‘This is so dumb,’ Isaac sniffed, folding his arms and leaning back in his chair with a roll of his piercing grey eyes. ‘I mean do you losers really buy any of this voodoo crap?’

Addison leaned over and looped her arm under his, pressing herself close to him with a playful smile. ‘Not me. I’m with you on this, it’s just a waste of time. In fact, I could think of quite a few ways I’d rather be spending my evening.’ The pretty brunette was hardly subtle as she ran her free hand over Isaac’s thigh under the table, however he barely seemed to notice.

Peering disapprovingly over the rims of her designer glasses, Sofia continued lighting the scented tealights arranged around the ouija board, careful not to burn her expensive manicure as she did so. ‘Actually, it’s not voodoo, it’s witchcraft. Some of us know the difference.’

‘And some of us a smart enough to know they’re both total shit,’ Isaac shot back. ‘Seriously, you must have been inhaling a bit too much nail polish if you think this money spell is actually going to work. Besides, I thought your MO was seducing your way into some minted jock’s bank account anyway.’ Scoffing at his own insult, he turned his attention to his smartphone as Addison budged her chair a little closer.

Slumped lazily in his chair, his lids heavy and a half empty beer bottle in hand, Ethan puffed out his cheeks with a sigh. ‘Has anyone ever told you guys you really know how to party?’ he said sarcastically. ‘Halloween night and you’re all holed up in a basement playing with ghosts.’

‘Don’t remind me,’ Lucas groaned, ‘I was supposed to be spending the night stuffing my face but instead I’m stuck here with you lot. How can you even think of spirits and séances when there are parties all over town you could be at?’ His eyes glazed over as his thoughts drifted. ‘Just think of everything you’re missing. All the sweets and booze and chocolate and punch and – ow!’

Lucas recoiled as Hannah punched him a little more forcefully than strictly necessary on the shoulder. ‘Will you just shut the fuck up? As if I wasn’t hungry enough already without you listing off an entire fucking buffet. I swear to God, you say one more word about food and it’s your spirit we’ll be contacting tonight.’

‘Hey, I’ll have you know planning out your candy crawl is the most important part of Halloween,’ he retorted, rubbing his shoulder ruefully. ‘I mean you’ve got to pace yourself unless you want to fall into a sugar coma or pass out drunk in a hedge.’

‘At least you all have plans,’ Liv huffed, throwing up her arms in exasperation before crossing them grumpily and glowering at the nearest candle as if it had just insulted her. ‘After this you’ll all be swanning off to some party or bar or club. Well you’re lucky – I haven’t had a single invite.’

Turning her attention to Liv, Addison still clung to Isaac like a lost kitten. ‘Probably because you’re always trying to steal someone’s man or get one of your exes drunk enough to cheat on their new girl.’

Liv opened her mouth to retaliate, only to think better of it and pull her knees up to her chest in a bundle of self-righteousness, glaring at Addison as though she’d quite happily push her off a bridge.

‘Listen, if you guys really want to leave that much, don’t let me stop you,’ Sofia said. ‘But when this works and I’ve got enough money to bathe in every night, I sure won’t be sharing with any of the ones who walked out.’

Although Addison turned to Isaac with an excited gleam in her eye, clearly hoping he would take his leave giving her the opportunity to catch him alone, and Lucas looked ready to pounce for the door, nobody moved. Aside from Sofia, it was acutely apparent none of the others had the slightest shred of faith that the money spell would bear any fruit, but none of them were willing to skip out on the ritual and miss out on the rewards if it did. Besides, if it didn’t work there would be endless scope to ridicule Sofia, and that was an even more compelling incentive to stay.

When it became apparent her friends had no plans of deserting her séance, Sofia allowed herself a satisfied smile. ‘I thought not. Now, link hands with the people next to you and place your hands on the table. I said on the table,’ she added when Addison attempted to guide Isaac’s hand to her thigh. Though she gave a childish pout, Addison did so, ignoring Liv’s chuckle.

Ethan was the last to join the circle. Taking a swig of his beer, he set down the bottle and completed the ring with one brow arched sceptically. ‘So what exactly do we do for this spell? Because if we’re going to need a white rabbit or a top hat I’m afraid I left mine back home.’

