Invoke

   The sun was about to set and Steve was still in his office working on a new project called "Invoke". He worked for a gaming company which created alternate reality games for people that wanted to play out dreams they never went for. The point of the game was to make it seem as real as possible. More and more clients kept asking for a world full of magic, demons and ghosts. Steve's job was to research the information and mimic these elements. For weeks he read through sorcery, witchcraft and demons. He was in the processes of moving on to another subject in his list when he received the phone call from his boss; the deadline was pushed forward because statistics showed competitors were  also working on similar projects and a game introduced second was not likely to survive. Steve kept going on with his research and started cutting corners where instead of changing the entire name of a demon he changed the first letter, and instead of changing the entire chant, he cut off a few sentences. In it was a very old incantation which was found in a diary of a nine year old child who had passed away of unknown causes. She was found in the playground still sitting in the swing. Her body was frozen and her eyes were still looking up at the sky. Recesses was over and when the teacher walked over to grab her, after calling out to her several times before, she noticed the girl was very still. In her hand was the diary and in her other hand a ladybug. Her parents had uploaded her diary on the internet to preserve her memories in case of a fire or tragedy. Steve took a few sentence and made minor changes.

    The following few weeks he worked with the programmer and the designers to see what was plausible  The game was coming together and it looked very promising. During one of the meetings the developers announced that the game was also going to be available in a new type of product and it was going to require a little more of the enchanting and characters. Steve felt he had already brought in over 200 characters for the game and even though it would be just a game, the chanting was risky, but he kept quite. He took his assignment and did a little more research, but this time he had to go to bookstores and libraries for more information. He found this old place right outside of Sacramento. It was something call D booksale right by the North Fork American River. The place was lonely not far from the water. Steve browsed and found what he was looking for "Children of the dark that don't sleep or rest; incantations and recipes, unknown author." He went to purchase it and the clerk hesitated for a bit. She was about 60 and was wearing dark glasses. She then said, "I've been working at this book store for many years and I recognize ever book by smell, sound and texture. They leave a scent you know" and she leans in closer, "The books with the worst history. Now I don't expect you to believe an old blind lady. You have a nice day now." Steve was reaching for his wallet as she went on about her business. "your money is no good here, go on now, have a nice day." The lady just walk away while she hummed. Steve unsure of what to do stood there for a few more minutes and then left with the book. 

   He read through the book twice to get better understanding of the material. During his second time reading it over, he thought of what the old lady said, " the books with the worst history." what did she mean he said out loud. He grabbed the book and pulled it closer to him, he held it there for a moment as he thought to himself, "this is crazy.  what the hell, It's not real." He took a sniff to clear his curiosity. It was faint at first and so he sniffed a few more times like a hound sniffing out the fox. Finally it hit him like lightning, the smell was strong, It smelled rotten and humid. It was as if someone died in the room and was their for days. Steve opened the doors and windows. He looked at the book and stared at it. He then said " this is insane, it just my mind playing tricks on me." He went into the kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee. As he was drinking his coffee he heard typing in his office. He walked to his room and nothing was there. His screen was on the page with the incantation of the child. Steve exit out of the screen and called it a night. 

   The next couple of days he created more characters based on the book he read and then retyped a few chants. He went on with his normal routine which consisted of editing and changing  a few more minor details. The presentation for the new product came out. All of the developers, researchers and illustrators were excited. Matthew, one of the main leaders, was standing in front of the room with a screen. He started off by saying 

   

  "Welcome everyone, I'm so glad you all can be a part of this. Today we are going to introduce you to the new way of gaming. Everyone is so obsessed with 3D affects and alternate reality that they want more! Well what are we going to give them? More! We came up with the new MotionRF. We all know what motion stands for right, well the R stands for Reality and the F stands for Fiction. We bring these two together in one and we have a new paradigm. A world that allows us to use all our senses. We have been working with neuro-scientists and biologists to make this happen. Take a look at this," he then lifts up these circles that you mainly see in hospitals which doctors stick on the body, "these are micro sensors, every player receives  five, two are meant for you face, they are place on the outside corners of your eyes. The third goes right behind your neck and the final two go on your wrist below your palms. Each of these things recognizes the body part and pinches it lightly while inserting electrical impulses into your body. They allow you to see and feel the setting its programmed to show you by the main drive. By the end of the game you feel like you were actually there because the electrical impulses make you muscles contract and will feel slightly fatigue. To begin the game, just set your settings and to exit tap twice on your wrist or three times to pause. You can also communicate with someone outside the game when you place your hands outside the corners of your eyes. Allow us to demonstrate. " 

  Matthew signaled a guy to come forward, it was Bryan the animator. Matthew asked him to sit down and placed the round objects on the guy. He then said " you have to be in a rested position of course. We don't want anyone falling." As he started the game, "Invoke." The game started with a map of the world, It had the option of picking a name of which they chose "the summoner." Then it went on to picking the type level before moving on to location. Bryan was still mobile during this. The game had two goals, to send evil back or to bring the evil. They picked bring the evil to the world and picked Salem Massachusetts as the location. While it started to load it said, "please maintain in a seated position, the game is about to commence."  On the screen you could see the player which looked a lot like Bryan sitting down. Then you heard him say in the game, "Do I start?" but no words came out of his body. The room was amazed. Bryan began to walk and found himself in front of a house. The house was empty from the looks of it. It had a few broken windows, weeds on the yard and the trees looked dead. He went inside the unlighted building. There he found a few books of incantations and materials. He picked up a small book with a broken locket and started to read it out loud.

