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"Just do it Timmy! Don't be a little bitch!"

Timmy was the youngest of the group, having just turned 15. His friends Mitch and Samantha were 16 and 17, and August was the eldest at 18. She was the one shouting at him.

"Finish the spell!"

August was obsessed with the supernatural. The group often played around with Ouija boards and hung around graveyards, but August was the firmest believer in the occult. She had recently broken into the basement archives at her local Church in the hope of stealing some communion wine, but instead she happened across a book that was chained to one of the basement walls. She couldn't get it off, so she chose to rip a few pages out and escape before she was found. August assembled her friends and tried to recite the Latin scripts.

"I don't know if this is working," said Samantha.

"Yeah, come on August knock it off," Mitch said in agreement.

"Just be patient guys! I'm telling you, if we all hold hands like this diagram shows then we can summon...something. Then we can go on crazy fun adventures!" August held up the torn pages showing a sketch of what looked like a naked young woman with a blank face.

The group held hands, and Timmy spoke the Latin words again, as best he could. They waited a moment, but nothing happened. Mitch pulled away from the circle, and as he released Samantha and August's hands, a bright flash erupted between them all. They were thrown to the ground and blinded by the light. Timmy was the first to awaken, and when he looked towards his friends who were all lying on the floor around him, he noticed a man spread out besides him. He had a suit on, although he looked dishevelled. Timmy screamed and in doing so, woke up the group collectively.

They all jumped up in shock at the old man who was between them. August was terrified but tried to put on a brave face. She composed herself and in a trembling voice she said, "Hey mister, get up."

The man rubbed his eyes and sat upright. He was as confused as the teens were, but less scared.

"What on earth?"

"We summoned you here. We followed the ancient spells," said August.

"What do you mean you summoned me here? What ancient spells?" said the man, perplexed.

"I...found...these pages at a Church, we recited the spell and it was supposed to summon someone".

The man slapped himself in the face a few times.

"Oh god. I'm not dreaming. I was walking to my door, I touched the handle and then everything just went white."

"We saw the same thing. We finished our spell and then a flash knocked us all down." Timmy explained.

"This can't be. Oh god! My wife! My boss was coming round for dinner," the man looked at his watch, "He'll be there in 5 minutes. You have to send me back. She's got all of the kids and she hates it when I'm home late. I need to impress Mr Collins too. Please send me back!"

The group looked at each other. August took the lead, "We don't know how."

The man was panicked, "Where are we, are we near to the town centre?"

The group again looked at each other. Samantha replied, "Kinda, I think it's a 20 minute walk to Dayton."

The man stood up and shook himself off, "Right, where's Dayton? Is it really far from Liverpool? We live by the station."

"Liverpool?" August asked, "Like Beatles Liverpool? Liverpool England?"

"Bloody hell what other Liverpool is there?"

The man had a sudden realisation. He looked at the houses around him. Large swathes of land, wooden structures. The grass was different, the kids spoke with accents. It was warm, very warm. He looked at Timmy in the eyes, "Dayton Ohio? I'm in America!"

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Submitted by illustrative_lobster on Mon, Apr 11, 2022 to /r/WritingPrompts/

The prompt

Instead of summoning a bright eyed, naive, dense teen the summoning ritual has brought forth an exhausted 45 year old father of 4 who is more concerned about explaining his absence to his wife and boss than the prospect of adventure