"Gnil zgea hrl vgmwl fmsc he hrl bnwnjv!"

Nothing happened except blinding pain that temporarily caused everything in the room to blur white. Once the flash of white light was gone, it was replaced by a loud thudding in Caleb's ears. It sounded like thunder, someone in the sky beating a humongous war drum, but all contained in his head. He clutched his ears and screwed his eyes shut tight, crying out in pain, fighting off the urge to actually cry. 

The thudding eventually lessened after several minutes, replaced by the high pitched whine of tinnitus. Caleb hadn't even been aware that he had doubled over on the ground, forehead to the floor. As the tinnitus swelled and then was ebbing, he could hear a faint pat pat pat pat pat sound. 

Caleb didn't move from his kneeling, doubled-over position on the floor for quite some time. His nose was running—had he been crying? He didn't even know, so blindsided by how horrible that attempt had gone. Well, it was now his sixth attempt. He was frustrated, exhausted; it had never taken him this many tries and, while doing the spell incorrectly had always caused him pain, it was nothing like that. 

Caleb sniffed and gagged. Getting on his hands and knees, he slowly opened his eyes. It wasn't snot dripping down his nose—it was blood. The amount alarmed him immediately, a sizeable pool beneath him. He wiped at his face, smearing blood everywhere. 

"Of fuck," he said, stumbling to his feet. "Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck me!" 

He went behind the bar, grabbed a towel, and smashed it to his nose. He felt light headed and sick; he tried to reason through his panic if it was from the failed summon or from the blood loss, but truthfully he didn't know. The amount of blood was insane; could someone bleed to death from bleeding out their nose? He had never broken his nose, nor had seen anyone with a broken nose; Caleb knew that it produced a lot of blood when that happened. Was this comparable? 

He sat at the bar, shaking in fear. Getting a slightly bloody nose had been an inconvenience. This? This was petrifying. This was a whole new level. And the worst of it was the fact he had no one to talk to. 

Caleb chuckled at himself. Seriously, what could he do? Hello, 911? I was wondering how much bloodloss is acceptable while trying to summon your dead boyfriend, and at what amount should you be concerned?

"This is so fucking stupid," Caleb growled to himself. 

The book mentioned nothing about what he was experiencing. It said nothing regarding Liam's discomfort while resurrected, nothing of nosebleeds, headaches, and the feeling of zip-ties being ripped out of chests. Perhaps he had been foolish to expect it to. Maybe he was expecting too much from it, like expecting a dictionary to have pictures next to the definitions. 

Caleb did not want to give up. As his nose slowed its red flow, and then stopped, he had a determination burning inside of him. If he failed now, he would stop and call it a night. 

Assuming I'm not dead from effort. 

"The number seven is supposed to be spiritually significant," Caleb mumbled, re-lighting the candles that had gone out. "Maybe that'll help." 

Help. 

Caleb paused, standing over the puddle of blood shimmering in the flickering light. There were different parts of the demonic book. He had used it for the sole purpose of summoning, but there were plenty of other spells in there. A lot of them required blood. 

Bending down, Caleb dipped his first two fingertips into the puddle. Several times he did this, making a secondary circle around himself. He had no idea if this blood circle should be inside the chalk or out, but he put it within, closer to him. There was some additional stress, because Caleb couldn't help but fear if by doing this it would actually make things worse. 

How could things be worse? Caleb thought bitterly, dipping his fingers in a final time before running them along the worn wooden planks of the floor. The love of my life is dead, I feel half-dead from exerting myself, tonight hasn't gone as planned—

"Just fuck everything," Caleb said before sitting down in the circle. He then forced himself calm, closed his eyes, took several deep, slow breaths, and then—

"Gnil zgea hrl vgmwl fmsc he hrl bnwnjv." 

It felt like pleasant electricity rippled through his body, a warmth, a deep awareness of everything. For once, everything felt pleasant, a firm but gentle pressure on his chest. Caleb sat like that, eyes closed, until Liam's voice spoke. 

"Boo."

Caleb opened his eyes to find Liam before him, grinning. Whatever warmth Caleb had felt disappeared like it hadn't been there are all. 

"Took you long enough."

"I'm here now…" Liam trailed off, noticing the front of Caleb's now-ruined shirt, and the fact his face was smeared in blood. Liam's eyes became even larger when he noticed his blood-covered hands. Alarmed, he grabbed both Caleb's hands, palms up, in concern. "Holy shit, Caleb—!" 

