Chapter 1
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My fingers tensed around the cold, familiar plastic resting between them. One tap to the bottom, two to the left- I had it down to a science at this point. People always tell you they’re rigged, but that’s not even a half-truth when you get to know the inner workings. I let my tongue worm its way out of my mouth as the lights flickered and the timer counted down. I slowly released the breath I didn’t know I’d been holding, positioned my finger over the big, red button and…

“Move it, Hawley! The movie starts in like five minutes!”

The slide whistle played and the empty claw retracted up into the mechanism, dropping my hard earned nothing into the prize slot. Goddamnit. I huffed and rolled my eyes. The movie theater machine only grabbed for real once every fourteen times. I knew because I paid attention. There was no winning again until another fourteen hapless saps tried their luck.

“Marcus, come on, man! I almost had it!” My cheeks puffed up as I saltily grabbed my bag and skulked towards theater five. Marcus was my best friend - well, one of - but he had a real way of showing up at the worst possible time. It always seemed like the stuff that other people understood on instinct flew right over the guy’s head, which was impressive given he was six foot two. The boy looked like he’d pulled his outfit out of a garbage disposal, with not a single article of clothing on his body sporting less than three obvious rips: ripped sleeveless tee, ripped jeans, ripped up bandana around his neck, and an exposed midriff that gave me feelings I didn’t particularly have the capacity to deal with at the moment. I told him I’d be right there, and yet here we were, about to have this conversation again.

“Why do you even need that trash anyway? You know they only put the garbage tier spells in these things; fireworks and pranks and shit. They’re just leftover mana recycled from girls who fucked up their pacts. You know-”

“Don’t say Const-”

“-Constance could do better for you any day of the week. She actually knows what she’s doing.” Fucking hell. I sighed. Marcus wouldn’t get it. It’s not like either of them could understand, not that I blamed them. I was like five capsules away from being where I needed to be, and the last thing I needed was somebody catching on to me this close to the finish line. I’d rather just keep my head down, play it cool and wait it out. Getting what I wanted was an inevitability at this point. It had to be.

“They’re for my collection, you know that.” I hoisted my bag onto my shoulder and stuffed the day’s winnings inside. Seven. My record was twenty-three, but I learned pretty fast that the only thing playing obsessively like that got me was cocked eyebrows from worried friends. I’d held on this long; what was a few days? A week? I could stand on my head for a week. It was nothing as long as I kept my eyes fixed on the prize. Five more to go.

The familiar squish and smell of the ancient, gaudy movie theater carpet was a comfort to me, as weird as that was. This place was a relic of a time gone by, when going out to the movies was an event you got dressed up for. Wide staircases with marble banisters, intricate embellishments on the crown molding, and an actual, honest to god curtain in front of the screen were only a few of the old-timey oddities I adored about this place. Walking these hallowed halls felt like trespassing on sacred ground. I knew the theater had an expiration date; places like this were always too good to last. For now, though, Tuesday double features were our thing.

For now.

Didn’t expect that to sting the way it did. Now definitely wasn’t the time to be getting cold feet. I shook the feeling off as best I could and did what I did best- drowned it out with something else. “You already got the snacks?” Marcus smirked at me and pulled a smaller bag out of his backpack.

“Cherry straws, cookie dough bites, chocolate covered raisins, sour worms, mocha bombs and your favorite…” Marcus lobbed a box in my direction and I almost ran into a wall trying to catch it. “...Gummi fish. Euuugh.”

“They’re chewy and good!” I fake pouted and shook the box in his general direction. He smirked.

“Chewy isn’t a flavor. They taste like cough medicine, but go off, Hawley.” I stuck my tongue out and faked being mad, but I loved this asshole. Marcus and Constance had both been so quick to jump on the train when I’d asked them to start calling me by my last name and neither of them gave me the fifth degree about it. No matter how rough things got, they always made me feel important and loved, even if I couldn’t really be assed to care much about myself these days. Despite all his teasing, Marcus always knew when to drop the act and check on me to make sure I was doing okay. He was a good boy. I was going to miss him.

The hallway stretched on for what felt like forever. Half these screens hadn’t been in use since the Second Summoning and it really showed. We picked up the pace as we ducked into our theater, scanning the rows for the only other warm body in the place; Constance. The girl would have been hard to miss even if she wasn’t the only thing sticking up above the rows of dated chairs. She was sporting short, black cherry dyed hair, eyeliner so sharp it could kill a man and frankly I’d long lost count of how many tattoos she had. Compared to the two of them, I looked positively vanilla. Marcus and I split up on either side of the row and surrounded her before she could say otherwise, and we each plopped down beside her.

“No no no, you’re not putting me in the middle again! Ya’ll are gonna be reaching across me the whole time passing snacks!” She started to fake grabbing her leather jacket off the back of the chair to get up, but Marcus wrapped his arms around hers and pulled her back into the seat.

