#genuinely curious what computer programs do high schoolers have

[transcendence-au]

The Demonology Teacher from the Black Lagoon

“Urgh,” groaned Kitty, dropping her head onto her arms. “I don’t want to take demonology.”

Dani rolled her eyes and patted Kitty’s head condescendingly. “It was this or Euro,” she said, not for the first time. “You’re lucky I talked your mom into letting you take it with me, or you’d be stuck with Fraser for the year.”

“Urgh,” Kitty reiterated.

“Oh, come on,” said Dani, injecting some brightness into her voice. “It’s demons and magic and the history of the Transcendence! It’s probably the most interesting history you could take here.”

“I bet it’s all gonna be like, one demon will ruin your life, don’t summon or you’ll get hooked, and all that crap,” Kitty retorted. “It’s not like anyone’s stupid enough to summon a demon. They’ve been giving us the presentation every year since, like, preschool.”

“Just last week, Ben Lopez tried to summon the Dreamweaver to get Abby Mason to date him,” said Dani. “There’s always idiots.”

Kitty raised her head to look at Ben, who was sitting at a table across the classroom. “Did it work?”

“I mean, I don’t know if the actual summoning worked, but Abby’s definitely not dating him, so, like, not very well.”

Kitty snorted. “Where’s Walsh, anyway?” she asked, glancing at the door like she expected their demonology teacher to come in any minute.

Looking at the clock that hung above the doorway, Dani shrugged. “If she’s not here in three more minutes, can we go home?”

And as if on cue, the door opened and a teacher walked in.

Dani, like Kitty beside her, dropped her head onto her arms.

“Hello!” the teacher exclaimed brightly. “Welcome to demonology!”

“Oh my god kill me,” Dani muttered to Kitty. “I’m not gonna last a year with this guy chirping at us.”

“At least he’s not Walsh,” Kitty whispered back. “She’s, like, eighty or something. And, you know, a woman. This guy’s kinda hot.”

Dani coughed out a laugh. “Ew,” she said, but looked up.

He was kinda hot, was her first thought. Tall, skinny, light skin, floppy brown hair, actually pretty young-looking, a smile that actually looked genuine and not dead inside like most of the teachers. Forget first day of school— this guy seemed like it was his first day as a teacher, period.

“Some of you might have noticed that I’m not Mrs. Walsh,” he was saying to the class. “Don’t worry if you didn’t realize, though! It’s been a long first day of school.”

Kitty groaned. “Oh my god, he sounds like my dad.”

Clara Chang’s hand flew up, and the teacher pointed to her. “Yes?”

“Uh, where is Mrs. Walsh?”

“Unfortunately,” the teacher said— was he smiling?—  “Mrs. Walsh fell down the stairs yesterday evening and broke her tailbone. She’s in the hospital right now. She should be back in a month, assuming the best-case scenario.” He was definitely smiling. “Fortunately, that means you guys have me for the foreseeable future!”

He turned around to face the whiteboard behind him, and Kitty tapped Dani’s arm. “Does he have a tattoo?” she hissed. “On his arm, look.”

He was wearing a sweater vest, but his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and Dani spotted some ink peeking out from under his left sleeve. “Looks like a circle or something,” she whispered back.

Kitty’s eyes went wide and she seemed to be about to say something else, but at that moment the teacher turned back around and gestured grandly to the whiteboard. “Mr. A,” he announced, and the words were indeed written there, in lovely cursive (and, for some reason, bright orange marker). “That’s me, and I’m your demonology teacher! Now, it’s time to figure out who you are.”

Dani contemplated the pros and cons of putting her head back in her arms and going to sleep as Mr. A pulled out an attendance sheet and started reading down the list.

-

“No, but, like, there was something really weird about that, right?” said Kitty practically as soon as she and Dani exited the classroom.

