Ines

Chapter 1: Introduction: Isabel I don’t know why I signed that contract. Maybe because of my sister that was sitting playing snake on the computer screen and had not said a word since this evening. Maybe because of my mother that was laying in bed staring blankly at the TV screen after this evening. Maybe because of my father that was dinking whisky in the garden and had been there since the evening. This evening at 5 pm with 17 minutes, when that black car pulled into our drive way and those two men stepped out with those cold faces hard as stone. I signed it because this was a dream anyways. It had to be a nightmare. I didn’t cry, I just sat there as they spoke and didn’t take a word they said in. It hadn’t hit me yet, but I was afraid of when it would. I signed the contract because the child of our neighbors across the street came to visit for the first time since we moved in… 5 years ago. They say she is a witch and that she is possessed, that there is something way to weird in her. Some even say she has killed someone with her bare hands. So this can’t be true, this is all a dream. A big dream I will wake up from tomorrow and things will back where they were. The contract was in barely legible fonts and was in very small letters.

D. E. V. Revival Contract We would like to acknowledge that Isabel Sollis has now given three to recognize for her brother’s revival. She has agreed to give their custody to Lunadrane Ines. Master all Mighty is not to be given the permission to take this soul in exception of the body being in Master all Might’s territory. She is from now on responsible for these souls and if they are let free the souls will return but the contract remains intact. If the clients do not follow the 6 rules of the contract written by the Demonic Parliament of the D. E. V. the contract is automatically broken and the souls are kept by the hosting daemon. The three souls that belong to Thomas Sollis, Josefina Sollis, and Isabel Sollis are now obligated to order their bodies to follow the D.E.V. Constitution. It states so: We the Daemons of Hell, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Demonic States of Hell. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the Demonic States of Hell, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature. No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the Demonic States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the Demonic States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such manner, as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of the Reds shall be entitled to choose three, the Blues eight, the Browns and Yellows one, the Greys five, the New Breeds six, and Master’s attendants 4. When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies. The House of Representatives shall chose their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment. The Senate of the Demonic States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote. Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies .No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of Adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the Demonic States; and before the Same shall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill. May they sign this contract shall all of the above be done and followed and taken into the consequences. Lunadrane Ines is to be responsible for all the actions of such souls and humans for the Safe Period of a human month. After that the clients shall be alone and cannot be helped in any sense by their host. This is a very strict law that has been passed down by the D.E.V. and will continue to exist as long as Master all Mighty wishes so. Lunadrane Ines, Blue Daemon, has a financial institution that has been approved by the Soul Supervisory Commission of the Executive Devils (”**SSC**”) to carry out custodian business, and has a power rating at or above a prescribed level issued by an SSC-recognized power rating agency. WHEREAS, Lunadrane Ines intends to discretionarily entrust the Antoine Charles Family, which had entered into a Commitment to Coming of Age with Lunadrane Ines, to make investment in securities in accordance with the Management Regulations. THEREFORE, Lunadrane Ines agrees to mandate Isabel Sollis, in accordance with the aforementioned Management Regulation, as a custodian institution for discretionary investment soul funds in accordance with this contract and relevant laws and regulations, and to open securities investment account, take custody of soul funds and torture certificates, body trade and settle negative securities, conduct evil bookkeeping, exercise immoral right, and conduct other relevant activities on behalf of Lunadrane Ines. After carefully reviewing this contract, both sides hereby agree to enter into and follow this contract as follows pursuant to the aforementioned Management Regulations, relevant laws and regulations. This Contract for The Storage of Souls is made and effective this 16th day of July, 2009, between Lunadrane Ines (Blue Daemon, 398 years of age, Antoine Charles Family, 126th generation, Revival Contract.) and Isabel Sollis (Human, 10 years of age, Sollis family, 78th generation, Revival Contract). In consideration of the mutual covenants contained in this agreement, the parties agree as follows: RATES FOR STORAGE AND HANDLING: Depositor engages Warehousedevil to perform, and Warehousedevil agrees to perform, storage and handling of the following merchandise, referred to in this agreement as souls, at the following rates, as required by Depositor in the course of its business during the term of this agreement. Type of Soul: Human, Container: Sun Glass, Amount: 3, Weight: 180 PL. It is by now agreed to be in Lunadrane Ines’s hands and no one else, including Master All Mighty. Host: __Lunadrane Ines__ Client: __Isabel Sollis__ (No taking back after 1st h human month.) One Drop of Blood Please:

My name came out in bad handwriting and shaky lines. Then she smiled at me with those pearl-white teeth of hers and said, “Your wishes are orders,” and then she was gone. She had disappeared into the air. I stood up startled but decided it was all still a dream, no, a nightmare. And so I walked upstairs to try to wake up. I could hear my mother’s soft weep and my sister’s fingers on the keyboard while she played silently on the computer, trying to isolate herself from the world, from the cruel truth. My brother’s room is closed. Dad is down stairs drinking some whisky and trying to forget it ever happened. I enter my room and get into my bed with clothes and all. I close my eyes and do my best to try to wake up. Because if I don’t, I think I might just die.

Lunadrane The day the bell ringed, I didn’t expect it. But I didn’t look up; somehow I knew it was going to ring at some point. It was natural, someone I knew died. My mother’s bell rang all the time, my sister’s bell once in a while and my father’s rarely at all. This was my first ring and before I looked up I scanned all the people I knew in my mind. I didn’t know anyone other than some of my human friend’s grandparents and old people I meet that could have died. I walk over to my bell, it is black and white, a pretty color. When I look out the window there is a Negative on one of the roofs nearby. I look down and see a man in a black suit enter the house, I listen closely. Bad news of course, he leaves the house and the people inside weep. A car accident happened. What a common way to die. I listen closely, I see, one of the family members. I wonder why a Negative is on the roof. They aren’t so attracted to dying people unless there is a Black Source in them. I look the Negative with a hard stare and it looks at me frightened. He didn’t notice me before and flies away as soon as he does. “So someone died?” My sister asks, she is there all of the sudden, out of nowhere, I nod, “I liked that human, didn’t seem like a bad one,” I say, she nods, “Me too, but what to do after you’re dead?” She turns around and then stops, “This is a good time for your first contract.” She mumbles, “You read my mind,” “My first one was a Youth Contract, from this man a bit older than me that had lost all his hair and was very sick.” She said, “My bell rang, which is how I knew; I think he is still in Russia. Siberia I believe.” “Ok, I think I might offer,” “Who, the parents or the older girl?” she asks, I chuckle, “The youngest, she has no idea what to do.” I say, she smiles, “You’re cruel,” “I know,” I say.

Morgue Man “I’m here for a Contract,” the child says, I don’t really know what to say. The last one that came for a contract left the body stiff as stone and dried out completely, “Sure, go ahead,” I say, she goes inside and her skin and clothes turn into a pale blue smoke that curls behind me as I walk into the morgue. The body had gotten here this morning and I was to send it to the lab the next day. “I don’t know what I am going to say to the scientists, they never believed in you creatures.” I mumble, she doesn’t answer. She turns back into the child form and smiles at me with sharp teeth. “It will only take a moment, I suggest you step back.” She warns. I do so, knowing what they can do. She lets her left pale-white hand hover over body’s chest and closes her eyes. Her skin turns pale blue and spikes begin to appear on her arms and the nails on her right hand grow long. A circle of blue fire appears around them and I clutch the lantern that is in my hands with extra strength. Her mouth opens and the same blue smoke escapes her body and hovers over the body like a cloud. Then, quick as lightning she pierces her long nails straight into the heart and pulls them out. The smoke curls into the holes in the chest. Then the all of the sudden contracts and you see the veins and arteries bulge out of the skin and turn pale blue. The eyes open and are pale blue and the body arcs upwards as if a string were going straight through its chest and were pulling it into the air. The girl puts her hands out to her sides with her palms up and looks into the sky through the window on the ceiling. She smiles and to the moon and then the sky roars and that is when lightning rips through the sky and through the window and straight into the body. The body is impacted so harshly by the lightning it smashes against the table again and then it all disappears. The fire and the lights and the smoke, they are all gone. The girl is panting and she clutches her heart. The body on the floor is not moving, I suppose it didn’t work. Was this what they had done to me? Had my Host done the same thing? I knew what this girl and her kind could do, but I had never seen it with my own eyes. “Did it… is… did you…” I blur out, she stands there and smiles. All of the sudden the body takes in a hard gasp and you can hear a thud as its heart pumps up. The body is panting all of the sudden. The boy sits up and looks at me. “Where am I?” He asks me, I can’t believe my eyes. I open my mouth but words fail me. He looks at the girl and then back at me, “I want to see my parents,” he says, she looks at him. “You must come with me.” She presses, “What? Why?” he says, “Because you have too,” she insists, “How can I trust you? I don’t even know you!” He responds, she sighs, “Look at the thumb,” She says he looks at it and when he is about to say something a ray of light escapes her thumb and hits his forehead. He falls on the floor unconscious. I scream, “You just revived him to kill him again!?” I yell, she grabs the boy and lifts him up as if he weighed less than a feather, she smiles at me, “Excuse me, morgue gentleman, would you please open up?” I stand up shaking and open the door for them. A black car waits outside. The girl walks as if he were a fly on her shoulder. I watch them leave and quickly close the door with all the locks. I saw someone in the rain when they left, and I am pretty sure he was looking my way. I don’t know, but my contract didn’t include my Host coming to meet me every night, so either I broke a rule, or something really bad just happened. My Host comes inside in his green smoke form, “Do you have any idea what you just did?” he asks, I shake my head, “Something really, really bad. You need to take my bell. If you don’t, Master is going to kill us both.” I stare at him in disbelief. He gives me the green and yellow bell and I hold on to it tightly. “Sleep well,” he calls as he disappears, “You… you too!” I say, but he’s already gone.

