Before my eyes, Elizabeth’s form started to disappear, just as I suddenly felt myself being somehow sucked elsewhere.
I closed my eyes for a moment, and when I opened them, I found that Elizabeth and I were standing in what appeared to be the basement of a house. We were surrounded by shelves full of random items, plus some old furniture.
”Oh, my God!” shrieked a female voice.
”Well, I didn’t really think it would actually work -- I mean, work so quickly!” said a male voice.
Elizabeth and I turned. A high-school-aged boy and girl cowered behind a couch with ripped upholstery. They wore some of the trappings of “Goth” culture, such as black clothing and dark makeup. The girl even had a choker around her neck that resembled a studded dog collar.
The boy flipped through a book as I took a step toward him, only to be met by an apparent force field. Elizabeth tried the same, but could only bellow in frustration.
The girl screamed.
”Don’t worry,” said the boy. “The pentagram is containing them.”
I looked down to see that, indeed, there was a 5-pointed star inside a circle drawn in chalk on the concrete floor of the basement, and it was the circle that we were unable to travel beyond.
The boy put the book down on the floor next to where he crouched, and slowly stood up. “Demons, we have summoned you here to do our bidding!” He winced, as if expecting us to do something.
We did nothing, and he looked confused. “Uh, we have trapped you in the pentagram, and, uh...”
Elizabeth interrupted. “So ask us for something specific,” she said in a tone that sounded more bored than menacing.
The boy stared. The girl slowly stood up, keeping her eyes locked on us the entire time.
I spoke up. “Or don’t ask us for anything. We can stay in this pentagram for eternity.” A grin crept onto my demonic face as I made a guess about the situation. “Of course, once your parents get home later tonight, it’ll be hard to explain the demons in the basement, right?”
The expression on the boy’s face told me I was correct.
”You must have had something in the back of your mind when you summoned us,” Elizabeth said. “Perhaps a wish you would like us to use our powers to grant.”
The boy remained tight-lipped. The girl had picked up the book and was flipping through it.
In the girl’s direction, I asked, “Are you attempting to find out how to send us away? You would give up having our powers at your fingertips? Most people never get a chance like this -- to have at their disposal the mighty demons Azmodeus and Elizabeth!”
”Elizabeth?” the girl repeated, looking a bit surprised. Perhaps Elizabeth should have been renamed when she became a demon, I mused, but it was too late now.
”Yes, Elizabeth,” said my counterpart, “and what, pray tell, are your names?”
The boy said, “Uh, I’m Nightshade, and she’s --“
”Your given names!” Elizabeth demanded.
”Kevin and Jennifer!” the boy blurted.
The girl -- Jennifer -- gasped. “Don’t names give them power over us?” she asked Kevin in a whisper.
Our ears can hear whispers from miles away, so Elizabeth responded to that. “To a degree, but do not fear, Kevin and Jennifer. We feel no anger toward you despite your summoning and imprisonment of us. We feel only pity. The two of you, unpopular in school, attempting to display pride in your outsider status by adopting the appearance of what you call ‘Goth.’ You find a book that purports to contain instructions for summoning a demon. You try it out on a night when you will have no parental interference, since you are too shy to admit your attraction to each other and instead spend the night fucking -- or is it that you are not attracted to each other? Let’s face it, Kevin has those pipe-cleaner arms and legs, and, I would guess, a tiny little cock -- and Jennifer’s got a face full of acne and a chest that’s flat as a board.”
Jennifer looked down at her black T-shirt. Kevin mumbled, “It’s complicated.”
”Well, then let us un-complicate it!” replied Elizabeth. “We can make the two of you the best-looking, most popular couple in your school, if that is what you desire. We can make your parents not only allow, but encourage you to have frequent sex. Or do you just want money, or power of some sort? All you have to do is ask.”
Jennifer and Kevin looked at each other. She nodded toward him. Kevin took a deep breath, then said...