Blitzo stomped around the perimeter of the summouning circle, his "I'm thinking" expression on as he rubbed his chin and considered his options. All the while, Moxxy stood impatiently at the door with his arms crossed and Milly was smiling, waiting for something to happen. The two imps were waiting for their boss's plan on how to retrieve the book from the living world without risking the portal closing and locking them there forever.

(Luna had already left to start drinking at her desk because "this is stupid".)

"Alright," Blitzo finally stopped pacing and clapped his hands in a calm manner before her brought out his idea. "What if, and I'm just putting this out there, we tie a rope to Moxxy and-"

"I'm not going to be bait to find a book out there in the living world!" Moxxy said, growling a little under his breath. "Can we PLEASE think of an idea with involving me potentially getting lost?"

"Well I don't see any other ideas around here!" Blitzo pointed out.

"Because you only suggest ones with me going alone!" Moxxy countered.

"Moxxy, you're both right?" Milly said uncertainly, herself looking confused but a little anxious as well. "I mean, we need someone to stay here and keep the portal open, but we also need someone to go and actually look for the book."

"But we don't even know where it is!" Moxxy pointed out, looking less cross with Milly but still reasonably angry. "We can't just go to the land of the living and try to find it without knowing where it went too."

"Exactly," Blitzo agreed while walking up to the two of them with a condescending smile… no wait, that's just his usual smile. "Which is why Moxxy should go."

"That's not even a reason!"

It was then Luna, irritated her drunken nap was being disturb, growled and yelled from her desk the only reasonable idea the bunch had between them.

"Why don't just jack-fucks just do a reverse summoning?!" Luna shouted, burying her head under several magazines and her tail coming up to cover her ears. "You fucks don't need to open a new portal every time you go. Just use the same portal to suck back the shit you left behind and shut the fuck up already!"

Left with just a growl and what sounded like a trash bin being kicked over, the three imps stood in silence for a minute before looking at one another. They all had slightly clueless expressions plastered on before moving on to realizing that was actually a good idea.

"You can do that!?" Milly asked, her hands held up in disbelief. "And we've just been wasting our time drawing blood circles in the living world and wasting all mah favorite aroma therapy candles!"

"That does seem like a huge waste of time," Moxxy agreed, looking at Blitzo with an only slightly less irritated look on his face. "How come we've never done that before? It seems like it'd be easier than doing the whole summoning over and over again."

"Well I don't like how complicated it all is," Blitzo reasoned, crossing his arm and rolling his eyes. "First you've gotta chant some non-sense about how you've changed the turn of the space in ancient latin, you've gotta do it in a rhythm like it's song, you've gotta pretend like you've learned something. And whenever you do it something already breaks so it's just a hassle!"

"You didn't want to do it… because it's a hassle…" Moxxy felt stoned and slapped himself before letting out a long sigh. Trying to pacify the situation, he decided to swallow his pride and try to get this over with. "Okay! So we can summon the book back here. Great. How do we do it?"

"Well first off, we need to know where the book went." Blitzo left to go to his office and came back with several maps that he laid out on the floor and started marking with a red pen. "Let's, our last target was in the UK. Such a shit country. Anyway, the book must have fallen out around here."

Blitzo circled the general area of London followed by a larger circle around central England and the border of Scotland. Moxxy and Milly watched on, confused on how he came to this conclusion.

"Why would the book just fall anywhere?" Moxxy asked, looking disturbed at the general area that they would have to cover with a reverse summoning. "Wouldn't it go to same place we went to?"

"Not exactly." Blitzo closed his pen and stood up to examine the map. "The thing probably fell down as the portal was closing, so it ended up somewhere else from where we were. And it probably ended up somewhere it could stay hidden but also around living creatures."

"How are sure someone didn't already take the book?" Milly asked. "I mean, it's a pretty big book! And I bet some curious human would think it's alright to pick it up."