Isabel I wake up really early. My mother is asleep in her bed and the TV is still on. Josie is still sleeping; her iPod plays an emo song. My dad is sleeping with my mother but with his clothes still on. I think I might just die. I turn the TV off and take the iPod away. I pull off my father’s shoes and go downstairs with 2 glasses of water I had found, one was halfway empty and the other one was half way full. As I place them on the sink someone knocks on the door. I walk over and hesitate at the door. “Who is it?” I ask, “Your Host,” the silky voice answers, I step away from the door. The ghost from last night is here. “Are you going to kill me?” I ask in a shaky voice, “Nope, I’m going to fulfill my part of the deal.” I try to remember her part. I think slowly and that is when my memory comes back. “I’ll get him back, you have my word. But I get to keep what I am asking for.” She had said. I grab the door and open, I don’t know what I am going to see but I don’t care. If he is there, if he isn’t, nothing else matters to me. I run outside and someone tall catches me in a bear hug. I freeze and look up. Thomas smiles at me, “Hey Isabel,” I can’t contain myself. I start crying uncontrollably. Thomas looks at me and back to Ines then takes my face in his hands, “Hey, what are you crying about?” “You’re alive!” I yell in between sobs, he looks at me, “Of course I am silly, is that bad?” he says. “Thomas?” A soft voice says, mama is behind us and stares at us in disbelief, she puts her hand over her mouth and a tear escapes her eyes. He runs in and hugs her as he drags me along. Dad and Josie come down and cry when they see my brother. They are so concentrated on him they don’t notice when the girl pulls me away and whispers, “I get my half of the deal, or he is going go back to how he was.” She warns and I nod quickly; I don’t want him to die again. “Ok, no backing off now.” She says. She puts a small glass bottle filled with a light blue liquid in front of my nose and says, “This is mine; thanks for doing business with me.” She says, then she disappears again and all that is left is her cold touch on my arm.

Chapter 2: Normality Everything went back to normal… everything except for one thing. Thomas was his old common self and Josie went back to chatting on the phone for hours with her friends and my parents seemed to catch back on the fast but also busy schedule they had before. The one thing that had changed was I. Ines constantly told me she had to speak to my brother and me about the Terms of Service. One night I was lying in my bed trying to sleep when I feel something on my leg. I freeze and start breathing quickly. Was there a ghost? Josie was on the bottom bunk bed and the cat was with Thomas (even he was all of the sudden really close to Thomas). Beside, what ever was there was against the wall, where I couldn’t see it. “Would you stop freaking out and just turn around?” A hoarse female voice asks. I turn around and Ines is sitting against the wall next to me. “How did you…?” I start, “Never mind that,” She cuts me off, “You and your brother need to speak to me have you told him yet?” She asks. Even if Ines had revived Thomas and all he still didn’t know he had been revived, he hadn’t even realized he had died! “Nope,” I murmured, Ines sighed with an annoyed tone. “Look, you tell him or I will tell him, I also need to meet him.” She said. Then she smiled sweetly, “Now go to sleep, you humans need to rest.” She whispered. She closed my eyes softly with the tips of her fingers. I stayed like that for a moment and then when I opened my eyes she was gone. I turned around again and started to think, I came up with three conclusions, 1. Ines was or a freak, a witch, or a product of my imagination. 2. She had to be superhuman. 3. Thomas wasn’t going to like this at all. I didn’t know why but I didn’t think Thomas would take the information that he was dead well. I would freak out. Also, Ines just could not be real. She appeared out of nowhere and disappeared just as fast. She might be a witch with spells or maybe a monster. Most probably I was going crazy. If she was real she just could not be human. Besides, what kind of fraise was that? ‘You humans need to rest.’ Also that Thomas was not going to like Ines at all. I head read the contract and lets just say Thomas isn’t the kind of kid that likes following rules, especially if they aren’t necessary. But these were necessary; except I wasn’t sure he was going to believe any of this.

“Ok, so you are telling me that I have to follow these rules if I want to be alive in one month?” Thomas asks Ines. I was right, the moment Ines saw Thomas her eyes seemed to burn with furry and Thomas’s first comment wasn’t the best for a first impression. “You’re short,” He had stated, “A person’s height is measure from the head up, Napoleon said so,” “Napoleon was a terrible person, nice idol,” “No he wasn’t, you know absolutely no history,” “Of course I do,” “Well it doesn’t seem so,” They stood there with their eyes locked and with really hard stares. I thought one of them was going to burst into flames in any moment. “Uh, guys,” I whispered, “What,” they both yelled looking at me simultaneously. “Well, weren’t we supposed to talk about the contract?” I say. Ines smiles, “Yes, I love how good you are at priorities.” She says. “By the way, do you two know each other from before?” I ask, “No,” Thomas says at the same time Ines says “Yes,” they look at each other and then back at me, “Sorry, no we don’t,” Ines says, So then she had fished a neat yellow paper out of her pocket and given it to Thomas as a rule book, which took us the current situation we were in right now. “Yes, all of them,” She agreed, I look over Thomas’s shoulder to read the paper in his hands. Rule Book 1. The human must not speak to Negatives during the first human month. 2. The human has one month under the protection of the host and must remain within a 1 kilometer radius unless it is accompanied by the host’s bell. 3. The human must not keep the bell out of the radius for more than the host allows. 4. Once the contract is broken it cannot be redone to the same person by the same host. 5. The family of the host and the companions of the human must respect each other. 6. The human must not go out of the boundaries without the bell, or he will it will be confiscated by Master all Mighty.

“What if I don’t want to follow them?” Thomas concludes, Ines grinds her teeth but keeps a harsh and forced smile on her face. “Well, you loose the contract.” She says, “And what happens if I loose the contract?” “I told you already, you die,” I jump at those words. Thomas merely looks at the paper before he holds out towards Ines, she raises one eyebrow, “What do you want me to do with that?” She asks. “I don’t want it,” “Memorized it so quickly?” “No, just not following them,” Ines cringes and then yells, “Do you not realize how serious this is?” He shakes his head, “Nah, not really,” He says. She sighs and takes my arm, “Isabel, I must speak to you. Tommy, you go home,” She says “It’s Thomas!” Thomas yells as I get pulled along with her. We stop behind a tree and she whispers, “Ok, this is absolutely much more annoying than I thought it would be,” She whispers, she looks at me with cold blue eyes, “Listen, it has been a week since I made the contract, so please make sure he follows the rules, only for these 3 weeks, ok?” she pleads, “Yeah, sure,” I say smiling. She smiles back, “You’re sweet, understanding, and smart. Too bad it doesn’t run in the blood,” She says, we look over to Thomas who is picking his nose as he sits on the steps of the door. “Lovely,” she whispers. “In any case, this is the only way I can assure you the contract will last.” She says, “Don’t worry; I’ll take care of it!” I piped up. She pats me on the head and goes into her house. I go over to Thomas, “I will help you follow the rules,” I say, “Good luck with that,” he says as he enters the house. As I am about to enter too I hear footsteps and I whirl around to see Ines standing right behind me. “He has to use this.” She says smiling. She places a little black and gold bell on my hand. It is like a church bell but really small and made of porcelain. “It is pretty much unbreakable but if it gets hit I feel it.” She says, “So please don’t let him drop it.” She waves and leaves to her house. “Thanks!” I yell. I go inside and give the bell to Thomas. He smiles and sits down hitting it with his index finger constantly. He is rather amused about his new toy. The bell has a silver and light sound almost like the wind. It is soothing and tranquil. “Hah, this thing is actually kind of fun.” He says, my mother passes by and sees the bell, “Oh, how cute, who gave you that?” She asks, “Some girl,” Thomas says, my mother stops for a moment and looks at Thomas ringing the little object again and again. “Too bad it doesn’t work,” She says, “What do you mean?” I ask, Thomas stops ringing it and looks at mom. “I mean that it doesn’t sound, right? I can’t hear it.” She says. She walks on and we look at the bell. Thomas sits back and goes on ringing it, except now he has that face. The one he puts on when he is thinking real hard about something.

That same day Ines knocked on my bedroom door and asked Thomas to read the contract. “Isabel signed this?” Thomas asks and I nod, “What were you thinking?” he asks. //Getting you back alive,// I think, “I had too,” I say, he tries to read the contract but rubs his eyes after the first two sentences. “Ouch,” He mumbles. It isn’t that bad. At least that is what I think. “But, who is the Host? Who is the Master all Mighty? What are Negatives? Who are the Daemons and what is D.E.V.?” Thomas asks, “I am your Host,” the girl says, we look up at her as she stands in one corner of our room. I don’t know how she got through my parents when she knocked on my door. “At least for him and Master all Mighty is my Master. He controls everything that goes on in hell and with our kind. He is what you humans may call the Devil.” She mocks. “Daemons are creatures like me.” She smiles, “Negatives are spirits, only you guys and my species can see them. Thomas, they will try to talk to you especially, not your sisters. Don’t ever do so, understood? You can’t really tell who they are except for a black fog that surrounds them.” She concludes. “What if I do talk to Negatives?” Thomas asks, “They will drag you to hell as soon as the month is over.” She says, I swallow hard, “Why did you sign this?” I ask, she looks at me with an annoyed look. “You didn’t read the contract, did you?” She says, I shake my head, “It hurt my eyes,” I whisper, she sighs, “It said he is revived and I get the three of your souls. From now on your souls are my property until Master requests it in hell. In other words, he dies. So as long as that is so he is immortal, he has to follow those rules and keep that bell I gave you.” She concludes, “D.E.V. is just like the Daemons Government. Period.” “Ok, so I am immortal?” he asks, “Yep,” she says, Thomas smiles, “Sweet,” he murmurs. “Even though it isn’t true,” Ines explodes, “It is too!” she then closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, “After that month you will be free to do anything you like… except for rules 4 to 6… and you will be alright.” She says, she pulls out our souls in their small bottle, “The more of these I get the better,” she says. Then she looks at me, “Would you exchange your family’s souls for their immortality?” she offers me. “Uh, no,” I say. She shrugs, “You will eventually,” she smiles,

