Ethan was sitting in the audience seat for the quiz show his daughter Amy was participating in. The host asked Amy, "So what do you think about your father ?" Amy said "He's a very good father, and I love him. I have never seen anyone as amazing as him." Amy says confidently. Ethan is touched from the words of his daughter and this moment where he can sit in the audience seat enjoying the scene of his daughter's glory. Ethan is flustered and rightly so. Being someone who easily gets conscious of others, he can even feel the gazes of other audience members sitting near him.
He regains his calm after looking at his wife sitting beside him and tells her jokingly "Amy must have rehearsed such lines quite a few times huh." as they both chuckle. Host looked at Ethan with a puzzled gaze and even the audience looks at him weirdly.
Amy said in a sad tone "Please don't mind him. My mother passed away recently, so sometimes he enters a kind of zone where he thinks he's talking with her. Doctors have said he'll gradually accept the reality but to let him come out of the shock gradually by himself." Amy sighs as the host looks at her sympathetically and says "Ok let's continue on to the next questi-"
Suddenly, Ethan stands up and starts speaking. Without the microphone others can't understand what he's saying while looking at the place where his "wife" is supposed to be. Even the audience next to him can't make out what he's saying due to the loud murmuring of the crowd. Ethan says "I know you're dead. I don't even know if this is truly your ghost or just my imagination, but I'll bring you back even if it means I'll have to ruin this chance our daughter earned. After all, she'll want you back more than participating in this contest."
Ethan suddenly dashes at a particular corner of the hall where no one is present while looking at his watch. As soon as he reached that spot, a sudden blast occurred behind him, and all the audience seats were engulfied in flames. Ethan looked at them and said, "If doing this will bring you back, I'll do it as many times as it takes." Ethan says while looking at the stage to make sure Amy was safe and that she was brought out safely from backstage door. Screams filled the air.
Ethan brought out a small but sharp object similar in size to a small blade and stuck his hand, it left a small cut but not enough to draw much blood so Ethan gritted his teeth and stuck the same spot repeatedly till the cut drew enough blood. Then he quickly started drawing a circle. Within that circle, he made a hexagram and a few more details with lines or circles. As the last detail was added, he got up. Almost at the same time the police barged in and looked at the surroundings, there weren't even any screaming sounds anymore as a lucky few managed to escape and the rest were used as the sacrifice, making the place eerily quite.
After all, Ethan set everything up such that no one from the audience could survive.
The cops surrounded him and said "You're to come with us to safety first" Ethan says "This particular spot is safe as the vents here prevent smoke to fill up this area and fire is too far away to even come up here". The cops become even more vigilant after hearing his words, and the officer who spoke earlier says, "Then come with us, we have some questions for you. We have some witnesses who claimed you might have been the one to cause this tragedy." Ethan looks at the ground towards the circle he drew and could see a black smoke rising from it that smoke dispersed as a wave to the surroundings and everything darkens and Ethan finds himself standing on the road to his house.
Ethan is shocked by the sudden change in scenery and think, 'Was everything that happened at that show even real, or was it all just my imagination? Or did the circle I researched from that book work in the end ?' He shakes his head and runs towards his house almost instinctively.
He opens the door, looking at the dark hallways, and runs inside while looking through all the rooms, searching for his wife and daughter. Finding the rooms dark and empty.
That's until he enters the home theater room, on the opposite end of the projector with a movie playing with full sound. On the mattress are both Amy and her mother peacefully sleeping through the movie.
Ethan quietly places his finger beneath their nose one by one to ensure they are breathing and just sleeping peacefully he looks at them again with moist eyes and lies down between them and closes his eyes, and falls asleep almost immediately due to the tiredness finally catching up to him after the long day but not before wrapping his arms around both of them. Amy and Ely both wake up gradually and look at Ethan, who is still sleeping with a tired face and both of them smile before returning to watch the movie.
So, as I said in the description, this was an open-ended one-shot novel, so the ending will be different for each reader
Was the first part a dream ?
Or was he arrested and just lost his mind while creating a safe space in his head where they were living happily and Ely was alive ?
How did Ethan get out of that situation to suddenly find himself on the road to his way home? Are all previous events his delusion ?
Or did the magic circle actually give him a new chance for a price (human sacrifice) ?
What happened to his daughter if this was only a delusion after he got arrested and only lived in this delusion ?
Was his body still moving if this was a delusion, or was he just dreaming while in a coma while his body was unresponsive ?
Was there a catch to using the magic circle apart from the sacrifice ?
Was it all true ?
Or was it all a dream ?
It's all up to your imagination....