Eye of Siegfried(Marvel)

I poured the salt onto the floor in the shape of the Sigil of Lucifer as per the book, occasionally taking a sniff as I still couldn't stop myself from crying after the humiliation I suffered today. Half of my face was covered in bruises and my right eye was swelling up as well.

Growing up, life had always given me the short end of the stick. I was never the smartest kid nor the most athletic. My looks were average and I wasn't charismatic either. My siblings, on the other hand, had it all. Because of this, my parents tended to favour them over me often. They got better presents, better clothes and my parents treated them like royalty.

And it didn't just end with my parents. Both the neighbours, teachers and the kids at school liked my siblings better than me. Once it was clear that I wasn't as gifted as my siblings, the teacher began comparing me to my siblings which was not good for my self-esteem. Moreover, those that didn't like my siblings tended to release their frustrations on me in the form of bullying, ostracising me from the rest of class etc. It didn't help that my siblings and their friends did the same.

So against all the abuse, and neglect, I suffered, videogames, comics and superheroes became my respite. I frequently visited the arcade where I could spend the entire day, away free from my dismal life without a care. Videogames were also the one thing I was good at, as I won game after game and used the tickets I won to play more or buy myself gifts. I also collected comic books, mostly superhero ones. I used to fantasise about one of these heroes coming to my rescue from the bullies and my life here and that we would both fly off into the sunset. There were now real-life superheroes flying around such as the fantastic four and the avengers but I was more drawn towards the magic users like Dr Strange. My reasoning being that unlike most of the other heroes whose powers come from the X gene, cosmic radiation, super soldier serums and other factors that seemed like sheer dumb luck on their part, magic had to be mastered like you'd do any other skill. As such it was the one type of superpower that I even had the remote chance of attaining realistically speaking.

Things changed when I and my sibling started middle school. For the worse. The bullying and harassment got worse and somehow, I found myself joining a group of occult enthusiasts. They were weird even for my tastes but they were the only people who didn't treat me like a punching bag or as if I had the cheese touch. And eventually, I began enjoying their company and for once I thought I had friends. I also got developed an interest in the occult as it goes hand in hand with magic. I bought books and other paraphernalia related to the occult and me and my friends constantly hung out and debated about our occult knowledge. Of course, it didn't last which brings us to today.

I knew something was wrong the moment I stepped foot into the grounds as I saw other kids staring and pointing at me. I then began to try and look for my friends yet for some reason they seemed to be avoiding me. I kept my guard up for the rest of the day until it was the last period before gym class which I shared with. Erin, one of my friends.

I tried to speak with her only to be given a note, that said to meet her at the supply room, which doubled as an entrance to the gym which I found strange. Our school had a bi-weekly event where a specific club, class or team would perform, ranging from plays to stand-up comedy inside the gym. It was to help them with public speaking and whatnot. And while there was such a thing today, as far as I knew, it wasn't the turn for our class.

Yet, even so, I found myself standing inside the supply room after gym class. And then, the door opened and I saw Erin and the rest of my friends enter. Except they weren't the only ones. Behind them, I saw several students belonging to the football team enter including Todd, the captain of the football team and also the main instigator behind my bullying. I looked at my so-called 'friends' who were looking down seemingly in shame while Todd took several steps forward.

"Look who it is. The man of the hour. Come on freak. I and the boys have prepared this just for you. He said as his arm snaked around my shoulder. I shook it off before attempting to leave the room only for the rest of the football team to block off all exits. They then tried to grab me forcing me to try and fight them off but against the entire team, it was futile as they landed several punches on my face before one of them hit right below the diaphragm knocking the wind out of me. They then tied my hands and feet to a chair with duct tape before dragging me into the gym where a large crowd was already seated I was placed right outside the court before the rest came out wearing costumes. Including one quarterback that was dressed eerily in similar clothes as I usually wore.

" Ladies and Gentlemen. Today we will be looking at an accurate recreation of the life of a loser in their natural habitat. Now, who's excited for this?" Todd spoke into a microphone as he got onto the center of the court. A chorus of applause followed from the crowd including from my siblings who were in the front row. And then they started their performance.

It was basically a play they made about me in which they had cartoonishly exaggerated my life. Such as portraying me getting all F's while in reality I got Bs or Cs on average. Overall it wasn't exactly too embarrassing or anything as it was clear that they were blowing it out of proportion.

And then, it got worse as they began mockingly portraying scenes which revealed many embarrassing moments from my life, such as my first crush, who was the librarian at my old school and was well into her late 50s. Parts where I talked about my hopes and dreams such as wanting to become a superhero like Dr Strange. About how my collection of occult books and my other hobbies. Basically, things are only known by a handful of people. Like my 'friends' and my siblings which only made the betrayal by the former more hurtful. Worst of all worse how the audience laughed along with them including my siblings. Some of them had thrown jeers my way, calling me a freak and telling me to kill myself. And it was honestly too much as I began to sob which only made them laugh harder.

At some point, a teacher had finally arrived and put a stop to the entire thing before taking off the tape and I just bolted even as the teacher called out to me. I ran out of the gym, went to my locker, got my bag and left the school and began running with no destination in mind.