Chapter 3: Secondary Effects I didn’t know how I felt. I was happy but sad, I was thankful but ungrateful, and I loved but hated all the same. I was happy my brother was back but yet sad because of all the attention he had now. I was thankful that Ines brought him back but ungrateful because she was asking for so much. I loved my brother for being back but I hated him because it seemed like Josie and I were invisible to our parents, as if he was the only one there. And so we sat in there on our way to school and Thomas played with the little bell and Josie tried to talk to our parents and I just sat in between them and let my body rock from side to side and jump with the movements of the car. Then my mind flicks on and I realize my science homework is still sitting on the bottom of my backpack. “Mom, I’m going to get my backpack.” I say, she nods and then keeps on driving with a small smile. I unbuckle my seatbelt and slide over the seats towards the back of the car. I reach towards my pink bag and then gasp. “Isabel? Are you alright?” Josie asks, Ines sits right next to my bag and looks at me with her blue eyes. She puts her finger on her mouth and lets out a small sh. I think quickly and answer, “No, it’s all fine, just lost my balance for a moment.” Ines smiles an evil smile. She passes me my backpack and I quickly hiss, “What are you doing here?” Her smile fades and she hisses, “Your brother is going to a party tonight isn’t he? I will be flexible because I think you have done a good job until now, but he has to be home by 9.” I look at her confused, “Or else?” I ask, she grinds her teeth, “Or else I will be suffering a lot tonight and the contract won’t protect me out of the kilometer radius.” She says. I nod and sit back down, as I do she whispers, “I did your homework by the way, it was easy.” I settle down and tell Thomas. He chuckles and says, “She is scary, how does she know those things? It’s like she stalks us or something.” I nod as he talks, “Yeah, but you should be careful,” I whisper, “Ok, ok, I will. Even though this is all a big lie,” He murmurs. We take a turn and we are in our school. When we get off my mom goes to the back and opens the door, I gasp softly and cover my mouth. What would she say when she saw Ines? But she doesn’t react; she simply gets our stuff and gives them to us. As we leave and she waves I sneak a peak at the back of the car. Ines is gone.

Chapter 4: The Bell By the way, I forgot to mention Ines is in our school. She is one grade above from Josie and two below from Thomas. When she walks down the hall people make way because no one want to touch her. Her cousins are here too; you don’t mess with any of them. There was one day in which a group of boys grabbed Ines’s small spirit bell and started to throw it around. Ines just looked at it flying through the air with angry eyes and she was breathing quickly. It was almost as if she was scared. “Don’t… drop… it!” She hissed at them. Some say her skin turned slightly blue as if she was freezing. Then the bell was thrown and she jumped against a locker and then jumped back into the air and snatched it. She had jumped a good 8 feet into the air. Then they went to her and started pushing //her// around and you could see how she closed her eyes and was breathing quicker. When she looked like she couldn’t take it anymore, a tall and tan kid came over and pushed one of the boys against one locker. We all gasped and when that boy that was the toughest of the grade turned around to fight he realized the size of this kid. He had curly hair that stood up like an afro and tan skin. What was really impressive about him was he had blue eyes too. And he was really tall, not as tall as Thomas, but tall enough. “You know, that is my cousin,” He had said, the tough boy then smiled and said, “What are you going to do about it?” and then two other guys and one girl appeared. One of them was younger but was LARGE. He had black eyes seemed like a professional fighter. He had pale skin but his black was shorter and straight. The youngest boy was pale and blond and with brown eyes, he wasn’t tall, about the size of the bully and was thin. The girl was the oldest, probably in high school, and she was the one everyone was staring at. What was so strange about her was not only that she was movie star beautiful, but she also had a silver little blade in one hand. “Listen, I am her sister and all these are cousins. We won’t let you touch her,” The girl hissed. Her eyes were blue too. The boy was now really intimidated. He and his friend were backing up when Ines put her hands on either one’s back and slammed them against the lockers as if they weighed nothing at all. They fell on the floor and quickly stood up and ran away. The first cousin raised his eyebrows and patted her on the head, “Don’t get in so much trouble,” Then they all just left their own way. Since then you just don’t mess with that family in particular, because they can really hurt you when they want to. The tall curly haired boy was named Daniel, and he was in 7th grade too. The large boy was Gustavo, or like he was called around the place Gus, and he was in 6th. The blond and youngest kid was Alejandro, and he was in 5th like me. Then came Arani, she was in 11th grade and the best of her class. They were all the best of their classes for some reason. So you can imagine my surprise when the smartest and cutest kid of the grade that was antisocial to the bones comes up to me that morning when Ines had appeared in our car and says, “Are you Isabel Sollis?” I stare in disbelief and fell as thousands of eyes are all of the sudden upon me, “I… why, yes.” I quickly answer, trying not to sound intimidated. He can tell anyway and laughs at this. He shakes my hand and says, “A pleasure meeting you Isabel, I do believe you know my cousin.” “Yes, Ines, she is my neighbor and she made… well, you know.” I whisper, “Yes, I do know. In any case, since you and my cousin are allied then I suppose we are too. If you ever need my help in anything don’t hesitate in calling. I live very close to you and I know where you live.” He says. He’s so charming. “Yes, thank you,” I say, as he turns around I quickly say, “But, where exactly did you say you lived?” I ask. I don’t want him to leave; I can already see myself drowning in the crowd of girls that would surround me as soon as he’d left. He understands and tells me where and next time he doesn’t leave. And so he didn’t leave in lunch or break or P.E. or any of the periods. We had all of them together, I hadn’t realized. I was saved for the rest of that day, I thought things couldn’t get better… but then again, I am not always right, now am I? The problems began when Thomas decided to go to the party. He left with his friends after school and I asked him about the bell and he pulled it out of his pocket and dangled it in front of my nose, “Do not worry, my superstitious little friend. I am safe of all evil.” He teased. They got in the car and left. I was a bit worried but felt better when our mother picked us up. She was also worried about him, but she fought it silently. When we get home dad asks about Thomas and mom explains, and so the evening goes on nicely. We are watching TV later that night, Josie and I have finished our homework and we did everything we had to do. It is this movie called Long Time Dead about these college kids from England who summons a Demon and the only way to kill it is by getting rid of all the kids. After the first person died the movie is really starting to scare me and Josie is even more scared than I. My dad is really into the movie and I could see how my mother is wondering if she should turn the TV off or not for the sake of Josie. We are in one of those suspense moments when you think something is going to pop out of nowhere. The girl walks slowly towards the half open door is where she thinks her friend is. “Hello?” She asks, she slowly reaches for the door knob, when… ring! The phone rings at the same time as what ever was in the door grabs the girl’s hand and she screams as this really loud noise makes sure you get twice as scared about the monster and we all scream and jump with her except for my dad that just has this really surprised face on with his eyes real wide and his eye brows shot up. I get up and run out of the room, “I’ll get it,” I answer, trying to get out of there to calm down the nerves. I run to the desk and pick up the phone, “Hello?” I ask, “Yes, hello, with Isabel please?” A sweet voice asks, “She is speaking,” I answer, then the voice goes dark and mean, “Isabel, it’s Alejandro,” He says, he sounds very angry, “Do you know what time it is?” He asks. I look at the clock, “10:30, on a Friday afternoon,” I say, he waits and then it’s when it hits me. “Oh snap! He had to be home by nine!” “Exactly,” “But is he in danger?” “Well, that isn’t necessarily the problem. He will be fine as long as he has the bell,” “Then what is…” A high pitch scream is heard in the background, I freeze, “Wait for one moment,” He whispers and then puts the phone down, “Oh god, what now,” I hear him say, “Its worse, it went all the way up to her stomach. The ribs are cracking,” I hear Arani say, “She’s lasted longer than any of us,” He answers, “Yeah, but she won’t last that much longer from now,” “Yo, just talk to the family or something’!” Gus’s voice says, “Ok, I have the sister on the phone, wait now,” He comes back and picks up the phone, “Isabel,” “Who was that?” “Well, Ines,” “What’s wrong with her?” “Look, she is being tortured by negatives and she can’t do anything to protect herself. We can’t do anything without the bell and she already has 14 broken…” “15,” Arani calls, “15 broken bones and many bruises, the bell is the only thing that protects her and your brother has had it out of the radius for way too long.” He hisses. My hands are sweating cold and my voice comes out shaky, “I’ll call him,” I say, “Thank you, please hurry up,” He answers and then hangs up. I dial Thomas’s cell phone number and he doesn’t pick up. “Hey, this is Thomas Sollis’s phone, please leave a message,” The machine goes, there is a beep. “Thomas, you have better come home now! There is a terrible emergency, and Ines is going to kill us if you don’t. No, her cousins will. Just get home already!” I hiss and then hang up. I wait for a minute before I radial, this time he picks up, “Whoa, why are you so desperate and why are they going to kill us?” He asks. I can hear loud music and people talking and shouting. “Because you aren’t here and it is 10:35! It is an hour and 35 minutes past the time you were supposed to be home!” I yell, “But what is the problem?” “That Ines is pretty much getting killed because she doesn’t have her bell!” “Well, that’s her problem,” “Thomas, this is serious.” “No, Isabel, it isn’t! There is no such thing as a contract!” “Then how are you alive!?” I scream, he doesn’t say anything, “I don’t know. Things like that happen. What matters now is that I am alive now, please Isabel, don’t torture yourself for things that aren’t even real.” He answers, “But…” “No, Isabel, goodnight,” he hangs up and leaves me with my mouth open. I feel tears swell up and that is when someone knocks on the door. I run downstairs and before I ask he answers, “Alejandro,” I open and there he is. He is now really mad. “Where is he?” I feel a tear fall down my cheek. He stares at it and hesitates before he wipes it off my face. His fingers are rough like sand, “I tried,” I whimper, he sighs and shakes his head, “She isn’t going to make it through the night.” He says. I swallow hard, and then I look at him and say, “I’ll go get him.” Alejandro looks at me with calm eyes and says, “I’ll go too.” I close the door and run upstairs. “Mom, dad, I’m going to go to bed.” My mom looks at me, “Going to bed so early?” She asks, I nod, “I had a tiring day at school,” I say. They say goodnight and I run into my room. I get on the top bunk bed and put pillows underneath the covers. I put some clothes on and when I look out the window Alejandro is standing on our roof waiting. I climb out the window, “How do we get down?” I ask. He simply puts an arm around my hip and another on my mouth and then jumps off the roof. I merely scream but his hands stops it and we land perfectly. Arani waits in the car, “Gus and Daniel are trying to keep her ok. Let’s go,” She says. We get in the car and next thing you know, we’re gone.

