PROBABLY NOT THE SUMMER OF 2018 ANYMORE

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It was past ten and Theodore was still waiting.

He'd rushed back from dinner with colleagues, having given them some generic excuse to escape early, just so he would have enough time to set up before George arrived. To do the ritual correctly, it was simply essential to have everything prepared and ready in advance.

So, upon returning home full of excitement, Theodore had immediately arranged everything on the coffee table and had carefully drawn out all the symbols according to their previous plans.

However, as time passed and nobody arrived at the door, this initial excitement had turned into restlessness, and that restlessness had then turned into exasperation.

What followed were about a dozen angry phone calls, of course to no avail whatsoever. The only notable achievement Theodore had managed was to irritate his friend's house maid so much, she wouldn't even pick up the phone anymore.

With their window of opportunity being so small, Theodore had soon, understandably, become anxious. His anticipation and curiosity may have also been utterly unbearable at that point. So, understandably, Theodore may have begun rehearsing the incantation spell a couple of times and may have also played around with the altar a couple of more times. All in preparation of course for when they did the real thing together later. (The altar in question being formerly known as the coffee table.)

Eventually though, the necessary 'golden hour' passed and Theodore's friend was nowhere to be seen. The real ritual would have to be post-poned until the moon was in the right phase again.

But this had already been two hours ago.

As far as Theodore knew, his friend had been equally eager to try out their research, so this was very out of character. After all, they had been planning this for days.

Ergo, Theodore was not really ready to give up and patiently continued to wait for George. At least as patiently as he could. Sitting alone in the dark, he was half-heartedly rifling through a newspaper while simultaneously coming up with all sorts of ways to make his friend pay for it later.

It may have been slightly more reminiscent of a predator awaiting his prey than someone peacefully reading the newspaper.

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Finally, after literal hours of waiting, Theodore felt another presence enter the room. Slightly odd since he had neither heard the front door open nor close, but nevertheless he was happy they'd finally showed up.

Despite the long wait, he was secretly quite glad his friend hadn't completely forgotten about him. Of course, that didn't mean this whole thing would go unpunished. Not a chance. Theodore was simply too good at holding grudges for that. Softly luring in his prey instead of going straight for the kill, Theodore calmly greeted his unsuspecting friend from behind the newspaper,

"Hmmmm.... So, you finally came." he murmured.

What followed was complete and utter silence.

He had expected a lot of things, a groveling apology perhaps or just a simple explanation as to why it had taken him some 4 hours to show up, but all he got was silence.

It was a bit strange.

Giving in after a whole minute of pretending to be completely indifferent, Theodore slowly lowered his newspaper to fully acknowledge the arrival of the unpunctual traitor.

In fact, the traitor in question had indeed just walked in the front door, but the eyes Theodore met were very much not his.

Standing only a few feet away, an unfamiliar woman blankly stared right back at him.

She said something, but by the time Theodore registered that she was speaking, it was already too late. Her eyes rolled back and he watched her knees buckle, before her entire body tipped forward. He was barely able to lift his feet, when her head hit the hard-wooden floor right in front of him.

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