Sehun feels sick as he stares at the ritual knife. His heart beats fast, his chest tightens, his stomach is heavy. He sits on the stairs, watching the front door, waiting. Kai and Chanyeol wait upstairs; but they both probably have eyes on him. When Kris arrives, the punk can feel it. It causes him to walk over and stand beside the basement door. As he thought, the man opens the door, smiling wolfishly. “Sehun, how are you?” he asks as soon as he’s close enough to be heard. 

“Nervous,” he admits. “My basement is ready.”

“You have everything?”

“Yes,” he says, opening the door for him.

Kris hums as he walks first. As soon as he’s downstairs, he takes a slow look around. Sehun joins him but he stays on the stairs. “Rose petals, good,” he says, motioning to the bowl in the middle of the circle. “It’s ironic that Kai likes such a sweet-smelling thing and yet he’s a monster.”

“You use dead roses to be summoned.”

“Dead roses don’t hide what they are in nature,” Kris points out. “Isn’t it so horrible to manipulate such fascinating creatures like humans?”

“Yes,” Sehun stares at the back of his dead. “It is.”

Kris steps under the stairs, using the darkness to slightly obscure him. “Let us start then, yes? Call for Kai.”

Sehun stares at Kris for a moment before reaching the bottom of the stairs. He takes a deep breath. “Kai?” he calls out. “Kai, can you come help me?! I’m in the basement!” The punk backs up when he hears footsteps above.

“Sehun?” Kai responds. “Are you alright?”

Sehun glances at Kris, who shakes his head. “N-no,” He lies. “I...I fell, I’m hurt!”

His heart feels like it’s going to burst out of his chest. He quickly gets to his spot, sitting down now. As soon as the demon shows his face, he furrows his brows and looks around .”Sehun?”

The punk lets out a gasp when Kris makes his move, launching from his hiding spot. He grabs Kai’s throat,but the punk looks away. With the other demon’s back turned, Sehun quickly pulls the dead rose petals from his pocket and replaces the fresh roses with them. He tucks them under the rest of the ingredients to hide it. “Cast the spell!” Kris calls out, now!”

“O-okay!” Sehun nods quickly. He glances at Kai. He begins to panic at the seemingly unconscious man. But he knows, so he tries to push it away.

“Stop feeling so damn anxious and do your thing!”

“I’m trying!” Sehun snaps, quickly working with his things. He grabs his book and moves it to the right page. As Kai expected, Kris had dragged the demon over to the other side of the room; working on tightly tying him up. His hands shake while he works hurriedly. Sehun wastes no time in slicing his hand, letting the blood drip into the bowl. He starts to mix and smash it all together with a mortar and pestle.
 

“Stop!” Kris suddenly shouts. The punk does stop, and swallows hard, feeling sweat drip down his face. He grimaces when the man tightly grabs his shoulder and digs his fingers into him. “What...is that?”

“T-the...the ingredients.”

“No…” Kris laughs dryly. He slowly kneels down, meeting Sehun’s eyes. “You think I’m stupid, don’t you?”

“No, of course not,” The punk clears his throat. “I’m...doing the spell, like you asked me too.”

“I knew it. I should have known the second I smelled this disgusting pig’s scent on you,” he pauses. “You replaced those roses with dead ones…”

“N-no, I-”

“Shut up!” The man snarls. He grabs Sehun by the shirt, easily lifting him off the ground. “I should’ve known better than to use a ing human!” Sehun lets out a cry when he’s thrown; hitting the wall and landing hard on the floor. He groans and rolls onto his back, cursing under his breath.

“W-wait,” He mumbles. 

“What?!”

“I…” His heart beats faster than before and all of him shakes. “I...I forgot cinnamon!”

Kris furrows his brows. “You what?”

Sehun flinches at the sound of the stair door bursting open, practically yanked off its hinges. Black smoke appears, rolling down and into the room. Kris grunts as Chanyeol appears and kicks him hard in the chest. “!” He says but before long, he’s back on his feet. Sehun stays on his stomach, trying to make himself smaller as he crawls over to Kai. the demon quickly shakes his head and motions to the circle. Looking at what he’s looking at, Sehun instead heads over to the ritual bowl. Chanyeol and Kris take turns hitting each other, snarling with pure black eyes and magic sparking. Snatching the bowl, he stays low on the floor and backs up into a corner; as far away from the fighting as possibly. He tries to quickly smash all of the things together, preparing. 