Chapter 5: Reality “Oh, hey Isabel,” Bernard says, he is my brother’s friend that is hosting the party, “You here for your brother?” He asks. I nod. He looks up and sees Alejandro and Arani and then says, “Oh, ok, go right in.” I walk in and see people dancing and some drinking and others just stay on the couches and sleep. I walk around and when I spot my brother I’m scared all of the sudden. He doesn’t look very happy but he is sitting with his friends and some girls and boys I don’t know and I suddenly feel like this isn’t such a good idea. “What are you waiting for?” Alejandro asks, I look at him and he immediately understands. “I see, well, I’ll take care of it then.” So then he walks towards my brother and I gasp because I can’t stop him without being seen. As I turn around to run Arani grabs me and pushes me along. “No, please, no, wait,” I whisper but she doesn’t listen. We all line up behind Thomas and his friends look at us. “Thomas,” Alejandro yells over the music, he turns around. When he sees him he just looks surprised, but then he spots me and Arani and then he gets really mad. “Ok, that is it. Do mom and dad know you are here?” He asks me, I shake my head. Now he starts screaming, “You… you have been making my sister suffer for the last 2 weeks. This contract thing you made up is not funny anymore. Ok? Leave us alone!” He screams at Alejandro. Alejandro looks at him with a serious face and Arani hisses, “My sister is now being tortured because of you. If you don’t come with us now I will force you to.” Thomas is getting red, “I want you and your family to stay away from mine. Now,” He yells, Arani shakes her head, “Only she can make us do that, she made the contract,” She whispers looking at me. Thomas looks at me, “Isabel, tell them. Tell them you don’t want that contract!” He yells, I shake my head, he lowers his voice and looks at me with sad eyes, “Please,” he begs. That is when the all of the sudden one of the boys that had been talking to Thomas walks around him and in front of us, “Why, if it isn’t little prince charming and his rattlesnake cousin,” I recognize the voice. It was the bully that had messed with Ines on her first day. I cringe away from him. “Well, now that three are gone I think I will have my revenge.” He said with a smile. He walks toward us and pushes Alejandro, I gasp. Arani is in front of him and facing the boy, “Stay out of this,” She hisses, he laughs, “Hey, maybe I will forgive you if you kiss me. Or else, I want to beat that kid up if you don’t mind.” He says. She looks at him really hard and says, “I will count to three, if you don’t back up, I will embarrass you in front of this whole party and take Thomas with me if he likes it or not.” She warns, “One,” “Oh come one, I don’t have time for this,” Arani is turning blue and nobody except for me seems to notice, he pushes her apart and goes for Alejandro, “Two,” she continues, I run and place myself in front of him “Stop!” I yell, Thomas grabs me and pulls me away, the kid grabs Alejandro from the collar, Alejandro does nothing and he still has his calm face on. “Three!” She yells. Arani grabs the kids head from behind and pulls him over herself and slams him against the floor. The kid yells in pain and one guy tries to punch her but Alejandro kicks his foot and has him on the floor in less than a second. Arani then comes towards us and grabs Thomas around the waist and pulls him on her shoulder. His stomach lands on her shoulder and his head is looking back towards me as she turns around and walks for the door. He starts kicking and punching her back but she pays no attention to him as she simply holds his legs down with her other hand. Alejandro grabs my arm and pulls me along. Thomas is so tall and Arani is actually pretty small, so when she whirled him over her shoulder it was actually a funny view. Bernard is still holding the door open and Arani walks outside with Thomas and we follow. She throws him in the car and I sit in next to him. They sit in front and the engine roars to life, we shot away from the house. “You know what; I am going to tell mom and dad about this when we get home.” He hisses, “No, you will give Ines the bell back and then I want to show you something.” She barks back. We drive home really quickly because Arani drives like a monster. We ended up on only two wheels in one sharp curve she took. I was pretty sure we were going to die before we made it half way through. But Arani didn’t go off the road once and we made it home safely. When we get there Arani grabs Thomas again and he pouts, “I can walk!” He hisses, she puts him down and then simply pulls him by the arm and I run beside Alejandro. When we get there I can hear Ines scream once inside. We go inside their house and Alejandro holds my hand because all the lights are turned off and I can’t see a thing. We walk a long way and the silence is really creping me out. Then I hear a soft crying that gets louder as we go on. We enter a room with the lights turned on and Daniel is there. The crying sound is coming from a door there. Arani pulls Thomas into the room. I can see Gus inside with a thermometer in his hands, “Hasn’t stopped?” Arani asks, “No, only gotten worse,” Gus says, I try to follow but they stop me, “You don’t have to see what is in there,” Daniel says. I stand back and that is when I hear the really terrifying noise. Ines lets out the most blood thrilling and terrifying scream, it is so loud and it sounds strange, like a roar almost, and it is longer than the other ones. They both look at the door, “Oh no,” Alejandro whispers, “Ines?” I yell. There is silence. Then I realize how scared they look all of the sudden. They run in and I try to follow, then I see it. Daniel has realized me and turns around to push me outside, but it is too late. I will never forget how Ines looked at that moment. Her arms were so bruised up she was pretty much purple all over. Her eyes were red like when you get soap in your eyes and she was nothing but skin and bones. Thick drops of blood were traveling down from her mouth and down her chin and she was falling. She was falling to the ground and her eyes rolled into her head. I screamed then, I screamed of horror of what I was seeing. Daniel pushed me outside and closed the door behind us. I tried to reach for it and I could feel the tears rushing down my face. I try reach for the door, to try to go save her. But Daniel was grabbing me by the arms and wouldn’t let go. I pushed and shoved but still he held on and finally he knelt down to hold me by my shoulders. His face was grave and harsh and he gave a big shake that startled me, “Don’t cry,” He ordered, I tried to stop but the tears were still flowing, he sighed. “Listen, I don’t know what to do in these situations. Ok? I’m not human; I only worry about myself and the family honor.” He states rubbing his eyes with his fingers. I slide to my knees and sniff and he patted my back. “You did what you could,” He whispered. “Why are you nice to me? I just killed her!” I scream, he shakes his head as he puts his hand on my head, “Because you tried, most humans don’t ever try. They only care about their souls and never about our kind. You really did care about her even after her being such a monster towards you guys.” He whispers. I turn and cry into his shoulder, his skin is ice cold. He stiffens because I can tell he isn’t used to human contact and he pulls his hands back as if he was dealing with something nasty. “Um, don’t worry. Uh, be happy,” he said. He then just stays there and lets me cry until his cold skin and the suddenly silent room sooth me and I fall asleep. I wake up later and realize we are still in the room and that it is about 3 in the morning. I am under a thick cover and my head is on a pillow. Daniel is close by looking blankly at the floor. “I didn’t go check on her in case you were still awake.” He whispers. I look at the door, “Have they come out yet?” I ask, he shakes his head, “Only Alejandro,” “Is she…” “I don’t know… he wouldn’t say,” He answers. I stay there for a while and listening to bird singing and crickets outside. I wonder if Josie already found out I wasn’t there. She would be furious. The door opens and Daniel stands up and pulls me up too. Arani walks out with Ines in her arms, “Ines!” I yell, I want to run towards her but Daniel pulls me towards him and stops me. “Wait,” He orders, Arani looks at me and says, “Your brother should stay from school on Monday. I won’t say anything else, except for she’s alive. Thanks,” She whispers and then leaves. Alejandro walks behind her and Thomas behind him. Thomas has the most terrified face ever. “Thomas,” I ask, he looks at me. “I won’t tell mom and dad, but only because they will think I am crazy. This is all a dream, it has to be.” He murmurs. He looks at Daniel and then yanks me away from him. As we leave the house Daniel and Alejandro wave and I try to wave back but Thomas pulls my hand down. We walk to our house and when we get there a light is on. “What will we say if they ask?” I say, “You will answer, I just came back from the party in which you went to for some reason,” He says. When we go inside it isn’t mom or dad sitting on the couch with an angry look. It is Josie. She has her legs elegantly crossed and she is using her morning dressing gown on with her red slippers. She sits on one end of our couch and has her hand on the lamp on the wooden table next to her and she is holding a cup of coffee in the other. “Where were you two?” She asks, Thomas gives his explanation and as he goes upstairs she stops him. “Oh really, so why were you in the neighbors’ house?” She asks. “Josie, it’s a long story.” I start, she interrupts me, “I’ve got nothing but time,” She answers. Then I let it out. I let out everything about the contract and the bell and the trouble we got into, she listens with the same cold and serious face. When I finish she says. “Listen, that was the most fantastic story I have ever been told. But it isn’t true, so I will let you go this time but next times forget it will only be me down here waiting as I drink 12 cups of coffee!” She yells. She walks upstairs and slams the door. I have to sleep with my parents that night and with one of Thomas’s pajamas.