"It's alright," Caleb replied gruffly. He tried to move his hands away, but Liam held on tighter. 

"Whose blood is this?" Liam said, the panic evident in his voice that was becoming higher. 

"Mine."

Liam's head snapped up, looking absolutely horrified. "Yours?! Caleb, what happened—" 

Caleb shook his head, this time ripping his hands out of Liam's grasp. "It doesn't matter. Isn't that what you always say?" 

The look of fear lessened slightly, Liam frowning. "Babe, it does matter. That's a lot of blood."

Caleb looked at his own hands and clicked his tongue. "Yeah, I guess it is, isn't it."

"C'mon," Liam said gently then, taking Caleb by the shoulders and leading him to the large sink. "Let's clean you up."

Caleb let Liam do it for him. Liam turned on the water, feeling it. He then took the other man's hands and put them under the flow. 

"Fuck, Liam! That's frigid!" 

Liam frowned and looked worried. "Sorry… I guess—I guess I'm sensitive to heat? It felt warm to me."

Scowling, Caleb adjusted the temperature of the water and began to wash his hands. It was disgusting; the faucet now had a bloody handprint on it, and his sleeves were getting wet. Without speaking, Liam gently rolled up Caleb's sleeves. Once that was done, Liam took the bar of soap, handing it to Caleb. 

Still they didn't speak. Liam watched as the bar of soap went from reddish-brown, to pink, and then finally white again. When that was done, Liam took the soap back, grabbed another towel from behind the bar, and ran it under the water. He flinched, making a quick job of it. When he went to start cleaning Caleb's face, the other man jerked away. Shooting a glare, Caleb took the wet towel, turned off the water, and stalked off toward the center of the bar. 

Liam came around. Caleb stood, scrubbing at his face, which was doing little besides smearing it further. After a point, Liam couldn't take it anymore, especially once Caleb growled.

"Can I help you? Please?"

"Oh, now you want to help me?" 

Liam furrowed his brow. "I always have wanted to help you, Caleb."

"Well, you haven't been very helpful in figuring out who killed you, so!" 

Liam didn't reply. 

Caleb gave a short snap of a sigh, rolled his eyes, and then held out the bloodied towel. Liam walked over and began to clean the other's face. 

"So what happened?" Liam asked gently. "You're in an awful mood."

"No shit?" 

Liam paused. "I'm going to ignore that. So, what's with all the blood?" 

"What took you so long?" Caleb snapped. "To appear, I mean." 

Liam looked thoughtful. "It's not like I can hear you or something. That's not really how it works?" he replied in a reproachful manner.

"Really? So what, you just—" Caleb waved his hand when words failed him momentarily. "Appear?" 

"Yes," Liam replied, an edge of annoyance cutting into the word. 

"Well I've been trying to summon you for an hour now."

"An hour?!" 

"It took me seven fucking tries." 

"Babe!" Liam stopped cleaning his face, looking horrified again. "You shouldn't have done that! You should've stopped! Is that what's with all the blood?" 

Caleb snatched the messy towel out of the other man's hand, stalking towards the sink. "What do you think, Sherlock?" 

"I'm not the one who told you to be an idiot and push yourself to the point of having a hemorrhage out your nose, so I'd love it if you stopped being rude to me now." 

"Oh, so I'm an idiot now?" Caleb threw the towel in the sink. 

"You're acting like a brute." 

Caleb came back around. "Gee thanks."

Liam tisked, rolling his eyes. "I just meant that you shouldn't push yourself like that!" 

"Who are you to tell me what I should and shouldn't do?!" 

"Caleb—what—what's wrong with you today?" 

"I'm trying to figure something out here, and you're just taking your sweet ass time coming to me! What's wrong with you?" 

Liam looked around, genuinely bewildered, hand at his chest. He looked back at Caleb. "Excuse me?" 

Caleb threw his hands into the air. "Oh cut the theatrics! Everything is always so dramatic with you—" 

Liam scrunched his brow. "What? What're you talking about?" 

Caleb imitated him in an exaggerated fashion, dramatically putting his hand to his chest, flinging himself to look around the bar, before mocking Liam in a high pitched voice. "Excuse me?" 

Liam's jaw dropped. "Wow, if you're going to be a fucking prick right now, why am I even here?" 

"Because I need you!" 

Liam laughed in the cruelest manner. "Really? Because you certainly aren't making me feel welcome right now! In fact, I don't think you need me at all!" 

