straight-to-streaming threequel banking on the nostalgia of the previous installments. They were nobodies cast in nobody roles about to be slaughtered just for the gore, not for any substance.
"Boys? I forgot my keys and locked myself out. A little help?" That was Jeff's voice from the other side of the door. Billy could have fainted as the tension vanished and every muscle in his body relaxed.
So they were just being paranoid. Rolling his eyes, Tommy opened the door for Billy’s dad.
Except it wasn’t Jeff Kaplan standing there. Long red robes and golden horns greeted them, along with a sinister grin. “Hello boys, finally we meet again.”
~*~
Meanwhile, Wanda has some startling intel for Scott.
Wanda leaned against the wooden doorway, fist dropping to her side from knocking. "Security still just letting anyone walk into the mansion these days, I see?" she asked with a smile. The remains of jet lag from her latest stint at the library in London showed on her face but she'd at least been able to grab a full night's rest after the flight before things started to turn sideways. "I would not suppose you have a moment or two to chat, Scott?"
"If you think Kyle didn't smell you coming from a mile away..." Scott let a smile curl up the corner of his lips as he gestured towards one of the padded chairs across from his desk. "I'e always got time for you Wanda, besides, you're saving me from having to struggle with the latest set of mansion accounts. How people get through quite this much food I have no idea." Wheels squeaked as the man pushed his chair back, rising to his feet as he took a step towards the coffee machine in the corner. "What's your poison?"
She smiled as she walked the full way in, heading to join him as he made the coffees. "Just a black coffee this morning, thank you. I travel so much that jetlag doesn't bother me - but only if I pray before the caffeine gods multiple times a day." Wanda gave a half shrug. "There are worse alters to kneel before."
A ceramic mug settled in front of Wanda as the earthy aroma of the coffee started to percolate around the room, "I'm not entirely sure Charles would agree with that, I can remember the first time someone asked for coffee in here. I'm pretty sure his eyebrows went through the ceiling." A nostalgic smile played across Scott's lips as he settled himself back in his seat, taking a sip of his coffee, "Not that I don't appreciate the company, but I don't think nostalgia brought you to see me instead of your bed so, what's going on?"
"One moment," she sighed, breathing in the smell of coffee before taking a sip. "Tea does wonders to soothe, as I've often told Charles, but most of the time I need something a bit more ... kick the door in?" Wanda took another sip. "I've only been back from London for a few days but a contact reached out to me nearly when I landed. They received word that two teenage boys somehow managed to make off with a magical tome, somewhere in New Jersey. Eastview."
She shifted slightly. "While that is troublesome enough, at least one of the boys appeared to have some sort of...aura, perhaps, it was unclear, that marked him as having some kind of connection to Chthon." Wanda's face darkened. "You can see why this caught my attention even more. However, the reason I'm bringing this to your attention along with alerting my team is that when we started to look into this, it appears you may have already run into one of them recently. The description of a missing teen from the raid you all did on that facility may match one of the boys."
Scott's forehead screwed up for a moment before realization struck and he blinked owlishly at Wanda, "You mean Tommy, the kid who vanished? He turned up in New Jersey? Of course he did." The man slumped back in his chair as he laughed. "Right on our doorstep too. What're the odds, in fact don't tell me, I think I want to enjoy the win for once." He paused for a moment to take a sip of his coffee before nodding, "I guess we should head down there to check on them. How much trouble do you think they're going to find themselves in?"
Right as Wanda was giving Scott a look, she froze, coffee mug trembling slightly in her hands. "Scott," her voice was low as she slowly turned to look at a wood-paneled wall, "I think I have the answer to your question. Because from that direction - which New Jersey at least is in - something with a lot of chaos energy just made itself very known. I don't believe in coincidences, not in our lines of work."
A sigh escaped Scott's lips as he set his coffee down on the table and slid his chair back pushing himself to his feet. "I guess the coffee's going to have to wait, something tells me the kids are messing with things they have no idea about if you're feeling it all the way out here. How do you feel about a road trip?"