Chapter 6: Bodyguard

“You weren’t supposed to come today,” I whisper to Thomas as soon as mama leaves. He grunts and looks at me with hard eyes and his jaw clenches, “I don’t care, Isabel.” He hisses. We walk towards the school and everyone comes over to talk to us about the party and everything but as soon as they see the looks on Josie and Thomas’s faces, they back off. As I go up the stairs Thomas grabs my arm and says, “And I don’t want you talking to that blond kid,” He orders, I nod and he turns around to leave. I get to my classroom running as I hear the bell ring. Thomas and Josie hadn’t gotten over Saturday night; they were still mad and tired about it. First of all, Thomas was completely embarrassed by being carried out of a party by a girl, and second, Josie was still hyperactive after the coffee and didn’t sleep well yesterday night. It wasn’t hard to follow Thomas’s order, not Alejandro or any of the cousins had come to school. They hadn’t given the bell to Thomas. I was wondering if it was a dream. When people talked I wouldn’t answer, I was still thinking about Saturday night too. When we went to recess I go over to one of the isolated benches on the corner of the building before the rest of the girls can find me. With Alejandro out of the way there was nothing stopping them from attacking me. I sat there and that is when I hear them coming, they had seen me. I swallow and make up some stupid excuse in my head and quickly grab the book I had just checked out and started “reading” it quietly. “So, Sollis, we want answers,” A high pitch voice rings; I look up and see 5 really sissy girls from my class. The first one smiles an evil smile, “You know, it is very mean to steal one’s boyfriend away.” She says, “He wasn’t your boyfriend,” I whisper, “Look, even if he was he would go with some other girl, not with you!” She yells, “I don’t get why you say that, you and I aren’t that different.” I answer, she gets really red, “There is a lot of difference, Isabel, so why don’t you just come here so we teach you a lesson,” She walks towards me and I cringe away. I knew what she meant by that. Every girl knew. It’s been known of girls that were taken to learn a lesson with them and they would find a way to simply embarrass you in front of the whole grade. The last girl who was taken to learn a lesson was dunked into the pool with her P.E. uniform, which was completely see-through. I wouldn’t stand for that but they were 5, and I was only one. When she is about to grab me I hear a loud thud above my head. She stops dead in her tracks and looks at what ever made that sound. I look up and there is a hand flat against the wall, “Leave the kid alone, will ya?” Gus says, he is twice her size and also a much respected kid, being from the 5 cousins. She smiles, “Oh, uh, sure Gustav, what ever you say,” She says nervously as she starts to twirl her hair in one finger and backs up. “Call me Gus, Gustav is only for the real friends.” He says. She apologizes and turns around to leave with all of the girls. Gus looks down at me and he looks like a giant, “You OK?” He asks and I nod, “Good, those girls ain’t nothin’ but trouble,” He sits next to me and says, “My cousin says thanks, you know, your host. She says Thomas could be in real trouble for not skipin’ school today and you know how she is.” He says. He sits back, “She said you might have trouble with them sissies, so I came along and sure enough that Barbie was givin’ you a hard time.” He concludes. I don’t say anything, I just think about what Thomas is going to say if he finds out Gus came to school and was spending recess with me. “Why would he get in trouble?” I ask, Gus shrugs, “Your brother doesn’t believe in our rules, he’s going to talk to negatives, that is going to attract a whole lot of negative power and that is going to end up nasty if he don’t stop,” he says, “And don’t ask me what I mean by nasty cause believe me, I am NOT the right person to ask. Ask your host,” “But, if he talks to negatives he will know they are real. So he might believe you guys,” I say, but he shakes his head, “Negatives are darn smart; they come out looking like normal dudes. As soon as you turn around they turn to smoke and disappear, of course, they come back for more or just follow you around in that form.” He explains. I was definitely going to ask Ines about this when I got back from school. Then the bell rings and Gus leads me back to class and then just goes on walking down the hall, swinging his little grey and green bell around his finger.

Chapter 6.5: Oops “I know what you did,” Josie whispers to me as we find each other in the hall. We walk downstairs where we meet Thomas everyday after school, “Gus came to class today, and he left during 3rd period, which is your recess.” She finishes. “Don’t tell Thomas, please,” I whisper, she looks at me with hard eyes. “Isabel, you can’t go on like this. That story they told you is a lie, you have to understand that family isn’t safe for you!” She whispers, “I almost lost my brother and now I’m loosing my sister, don’t do this to me. Don’t do this to our parents!” Then she quiets down because Thomas comes into view and he is also looking at us. “Hi, looks like blonde kid didn’t come to school today, or his cousins.” He says with a smile. I feel like bragging about Gus but I know that won’t help at all. Mom picks us up and as she does she says. “I’ve realized you guys have come to know that neighbor of ours.” We all stiffen, “They do seem like a cute family and their children are very educated and polite.” I think Thomas was about to laugh at this but he was two tense to do so. “So I have decided to call them up and it seems like they will be eating with us today!” She says smiling. Thomas and Josie that sit on either window slowly look at me with hard smiles and really cold eyes. I think I’m going to get murdered before I get home.

Chapter 7: Guests “I believe the only reason I haven’t choked you yet is because you are my sister and because mom isn’t at the supermarket.” Josie hisses as she locks the door she just slammed. Thomas sits next to me with his arms crossed and a very tense face, his jaw clenched and his eyes closed and he is breathing really slowly and deeply. “But, it isn’t my fault she called them!” I say, Josie rolls her eyes, “No, but you were the one that talks to them in recess and goes to their house in the middle of the night.” Thomas looks up, “During recess,” He asks, “Be quiet, my turn to talk,” Josie interrupts, “Thomas became involved in some way and I don’t want to become involved. This is not a safe relationship!” She growls. I shrink as she blabbers on and on about it. Mom eventually intervenes and we have to get dressed because it is a ‘formal’ dinner. Of course Thomas dresses in long shaggy pants and a t-shirt and we just use our normal clothes. Except mom is really taking this seriously and sends us to get dressed when she sees us. Thomas has to use formal pants and a white shirt with a collar. Josie and I use dresses, something we aren’t that used to, and they aren’t comfortable at all. Mine is pink for some reason and it has this ribbon on a way too high waist line. Josie’s has black and smooth and look really comfortable because it goes up to her knees, except it makes it hard for her to walk. “Stupid dress, this is your entire fault Isabel,” She says and she walks out of the room squirming in her dress. Thomas is fiddling with his long sleeves and my dad straightens his tie in front of his mirror. Someone knocks at the door and our parents smile and open. It had been a long time since we had seen the whole family, and we didn’t know the parents. Only the father was here though, “I am very sorry, but my wife is feeling rather sick. Maybe it was the flu this little girl was carrying around this weekend.” Their father says patting someone behind him. He is a rather short man with grey and white hair and a short beard. He has a white smile and a big nose. All of the cousins are behind him and they all enter with white smiles and shake our parent’s hands. Ines walks in last and she has a very pretty blue dress with no sleeves. “Good night, Mr. and Mrs. Sollis, thank you for the invitation,” She says softly. She looked healthy; she looked thick and chubby like before, not pure bones like Saturday night. While the adults converse we all go outside and sit in the steps of the parking lot. I sit in between Josie and Gus. The whole Sollis family to the left and the whole Antoine family to the right, I feel like I’m in a sandwich. “So, you got better huh?” Thomas says, “Yes, thank you for asking,” Ines answers. Another awkward silence, “Why didn’t you guys come to school, well, except for Gus.” Thomas looks at Josie and processes that, “Well, we had to take care of our cousin because she had to eat a lot and…” “Gus was talking to Isabel during recess!?” Thomas interrupts screaming, “How could you NOT tell me that Josie?” “Hey, chill out, I was protecting yo sister from the dudettes that were going to ruin her social life for ever.” Gus demands, Thomas looks at him. “Why can’t you guys leave my sister alone?” He yells, Arani speaks up, “Hey, if it weren’t because of us, number one, you would be dead, number two, your family would be at the brink of destruction, and third, Isabel would have been embarrassed in front of the whole school. Say, I think we deserve a bit more of respect from you two.” Thomas stands up and yells, “Number one, Isabel is a perfectly smart girl and would have found her way out, number two, my family is perfectly safe from any destruction, and third, I was never dead, so stop inventing lies to torture my sister!” He stomps into the house and slams the door. “You know what; I have had enough patience, with these people.” Arani states, she walks towards her house, Alejandro stands up and follows her. “Arani,” Ines calls in a tired tone, “No, this is your client; you do what you need to do. Keep me out of this!” She yells. She doesn’t slam the door but for some reason that makes you think she is much angrier than Thomas. “Well, that was lovely,” Says Josie, Gus looks at her, “What?” he asks, “Your piss off sister,” She says, “What do you mean? Your brother pissed off at me first!” He complains, “Well, he had a good reason.” Josie says, “What? Of course not! You’re even worse than him!” He yells, “Yeah, well at least I am better than you!” “Keep dreamin,” “Be quiet you dork,” “Piss off,” “Idiot,” “Jack !@#” “A@# H#@!” “M@F$!” Gus finally screams, Josie slaps him across the face but he doesn’t budge, he snatches her arm and she yelps. “Take that back… now!” Gus orders, “In your dreams,” Josie answers and punches him with her free hand. He doesn’t move, he grabs her other arm and looks at her really hard, “Take it back…” “No!” She yells and kicks him, Gus doesn’t budge and now he tightens his grip and puts his face really close to hers and whispers. “Last… chance…” “No…” Josie whispers, I don’t know what happens but Gus seems to turn red and that is when Daniel grabs him and throws him to the floor. “Gustav, control yourself,” He hisses, Gustav breathes deeply for a moment and then whispers, “I’m leaving,” He gets up and leaves and Daniel follows him, just in case he might change his mind. They enter the house and Josie that looks like she might cry runs into the house. I sit there about 5 feet from Ines. “I don’t know if I did your family good or bad when I offered the contract.” She whispers. “You did something good, except they don’t realize it yet.” I whisper back. “I didn’t mean to scare you at my house,” she says, “Why are you apologizing, we left you without your bell too long.” I say, she shrugs. After a while I look at her and ask, “Gus said things were going to end up nasty if my brother spoke to negatives. What does he mean with nasty?” I ask, she looks at me and grinds her teeth. “He told you?” She asks, oh no, she was mad, “Well, he might have mentioned it but he didn’t want to talk about it.” I whispered. She stomps her foot so hard against the pavement I hear a crack. I gasp but she doesn’t seem hurt. “Ow,” she whispers, “Ines are you alri…?” I was about to ask her if she was alright but stopped when I saw her mad face. “I hate him. Yes, it is true; he will be dragged to hell if he doesn’t stop.” She hisses, I look at her with big eyes, “Dragged to hell?” I ask, “Yep, and it won’t be nice. Believe me.” We don’t say anything else and when the food is ready the children come back from their house. Arani and Gus have incredibly irritable faces and they fiddle with their food before they eat it. Their father looks at them, “Now children, you must not show such disrespectful manners towards our hosts.” He scolds. They nod and their faces relax a bit, they eat normally. They had heard all the conversation and my mother was red with embarrassment and my dad seemed annoyed. “So,” My dad begins, “What was that entire racket outside about?” He says. We all stiffen and stare at our food. “I was terribly impolite towards your daughter. We got into a fight. I apologize and I promise I won’t let it happen ever again.” Gus says in a very polite manner. Arani grinds her teeth and sighs, “I picked a fight with your son; they have all the reason to be angry at us. I will not permit myself to repeat this situation. I apologize,” All of the children but their forks and knives down and quietly whisper, “We apologize,” My father sighs and says, “Well, that shouldn’t go towards me. It should go towards them.” He says pointing upwards. They nod and when I see their father he has a cold and stiff face. His eyes are locked on his plate. “Mathew,” Mom whispers, “No, love, if these children wish to apologize they should do it personally.” He answers. He looks at them and says, “Shall we?” He stands up and heads upstairs, we all follow. First is Josie. Dad raps on the door with his knuckles, “Josie? Honey, the neighbors want to apologize to you,” he says, “Tell them I don’t care,” She screams, my dad tries to open the door but it is locked. “At least listen to the apology,” He says, she swings the door open and stares at all of us with red eyes, “What?” She demands at Gus. Gus shuffles his feet, “I’m sorry about what I said and did outside. Please forgive me,” He mumbles, Josie looks at him for a moment and slams the door. “NO!!” She screams. Then my dad goes to Thomas’s room, “Hello? Thomas? Arani wishes to speak to you,” “I don’t,” “Well, at least come out,” “Not until they stop hanging out with Isabel,” “Thomas…” After a minute Thomas opens the door a crack and looks out. Arani apologizes while avoiding eye contact; her voice is soft and even. When she is done Thomas is about to close the door when she jams her foot into it causing it to stop. “But now you have to apologize,” She mumbles. He shakes his head, “No, not happening.” He growls, “Oh, come on, it isn’t like we were the only ones that were fighting.” “I don’t care,” He finally yells. Arani pulls her foot out and walks lightly downstairs and walks out the door silently. Thomas slams the door and all of them start to leave. Their father looks at mine, “Forgive my family; they haven’t really been as good as making friends as they were at making good grades.” He whispers and leaves with them. “Oh dear,” My mother says when she sees them leave. Alejandro waves and I wave back. Ines turns around and shakes my hand. “Sorry,” she whispers, when she leaves I have the bell in my hand; where she had carefully placed it.

