In the hush-hush crowded evening of the city, a young woman wearing an oversized hoodie, which conveniently hid her face and body, jogged past the traffic of pedestrians who were on their way back home from another soulless day at work. Crowd of common people around her was abuzz, talking about various incidents of crime happening around the city recently, and how the security of the city had been deteriorating day by day, especially this harsh trend can be seen from that fateful day of last month.
Last month, that day when the whole city felt a quake in the middle of the night. It was quite a rare event to witness a shockwave that late into night but it wasn't like that super rare. But some people were soon having a field day on the internet conjuring various possibilities behind the quake, especially since the city government feigned ignorance on such matters.
What started as mild concern suddenly took an unexpected turn when several rare people began to identify themselves, who insisted that they were awake on that night. They repeatedly confessed that they had literally seen the sky falling down. But as people of the twenty-first century could expect, they were taken as seriously as their local method guy.
Incidentally, such people blowing a conspiracy horn over this matter made the rest of the public lose interest over it even faster. And why wouldn't they, as alas like everytime none of them could convince the internet without any hard proof, and their collective excuse of that they were knocked out cold all at once, at same time when sky fell helped a little.
The 'aware' people weren't there to believe any tinfoil theory they could find on the internet. After all, the line between earth is flat and there are monsters living with us was quite vague. Which, in fact, was quite a useful trait for the damage controllers of the supernatural world, who were saved from working as keyboard warriors to guide public opinion overtime.
On the one hand, such prudence shown by the public made them blissfully ignore the underlying dark world while simultaneously keeping them protected from it. On the other hand, it also aids the supernatural itself to remain hidden without feeling suffocated by it. Both sides were practically living together with a veil like thin curtain between them and for the sake of mutual benefit, it was better to be continued in the same way.
But unaware of all the discussions happening around her, the young woman hurried past to her destination, while occasionally humming to the instrumental music in her earbuds. She was just another ordinary young adult girl going about her day except for the destination.
Sarra, keeping to herself, kept her head low as she walked at brisk pace. Her mind, with help of music, focused on revising her last minute preparation as she moved towards the location that was now sealed off by the city government on the pretext of a recent hazardous chemical spill. She knew she had to hurry since it was already late evening by now.
And for her location, surprisingly, the rest of the city(civilian part) had mysteriously forgotten about this taped off area and accepted the govt. 's explanation of chemical spill without any dissent.
It was like none of them even gave a second thought to whether there was an area in the city which was now effectively sealed away. Or was it really being sealed away due to some chemical spill? Or why isn't there any coverage, any news on it except small announcements from the public speakers Or more importantly did they even bother to remember anything about it to even discuss between themselves?
It was like the whole memory of the populace was wiped…or in more specific terms, molded by someone about this incident.
Sarra was well aware of the public hypnosis therefore she took care to not be seen by the common people for where she was headed clearly. After reaching the last checkpost, from where active monitoring started by the government to halt unchecked civilians entry, the girl casually slipped past the caution tape and sauntered towards the old industrial sector where Indigo Exports used to stand just a month ago.
Cameras all around her took her figure in but Sarra, confident of her oversized hoodie being more than capable of hiding her face and most of her figure, walked without hiding from them. Thus, now free from any unnecessary concern, she bolted straight for the area where the dome of Umbra Collective headquarters once stood.
After reaching the locality where the majority of the people were wiped off by the Dream Realm's descent, at the center of that very location where Umbra Collective dome building stood once upon a time, she removed her hoodie and finally took in a fresh breath of air. Sarra removed her earphones and simultaneously combed back her neck-length black hair from her face, using her fingers to reveal a strikingly youthful face.
Two identical black pupils took in the location of the disaster with apparently no emotion in her eyes as she casually surveyed the land to find an appropriate place for her to stand. But there was no need, as the whole place had turned completely flat like a football ground after destruction. For a moment, she felt the eeriness of the barren land left in the wake of such silent destruction but that moment quickly passed away, making Sarra focus on her objective.
"It should be alright…"
Sarra breathed out as she pulled a small sharp blade from her pocket and then in the same motion, pulled out a small folded paper behind it. Unfolding the paper, she focused her eyes on the words that were written there with pencil in some unknown yet creepy language. Apparently, She was able to read it quite normally.
Sarra first read the few paragraphs on the top of paper that she herself had copied from her coven in secret. They told about an ancient yet mysterious ritual of evocation of a demon that was given the title of 'All Knowing' and though information was not complete but the most important part, that is chant(or spell) was fortunately written there.
Sarra had read them several times by now and even had used them a few times, but there was no success yet. To find the full steps of ritual she felt like she was conducting a series of experiments to find the complete ritual. Therefore, as accordingly, below the paragraphs were the several notes written, where she had tried to nail down possible causes of failure for her last few unsuccessful attempts.
Last of such corrective notes read,
Note number 13 - 'Failed again. There was no response but I checked from the library and asked a senior sister in a roundabout manner. In conclusion I think it is because I conducted the last ritual during the day? What the hell? There was no mention of time written in the original book.'
Note number 14 - 'Failed again. But I felt little taste of success, I am sure I am close. I felt an otherworldly sensation of being watched this time when I completed it at night. But for some reason they didn't approach me to conduct the trade. I researched more but found no possible errors to correct this time. Also I came to know about the direct destruction that came from the incident of Descent of Dream Realm.
Hopefully the sudden death of various werewolves as well as Shadow Weavers in the same place could have made that place rich in spirituality, to have an easier time connecting with the otherworld. I should try to do the ritual there before the city rebuilds it.'
Folding the note paper she looked up at the sky and saw the sunset with her eyes. Soon the horizon along with the rest of the sky also became dark as the night officially began on this side of the world. She first texted her roommate, informing her that she would be late tonight. Then after taking a deep breath, she began.
Without waiting for any second longer, she picked up her hoodie from the ground and from its large pocket fetched a small unmarked stainless steel vial. Removing the cap, she began to pour its contents onto the ground and at the same time started mumbling some spells under her breath.
Just as syllables of mysterious language of her coven escaped her mouth, her tongue followed by her lips began to turn black like they were being inked live. It was characteristic of the spell tree of their coven of Sisters, that made them black tongued with each utterance of their spell. When she first came to know about it, her teacher explained it to her as a temporary cosmetic effect while using their spells.
"Really?" Sarra had asked her then.
"Really." Was the answer she had received.