INFLATED DESIRES 1

Jessica stood tall — well, as tall as she could at five feet — in the middle of her apartment living room. Dressed normally for her, considering that she was just hanging out in her apartment at home, her sweatpants dragged on the floor around her feet, her socks pink and black striped, though everything that she wore was fresh and clean and in good condition. Even though she had been a bit more erratic back in her college days, she’d felt that both her job as a museum assistant, and also her friend, Veronica, had smartened her up a bit. Yet heading to class in pyjamas had pretty much been a staple for so many, before, back in college…

Her T-shirt had tugged up a bit where she stood, exposing a sliver of her stomach, though Jessica wasn’t thinking about that, no. Not at all, the lick of a breeze at the back of her neck giving her the impression that her naturally red hair was bristling. That could not be, though she was keen to see just what that text from the museum held.

Oh, great Fornucatus, come to me, come to me, she repeated in her mind, lips moving through the chant, though what she thought inwardly and spoke outwardly were not the same: it was all part of the ritual. Oh, great one, the great Fornucatus… Bring to me your divine being, the depths of depraved sin held in your arms. Send to me the being with whom I may fornicate, live out my most twisted of desires… Fornucatus, send me your demon.

In one hand, she held the book that she had “borrowed” from the museum (perhaps not the best option for her if she wanted to do well at her job there). In the other, she traced runes in the air before her, standing in the middle of a summoning circle, which had been outlined in chalk on the carpet and, of course, candles. The rune was simple, one to open a doorway to the other realm, for Fornucatus, and she breathed as slowly and as evenly as she could, letting a sense of power wash through her.

What she didn’t notice, however, was her friend sneaking into her apartment behind her, Veronica the kind of woman who was so very often not quite where anyone wanted to be. She didn’t have a job, per se, coming from money, but did a lot of charity work, using the skills gained in college to build more and help out at places in the city, all in the name of networking. She didn’t seem to mind what she did and her trust fund, set up by her parents to pay basic expenses, did a lot for her.

Sometimes, however, Veronica lacked boundaries… Although she was the same age as Jessica, she had long, straight, black hair that fell to her mid-back: a luxury that only someone with the time and the money to look after hair like that could truly afford. An easy smile often flitted across her face, similarly built to Jessica, but her skin glowed just a little bit more as if she had recently been off on holiday somewhere much warmer than the incoming spring season.

She chuckled faintly, sealing her amusement back behind her lips as she crept up to Jessica, comically hunched over. People always said she was dramatic and over the top, but, honestly, Veronica didn’t know any way to be. She was not a rule-breaker, not by any means, just expressed herself quite freely without any restrictions. That may have been difficult to understand, however, considering how she was dressed for the day in a white, button-up shirt with a well-ironed collar, a black vest, black slacks and matching shoes, she wasn’t quite dressed as she usually was.

She looked smart though, as if she was ready to work. Watching her friend, Veronica tilted her head slightly, tucking a stray bit of her black hair back behind her ear. Her words moved through a language that Veronica did not understand, though she didn’t quite feel either that she was meant to understand it.

What is she doing? Is she trying to do a spell? What’s all the stuff on the floor?

Alas, it was Veronica’s curiosity that set the course of events for so much more, more than they could ever have imagined, as she scuffed up the outline of the summoning circle, one of the candles snuffed out. Her friend was talking so strangely.

“Great Fornucatus,” Jessica said softly, changing back to English as she completed the ritual. “Send to me one to lust and to fuck, the one, the only, Fornucaaaaatus! Agh!”

Jolting, Jessica slipped up, speaking Fornucatus’ name instead of the specific demon that she had intended to summon through his power. Veronica finally let a laugh break free from her lips as she grabbed her friend’s shoulders, yanking her back, but it was Jessica who jerked more violently than could have been anticipated, the book half flying out of her hands in her shock.

“Veronica!”

Veronica laughed, but neither noticed that the chalk outline of the circle was broken and smeared, the capturing rune, which had been intended to claim Jessica’s supernatural fuck buddy (hey, it wasn’t as if she fully expected the ritual to work), broken under their feet.

Somewhere, in the other realm, the connection shivered and a demon who was never meant to be unleashed raised its head, questing, concerning. With a rush of energy, they flowed towards the open door, bridging the gap to the human realm.

“Veronica, what the hell do you think you’re doing?” Jessica demanded, giving her a light shove on the shoulder, though she was more mildly frustrated than annoyed. “You scared me! Don’t you have to be over at Vincent’s?”

Veronica grinned.

“So serious,” she teased Jessica right back, helping her blow out the rest of the candles, lest they get knocked over without either of them noticing. “Didn’t know you’d gotten into all this crazy magic roleplay stuff to try to find someone to have sex with… But you do you, girl, unless you can send one my way too, hm?”

Jessica scowled and hid the book from her, though they had talked about weird fantasy stuff before, the kind that was only played out between really good friends. Still, they had not been open about everything, even if some of their more twisted desires, surprisingly, had lined up. Maybe that was why they had been such good friends for so many years, though it was not as if they had started talking about that kind of thing until, most likely, around when they hit twenty. Everyone had different instances of becoming sexually aware and active, after all, and they could have been said to be late bloomers, though Veronica was most certainly the most adventurous one.

“Hey, it’s just from the museum,” Jessica explained with a roll of her eyes. “Would be cool if it worked, but, hm… Yeah, it’s a shame that that stuff isn’t real.”

She didn’t really believe that, not when she hoped so much that it was real. Veronica, however, knew when not to pry too, though she could have teased more.

“Moving on,” she said smoothly. “Yeah, I’m heading over to Vincent’s in a bit but I don’t want to be too early. Last time, he got me doing some of the heavy work and, well, you know…”

Jessica rolled her eyes.

“Don’t want to break a nail?”

Veronica shot her a look at that, though it was the usual sort of banter that was played back and forth between them, nothing serious. Veronica, in fact, was a rather diligent worker, but when Vincent, who was holding yet another charity event in his mansion, fundraising for a good cause, had had her lugging around the huge, stone planters out at the front of the mansion, well… That wasn’t exactly what she signed up for, even if she could do it with a great deal of physical exertion. And her dress had not survived the ordeal either.

“Anyway, I had better get going and ready,” she said with a sigh. “Not really feeling it today, but you know how it is.”

Jessica nodded. She might not have quite the same carefree life that Veronica did, but that was not all that bad, for she had a safety net in her friend and her friend’s family, even if she had never expected it from any of them. Bar paying a couple of bills that had slipped in the earlier days of their adulthood, it was not something that she had needed assistance with, however, thankfully. She was much happier being self-reliant.

However, things were about to change. All in a way that they would never be the same again as Fornucatus slipped through the open doorway, questing for his host…

Without Veronica there to let her know that something was amiss, that the lights in the apartment were flickering (even when they had been switched off) and the floor was shaking ever so slightly, the static screaming on the TV, Jessica was already lost.

And so was Veronica too.

THE END