INCEPTUS
➛ 01. HELL IS EMPTY
a/n: welcome to chapter one of a story i've been slowly cooking like a pot of stew. this series is filthy and depraved and very spooky. or at least that's what i hope it comes off as. originally it was going to only be three parts, but if you've been here long enough you know i don't do things short. so i welcome you to this witchy tale of a demon falling in love. dividers by the incredible @saradika!
note: a massive thank you to my wonderful babes @soulores and @themarcusmoreno for being the greatest beta readers ever. screaming over demon joel with you guys has been the highlight of writing this chapter.
summary: during the night of a lunar eclipse, ten days away from samhain, you somehow summon something far more sinister than you expected - him.
word count: 2.2k+
pairing: demon!joel x f!reader
warnings: not explicit, witchcraft, summoning of a demon (don't try this at home joel miller won't show up), a man covered in blood ready to kill, violence, blood, reader cuts their palm, mistakes.
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The scent of the forest was like coming home. Familiar and warm. It filled your senses as you passed the trees, a lantern heavy in your hand. The flame flickered low, barely casting a glow as you tread carefully. Bare feet crunching the fallen leaves of the season. You heard the crickets call out in the night air, animals making noise as the night life finally returned until dawn crested. Until light was once again brought to the world.
Yet in the deep crevices of the forest darkness lurked. Waiting in anticipation for someone to join them. To give themselves over. You could feel their gazes on your body, burning through you as you walked. Yet you knew that they wouldn’t come out—too afraid of the power that thrummed beneath your skin. A threat to the darkness that beckoned you forward.
The clearing you’d prepared was buried deep, hidden away from your coven in the hopes of keeping them in the dark. You knew what happened to witches that went against coven law. What they faced as the consequences to their actions. Yet this choice was not made out of selfishness. But rather a need that outweighed even their own laws; the decisions that would one day bury them rather than see them safe.
You felt the forest’s tune seep into your body. The power that practically came off the trees, through the floor as you walked. It was unwavering. Steady in all its might. The forest had been on this earth for thousands of years and you knew it would remain for a thousand more. Existing beyond your lifetime and the lives of your coven.
That’s what made it perfect for tonight’s ritual. A spell that hadn’t been done since the beginning of your coven’s move to this village. A secret that had been locked away in a book that was kept out of reach. The same book that was clasped against your chest, its taunting call keeping time with your heart beat. You had only heard what powers the pages could awaken, what darkness it could invoke. You had yet to experience it first hand.
Flames lit the candles you had set out along the pathway with each step closer. Your power shifting to take control of the situation. To handle what no one else could. You gathered the skirt of your black dress, stepping over the fallen pieces of wood that blocked your path; creating a barrier around the clearing.
A quick glance up through the trees let you see that the moon was nearing its peak. The red hue slowly creeped over, sparking life to the start of the spell. You could feel it soak into the ground below. The echo of witches that came before echoed loudly in the area, calling to your familiar spirit. Claiming you as one of their own.
You grinned, welcoming them like an old friend as you reached the center of the clearing. The old weathered cauldron your mother had passed down to you now sat in the center—a shape dragged through the dirt covered in poisonous herbs. Ones you had spent weeks collecting; all in preparation for this moment.
With a wave of your hand the fire sparked into the dirt, forming a circle around where you stood—cutting off the spell from the rest of the world. At least here you’d be able to contain it. Keep people safe from harm as you called upon a darkness that was better off left alone. You felt that unfamiliar knot form in your chest, willing you to unravel it—to chip away at what lay beneath—and with a deep breath…you began.
“I call the spirits of the north, spirits of the south, east, and west forth.”
Placing the spell book at your feet, you lit the small flame in your cauldron, the collection of poisonous herbs burning in the night air. Turning the scent of the once warm moss bitter. You inhaled it, clenching your fist as it burned the inside of your lungs, filling you with the promise of ruin. That alone should have been enough to make you stop, but the need to continue clawed its way up your throat, silencing your fears with a swift blow.
“As above the blood moon’s power, so below the poison I stand upon,” you exclaimed, sliding the dagger from the sheath beside you—it’s ruby hilted blade glittering in the firelight.
“I offer thee the blood of my blood. The blood of those before me.” You sliced your palm, wincing as pain bloomed up your arm. “I call upon the darkness. I call upon the banished evil that lay below.”
Red spilled out between your fingers, dripping along the herbs and staining the earth with your essence. The parts of you that were offered as a lifeline to what resided beneath. You felt that knot tear at your chest, burning you inside as if you’d set fire to the power in your veins. A rumble in the ground formed, rustling the trees until they began to sway slightly, as if there was a breeze in the air. You gasped, clutching your bloody hand to your heart and feeling the tremor in your legs—a darkness calling to you.
“I call upon the darkness,” you called out, watching the flame in your cauldron turn red—sparks filling the night sky.
The heat of the flames caused you to sweat, your dress clinging to your figure as you stood there. Watching your choices unfold before your very eyes. The book at your feet flew open, pages ruffling wildly until it froze, slamming back to the ground. You could see the image that stared at you. Of a man with fangs coated in blood, wings black as night sprouting from his back and claws adorning his fingers.
He looked monstrous. A creature that would drag you all to Hell with him, yet you found you couldn’t tear your eyes away. That knot in your chest pulled taut, choking the very breath from your lungs, until you fell to your knees—your bloody palm slamming to the ground. Poisonous herbs were pressed into your open wound, infecting you as you remained there, but the spell wasn’t finished.
