It was another day at Ghostbuster's Headquarters. Gabby was doing work at the desk while Ray was doing work of his own on the Ecto-1. Peter was leaning against the car, not doing anything in particular.
"So, anyway, the woman didn't notice anything until around the third day," said Peter, "That was when it became abundantly clear that the succubus was coming for her during the night."
Ray stopped what he was doing and wheeled himself out from under the car.
"Wait… so the woman was visited by a succubus?" he asked.
"Yep."
"So, I'm guessing this was a… lesbian succubus?"
"What are you talking about? It was male, a man-ghost."
"That's an incubus, buddy. The succubae are the female ones."
"What? No, they aren't! They're the male ones! I bet you thirty bucks that I'm right!"
This argument was right up Gabby's alley. She knew exactly which side to take.
"Ray's right, Peter," she said as she looked up from her work, "Incubus is the male sex demon, succubus is the female sex demon, although there is still debate as to whether they are just two different forms of the same demon."
Ray stood up and gave a smug look to Peter.
"See?" he said, "I'm right!"
"No, you're not! I'm gonna go look at one of Egon's demonology textbooks right now and prove that I'm the one who deserves fifty bucks!" Peter stomped toward the back room where the reference books were.
Several minutes passed before he uttered the very much expected expletive.
"Damn it!" he said.
He marched back to the garage and moped.
"Ray, you and Gabby were right."
"Cough it up," said Ray as he made the hand signal for "gimme."
Peter took out his wallet in defeat and gave Ray the dollar bills. "I'm gonna lose so much money on these bets that I make but do I listen to myself? No."
Gabby couldn't help but snicker and also give a smug look. She rather enjoyed putting Peter in his place.
Egon came down the stairs to see the monetary transaction take place before walking by the desk.
"Let me guess," he said, "Peter lost another bet and is down thirty dollars?"
"That is correct," said Gabby.
Egon looked down and shook his head. "When will he learn?"
After work that day, Gabby decided to start her task of playing secret helper to Egon. She would begin by going to the library and seeing what they had in terms of magical books.
Gabby couldn't tell whether or not the New York Public Library was bustling. It was always quiet in there, minus any whispers and footsteps. The presence of people sitting there and reading gave her a pretty good idea of its activity, though. This fancy building of information surely had enough resources to quench her thirst for knowledge and, if it didn't, she figured that she could at least reserve that information from a different library.
She looked through the physical card catalogue: No spell books. She then looked through the digital card catalogue: Still no spell books. She found plenty of books with the word "spell" in them but they mainly had to do with the word's other definitions. Whenever she searched magic, she mainly got books on myths and legends. The next best thing to do was to ask someone at the desk.
The blonde woman with a single ponytail on the side of her head was reading a magazine at the desk.
"Excuse me," said Gabby.
The woman looked up and flinched.
"Yes?" she said.
"Would you happen to have any… spell books? Like… books with magical spells in them?"
"Oh, you've come too late for that. Sorry."
"What happened?"
"By law, we had to remove all of the magical spell books from the library network because of that one guy who used one to make all the chickens on earth disappear."
Oh yeah. Gabby remembered that day. That was a weird day. Her family had to have fish for dinner instead. "Are there any spell books left in the city?"
The woman looked around before answering. "Between you and me, there's a New Age bookstore that has its share of spell books. If you don't have money for one, I'm sure Delores will let you borrow it."
"So, I guess the law doesn't apply to privately-owned spell books?"
"Shh…" The woman wrote down an address on a small piece of paper and gave it to Gabby. "Don't tell anyone that I told you, okay?"
"Okay." Gabby looked at the piece of paper. She couldn't help but feel like a criminal when doing this. No. She had to put a positive spin on it. It made her feel like a secret agent who was out to save the world. There. That was better.
Gabby knew New York City well enough to know where this shop was. When she arrived, she saw a sign that said "Delores' Books and Knick-Knacks." It was one of those stores that was located in the basement of the building and had to be accessed by going downstairs.
When she opened the door, a ringing bell could be heard. The smell of lavender and vanilla filled her nostrils.
As if the place wasn't cave-like enough, Gabby was greeted with various colorful stones. There was enough light in the room that she could see the shimmering in each of the rocks that were on display. The purple paint on the walls made it seem like there was more darkness than there actually was. She could recognize many – rose quartz, jade, tiger's eye, garnet – along with some that she was unfamiliar with. There were also objects that would look right at home on her alter, including candlesticks and incense holders, along with the candles and incense that would go inside of each of those things respectively.
