It was hitting eleven at night, and Ikuye could feel the weariness starting to set in as she reached the church. She was also ready to smash Inari's GPS, having had to double back twice because of faulty directions. Ikuye took out her frustration on the car door, slamming it shut so hard that the windows actually rattled, but she ploughed ahead in a half-jog to the wrought-iron gates around the church. The entrance was locked shut, so she climbed up the bars and launched herself over the side, landing on her side with a grunt on the ground. A sharp pain was stabbing through her ankles and one of her knees, but it didn't feel like anything too serious.

Once the shock had worn off, she staggered to her feet, groaning, and hobbled off to the eight-foot doors, wrenching them open. The inside looked a lot smaller than the exterior would lead anyone to believe, but it was still relatively spacious. Rows upon rows of pews lead to the great altar, decorated with what she assumed were holy items. A statue of Jesus nailed to a cross hung from the wall, and yards before him, on his knees, was another priest. He lifted his head at the sound of Ikuye intruding upon his silent meditation, looking weary and vaguely surprised.

"Hello, my child," he called to her as she rushed down the long aisle, "What brings you here at this time of night?" No question as to how she got through the gate. Was that a good sign, or a bad one?

She was panting by the time she reached him, but she gasped out gruffly, "I need help, now. Father Niko..." Her voice broke on his name as she remembered the image of his headless body, swallowing down the vomit that wanted to eject from her stomach. "Father Nikolai sent me. P-please, come with me..."

The man shut his eyes and crossed himself, looking panic-stricken. "God have mercy on us..." he whispered to himself. As if he'd forgotten she was there, he rushed into a side door and disappeared, leaving an exhausted Ikuye standing hopelessly in the aisle.

She flopped down into one of the pews, staring aimlessly at a pair of Bibles in front of her. One was in English while the other was a Japanese translation, and the girl ended up picking up the latter to flip through it and stopped in a chapter labelled "Leviticus." She browsed through it, reading passages here and there, and didn't entirely like what she was reading. No beard-shaving... what? Other random things were forbidden in this section. Seafood was the one "abomination" that really got to her. Living in Japan, she'd grown up eating all kinds of fish and crustaceans. It was just a staple of her diet, living on an island chain.

Her eyes grew heavy now that she was sitting down, and the lack of sleep was able to get to her.

It felt like only a heartbeat had passed, but the sound of hurried footsteps startled Ikuye awake, making her drop the Bible on the ground. She hastily bent to pick it up and put it away, looking up to see a group of three men, including the priest she'd first met, staring at her. She stood and bowed to them, though her eyes were stinging and her limbs were aching and weary.

"I was told you were directed here by Father Nikolai," said the one. The others seemed to defer to him.

"Yes, sir."

He sighed, took off his glasses, and polished them. "I am the head priest of this parish, Father Joachim. Father Nikolai was one of my assistants." He held out his hands to shake hers, but she hesitated when she saw all of the dried blood still on her palms.

Quickly, she took a deep breath and explained everything that had happened, not failing to notice the way the clergymen tightened their lips in disapproval when she told them of how she'd summoned her demon. But they said nothing while they waited for her to finish. All of them gasped in horror when she stammered out the gruesome death of Father Nikolai. Father Joachim crossed himself.

"Lord in Heaven, protect us. What did you loose upon the world, child?" He took her by the shoulders and made sure she was looking right into his eyes. "Does it have a name?"

She shook her head wildly. "No, not that I know of. I tried, I tried so hard…"

Ikuye sat down again, her head in her hands, her every muscle screaming with exhaustion. She could barely move anything, now. The voices of the priests were fading in and out of her hearing, and a hand tried to shake her conscious by her shoulder.

"Where do we go?" she vaguely heard.

With a sleepy sigh, she gave them her address, and prayed that they could get to Inari in time before she passed out.

What felt like only ten minutes later, Ikuye's phone rang in her pocket. She twitched, frowned, and grumbled, grabbing the damn thing and sloppily answering it. "What?" she grunted thickly. It took her a little while to realize that the hazy sobbing on the other end was her friend.

"Where are you?" Inari squeaked, hiccupping. "I can't do this for another three hours, Ikuye, I need help."

"Wh…" Ikuye squinted and sat up. She was in the back of Inari's car, buckled in by her waist so that she could lie down and sleep. Father Joachim was driving, the GPS calmly giving directions in its infuriating electronic voice. He looked back, concerned, but must have thought that Ikuye was doing fine. "I think we're on our way."

"You think!" Inari let out a nervous, edgy laugh.

