It was becoming quite apparent to Cas that he wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight. He had work in the morning. He had tasks to accomplish. He was twenty-four years old, he was supposed to be a responsible adult now. Alas, as the clock at the top of his screen switched to 4:17am, Cas was not feeling hopeful, nor responsible. Sighing, he rolled into a sitting position and resumed his scrolling through pinterest. Pinterest was a recent addiction of his, a new source of humor to drown out his thoughts. It was several minutes before he found something that caught his eye. An advertisement for demonic assistance. A pinterest ad. Advertising demonic assistance. Well, 4am was the hour of depression. It seemed that pinterest really could read his mind. He tried not to think about it, but at 4am it was difficult not to focus on his brother. There wasn't much else to think about, and Ali's face would creep into his head, bringing with it unwanted memories and feelings that Cas was doing his best to repress. His therapist had told him it was healthier to allow himself to be sad, but he was already depressed; there was no need to make anything even sadder. The ad kept playing its gif of a waving demon. Need Some Help? It inquired. Cas exhaled, creating a sound that was not quite a laugh. Yes, Cas needed help. So he clicked on the ad. And the ad took him to a website with a detailed list of instructions. Cas was wary at first; playing with demons hadn't been a fun experience for him in the past. But as he went around his house gathering supplies and starting rituals, his anxiety turned to excitement. Even if this was all bullshit, it felt good to be doing something, to be creating something. To be helping to preserve his brother's memory, in any small and useless way he possibly could. As Cas checked over the steps one last time and nudged several candles into place, he didn't know what he was expecting to happen. But whatever his expectations, he had not been prepared for the outcome he received.
(This feels kinda long and rambly lol sorry I'm a tad rusty)
(It's great! Sorry for taking so long to answer)
Whatever Cas was expecting to happen, especially with the ritual, it didn't happen.
The circle didn't go up into smoke, it didn't glow, and it certainly didn't summon anything. The candles flickered up at him, but a weird soft breeze from the room made them dance.
If we're talking about things we didn't expect to happen, Darnilius had the cake in the situation. He hadn't expected to get called upon by a Human today, as he suddenly disappeared from he and his friends' meeting place, laughing and sharing drinks. But there he was, a few feet away from an apartment, facing a door of a Human who had clearly summoned a Contracting Demon.
The Demon sighed quietly, but couldn't help to feel a few strands of dread. He was stuck here now. There were thousands of Demons where he was, but they had to pick him for this job? Darnilius wasn't great at helping people, especially Humans.
Darnilius pushed open the door anyway, the door moving completely silently as he moved into the home. He searched it, looking for the Human, to find a ragged man in front of an even more ragged and nervous summoning circle. Well, that would explain why he wasn't directly summoned into the house.
"So it looks like you need some help, huh?" Darnilius said in his drawling voice, creeping closer into the candlelight so he could be seen.
Cas startled violently, stepping on one of the candles and cursing as he put out the flames. "Yeah uh, hi," he waved awkwardly, trying to look cool while standing on one foot and failing miserably. "I thought there was gonna be a whole thing but you just kinda- wow. I summoned a demon." Cas took a moment to collect himself so that he wouldn't blurt out the 12 million questions that had immediately popped into his head. "Yeah, I need a, uh- I need some assistance, yes. I saw an ad on, uh, on pinterest, which was weird, and I was like 'hey, maybe they could bring my brother back' cause he's uh, y'know, dead, you probably get a lot of requests like this but it's just like a quick resurrection or whatever and I'll do like, anything. Literally anything, you can have my soul or whatever, I don't know if demons do that but uh. Anyway. So name your price. Or however this works." Cas had always imagined his first encounter with a demon would be much cooler than this. None of this was going as planned.
Darnilius watched the Human with distant curiosity in his dark eyes, prowling closer to him. He hadn't seen most Humans be this nervous to summon him. Most of the time they were overconfident and dominant over him in the couple Contracts he had made prior to this.
"I can do insurrections," The Demon growled suddenly, flashing his set of pointy white teeth that gleamed even in the dim light of the candle. He was fairly confident that he had a grip on how this Human was. But it was strange of them to call a Demon of all things for an insurrection. Huh.
Darnilius put his teeth away and plopped down onto the floor, raising his pointed nose up at the other male.
"I can't believe you didn't even bother vacuuming before you summoned me," He sniffed poshly, tossing his dark hair out of his eyes.
"Vacuuming- what?" Cas breathed a laugh. "I didn't realize I was meant to clean the place up." Now that the demon had mentioned it, Cas felt even more uncomfortable than before. He awkwardly scooted a pile of laundry under the bed with his foot.
