Scott forgot when he fell asleep that night. But, he woke up the same time he always did - when Mona wanted breakfast.

"Scott! Scott! Scottttttttttttttt!" the girl stood in his doorframe, yelling his name at the top of her lungs. The teen pulled his pillow over his head... ugh. Who needed an alarm clock when they had Mona?

"Jesus..." he groaned, rolling over. "Give me a minute..."

"I want mac and cheese!" she said, walking off. 

When don't you?

After throwing on jeans and a somewhat grimy white T-shirt - his usual outfit - Scott headed downstairs to the kitchen. First, he checked the fridge - no leftover mac to heat up. Looks like he'd need to make a new box... nope. The cupboard was Kraft-free: truly a rare sight in this household.

Looks like he'd have to head to the store.

Scott didn't have his license yet. Usually, that was no issue - he could just hop on his bike if there was anywhere he needed to go. But the store was an exception - it was pretty hard to bike somewhere with bags full of boxed macaroni getting in the way of things. So, he had no choice but to walk. Since she couldn't stay home alone, Mona left for their next door neighbor's house. One of her friends from school, a little boy named Charlie, lived there.

He strolled down the sidewalk of Whitehall Street. There was a nice breeze in the air, and the sky was clear, perfectly blue. Being outside was alright sometimes... if only it wasn't so sunny out. It was almost overwhelming for the teen - he and natural light hadn't hung out in a while. Luckily, he had on his Phillies cap, which helped some. Scott hadn't put it on for that reason, though... he hadn't showered in a day or two, and whenever he didn't shower, his black hair got super greasy.

The store wasn't too far away, but the sidewalk disappeared at some points, leaving Scott to walk on the side of open road. It didn't seem like a lot of people were coming through town, though... he guessed a lot of people were out on vacation, or staying home, or something.

Shopping never took long. Scott had brought with him two of these big canvas bags his mom had said were good for the environment... he walked up to the shelf where the boxes of Kraft were, hooked an arm around the ones furthest back, and slid it forward, letting all of the mac fall right into bag number one. Bag number two was used for milk and butter, since both were needed to cook the prepackaged pasta. It was gonna cost a lot of money, but Scott had a credit card tied to his mom's bank account with him, and she was not hurting for cash.

Scott always used the self check out. The one time he did try to go into the regular check out, the lady there gave him a weird look when she saw all the boxes of Kraft, and honestly, he didn't need that in his life.

As he scanned the eighteenth box, Scott's eyes wandered. He had been staring at his busily working hands, but now he was looking at some of the stuff the store had to offer. Stores always put candy near the front... maybe he could get some now. Maybe they had flowers, too... he remembered seeing them near the produce.

Scott walked out of the store with candy and flowers in his arms. It was like Valentine's Day! Well, how he imagined it to be... he had never gotten candy or flowers on Valentine's Day...

Ahh. The air was so nice... Scott sniffed the flowers. They were nice too. Everything seemed nice.

This is a nice day. Scott thought.

He stared around at the strip mall that sprawled at in front of him... what else to get?

There was a smile on Scott's face as he walked home. That was unusual. Everything he needed for the ritual, he had... well, except the skull.

"Hey."

Someone was calling out to him. Turning his head, he saw that it was... Nicole?

She was just sitting out on the edge of the road. It was pretty hot out, but she still was in her full black emo attire. Or was it goth attire? Thinking about it now, he didn't really know...

"Oh, uh, hi." he said. He looked over her shoulder, at the house she sat in front of... it was the house right next to his. Wow, how had he gone this long without realizing Nicole lived right next to him? Maybe that was why she looked so dejected when he didn't know her name...

She pointed at the things in his hands. "Ooh. Who are those for?"

Scott looked down. The flowers, she was talking about the flowers.

"Um... no one, really." he said. Hey... this would be a good time to ask about the skull thing. It was pretty shockingly convenient that he had run into her. "Oh, uh, did you ever get my email?"

She looked to the left, then to the right.

"Yes." she stood up and leaned in, speaking quietly. "Three hundred."

Scott leaned in too, subconsciously. "Three hundred... dollars?"

"No, three hundred kicks to the dick." she said. When she saw Scott's confused expression, she shook her head. "Yeah, three hundred bucks."

That seemed like a lot. Scott began to think about his reasoning for wanting to do the ritual again. It was mostly out of curiosity, a desire to find out if the instructions were bullshit or not, plus maybe a little boredom... but he had to admit, to the most hormone-riddled areas of his teenage brain, the idea of having a demon slave lady... well, it seemed like it'd be pretty nice.

Without even thinking, Scott moved his hand to his wallet. Christmas money... he still had Christmas money. He rifled through it, pulling out a wad of bills. Nicole nodded at the sight of it, the corners of her black-painted lips turning up in a slight smile.

"Come with me." she said.