One final thing remained.
“By the power of the blood moon—” You gasped, scratching at your throat to suck in air. The air was cloying, thick with something sinister. “By the power in my body. I summon thee! I summon thee!” A sharp crack echoed in the air, sizzling the very skirt of your dress as you fell to your back, eyes trained on the moon above. “So mote it be,” you whispered, eyes rolling back as your energy was sucked from your body.
The knot pulled free, thundering loudly in your chest and forcing you to watch as the ground split open. A scream tearing through the crisp night air and nearly deafening you. The flames were starting to die down, causing darkness to seep back into your barricaded space. Yet you could do nothing but stare. A clawed hand dug into the ground, gripping the dirt beneath as a figure began to free itself from the earth.
You scrambled back with a soft cry, attempting to get away as fear once again surged through your body. Nearly suffocating you as the creature rose. It roared, dragging himself up and for a moment you were rendered speechless. What you were seeing wasn’t a creature, but a man. Someone who was pressing his face into the dirt and gasping in air as if he was breathing for the first time.
He stood on shaky legs, naked and bare for the world to see and covered in dirt—streaks of blood going across his body from where he’d been injured. But that’s not what caught your attention. It was the sight of obsidian wings sprouting from his back, now spread out in the world for you to see—the feathers practically shining in the night sky.
The eclipse over the moon was beginning to fade, and he had yet to notice you were there. Yet soon the flames would be extinguished and you would have to approach him.
That is until the cut on your hand burned your skin, causing you to gasp in pain as you clutched it to your chest. His head snapped up at the sound, eyes a deep red now fixated on your form that was cowering to the ground. Fear clasped tight around your throat as you stood, attempting to back away. Yet there was nowhere to go. The flames still burned and he was advancing faster than you could run.
With his fangs bared, he wrapped a clawed hand around your throat, dragging you forward until your face was nearly pressed to his. Eyes seething with an anger that you felt grate on your bones. It vibrated through you, filling you with something dark, something that stained your very soul. You clawed at his wrist, nails biting into dirt covered skin as he growled, attempting to keep you still.
Perhaps this is how you would die. By the hands of the demon you called to for help.
“Please,” you whimpered, eyes wide with terror and tears tracking down your cheeks.
“You,” he snarled, the sharp prick of his claws now cutting into your skin. “You brought me here.”
Shoving at his chest, you tried to free yourself from his grasp—to take in some air—but it was no use. He was stronger than you. His anger filled the air until you could practically taste it on your tongue and you knew…he would kill you. He’d drag you back down into the depths of Hell to punish you for disturbing him.
Something wet and sticky dripped down onto your chest and it wasn’t until his eyes tracked it did you realize it was your blood. The tighter he gripped your neck, the further he was opening a wound. His gaze met yours again, eyes shifting to see the distraught expression you wore, the fear that he could practically taste in the air. That feeling from earlier pulled tight on your chest again, calling to him as he stood there. Watching your life bleed from your body.
“Why?” he asked softer than before, eyes searching your face for any explanation.
The salty tang of tears filled your mouth, nails scratching along his skin, and with a sigh he released your throat. Watching as you fell to the ground in a heap—gasping in lungfuls of air that burned.
“I—” You coughed, wiping up the blood with the sleeve of your dress. “I need you.”
“Stupid fuckin’ witch,” he spit, turning to see the setup of your spell, the cauldron now burning a light yellow. “Messing with things you know nothing about.”
You watched as blood continued to spill across his shoulder, a wound gaping somewhere along his body. The urge to help him reared its head, but you couldn’t move. Let alone offer him kindness after you dragged him up to Earth. He would most likely slit your throat with his claws before allowing you to touch him. So you stayed on the ground, watching as he caught his bearings. Analyzing the forest slowly, seeing what lay beyond the darkness.
“Please,” you begged softly, eyes shiny with fresh tears. “My coven needs your help.”
“I owe you nothing.”
“I summoned you—”
He snarled, swiftly crouching to crowd your space—effectively stopping your heart. “I am not bound to your word.”
The surprise must have been evident on your face, his lips curling into a smile that had your fear escalating. Before you could splutter out a response, he moved away from you with a supernatural speed. He grabbed the knife that had fallen to the ground and stalked through the low fire that still burned. It caught on his wings slightly, but he seemed to be used to the heat. As if it didn’t affect him.
He turned, glancing at you one last time—his eyes burning a hole through your body—before vanishing into the darkness. The flames were extinguished the second he stepped out of the ring, the cold air of the forest now invading. Turning you frozen. You stood on shaky legs, chest heaving as you stumbled over to the book that still sat open on the floor. The flame on your lantern burned, illuminating the page.
A name was inscribed at the top of the page, burned into the old parchment and you fell to your knees, dragging the pages forward. Tracing your finger over the letters, you felt your chest seize at the image. A perfect depiction of the man who had nearly ripped you to pieces. The man who was known for wreaking destruction, for being a warrior that had been cast down into Hell.
loel.
You felt that familiar tug on your chest again, pulling you towards something dangerous. Something dark. Yet you knew…there was no running from it. The fates had set history in motion and now you were captive to its hold.
“Joel,” you whispered, tracing the figure with your eyes as the moon began its descent in the sky.
Leaving you alone once more.
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