“What, the history of the Transcendence?” Dani asked. “I mean, yeah, it’s when magic and all that crap appeared for the first time, of course it’s weird. God, I hate first-day pretests.”

Kitty shook her head emphatically. “No, no, I mean Mr. A!”

“Yeah, he was really young…”

“You— Dani, listen to me!” Kitty exclaimed, stopping in place. “Look, just— listen. Demonology teacher, really young, weird circle tattoo, won’t say his name but it starts with A… what does that sound like?”

“Wait,” Dani said slowly, “so you’re saying you think—”

“That he’s the Dreamweaver?”

Dani jumped when a voice that was decidedly not Kitty’s finished her thought. She spun around to face Ben Lopez, in all his short, mousy glory. He cleared his throat and pushed his glasses up his nose.

“We weren’t talking to you, Ben,” Kitty snapped, a flush spreading across her face.

Ben cleared his throat again. “Sorry, uh, I just— I wasn’t listening on purpose, I just heard you, and I— sorry, it’s just, uh, I-I think you might be onto something,” he stammered out. “D-did you see his face when he talked about Mrs. Walsh falling?”

“I knew he was smiling!” Dani exclaimed triumphantly. The other two looked at her, as did some curious students passing by, and she felt her face go hot. “Uh, never mind.”

“But then the, uh, the question is, why would the Dreamweaver want to teach a bunch of high schoolers?” Ben continued. “He’s an amazingly powerful demon— what could he gain from us?”

They fell silent for a moment, before Kitty seemed to realize something. “In the stories,” she began hesitantly, “he liked kids, didn’t he?”

Dani raised a finger. “Uh, when you say ‘liked kids,’ do you mean ‘liked being around them,’ or, like, ‘liked eating them’?”

“He took them,” said Ben slowly. “Nobody ever knew what happened to them. Sometimes he’d just… show up for a summons, and when he left, he took the summoner’s kids with him.”

“Oh my god,” Kitty breathed. “He’s going for all of us.”

-

That night, Dani had a hard time sleeping. She woke up the next morning the second her alarm went off— a feat which she’d ordinarily be proud of, given her usual tendency to sleep through it— and shuffled downstairs to toast a bagel.

“Is everything alright?” her mom asked when Dani sat down at the kitchen table.

“Just tired,” she responded, because she couldn’t very well say I think my teacher is a demon who’s out to kidnap the whole class.

“It’s only the second day,” said her mother, laughing. “How are you tired already?”

Dani only yawned in response.

Finishing her bagel, she tossed her computer into her backpack, said a groggy goodbye to her mom, and headed down to the bus stop, where she waited for the five minutes it took for the bus to arrive. She flung herself into the first empty seat she found and leaned against the window, ignoring the bump bump bump her head made against the glass as the bus started to move.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. Opening the browser, she slowly typed, dreamweaver. The entire first page was taken up by some software program of some kind, so she added demon to her search criteria. There we go, she thought as she saw his Demonopedia page. She tapped it and started to read the article.

Dani was somewhat more surprised than she probably should have been when the first section of the page was taken up by a picture of the Dreamweaver’s summoning circle, the incantation to summon him, what to use and what not to use when summoning him (no scented candles? If she was a demon, Dani thought, she would ask for all of her summoners to use her favorite sugar-cookie scented candles), the sorts of acceptable and unacceptable sacrifices, and a link to the page for common deals and how demons might twist them. After a lifetime of being told that summoning demons was always a mistake and would be deadly, it was a little bit startling to see such clear instructions for how to do so.

Her eyes glazed over as she skimmed the page. Most commonly appears as a man in a suit… seems to act friendly… unknown, but she seems to be either his sister or his wife… also linked to the Woodsman… their children being taken… wait, there it was! Dani returned to the start of the paragraph and read it more carefully.

