The cold breeze and songs of the waves washed over the town. It was a chillier night than usual. A pale looking bloke wearing glasses stood by the vending machine, underneath a faulty street light which shone and dimmed at regular intervals. He had a tall slender frame which made him look fragile. 

He cursed the cold under his breath, the air from his lungs coming out as a visible white vapor. "I should have brought a hoodie with me"

A loud ringing came from the left pocket of the shorts he wore. His slender fingers reached for his pocket to grab the device.

"I see, more drinks. They could have just told me before I left the house" he said in a whisper as he stared into the device, which lit up some parts of his face.

The phone went back in his pocket as he made his way to the convenience store.

Ronnie Carpenter was the lad's name.

The nineteen year old college student lived with his grandfather on the outskirts of town. Their small house doubled as a pawn shop of some sorts. He had always wondered why his grandpa ran a pawn shop at a location where very few people patronized him.

It was a Friday, Ronnie's friends had managed to convince him to let them come over, seeing as his grandfather didn't care about what they were up to. Drinking wasn't a luxury that was allowed on campus. Ronnie had drawn the short straw and as a result, he had to go get the drinks, as well as some junk he liked.

"I got them, I hate you guys" Ronnie sighed as he entered the room with two polymer plastic bags in his hands. One containing the cans of drinks, and the other containing the junk which he couldn't wait to devour later.

"Eating shit like that is why you're so skinny" Hal said. He was the tallest and most athletic-looking among the guys.

The guy next to him chuckled. A red-haired youth with freckles. He was Daniel 

'leave him alone' Josh said. He was fixated on the TV. Among the guys, he was Ronnie's best friend.

Some time had passed. They quickly got bored from watching old TV shows and drinking.

"Yo, Ronnie. don't your old man got anything fun around here?" Hal aaked. His attention focused on the ball that him and Daniel tossed back and forth between each other.

"yeah, we could use something cool" Daniel concurred.

Josh said nothing, he was focused on his conversations with his online girlfriend.

Ronnie looked around his room and thought they were right. He wasn't much of an interesting guy, he believed less was more.

"Maybe we could perhaps check the basement for something?" Ronnie suggested.

The boys combed through the basement which was covered in dust, cobwebs and smelt like dead rats. It looked much like an abandoned library except that instead of books, abandoned items were stored there.

"You really think we'd find anything fun in here? It smells like someone died here" Daniel said.

"I haven't been here in ages. We hardly come down here, except from when my old man disappears down here for hours doing god knows what" Ronnie said, walking through the rows of abandoned shelves occupied by dust and old cardboard boxes.

"Ronnie, this is a terrible idea. The old man would be pissed" Josh said. He hardly paid attention to his surroundings, instead he was engrossed in his online conversation.

A few minutes had passed. The boys walked through the basement without finding anything.

"There's nothing down here, your place is really no fun, Ron. You're as boring as they say you are" Hal said, this prompted Daniel to nod his head like an agreeing puppet.

"This was more underwhelming than I thought it'd be" Daniel said.

In that moment, a box fell off the top of one of the dusty old shelves and it caught the boys' attention.

"What was that sound? Is this place hunted?" Hal questioned, his voice going a whole octave higher.

"It's probably just a rat. There's nothing else in here that could have knocked anything down. I'll check it out" Ronnie said.

"This is one creepy basement" Daniel said. He too felt afraid.

Josh, who was standing against the stairs put his phone in his pocket and folded his arms. 

"Told you guys this was a bad idea" He said.

"Guys, guys! come check this out" Ronnie's voice echoed across the basement.

"So, how does it work?" Daniel asked.

"I don't know, it probably has something like an instruction manual inside the box" Ronnie said.

The boys were back in Ronnie's room, with the contents of the mysterious box they had found. Something similar to a board game.

Ronnie ran his fingers across the board.

For a minute he just paused, maintaining his straight kneeling posture over the board. 

