Chapter Text
"You're still thinking about this?" Eli asked.
SMii7y, who was knelt down and writing in chalk on the ground, hummed softly. "Of course," he said, glancing up. "I can't just let this be the end of it all, now can I?"
"I mean," Eli said, shrugging, "you can, if you really want to, you know. We don't have to do this, you have your demon back…not that it went anywhere far."
"Two people got possessed recently, and I'm making sure that it doesn't happen again," said SMii7y.
Soup showed up about ten minutes later once SMii7y finished the circle and was setting candles around it. He had lit each one while Eli was standing off to the side, drinking a slurpee he got from the nearest corner store.
"I had to do something like this when I was a kid, it happened in a basement of my aunts, and we almost burned down the house," Soup said.
SMii7y finished with the circle, and said, "I'm excited to unpack that with you in the future, Soup."
Soup shrugged.
"But we're kind of busy doing something entirely different, so we're gonna have to wait," said SMii7y, tucking the lighter in his pocket. "What about the others?"
Eli was looking at his phone, "Uh, well…Blarg, Grizzy, and Puffer are bailing. Yumi wants nothing to do with this. Makes sense, ya know. I did ask fl0m and Tucker, but they're also busy—"
SMii7y scoffed, crossing his arms. "Yeah, I'm sure they're busy.
Eli cleared his throat and continued, "So, I asked Fitz and Dooo to join us."
"What about McNasty?"
"I don't know, they said they weren't busy since they got back into town a few days ago, and they heard about what happened…vaguely, no one wanted to talk about it," Eli said.
Well, that also makes sense. Everyone wanted to forget what happened, besides a few of them who kept bringing up the weirdness of the town. The questions weren't being answered, and that in itself, was frustrating since SMii7y had to do everything himself.
A few minutes later, Fitz and Dooo showed up, Dooo was holding a plastic bag in his hand.
"I got the…dead animal you wanted."
"Is it road kill?" Eli asked.
"Or…did you kill it?" Soup wondered, frowning at the bag.
"Doesn't matter, bring it over here," said SMii7y, standing in the circle he had made.
Fitz was looking strangely at what was going on. "Is it true then, that you guys are satanic?"
"No," SMii7y and Eli said at the same time.
Soup smiled, "I don't really know what's going on either."
SMii7y told them to come around the circle and hold hands, and they did as he said. "Don't move, don't break the connection. You can speak, but don't interrupt me too much. You might regret it."
"So, what's the dead animal you found?" Soup asked while SMii7y had closed his eyes, holding the bag without opening it.
"A skunk," Dooo said, a smile in his voice.
"Did you kill it?"
"Do you want to know the answer or do you want it to be a happy mystery?"
"To be fair, I think whatever we're doing right now is far worse," said Fitz, clearing his throat, holding Dooo and Eli's hands.
SMii7y was whispering an incantation the demon had once taught him during one of his more fitful dreams, and ever since then, it helped him deal with rituals like this. Although, his friends always found it strange when he asked them to do this with him.
Some got used to it eventually.
"We can stop over at Happy Burger after this," Eli murmured. "I think Pezzy and Droid are over there."
"Nah, I have to get home pretty soon," said Fitz, yawning.
"I'll come along," said Dooo.
"If you're paying," Soup said.
"No, no, SMii7y can pay, I mean…this is awkward since the alley is open to the street and I've seen at least three people in their cars looking weirdly at us," Eli said, sounding a little dejected.
SMii7y finished with the ritual and let out a breath. He opened his eyes, then opened the bag and looked inside at the contents. He grimaced at the sight before handing it back to Dooo.
"Please…get rid of that, and never…never do that again," he told him.
Dooo smiled, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Are we done, cause that was not as bad as I thought it was," said Fitz.
"Everyone else is a critic, or religious, I don't know," said SMii7y, sighing, then grabbing a bottle of water and dumped the water onto the chalk drawing, hoping it would fade some of the sigils he had written down.
"Did it work?" Eli wondered.
"Yeah, let's just…go to Happy Burger, and I'll try to explain some of what I saw," SMii7y said, gathering the candles and caring little for the wax.