"Oh yeah," Moxxy said, realizing they'd have to deal with humans again. "I forgot about that. Those humans sure are nosy! Wouldn't it be a problem if we have to get them involved?"
"Relax!" Blitzo brushed off their worries with a toothy smile and a wave of his hand. "Humans aren't anything to worry about! This books origins stretch over a millennium, any human who picked up the book couldn't understand it without going insane! Plus, even if some human touched it, they probably wouldn't even know what it is! If there's a human around, the portal will just suck up the book and leave the human alone. After all, it's not like a human's powerful enough to wield the book!"

"Why is it every time you say something like that, I get worried it'll jinx us." Moxxy said, already regretting everything that's about to happen.

-Living world; University of Edinburgh-

"Honey, I'm home!" Coco announced as she opened the door to the student publishing room.

"Coco, how many times do we have to tell you, you don't live here," Jerome, a tall boy with cropped blond hair and glasses deadpanned, not even looking up from his desk as he was typing on the computer. He was a boy from Wellington and had a sharp accent from the same place.

"You're no fun~" Coco mock-whined as she patted Jerome on the back and look over his shoulder. "You're not singing with us today, right?"

"I was just script editing," Jerome snorted through his nose and smirked. "Terrible script by the way. I could tell you wrote the whole thing."

"Hardy-Har har." You hit his shoulder and walked over to your own desk. "I worked on music for your information. Did we get any new assignments yet?"
"None," Jerome said, leaning over his desk to look over the cluttering piles on your own. "Clean up your desk if you want to find anything."

"I just wanna put my stuff down," she said, holding up her new book a little to show what she had. "This thing is heavy."

"Then go to the practice hall, everyone else already went there. Take your stuff with you." Jerome was silent for a minute before saying something else. "Oh. And your illustration is on page 3 for next month."

"What!" Coco complained audibly and looked visibly annoyed. "I worked for two weeks on that illustration! Theo said he wanted it specially for the front cover!"

"Well it went better with the other illustrations," Jerome turned in his chair and looked up at you. He had that expression that was like he was about to teach you another lesson, which was always annoying seeing as Coco's four years older than him. "If you wanted a cover image, stop making illustrations like comics all the time and stick to editorials."

"I like reviews," Coco said, rolling her eyes and sighing. "Whatever. I'll start something for December later."

"It's two hours to stage time," Jerome reminded you.

"Shit! I was supposed to be here half an hour ago!" Coco started to sprint to the door before stopping and shouting at him. "You're coming to the performance! Right!"

"I'll come later," he called out as she opened the door. "Don't trip and burn the whole stage down!"

"Hardy-Har har…"

'Don't jinx me,' Coco thought, sprinting halfway across the campus and getting to the performing arts hall in her own record time.

She walked up to third floor and entered the practice room designated for the student publishers, her chest heaving and sweat beading along her forehead. The room was filled with twenty some others who were either practicing in pairs, team dancing or just reviewing the script. It was all an impromptu performance, but everyone was putting something in the make it worthwhile.

"You're late," Rene, a curly haired girl from Sri Lanka called out, putting down her water bottle and walking over to you. "And you stink."

"And you look pretty," Coco said sarcastically before walking over to an empty table and dropping everything down. "What do you want to work on before we gotta go down there?"

"Your face," Rene answered, taking hold of Coco's forearm and dragging her over to the nearest window. "What the hell did you bring with you anyway?"

"The stuffs to summon the devil with,' Coco mocked, patting the book one last time before she let her take Coco and do whatever the hell it is she wanted.

Rene had spoken a form of British English in her family her whole life, so it was easy to understand her. Like Coco, people got a kick out of Rene's ambitious features, a mix of several different SouthEast Asian cultures tied with dark skin and even darker curly hair. She was in the business development studies track and often crossed paths with Coco in the halls of the library. Rene and Coco got along, they were good acquaintances.

