Tally Scream

“Are you sure this is going to work?” There was never a boring moment with Nate. It made life at Snohomish High School bearable, but this time topped everything else. They had painted the circle on the floor with symbols and sat in the old, abandoned house at the end of the cul-de-sac, obviously, so nothing would disturb them.

Nate rolled his eyes. “It’s not. We’re disproving the legend of Eski. You know that, Tally.”

“Nate, what if it works? I know, it’s ridiculous.” She read her iPhone screen, ignoring her own dark-haired, dark-eye reflection in the screen. “Eski: born of a thousand tortured souls’ tormented screams during the Holocaust in WWII. A collection of the darkest human energy.” Tally zipped up her black, fuzzy jacket, though it did little against the chill. “Eski can materialize into human form, thanks to Hitler.

“To awaken Eski and bring on Armageddon, make a blood sacrifice, and completely drain the blood of the offering. The more your sacrifice screams, the better chance you have to awaken... Nate, I don’t want to do this.”

Nate snorted. “Yeah, see? Totally ridiculous. Who would bring on Armageddon?”

“You.”

“I’m going to debunk it and put it on my Youtube site along with all of the other videos,” Nate continued. “My fans are going to love this.”

“Well, I hate this. You haven’t told me what you are going to kill in order to have it die a horrific death.”

“That’s the beauty of it. I have a recording of screams from an actual recorded torture-”

“You’re a sick person-”

”-and I have some pig’s blood I got from a slaughterhouse.” He pulled out a gallon jug from his knapsack.

“Great. Sooo much better.” Eye roll.

“Okay, start recording.”

Tally sighed and held up her iPhone, pointing it at Nate’s iPhone-illuminated, apple-pie face.

Nate poured the pig’s blood into a bucket in the middle of the circle, dipped his hand into the bucket, and smeared the liquid onto his cheeks and chest while chanting jibberish. The odor of blood permeated the entire room; Tally’s dinner rose for an encore.

A five-minute pause. “Okay, Nate. Nothing happened, and you look disgusting. Can we...”

A low, rumbling roar developed in the belly of the house.

*****

Tally eyed Nate. She sniffed the bucket and dunked her head into it. She sputtered and coughed. “How dare you summon me with pig’s blood.” Tally-Eski opened her mouth unnaturally wide and screamed the horrific scream of a thousand souls.

Nate shook until blood spurted out of every orifice in his body. Ravenous, Eski drank every delicious drop.

He threw Nate’s body aside and lumbered out of the house and toward the screams down the dirt road.

A sign: “Stalker Farms.” Two hundred people moved slowly toward the farmhouse.

“Cool costume.” One man smiled at Tally-Eski. “What are you, Carrie?”

Eski offered an awkward, unnatural, smile, cherishing the scream it elicited from his next meal.