"Hey, hey, listen to me." Now Ikuye was relatively awake, and knew she needed to be serious. "It's messing with your head. That's what it does. You have to calm down and block it out. Is the circle still intact?"

"Yeah… yeah…" She sniffed, trying hard to keep herself from hyperventilating.

"Good. We'll be there soon. Keep the window open for sunlight, remember?"

Inari took a deep, shaky breath on the other end of the line. "Absolutely." They hung up, and Ikuye could put her attention back onto Father Joachim.

"How far are we?" she asked, leaning forward with her arm on the passenger seat shoulder.

"About five minutes." He glanced at her briefly in the rearview mirror. "I'm impressed your defensive measures have lasted this long."

Grimly, she replied, "Inari isn't going to last much longer."

He reached for something in the front seat, then handed it back to Ikuye. "It's a good thing I brought along plenty of this." She smiled when her hands found a liter of holy water.

They pulled up to the house and Ikuye, slightly more energized than before, though still a little dizzy with the desire to sleep where she stood, thrust the car door open and staggered out. While the priest was gaping stupidly at the half-destroyed house, retching at the lingering stench of sulfur, she was marching up to the front door. She turned, eyeing him.

"Are you coming or not?"

He followed her inside, jumping and, again, crossing himself when he saw what was left of Nikolai's decapitated body slumped over by the window, but a desensitized Ikuye went on up the stairs like it hadn't happened. It was a pity that she wasn't prepared for what she saw in her bedroom.

Inari was kneeling on the floor, sitting upright and in a dead-locked staring contest with the beast. It was like she was frozen: not blinking, not fidgeting, not even breathing. The demon's breaths were heavy, but slow and steady. It was calm. Both of them were silent, but the inside of Inari's head was filled with screaming and psychotic laughter.

"Get out!" she shrieked . If she could move, she'd be banging on her head with both fists. "Out, out, out! You can't have me, you can't!"

She heard its voice whispering in her ear, like a wave of hot breath washing over her neck. "I can end everything if you let me inside. Stop all the suffering. I'll even leave your friend's closet. Just let me rest here."

"No…" She felt a hot tear roll down her cheek. Her resolve was breaking. It was winning.

"Inari!"

Ikuye dove for her discarded squirt gun on the ground and loaded the tank as fast as she could. Joachim stood in the doorway, praying loudly in Latin with terror in his voice while she shoved Inari out of the way by the head and aimed her gun at the horror's jaws.

"See you in Hell. Don't take my seat, motherfucker."

When dawn finally broke over the wet, smoldering corpse of the demon, the two girls were fast asleep in Ikuye's bed and Father Joachim was inspecting the closet door to ensure that the portal to Hell. He'd blessed it, watered it down, done everything he could think of. So far, it looked to be a regular closet, again. He jumped as the sunlight made the body crackle and pop in tiny explosions, setting it on fire once again. Joachim turned to the sleeping girls and sighed, knowing the flames were small enough that they would burn out soon enough. From his pocket, he took a small pad of paper and a pencil, sitting down in Ikuye's desk chair to write notes about all that he had seen and heard. He also paused to write out a message to Ikuye and Inari before rising and walking back down the stairs. His fellows had arrived to collect Father Nikolai's body, and straighten up the house as best as they could. But, after being touched so harshly by the spawn of Hell, it wouldn't really be the same.

Inari was the first to wake, and the sun was starting to threaten to set once more. She yawned, stretched, and quickly stifled a small scream when she saw the charred remains of the demon, then forced herself to turn her head away. Just thinking about it sent a shiver up her spine, and gave her a headache. Seeing the note on the desk, she went to it and picked it up. The signature was the first thing she saw on the piece of paper, so she went back to the bed and shook Ikuye awake.

"What do you want?!" Ikuye snapped, still beyond tired.

"Look at this. 'To Ikuye and Inari,'" she started in a low voice, "'I commend you for your brave efforts, and believe you've learned enough of a lesson to keep your souls from the flames of Hell—'" Ikuye scoffed, but let her friend read on. "'Father Nikolai's loss is a great one, but the Good Lord, I'm sure, is proud that His servant perished in the line of His holy work. I, or an associate in my clergy, will call you with the details of his funerary service.

'I hope above all else that you've learned that these summoning rituals, these party games, are anything but. In good faith, please never participate in another of its like again. The two of you were lucky to escape with your lives, minds, and souls intact. I fear you may not leave unscathed if you try again. May the Lord bless you in all that you do—Father Joachim.'"

"Well, that was cheerful."

Inari looked at Ikuye, then out the window, her lips pursed. "I'm going back to bed."