I. From the Ashes

Sabrina traced the chalk doorway while Regina lit the candles. Lynn and Gloria watched with a mixture of excitement and fatigue; getting up so early was tough for the girls. Nightshade presided over the others, a sly smile smile on her makeup covered face.

Of course, her real name was MacKenzie, but she'd decided two months before that she'd only answer to Nightshade. After all, she was 18 years old, and that meant no one could tell her what to do anymore.

"Is this right?" asked Sabrina.

"Yes." said Nightshade. "That will do...perfectly."

"Have..." Lynn's voice trailed off. "Have you ever done this before?"

"Plenty of times." said Nightshade, turning her curled black lips on the younger girl. Well, she'd attempted it plenty of times, just not successfully.

"Does...does a demon always come through?"

Nightshade looked away. "No, not always. Demons are very busy, you understand."

"The sun's coming up." said Gloria.

"Well, come on." said Nightshade. This was their window. "We all hold hands and chant like I told you."

They did as they were told. "Come, spawn of the pit, answer our call. Come, spawn of the pit, answer our call. Come, spawn of the pit..."

On the fourth iteration, the chalk doorway drawn on the wall started to glow. The chant faltered--even Nightshade hadn't gotten this far before. The glow began to fade and they resumed the chant. The pentagram chalked on the floor at the center of the ring of candles began to glow as well.

"Come, spawn of the pit, answer our call..."

The entire door was glowing white now.

"Come, spawn of the pit, answer our--"

The chant stopped as a man came flying through the door, landing headlong on the ground. He was coughing, and had smoke billowing off his form. Parts of his hair were on fire, and he was covered in soot and ash. He had long, graying hair and looked old enough to be any one of the girls' fathers. He hoisted himself up into a crouching position and coughed.

"Spawn of the pit, we have summoned you--er, ye!" proclaimed Nightshade, giddy at her success but wondering why the Spawn looked more like the man who worked at the drugstore down the street than a horrible creature from the plane of torment.

"Yes, yes." said the man. "And I'll answer your questions. But first off, where am I?"

"You are on the Earth." said Nightshade.

The demon coughed again. "A bit more specific, please. Damn, where did I put that..." The demon began searching the pockets of his coat. He seemed to notice that his hair was on fire, and patted it out before resuming his search. He had some nasty cuts on his face.

"Um, you're on Briar Street, Lars' Port."

"That's a suburb of New Liberty, correct?" said the demon, still looking through his pockets.

"Um, yes." Nightshade hadn't expected a summoning to go anything like this. She certainly hadn't expected the demon say "please."

The demon stopped searching and withdrew a blister packet with a single pill in it. He popped the packet and swallowed the pill. The cuts, burns, bruises, and lacerations about his character closed up, but the pill did nothing for the soot and ash clinging to his form. He pulled a cigarette and a lighter out of his coat.

"You don't mind, do you?" he asked Nightshade, gesturing with the lighter.

"Er, no..." This was decidedly more awkward than Nightshade had expected.

The demon lit up and put the lighter away. "You, there? What was that?"

Lynn looked terrified at the demon's gaze. "I didn't say anything."

"Yes, you did. I heard you. Repeat it."

"I said...my mama said that smoking...was bad for you!" The girl seemed on the brink of tears.

"Your mama was right. Stay away from these things, they'll bring you nothing but trouble." The demon's comment was met with stunned stairs. "Well, look, I'm a spawn of the pit, remember? Do you really want to emulate me?"

Lynn didn't know what "emulate" meant, but decided that now was not the time to bring it up. The silence continued to linger, tempered only by the demon taking a drag. He blew smoke out his mouth.

"Look, this is the part where you ask me the questions you summoned me for." he said.

"Right, right. I knew that." said Nightshade. "Lynn, you go first."

"Me?" asked Lynn indignantly.

"Relax, dear." said the demon. Definitely not what Nightshade had expected. "I don't bite."

"Um..." said Lynn. "I...I want to know how to make Johnny White go out with me."

"Is that all? Show him a little leg."

"Excuse me?"

"He thinks you have nice legs. Show them off a bit, then ask him if he'd like to do something with you this weekend." The demon mentally added, Good luck getting him to look at you twice the morning after. "Who's next?"

Sabrina cleared her throat. "That's me. I want to know what happened to my friend Terrence when he ran away."

The demon touched his forehead for a moment. "He's selling Marijuana in Des Moines, Iowa."

"Really?"

"Mm-hm. Don't worry, he's getting along all right." said the demon. Well, his cellmate is, at least. "Who else?"

"I," said Regina, "want to know where people go when they die."

"Hell." said the demon. "Well, most of them."

"What about the others?"

"Wisconsin."

The sense of general confusion in the room rose to a fever pitch. "Relax, I was only kidding. They go to Heaven."

"What about Purgatory? Or Limbo?" put in Regina. "We learned about them in Sunday School."

"I've never met anyone from either." said the demon. "That leaves two more of you. Any more questions?"

"Actually." said Regina. "What should I do to make David Price ask me out?"

High school girls, one track minds. thought the demons. "Anything you want, hon. David doesn't exactly favor girls, if you catch my drift."

Regina's face turned red. The demon gathered she caught it.

"That leaves you, then." said the demon, turning to face Nightshade. "What do you want to ask me?"

"I want to know how to become a more powerful witch." proclaimed Nightshade.

The demon didn't immediately respond. "No, you don't."

Nightshade started. "Excuse me?"

"Witchcraft isn't what you want, it's only a symptom. You want power. You want to make people fall all over you." The demon rose. "And I can give you that power."

The other girls stepped back, sensing that something considerably more weighty was going on with Nightshade than had been with them.

"For my soul?" Nightshade asked, her lower lip quivering.

"I can sell you real, concrete power for that, but I have a better idea. I can give you a different sort of power for free."

"R-r-really?"

"Yes." said the demon, throwing his cigarette to the floor. It disappeared upon impact. "I can make you irresistible to others; you'll have no end of friends, and adoring public."

"What do I have to do?" she asked.

The demon leaned close, his face inches from hers. Nightshade could smell the smoke of cigarettes burning wood on him. "All you need to do...is wear a little less makeup, stop walking around like the world owes you one, and for Lucifer's sake, stop being such a cold bitch."

Without another word, the demon turned on his heel and disappeared through the chalk door. Lynn caught the grin on his face.

The demon came out back in Hell, outside his boss' door. He strode in.

"So, you did survive." said Cankerworm. "Well done, Darrus."

"Thank you." said Darrus.