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Soulbound: A Demon’s Gambit
By Gwen Udvig
Grade 7
First Place Winner
Beginning.
Lux had been in bed, enjoying chips when she was so rudely ripped from her comfy bed and transported to what looked like a summoning circle. She blinked a little, looking at the room around her. She saw three boys and two girls at each corner of the summoning circle, looking bewildered. On closer inspection, she noticed they all had horns at different stages of development. The girl with porcelain white skin and long golden, wavy locks let out a squeak before the three boys began to cheer.
“Uhhh…. Hi?…” Lux said, unsure what she was doing here, but feeling quite exposed as she wore a pair of shorts and a sports bra.
“You’re a human, right?!” The boy with bronze skin and short lavender hair asked, looking exhilarated.
”Y-yes..?”
The boys began to cheer even louder, along with the other girl of russet skin and beautiful black coils for hair.
“Quite down, kids!” Lux heard a booming voice from above and realized she was in a basement.
The kids quickly shut up, but were still giggling.
“I can’t believe we got that to work!” One whispered to another, looking elated. “Uh… still here…” Lux said, raising her hand and wondering what they had gotten to
work.
They all bristled, turning to her. They seemed so caught up in their excitement they had
forgotten about her.
“Potato!” The boy with lavender hair shouted out. The little ball of fluff ran up to Lux and started licking her face. Potato must have been the dog’s name.
Lux held the dog in her arms and said: “Why in the world did you name this dog potato?
He could have been a Charlie or Floof, but instead you chose Potato?!”
“Because he was digging up potatoes when we first met him!” One of the boys shouts out. He had blue hair with green highlights and olive skin.
They then proceeded to argue for the next few minutes about what good names for dogs
were.
“Hey! I think we’re missing the point here!” The boy with lavender hair finally called out. “We just summoned a human!”
The other blinked at him for a second before turning back to Lux, blinking before a hushed murmur went around the room and they grinned at her.
“What’s your name?!” “How old are you?” “Do humans get sick?! “Do you have pigs?!”
They all turn to look at the boy with deep honey skin and hot pink hair. “What? I like pigs,” he says with a shrug.
“…uh… well, my name’s Lux… I’m 16… yes, humans get sick… and I don’t personally own pigs…” She says, looking at the roomful of demon teenagers who were very excited to have a human here.
“Ficklesticks..” Murmurs the boy with pink hair.
“Um… can I ask how you even summoned me..?” Lux asked, confused since she had always known stories to be about humans summoning demons and not the other way around.
“We found this old book.” The boy with lavender hair said, throwing her a book with yellowing pages and a worn leather cover. She flipped the book open, looking over the pages
“This is a cookbook.” She said, looking up at them while blinking. “I said that we found it, I didn’t say if we knew how to use it.”
“How did you use a cookbook to summon me?” Lux asked, very confused. “No clue,” spoke up the girl with russet skin and coils of black hair.
“But now that you’re here, I want to give you a makeover,” said the golden-haired girl. “Lacy, don’t overwhelm the poor girl,” said the boy with blue hair and green highlights. “Collin…” She whines, “Come on, don’t you want a makeover?!”
Lacy turns to Lux who is still processing what is going on.
“S-sure?…” Lux says, not knowing what she was agreeing to.
A few hours later, Lux now had a full face of makeup and had been forced into a
PVC-like tube dress. She felt uncomfortable and kept fiddling with her hair as the others nodded around her, looking pleased with Lacy’s handiwork.
‘“Okay, I gotta admit, this is probably some of your best work,” the boy with pink hair
said.
“Awwh, thanks, Drake!” Lacy says with a chuckle, smiling at Lux. “What do you think?” Lux hesitated, not wanting to hurt her feelings. “Quite nice.”
Lacy squealed, looking very excited. “I can’t believe I got to give a human a makeover.
This is amazing!”
Lux looked at them, examining their faces and trying to learn more about them from how they held themselves. Drake was definitely the go-getter in the group. He held himself with confidence which made Lux want to follow him. Colin seemed to be the softer one. He still stood up for himself but he seemed to be more quiet about it. Lacy… well she appeared to be the makeup expert here. She made some fashion statements with her outfit but was fully rocking it. The girl with russet skin seemed to be more laid back than the rest of them. She hadn’t spoken as much but was equally excited to see a human. The boy with lavender hair seemed to be Drake’s second-in-command. He didn’t hold himself as much confidence and seemed more frantic.
“Uh… quick question… Do any of you know how to get me home?” Lux asked in an anxious voice.
The group looked around at each other checking if anyone had an answer. They all seemed to have forgotten when summoning someone you need a way to send them back home as well.
“No… Sorry..” Colin said with a weak smile, snuggling Potato. “Wonderful,” Lux said, taking a deep breath as she tried to stay calm.
“We can try and check the cookbook….?” The boy with lavender hair suggested, not knowing what to do in this situation.
“Pretty sure that’s not going to help,” Lux said, still trying to stay calm as her heartbeat
rose.
Potato seemed to sense what was wrong and pranced over to where Lux was standing,
beginning to lick her legs. Lux leaned down and began to pet Potato, her breathing beginning to get heavier as she feared she may never make it home.
“Hang on! I think I may have something!” The boy with lavender hair shouted out, holding up the cookbook again. “Here it says that we have to boil the chicken for thirty minutes!… What’s chicken..?”
“It’s human food ya idiot,” Drake said, smacking the back of the lavender-haired boy’s head lightly. “It ain’t gonna help.”