"We're not doing the third song, they said it'll take up to much time."

"Man~" Coco whined, sitting down on a plastic chair as Rene picked up a pallet of cheap makeup everyone's using for today. "That one's super fun and funny."

"You should have volunteered to play the piano then," Rene said, taking out a brush and beginning to spread bright, glitter covered power around Coco's nose area. "No one else can play like you or Jerome. Why didn't you join the theater group?"

"I'm not good enough. I just play as a hobby." Coco had internally surprise a sneeze. Whether Coco wanted to join or not didn't matter to her anymore. Now, she just played for fun and for kids. "This stuff is going to kill me."

"Don't be a big baby," Rene said, continuing to cover her face before switching to red blush. "Susan wants you to say your lines a bit louder, the sound system isn't working well apparently."

"Great. Are we getting drinks after this?" Coco looked hopeful for a night out. Even if she wasn't great friends with anyone here, she's been looking for every opportunity to change that.

"Around 9 we're all heading down to the student pub. Said there's going to be a costume party there." Rene started on Coco's eyes. "Lovely green eyes."

"Thanks," Coco repressed another sneeze. Her skin was too sensitive for makeup. She wanted to scratch it all over. "You wanna go to the art hall after this? I heard they're having all day horror movie marathon."

"You people and your scary movies," she shook her head, taking out some eyeliner. "No. I don't like horror things. Now stop talking. I'm going to do your eyes."

-Currently in Hell-

"Alright alright alright," Blitzo went over everything just to make sure they were all prepared. "We've got this, right? Blood of the lamb?"

"Black lamb," Moxxy corrected, holding a large paint brush that was covered in dark red, sticky substance and had been painting an impromptu pentagram on the floor. "Done."

"Do we have the candles ready, Milly?" Blitzo asked, looking over at the girl imp.

"Done!" She called cheerfully, lighting the last one and taking in a deep scent. "I love lavender and burdock!"

"Should the reverse summoning alter really smell like an aroma therapy shop?" Moxxy wondered, looking skeptable about all of the candles and the smell of the whole room.

"Hey, who said a demonic act can't smell nice and relaxing?" Blizto reasoned, smiling over at Milly. "Thanks for letting us borrow your collection Milly."

"Blitzo, I printed out your stupid summoning chant," Luna said, walking into the room and handing over three scripts with obvious disinterest. "This place smells like shit."

"Well, the butcher isn't known for having clean meat in stock." Blitzo reasoned, taking the pages from her with a smile. "Thank you, Loonie. Now, everyone knows their jobs, right?"

"We chant around the circle until the book comes through," Moxxy said, rolling his eyes as he threw the brush away.

"Keep everything clean so the book isn't lost," Milly continued.

"Sit in the corner and watch to see if anyone else wants somebody killed today," Luna responded, already leaning in the corner and scrolling on her phone. Only half paying attention.

"Great!" Blitzo cried out, walking to the farther end of the circle after giving the other two a script. "Everybody's ready. Now! Remember! Be sure to get this right or we'll open up something that could possibly kill us!"
"Remember when I said next time you do something dangerous to please stop with holding information till the last second," Moxxy said, glaring at Blitzo.

"No!" Blitzo said with a smile as he opened up his script. "Alright! Ready! One! Two! A one-two-three-four!"

-Living world, after the concert-

"Nice work today!" Another girl called out as she was leaving the practice room.

The show went well. It wasn't perfect but it was also pretty good with only a few mistakes here and there. The main actors/soloists had done well and only a few of them messed up their lines. The chorus knew they looked ridiculous as everyone had different dancing and singing levels, but everyone on stage and in the audience had had fun while the performance went on.

Now most everyone was leaving, all planning on going home and changing to actual costumes before going out on dates and other later plans for the night.

"Aren't you coming?" Theo asked, putting on his jacket as he looked over at Coco, the last straggler in the room. "We're gonna go down and watch the rest of the performances for an update article on the webpage."

