I knew exactly what I was doing on that day.

Around the college rumors were

spreading of some ritual that no man should ever conduct. Something that could raise horrible
monstrosities onto the earth if put into the wrong hands. I couldn’t help but be endlessly
intrigued by such power that one could possibly possess, I couldn’t resist. I had to see it with my
own two eyes.

Late that night, long after every student and teacher had fallen into slumber, I snuck out
of the student’s dormitories and headed to the library. I wondered if such a ritual could have
been recorded in some forgotten section within the deepest and most elusive parts of the
millions of bookshelves. By the morning I had found what I had been looking for. A book written
by a crazed lunatic, who seemingly devoted their life to the eldritch arts, held the exact
knowledge I had searched for all night.

Of course I had to wait a bit longer to perform this sacred art, only a fool would conduct it
in broad daylight. Besides, I had to collect the required ingredients anyways. So, I bid my time
for the next night when I would see this for myself. Once night had fallen I secluded myself in a
darker part of the college to have sufficient privacy to conduct this dark magic.

The ritual called for many things that most sorcerers would never touch with their bare
hands, let alone a séance. It required 5 candles, a vial of human blood, ground-up bone dust,
vampire dust, and lest we forget a genuine soul crystal. I had to mix the two dusts into a fine
powder, add blood as a binding agent, and use a soul crystal as the catalyst. Once I had the
ingredients prepared, my candles arranged in a pentagram, and the correct symbol drawn upon
the floor with chalk, I was prepared to conduct something not even a necromancer would touch.

I said aloud the corresponding vocals to finish the ceremony. They were all Latin words
that I could not completely understand, but I did know that in the words were lines of praising
eldritch gods, summoning horrific beasts, and declarations of losing one’s possession of their
soul. Once the words were spoken, I would need not wait a moment longer as the symbol I had
drawn began to glow a sinister purple. My heart raced, wondering what amazing things I was
about to bear witness to.

I so regret doing what I did that night. The things I saw no man, or even God, should
ever see. A horrific being rose from the symbol, as it turned black and lit the room with its
horrifying glow. I witnessed rows upon rows of eyeballs, or I think they were eyeballs. Monstrous
tentacles that seemingly stretched for miles. Jagged teeth that could emancipate one’s body in
moments. And that face, by the nine that face. It stared into my very being and placed such
indescribable fears in my heart. This being was not meant to exist, it never should have.

It stared at me with sinister intention. It wanted such horrible atrocities that cannot be
done, and yet it could give me thousands of ways to commit them. I knew at that moment I had
made such an awful mistake, and I ended the ceremony immediately. I could sense the being I
had just summoned seemed incredibly disappointed, or perhaps enraged at me. I could no
longer tell what thoughts it hid behind that skeletal face. It disappeared with a crackle of light,
and I have never been the same since.

Lately reality has seemed so far away. As if my very being is no longer whole. I don’t
know what that creature did to me on that night, but it is not something pleasant. My emotions
and even my psyche have grown a schism within itself. Sometimes I get these horrible thoughts
that compel me to do unspeakable things. I think it all has to do with that ritual, that Latin
phrase. The declaration of no longer possessing one’s soul. I think it was partially correct, and
the cost might have been more than some blood and bones.