The Dreamweaver has, on several notable occasions, destroyed entire cults, apparently simply for using children as human sacrifices. For this reason, some summoners have attempted to offer him live children as sacrifices instead; in all such cases, the children were either found back at their homes with little to no memory of the event, or were taken by the Dreamweaver, never to be heard from again. The cults that opt to try this alternative method of human sacrifice still tend to be destroyed, but in a less gruesome manner than those that sacrifice the children themselves. On other occasions, summoners with children of their own have found their children being taken upon the Dreamweaver’s completion of their deal. The children seem to have no connection to the deals themselves, not being used as sacrifices or as the subject of the deals, so it is speculated that the Dreamweaver simply takes children for reasons of his own. Although his reasons are not known, the most common theory is that he is taking them for consumption at a later date.

Dani stopped reading and closed the tab as a cold pit formed in her stomach. If this was true, then all of the students at her school were in danger, and she was the only one who could stop them!

“Hey, Dani, can I, uh— can I sit with you?”

Well, she thought ass she looked up to see the round face and messy dark brown hair of Ben Lopez, maybe not the only one.

-

Kitty wasn’t on her bus, but Dani met up with her outside of their English classroom. Ben had split off to go to P. E., so Dani made it her mission to fill Kitty in on the newest Dreamweaver information as they walked into the room and sat down in their desks.

“But, like, we’re not kids,” said Kitty after Dani had finished telling her everything she’d read. “Why’s he going after us?”

Dani shrugged. “He’s, like, a million years old, isn’t he? We’re probably all kids to him.”

“Okay. Okay.” Kitty visibly gathered herself together. “So there’s an all-powerful demon who likes stealing kids in the school, and he’s teaching us demonology. This is crazy. Dani, this is really, really crazy.”

“Shouldn’t we, like, tell someone?” Dani asked.

Kitty snorted. “Who, the teacher?” She rested her head in her palm. “Nobody’s gonna believe us. We’re gonna have to figure this out on our own.”

“Not just us,” Dani said hastily. “Ben’s helping too.”

“Oh, yay. Ben.”

“C’mon, don’t be a jerk, he’s helping out.”

“Urgh.”

Dani sighed. “Look, what lunch do you have today? Me and Ben both have lunch 3, we’re gonna go over plans then.”

“Fine,” said Kitty. “I’ll be there.”

-

“You summoned him, right?” Dani asked, taking a bite of her cheeseburger. “Did it actually, like, work?”

“Of course it worked,” scoffed Ben, although the effect was somewhat ruined by his persistent jumpiness. “He just double-crossed me.”

Kitty laughed. “Sure, yeah, that’s totally why Abby rejected you.”

Ben went bright red. “I’m serious!” he exclaimed. “It worked! He showed up right in my room!”

“You summoned a demon in your room?” Kitty snorted. “What, did you sacrifice your lucky underwear?”

“No, I was wearing— wait, no—”

It was too late for him. Kitty let out a high-pitched cackle, and Dani had started giggling into her cheeseburger. Ben’s face somehow managed to get redder. “See if I help when the Dreamweaver tries to kidnap you two,” he grumbled.

Dani waved a helpless hand in the air as her giggling fit continued. “Okay, okay, oh my god, okay, back on topic.”

“Please!” Ben added, which didn’t help. “Guys, demon in our school, going to take our young innocent souls?”

“Okay, okay,” said Dani again, giggling finally subsiding. “What do we do?”

“What can we do?” Kitty added. “He’s, like, all-knowing and all-powerful, right?”

Ben pushed his glasses up. “Well, uh, here’s what I’m thinking. We need proof, right?” Neither Dani nor Kitty responded, and Ben cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah. Proof. We can’t just accuse him of being a demon without actual evidence. So what I’m thinking is, one of us distracts him— asks for help with the material, or something like that. While that’s happening, the other two go to his desk and look around for anything suspicious.”

“We can’t just, like, go through a teacher’s things,” Dani pointed out, fairly reasonably. “If we get caught—”

“We won’t get caught,” said Ben. “Not if whoever’s doing the distracting does a good enough job.”