Eventually, I found myself somewhere in the rundown part of the suburbs on the outskirts of Queens just as the Sun began to set. Many houses there had been abandoned after a hurricane a few months back. I found one such house and went inside hoping to spend the night there. I was too angry to go back home to my so-called family. My parents always took my sibling's side whenever I told them about their bullying and I knew for a fact that Todd and his cronies will only get a slap on the wrist for whatever he did. And the less said about my "friends", the better. The thought made my anger surge even more as my hand instinctively went into my bag and picked up a book inside.

It was an old worn-out book with the Sigil of Lucifer on the cover. The title of the book when translated was called the Code of the Hunters. It was a book I had bought from an old bookstore. The Sigil of Lucifer combined with the texts written in Latin was what drew me to that book. The next few weeks consisted of me learning Latin so that I could understand what was written on it. Of course, one does not learn a whole new language in a few weeks so Google Translate did most of the work. I managed to translate the first few chapters chapter. Among which was a ritual to summon a demon to do one's bidding.

I don't know whether it was rage or something else that made me want to perform this ritual inside that house but I picked up my bag and went to the one convenience in the area which was a good 15 minutes from the house I decided to squat in.

The ritual itself was oddly simplistic, contrary to what you find on TV, I didn't need anything too fancy. Just salt, a dozen candles and a knife. And now I just had to wait for a specific time.

I made the final touches on the Sigil before placing the candles and lighting them. They had to be lit in a certain order for the ritual to work. Once that was done, it was time for the final step. I took the knife and began cutting carving patterns and symbols onto my arm. It took a while as I of course never had done something like this as such I kept on wincing away in pain the more I cut. But with anger fuelling me, I managed to complete carving the patterns into my arm.

I then looked at my phone and the first thing I saw was the missed calls from my parents, my siblings and my former friends. I chose to ignore t as I looked at the time. It was 2:58 am. Just two minutes until the ritual.

I then lifted my left arm and used the blood oozing from the cravings to draw another set of markings within the Sigil of Lucifer before placing the book right in the middle of the Sigil. From the corner of my eye, I saw the clock strike 3:00 AM on my phone and I began muttering a chant. It was in Latin and I definitely butchered some of the words and to be honest, I wasn't even sure what the chant even meant yet I didn't care. All I thought about was how much I had suffered at the hands of those people and I wanted revenge. And if this demon could do it, I was ready to do whatever it takes.

I recited the final verse of the chant and waited and..... nothing happened. I hissed in anger. Of course, it didn't work. How could I have bought an actual occult spell book from a bookstore accessible to everyone?

I got up in a huff to find a way to stop my arm from bleeding. Not noticing a faint light emerging from the book. I took off my hoodie and I was about to use it to wrap around my arm when I felt a sudden heat emanating from behind me. I turned around and couldn't help but step back in fright. I saw a flaming serpentine creature floating a foot above the Sigil. The said Sigil was currently on fire and the creature had its eyes on me. And it was either very angry or very hungry, I didn't know which was worse.

The creature suddenly coiled back his head and I dodged it almost on instinct. Just a millisecond later, the creature charged at where I had been standing, leaving a trail of fire behind it. Upon missing me, its head turned back towards me and charged once more and again, I narrowly managed to evade it. On the third time, I lost my footing when I was evading and I fell onto the floor face first.

I turned onto my back just as the creature lunged at me. But I managed to roll out of the way before I felt something hard pressing into my back. I turned to find a broken piece of pipe which I grabbed without hesitation. Behind me, I felt the creature readying for another lunge. I turned around and swung the pipe as hard as I could at the general position of the creature and miraculously, I ended up hitting the creature on its head. Though that didn't stop it for long as it readied for another attack. I readied the pipe, holding it like a baseball bat while slowly backing away.

The creature acted first, charging right at me. In response, I was about to swing the pipe when suddenly, it changed its trajectory and went between my legs and wrapped its body around them in a split second. Then with a tug, I tripped me causing me to fall on my back.

The pain followed soon after as I felt my legs burning and I yelled out in pain. I then looked at the creature who was rearing its head, its gaze locked onto my throat. And then it lunged with its maw open. Thankfully, the pipe was still in my hand as I swing it at its head once more, stopping its attack.

It then looked at the pipe before grabbing it with its mouth and a short tug of war followed which I lost as the creature managed to pull the pipe out of my grasp. It then spat it away from us before targeting my throat once more. This time, I held up my right arm in a weak attempt to shield myself and the creature bit down on it, causing me to cry out even more. The pain got so bad that I tried to pry the creature away with my free arm.

However, the moment the arm touched the creature, something happened. The carvings I made of the arm began to glow and light flowed out of it. And like tendrils, these lights flowed out from my arm and entered the creature and this was followed by the creature suddenly letting go of my arm and hissing in pain. It uncoiled itself from my body and attempted to flee but the tendrils kept it in place. More tendrils began to emerge and wrap themselves around the creature, and were seemingly pulling it towards me. I tried to run, as I didn't want to be anywhere near the creature yet I found out that I couldn't move. My left arm was how outstretched and frozen in place as the tendrils of light dragged the creature closer and closer.

And as it closer, the creature began to lose its colour and the tendrils began to glow in the same shade as the creature's fire until eventually, the creature itself was absorbed by the tendrils. And once that happened, the tendril began to retract back into my arm. After the last tendril entered my arm, I was suddenly hit with a sudden wave of drowsiness and I fell onto the floor on my sides.

Oddly enough, the last thing I heard before my exhaustion overtook me were the sounds of heavy footsteps.