And then there were books, so many books.
This was place was quaint but had a sufficiently creepy vibe. There was no doubt that witches liked to shop here.
Something seemed carefree about the woman at the counter. Perhaps it was the lack of makeup or her unkempt sand-blonde hair. Gabby liked her already.
"Are you Delores?" asked Gabby.
"What gave it away?" she asked, "Was it the sign, perhaps?"
"Listen, I'm looking for a book that could give me a particular spell."
"Do you mind being more specific?"
"Um… I would like a spell that conjures… demons."
Delores' eyes widened. Even she was shocked at such a request, even though she headed a shop full of controversial books.
"Now, before I lead you to such a book, would you mind telling me why you would want to conjure a demon? They don't make good pets and they probably won't do you any favors unless you sold your soul to one of them."
"I want to do it to help someone. These people I know are good at catching demons and I want to bring one to them so they can research it and figure out why they keep visiting people. And I want to do this as discreetly as possible so that they don't know that I was the one who summoned it."
"Oh… that's quite the reason. Anyway, I do have quite a few books that might strike your fancy. But there is one that I'd like to recommend to you." She got up and headed to one of the shelves. By now, she memorized the order of these books so that she didn't need to do any sleuthing. "This one." She took out a thick tome of shiny leather. The cover said "Liber ad summonitorum" and featured a picture of a cauldron with a spoon. "This book was assembled by a man who studied under Allister Crowley."
"The Allister Crowley?"
"The one and only. Now, since you're a new customer, I'm willing to give you a one-time discount."
Right now, this was the best that Gabby could get. She could sacrifice a few bucks for this book. It was for the greater good, after all.
"I'll take it."
"Okay. You just have to know what you're getting into."
Gabby brought the book home in her tote bag. It felt a little like bringing home a wild animal, although this was much easier to hide from her parents. Speaking of animals, her plan for this demon-summoning involved using the travel cage of her former dog Brutus, who her family gave away when he grew too big and ferocious to keep. This demon probably had the physical properties to be contained if it didn't disappear all of a sudden. The most she could do is try.
Her late-night ritual was a bit different than usual. Instead of doing her usual circle around an alter, she took a rope and placed it into the shape of a spiral on the floor. This spiral led to a small cauldron that she had handy. In this cauldron was lukewarm water with dried bay leaves and wolfsbane floating in it. Red candles surrounded the spiral, which she made sure to light, as per the instructions.
Unlike her other spells, she was required to walk around the perimeter counterclockwise to begin the spell rather than the usual clockwise. She then looked at the book, which was turned to the demon-summoning spell. It was a multipurpose one, a spell that could result in any demon. All one had to do was focus their mind on the one they wanted. This was good, since she didn't know what these demons were even called.
Before she recited the spell, she made sure to bring her mind to the demon that, by now, she had seen several times: Pointed ears, gargoyle-like form, dog legs, vulture wings, body as dark as a cave. Her mind was clouded with anxiety and she couldn't stop thinking about a fuzzy pair of pink dice that was hanging from this one person's rearview mirror, but she believed she got her vision of the creature correct.
She recited the spell, which was in Sumerian but was written phonetically. As she recited it, she waved around her wand, which sparked red at its tip. The spell was working. She touched the tip of the wand to the water in the cauldron, making it glow red for a brief second.
She recited the second part of the spell before getting to the part that made her so nervous. She picked up a knife off the floor, but it wasn't the athame. This knife - a kitchen knife - was not there for ceremonial purposes but for its intended purpose. She walked up to the cauldron and looked at her dark, distorted reflection. She gulped. As per the instructions, she took the knife, opened up her left hand… and penetrated it.
She carved downward before she took the blade out of her skin. A trickle of dark red blood glistened and started to ooze. She squeezed her stinging hand a bit in order to force the necessary blood out of her. Finally, some drops landed in the water. The spell was complete.
Her hand trembled from the shock and pain of the blood she drew but, soon enough, her entire body trembled.
Smoke belched out from the cauldron in a pinkish-orange color, a color that was likelier to be seen in plastic party directions than it was in nature. Pops of electricity came from the smoke. Finally, the ethereal, glowing form came from the cauldron. It wiggled and squished before it finally took its form in the Mortal Realm.
Gabby held her injured left hand and waited on baited breath.
