Cover art by the hilarious and awesome fanartist Xom B., who goes by airborne_zom_bie on both Instagram and Tiktok. (Sorry about the way I had to do her name in the fic summary. The website is finicky.) Definitely go check her out! This fic and her art were paired in the zine.
(The full picture is on her 8 May 2021 submission on Instagram; the zine was completed more than half a year before the first six episodes were all released. :3. Fun fact: if you search "Let's summon demons" and see a picture of some kids around a summoning circle, that's the picture Xom based her picture on. And I only remembered to upload this fic 'cause a cousin of mine was wearing a shirt with that picture on it.)
Without further ado, enjoy!
"Hey, kids! Let's summon demons!"
The man's voice scratched the words out, almost gurgling, as it tried to be jaunty. Well, the "man's" voice, or whatever he was, because this dark top hatted figure certainly wasn't human with those sharp teeth, and his face showed no signs of ears or a nose, either.
But what did that matter! He was on TV! He must have something important and entirely trustworthy to say!
Toby and Dick were visiting Barbara and Sally for the day, and all four of them sat in the living room. They leaned toward the television. More static than usual kept cutting in, so they had to listen carefully.
"...You first of all need to get something to draw a circle with, something–(KSSZZCHKS)–and it should be right in the nearest drawer..." The entirely trustworthy man trailed off, and a line of drool escaped his grinning mouth. Boy, adults did the darnedest things!
"Why, Dick," said Toby to his older brother, "how about you go check the drawer and see if he's right?"
The nearest drawer was in the kitchen next to them, and it slid open on its own as Dick got up. Silverware inside clinked and rattled. Dick made sure the drawer's rollers were adjusted properly before looking in. "Well, would you look at that, Toby!" called Dick. "All I can see in here are knives!"
Young little Barbara looked over as she patted her teddy bear. "Gee whiz, Dick, that can't be right!"
Dick checked under and around the knives, but, golly gee, that's all the drawer—Oh! How silly of him. There was a beat up box of chalk near the back! He took it out and giggled. "Oh, Sally, why did you hide the chalk in with the knives? That's such a riot."
"Oh, I'm sorry, Dick," said Sally. "I had to hide the chalk after I summoned the last demon on Wednesday. And I needed a knife to dissect the neighbor's dog, so that drawer just made sense."
The boys blinked and looked at her.
Little Barbara spoke up, "Don't worry. It turned out the dog hadn't eaten Milford. Milford was just under the floorboards."
Now the boys looked at little Barbara. She explained, "Milford's a millipede. He's fine."
Ah, that explained everything.
Wait, did it?
Then Toby in the living room realized their conversation had probably led them to miss important steps for summoning a demon! Oh no! He turned back to the television. Fortunately, the man seemed to be waiting for them to finish talking, even if he was frowning and impatiently tapping on his cane. How lucky! Toby motioned to his friends to get them to listen again.
The man continued, "Here's a diagram of how the circle should look." He waved his arm through the air, and the movement left behind a hovering burning circle with delightful lines hugging the border and a pretty pronged symbol in the center.
Sally pressed the chalk onto the living room carpet as hard as she could to make the marks. When she finished, she said, "There!" and looked back to the television for the next step.
"Well," said the man and leaned over his cane, "then all you have to do is say the magic words. Are you ready to hear them, children?"
The four kids nodded.
The man opened his mouth to speak, but the television's static got worse than it had been before, even making the next channel over visible, and a kid actor's singing broke through for a second. Sally madly scribbled down each sound onto a paper, in the hopes she could get some important information.
When the man came back into view, what appeared to be shadow tendrils were waving out of his unhinged jaw and he screeched out phrases of frustration like "I'm busy," "Will you shut up," and "Don't you know I'm in the middle of taking children's souls." But Sally kept writing until the channel disappeared into static and they could only hear and see the singing kid.
Sally looked at her paper of magic words and waved at the other kids to stand back.
She huffed and gargled sounds, croaked and wheezed, trying to imitate the television's static and the occasional syllable that had broken through the television's troubles. The summoning circle didn't react, so Sally squinted harder at her notes and extra loudly recited the parts where she had definitely recorded the man's voice.
Finally, the circle faintly glowed, and, after Sally let out a few more unintelligible glugs and hacks, a wall of red and wailing shot to the ceiling. Barely a second passed before sharp green fangs gleamed and a burning red pupil glared through the supernatural wall.
The boys and Barbara took in the sight with wide eyes, while Sally let out an earsplitting, "AAAAAAAAAAAA!"
The form inside the circle lunged out, clawed fingers and nightmarishly dextrous needle fangs stretched toward the kids.
Sally finished her exclamation: "...CHOOOOOOOOOO!"
The figure paused.
Sally wiped her nose.
Toby said, "God bless you," and pulled out a handkerchief for her.
Sally nodded at Toby in appreciation. "I don't know the last time God was able to bless me, but I appreciate the gesture." She blew her nose into the handkerchief before neatly folding it and handing it back. "I always forget to dust before a summoning." Toby tucked the handkerchief away.
The figure's lip curled at the exchange.
Toby looked back to the summoned figure, and the boy's eyes sparkled in awe. "Wow, mister! Are you the man from the telly? Your outfit looks even better in person."
The top hatted figure looked around at the children then squinted at them in disgust. He smacked his face in frustration, and, when he removed his hand, his face was a bit more ordinary. A bit. Instead of a glowing red pupil in a black void, the only thing that stood out about the eye now was a yellowed sclera, while a reflective monocle obscured his other eye. His teeth were still sharp and green, but they were fewer and not as needle-like.
"I can't believe this," the figure grumbled to himself. "I go through the effort of traveling through that slipshod summons, and NOT ONE OF YOU is still in possession of your soul!" He muttered, "Kids these days."
Little Barbara sniffled and her eyes welled with tears, sensing he was about to leave. "Please," she said, "we just want to have a nice Saturday together. You don't have to stay, but, please, couldn't you…" She hugged her teddy bear close. "…set the last four houses on the street on fire? And give us powers for the next few hours, too?"
The figure glowered at her. Then, seeming to change his mind, he smirked, "Well, how about you bring me five souls by the time you graduate high school, and I will make sure this is the best Saturday ever, with no earthly consequences… to you four." He glanced around at the kids and scoffed. "Well, paying with siblings' souls would be the easiest, but you're all out of those. But a classmate, an annoying neighbor or cousin…" He waved a hand. "Any of those would work fine."
Barbara squealed in delight. After she shook hands with him, the rest of the kids hugged her with glee.
The figure mumbled something under his breath about ignorant minors and voidable contracts before glancing over the kids and giving them a final scowl. He snapped his fingers and vanished.
The kids looked at each other and–Golly gee! They were bedecked in a most fiendish assortment of horns, tentacles, wings, and spikes. Toby burst a hole through the wall with a fireball and did a long jump out onto the street. The other three kids giggled before clapping their hands, each clap exploding a house or distant person to smithereens. Bye-bye, Martha and Hank!
Sally, Dick, and Barbara leapt out and joined Toby. Dick said, "Oh boy! That demon we summoned was such a swell guy! Only five souls for a whole day of whatever we want!"
They cheered together, "Best Saturday ever!"
The sky was blue, the sun shined down. The kids held hands and skipped down the street. What a perfect day for a merry adventure through their small town. The town even had a charming glow to it that day, lovely flames engulfing the buildings.
