never have that recipe again | Glowfic Constellation

nightmare_material

The cultural gulf between the East and the West is very wide. Even though Jaeha—no, Jake, he needs to get used to calling himself that in his own head—even though Jake had a lot more contact with the West than most of his classmates, he still did not actually expect that kids daring each other to go visit haunted houses after dark was, like, a thing. It sounded too much like made-up ragebait for teen flicks, you know? Like, who would do that? It's so—undignified.

But here he is, undignifiedly recording himself on his phone to prove that he did, in fact, come to the haunted house. He's still not steady on his social feet, and it was not hard to see that actually most of the other kids at his new school were in actual fact terrified of the haunted house and even the ones who claimed they'd come didn't, actually. So here's a way for him to acquire some cred and get taken more seriously despite being foreign.

He's also got to act for the camera, though, and he knows exactly how to act.

"And here we have the so-called 'haunted house'," he says in lightly- but noticeably-accented English. "So terrifying, I'm shaking in my designer shoes," he says dryly, pointing his camera at his shoes that are just regular Nike sneakers and not designer at all. Camera back to his face, an artful eyeroll and a smirk. "Now why don't I enter and find the ghosts? Sounds like a wonderful opportunity to me. I'll make sure to draw a lot of attention to myself so we don't have to waste any time looking for each other, why don't I?"

(There could be living people here, who could be a lot more dangerous than ghosts, and that is where his nervousness lies. But he's got a butterfly knife he knows how to use and self-defence training so unless someone uses a gun on him he can hold his own.)

(He hopes no one has a gun. That'd be a really stupid way to die, and Westerners are crazy about guns.)

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and-I-will-lose-it

It's getting there.

Still staring at the book. "Please—be very careful with this. I don't know exactly what happens if you do a spell wrong, but please. Never find out."

nightmare_material

Oh right.

Yeah yeah sure. Right hand.

and-I-will-lose-it

"Also, uh. I hope this isn't a big deal to you but we are also going to have to eat some paper. As part of the spell. ...Specifically some with ink on it. In addition to the few drops of blood which I really also hope are okay."

nightmare_material

Laughter, right hand.

and-I-will-lose-it

"Okay, good. .....You might say, "Jeremy, you created the spell; why didn't you create one that you could do by yourself as a ghost? You can clearly move a bunch of stuff around at least sometimes; you probably could have done half of this yourself, on Halloween if not at any other time.' And the answer is that magic is very picky about what will work, and needs a lot of thematic resonances. The spell-creation spell also calls on the four elements, and uses ectoplasm as an ingredient, so... so does this one, and then—because of how harvesting spell quantities of ectoplasm works, in order for the ideas to complement each other we need to both use a bit of blood and add something to the body. In order to emphasize the living nature. Just, uh. Just so you know."

nightmare_material

He wasn't going to ask that, actually, but it's a good question so good thing Jeremy asked.

...also, Halloween? Confusion feeling, pumpkin carving image in his head, headtilt?

and-I-will-lose-it

"I don't think pumpkin carving is... real... in the way that Halloween itself is, but Halloween is absolutely real. I have way more energy for moving objects then."

nightmare_material

Huh.

Okay.

(The pumpkin carving image was just meant as a stand-in for Halloween.)

and-I-will-lose-it

The body collects everything of Jake's, upstairs and down, with the last spell copy folded up in the jean pocket next to an Altoids tin from the odds-and-ends drawer with 'Sewing' Sharpie'd on it. Most of the objects get placed in the car. ....This time Jake's eyes linger on the key fob and his thumb presses the lock button.

"Shall we go watch the sunset?" his voice murmurs.

nightmare_material

Right hand!

...why is that exclamation mark there.

Right hand.

and-I-will-lose-it

There's a pretty nice view from the sidewalk at the top of the hill, here. It is, as sunsets go, not an especially stunning one, although there are some decent pinks lighting up the bottoms of the clouds.

The body loiters for a quarter-hour, which is long enough for it to try and get a little teary again. Though it does manage not to actually cry.

nightmare_material

Jeremy is being silly and cute and stupid, as he has been all day long, and Jake wants to hug him.

So: punch, kiss, then hug. ...punch, hug, then kiss? Hm.

and-I-will-lose-it

The body drags its feet back to Jake's yard. And down by the creek, where it's a bit further from the road.

It hums a few fragments of song, hitting the bottom of Jake's range and then adjusting the key up, while it takes a pin out of the sewing tin and uses the lighter to run a flame over its length.

Very deep breath. From the diaphragm.

And then—singing. It starts out as just vocalization on a vowel, at first, but then it becomes clear that this is the spell.

"By the want of fire, that which consumes thirstily and without care
By the force of air, that which distributes ash's dearth
By the weight of earth, that which suffocates the fruits of slaughter
By the might of water, that which erodes and crushes without tire."

The melody starts out a bit like a chant, or a hymn, with it staying on a single note for long stretches and then holding syllables as the note changes underneath it. But then it becomes something a bit more usually songlike:

"I erase this casting from the world
I banish it from all creation
I blot it out from all existence
May I not face the least resistance
Elements, aid my ablation
As my unquestioned will's unfurled:
This spell be left in days of yore
And never cast forevermore."

Those last two lines get vamped with a different, simpler melody as the sanitized pin goes into the tip of Jake's middle finger. Once enough blood's welled up, it gets smeared across the left side of the written spell, hitting the start of each line. The next bit has echoes of the beginning melody, in the places where it moved:

"With blood, living liquid
With body, living clay
With breath, living wind
With devouring, living flame."

Jake's voice repeats that, then alternates another time between it and the chorus, and—

As soon as the last note finishes, his mouth tears into the sheet, the middle of it shoved in and clamped down on and torn off. (It successfully misses getting any blood in there, although some does end up on his cheek.)

Breath starts coming much more frantically, and less controlled, as the paper gets chewed up and—eventually—swallowed.

nightmare_material

Well, did it work???

and-I-will-lose-it

With the swallow the remainder of the page turns black, blooming out with accelerated capillary action from the hole torn in the center. None of the seeming ink gets on Jake's hands at all.

Fumble fumble spellbook—ruffle ruffle pages—this one's covered in black, too. Politely keeping off of the beginning of the next spell that starts on the bottom half. And none of it's bled through to the other side of the paper, either.

Jeremy sinks to Jake's knees and starts sobbing.

nightmare_material

YESSSS THEY DID IT (Jeremy did it) it's still SUPER COOL FUCK YEAH!!!!

and-I-will-lose-it

Still sobbing, Jeremy wraps Jake's arms around his torso. And starts grinning.

nightmare_material

He is cute he is getting hugged. Punched. But hugged.

and-I-will-lose-it

After like a minute of that they can go back up to Jake's car. Jeremy drops the sewing kit and lighter on the porch railing on the way.

He sits Jake down and turns on the engine.

and-I-will-lose-it

And with another deep breath, the smile completely disappears.

"Thank you, again. For helping to save the world, in addition to all the personal stuff."

He brings Jake's hand to his mouth and kisses the back of it.

nightmare_material

Ugh.

Okay how about the mental image of Jake in the house, and Jeremy in the house, and then they stay in the house.

and-I-will-lose-it