Summons
Dash wasn't what you'd call a library sort of guy. He preferred to leave the reading to the nerds he beat up to keep them in line and make them do his homework. But there were just some things he couldn't designate to a nerd. There was some research he had to do himself, if he didn't want the word to get out on what he was looking into.
He definitely didn't want to get caught looking up spooky ooky stuff like that goth freak Fenturd was dating.
So he wore his darkest hoodie, and he kept himself hunched to disguise his posture, and he got to work.
After about 15 minutes of searching, he got bored. Just how many books did a library have, anyway? How did anyone find anything in a place like this?
After five more minutes of riffling through shelves, pulling books off the shelves and leaving them on the tables when they didn't have what he wanted, he was ready to give up. He was about to slam closed what felt like the millionth book on fishing when he heard a voice.
"Can I help you?"
He did not squeak as he turned around because squeaking was unmanly and totally not cool. Instead he turned around suavely, completely and totally cool, without knocking over any books whatsoever.
"What—" he cleared his throat, deepening his voice to disguise it. "What're you talking about?"
The librarian eyed the books that he definitely hadn't knocked down just now, before saying, "You seem to be looking for something. If you tell me what it is, I can help you find it."
Dash considered his options. They weren't many. He could keep searching for the right book, which was boring as heck. Or he could have this librarian person take him there, and he could find the book he needed and get the heck out of here.
It really wasn't much of a choice.
Dash nodded his head, stuffing his hands into his hoodie pockets. In his deep disguised voice, he said, "Do you have anything on summoning ghosts?"
The librarian raised an eyebrow at him. "Our occult section is over there, but how about I help you find—"
"Okay, great, thanks!" Dash said, tearing past the librarian to go take a look at where they'd pointed. He heard the librarian sigh as they stooped to pick up the books he had definitely not dumped on the floor when he definitely wasn't startled. It was only a few books, and besides, this was their job. They could handle it.
Dash began pulling out books at random, tossing them aside when they weren't what he wanted. Vampires? No. Witches? Nah. Ghouls? He didn't know what those were, but they started with the same letters as ghosts - maybe he was getting closer! Zombies? Cool, but not what he was looking for.
Aha! Ghosts! And specters! And spirits and such! And a bunch of words he didn't know that he figured meant ghosts! Who knew there were so many words for ghost?
He pulled out a stack of books and set them on a nearby table. Man, there were so many books! How was he going to get through them all? He'd never done so much reading in his life!
He tried reading the first page of the top book, but gave up as the words started swimming from the page. Man, this was hopeless! He couldn't get through one page of one book, let alone all the pages of all the books he'd found. If only they were picture books, so he wouldn't have to read as many words....
Wait.
These books were definitely not picture books, but maybe they had pictures in them! They had to, if they had instructions about summoning ghosts, right?
He began flipping through the first book, searching for pictures related to summoning. He found none.
The second book: nothing.
The third book: no pictures, let alone anything to do with summoning.
He was ready to give up by the fourth book, when he finally found something. A circle with symbols and candles drawn all around it. The caption read, "Summoning Circle for Spirites of a Benev..." Dash stopped reading it as the words spun from the page. The rest of the sentence didn't matter— this was exactly what he needed.
He walked to the front desk to check out the book.
"Find what you're looking for?" It was the same librarian who had helped him find the occult section.
"Yeah. Now you just need to do whatever it is you do with it so I can take it home, right?"
"That is correct. Do you have a library card?"
"Wait, those are real?"
The librarian held back a sigh and nodded. "Yes, very real. I can sign you up for one, and then you can check out that book."
"Alright, but can I keep my name off of it? I don't want to look like a nerd who goes to the library."
At this, the librarian did sigh. "The card has to have your name printed on it so you know for sure it's yours. If you want to check out that book, you need a library card. Would you like to get a library card?"
After a few minutes of pointless attempts to haggle, a few more minutes filling out forms, and about thirty seconds to print out the card, Dash finally checked out the book. The librarian gave a tired sigh before asking, "Is there anything else—"
But Dash was already out the door.
*~*~*
It was a dark and stormy night. A Thursday night, so none of his friends expected him at a party. And his parents were out on business, and he didn't have to worry about them returning until Sunday afternoon. A perfect night for summoning a ghost.