Chapter 8: Last Day “Isabel, I will never forgive you if you go near any of the members of that family, EVER!” Thomas yelled. I nodded quickly, Josie rolled her eyes, “Thomas, they’ll find a way. If it’s not her it’s us or maybe even a friend of the family.” Josie explained, Thomas rephrased, “Isabel and Josie, I will never forgive you two or myself if we ever go near any of the members of that family or their friends and far away relatives, EVER!” “Our parents,” Josie whispered, “You get my point,” Thomas hissed. It wasn’t hard, this time not a single person of the family came. The sissies were still mad at me but didn’t dare to come near. That day after school Thomas came to us with a smile on his face. “What are you so happy about?” Josie asks, Thomas pulls out a purple flier and shoves it in her face, “Family Picnic, it’s for the whole school and there is football and water fight and everything else and it is in a private and guarded area. Today was the last day to inscribe and your family and the Antoine family wasn’t there. I saw the office close and no one inscribed their name. That means that I signed our family up so that Sunday we don’t get annoyed by our stupid neighbors.” He finally concluded, “And Saturday we are going to auntie’s house, so we are free.” Josie raised her eyebrows, “Smart,” She admitted, “Mean,” I murmured, but they paid no attention. When they offered the plan to my mother she accepted delighted. It was a Tuesday afternoon. Our neighbors didn’t come to school for the rest of the week. After Saturday we got home and still the cars from in front weren’t there and there was not a single light on. We all went to bed and that night our cat finally came to sleep with me. I smiled and scratched her neck when I feel something ruff on his skin. I look closer and notice a string around his neck. It has a little paper tied to it and I read it, “ Dear Isabel, We would like you to know that we will be attending the Family Picnic tomorrow. Please don ’ t tell your brother and we won ’ t come near your family. We will stay away all we can but please make sure your brother does not go out of your sigh. Please note that tomorrow the protection month is over. This time nor we nor the bell can protect him. Sincerely, Antoine Family ” “Tomorrow,” I whispered, I read the last sentences over and over. We had to go, but they would have to keep their promise. Thomas would kill me if he ever found out. I tried to sleep that night but it was hard. It wasn’t until the clock turned to 5 am, that I fell asleep.

Chapter 9: The End “Today is the day!” Thomas exclaimed as he sat down at the table. I munched on my Lucky Charms cereal and Josie was chewed her Honey Bunches. Thomas served himself some Captain Crunch into his bowl and then soaked them with milk. “It’s so good you’re happy today!” Mom exclaimed, Josie was pretty happy too. “Yes, it will be our family and all of the other normal families of the school in a private and guarded area. With no intruders what so ever,” She stated. I didn’t finish my cereal; I was NOT in a good mood today. I was happy every other day, but today it was way too many stresses and worries together. Today Thomas’s protection month was over, we were running the risk of running into the neighboring family at the Family Picnic, I hadn’t slept at all that night and over all that my siblings were really getting on my nerves today. “Isabel, you won’t eat your cereal?” Dad asked, “No, I’m full,” I mumbled. I went upstairs and decided that if anyone was going to try to kill my brother, they were going to half to go through me. I took Josie’s pepper spray and my dad’s pocketknife. Thomas’s slingshot would have to go too. Mom’s self defense book was also with me and I slipped a hammer out of the toolbox before we left. We got into the car and Cadbury was going to come too. We left around 9 am. “So do you think the neighbors will be there?” Mom asks. Dad, Josie, and Thomas all freeze. I simply smile and say, “Hopefully,” The Park wasn’t far away so we got there quickly. When we got there we unpacked and showed our school passes to enter. The park was full of students. It was divided of course into the grades. Thomas went to hang out with the 9th graders and Josie with the 5th graders. I went with the fourth graders to see if Alejandro was there. He wasn’t. Gus was not with Josie and I was too scared to ask the high scholars about Arani. Daniel wasn’t with Josie either. I didn’t have to even say a word to the sissies when they came because of the look on my face. Ines wasn’t anywhere either. “We will be watching,” the note had said, then where were they? I was walking around the place with talking parents and teachers and the students running around. I make a perimeter around the clear lake. The lake has people swimming in it around the edges and older people and high school kids swimming towards the middle. I start to leave when I bump into someone. I look up and Thomas is looking down on me with a harsh look. “Are they here?” Thomas asks, I shake my head, “Who?” “You know exactly who, those stupid monsters!” he yells, “What, Ines? No, she isn’t here at all. Don’t you believe me?” I ask, “Isabel, I don’t know who to believe anymore.” He says. Then he pulls the little bell out of his pocket, “This is an obsession for you. It is starting to rub off on me now! There is only one thing left to do,” Thomas says. He turns around towards the lake and holds his arm back. He is going to throw it. I want to stop him but that is when I see her. Ines is looking at Thomas from in between the trees of a forest nearby with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open. She has the most terrified face I had ever seen. Thomas bends forward and just as Ines throws her arm forward and her mouth curves into a No, he lets go. The bell flies through the air and before you know it falls in the middle of the lake. Ines’s eyes roll into her head the moment the bell touches the water. Then she collapses and I see Gus running towards her yelling her name. I hadn’t realized I was running. I was running straight for the lake. I ran onto one of the rocks that served as a trampoline towards the center of the lake for older people. I run with my clothes still on and I hear Thomas yell my name but it is too distant I don’t hear it. I reach the edge and I bend my knees. I feel myself being pushed into the air as I jump. It was like 10 meters from the water, but it didn’t stop me. The moment I feel the water it is so cold I my head feels like it was being hit my a thousand rocks. I still look down and swim down, I can see the bell and I can see how deep this thing is. I won’t make it out if I don’t hurry; I reach as far as I can. My lungs feel like bursting and my hands are numb. I go on and on. I kick as hard as I can and then reach out. I feel the cold bell in my hands and then I feel the air being pushed out of me. That’s it, I thought, I’m going to die. I close my eyes and feel numb as my throat fills with water. Then, a miracle happened. For some reason I burst out of the water and a hard cold hand that whacked my back brought me back to life. I coughed out all the water and another cold hand pushed the hair out of my face. “Oh god you idiot, do you have any idea how stupid you are!” A voice yelled, “Oh god, I love you so much!” Arani had her arms around my waist and was holding me up in the water. I looked at her with scared eyes and then remembered the whole reason I had jumped. “Ines! The bell!” I screamed, I pulled my hand out and the bell was still there. Arani swam to the coast where my dad entered the water and he soaked his pants to the knees and all and took me into his arms. “Isabel! What were you thinking? Were you trying to kill yourself?” He asked, he hugged me and kissed me and that is when I realized Ines breathing heavily under a tree and Arani running to her with the bell. She then falls unconscious again but this time Gus doesn’t seem worried. “You idiot,” I hear a voice, the happiness fades away and I turn around to see Thomas. “How could you?” His eyes have tears in them and he is shaking. Then I realize something else. A dark fog, a thick fog that whirls around him as if it were alive, surrounds Thomas, “Negatives,” I whisper, my dad takes me out and places me on the ground. Josie comes running and kneels next to me, “Oh my god! Who did this to you?” She yells. I don’t answer, I only point at Thomas that is still next to the lake and I can see him cry. “Negatives!” I yell, she looks and then she freezes. “Isabel, what is that?” “Negatives, they are all around him!” “Oh god, oh no, oh no!” She screams and then as everyone is starting to leave Thomas runs away. “Thomas!” I yell but he doesn’t listen; he runs for the forest and doesn’t stop. I stand up and run but my lungs still hurt. Josie sees me and then realizes Thomas. She grabs my hand and we run as fast as we can after him. We enter the forest and try to run after him. We go straight ahead and through bushes and ferns. Thomas is farther and farther away from us. The fog is thicker every time. “Thomas!” I scream, but he outruns us. We still go on and on until we freeze. Thomas’s scream is heard in the distance. “Thomas?” Josie whispers. “Thomas!” She screams she runs ahead of me and I run a bit slower after her clutching my chest. We reach an opening and Josie screams. I reach her and gasp. The last thing I see of Thomas is his hand as it sinks quickly into the earth. We run to the spot and start digging. WE go on and I can feel my fingers bleed and hurt until Josie stops and starts crying. I do too. We cry, because this time, we lost him for sure.

