Crossroads → Nicholas Scratch [CAOS]

ix. te invoco demones inferni

TE INVOCO DEMONES INFERNI
CHAPTER NINE

Dani was greeted by the look of unbridled concern on Nick's face as she neared him at the river. This was soon followed by a stream of words that Dani was too confused and stressed to hear or pay much attention to. She was too consumed by her questions about her father, the things she saw in his office, and what she'd heard him say on the phone. Her brain was racing as fast as her heart; she had practically sprinted to Sweetwater River upon hearing her dad's plans to meet someone at the river. This could finally end all the secrecy and half-truths that people were constantly throwing at her, but part of her was unsure of whether she really wanted to know what her dad was up to. The gun she found and the whole mention of some sort of ritual was what was putting her most at ease. Nick was always there for her, though. Dani knew that he'd help her through it.

"Leesha, did something happen?" Nicholas's tall frame towered over her, strong hands gripping onto her jittery shoulders to stop her from walking. "Can we just stop for a second?" Dani took the time they were still to catch her breath and try her best to tidy up the mess that was her mind.

"Tell me what's wrong." His honey-brown eyes stared into hers with a sincerity that momentarily hypnotized her, his hands slightly looser on her shoulders, now more comforting than intercepting.

She hadn't realized that her muddled, anxious thoughts and her unplanned rush to find out what her dad was up to had forced an unnoticed glossiness into her eyes. She hastily blinked them away and tried to focus on coherently explaining everything to Nick.

"My dad... I went into his office and there were these symbols and like, pentagons with other shapes inside them and he had a freaking gun too." Dani tried to recap all the images of the things she had seen in his private office. Her voice rose in volume as she went on.

"Loads of people have guns here. Does he hunt?" Dani could tell that this was just one of Nick's attempts to calm her down by helping her come up with a rational and least freaky solution.

"No, Nick. It had those weird symbols on it too. And his books... they were all in Latin or something. I didn't even know he could speak Latin! We're basic people; we speak English and only English," she exclaimed, a surge of anger and confusion rushing through her veins.

"Hey, it's okay. We'll figure it out, alright?"

"He was on the phone with someone... they're going to the woods. Something about a summoning spell?"

It looked as though a lightbulb had struck in Nick's head as Dani continued to describe everything, his soft eyes now seemingly more present and serious. The expression on his face immediately set off some sort of alarm in Dani's head and she instantly stood straighter, the apprehensive frown reappearing on her tired, sweaty face. "What?" She asked, "Do you know something, Nick?"

"No, I just... let's just go on our date now, okay?" He brushed it off quickly and picked up Dani's fidgeting hand to give it a gentle squeeze. "It's probably nothing."

"You promised you'd help me figure all this stuff out," Dani huffed, raking her hand through her hair. She wasn't frustrated with Nick at all. With her thoughts chanting in her head, bouncing around like a basketball, and how much in a rush she was to find her dad and catch him doing whatever it was he was going to do, Dani was just so disarranged.

"You don't have to come, Nick. I'll just meet you at the carnival later."

Without another word, she turned around and began walking into the crowd of trees. She didn't even consider how huge the woods were and how difficult it would be to find her father in such a mess of trees and bushes. She was too occupied with the adrenaline incessantly pumping through her that it hadn't even crossed her mind how groundless anything she was doing was. She was too busy trying to organize the clutter in her head, she hadn't even noticed Nick was right beside her as she walked, his legs clearly working hard to keep up with her pace. This was Nick, though; of course, he wasn't going to leave Dani alone. Especially not in the woods that Dani had visibly shown several signs of uneasiness toward. No one knew what hid behind the tall, towering cluster of trees, in the dark, dreary woods, and Dani she was perfectly happy not knowing. But answers hard to get, and Alicia had some answers write at the tip of her fingers. All she had to do to get them was going into the woods that she never wanted anything to do with.