"I'll catch up!" Coco called out, she was holding up a large set piece and walking it towards the supplies closet. "Let me just clean up this place real quick! I don't want the next practice group to feel cluttered."

"Well that's nice of you," Theo smiled before looking awkward. The London boy had been in charge of editing and ordering the magazine, so he sometimes felt responsible for letting people down. "You know… You're a good writer, right?"

"Yeah?" Coco said, putting down the things she was carrying and reaching for a broom.

"Well, if you stopped making so many silly stuffs and worked on actual stories. You might get published more…"

Theo trailed off before turning towards the door. He knew he put that badly, but he wasn't sure whatever other way he could say it.

"You're good, you know?" He tried again. "Just, I'm not really sure what you make is for the student press."

"I don't get it," Coco said, leaning on the closet door. She was holding back a lot, a lot of frustration, but kept cool so this conversation could be over with quickly. "But… I'll try again. Don't worry! This is fun to me."

"Well… thanks then." Theo said, opening the door to walk out. "Good work today! You should be in the performing arts!"

'And you should shut up if you don't know what you're talking about,' Coco thought, biting back her tongue as he shut the door. 'If you think I'm so much suited for performing arts then just kick me out already. Oh wait. You suck at writing so you don't have any say in it.'

Feeling bitter, Coco swept up the room and straighten out everything that was out of place. She found that the dance troupe had left candles out, probably for decorations for Halloween, so she placed them all around the room to make the place look nicer.

After that, she walked over to the corner where the table sat next to an old standup piano to take a rest. Choosing to sit over at the piano, she picked up her new book and sat it own on the bench while she sat down and held her head in her hands. This all felt wrong.

'Why am I even doing this?' She wondered fingering the spine of the book and looking around the faded room. 'I just feel tired now…'

Coco likes writing. She also likes playing music, even if she's not particularly talented at it. But, liking something and knowing you want to do them are two different things. And it doesn't help if you don't feel particularly welcomed in either place. Where Coco believed she should be feeling accomplished and happy after a performance and submission, she just felt empty and lonely now.

It was getting dark now, and harder to see inside the room. Coco rummaged in her bag and found an old lighter she didn't use anymore after one of her old friends stopped smoking. Picking up a candle, she lit it and put it on top of the piano. The atmosphere immediately changed and felt warmer, more satisfying than before.

"Happy Halloween," she called out to nobody, sitting back down at the piano and opening the top of it. "A nice night for a little music, don't you think?"

Looking down at her book, Coco chuckled. Of course she'd be talking to a book. She doesn't have any friends. She hates people… Or, she's scared of them. At least a book wouldn't get her hopes up and disappoint her.

Remembering the structure of one of the songs, Coco practiced a bit and played through one of the songs, humming the melody under her breath. It was harder to sing and play at the same time, but it was just as easy to lose yourself and sense of aggravation while playing a song as it is to forget what bothers you while writing. She played softly, as if anyone could be listening, and structured the song differently form the performance.

She stopped and help still for a few minutes, noticing she was missing a kind of feeling she had been searching for. Coco wanted relief. She felt tight and tense, aggrivated, needy and wanting. Her chest felt tight, not like she wanted to scream but like she wanted to touch something that was missing.

She put her hands down for a second, but then went back up immediately and started improvising chords from a song she remembered. She kept playing until she started singing it. Just a silly song, but she wanted to sing and feel the power she felt when she sang it well.

watch?v=JRw-8tDiPQc

When it was over, Coco let out a long sigh before she laughed to herself for a minute and turned away from the piano.

"God I'm tired of this," she said, shaking her head, her hand falling on the book and leaning back. "I can do better than this. I can do better… I just, just gotta figure out how to try harder."

She leaned back and breathed in the musty air of the room. Somehow, it started to feel warmer than usual, much warmer for a cool autumn night. The air also smelled weird, kind of like a flower shop? But she wanted to blame that on how tired she felt.