Magic wasn't actually real, Billy kept telling himself. There were scientific explanations for his mutant powers, whatever those powers were. And probably a similar answer for the mysterious connection he shared with Tommy. All the library books they'd taken were gobbledegook. The lady at the store from whom they (Tommy, actually) had stolen the "spellbook" was also clearly a snake oil seller. Broken life lines? What does that even mean?
Still, the strange symbol that had at first just shown up in the magic 8-ball was now appearing everywhere the boys looked, or so it seemed. In the MSNBC chyron when Billy's parents watched TV, in rapid TikTok scrollings, in the clouds. Billy was sure he'd even seen it scrawled into the tub of cream cheese he opened this morning to spread on his breakfast bagel. And the filched spellbook was the first substantive lead they had found, as there was a whole chapter about the "cosmic concepts" the shopkeep had spoken of. None of it made any sense, but there was a ritual at the end of the chapter that would supposedly commune with these forces. Complete mishegas, of course, but what else could they do but try it? Who knew how much longer they could maintain this charade of Tommy as his cousin before he was discovered, and for all the bickering squabbles they'd had over the last few days, there was one thing Billy knew for certain: he couldn't let Tommy go back.
The ritual didn't call for much materially, just some candles and a large rendition of the sigil itself. While Tommy traced the design on several sheets of notebook paper and arranged them on Billy's bedroom floor, Billy filled his menorah with nine rainbow-colored candles and lit them.
"Ready?"
Tommy looked around at their setup dubiously. “I guess.” It didn’t really seem like how people summoned demons in the movie. Needed more candles and blood.
Maybe those components were called for, because reciting the incantation as directed seemingly accomplished nothing. Billy repeated it and again, even reaching out for that slippery, maddening potential that let him do whatever it was he did. He might have lifted the menorah off the ground an inch or two, but otherwise, nothing nothing nothing.
"I knew this wouldn't work."
“Bruh.” Poking at the candles, his white haired counterpart let out a sigh. “So it really is a bunch of hocus pocus then? And we’re sharing a joint delusion.” Saying he broke out of prison to chase a fake magic symbol didn’t seem like it was going to help his case once he was finally apprehended and sent back to the clink.
Before Billy could respond, the lamp on his desk flickered. A cold draft seemed to enter the room and chill them both to the bone.
The boys shared a look of bewilderment at the sudden vibe shift. After blowing out the candles for safety, Billy stood up, feeling a bit wobbly on his feet. "Does it sound . . . quieter to you? Like, where did the birds go?"
And the rest of Billy’s family. The faint sounds of the twins’ video game and Jeff and Rebecca in the kitchen had disappeared, leaving an eerie silence behind.
Tommy crept towards the door, listening against the wood for any sounds. “This is… weird.” He glanced at the sigil on the ground with a newfound nervousness.
It was not time to panic. Yet. Maybe it was just a standard brownout and everything would be back to normal in a minute. Billy went to the window to peer at the rest of the neighborhood, see if this was happening all over the block. "It's very foggy outside," he observed. "I can't see more than the yard. Maybe a storm is coming?"
But hadn’t it been sunny just moments before? A bad feeling was building up in his stomach, energy fizzling beneath the surface of his skin. Something wasn’t right. Tommy nodded towards the door. “We should go down and check.”
Neither boy seemed enthused by the prospect.
Not that he knew what he would do in the face of a threat, but Billy searched for his power again, anyway, just in case. He opened the bedroom with a faintly glowing hand and peaked out before the pair stepped into the hallway. They were still in their home for sure, but there was no response to Billy calling for his parents and brothers. He and Tommy exchanged another look of trepidation before they slowly descended the stairs. The instant their feet hit the landing, the silence was broken by the raucous chime of the doorbell.
Tommy nearly blew a hole in the wall with how bad it scared him. “Fucking hell. That better not be your nosy neighbor.” Not that he believed it for one second. A cursory run through of the house had him back next to Billy in a few seconds. “Your family isn’t here. Dude.”