"What's that supposed to mean?" 

"You don't actually give a flying fuck about what happened to me, or how I died!" Liam ranted now, and Caleb admittedly couldn't remember the last time they had fought to the point of screaming at one another. "You're just on a fucking power trip! You have to know what happened because you always have to be right about everything, because you're a control freak and you literally can't live without knowing everything. This is just all a fucking game to you!" 

"It's not a game to me!" Caleb screamed right back. "It's never been a fucking game to me! I've poured my heart, and my blood, and my soul into this—" 

Liam gave another cruel laugh. "What the fuck do you know about souls, except how to toy with them?" 

"Do not interrupt me—" 

"Or what? You'll dispel me again? Ooo, I'm so scared. At this point I'd take it! I sure as shit didn't want to be brought back just to have a fucking argument!" 

"See, you don't care! You just said it yourself!" 

Liam moaned, clutching at his head. "Yes I do—" 

"Then why is it every time you're here, you're moaning and going on about, 'I want to go home', and 'none of this matters' —" 

"Because it doesn't!" Liam screamed so loudly his voice seemed to become the air around them. 

"What doesn't matter?" Caleb screamed. 

"None of this!" Liam shrieked. 

"None of what, Liam? What? I don't understand you, I can never understand you—" 

"THIS."

Liam grabbed Caleb's hand. There seemed to be an immediate explosion that went on forever, like the universe was spreading out and creating everything again. It was blinding and painfully beautiful. Prismatic beams flew out from the white sunburst, shifted, radiantly yet silently moving. It was like being in a kaleidoscope, the white light and rainbows slowly turning over and over again. 

Caleb didn't know how long this went on for. Time seemed to stretch out for an infinity, and yet the experience seemed over in an instant all at once. It was both long and short, a jarring dichotomy that Caleb simply couldn't comprehend. Then, it all ended, with the lovely sound of Tibetan singing bowls. The sound was like a clarion, louder and louder until it was almost too loud—

And then it stopped. 

And they were in the bar, but it wasn't the bar. The color of everything was washed out, strangely opaque, and everything solid had a faintly glowing blue line to show its edges and corners. Everything seemed electric, humming and vibrating. Caleb, stunned, scanned the room. He could see through the walls. 

The people outside looked strange, almost frightening. They were a soft yellow, but glowing, with great spears of light emanating seemingly at random from their body. There was no definitive shape, just a strange glob of humanoid-shaped light. 

Caleb took a step forward, and then looked down at his own arm; he looked more like his surroundings, blue with defined lines, not the glowing beings he could see through the walls. When he looked back outside he saw that the plants were a more greenish hue, but had the same profile as the buildings; outlined and defined. However, Caleb could also see the root systems, and he was startled when, just by thinking, he could see all the different bugs in the ground. They were all different shades of browns, and reds, and purples, and all faintly glowing.

And something magnificent caught the corner of Caleb's eye, and he caught it quick enough to know it was a bird. And then another passed, and another. Amazed, Caleb ran to the window, dragging Liam (who had not let go of his hand) with. Then, as he stared at the blue glowing birds, he saw that the sky was everything, and infinite. 

Caleb cried at the sheer beauty of everything. 

Then Liam let go of his hand. 

Caleb felt as though he were a stone in a slingshot. The slingshot had been pointed at his chest, and when it hit there was a snap. Caleb could feel himself spread back into his body, but it wasn't comfortable. It wasn't comfortable at all. He felt confined within his own skin, like he needed to have a good stretch but couldn't. While he had never been in one, he felt restrained, in a straight jacket. 

The jarring sensation of going from such beauty to grimy reality was so sudden Caleb gasped and stumbled. Liam's hand shot out to steady him, but instead Caleb jerked himself and continued to stumble, eyes huge. He roughly came into contact with the bar. 

"Don't touch me!" 

Caleb's vision swam a moment. They really had walked to the window, the summoning circle left behind. Caleb clung to the bar for support, panting. Still his eyes were fixated on Liam's stretched out hand. 

"What," Caleb panted, finally finding his voice once more. "What the fuck was that?" 

Liam let his arm fall to his side. He looked to be in a much more serene state of panic. A single, crystalline tear splashed onto Liam's cheek. He shrugged helplessly. "I…I'm sorry."

"What was that?" 

Liam smiled sadly. "See? I told you. Nothing matters."

Liam disappeared.