Lux chuckled softly at the interaction between the two before sighing, scared of what might happen next. Lacy came over and sat next to Lux petting Potato as well. She gently stroked Lux’s back. Lux took a deep breath trying to calm and ground herself while trying to think of a logical solution out of this.
“What is all the ruckus down here?” Lux heard the voice from before that had come from above. They were now climbing down the stairs to the basement. She gulped as she waited for the worst but was surprised to see a man with stubble across his face and fully developed horns. The man blinked as he saw Lux, clearly not expecting a human to be there.
“Dear anarchist, what have you children done?..”
“Uhh… Hey Dad… We may or may not have summoned a human…” Said the boy with blue hair and green highlights.
The man sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as if this was a weekly occurrence. Lux looked closer at the man, noticing his scraggly black hair and deep skin tone. His eyes were shimmering blue that stood out against the deep tones of his body. The man clicked his tongue twice and Potato went running over to him, panting happily.
“Okay, first things first, how did you even summon her?” The man asked, sighing once
again.
The lavender-haired boy held up the cookbook nervously. The man gave an annoyed look.
“You’re telling me that you summoned her with nothing but a cookbook?” “Well I mean… we used candles… and chalk…” Colin spoke up timidly.
The man sighed, walking up to Lux and kneeling to meet her eyes. Looking closer she
could now see a small scar that ran across the edge of his mouth. She wondered what it was from.
“Hey… I know this is probably scary, but we’re gonna get you home.” The man spoke softly to Lux.
“Not if my girlfriend has anything to say about it!” The russet-skinned girl said with a
snort.
The man rolled his azure sky-blue eyes that looked tired.
“We know Lacy loves newcomers, Abel. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to help this
girl get home.”
Abel huffed leaning back on the comfortable and worn-out maroon couch.
Lux looked between them and could feel a sort of father-and-daughter bond even though they weren’t related. This man was a sort of father to all the kids who were there.
“I wanna get her home..” Lacy muttered softly, looking down at her hands as she fiddled with strands of her hair.
Lux stayed silent, feeling like an intruder in the middle of this moment between them all.
She wondered if she would ever feel this kind of connection with someone. “POTATO! NO!”
Lux startled as the floofy dog jumped at her again, making her fall back onto the floor as she laughed. Potato licked her face ferociously, as if not wanting her to leave just yet.
It took both Drake and Colin to get Potato off Lux before she could sit up again. It was quite a sight to see, two teenage demons struggling to pull a tiny fluffy dog off of a human girl.
The full-grown demon stood there with a smirk on his face as he watched the scene go down, chuckling softly as he saw the boys struggling. He spoke soon after they got the dog off of her.
“Alright to, be able to get you back, I’m going to need to first know where you live.” He said in a calming voice.
“Uh… Sabinsville, Pennsylvania…” Lux said, petting Potato as they tried to overcome her again.
“Good. Drake, grab the incense. Abel, grab the summoning stones.” The man said, turning around and commanding the children to go grab items.
Lux watched with a small bit of awe as they both made the items float over and into their hands before handing them over to the man.
“And now…” The man murmured, taking the incense and lighting it with a flick of his finger as flame erupted from it. He grabbed an incense holder and placed the stick inside, letting the smoke spread around the room. He grabbed the summoning stones next, grabbing a cloth out of his back pocket and cleansing them before placing them in a circle around Lux.
“I’m gonna need you to think hard about your home, alright?” The man nodded at Lux, waiting for her response. Once she had nodded back, the man began to chant softly, moving his hand around in a circle above her head.
She closed her eyes and thought about her home. She thought about the way the fireplace roared when it was cold and snowy outside. She thought about when she would sit on the couch watching dramas with her mother. She thought about how comfortable her cramped room was. She thought about her bird parakeet chirping away and repeating the words she had said so many times to them. She thought about Tuesday mornings, and how her dad made pancakes every morning on those days. She thought about how on Saturday mornings she would make breakfast with her mother, sneaking scraps for her parakeet.
Lux could feel her body slowly rising from the ground. She was excited to get back home. That’s when she felt the ball of floof jumping to her arms. Her eyes snapped open and she saw Potato.
“Oh no.” She said as she got transported back to her house.
This was a problem. How was she supposed to get the dog back to them? She sat there, potato in her arms as she stared at them, unsure what to do. The fluffer of a pupper stared back up at her, their little demon wings flapping as he panted.
“Lux, sweetie, is that you?” Lux could hear the voice of her mother calling for her from the kitchen. She blinked slightly, still processing what was going on before answering.
“Y-yeah!” She called back to her mother, Potatoe still in her arms. She gulped. “U-Um… Mom, I forgot to grab something, I’m gonna head out…!”
Lux then quickly bolted out the door, leaving no time for her mother to answer as she stuffed Potato under her jacket, running to the nearest convenience store. She quickly ran into the candle aisle, grabbing the cheapest ones she could find and paying for them at the counter. She sprinted home, galloping up the stairs and swinging into her room. She grabbed the candles out of the bag, unstuffing Potato from her jacket. She hurriedly arranged the candles in a formation, praying it would work. She lit them up and placed Potato in the middle, her expression frantic. She waited for something to happen, and the gods answered her prayers. under the formation of the candles, a portal opened, letting Potato sink through. She breathed a sigh of relief, seeing in the portal that it was the same basement she had been in just a few minutes ago. She saw the demons blink as Potato fell through what must have been the ceiling for them. She chuckled softly, waving through the portal to them and they waved back. The portal started to slowly close, and Lux let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding. The dog had been returned, and now everything was set in its right place.
That was, of course, because she didn’t see the small tuft of fur the dog had left. “BORK!”