"Ron? Are you good?" Josh asked.

"What's up with you man? You're acting weird" the other youth said while Daniel just stared in confusion.

Ronnie took a deep breath and the rest of the boys panicked.

"Ronald, are you—alright? You're not possessed or anything right?" Josh asked in a shaky voice.

"I'm— fine. I'm good. I don't know how, but I just understood how to use this board" Ronnie said.

"Are you into like—Voodoo now?" Hal asked.

"It's a summoning board. You use it to summon creature familiars" Ronnie said.

"And you know this how exactly?" Josh asked in a concerned tone.

"I don't know. I feel like the board spoke to me" Ronnie whispered, he smiled.

The air around the room suddenly felt ominous, like another presence was among them.

"Sounds wicked, how do we work this thing?" Daniel asked, his voice taking an excited tone

Ronnie flipped the wooden board on it's back to reveal a set of inscription written in a language that didn't seem familiar to any of the boys, any except Ronnie who could understand it for some reason.

"What's that? I can't understand it. It doesn't seem like English" Josh stated.

"It isn't. It's a summoning phrase that translates to 'come forth, eternal friend. I create a new tie to bind us together for as long as we both live' that's it" Ronnie read out without stuttering as he ran his fingers through the foreign characters.

"I'll leave asking about how you're able to read that for later. do you think it's a good idea to do this? It sounds suspicious" Josh expressed.

"Quit being a Wuss, Joshua. Pretty sure this ugly old board was just something used in teen girls sleepovers" Daniel said.

Hal nodded in agreement. The two lads always behaved like they shared a mind.

"Get us started on your Voodoo box already, Ron. I'm getting quite bored" Hal said.

That was a moment of silence and suspense after Ronnie turned off every source of light in the room and lit a small candle which looked like he measured its length.

The young men sat round the board, placing their hands directly above it without making contact with it. They recited the phrase five times as prompted by the board.

"Why isn't anything happening?" Josh, who was reluctant about the whole thing asked.

"For the last step, we have to smear a drop of blood across the board" Ronnie said.

"Woah!" Hal exclaimed and shifted away from the board. The rest of the boys except Ronnie did the same.

"You never said anything about blood. I don't think I want to play this game anymore. It seems like a ritual" Hal said.

"Fine, I'll use my blood. You're all a bunch of chickens" Ronnie said. The light illuminating from the candle beneath cast a sinister shade over his face.

He grabbed an office pin off his shelf, saying the chant again and piercing his thumb with the pin. Afterwards he smeared it across the board. The board had previous blood stains that looked very old, indicating that it might have been used several times before that.

The other boys stared speechlessly in horror. 

About two minutes had passed, the youths waited in silent anticipation but nothing happened.

"I think we should go now" Daniel said, breaking the silence.

Hal concurred, grabbing both their bags filled with sport equipment and wears.

"It's been a rather— underwhelming evening" Hal said as they both walked out the door.

Ronnie, who had snapped back to his senses pushed the board aside and sighed.

"What do we do with all of these drinks now?" He asked.

"Drink 'em?" Josh responded while tapping his phone.

"Honestly Ronald, I don't know why you hang out with those guys. They act like douches" He added, grabbing a can of drink and opening it.

"I don't know either. Maybe I should just stop" Ronnie said in a disappointed tone.

Josh left back to the campus later that night. Ronnie laid in bed. Tossing, unable to sleep. He tapped his phone, checking for message notifications which didn't come.

Suddenly a red bright light shone. Encompassing the room, Ronnie's bed included.

Ronnie threw himself against the wall in shock, a circle with inscriptions similar to the ones he found on the board.

His breath and heartbeat elevated.

The circle was then covered in shadows darker than night.

Ronnie made for the door, trying to pull the knob but it was slammed shut.

After wrestling with the door in vain, he summoned the courage to turn around. The darkness and glowing re

d light had vanished, leaving behind an unclad young woman where the circle appeared.