Chapter 10: Mistakes We ran back to the park and this time our parents weren’t there. Only Ines, “Hello!” She said smiling, “Isabel, thank you so much again I could have…” she realizes our tears and our wounded fingers. “What in the world…?” she began, “The Negatives took him!” I yell, she freezes, and then she starts thinking. She is quiet and after like 2 minutes her eyes go wide and her jaw drops open. “Oh no,” she said, “Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no oh no oh no oh no oh no OH SNAP!!!!!” She yelled, “NO1275266667!” She took my shoulder and said, “Isabel! What year was your brother born?” She yells, words fail me for a moment before Josie says, “1996,” Ines looks like she is going to cry and her blue eyes are turning a really pale almost white blue, “Oh, no, how didn’t I realize it sooner!” She whispers, “What? What happened Ines?” I yell, she looks at me with cold blue eyes that are starting to turn white, “I made a contract to a Purelander,” She whispers, “I just killed myself. My family’s reputation is doomed.” Then she stops and her eyes turn blue again, “No, nothing of this happened. Ok, listen to me, your brother was dead anyways. I never existed. I will disappear from your lives and everything will go back to normal, ok? GOOD!” She finished. She turns around to leave but Josie grabs her arm, “No, we won’t let you.” Ines looks at her with her blue eyes and hisses, “Yes you will. Your brother just killed himself. I warned him, I protected him, for God’s sake I revived and him and he still went to hell! I don’t need this kind of problems!” She yells, Josie then looks at her harshly and whispers, “If you don’t help us I will make sure all your family finds out about this. Especially your mom,” she says. Ines freezes. How did Josie know about Ines being so afraid of her mother? I hadn’t thought about it until after all these years. Maybe she just felt it, but the fact is that Ines turned around and headed for the forest without looking back once. //(Aquatus Demonic) Blue Daemon: Also know as water daemon, second latest created Daemon. Whereabouts of origin of wings unknown, finned tail used for water dynamic. (Purelanders: 70)//

Chapter 11: To the Rescue I could hear her curse under her breath quickly and lightly, sometimes I even considered it might be the wind and not her hoarse voice. She walked ahead of us into the forest where we had last seen my brother. She stops and turns around, “Why am I doing this again?” She hisses at us, “Because your family’s reputation is in danger because you did a contract to a Purelander.” Josie barks back, Ines grinds her teeth and her skin seems slightly blue for a moment. She takes a deep breath and keeps on walking into the forest. The forest grows thicker and thicker and I go over the mental image of Thomas running away from me and that black fog surrounding him. I remember my screams and then I shiver. I feel like crying but I am afraid Ines will get mad at me if I do. After a while Josie asks, “What is a Purelander?” “A Purelander is a human with half a pure soul. Pure souls are only found in those stupid Angels, so a human can never have a completely pure soul.” She walks onto a branch close to the ground and balances over it as she speaks. “Purelanders can actually replace that half of their soul with holy or demonic energy. That can make them very powerful, but also a target with a lot of power.” Josie and I fall into a deep puddle of mud and she walks right above us onto another branch near her, “Master needs that kind of energy, so that is why he needs your brother. Now none of this would have happened if you had listened to my instructions.” We slush out of the puddle as she jumps off the branch and onto the solid ground, “How foolish you humans are, I was tortured all that night because he was using the bell out of the radius. All that power, Master would not be able to touch him as long as I had his soul. But he entered the enemy’s territory without protection and now is in Master’s clutches.” “You were tortured? By who?” Josie asks, “Isabel knows, Alejandro explained it to her. I was tortured by negatives, you know, that ugly thing that took your brother. They punch and kick and bite you and they starts at your limbs and then climb up into your body like a virus. You brother is probably going to go through that if we don’t hurry up, but more importantly my family will fall into disgrace if we don’t hurry up.” She hissed. “Do you daemons have any feelings at all?” Josie questions, “Actually, we do, but just a few. We don’t feel a handful, like love and guilt and fear. But we can feel a bit of happiness, sadness, jealousy, anger, and pride. We can also feel regret, but the only good thing we have is that tiny bit of happiness that is in our hearts.” She says. The wind combs through the leaves of the trees and the ground beneath me slides and crunches. Ines is walking pretty fast and I am afraid she might outrun us and leave us in the forest. “You know what I don’t understand, why is your family’s honor so important. You could just leave us here and go on with your life.” Josie says, “That was not a good thing to say because I feel like leaving you here and going on with my life right now. The problem is my family has so many generations and is one of the oldest and best recognized. If I screw this up, 128 generations of contract makers goes to waste. That is why.” She says, “Besides, there is something fishy here, I mean, why Master would want so many Purelanders. I understand they are good energy but 100 Purelanders? Those numbers just aren’t normal.” She wonders. “What do you mean? How would you know?” Josie asks, “MYOB, mind your own business,” Ines says, “TIMB, this is my business,” Josie answers. Ines gives her a nasty look and then says, “It is like our stalk market, we are taught to follow it since we are young. No body has noticed since Purelander souls are prohibited to us. But when you think about it you realize the problem.” She explains. Josie is quiet and hesitates before she takes a deep breath, “What’s… what’s the worst that can happen to our brother?” She finally spits out. I look at her and can see she is thinking real hard at all the impossible possibilities. “Well, that he gets sacrificed in the Soul Precipice. Then his soul will be locked away and tortured for the rest of times.” She says calmly. Josie stops dead in her tracks, “Tortured?” She whispers, “Yes, so hurry up.” Ines orders. I push Josie along and we continue to walk. We make it to the clearance where I last saw his hand sinking into the ground. I wince and Josie holds my hand. “This is it, right?” Ines asks, I nod, “Right here,” I agree. She looks at the ground and then her skin turns blue. I thought that maybe it was the light, but she was blue. It was a light blue like the sky but it made her veins stand out from her skin. She lets out a blood thrilling scream and her jaw opens up so much her cheek skin brakes up like when you pull bread dough apart. Little lumps start to grow on the top of her forehead. Her teeth turn into long fangs and her eyes are yellow but with no pupil, just yellow al over. Her nails and toes grow long and she grows skin in between her fingers that webs them together. She falls on the ground and two large lumps protrude from her back and grow until they break away from her back and spread into wings that have sharp claws at the point and look like ragged clothes on the bottom with holes and rips. She buries her face in her hands and a long line of little spikes appear running down her arms and back and legs. Her hair turns a silver white and her skin starts to grow scales and her elbows pinch outwards like a large nails. Finally the little lumps on her head spike out wards as horns that curve inwards and then up. She grows large and thin and she barely fits in her clothes anymore. You can see her rib cage and gills appear on her sides. She finally stops shaking and when she looks up at her tongue slithers in and out of her mouth like a lizard. Her tongue is purple like a snake tongue and she crawls towards us slowly. A tail with an arrowed point and long fins across it whips form one side to another behind her. I feel my heart pounding against my rib cage, my hands start sweating and I can feel tears swelling up in my eyes. My knees wobble and I fall to the floor. “Ines… Please, Ines, is that you?” Josie whispers, I look at her and she is pale as paper and her voice is shaky. The beast in front of us hisses and creeps closer to us, it smiles its white fangs. “Of course, but don’t you recognize your good friend?” She says, her voice is high and sounds distorted. It sounded as if there were two people talking at the same time, one of them always talking in a monotonous tone while the other played with ups and downs in a high pitch. The sound is scary and I choke in a sob. “Now, you just have to follow my instructions. Get on my back.” She orders. Josie doesn’t hesitate, she walks over on her shaky legs and as she reaches the beast she trips. Ines lunges forward and places her arm in front of Josie that lands straight on it. She straightens up and grabs onto Ines’s back. Ines then looks at me and creeps on all four towards me. She stops two inches from my face and I can see the ripped cheeks and those yellow eyes. “I can’t hurt you.” She whispers. I nod and quickly get on her back with Josie. That is when I realize a hole behind us in the ground, it is dark and very large and it is familiar. Of course, Thomas had disappeared right into this thing. “My scream opened it up, now you must hold on tight. If you don’t you might as well consider yourselves dead.” She hisses in her strange voice. Josie opens her mouth to answer but Ines is way ahead of her. She jumps into the air and arches her body towards the opening. I start shaking and my eyes widen, Josie opens her mouth and takes a deep breath. I feel like screaming ‘Ines, you idiot,” but she doesn’t give me a chance.