They all paused.

“Wait,” Kitty said. “Can’t we just, like, wait for him to have a class?”

Ben coughed. “Uh, yeah, that might be, uh, better, yeah.”

“Like, I get that you want to make this a cool heist thing, but—”

“No, yeah, I get it, this is probably better—”

Dani sighed. Who knew demon-finding was so convoluted?

-

As it turned out, not only was demon-finding convoluted, it was also really, really hard.

Dani had almost had a heart attack when the three of them got to the social studies department after school and were greeted by a woman at the front desk. Fortunately, Kitty was either not bothered at all, or much better at hiding her panic. She smiled at the woman and walked right past without an issue, leaving Dani and Ben to scurry after her.

“Just look confident,” Kitty told them quietly once they were out of the woman’s earshot. “They never think anything’s off if you act like you’re supposed to be here.”

Dani tried to straighten up, though without much success.

Mr. A’s cubicle wasn’t very hard to find, but to Dani’s dismay, it looked… just like a normal teacher’s workspace. There were papers strewn across the surface of his desk, a short bookshelf in the back of the cubicle which held several demonology textbooks, a poster on the wall entitled “Periodic Table of the Demons,” and one of those glass blocks with shapes inside that Dani had always found really cool. This one had what looked like a miniature copy of a summoning circle.

“Well, he sure does like demons,” Dani said aloud, then mentally kicked herself. Fortunately, neither Ben nor Kitty seemed to notice her stating the obvious.

Ben was looking at the periodic table. “The Dreamweaver is number 13 on here,” he said. “I wonder…” He tapped the Al square, and seemed to deflate when nothing happened.

“Did you think, like, a secret door was gonna open up when you pressed the button?” asked Kitty.

Flushing, Ben looked away from the poster and went to pick up a textbook. “Uh… maybe?”

“Oh my god, no wonder you had to summon a demon to get a girl to like you. You’re a total dork.”

Dani laughed as she picked up the glass block. Pulling out her phone, she opened up the Demonopedia page for the Dreamweaver and compared the two circles. Definitely the same one. “Hey, Kitty,” she said, and Kitty looked up from where she was examining the papers on the desk. “Is this the tattoo you saw on his arm?”

Kitty glanced over the circle. “I mean, I only had, like, a two-second view, and it was partway covered by his sleeve, but, like, it looks pretty close.”

“Okay,” said Dani. “Okay. I think that’s probably enough to… to make a case.” She took a deep breath. “Uh. What’s the next step?”

There was a thunk as Ben set the textbook down on top of the bookshelf. “Next step,” he said, voice hushed, “is we summon a demon.”

-

“This is a terrible idea.”

“Shhh! My sister is gonna hear you!”

“Why couldn’t we, like, do this another time, when your house was actually empty?”

“We have to do this soon, before we get our souls eaten! We’re just lucky my parents are out tonight…”

“How about, like, we just don’t do it?”

Dani tuned out Ben and Kitty’s bickering and focused on the candles. Fortunately, Ben hadn’t erased the summoning circle he’d used to summon the Dreamweaver before, but he’d gotten rid of the candles— it had been fun trying to sneak more of them upstairs past Ben’s sister— and Dani was currently fumbling with a lighter. “Stupid thing won’t stay lit,” she grumbled to herself, and proceeded to knock over a candle. “Oh my god, this is a disaster. If the Dreamweaver shows up, he’s gonna laugh at us. And then probably kill us.”

“Yeah, Ben,” said Kitty. “You might have lucked out and survived last time, but, like, you’re literally inviting him back in to try and kill you again. Except this time we’re here too, so now we’re all gonna die.”

Dani thought she sounded fairly calm for someone who was convinced that she was about to be demon-murdered, but hey, that was Kitty. Meanwhile, Dani’s hands shook so much that she almost dropped the lighter. She swore.

