Until You Call on the Dark
by J.T. Trigonis
“They’re still going!”
The gang gathered round the doombox in Tommy’s bedroom. The doombox––that’s what they called their trusty JVC RC-X310 that spun all their favorite metal tapes and discs. The new album by Dominion was released on Tuesday, and on Thursday Jesse, Joey, Brian, and Tommy walked two towns over to a music store and bought the CD. Much mystery surrounded this new record and the band, being they were notorious for writing songs that promoted the ideals of the Church of Satan. This fourth studio album, Darklings, was no exception.
There were supposed to be twelve songs, with a hidden thirteenth track. But there was nothing at track thirteen. What was strange was that the doombox display was now at track forty-five, and it kept on counting up. Forty-six. Stranger still, each track lasted only three seconds of silence. Forty-seven. Three… two… one…
About a week before Darklings dropped, they performed a ritual in this very room. They lit candles. They removed their clothes. They sat in a circle. The doombox droned a strange invocation. A spirit board spread out before them.
No fingers touched the planchette that night. The air was thick with questions, and the board promised answers at a cost. Sweat, demonthrall, and Lucifuge mixed into something out of H.R. Giger. They closed the session, but something remained in the room alongside the spent wax and a bloodstreaked Swiss army knife. Waiting…
“What if the hidden thirteenth song is track sixty-six?”
The CD spun, a black aria of voiceless dimension, and the doombox display hit sixty. What would happen at sixty-six? Was there a hidden track at all? Sixty-one. Would there have been one if they had not cracked the gate to the other side? Sixty-two. They held their breath beneath the shadows. Sixty-three. Then, like dread wings beating, something breathed. Three… two… one. What if the gate wasn’t closed? Sixty-four. A circle of snakes. Three… two… one. Rumbling. Sixty-five. Thunder? Three… No. Two… A snarl!
Jesse reached for the STOP button.
One second too late.
J.T. Trigonis (he/him) is a neon troubadour of the written and spoken word. With the obligatory MFA in poetry from Brooklyn College, his work has appeared in over five dozen journals that have made appearances on the bottom shelf of book stands (as well as online) since 1998. Relatively new to the world of fiction, Trigonis has had his stories published in The Horror Tree's "Trembling with Fear" and Black Hare Press's "Dark Moments" segments, and he has a drabble that will be published in NUNUM's forthcoming Done in a Hundred anthology.