Page 60 of Hellfire & Tinsel
After another day of lying listlessly on the couch staring at the knitted hat by the door, Beau decided to shuffle into his bedroom. He was ready to pull the blankets over his head and sleep the day away when a shaft of sunlight peeked through the winter clouds. It settled on the small chair in the corner, where Beau had placed the purple duck Kassel had won him.
A lance of pain speared straight through his chest, messy on impact and making him stumble in place.
The only reason he had wanted it was because it reminded him of Kassel. The color, the expressionless face. He didn’t know how a demon and a duck could give off the same don’t-give-a-damn vibes, but Beau was certain they were kindred spirits. And now it was a shadow, a ghost haunting him.
He approached it with cautious steps, reaching a shaking hand out to its head. “This is all I have left of you.”
His lips wobbled and his throat got tighter.
“I didn’t get to give you anything back. Not properly. You left your hat here as well. I don’t know if you even liked it. I thought you did, when you warned that guy off at the fair… I wish I had asked you. I wish I asked you so many things…”
For the first time in his life he grew angry, his grief manifesting in a rage that had him screaming. He knocked the toy aside and pushed his dresser, upending everything on top. He ripped his blankets from his bed and threw his pillows uselessly before collapsing in the mess, crying yet again.
He stared down at the floor, watching his tears fall, drop by drop, forming a wet stain that grew outward. It spread to the edge of a book that had fallen face down.
Beau immediately recognized the spine.
The summoning book.
He caught his breath, hands scrambling for it and slipping on the surface before he could claw it to him. He flipped to Kassel’s page with fumbling fingers and began to futilely recite the words between tear drops on the paper until his voice was hoarse.
He ignored the writing that mocked him from the bottom of the page.
After summoning, this or any other demon cannot be summoned more than once a century.
He read the summons over and over until he just couldn’t anymore, letting the book fall to his lap.
“Please bring him back. I just want to talk to him. I made a mistake. I didn’t want him to go,” Beau cried out, tipping his head back, rivers streaking down his temples. “Please. I’ll do anything. Please…”
No one answered him.
He pushed the useless summoning book aside in a fit of despair.
“It’s not fair,” Beau yelled. “You hear me?! It’s not fair. The book was supposed to fulfill my summons, but it didn’t. I feel lonelier now than I did before. At least I didn’t know then what it could be. It’s cruel. You’re cruel. You gave me five days and then ripped it away. It’s not fair…”
Beau gave up begging. He fell to his side, curling up to try and hold himself together. He spotted the duck discarded on thefloor and pulled it over, letting his face drop into its fur to absorb his tears.
He let himself go limp, letting the sadness take him under and drown him.
Thud.
He twitched, head moving toward the sound before he uncovered his face to the cold room. More muffled sounds and shuffling had him slowly sitting up, one hand still clutching the duck as comfort. There was a hint of ash and brimstone in the air.
Was it just his imagination?
He swallowed, forcing saliva past his tight throat as his sobs eased off into hiccupping jumps of his chest that he couldn’t control. He got up off the floor and moved toward the sounds, opening his door and…
“You stepped on my tail!”
“Well move it out of the way, I’m trying to see.”
“You’re hogging all the good stuff.”
“Am not!”
“Are too!”
Beau rushed down the hallway and peeked his head around the corner, heart in his throat. He spotted two nearly nude, feline figures with tails swaying slowly in the air rummaging through his drawers and belongings. They were identical, with onyx skin, flowing white hair, and tiny horns all over their bodies.
