Apologies in advance for the grammatical error in the first sentence, but I promised myself I wouldn’t edit these until the year was up. See Da Rules. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.
 
 
 
Camden and Iraleigh wanted for nothing, wrapped in the comfort big houses filled with expensive things. Naturally they were unsatisfied.

The teenage girls had been all-too-frequent witnesses to the fact that the application of alcoholic and prescriptive panacea did little to lessen the deadness behind their parents’ eyes. No, substance would not satisfy. So they turned to the insubstantial.

With means, rebellion can afford to tend toward the exotic. Their dalliances started in the usual way, with Ouija Boards and ghost stories. While Camden found herself increasingly enraptured by the subjects of powerful spirits and invocations, Iraleigh was happy just to play along. A weekend approached in which the autumnal equinox and Camden’s parents going out of town coincided. Perfect convergence for a séance.

Night fell and the girls climbed creaking steps to the attic, where they encircled themselves with candles. Iraleigh drew a chalk pentagram as Camden flipped her cross necklace upside down.

They chanted for a while, Camden invoking this spirit or that power, but little seemed to occur. Despite instructions to the contrary, Iraleigh peeked out from under her eyelids. And everything changed.

Looking at her friend’s bared shoulders, Iraleigh felt the presence of something both ancient and immediate. She was drowned in a heat that crashed in waves across her body, compelling her to reach out and touch Camden’s knee.

The other girl’s eyes opened with both surprise and anticipation. Her hand covered her friend’s and slid it further up her leg. The girls soon joined their lips, and each pulled desperately at the other, as if to siphon life from one another. The wind howling outside barely drowned out the sound of revelation within.

In the morning Iraleigh awoke alone and chalky in a circle of melted wax. Downstairs she found Camden making coffee, and she slipped her arms around the girl’s waist. Camden jerked away with a horrified look, asking what Iraleigh was doing. In response to Iraleigh’s bewildered stare and watering eyes, Camden made herself clear while fingering her necklace: “Last night we were possessed by something. Something… wrong. It wasn’t us last night. So there’s no ‘us’ today.”

There were no more séances after that.