Chapter 3

Immediately the hexagram painted on the floor began to heat up and burn increasing the already high temperatures in the area. Suddenly, black smoke emerged from the burnt hexagram converging in the middle of the circle as different faces and hands kept trying to force their way out of the smoke. Seeing the terrifying phenomenon happening right before his eyes, he surprisingly did not feel any fear. Only elation. The faces and hands in the smoke looked like they were trying to race out with each dragging the other behind.

In the ‘back’ of the smoke, if that even made any sense, there was a peculiar face. Anderson would have missed it, if he hadn’t felt a chilling stare. When Anderson made eye contact, he saw the face smile. It begun to draw closer and closer until finally a humanoid figure walked slowly out of the smoke. The moment it did the inscriptions on the poles lit up slightly before dimming once more. The face of the figure was somewhat blurry and it gave off quite the eerie bloody aura forcing Anderson to feel a bit of fear. The blurry faced figure turned around and stretched out its hand intending to snatch the smoke however something unexpected happened.

A hand quickly came out of the smoke and stabbed through the chest of the blurry face humanoid as another figure emerged from the smoke, however unlike the first one his face was not blurred. He had a handsome face, dark skinned with large deep golden eyes that had red at the edge of the pupil. His nails were extended, pointy and painted black. They looked hard with lines like the bark of a tree. With his hand still in the chest of the first being he tilted his head to look at Anderson who was standing outside the circle with a smile. “Hello Mr. Anderson, I’ll be right with you.”

“#@#@&. Are you trying to violate the…” The being with the arm in his chest struggled to speak, but was interrupted as a bang sound erupted. The blurred faced figure burst into black smoke flowing into the newly emerged man’s mouth. “As if I care.” The new comer spoke with a chuckle. Then with a snap of his fingers, the smoke behind him burst apart as well and began to flow into his mouth until it was completely gone.

“Such fine blood, yes, quite rare these days and I must say quite the delicacy.” Closing his eyes to savor the taste and feeling he spoke out with his deep soothing voice as he had on a somewhat satisfactory look. He wore a white suit with black trim edges which accentuated his golden eyes. The golden eyed man pulled out a handkerchief from his pockets and wiped the black blood that had painted his left hand with a disgusted look.

After a few more seconds he opened his eyes once more then smiled at Anderson standing across from him. That smile however sent chills down his spine as he felt his heart pound in his chest almost threatening to escape from his chest. Unlike the first being that came out, Anderson felt absolutely nothing from this newcomer; no fear, no bloody smell, nothing. If not for the fact that he was staring directly at him he would not even believe he was there. “Well done, Mr. Anderson. I must say, I am impressed.”

What was worse was the fact that from the moment the newcomer showed up the poles went completely dim and had zero reactions. The poles were supposed to release an almost physical set of chains to bind and hold down any demon right after they devoured the blood smoke, and yet, nothing happened.

“So, Mr. Anderson, what can I do for you. It must be quite big for such a down payment” The man with the golden eyes asked not losing his smile “So what is it, money, talent…” smiling a bit wider he continued “to know the truth?” While the golden eyed demon spoke, he was slowing taking a step towards Anderson. Anderson felt his heart was about to leap out of his chest. He had been warned. He was trying hard to not think about specific matters, especially when it came down to what he planned to do, but that was proving to be problematic, considering the panic he was feeling when the poles refused to do their work.

Taking in a few deep breaths to try and compose himself once more he said “You know my name but what do I call you?”

The gold eyed man narrowed his eyes as a few thoughts ran through his head. Chuckling lightly to himself he continued to walk forward towards Anderson with a menacing glare. It was just a glare but Anderson felt the temperature drop quite a bit. Just as he was about to cross the burnt hexagram it suddenly lit up in flames forcing the golden eyed man a few steps back to the center of the hexagram.

Witnessing this, Anderson felt and looked visibly relieved, releasing a breath he never knew he held. The appearance of this man had certainly been tremendously beyond his expectations. The ritual was meant to call forth a demon and yes, with the bait he used it was well within his conjecture that a powerful one would bite, but not this level. This demon, just from the looks of him Anderson could tell that he was definitely bad news. Technically, from all he had read and seen in movies about demons, they were all bad news. Anderson was scared the traps and barriers in place would not be able to hold him at all.

Thankfully his earlier plan was not to risk whether or not a weak demon showed up and went with the high-level trap. At least that was what the old woman said. His mind unconsciously wandered to her. Who was she? How did she know so much, and why was she willing to help? “I see.”. The gold eyed man stared at the hexagram in amusement.