The Un-Summoners | A Rain-Ghoul Fanfiction

4. The Ritual-Afterparty

''PING!''

I grabbed my phone, grandma texted back to say that I could go to the Ritual-Afterparty to get to know the ghouls better. She'll pick me up later. ''Yes! Grandma is the best, I can stay!'' I yelled excitedly, as we were walking through the church. ''I'm so glad that you can go there with us!'' Nali said.

Roy said that the ghouls have their own part of the church. "The Great Hall", as they called it is where the afterparty would take place. The ghouls' rooms were divided amongst 4 different towers.

When we arrived at The Great Hall, I saw that there were a lot of ghouls already there. There were some other humans, but we were a minority by far. The hall was big, and there were paintings of different demons on the stone walls. The paintings weren't the only thing that decorated the room, there were little flags that spelled "Happy Birthday", even though it wasn't someone's birthday, at least, that I knew of. There were big windows, a lot of light would probably shine through those if it was daytime. But right now, the only things lighting up the room were the hunderds of candles. The hall had something cozy as well, I imagined that it would be a very chill place during the day, unlike now. There were a lot of bookshelves, lots of tables and chairs, and a lit fireplace. In front of the fireplace was a red carpet and a large couch.

Roy was doing what he usually did, talking a lot. He introduced me to some weird guy who worked at the church's mortuary. They really do have jobs for everyone in this church.

''Oh look!'' Roy yelled. ''There they are, my friends Moutain, Swiss, Dewdrop, and Rain!'' He grabbed me and Nali's hands and dragged us towards the ghouls who were standing at a foldable cocktail table.

''Hey! This is my new friend, Eve!'' Roy said with a broad smile on his face. ''Hey,'' I said, ''I'm Eve, nice to meet you all. I'm new here and I just saw you guys performing for the first time, I absolutely loved it!'' The ghouls all smiled. ''Nice to meet you Eve, I'm Swiss.'' One of the ghouls said. ''I'm Mountain, thank you for coming to the ritual, Eve.'' Another ghoul said. The smallest ghoul spoke up too now, ''Hi Eve! I'm Dewdrop, and this guy over here is Rain.'' He pointed at the taller ghoul next to him. Rain just awkwardly smiled and waved.

''Hey Nali, I really like the spaghetti you and the rest of the kitchen staff made for us today.'' Swiss said. ''You work in the kitchen here?'' I asked. Nali nodded. ''Yes, I make food for everyone who lives in the church. I don't think I'm the best chef, but I really like cooking.'' Dewdrop put his hands on his waist. ''No! Don't lie to her! You are a good chef!'' He looked at me. ''Eve, you should really try out her famous Wednesday-Soup! It's like, the most delicious thing I ever ate.'' Nali was blushing heavily. ''Thank you, Dewdrop,'' she said. It probably meant a lot to her that Dewdrop liked her soup. Mountain rolled his eyes, ''it's drank, Dew, you can't eat soup!'' ''No, I eat soup.'' Dewdrop said stubbornly. Moutain sighed, ''it's drank!'' ''Just accept that I'm right and you're wrong!'' Dewdrop argued. During all of this, Rain kept himself distant from this silly discussion. He didn't even look at them, he looked at the room around him, the floor, sometimes he even looked at me, but not in my eyes. It's like he was in his own little world where he didn't have to listen to Moutain and Dewdrop arguing about whether you drink or eat soup. It was pretty cute how easily he distanced himself from them.

After talking with them for a while, more ghouls joined our conversation. Cirrus, Cumulus, Aether, and Sunshine all introduced themselves to me. They seemed really nice. It made me feel bad because I was here to help pastor Robertson un-summon them after all. Why were the ghouls so bad according to him? Has he even met one?

Suddenly, one of the ghouls who I didn't know stood on one of the tables. ''May I have your attention please!'' She yelled, and everyone was silent in a few seconds, listening to what the ghoul wanted to say. ''After 5 years we finally got back our book: "liber magicae tenebris", which means that Papa can summon new ghouls again. Today was a really special day, because a new ghoul was summoned. He did a very good job tonight, everyone give it up for our new light-technician... Diablo!'' She pointed at a ghoul standing in the middel of the hall. He smiled and waved while everyone was cheering for him. ''Oh my Satan, I gotta meet him.'' Roy said, and he disappeared in the crowd consisting of a mixture of people and ghouls.

Not much later everyone was dancing and cheering, nothing was too crazy at a ghoul party. The music was loud and the drinks were good. I smiled as I watched Nali dance with Dewdrop. Dewdrop seemed to like her too. Roy was having a drink with the newly summoned ghoul, Diablo. They also seemed to be having a great time.

I was sitting on the couch by the fireplace with Sunshine and Swiss. They told me about what living in the church was like, and I told them about my "old" church. I made up a fake story about my own church to come over as believable. I told them that pastor Robertson was creep, which was true. But I also told them that my church traumatized me and that's why I ended up here. That wasn't true.

After a while, I was feeling a little overwhelmed by all the noises. The music, the people talking, it was all a bit too much for my autistic brain. I couldn't focus at all anymore on what Sunshine and Swiss were saying. It surprised me that this only happened now,and not during the ritual. ''Uh, I have to go to the bathroom, I'll be right back.'' I lied, it wasn't the first lie I told tonight. But making up an excuse to leave the room was always easier than explaining people about my autism. ''Yea sure,'' Swiss said, ''see you later!''