‘Maybe if you stopped trying to be funny, Sofia might be able to tell us,’ Hannah growled, eyeing him coldly. Glaring around the circle, her keen stare silenced any witty remarks her friends might have been brewing.

‘Thank you, Hannah,’ Sofia said. ‘Now, I will lead. All you have to do is clear your mind and listen. The spirits we’re trying to contact could present themselves to any one of us, so you have to stay silent and let them speak to you. Let’s get started.’ Closing her eyes and tilting her head back, Sofia took a deep breath and began. ‘Spirits of wealth, can you hear me?’

---

‘My name is Sofia, and I call on you.’ The words rang through the darkness, stirring the beings slumbering there to life. Slowly, they woke. And as they did, they became aware of something new in the void, a tear in the blackness. A rip. A doorway.

The prideful one was the first to sense it. Summoning its siblings it moved closer, something that might have been laughter causing it to shudder and ripple.

Mortals, it thought scornfully. So foolish and desperate. Always reckless, always coveting the material and the depraved and willing to tread dark paths to acquire them.

There was no time in the emptiness of the void, but the prideful one and its siblings knew what night it was for the mortals – even the most sceptical disbelievers seemed eager to put their faith in sorcery and dark magic during the night they dedicated to everything supernatural. The sinful ones knew there would be more gateways open in the darkness before the mortals’ Halloween night was over, through which some of the other beings in the dark would travel to have their fun before the dawn came. But this one was theirs and none dared challenge them for it.

With the words of the misguided soul keeping the doorway open, the sinful ones moved as one. Together they poured through, finally unleashed on the world again…

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‘What the fuck is that?’ Liv cried, springing back as the first creature erupted into the room.

Barrelling through the hole in the ouija board’s planchette it swirled up into the air above the table, a huge, black, oily, amorphous mass writhing like a bed of serpents. The nameless thing gave the distinct impression of an imprisoned comet, wheeling around in a circle several feet above them with the bulk of its mass at the front and a long tail whipping around behind it, hissing and growling dangerously as it moved.

Almost immediately another of the tar-like creatures burst up into the air, and another, both joining the first above the table as the group of friends staggered backwards in alarm.

‘Oh God! Sofia, you freak, what have you done?’ Sheet white, Isaac threw off Addison’s hold and scrambled for the door. When he reached it, however, no amount of pulling or shaking would wrench it open – despite the fact he was by far the strongest of the group, the door refused to budge. ‘It’s locked! Whatever they are they’ve locked us in!’

Dazed with terror and knocked to the ground by Isaac’s forceful shove, Addison scurried under the table whimpering with panic. Meanwhile Liv darted behind Lucas, clinging to his shoulders to keep him in place and therefore putting him between her and the creatures, a human shield.

Hannah, on the other hand, stood her ground. As another creature emerged she turned to Ethan, who was staring up at the strange entities with abstract horror frozen on his face. ‘Don’t just stand there,’ she roared. Snatching the bottle from his hand, she hurled it at the nearest creature, but the oily mass simply parted to avoid the projectile and the bottle smashed against the opposite wall, the hole in the creature closing up again once it had passed.

The theft of his beer catalysed Ethan into motion and he rounded on Hannah indignantly just as a fifth creature tore through the planchette. ‘Hey, that was mine!’

But Hannah wasn’t listening. ‘Out of my way,’ she spat, elbowing him aside and snatching up one of the empty chairs. Swinging it up she brandished it violently, jabbing at the swirling monstrosities as they passed by and challenging them with foul-mouthed insults. The creatures, however, evaded her attacks with ease, parting around the thrusting chair legs or merely darting from their path.

While all her friends panicked or sobbed, Sofia tried her best to keep her head. Pushing aside her fear, her gaze darted back and forth between the viscous, whirling creatures to the abandoned board, the candles around it guttering as a sixth entity hissed up to join the others.

The board, she thought, they’re using it like a door. Maybe they’re connected to it. Maybe if I break it somehow the connection will be broken.