Standing up, she put on her jacket and picked up bag, walking back over to the piano and picking up the book. It definitely felt lighter for some reason now. That, and the room now felt hotter, and smelt even more like wood and discount flowers.

'Am I going crazy here?' Coco thought, looking at the one candle on top of the piano. 'Okay, nothing's burning, so why am I sweating now?'

Then, well, scary shit happened.

In one full swoop, all of the candles in the room light up and the room somehow started to feel darker and hotter.

'Holy shit,' Coco thought, pulling the book up tighter to her chest and looking around, trying to edge somewhere out of this crazy situation. 'Okay. Ghost? Demon? Fire fighter? Whoever comes out now, please do not notice me…'

Just as she thought that, strange humming started to sound from under the floor boards.

"…" Panicking, Coco tried to grasp onto the only explanation and excuse she could. "Okay, I didn't do theater in high school so I'm not in a cult. But I did go to an all-girls school and that seems pretty much like a cult… Please don't sacrifice me…"

It took four seconds before she started feeling the whole floor begin to shake. Tossing and turning, throwing her around a new circle of light that felt hot and didn't let her step out of it.

"FUCK! Let me out!" Coco shouted to nobody, holding on tighter and trying not to let her legs fall from under her.

She felt the space around her turning, twisting. It was like being in a carousel but with the speed jacked up to a bullet train's level! Her ankle twisted under her, the pain went unnoticed because she had fallen and landed on the ground where she noticed she now sat in the center of a strange purple glowing pentagram.

'The space will be joined then separated as two separate places. Conjoined only by knowledge that they are no different until distinguished.'

"What!?" Coco shouted, looking down at the book in her lap. Staring at it confused, it's cover now glowing red and voice coming out from it. "What the- How are you speaking?"

'Life will determine what is evil, what good, what is fair, what is just. Knowledge will listen and know what separates what from what in response. But shall know the difference as solid as a wall, and separate them by space.'

"Stop talking in riddles and be a book again!" She shouted, her breath started tighten as the air became hotter and hotter. "This isn't real! This! It's a joke! Stop it! What's going on!?"

'Share in knowledge is share in life. One will protect the other, and the other will teach the one. When both are one, they will separate in space and return to their own space. If they can remember to be separate…'

Coco couldn't talk anymore, the hot air had filled her lungs and made her feel like she was chocking. The smell was so strange. It was sweet but dark, it's must was like solid earth and moving hot rock. It felt like she was being cooking alive, inside and out. Sweat that poured down her back started to boil and burn her skin, the entire space becoming unlivable.

'Am I dying?' Coco's thoughts played out. Her body feeling so weak, as if she fell down then she'd know she would never get up again. 'I… I don't want to die… I can't die yet… Please… I don't want to die…'

'Would you like to make a deal?'

'What?' Coco listened for the voice that played in her head. A soothing voice that she honestly believed was her own. 'Who… Who are you?'

"Do you want to live?'

"Yes. Please. I'll do anything…' Coco bargained. She was telling the truth. Her will to live was strong, she had so much life left in her.

'I will be your protection,' the voice said. What felt like cold arms touched her neck and right arm. So soft, they were like a relief pressing in on her.'I promise to share everything I know with you and give you the chance to change space. All I ask, is you share your will to live. And share your own knowledge.'

'You want to live in me?' Coco asked, feeling herself slip further down. Feeling tired, so tired…

'I want to live with you.' It said. It felt so comforting, so sweet as it rubbed the back of her neck and pressed close to her right arm. 'Let's be together, and we will both live. Do we have a deal?'

Coco's bright green eyes began to close. She didn't know if this was real or if the voice was herself dreaming. But, she knew she was dying. She knew she didn't want to die. She didn't want this heat to consume her, she didn't want to know if when she closed her eyes that it would be all dark.