“Alright, so, uh, we know what we’re going to do once he— once he gets here, right?” said Ben quietly. “I’ve got notecards. I’ve double- and triple-checked them so there aren’t any loopholes for him to exploit. We’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. We just have to get answers, and make sure he knows that we know about his plan.”

Dani laughed, feeling lightheaded. “Sure. Okay. Yeah. No way it could possibly go wrong, right?”

Shakily, she lit the final candle.

Ben picked up the chocolate bars they’d nabbed and placed them delicately in the center of the circle.

“Ben,” said Kitty calmly. “If we die, I’m gonna come back to haunt you. And if he says, like, he’ll only take one of our souls, it’s gonna be yours.”

Ben gulped.

“Everyone ready?” Dani whispered, ignoring the voice in her head screaming no, absolutely not.

Dani and Kitty stepped back as Ben approached the circle, hands held high, and began to chant. “Stella splendida, v-vos invoco. Vos invoco ut faciatis voluntatem meam. Dico nomen vestrum: Alcor!”

Nothing happened.

“D-did we—” Dani started to ask, before Ben turned around and made hurried shushing motions.

And— there. As Dani watched, a cloud of black smoke formed within the circle, seeming to flow upward from the lines on the ground. A high-pitched ringing sound echoed through her head, and the temperature in the room seemed to abruptly drop. The candles that Dani had spent the past ten minutes painstakingly arranging and lighting blew out in an instant, and Dani stood frozen in place as the smoke coalesced into a humanoid form with a fwoosh.

“W̡͇̤̠̪͒̔̒͑̂̽́h̜̠͉͔̬̻̣̅̀͛̇͛͐̏̈́͘͜͡ō̶͎̙͚̭̝̯̌̋͆̄ d̳͚̜̞̜̿̀̅̑̕͘͘͢͝ͅa̷̢̞͍̬̤͖̤̯̦̎̋̋̏̎̓̔̂̕r̬̙̳̠̪̞͈̗̟̮͌̒͆̂͊̚͠e̢̤̺̺͚͊̔̋̽́̾̕ͅs̡̡̘̻̱̎́͗̀̾̂͗ s̷̨̢͕̣̞͉̞̯̖͆̇̉̋̀̄̅̚̕͡ͅu̧̯̝͍͉͍̪͍͂̓̓̾̀̄͂͂m̸̨͙̘̬̜̩̙̝͚͍̂͌͛̚̕m͆̆͂͋��̨̧̧̣̗̪̥̹̺̽͢o̴̫̠̮̩͔͈͎͖͛͋̏̉́͜n̨̡̛̩̣̬̻̉̽́̓̽̑͘͞ A̶͎̟̼̗͔̯̼̯̮̬͛̑̆̋̀ļ̖͔̳̹̤͎͂̉̓̂̊̐͗̓͐͝c̡̩͇̟̺̗͙̖̤͋̿̂̃́͡ō̢͖͕̲̬̖̗̳͋̆̅̐͑͠ŕ̵̼͔̱̤͙̦̩̇̀̃̽̋̃̎̆͝ ẗ̝̼͔̮̥́̀́̕̚h̶̺͖̬͖̓̒̒̑̉̄͆̀͜͝ę̴͚̦̠̤̲͇͇͒̅̋̾͂̌ D̜͈̝̯̗̋̈̐̇̂͂̆̒̋̕͜͜r̸͙̟̻͙͚̮̖̠̋̂͛́̕͢͜e̜͈͈͖͈͈̺̠̜͇̾̌͒̅̒̋̊̊͝a̶͎͓̰͉͕̓̔̑͘͞ḿ̶̡̰̤̯̙̺̘͕̒͋̀̕͟͡w̶̨̫̭̖̮̞̙̫͑͊͑̐̔̿ẽ̴̡̘̦̙͙̰̣̰̥̊͊͌̔̽͜á̷̲̠̹̫̞̝̗͇̪̈́̓͊̎̑̂̿͟͠͞v̷̧͕̹̠̘̖̠͍̎̒͗̇̄͛̑͞͞͡ę̵̗͈͇̪̳͔̒͂̇̈́̅̆͢ṛ̡̛̻̙̗͖̘̓̃̏̿̽̓͗̓?̵̢̙̣̰͚͈͍̻̿̽̓͋̈̒͌̽̚̕͟ͅ”

Kitty meeped.