Dash drew the circle in red chalk on a tarp because he didn't have lamb's blood and he didn't want to mess up the basement floor. He lit his mom's scented candles and put them in between the few white candles he'd found in the kitchen drawer. Then he chanted the sacred Latin text.
"Comp-compello quad benev— benelaphan— what the heck does that say? ben-ev-o-len-shuh- benevolenshuh! spiritus n-no-mine insert name here- no, Phantom! Phantom! Et ligo quad ut me... volunt-ass!" Dash shouted in triumph as he finished the text.
Nothing happened.
Dash tried again, more confident in his pronunciation.
Still nothing.
He decided to give it one more shot. If it didn't work, he'd put away the candles, roll up the tarp, and find Phantom another way.
He spoke the Latin text.
Nothing.
"Aw, poop," Dash muttered. But as he bent down to blow out the first candle, a cold breeze blew past him, blowing it out for him.
Suddenly all the candles went out. A strong swirling wind, like a cyclone, blew above the summoning circle, rippling the tarp outside the circle, but somehow leaving it fixed within the circle.
Dash backed away from the circle. As he did, he heard a scream just over the wind— soft, but getting louder and louder until—
THUMP.
A figure fell from the ceiling. As it landed, the wind stopped.
It worked. It actually worked!
A smile lit Dash's face, but quickly vanished as he examined the figure. It wasn't glowing, and it didn't look like Phantom. The hair was dark and messy, the body skinny and not at all muscular like Dash imagined Phantom would be up close.
In fact, as he took a step closer, the figure seemed familiar in a different way. An enraging, total loser, freaky geek kind of way.
The figure groaned. "Anyone get the number on that truck that hit me?"
Yep. That was Fenton.
Dash felt his face turn red. Blood rushed in his ears, and he shouted, "Fenturd! What the heck are you doing here?!"
Fenton groaned again. "What the hell... can you talk a little louder, the spike in my head hasn't hit the back of it yet."
"You shouldn't be here, Fentoenail! That wasn't supposed to happen!"
"You shouldn't be here." Fenton carefully rolled onto his back, wincing as he worked himself up to a sitting position. He glanced up at Dash. "Where is here, anyways?"
"What the— what do you mean, 'where is here'? My basement is where is here! Now what the heck are you doing here? This was supposed to summon Phantom, not you, Fenturd!"
"Your basement... Phantom...?" then Fenton's eyes widened. Great, now he got it. Clueless dork.
"Yeah! Now get out of my basement, Fentonio!"
Fenton narrowed his eyes at him, then shook his head. "Whatever, Dash."
He pushed himself to his feet and winced, stumbling and shaking his head. Dash almost felt sorry for him.
Then Fenton tried to step beyond the circle.
He reacted as if he'd hit a brick wall, stumbling back and holding his nose. Dash had no clue what was going on, but Fenton looked like a Looney Tunes character, and he couldn't help but snicker.
"What the hell!" Fenton cried, tears in his eyes, still holding his nose. "You knew that was going to happen, didn't you!"
Dash's snickers died down, but he still smirked. "Now why the heck would I know a thing like that, Fentoad?"
"Uh, because you brought me here?" Fenton raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms.
"Hey, all I did was copy some stupid spell from some freaky deaky book I go— I mean I found. It was supposed to bring Phantom, but something's wrong with it because it brought you instead."
"Then can I see that 'freaky deaky' book you 'found'?" Fenton asked, adding air quotes before reaching out a hand to the edge of the circle.
"Why should I give it to you, Fentofu?"
"Look, the sooner you give me the book, the sooner I can figure out how to undo whatever crap you did and get me out of here!"
Fenton did have a point. He was always better at reading than Dash, even if he wasn't at the top of the class. Dash frown, but he handed over the book, still open to the summoning circle.
"Whatever, Fentoejam."
Fenton ignored him, opting instead to read over the summoning instructions.
"Lamb's blood, ew... what the hell kind of Latin is this? It looks like someone just googled a bunch of words and smashed them together... 'Compello quod benevolentia spiritus nomine... et ligo... pick-ax? No, bind... mea voluntas..."
Dash zoned out while Fenton muttered to himself. Of course Fenton would know Latin... what a nerd.