With no better plan she darted forwards and snatched up a tealight in each hand ready to set it alight. Before she could drop them onto the board, however, one final creature burst up through the hole of the planchette, the sudden gust of air snuffing out the candles she held and causing her to stagger backwards, her arms thrown up to shield her face.

The arrival of the seventh creature seemed to catalyse the others into motion. All at once, their shark-like circling ceased and before any of the terrified friends could react they were barrelling through the air with hungry growls.

Liv and Lucas were shrouded from view as two of the entities set upon them, while a third hit Ethan so hard he was driven to the floor, defenceless as it poured down his throat. Isaac continued to wrestle desperately with the door even as another creature engulfed his skull, his struggles growing weaker and weaker with every passing second. Addison’s shrill scream rose briefly from beneath table, though it was cut off almost immediately, the oily tendrils of a fifth creature disappearing underneath, and though Hannah swung her chair bravely as a sixth entity bore down on her within seconds she had been driven against the wall and her hands had fallen slack at her sides, the chair crashing to the ground. 

Sofia barely knew what hit her. No sooner had she lowered her arms than she found her head swallowed up by a thick, writhing mass. It felt like some kind of strange, sticky slime, rolling over her skin, tangling in her hair and blocking the world from view. The weight of it drove her back and that terrible, primal growling filled her ears. Perhaps the most frightening thing, however, was its strength; in a heartbeat it had wrenched open her mouth and pinned her arms firmly to her sides. It was like she’d been tied up and a ring gag forced between her teeth. She could feel it pressing suffocatingly down her throat and spreading through her insides like a virus, filling the darkest crevices of her soul until the fear gradually ebbed and nothing seemed to matter anymore.

In the final moments before the last of the creature invaded her and she succumbed to its embrace, Sofia was sure she was going to die. And though she could not fathom the nature nor intentions of the entity now possessing her body, she was right, because by the time it would eventually vacate her consciousness the following morning the old Sofia would be dead and buried…

---

Taking her first breath, Greed closed her eyes and savoured the pleasure of having form again. The sensation of taking a new host was a hit unlike anything else and she took a moment to explore the body she now found herself in: wriggling her ring-laden fingers, circling her broad hips, shaking her long dark hair with a satisfied smile.

The girl had been the only host for her. Her materialism had been like a beacon, the stench of it drawing Greed in like a shark scenting blood on the water. Everything about her was a shrine to money and avarice, from the designer glasses that were simply a fashion accessory to the ludicrously expensive manicure. The girl had even been so desperate for wealth she had opened the door for them in search of it. Yes, Sofia was the perfect host.

Around her, Greed’s siblings were relishing their new bodies too. Emerging from beneath the table Lust ran her hands up and down her host’s curves with naughty giggle, while a short distance away, by the door, Pride was admiring his muscles wearing an arrogant, satisfied smile.

One by one they drew up to the table before turning to Greed expectantly. It was their tradition – whichever one of them claimed the mortal who had opened the gateway as their host, they were the one who started out the night.

Greed smiled. ‘Brothers, sisters, tonight is our night. These are our hosts and reality is our plaything.’ She waved her hand and the door swung open. ‘Let’s have some fun.’

With that, they strode out, the Seven Sexy Sins given form once more and let loose on the world for one night of fucking, fiendishness and truly filthy depravity…

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Thanks for reading!

This story is the start of a miniseries I’ve had on my mind for over a year I’d say, and I’m thrilled to finally have it unravelling for you all to enjoy. Though it is set on Halloween, I have to admit none of the scenes themselves really play into that theme that much, however the main reason for that is that I wanted to make sure the galleries I chose to support each chapter made sense for the character they focused on rather than forcing them to make sense for a Halloween gallery. In addition, I personally find most Halloween galleries to be fairly samey and that they often don’t lend themselves to stories as well as other galleries – almost all of them are just costume parties, which makes the options for a story using them somewhat limited.

As I mentioned last week, there will be a new chapter for this series releasing every day through until next Friday, and the first one is up right now! So head over to chapter one to find out what Pride does once she sinks her demonic claws into Isaac…

I would love to hear your thoughts on my work, so please leave me a comment!

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Twitter: @Fetish_Fantasy_

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Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/ouija-board-ouija-spirit-board-4553829/