Below

Below the old stone church, in the small chamber, he’d arranged everything. The locked room was lit only by the five candles forming the apex of the pentagram. He gazed upon her alabaster face, almost alive in the flickering light, and thought back on when they’d met. “We will be together always,” he had promised, it seemed so long ago.

She had smiled, her eyes warm with love. “Be careful what you wish for, dear.”

What he was doing now was probably wrong, but a promise is a promise. The book had been very specific about the details. He intoned the latin phrase he’d memorized so carefully, eleven, twelve, thirteen times. When he spoke the very last word, the candles flickered, as though from a gust of wind, though there was no wind.

For long moments there was nothing but silence, and the stillness of the flickering light. Perhaps he’d done something wrong. Then she opened her eyes.

His heart leapt as she slowly turned her lovely head to look at him. She smiled, and now he saw the look in her eyes, so different, so cold. He shuddered as he thought of her words of warning, so long ago.