1994
Stacy, Blake, Peter, and Nancy all stood in the Rickswell basement. Stacy Rickswell had always been obsessed with the occult since her childhood. Now in her late teens, she’d finally compiled together enough resources to open what she believed to be a gate to another world. A horrifying world of terror, possibly even hell itself. Finally, somewhere she’d be accepted.
“Very cheerful, Stacy,” Nancy said, judgementally,
“Hey!” Stacy snapped back, “I’ve spent MONTHS on this, the least you can do is… is…”
“Humour you?” Peter replied, pushing up his glasses as he did,
“Tell me about it,” Blake said, idly chewing bubblegum as she usually did. She was actually dating Peter, despite her being the opposite of Peter’s type, he’d said yes… she did find it odd that he didn’t ask first but she didn’t care. She was very into the nerdy teen.
“This is it…” Stacy said, holding the final red gem in her hand, “this is true ruby. I had to pay over a thousand dollars for this thing!”
“You did WHAT!?” A voice yelled, angrily stomping down the stairs into the basement. A woman, no older than forty-five appeared.
Stacey’s mother. Jane Rickswell.
“MOM LEAVE ME ALONE!” Stacy yelled back at her mother, “YOU ALWAYS RUIN ALL MY PLANS, THIS IS NO DIFFERENT FROM THAT TIME WITH TIMOTHY!!”
“How DARE you speak to me like that,” Jane shouted back, “you’re grounded until I say otherwise,” she said, composing her, “I apologise to all of you, you shouldn’t have to see me like this… your friend, my daughter, she brings out a side of me that should never see the light of day,” she chuckled nervously, aware of the stares,
“Please,” Peter said, “I think we all know she deserves it,”
“I’m gonna have to side with Pete here, Stace,” Nancy, Stacey’s longest friend, agreed,
“Yeah,” Blake said, barely paying any attention said, “me too,”
“YOU’RE ALL AWFUL PEOPLE!” Stacy yelled in her tantrum, “I SPEND ALL THIS TIME DOING WHATEVER YOU LIKE AND ALL I GET IS THIS!?”
“We’re not playing your game, young lady,” Jane said, “I want all of this gone, I’m taking your friends home,”
“LIKE HELL YOU ARE!” Stacy screamed, throwing the gem at the ground, right into the centre of the circle she’d drawn on the ground. Each section an ancient text spelt out some kind of ancient saying. She’d clearly spent a lot of time on this. She felt betrayed by her friends, her own mother. This was all she cared about! Maybe she’d be lucky and this would truly be the escape she was looking for.