It doesn’t seem to take Kris long to take Chanyeol out. Regardless of the fact that he’s not a fighter, Chanyeol seemed to have been able to hold him off for a minute or so. He jumps when the man’s head snaps toward Sehun; horrible, dark eyes staring at him. “You,” he growls quietly. Kris goes to the Sehun with quick strides. But before he can put his hands on the punk, he’s stopped by a hard punch connecting with the man’s head. Kai glances at Sehun as well, now on his feet. He tosses the ropes to the side and gets into his stance. 

“Go!” The demon shouts out. The punk scrambles to his feet, grabbing the ritual knife before he goes; slipping it into his jacket. He manages to dodge out of Kris’ grasps, almost tripping on his way up the stairs. He pants heavily as he runs. Dread fills him when he hears loud banging behind him; as if Kris is right behind him. He turns and begins to head up the other stairs, leading up to the second floor. Sehun slides onto his bedroom, shutting the door and locking it. Setting the bowl down, he turns and rubs his fingers over his fresh cut on his hand. It’s sloppy and it won’t hold him for long. But he draws the sigil Kai had taught him, hoping to ward him off from entering for a second. Sehun flinches when there's a slamming on his door, causing him to stumble back. Panting, his chest heaves up and down as he grabs onto the bowl. He backs up to his desk and continues his work. Once it’s all mixed together, Sehun lights a match and tosses it in. Over the fire, he begins to mumble the latin words under his breath, shutting his eyes tightly as he does so. The heat and banging makes it hard to focus. 

“Sehun!” Kris shouts, his voice deep, dark, and distorted. It sends shivers down Sehun’s spine, dread and fear to his core. The punk shields his face  when his bedroom door is broken and shattered; splinters of wood flying out. He purposefully drops the bowl, causing it to crash; pieces of glass cutting Sehun’s bare feet. He tries to grab onto something when Kris grips him by the throat. The man looks down at the scattered ingredients and laughs. “Oops.” Sehun grabs onto the man’s arm tightly, scratching at him as he struggles. “Looks like you cut yourself,” he taunts. “So much blood...but I don’t think there’s enough.”

Sehun lets out a loud scream when he’s thrown through his window; glass digs deep inside of him. He harshly hits the tree on the way down, his head slamming against a large branch. Horrible excruciating pain overwhelms him when he lands on his left arm. A horrible snap and crunching sound follows it. His mouth falls open, the pain making him sick, dizzy, a bit faint. He rolls onto his back, gagging. “!” He whimpers. He looks over at his arm and swallows hard. “K...Kai!” He tries to call out. When he hears nothing, he uses the tree to help himself stand. His head is pounding as blood runs down his face. The punk’s legs feel weak, shaky. Sehun furrows his brows, using his right arm, his good arm, to slowly reach into his jacket. He swallows hard when he pulls out the ritual knife. his lips, he looks around. “Piece of ,” He pants. The punk quickly limps over to the front door, quiet as he opens it. He’s careful to close it, keep the knife to his chest. Breathing is hard but he ignores it; that and more blood dripping down several cuts on his body. Deep ones, pieces impeded inside. It’s so hard to concentrate. There's sounds of a struggle upstairs. Shutting his eyes momentarily, he pushes himself up the stairs. It’s slow and he has to stop once or twice. Once making it up, he gently falls against the wall next to his bedroom.

When he looks inside, the fight between the two demons continues. Both of them bloody with scratches and what seems like stab wounds; luckily not too deep. Gripping the hilt of his knife tightly, Sehun waits for a good time to strike. He glances around the room, his eyes stopping at the remains of the ingredients still burning. Sehun widens his eyes and covers his mouth when the man rears back his arm, driving a long, sword-like weapon through Kai; pinning him to the wall. The demon grabs onto the blade and groans. But for as much as he tries to yank it out, he seems unable to; weakened by their fight.

