When the lights went out, Sara froze. This stupid ritual is just making me jumpy, she thought. It’s probably some prank Ash is pulling, or maybe it’s just a coincidence and there’s something wrong with the grid.

She felt the tingles of unease and was doing her best to convince herself that everything that was happening had a perfectly rational cause.

Everything is fine. Nothing will happen. It’s just the dark.

Goosebumps rose on her skin as the air turned frigid in an instant.

Lisa must be in on this! Sara rationalized, I saw her watching all those dried ice videos; she must have bought some online. They must be making a prank video and just want to make a fool out of me.

Catching on, Sara regained her smug grin. Did they think they could pull a fast one on me so easily? Naive. Too naive.

Just as her satisfaction reached its climax, lightning burst from all the nearby wall outlets. In the flash of light, before the darkness reasserted its dominance, she saw it.

A small mass of flesh and leaves, congealing and morphing, drawing in the lightning.

The color drained once more from her face.

No! It’s a trick. Just a trick! I don’t know how or why, but it’s not real.

Sara turned stuff as a board and stood in a trance. Not even noticing the liquid running down her legs.

--- Lisa’s POV ---

As soon as the ritual concluded, Lisa went to plop down on the sofa. She was in the middle of reading when Ashley pulled them into her machinations and was eager to rejoin the fictional world of ‘Mythic Divine Slayer of the 9 Heavens’. It was fast becoming her new favorite xianxia, despite its slow release rate and cringe-inducing tropes.

While she convinced the world that she was only reluctantly following through with Ashley’s crazy, a small part of her knew she admired Ashley’s spirit and hoped one of her plans would somehow come true. Both she and Ashley enjoyed the fantastical, but only Ashley tried everything in her power to make the fantasy a reality. Lisa had mostly settled to make do. Mostly.

Fate had other plans. Just as she was taking her first few steps, the power blacked out. This didn’t cause her to panic, though. Blackouts happen all the time. What caused her to panic, and fall on her face, was the fact that her precious laptop also went black. It was plugged into the wall and it was brand spanking new. Her old one died a week prior and the mail just delivered this one yesterday.

Shit! No fucking way!

She couldn’t afford a second new laptop and had already spent a week reading her favorite books on the cracked screen of her old smartphone while waiting for the economic shipping to arrive. As she fell to the floor, she scrambled to unplug her precious from the wall when a blinding light took her by surprise. A cold sweat rolled down her back as she made a realization. That light came from the wall socket. The socket her laptop was connected to.

She turned, facing the flash of light, and it was only once she regained her vision did she finally realize that her laptop wasn’t a top priority at the moment.

--- Ashley’s POV ---

Ashley was dispirited. Her latest escape scheme seemed to fail, just like all the others. Still, she knew that she wouldn’t give up so easily.

Isekai and portal fantasy was her obsession for as long as she could remember. It had a special place in her heart, as it let her dream that one day she would find a magical world to call her own.

As a child, Ashley would often get in trouble for sneaking about in search of hidden gateways to other worlds. She hiked through the woods to find trees that might be ancient enough to hold secrets or caves that could contain some hidden treasure. Anything that might whisk her away.

Her parents finally had enough of her antics in her early teens. She had gone missing for two days before someone found her at the bottom of a dried-up well, in the middle of nowhere. They were even less happy when they heard her mumble something about finding the entrance to the demon realm, like in her favorite anime.

Ashley’s parents sent her to a religious school to keep her under control, but it only stoked the flame of rebellion. It was at this school that she met Sara. Miss Prim and Proper. The only friend her parents approved of and the only girl at the school that would have anything to do with her bad influence.

Sure, Sara can be a bit of a buzzkill, but if coaxed properly a good time is all but guaranteed. One of her fondest memories at that school was of begging Sara for days to play ‘Demons and Devils’ with her, but was always rebuffed; It was ‘satanic.’ Sara was so well trained by parents back then that she would reject anything that might make her go down ‘the devil’s path.’ It wasn’t until Ashley retroactively renamed the game ‘Saints and Saviors’ that she finally agreed.

Still, everyone called her a fool. Even Sara constantly tried to grind down her dreams. Ashley knew that she would likely be disappointed until she was dead and buried, but it was still better than giving up.

This world is so boring, she thought, What’s the challenge? The struggle? Sure, I could finish up college, but what was the point?

She only needed enough money to buy her e-book and anime subscriptions. She had thought about traveling the world, but even the most fantastical places on earth were mundane compared to the worlds of her imagination.

A pout was forming on Ashley’s black-painted lips when the lights went out. A flash illuminated the room. As she glimpsed the abomination taking shape, a manic grin replaced her pout.

Ok, ok. It’s not a succubus, but it is a demon, right? Even if it’s not a demon, it’s something! It’s real. Magic is fucking real!

As the abomination morphed into the rough shape of a human girl, Ashley’s trill reached a crescendo.

“It worked! It worked! It really fucking worked!” Jumping up and down, Ashley shouted, “I summoned a fucking succubus!”

Her excitement was so extreme that she was still laughing maniacally when the half-human monstrosity lunged and grasped her skull. Her mind went blank in an instant, but a moment later she returned to consciousness. Looking up, she realized she was on her knees looking up at a miniature succubus.

Ashley’s mind had yet to fully process reality when she heard the creature call out its decree, but when she heard its voice, she was glad that she was already on her knees.