cheylo puts her hands besides her candle, we do likewise.
she starts the chant as a whisper "ixis..."
and we all repeat
"ixis truth or dare ixis"
then louder
"Ixis truth or dare Ixis!"
in the middle smoke began to appear like there was a bonfire in front of us. we yelled the last part.
"IXIS TRUTH OR DARE IXIS"
when we stopped, there was a humanoid piller of smoke sitting in the middle. it looked at each of us by only rotating it's head.
Ashley was shaking with me and we were frozen with fear. my heart felt like it was bouncing around inside my body. The warmth of the outside air touched my skin, but inside, I was cold.. freezing even.
'give me your names....'
it said with a boomy and quick voice.
the figure appeared to look like a black, shriveled up mummy, surrounded by a shroud of smoke just dense enough to barely make out any of its features. only with the flickers of the candles could I find it had small pointed teeth with large canines, empty eye sockets and no place for a nose at all...
I quickly noticed that in my studious trance.. everyone, including the smokey face, was staring at me directly.
'and what is your name...' the smoke questioned.
I thought for a moment and frowned. if i give it a fake name, maybe I'll be unaffected. like what people say to do with mythical fae, never give anything your real name.
"dylan" I rasp and glance at Ashley tellingly. cheylo had already told her full name, and Ashley just went by ash.
cheylo squinted at me annoyedly.
with all names said, the game began.
'Cheyenne, truth or dare...?" it asked.
my body knew something wasn't right, and even Ashley wanted to go home right now.
"truth" cheylo quickly responds. her voice never wavered or cracked, as if this being was the most casual occurrence ever. I, was still debating whether or not I was having a nightmare and had fallen asleep during the game.
'what's something you desire desperately?'
ixis asked. "I want to be the centers of attention. I want this town in the palm of my hand." cheylos response chilled me to the bone. was all this just a ploy to a deal..? what was it's price..?
my heart was so spastic it felt like it was stopping. I looked to Ashley and her eyes were wide and panicked. I mouth to her, looking back and forth between her and ixis.
(r.u.n.)
Ashley had jerked back so fast you only saw the tip of one shoe, I slowly followed... because as we left, ixis had vanished and cheylo had stood in her spot and wasn't moving. too angry and scared to help her I continued going where I assumed Ashley was going.
at the bottom of the bluff, Ashley stood there in wait and walked up timidly to me.
"what the hell just happened..?
is cheylo ok?"
Ashley asked
"I'm pretty sure she just tried to off one of us."
I say.
"pretty convenient seeing as she seemed upset that we wanted to leave." I state as I start walking Ashley to my trailer at the end of town. wasn't a super nice place but it's what I could afford.
as we walked, Ashley became paranoid.
as did I, every shadow became ixis, even our own at times.
"I feel so dreadful..."
Ashley admitted.
the air felt thick and full of fog, even though the night air was clear. it felt like I saw eyes in every patch of darkness and it had felt like a calamity had just struck us blindly.
"I should have stopped the game I knew something was off..
"it'll be ok babe, let's just get to the trailer and we will organize and recuperate.."
I hold Ashley's hand and slightly squish it twice, it was our way of comforting each other.
the image of ixis and cheylo were burned into my eyes every blink.
since we never closed the ritual, it's still out there... free to do whatever it was doing... which didn't feel very good at all...


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