“I may not be able to banish you,” Kris chuckles. Sehun makes eye contact with Kai, swallowing hard and nodding. The demon opens his mouth to speak but seems unable to, hitting the back of his head against the wall. As quietly as he can, the punk’s footsteps are slow and careful, his eyes locked on the man. Kris seems to summon another blade in his hand. “But I can still kill you!” Sehun cries out, running and launching himself onto Kris; gripping the knife with both hands, despite the agonizing pain in his arm. He can feel the knife go through, penetrating through the back, into the ribs. Kris stares forward for a moment before slowly turning as Sehun lets go and quickly backs up. He stares with wide eyes, unsure what to do. He prepares himself as he grabs his own pocket knife, holding it out in front of him protectively. Kris looks down at the burning ingredients, a sudden, deep laughter emanating from him. “You...you planned that,” He whispers. The weapons drop out of his hands, disappearing into smoke. “You clever boy, Sehun. You...clever boy.” Sehun watches in shock as a tear through the air appears, darkness leaking from inside. The darkness sprouts out from inside and wraps it’s tendrils tightly around Kris; his arms, hands, wrists, neck, legs. Even around his eyes, like a blindfold. 

Sehun gasps and falls back when there’s a strong burst of wind as Kris is pulled inside. But as quickly as it seems to come and with the blink of an eye, it’s gone, leaving no traces of the man. It’s almost as if he wasn’t there at all. Kai grunts as the sword disappears too, causing him to fall to his knees. The brief silence is overwhelming. “Is…” he shutters. “Is he gone?”

“Yeah,” Kai groans, raising up to his feet. “He’s gone.” The demon limps over to Sehun, quickly checking his wounds. “Are you alright?”

 “My...my arm,” He whispers.

“Yeah, I think it’s broken,” He sighs. Kai frowns and touches his shoulder gently. “I...I used too much power, I won’t be able to heal it.”

“It’s fine,” Sehun laughs but it just makes his ribs hurt. “I’ll look super hot in a sling. Maybe I’ll get it fitted with studs.”

Kai helps Sehun up, trying to support him as best as he can. “Interesting time to joke,” He mutters and they both limps out. “We should probably check on Chanyeol. But, from what i’ve seen, all he probably has is some minor scrapes and bruises,” He pauses. “And quite possibly a conconution.”

“Baekhyun is gonna kill us.”

“No,” the demon argues. “He’ll forgive you when he sees how hurt you got,” He helps Sehun down the stairs of the basement. “Chanyeol can heal himself without any issues; but I imagine he usd up much of his own power too.” As they expected, Chanyeol lies on the floor, unconscious. Sehun stares at the sleeping demon. He looks peaceful despite the bruises and cuts.

“Kai…” He whispers but Kai just shakes his head as he helps Chanyeol onto the couch, to be more comfortable. 

“We’ll talk about it...later, Sehun.”

“But what about my bedroom? My mom will see it and-”

“Your mother is away tonight and tomorrow, remember? Chanyeol and I will fix it tomorrow.”

“B-but…”

Kai wraps an arm around Sehun’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s...let’s...get you to the hospital.”

Sehun sniffs. He’s tired, hurt, confused. “O-okay…”

Sehun refuses to explain to the doctor how he hurt himself, regardless of how much he asks. The doctor asks him if he’s being abused, he says no. Deciding he’s sick of the questions, he decides to say it and tell them he got into a fight but that’s it. Kai, after the punk’s aggressive pushing, allowed himself to be patched up as well.

He looks up, smiling weakly when Kai enters the room. “Hey,” He greets. 

“Hey back,” The demon chuckles wearily. He seems to observe Sehun closely, accessing the damage.

“I’m fine, Kai.”

“He hurt you…”

“All he did was...throw me against a wall and out the window,” He jokes. “So what’s a broken arm, huh? At least I wasn’t impaled and pinned to my wall.”

“The glass, though...how many stitches did you need?”

“I only had four cuts that needed stitches, Kai,” He says, motioning to his broken arm. “I’m fine, seriously. What about you?”

“I let that stupid doctor gives me stitches as well; though, they will heal in a couple hours.”

“Meanwhile, mine will probably take abbbouutt ten days.”

“I’m sorry…”

Sehun forces a smile and shrugs. “At least you can go home now…”

There’s an unreadable expression on his face. “Yes...I…we can do that whenever you feel up for it.”

The punk swallows hard. “We can do It tomorrow,” He mumbles. There’s no need to drag it on and hurt himself any longer than he has to. Tonight confirmed it. Sehun must be snake-bitten.

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