text: This is chapter one of a prompt from the writing prompt subreddit. I hope you enjoy it :) \ Pono screamed, pulling her hair as she gripped it tighter and tighter, her disheveled hair covering her eyes. She looked down at the pentagram on the floor. It was a mess. The lines are not straight, and the candle wax leaks into the cracks of the hardwood floor. She tried everything and every single god she could think of, after mindless amounts of gods and goddesses. Pono was going to give up. What she wanted wasn’t that bad either. Her wish wasn’t even that selfish at all. It was for the betterment of humans or animal kind in this case. The wish was simply to talk to animals and be able to read minds. She hated seeing people sad or upset, even angry sometimes. The world should be a better place, instead of this insane world we live in. Insane, Insanity? She reached out for the book of gods and goddesses that lay on the floor, covered in her own blood. Rapidly flipping through the pages, it landed on the page that she needed. “Lyssa, Goddess of Insanity.” her last hope to achieve her harder-to-reach dream. The instructions were the clearest compared to the other deities, and Pono followed every last instruction to the tee. After a couple of hours of cleaning up the room, she gripped the book and looked down. Cover the walls with bloody smiley faces, ‌and add teeth to complete the smile! A knife gripped her opposite hand, and she stabbed into her fingertips. She winced in pain as blood dripped down her fingers. Then she started painting the smiling face across the room, a simple twin parallel line. After a couple of minutes, a grinning mouth with shark teeth littered the room. The book mentioned something about having twenty of the five on each wall. Pono’s fingers left the mouth, the last one done. Admiring her work slightly, she heard faint laughing. Draw on the floor with black wax, a large circle with two lines--one slightly longer and the other. Then draw a mouth with no teeth, it’ll do the rest. What will do the rest? No matter, Pono thought to herself as she grabbed a black candle. She lit the wick of the candle and gripped it. The wax leaked. Her hands moved on their own, following the first step of drawing it in a circle. Then, a parallel line next to each other with a mouth underneath it. The wax started dripping from the circle. She saw nothing wrong with it. Then the room spun. She lost her balance and collapsed on the floor. Teeth started growing from the mouth and clanking together. Grinning, the mouth laughed, laughter. Constant laughter filled the room as she gripped her neck, tears rolling down her eyes. How is she supposed to finish the rest of the steps? Spinning and spinning, her hand reached out for the book and pulled it close to her. Her eyes read over the page. Blood, Blood. Blood, Blood. Blood, Blood. &#x200B; What is this? Blood? Do what with the blood? She fell on her back and gripped her hair and screamed, her voice aching as she panted. The knife, Pono needed the knife. Her hand reached out and gripped it shakily before ritualistically slashing her hand. Blood gushed from her hand and poured over her mouth. The teeth seemed realistic as they seemed to absorb into the teeth. Everything went silent as the laughter and spinning slowly stopped. Pono puffed, her breath heaving as spit escaped her mouth. Her vision steadied as she looked at the blood-covered floor, the mouth opening on the floor as the blood drizzled down the hole. Hole? Why is there a hole? Why does it smell so pungent? What’s floating in the air like that? Why is a lady floating up in her room? The lady had silky black hair with yellow and red strands in her hair. A dress that flowed down to her legs, a beautiful dress the color of red with black broken hearts decorating the dress. Her face was beautiful, perfectly sculpted, like the deity she is. “Oh my, you actually summoned the great Lyssa. Now, what do you wish for? What shall I grant?” Pono’s eyes went wide. Her bleeding hand seemed non-existent as she stared at the deity in front of her. “It worked, it actually worked.” She broke out in a mutter, gripping her hair. The insanity was still present in her body, slowly gaining control of herself. “I” she paused and breathed in. “The ability to read minds and talk to animals, I just want to help people out!” She shouted with the little conviction she had left. Was it even worth it in the end? Lyssa put her finger on her lip before staring down with a smirk, “Sure thing! I’ll glad a follower of mine would already ask me for a power!” Her lips curled up into a large smirk, she hovered towards her new devotee. Stabbing a finger into Pono’s head, yellow energy crackled down her fingertips as it entered her body. This same energy crackled across her body, and Pono screamed once again. Then she heard everything, the voices of everyone and everything. Nonstop chatting, the voices already won’t stop. “Take it back..” She lowly muttered to the goddess, grabbing the arm still attached to her forehead. “I’m sorry, what would make me think I can handle this?” Maniacal laughter escaped the mad goddess in front of her, loud laughter. The laughter made‌ it even worse, voices growing louder and louder. Crying and shouting, so many emotions ran rampant through her mind. “I got an idea. What if I make the voices stop?” she shakily grabbed the knife and raised it in the air. Pono reeled across the room and threw open the door, leaving her spare room and walking across the apartment. Lyssa was puzzled by this reaction. However, she silently hovered behind one of her only followers. Narrowing her eyes, she watched her leave the room. Looking around, she watched as she banged on the door, muttering the name of the occupant. Said the occupant threw open the door and Pono lunged at them, stabbing them through the heart. Then kept stabbing and stabbing into the body, tearing it apart. “One of them stopped talking! If I keep this up, I can stop all of them around me!” Pono shakily shouted, looking at Lyssa with disdain. “I’m going to murder this entire city and leave your mark at each.” She muttered, her eyes glowing a slight yellow. Her fingers were dipped into the victim's blood and painted the enormous mouth she used to summon earlier. “All of this for little old me?” She smiled evilly and reached out a put two fingers into her neck. A smaller smiley face appeared on her neck. “Now go get started, my acolyte! I’ll be watching you.