You ever have one of those night's where nothing seems to work out? Like you're baking cookies and you run out of flour right before they're suppose to go into the oven while your hands are covered in dough, or you order delivery pizza but when it arrives all the toppings are wrong and the crust isn't extra cheese but it is gluten-free, or you're trying to work a magic spell with your best friend and accidentally end up summoning a demon instead?

Okay, maybe that last one is just me.

I wish I could say my life is one long string of catastrophically entertaining nights punctuated by occasional moments of spontaneous absurdity like this one. But lately it feels like my entire life is one long string of catastrophically absurd nights occasionally punctuated by spontaneously entertaining moments. Tonight definitely felt disastrously and uniquely absurd.

I'm fairly sure he was a demon given the melt-your-flesh look in his eyes and onyx black hair so dark it seemed to absorb the cheap incandescent light of my apartment, but its hard to be certain of this kind of thing when you've never actually seen a demon before. Beyond his striking coloration, he looked way too attractive to be fully human. His jawline looked like it could have cut metal, and his cheekbones were more well-defined than most words in a dictionary. That, and he appeared way too young to be wearing a perfectly-tailored suit that had to be worth at least a quarter's worth of my college tuition. There wasn't a single wrinkle on his skin, nor a single blemish. To be fair, this was a summoning spell, so it is possible we'd summoned a male-model with obscenely good looks. With my luck though, I was betting he was a demon.

He was currently giving me goosebumps with his laser-focused stare at me. I couldn't tell if they were the good kind of goosebumps you get when you're out on a cold night with a new crush, or the kind you get right before you're mauled by a lion. I wanted to look away from the intense eye-contact, but somehow couldn't. His eyes were disturbingly clear, like the surface of lake at night when the water is too still. Something instinctive told me drowning in those eyes might end up being more than metaphorical. Realizing I'd forgotten how to breathe, I let go of the air I'd been holding.

"How the fates mock me," he said, pulling a hand through his hair. His voice was low and smooth, and it felt like fur on my skin. I unconsciously rubbed my arms after hearing it, more goose flesh rising. But to my relief, he was scanning the room now, and the staring contest was over. At least he spoke English, although maybe it was actually some demonic language and some sort of demon-magic was translating it. Not that it mattered, I wasn't planning to strike up a conversation with him, although the idea of encouraging him to talk more just so I could hear more of his voice was tempting.

I didn't have to say a word though, because he spoke again.

"Are you a witch?" his gaze was back on me, and I felt small and transparent like he could see through to my bones. That voice again, this time with an undercurrent of danger in it, wrapped around me like a thick coat. I shivered involuntarily.

I shook my head, not trusting my voice at the moment, and he tilted his chin ever so slightly like he didn't believe me. I guess technically Rei was a witch, but I sure didn't think of myself as one, and I didn't like the idea of him knowing too much about either of us. I was just an unlucky recipient of some genetic magic, which really was more of a cross to bear than a gift.

"Time to put this car in reverse, Serena," Rei said, and her voice had the tightness of panic, despite her joke.

I had almost forgotten she was still in the room. She sounded scared, and that was enough to break me out of whatever stupor I'd fallen into and begin rifling through the spell-book looking for the words to reverse the summoning. We'd already gone through this many times, but Latin is a difficult language for me, and my memory wasn't reliable enough to try and remember every word of it without reading it directly from the pages. The demon had shifted to look at Rei now, and by the look on his face I decided I should flip the pages a bit faster.

I knew both my best friend and I were safe so long as he remained trapped in the spell circle, but who knew how powerful he might be and how long it might hold him. Plus, given our track record with this spell, I wouldn't bet my lunch money that we'd drawn the circle strong enough for it to hold back a rambunctious puppy.

"What's the rush?" The demon drawled, this time his voice almost sounding like a purr. That voice should have been illegal. I found the page with the reversal spell and glanced up to see him studying the university store calendar on my wall with an almost predatory smile.

Definitely time for him to exit stage left.

I pushed the spell book so it lay between Rei and I, beginning the chant. She took my hands in hers, turning to face towards me and beginning to chant as well. The magic was picking up, I could feel it like insects under my skin, and hear it in impossible wind stirring indoors.

The demon didn't seem bothered by the power building around him, in fact he leaned forward right up to the edge of the circle. His hair dripped down over his bedroom eyes which were locked on me again, and his lips twitched up, one of those smiles full of dark promises. "Until next time," he whispered.

The reversal spell peaked and I felt the magic drawn out from my body when it did. My skin felt cold and clammy with sweat, and my heart racing. I wasn't sure if it was from the spell or from my close-encounter with the demonic-kind. No, I definitely knew which one it was from, I just didn't want to admit it.

Laying backwards on the floor with her grape-juice purple hair spilling everywhere, Rei heaved out a breath. "Stick a fork in me, I'm done. I don't have enough juice left to try a seventh time tonight."

Yeah, we'd failed to work the spell six times. I would like to say that the accidental demonic summoning was just through mispronunciations, ignorance or wrong ingredients, but that would be a lie, we only messed those up the first three times. Every single attempt of this spell had unfortunate results, the worst of which I think was the time it light the carpet on fire. That attempt was going to cost my roommate and I our down payment for sure. This was actually the closest we'd come to success in all of our attempts, for what little that was worth.

I knew my disappointment must be visible on my face, this spell was my idea after all, and I still felt like I had enough magic to try it at least another three times. But I shook myself to hide my feelings, I knew Rei would have tried it again with me if she still could, and I also knew that if I pushed her too hard tonight, she wouldn't try this spell again with me some other night, and this wasn't something I could attempt solo.

I closed the spell book with a thud, blowing out the candles that we'd placed around the circle of salt on the floor. "I can't believe that last try didn't work, it felt like it would, you know? At least the last guy was hot," I offered, stretching my legs out for the first time in three hours. My leg muscles screamed at me when I did, man I was stiff and sore. Next time we'd need some intermission breaks.

"Smoking," she agreed. "Like burn me in hell hot," she smirked, fanning herself for emphasis.

"What kind of demon do you think he was?" Some dark part of my cave-woman brain suggested incubus.

"My kind, definitely my kind," she swooned. I laughed, Rei had the perfect blend of low enough standards and good enough looks to leave a trail of broken hearts behind her wherever she went. She was an unapologetic party girl, and we both knew it. I was a total prude by comparison, only ever having been with one guy. But even with my standards, I had a feeling that demon was likely to show up in my dreams.

"We'll have to figure out why it didn't work for next time," I said, already thinking about when we'd try again.

"Next time? Listen," Rei said, sobering and sitting back up. "Spells rarely work like you think they will. This one might never work, we might not have enough magic to ever pull it off. I don't think this spell is-" she paused, seeming to mentally edit herself. "Look just don't get your hopes up."

I kept my expression forcibly neutral while she spoke, and after I nodded with a plastic smile. She didn't need to know that my hopes were already bubbling up. Now that I knew there was even a remote possibility it could, I would cling to this hope forever. This spell had to work, there was no other option.

AN: Okay, how many of you thought I was dead? I feel embarrassed for not having written in literal years...thank you for coming back if you're a returning reader! I've been busy with real life work and my new personal gaming site, Lasria. But here's the start of something new, and probably what will be my first truly M-rated fanfic. Honestly the full copy of the story will likely be MA but since FFN only allows up to M ratings, I'll edit things. I hope you'll enjoy the ride!