The demon glanced over at Kitty, then at Dani, who felt suddenly like she was just a single atom, one tiny, insignificant piece of a vast cosmic puzzle, like she would die alone and unnoticed, barely even alive in the grand scheme of the universe— and then at Ben. Dani took a deep, shuddering breath and tried to will her heart to stop racing.

“I̵̧̪̘͠ ̶̨͑̾͛͘t̵̡̟̑̉̒ǫ̴́̀͂l̵̩̓d̷͚̈́ ̷̖̰̉͐y̵̜̠̔͐o̷͕̪̥͐̃͋̿u̶̥̲͈̝͌̌̈́͠,̸̹̈́̉ ̷̛̰̟̉k̵̨͇̘̋͛̏͜i̷̥͐̋̓͐d̸̻̘̽͋,̶̷̧̛̝͕͐̇́̅” the Dreamweaver said. “Ǐ̶̼̘̻ḟ̷̲̜́ ̴̢̘̹̟́̈́̆ý̶̺̝o̵̪͚̫̊̍̅ǚ̵̟ ̸̞̓w̵̗̯̦̺̉̈́͊͠ǎ̷͎̬̓̚n̸̢͈̙̱͒̏̇ṱ̶̉͆̚ͅ ̶̦̃̀͒ǎ̴̳͇̦ ̶̛͔̰͐g̸̜̜̣̟̋i̴̻̚r̷̳̯̟̠̀̋́͠l̷̤̠̒͂͆̓ ̷͈͕̀̀̓͆͜ͅţ̷͔̰̮̔͒͆̚o̴̫̹͙̲̊̇̂ ̷̝̼̟̔́l̷͍̗͔̒̅̒̆ǐ̵̮̪̏͠͠k̸̦̖͎͍̐͛e̷͍̫̾̓͐ ̷̢͖͈̝̆͗͒y̴̦̙͎͛̀ò̸̪̮ư̴̜͉,̷̢̧̳͑ ̶̡̥̩̓̃̒̊y̷̢̫͍̏͂́̇o̷͍͂͊̏͠ù̶̝̼͙̠ ̷̤̈́̕ȟ̶̺̞̟͂̉̏a̸̰̎͘v̷͙̒̂e̴̳̎̊ͅ ̵͉̼̬̓ṫ̷͇̲̠̪̌̆ŏ̶̼̓ ̴̨̰̼̂́g̵̡̧̛̊ẽ̷̱̼͕̘̀̋͘t̶̝̮̥̿͜ ̷̧͇̏͐́̚t̴̖̭̤̒ẖ̴̢̣̺̏̐͑e̸̬͔͔͑͌́ͅr̴̹̗̙̒͜͠e̷̝͍͍͇̿͊̔̀ ̵̘̮͚̤͗̔͋o̸͖̰̲̽̋͜n̸͉̖͒̓ ̶̭͉͛́͆̊y̸̰̤͕̪̎͘o̵͓̯̐͌̊͜u̸̫̣̞̰̿͋̈́̆ṛ̶́͒̈́ ̷͖̩̀͜ơ̴͖̦̄̾w̷̨͓̑̃n̵̰͋̾̈.̴̢̪̭͖̓͋”

“Oh my god,” Dani heard Kitty breathe.

