THE SUMMONING: II
619 Words
The rock was jagged and dark, carved with strange markings that seemed too precise to be natural.
Her father stared at it.
Her mother’s hand flew back toward Sera, gripping her knee. “You need to run.”
“What?” Sera’s throat tightened. “What…what do you mean run?”
Her father’s door flew open. He climbed out of the car and ran around to her side. He opened her door and grabbed her shoulders. “Sera, look at me.”
Her whole body trembled. “What’s happening?”
“You need to run into the forest,” he said. “And you do not look back.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“Sera.”
Behind him, shapes moved along the edge of the road. Figures stepping out from the darkness between the trees. Tall. Cloaked. Faces hidden.
Her stomach dropped.
Her mother scrambled out of the passenger side. “They found us sooner than we thought.”
“Found us?” Sera’s voice broke. “Who found us?”
Her father pulled her out of the car, almost painfully. “Listen to me,” he said again. His eyes shone in the dark. “Whatever happens, you run. You don’t stop. You don’t come back.”
“No.” Tears blurred her vision. “I’m not leaving you. We can all run.”
Her mother stepped closer. “You are stronger than you know honey. But you must never show that strength,” her mother said quietly.
A figure rushed forward and raised a weapon that looked like a curved blade fused with metal and stone. Another reached for her mother.
Her mother stretched out her hand toward Sera and muttered some words. The air shifted and something unseen struck Sera in the chest. Not pain. Force.
The unseen force threw her backward into the forest.
Branches tore at her arms. She hit the ground hard, the breath knocked from her lungs.
When she pushed herself up, the sounds from the road had changed. There was shouting. A strangled cry. Then silence followed.
Her body moved before her mind did.
She ran.
Roots snagged her shoes. Thorns sliced her skin. She could hear them behind her now. Close enough that she could hear their boots crush leaves.
Her lungs burned. Her legs shook.
She did not understand any of it. A branch struck her face. She tasted blood.
“Don’t look back.”
Her father’s voice echoed in her head.
She ran harder.
The forest thickened and she tripped over something and went down hard again. When she looked up, she saw an old house, half hidden by trees. Its roof sagged. Windows broken. The door hung crooked on its hinges.
She staggered toward it, then pushed through the door and collapsed onto wooden floorboards covered in dust.
Her vision blurred.
Blood dripped from her forehead onto the floor.
She coughed and rolled onto her side.
In the center of the room, carved faintly into the wood, was a circle.
As she stared at it. It felt strange and familiar at the same time. Her vision darkened, and in that darkness an image forced its way into her mind.
A symbol.
Sharp lines. Curves intersecting.
She did not know how she knew it, but her body just moved.
She dragged herself forward and dipped her fingers into the blood pooling beneath her. Then she drew the symbol over the carved circle.
Her hand shook.
Voices approached the house.
Her heart slowed.
If this was dying, it felt colder than she expected.
She pressed her palm flat against the finished sigil.
The words came to her lips without thought.
And as she spoke them, something answered.
- Writer