"Es través evocar mayores poderes espirituales los ritos de la Magia de los seres humanos llegan verdadera realización de lo que son en esencia: las entidades espirituales eternos, Yo invoco, Yo invoco, Yo invoco, Yo invoco a que vengas..." 

Then an entity of a child appeared, the child stood there quite. She was wearing a school uniform and was looking at the opposite way. There was something small and red crawling on her dress, it was a lady bug. Bryan then tried to communicate with her. "Do you have a name? who are you?" he asked. She stood still and quite. He then placed the book down and looked for a different incantation book. He saw this really old looking book with the title of "Children of the dark that don't sleep or rest; incantations and recipes, by F.Angel." He flipped through a few pages and found a summoning spell of some sort. He began to read it out loud to the child. He wanted her to respond to her questions, but when he was done she was still quite. He walk closer to her to get a better look. As he got closer she started to growl, then all of the sudden began to chant in an unknown language.  She started to chant louder and louder.
   The room stood quiet until Steve walked over to Matthew and whispered to him, "I didn't create that character." Matthew chuckled and said " of course you did, you sent me the information over a few days ago." Steve scrunched his forehead and opened his laptop to go through his emails. In his email he wrote the chant of bringing back torturer spirits and using the life source of a person. Steve started to think back of how he would have sent that email. He only remembers the time he heard typing in his room and that was it. He looked at the screen to see what was happening and he saw that the spirit was done chanting, the child turned over at the summoner to look at him. The child had the face of an old lady with no eyes. Then she spoke "Are you the sacrifice?" Bryan said " No, I am here as your master the summoner." The entity of the child got closer to him and said "I serve one one else but the Fallen Angel." "He is not here, he is not the one who called you" replied the summoner quickly. The child started to laugh as she said "Oh but he will be here, You are his vessel and he will come to claim it soon." Bryan looked at the books to find an incantation to stop her and send her away, but he couldn't find it. He placed his hands on the corner of his eyes and sent a message. "I want out, how do I stop this game again?" Matthew typed, "tap your wrist twice". Just before Bryan did the child ghost grabbed him and threw him across the room, then picked him up again and through him on his face. His body was motionless outside the game but his heart rate went up and he began to sweat. Then as he attempted to exit the game the ghost grad him and put his hands behind his back while she whispered, "Do you believe in gob, Bryan? where is he now?"

  Steve had enough of the game which looked all to real, he searched through his notes and found a exorcism chant to cast spirits back. He quickly began to type and tried to remember at the same time if they were the exact words. hoping he didn't miss a thing he sent it over to Bryan. It appeared in front of his face and he began to chant, soon the entity began to pull away as it cursed him. The entity had vanished  at the end of the chant, but before he could double tap on his wrist something else appeared. It was as they feared. It had horns with black wings, its eyes looked that of a snake and the face shaped as a goat. Hands with claws and feet with hooves. Everyone in the room just starred because they didn't know it wasn't part of the game. Matthew walked over to Steve, "I know this wasn't one of your characters, I saw and approved every single one." Steve just kept looking at his note while retyping the incantation again. He then hit send and looked at him, "I know this sounds crazy, but I didn't create those characters or that incantation." As he was trying to explain himself the body of Bryan lifted from his chair. He stood in the room as he stood in the game. Then all the people in the room gasped. One said "I thought he was supposed to be motionless." Then he began to speak the chants that Steve had sent him, His body was being tossed around in the meeting room while everyone screamed or moved out of the way. He was being dragged from the ceiling down and from wall to wall. The demon clawed Bryan on the back and on his arms. The lacerations he received in the game, he received in real life. One lady yelled out, "someone help him!" Steve started to chant out loud the exorcism chant. Bryan moaned and said "no, no, stop." Steve kept going and so the guy kept being tossed around and twisting. Then someone tried to run out, but was pulled back into the room by an unseen entity. They all started to chant with Steve until Bryan was dropped by the horned demon and disappeared. The guy double tapped his wrist and was contiguous of his body again. he moaned in pain because of the injuries he receive in reality.  He was taken to the hospital and it was said that he had an accident while moving old tools in his garage. The company paid all of the witnesses and their expenses.
   Bryan never really talked much after that day. One day after a meeting, Bryan was waiting in line for water and Steve was ahead of him. Right before Bryan served his cup Steve made a remark "god bless this water, I was so thirsty." Bryan smirked and walked away quietly with an empty cup.