The candles dripped their wax onto the basement floor. The flames being the only thing illuminating our agape mouths, and the furrowed brow of our new companion. His eyes glared at the three of us, like a cat that just had its’ tail pulled. He was angry, and we couldn’t believe what we were seeing.

His red skin and yellow eyes were the only thing cliché devil-like about him. He stood three feet tall, and had the features of a newborn baby. His head was enormous compared to the rest of his body, and his hands were feeble. His knees shook under the weight of his body.

“What the fuck,” Melissa managed to get out. His eyes darted to her, and then he grinned. He snapped his fingers, and her eyes widened as she began speaking gibberish.

“Free chickens, manage detector, explicit displease…” the devil snapped his fingers again, and Melissa started coughing.

“What did you just do?!” I grabbed her by the shoulders and placed her on the nearby couch. She muttered that it felt like her tongue was on fire. Alan stood in the same place, with the summoning book still in his hands, his mouth still open. He had gotten it from a friend of his, who said the book would be able to summon the devil.

“My name is Silas, destroyer of words. You summoned me here, you should know what I just did.” He began looking Alan up and down, like a cat about to pounce on a mouse.

“Worlds,” Alan squeaked. “Destroyer of Worlds.”

Silas chuckled. “Trying to summon an entity of that caliber with that children’s book? You’re even lucky to have summoned something of my power. I twist peoples words, make them forget things, I am that thing on the tip of your tongue holding back words. I can make mortals say whatever I want them to. I am a linguistic creature.”

Alan and I looked at the book together. The symbols and candles were all correct, and the chanting. What could have gone wrong?

Silas rolled his yellow eyes. “It’s the candles, you dipshits, the candles! What does your book say about the candles? Read it to me.”

“Six candles, one unscented, one cinnamon, one lavender, and in between these three, three vanilla,” Alan read back the words to him.

Silas walked to the edge of the summoning circle, to the supposed unscented candle. He licked the wax, smirking at us because he already knew the answer. “You have four vanilla.”

A silence fell in the room as we did not know what to do next. We were just three dumb kids on Halloween night, without even expecting anything to happen. Now, we were staring at a demon that controlled words.

“Why try and summon a Destroyer of Worlds anyway?” Silas asked. “Trying to rule the world? Only politicians and billionaires could ever summon them.”

The three of us shrugged, not knowing why we would ever think about dabbing into dark arts. None of us even liked horror movies.

“Ugh, teenagers,” Silas said as he vanished into a puff of smoke.