The occult shop smelled like old smoke and secrets. Lena shoved the book at the girl behind the counter—pale, pierced, and clearly used to weird stuff.
"I need this gone. For good."
The girl gave it one quick touch, then pulled her hand back fast.
"Hell no. That thing's got a heartbeat."
She told Lena about someone in Queens—Madame Isidor. A Haitian woman who didn't flinch when she saw the book. She just started chanting, eyes closed.
After a long moment, she opened them and said flatly,
"This isn't just cursed. It's a door. And something walks through it."
The fix? A binding spell: salt, vervain smoke, and a line from a very old book. Cost? $800—cash.
"Better than paying for a coffin," Lena muttered.
That night, she set up the salt circle in her bathtub—easiest place to control the space. The smoke curled in strange patterns. She took a deep breath and started the chant.
"By the names of the watchtowers, I break all ties..."
The book started shaking. Pages flew like wings in a storm. Wind pushed through the room like a breath from something big and close.
"...banish the dark that hides in—"
The light above her shattered. Tiny glass shards rained down. The book flew open, pages filling with names—people she knew, people she didn't. Families. Kids. Ink ran red like blood.
Then something invisible slammed her into the wall.
The whispers turned into full-blown screams. Voices in a dozen different tongues. The mirror shattered behind her. Glass stuck in her skin.
Then—everything stopped.
She lay there, bleeding and shaking. The book was closed now. Burned a little. Quiet.
Had it worked?
She stretched out a hand—then froze.
The salt circle was broken.
Not by her.
Something else had come in.
Her phone buzzed—warning after warning. A big car crash. An explosion. A fire. All in different parts of the city. All in the past five minutes.
The book opened again. More names appeared.
At the bottom, glowing red like hot coals:
"Ritual failed. Penalty paid. Keeper's trial begins."
Then the faucet creaked. Water rushed out—thick, black, and stinking like something dead.
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