"What? That's . . ." The bell rang again, and Billy took a step back up the stairs, away from the front door. This scene was straight out of a horror movie. They were going to open the door and the masked serial killer on the other side would rip them to shreds. And this wasn't even going to be a good horror movie. This was a straight-to-streaming threequel banking on the nostalgia of the previous installments. They were nobodies cast in nobody roles about to be slaughtered just for the gore, not for any substance.
"Boys? I forgot my keys and locked myself out. A little help?" That was Jeff's voice from the other side of the door. Billy could have fainted as the tension vanished and every muscle in his body relaxed.
So they were just being paranoid. Rolling his eyes, Tommy opened the door for Billy’s dad.
Except it wasn’t Jeff Kaplan standing there. Long red robes and golden horns greeted them, along with a sinister grin. “Hello boys, finally we meet again.”
~*~
Meanwhile, Wanda has some startling intel for Scott.
Wanda leaned against the wooden doorway, fist dropping to her side from knocking. "Security still just letting anyone walk into the mansion these days, I see?" she asked with a smile. The remains of jet lag from her latest stint at the library in London showed on her face but she'd at least been able to grab a full night's rest after the flight before things started to turn sideways. "I would not suppose you have a moment or two to chat, Scott?"
"If you think Kyle didn't smell you coming from a mile away..." Scott let a smile curl up the corner of his lips as he gestured towards one of the padded chairs across from his desk. "I'e always got time for you Wanda, besides, you're saving me from having to struggle with the latest set of mansion accounts. How people get through quite this much food I have no idea." Wheels squeaked as the man pushed his chair back, rising to his feet as he took a step towards the coffee machine in the corner. "What's your poison?"
She smiled as she walked the full way in, heading to join him as he made the coffees. "Just a black coffee this morning, thank you. I travel so much that jetlag doesn't bother me - but only if I pray before the caffeine gods multiple times a day." Wanda gave a half shrug. "There are worse alters to kneel before."
A ceramic mug settled in front of Wanda as the earthy aroma of the coffee started to percolate around the room, "I'm not entirely sure Charles would agree with that, I can remember the first time someone asked for coffee in here. I'm pretty sure his eyebrows went through the ceiling." A nostalgic smile played across Scott's lips as he settled himself back in his seat, taking a sip of his coffee, "Not that I don't appreciate the company, but I don't think nostalgia brought you to see me instead of your bed so, what's going on?"
"One moment," she sighed, breathing in the smell of coffee before taking a sip. "Tea does wonders to soothe, as I've often told Charles, but most of the time I need something a bit more ... kick the door in?" Wanda took another sip. "I've only been back from London for a few days but a contact reached out to me nearly when I landed. They received word that two teenage boys somehow managed to make off with a magical tome, somewhere in New Jersey. Eastview."
She shifted slightly. "While that is troublesome enough, at least one of the boys appeared to have some sort of...aura, perhaps, it was unclear, that marked him as having some kind of connection to Chthon." Wanda's face darkened. "You can see why this caught my attention even more. However, the reason I'm bringing this to your attention along with alerting my team is that when we started to look into this, it appears you may have already run into one of them recently. The description of a missing teen from the raid you all did on that facility may match one of the boys."
Scott's forehead screwed up for a moment before realization struck and he blinked owlishly at Wanda, "You mean Tommy, the kid who vanished? He turned up in New Jersey? Of course he did." The man slumped back in his chair as he laughed. "Right on our doorstep too. What're the odds, in fact don't tell me, I think I want to enjoy the win for once." He paused for a moment to take a sip of his coffee before nodding, "I guess we should head down there to check on them. How much trouble do you think they're going to find themselves in?"
Right as Wanda was giving Scott a look, she froze, coffee mug trembling slightly in her hands. "Scott," her voice was low as she slowly turned to look at a wood-paneled wall, "I think I have the answer to your question. Because from that direction - which New Jersey at least is in - something with a lot of chaos energy just made itself very known. I don't believe in coincidences, not in our lines of work."
A sigh escaped Scott's lips as he set his coffee down on the table and slid his chair back pushing himself to his feet. "I guess the coffee's going to have to wait, something tells me the kids are messing with things they have no idea about if you're feeling it all the way out here. How do you feel about a road trip?"