So, she did the only thing she could.

"Yes," Coco whispered, her head tilting down. She saw the cover on her book, the eyes surrounding the apple glowing bright as fire. "Just… please… Don't let me die."

'I won't let you die darling,' the sweet voice said. Seeping in and becoming deeper, closer, skin deep. 'I want you to live and learn everything. You have so much to teach me and show me. And I have so much I want to do with you…'

The next moment, a seeping hot pain began to stab at the back of her neck and into her arm. Like hot metal branding in circles all over. Coco felt the sizzling pain that woke her up and made her stand up again. Energy and strength filling in her as the heat from outside began to flow inside and fill her. A new kind of hot energy seeping in. Cooking her inside before the pain settled and relief flew through.

Suddenly, the heat stopped. The circle stopped spinning and the air began to cool. Coco's eyes flew open and the place she felt she was in was dark and empty. Looking around, she saw nothing and felt nothing and sensed nothing.

"Where…" Coco began, her voice coming out soft and strained.

'Is where I came from,' the voice said. As if it was her own thoughts. 'Un-space. It is not an 'it'. There is no 'there' because there is no 'there'. Nothingness can not exist because there is nothing for anything to be compared to. Welcome to the empty. To the truly empty. The 'place'.'

"I don't… I don't want to be here." Coco said, turning around to find something but knowing there was nothing. "Take me back! This isn't right! This is… This is just like being dead!"

'This place is called 'Ignorance',' the voice told. Explaining so softly as if to comfort her before throwing her where they will really go. 'It is filled with nothing. It is empty of everything. There is no truth, because there is no sound. I was formed from the desire to have light. To have sound. To have a friend…'

"Then lets leave!" Coco shouted, her words lost in the space and only ringing in her ears. She shut her eyes. If she was going to see nothing then she wanted to at least imagine this was all inside her head. "We can go now! I can be smarter than this! I can try harder to make something better!"

'My first friend brought me out because they were scared of the dark,' it said. It sounded sad, but also reasonable. 'But every new friend I made didn't believe in me. They only wanted knowledge to explain their ignorance. Not change. So the shape of this space never changed.'

"It can change?" Coco asked, beginning to feel less scared.

'A little, every day, every year, with every new person.' The voice sounded even closer now. 'I can't talk. But… I have lived her alone for so long. All I ask, is to live with you. So I don't have to come back here ever again… At least until your final breath is lost.'

"…." Coco wondered about this. The idea that something was asking to live with her forever, to never be completely alone again. But, this place was like the definition of alone. And the thought that anything that was sentient, anything that could speak would be trapped here. Knowing something else could exist outside of it. She couldn't… couldn't just let it die in here. "Of course. You can come just… Where are you?"

'Don't worry, Coachella. I won't be a bother. Just talk to me more again. Sing for me more again. I love your voice…'

Before she could ask how it knew her name, she felt a rush of cold air then hot air rush all around her. Her hair flew up and she held her eyes shut tight while squeezing her book even more. She knew she was moving again, a different space. But where? She was scared, what if she opened her eyes and she was somewhere even worse. But what could be worse than nothing? Than emptiness? Than eternal silence.

"What the fuck?" A voice in the background said. It sounded confused. "Who the hell is this asshole?"

Strange. There's… more people now. Fluttering her eyes open and blinking her eyes rapidly, Coco saw she wasn't in nothing anymore.

Now, she was standing in the middle of circle that smelled like dried blood in a room that smelled like old lady candles. And… she was surrounded by three red demons and a werewolf standing the corner dressed like a problem child.

Everyone was staring at her in shock (except the wold who looked vaguely disinterested) and she was staring at everyone else in equal shock and awe. Then, she looked down at her book and noticed it was back to normal and realized something had gone horribly horribly wrong with her life.

"Uh…" Coco tried to think of something smart to say but just said random crap. "Well… this mildly unpleasant…"