“Th-this is different!” Ben stammered. “This is—”

He seemed to have all but forgotten his carefully planned words, so Dani forced her legs to move, walked forward, snatched the notecards out of his hands. “D-dreamweaver,” she read, trying to stop her voice from shaking, “we have summoned you to-to ask you to…”

The Dreamweaver picked up a chocolate bar and unwrapped it. He bit into it, and Dani’s mind was torn between terror that it would be her next in place of the chocolate, and laughter at the fact that a terrifying demon was standing in Ben Lopez’s bedroom eating a chocolate bar. He made an encouraging motion with his free hand, and a hysterical giggle slipped out of her.

“W-we have summoned you to ask you to please call off your plan to devour all of our souls,” she read.

The demon laughed— not the horrible grating laugh she’d expected, but a surprisingly normal one. “You ̢s͢um̨m̀o̵ned̶ m͞e͏.̛..͢ ̀t͞o̵ ás͘k҉ m̸e҉ n͠ot̸ ̧t͏o ̕ta͟ke y͘ou͞r͞ so͜u͡ls?͜”

Out of the corner of her eye, Dani saw Kitty’s exasperation with Ben briefly overcome her terror as she brought a hand to her face. Inwardly, she concurred.

Ben recovered from his fear and took the notecards back from Dani. “W-we, uh, we know about your plan,” he said. Dani could hear his voice tremble. “We know you’re pretending to be our demonology teacher so you can snatch all of the students.”

The Dreamweaver actually looked… confused. She wasn’t an expert in demon expressions or anything, but the expression on his face definitely didn’t seem like that of someone who’d been caught out in evil plans. “Y̴̢̡ou̴r̷̛͢.́̕͡.̡͝.̴̴̸ ҉͞t̀͝ea̸͘c̶̷̸h̷̨e̛r?̛”

Well.

If Kitty didn’t get to him first, Dani was going to kill Ben.

Speaking of Kitty, she’d apparently regained control over her body, and was stalking up to Ben. “Oh my god,” she said. “Were you wrong?”

“I-it was your theory first!” he defended, which would have been a fair point except for the fact that they were all standing in front of a very powerful demon and Dani wasn’t very inclined to take excuses when her soul was on the line. She glared at Ben as well, and he flinched.

“W͢a͟i̕t,” said the Dreamweaver. “Th̛e ͝t̕h͏r͢ee̡ ̕o̵f͝ yo̵u ͘th͡o̡ugh̛t ͘th̵a̛t͢ ̕I͡ ́w͟as ͝your̴ ͞su͏bs̛tit̴ut͞e ̕t̷each̡er?” He started to laugh, and even though it didn’t sound like nails on a chalkboard, it still sounded horrible to Dani. She felt her face grow hot.

“W-we know you take kids!” Ben tried to continue. “And— and Mrs. Walsh got injured, and it all seemed too convenient—”

“J҉or̡dan͟ A̧ysc̵ơu͡gh͡, twe̛n̶t̶y-f̢iv͘e ̶y͘e̴ars͞ o̸ld,” the demon interrupted. “Gr͜adu͝a͠te̢d ͝fro̴m ̕t̵he҉ ͝U̢niv͟e̢rsit͏y o͝f ̡Il̡l͏i͏no̷i̷ś w̵it̕h̴ ҉a̕ ̀major͜ i̕n ́d͡e͜mon͝o͢l͘og͝y. T̡ook ͝o͝n h̀ìs ̸f҉ir͠st ̀t̡e͝ac͠h͜i҉ng jo͜b͘ at M͏idd͏l҉eb͘r̴ǫo͏k̨ ̛H̕ig҉h S͞c͢ho͘ol͜, bef̸o̵r̴e͘ ͝findiņg͝ ̀a͜ bęt̛ter j̕o͝b̶ a̶t̴ We̛st̸ ̧O͞a̴k H͢igh̕ ͏S̛chool̴ ́w͝hen t҉hei̷r ͠demo͝nol͜o̧gy tȩacher ̷fell ̕an̸d͞ ͏b̷ro͟k͏e h͝er ̨tai̛lb̛one. D̷e͡ci̧d͝e͜d ͘a͠fte͜r͜ ̢th̀e Mi̛ddlębr̶o͟ok̴ ̛t͝e̶a͝c̵h̷ing ̡j̨o҉b ͞t҉h̷at he ̡w͟o̵uld go ̢by ̷Mr. ̸Á, due ̸t͘o̕ h̵įs̶ ͜s͘tu͟dent̸s͠’ p͡r͟opensįt̷y̨ ͏t́o ca̸ll ͏him̕… Mr. Ass-cough.” The demonic reverberation that had been present in his words until that point seemed to vanish, and Dani thought he seemed to be holding in a snicker.