"I wasn't really uh, expecting company, you know, I kinda thought it might be one of those games you see on pinterest where they're like, turn off the lights and run away before the demon gets you. You know the ones?" He let out a breath and tapped his fingers against his leg.
"But now you're here! So. Do I get a wish, is there an exchange? I didn't really read the whole explanation thing so I uh, don't know what to do from here."
"Mhm, well, I'm not like a lot of Demons where they don't care. I do care." Darnilius sniffed again in a sort of annoyed way when he admitted to not reading the entire ad or preamble to the instruction. He whipped out a pack of dark sticks and bit off the end as if it were a cigar, and lit it on one of the candles, exhaling heavy smoke that had no smell. This was gonna be… special.
"I don't know what kind of Demons you've met, then. And what you do with me is a Contract. You summon me, and you ask me to do something, and in return I get to require something from you." Darnilius looked at the Human, sighing out another puff of the cigarette thing, obscuring the circle with its smoke. He knew Demons liked to mess with Humans by "haunting" them, but that was more of an Angel's thing, or even a Spirit's thing. He probably summoned the wrong thing. At the thought, Darnilius snickered.
"Aaannnnyway so you want a summoning or you wanna bring the guy back, right?" He tilted his head up at the other again. "What's your name and what's his name?"
"Smoking isn't really allowed in… ok, nevermind," Cas muttered. Demons were more condescending than he'd thought. The demon started explaining, fully ignoring him. Cas tried to pay attention this time. A contract, he'd ask something and then the demon would ask something. Seemed fair enough.
Cas was only getting more nervous the more the demon talked. This had almost certainly been a bad idea. But he doubted there was a way to un-summon a demon, and he needed his brother back. "Yeah, I want him fully uh- like, all back to life and everything. Uh, my name's Caspian Wright, his is Alistair Wright." Cas's eyes wouldn't leave the floor; he wished he could stop fidgeting. This was full 'selling your soul to the devil' type shit, it wasn't supposed to be so awkward.
"Wright? Hm, so how do you want me to do it?" Darnilius just asked as if the Human would magically understand his entire culture. "Wait you said you didn't read the thing right? Okay so uhh I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions, yeah? And you have to answer them truthfully because I'll know when you lie to me." The Demon showed his sharp teeth for a second as if threatening him. And in Cas' defense, not all Demons were this condescending or threatening. He just happened to be a little loose from his night out with friends. He wasn't on top of being nice to the person who just took that from him. Ha, but again, Darnilius could pin that to the other just not reading the warnings that went along with this summoning. One of the main points is that the Demon had all right to act however they wanted, for they were the one making the Contract.
(Sorry my internet got fucked up fghbjn)
"I- for sure, yeah, whatever you need to do," Cas nodded, seating himself on the edge of his bed. This entire proces probably would have made more sense if he had actually read the term and conditions. "Didn't know reanimation required an interrogation," he joked dryly. There was probably some sort of valid reason for the questions, but humor was his only defense against the increasingly large wall of things he should have known before beginning the process of summoning a demon.
(np)
Darnilius glared at the Human from where he sat in the darkness, rolling his eyes dryly. "Like I said. If you had read anything, I wouldn't have to be putting up with it." He huffed angrily after continuing, obviously pissed off. "Anyway, so can you tell me a little bit about your brother, I assume. How did he die? What was he like personality wise? Was he…" Darlilius squinted down at the circle as he thought about how to phrase his question. "Was he what you would consider a good person?"
Cas heaved a sigh as he thought about how to answer. "He was in a car crash, couldn't survive the injuries. He was, I don't know, cool? What does this have to do with bringing him back to life-" he cut himself off and shook his head. It had probably been explaned. "He was self-assured, I guess, confident. Definitely a good person, yeah. He tried, anyway." He tapped his foot to get out some nervous energy.
Darnilius huffed as he thought over the information he was given, sitting back a little. "So I can bring your brother back, but it's gonna be difficult. I'm gonna have to contact other things and people… But I'd also like to remind you that I'm not a miracle worker." The Demon glanced up at the Human, making eye-contact with him. "Your brother will come back but I can't guarantee that he'll come back forever. Perhaps he'll outlive you. Maybe he'll come as a ghost because of his reason of death. There's a lot of moving parts and I can't really tell you it will work the way you think it will."
(Sorry I have the shittiest memory and keeping spacing lmao)
Cas nodded. "Sure, that's fine. He always thought being a ghost would be rad. Will his soul be…" he hesitated, rewording his sentence. "Like, I'm not sure I necessarily believe in the concept of a soul but in terms of like, who he is as a person. Will that soul remain intact?" He picked at a nail. "I guess if actual souls are a thing too, then will that also be- like, ok, my brother was fairly religious so what this boils down to is, if I bring him back by making a deal with a demon, is his soul gonna end up in hell?"
