I pulled the incantation out of my back pocket. I didn’t dare look up from the paper or else I would lose my nerve. I started to speak, my words growing stronger and more confident with every syllable.

“Exsurgat Deus et Satanas expellatur. Expellantur hinc qui oderunt. Omnes qui servunt Satanae et viribus eius, abite hinc. Legio diabolica, invasores daemonici, expellemini. Sicut cera igne liquescit, liquescet impia vestra praesentia.”

Let God arise and Satan be banished. Let those that hate be driven from this place. All those who serve Satan and his powers, be gone from here. All your wicked legion and demonic invaders, be driven away. As wax melts in a fire, so will your wicked presence.

The air began to crackle with electricity, the kitchen lights around us dimming and brightening. I faltered for a moment and looked at Jess and Melissa. They urged me to continue.

Liz remained a statue under the cover.

“Hinc abite, vobis imperamus. Abite. Vos eicimus.”

Leave this place, we command you. Be gone. We cast you out.

As I finished the last line, I looked up as my friends cried out. Liz was calmly standing. The bungee cords fell to the floor, nearly floating with an effortless flick of her arms. She slowly reached up and pulled the flag from her face, and I noticed her fingers were nail-less points, like skin claws.

She faced us, her eyes dark holes, all pupils. She chuckled, a terrible sound. And then I felt the most intense pain I’d ever felt. It was in my stomach, a burning sensation that felt like a lit match. My friends began to cry out in pain, too.

Melissa lifted her shirt, and we watched as words appeared on her smooth skin.

Your

In horror I looked to Jess, who frantically clawed at her shirt.

Children

I screamed as I lifted mine, staring down at the black words popping upward, like someone was inside my body, pushing the letters out.

Are

I felt light-headed, and the air began to smell like burning hair.

Liz stood calmly and smiled. We had failed.

“Next,” she said, finishing the sentence.

Your children are next. Our children. She would kill us here and now. And then come for our kids. They would be taken over by demonic forces or used for food as she brought other dark entities to our neighborhood. They would feed on all of us until there was nothing left. Until we were all bones like the ones in the pit. And then we would be forgotten, like Mavis and her family.