But then Fenton slammed the book shut, startling Dash.
"You were going to bind me to your will?"
"What? No way! You're not even supposed to be here!"
"Whatever! You were going to bind Phantom to your will then? That's insane!"
"No duh, Fentool, that's what supervillains and stuff do! Why would I do that?"
"That's what the Latin's trying to say! Very poorly, I might add, and I have no clue how the hell this managed to work, but—"
"Hey Fentony, punch yourself in the face."
Fenton stared at him, aghast. "Why the hell would I do that?"
Dash pouted. "Aw, it didn't work."
Fenton stared at Dash. Then he smacked his palm to his forehead, dragging it down his face to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"I tell you this summoning spell is supposed to bind people to your will. And your first reaction. Is to try to make me punch myself in the face."
"Well, it would have been funny as heck!"
Fenton took a deep breath. And then another. Then he lowered his hand to the book. "Whatever, man, just— whatever." He opened his eyes, reopening the book to flip to the right page. "Just let me find the counterspell so I can get the hell out of here and we can stop thinking about this."
Dash crossed his arms. "Whatever, Fentoffee. The sooner you're out of my house, the sooner I can try and contact Phantom."
Fenton went stiff at that. He looked up at Dash.
"Do not use this spell— or any other spell— to try and summon Phantom."
"Why the heck not? You can't tell me what to do!"
Fenton rolled his eyes. "You noticed how I fell from the ceiling? How I still have a pounding headache? How that spell was literally supposed to make me your slave? You think any ghost would want to talk to you after having to deal with that?"
Dash huffed. Fenton had a point. "But then how do I find him before Friday night?"
Fenton looked up at the ceiling, muttering under his breath. Then he looked at Dash. "Look, if you really want to talk to him, go to that big weeping willow at the end of the park after school. He'll be there."
Dash narrowed his eyes at Fenton. "How do I know he'll know when to show up?"
Fenton smacked himself in the head with the open book. He muttered something that sounded a lot like I D ten T. Identity? Whatever. Weirdo. Fenton then lowered the book, looking Dash square in the eyes.
"I live in a house with an active ghost portal in the basement. I think I can get a message out to him."
Dash narrowed his eyes further. Fenton did have a point. But still...
"If Phantom doesn't show, you're Fentoast!"
Fenton rolled his eyes, then turned back to the book. "Whatever. Now shut up and let me concentrate. The Latin in this book is terrible."
Dash didn't have anything to say to that, so he didn't say anything at all. Instead he frowned and crossed his arms, foot tapping as he stared at the ceiling. He had so many questions for Phantom... what being a hero was like, how big his muscles were, if he could join the football team... and of course, if he would come to the big party Friday night. With his parents out of town for the weekend, it made his place the perfect place for a super cool party— invite only, of course. And what party would be complete without the biggest celebrity in town?
"Aha!"
Dash started from his musings, raising an eyebrow at Fenton. "What?"
"I found the counterspell! The Latin is really terrible— whoever wrote this never took a class in Latin— but I'm pretty sure this'll send me back."
"Whatever, Fentoga. Just read it so you can get the heck out of my basement."
"Well, that's the thing. You've gotta say it. Here, I'll say it first, and you repeat after me. 'Ejicio quod spiritus cessim ex quibus quod venio.'"
"Uh... Eject quad spirit says him what?"
Fenton pinched the bridge of his nose again. "Look, let's just... go word by word, okay?"
"Whatever, Fentoothpaste."
"Alright." Fenton took a breath. "Now, repeat after me. Ejicio..."
And so they went, Fenton reading the word and Dash repeating it. Eventually, they reached the last word.
At first, nothing happened.
Then a breeze swept by them both.
It began to swirl around Fenton, lifting him up into the air. He shouted above the wind.
"Oh yeah I'm taking this with me you'll probably never see it again sorry bye!"
His "bye" turned into a scream as he shot up towards the ceiling. Right as he was about to hit, he disappeared.
The wind stopped as quickly as it had started, leaving Dash on the chalk-covered tarp with only the unlit candles to keep him company.
Dash blinked. Fenton... had taken his book.
The book he'd checked out of the library.
The book he was supposed to return as soon as he was done with it.
He didn't even like the library, and he was already saddled with replacing a book.
"FENTOILET!"