Kitty slapped Ben’s arm. “Oh my god,” she hissed.

Dani swallowed hard and said, “We’re v-very sorry to disturb you, then, Mr. Dreamweaver. Uh, w-we don’t actually, uh, have any deals to make, or anything…”

“Ho͞w͢ ̷ab͝o͜u̴t ̧th͜i͡s, ͢th͟èn,” he said, giving a too-wide smile. “A͏n̛ ̧unof̨fici͡aĺ ͠dea̶l.҉ You̡ s̸to͞p ̷sum͟m̷o̷n̷íng̨ ͏d́emo҉ņs͏, a̸n҉d͟ ͢I͜ ̧w̨ill ̴m̴ak͢e ͞súr̶e ̧that͡ Mr͢.̢ A̷ dơesn't̡ ̡re͟a͝liz҉e ͞t́ha̢t͟ t̸h҉e ͢t̡hr̨ȩe ̷o͝f̛ ͘you̷ wenţ ̕th̨rough hi͠s͏ ̨thinģs.”

Dani wanted to sink into the floor.

“F-fine,” said Kitty, who somehow kept her tone level. “We accept.”

The Dreamweaver grinned even wider. “In ͠t͜hat c͘às̶e,” he said, “I͏'l̡l be ̀o̡f͝f!͞ Se͏e y҉o̴u͟ ̛n͘ev̢e̷r!”

And with that, he vanished, leaving only smoke and the wrapper of a chocolate bar.

Dani sat down heavily on the floor, and put her head in her hands. “Oh my god,” she said, and wasn’t sure if it was from embarrassment at being so horribly wrong, relief at not having her soul devoured, or, on some level, the thrill she was feeling at having successfully summoned a demon. “Oh my god.”

“Oh my god,” Kitty agreed.

Ben laughed shakily and dragged a hand across the circle, smudging the chalk. “L-let’s, uh, let’s not use this anymore.”

Dani exhaled a breathless laugh.

“Hey, uh, Kitty,” Ben continued. “W-would you want to, uh, go out with me? Sometime? Uh.”

Kitty blinked at him. “Weren’t you into Abby Mason, like, last week?”

“Uh, yeah, but I— I mean, I don’t really know her.”

“You don’t really know me.”

“No, yeah, that’s, uh, you’re right—”

“Like, you seem like a cool guy and all, but, like—”

“No, no, I get it, totally get it—”

“It’s not, like, personal or anything—”

Dani just sighed.

-

“This is so boring,” Dani whined, making sure Mr. A couldn’t hear her as he changed the PowerPoint slide currently being projected onto the whiteboard. “I can’t believe we thought this guy was the Dreamweaver.”

Kitty snorted. “I can’t believe we thought the best way to test it was to summon him and ask.”

“And I can’t believe it’s not butter!” chimed in the third person at their table.

“Oh my god,” grumbled Kitty. “Why do we let him sit near us again?”

Dani turned to look at Kitty and Ben. “We summoned a demon together,” she pointed out. “I think that makes us, like, friends for life.”

Ben actually beamed. Kitty rolled her eyes, but she was smiling too.

A warm feeling growing inside her, Dani smiled back.