“Down you go, Connie! Movie’s about to start.” Marcus laid his head on Constance’s shoulder and pushed his head into the crook of her neck. How the fuck did he just do that? The boy was beyond comfortable with physical shows of affection and I just… I dunno. Felt gross? Like the threat of making my loved ones uncomfortable with the obligation of contact with my body was worse than never getting to really cuddle up to anybody. I wanted it, like obviously I wanted that… but they were cute together. Honest to god I had no idea why they always wanted me to third wheel it with them, but they were my only friends so I wasn’t about to question it too hard. I’d always be thankful for them choosing to spend time with me, and they’d be rid of me soon enough. 

 Constance sighed and ran her fingers through Marcus’ hair. She was doing her best to look annoyed, but her body language betrayed her. She was never really good at hiding her feelings, even when she was trying to be intimidating.

“Here you two. Marcus, this one’s yours…” She passed a root beer from her purse over to Marcus, and then began digging again. “And Hawely, sweetheart, here’s yours.” She passed me a can of cherry soda before affectionately patting my leg. I took the can and quickly turned away, trying not to completely out myself in this, a Christian movie establishment. Thank god the lights were down so nobody could see how absolutely scarlet my face was turning. It was base level touch, just sweet and innocent affection, but it was something I would never ask for in a million years. I always got caught off guard when one of them just… did it for me. I fought back a smile and shoved a gummi fish in my traitorous mouth.

It was typical Two Dollar Tuesday schlock; a girl summons her demon and paints a rune incorrectly, leaving her request ungranted and her familiar unfulfilled. Together, they go on a journey of self discovery and ride a pretty mediocre enemies to lovers arc to a predictable happy ending. It was junk food, but it was sweet and the characters were endearing. I was probably a little more into the whole affair than I’d like to have admitted. Mushy romance bullshit always left me with this weird mix of butterflies and shame that I could never quite articulate. No matter how hard I tried, I could never just let my guard down and let myself fully enjoy the thing for what it was. When the film was over, I knew those feelings would follow me home and poke at the edges of my reality in ways that made me supremely uncomfortable.

In the intermission between movies, we followed our tradition of climbing the stairs to the balcony of the auditorium, switching up our seating to put Marcus in the middle.

“Imagine,” Constance said through a mouthful of popcorn. “Falling in love with your demon familiar. How embarrassing would that be.” She had that sly, shit eating grin she always wore when I couldn’t tell what the fuck was going on.

“I mean, I’m sure it’s happened to somebody, right?” I shrugged. Marcus choked and started sputtering cookie dough bits everywhere. I immediately grabbed his drink and handed it to him, and he gulped it down furiously. I looked across him to Constance, my knees pulled up against my chest. “What was it like with your familiar, Connie? You never really talk about them.” Connie leaned forward with her cheek in her hand, that wry smirk creeping across her face again.

“Oh, you’ll meet her at some point. I’m sure she loves you.” I really wish she had given me more information. Constance was always so tight-lipped about her summoning and how she acquired her magic. It sure would have made everything easier for me if I could’ve just gotten her to spit it out, but it felt like Connie could never just drop anything at face value. I wasn’t about to push; if I acted too curious, she might start poking her nose around my business too, and it was far too close to showtime.

“Hey…” I paused and waited until I was sure they were both listening. This one was important.

“What’s up?” Marcus yawned and stretched, draping his arm over Constance beside him. She huffed playfully and kissed his nose as he made a general nuisance of himself. It was fucking adorable. I took a deep breath and steeled myself.

 “I love you both. Thank you for everything. I could never have dreamed I’d have friends like you.” There was an audible “Aww,” out of Marcus, but I managed to keep going. “No matter what happens, or where we go, or who we become, you’ll always have a place in my heart.” They both sat silent for a second looking at each other, and then at me. Marcus threw his arm around me. Constance leaned over her boyfriend and pressed her head against my hand.

 “We love you too, idiot.” Connie smiled up at me.

“No matter where you go… or who you become.” Marcus bumped his forehead against mine.

The lights had really been on my team today, because the curtain began drawing back and the theater went dark just as white hot tears began rolling down my cheeks. It was the weirdest movie of my life, and I couldn’t for the life of me tell you what the hell it was about. The armrests came up and Constance flopped over, laying in both our laps. Marcus leaned into me and held me close for what seemed like an eternity. I had no idea what to do with my hands and my heart was in my throat, but eventually I just… leaned into it.

I gently pet Constance’s head as she held onto my other hand with both of hers. My cheek pressed into Marcus’ as he pulled me into him. I didn’t want it to end. But just like movies, or boxes of candy, or old lonely theaters you love with everything you have, the ending comes whether you like it or not.

I’m not sure exactly how I made my way home. It was like I blinked and I was standing in my studio apartment on the fourth floor of the old Jenny Mason’s department store building. My body moved on its own.

I had a job to do.

I dumped the capsules I’d collected into the container with all the others I’d wrung from the jaws of arcade machines; all 661 of them.

Five more to go.

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