Chapter 12: Into Hell Ines lunges straight into the opening and that is when all the words I was containing cascade out and are lost behind me. Josie yells too, the opening above us closes and we are going down and down through a long tunnel with walls that turn redder and more fluorescent the more we descend. I then hear another scream, “Josie!” I scream, she stops screaming, “I hear someone screaming,” “It’s me you dummy!” She yells and then continues screaming, “Not you! Listen!” I demand. We are quiet and all we hear is the strong wind against our ears. But then there is a murmur, it grows. I look around and notice the hole is getting larger. “Look!” Josie yells, there is an opening at the end of the tunnel. The sound grows louder as we reach it. When we burst through it a bright light blinds us. We cover our eyes and when we look up we gasp. We are in an endless space of volcanic rocks and millions of daemons like Ines and some a bit different flying all around the place. The place in just huge, I can see the place’s horizon and some buildings along the way. Lines and lines of humans and creatures line up in front of large desks all over the place. Daemons land on the ground and turn to humans and other humans that aren’t in line turn into daemons and fly away. There are millions of holes in the ceiling where daemons fly in and out. We head towards this certain large line of humans stand in front of a tall wooden desk with a grey daemon dressed in a suit and with a little judge hammer. We land on the floor and as I start to slide off Ines stops me. “You aren’t dead, remember? The heat of the floor will burn your feet.” She warns. I climb back up and we walk towards the front of the line. Another daemon, this time red and with horns like a mountain goat that curve into a spiral, is sitting next to the grey daemon typing on a little writing machine. The desk is also high, but not as high as the grey daemon’s desk. “Note that; Ex Mrs. Moorigan Cage Mc Jackson Peters is assigned to the 2nd stage of torture for 80 years before reincarnating in guilt of the murder of her husband in her last life.” The grey daemon dictates, the red one types it all up and the grey daemon whacks his little hammer against his desk. “Case closed, next…” he declares. A little boy comes up; the grey daemon looks at a stack of papers. “My, oh my, Chike Bamgboshe Balewa Akintola, you have quite the record here. You came back at the age of 10! What to do with you. Note that: Chike Bamgboshe Balewa Akintola, I suppose, it will be the 6th stage for 1000 years of torture.” The red one finishes typing. Whack! Goes the little hammer, “Case closed, next…” He says. Ines cuts in line and sits in front of the desks. The two daemons look down at us. “Why… You got us two fresh humans! How did you manage to do that?” He asks, Ines stands up, “I have a rather cunning personality, my honor; please let me go on to the 6th stage. These two will be good for the spiritual whirlpool.” She says, the daemon agrees. He has more of a human voice, it sounds normal. “Why of course, you are such a pure daemon. Very few of you are left, good luck friend.” He says, the red daemon types something into a pink paper and gives it to Ines. As he does he winks and smiles small and sharp shark like teeth. Ines snatches it away and doesn’t smile back. “I hate when they treat me like a beauty just for being a pure daemon. It makes me so mad.” She hisses. We hold on to her back and we walk into a hallway. When we reach a part which is covered in cold rock she lets us down and turns into a human again. The clothes are ripped at the bottom of her shirt and pants and sleeves. Her hair is wild again and her shoes got lost somewhere. “I can’t wait until stage 4, it is the water stage. My friends will be there, and so will the whole village.” She says proudly, and then her grin disappears, “Of course, only after we save the Purelander.” She hisses under her breath. I realize I am shaking, I am still not used to the idea Ines is a daemon. I look around and notice daemons and dwarfs and small devils scurrying around the place. They all stop to look at us and then go one walking. “To our right there will be an opening to the 1st stage. We will take it and then make it through the whole place until the last one. There we will take a short cut there is there and we will be on earth’s surface before we know it. From then your brother must follow each and every one of my rules. That is the plan. Any questions, no, I thought so.” She blabbers. We don’t say anything, what is there to say? We stop at a glass revolving door that doesn’t fit in at all with the hallway we were walking through. “Mall” It says in golden letters above it. We see various daemons in human form enter and exit the place. Ines starts to walk inside “Get yourselves some normal clothes; those human t shirts are way too… human.” She finishes. We walk in and we enter a place full of clothes. “There is a shopping mall in hell?” Josie asks, “Yeah, well, we can’t go around this place naked all the time.” She says. Ines pretty much picks the clothes for us. We have to dress like daemons if we want to be inconspicuous in this place. She dresses me like a yellow daemon and Josie like a red one. My dress has feathers on the shoulders and a leather top that is really short. It doesn’t cover my belly, but my iron skirt does. It is really long but it goes down to the middle of my thighs and I have a type of material made of little chains covering my legs and long tall boots made of fire proof metal. I also have a helmet, but it is made of sky iron. They say that is pretty strong. Josie has a kind of samurai clothes. When I mention this Ines says, “Don’t compare these practical suits to useless ones those humans use.” She has golden shields on her shoulders and red gloves that go from her elbow to her hands but don’t cover her fingers. She has a thing I believe looks like a red and gold corset that connects to the shoulder’s gold and covers all her stomach. Then she has pants that reach her knees that also have gold on the sides and the same red material. Then from there these golden sandals that look like the ones Greek used. Those that have straps you tie around your legs. Ines picks up Josie’s hair into a bun and puts a golden cloth over it to finally tie it with a strong string. She pulls my hair up into my helmet. “There, you are now satanic.” She says smiling. We look into the mirror and realize we actually look kind of good. These clothes look better than human clothes. “You will also need weapons, but that is in another shop.” She adds. She buys herself a blue daemon dress. It is a light blue dress that goes all the way down to her ankles. Except she has armor around it, like large metal shields on her shoulders that connect at the middle of her collar bone. At her hips there is another metal protector that shields part of her stomach and part of her legs. She has a type of gloves that only get to her wrists from her shoulders. The dress has no sleeves and no turtleneck. The neck has its own metal protector. She has no shoes, only these iron protectors that cover her ankles. She doesn’t hesitate with her hair; she simply grabs her dagger and cuts her hair off so it reaches right beneath her ears. I gasp at this. “It grows back, don’t worry.” She says. I squirm in my suit as Ines pays the clothes. When we go outside, creatures don’t stare anymore. Only some that I think are about Josie’s age. I don’t know how far we will walk but I am kind of worried about the Sacrifice Day. What if we didn’t make it in time? I push the thought out of my mind and concentrate on the walls of the hallway. They are now straight and not ragged like the ones in the main entrance. They are painted in hot colors like orange and red, some paintings are hanging there with daemons that don’t look a bit like the ones in the giant room. I notice one that looks like Ines, “Who’s that?” I ask. Ines sees the picture and sighs, “Great Pop, he is the oldest Blue Daemon alive. I meet him once, but he didn’t like me. He said I was full of bad intentions.” She murmurs. I don’t know why I said it but all of the sudden I blur out, “He wouldn’t now,” And Ines stops. I think she’s going to turn around and bawl at me about how I should just be quiet and mind my own business, but no. She simply looks at the ground and whispers. “You think so?” I nod, “Yeah, he would.” But I can tell she doesn’t believe it. She walks ahead with a stern face on. She is looking so hard at the ground I am afraid it will crack in half all of the sudden. Josie looks pretty in her dress; mine is starting to annoy me. It is light as a feather, but my skirts bangs against the chained material which does a constant click clack. That also rubs against my skin and makes it sore. I wonder what mama and dad are going to say when they see we are gone too. I think it might have been a good idea to stay, but we have to save Thomas. I don’t care how much they may miss us. “Right in here,” Ines says suddenly. I don’t listen and bump into her back. She looks at me and then just goes over to a red door with a big number 1 on it. The number 1 has a creepy font and the door knob has vapor curling up from it. It is red like heated up iron. “Walk behind me at all times and keep away from the red floor.” She orders. We get in a line behind her and she opens the door. A giant gust of hot air enters the hall and little ashes come along with it. Some are still burning and others just disintegrate in the air. I see heat waves curl out of the room and someone screams really far away into the room. I look over her shoulder and my eyes widen in amazement. There is a volcano in the room. It is just an endless land full of lava and magma springs and volcanic rocks. I open my mouth to say ‘No Way’ But Ines already has me on her back and is walking into the room. Josie stays at the door looking at the room with an astounded look but runs after Ines when she notices we are leaving. The heat is intense and you can see heat waves going up like thick and transparent snakes in the air. The little ashes are all over the place and I hide my face in Ines’s hair to not breathe the ashes. Jose uses her own hair and Ines just doesn’t mind. I notice that Ines’s hair smells like… mint. I don’t know why, it smells like a fresh peppermint. I suppose it is a Blue Daemon’s smell. I look back at Josie and notice her eyes are red. “Josie,” I say, she looks up, “What happened?” she asks, “Your eyes,” “Oh, it’s the ashes.” Ines stops and looks at her. “Hey, let’s change for a while. Josie get on my back and Isabel, you walk.” I get off of her back and Josie gets on. She hides her face in Ines’s hair and I can see she is realizing the smell. My eyes start stinging after a while and I look over Ines’s shoulder. There is nothing but more magma ahead of us. I then wonder why my feet aren’t burning. I look down and then in front and then behind and then I realize… we are walking on a solid and cold path. Every time Ines takes a steep her feet cools off the magma and it turns to rock. The magma heats up later and then goes back to normal. Of course, no wonder we weren’t dead. Speaking of which I am happy not be because we can hear all the shouts and yells of the tortured souls down here, and they aren’t happy. “Ines,” I say, “Yep,” She answers, “How long until will it take before we make it to the next stage?” “Not long, but we have to hurry. It’s getting hotter in here and the lava is getting shaky.” I look around and the lava is boiling more than normal. That isn’t a good sign. I change with Josie and bury my face in her hair again to rest a bit in a dark world that smells like mint. I start to fall asleep, the heat is really smoothing and the smell in her hair gets me a bit dizzy. My eyelids are heavy and next thing I know I am falling asleep on her shoulder.

Chapter in between “What takes you so long, what is the matter?” “Nothing, Master, it’s just there has been a problem in the Main Entrance.” “What do you mean a problem?” “It ends up we just let two humans into hell.” “We let in THOUSANDS of humans every minute.” “Yes, except these ones were alive.” “Oh, this is just fantastic.” “I am sorry Sir.” “But who in the world would want to come to HELL!!” “… well, maybe they had a reason to come?” “Like which, Mordel, what reason is there?” “Like… maybe to try to steal something or tell you something or save someone or…” “Stop… save someone?” “Well, maybe a human that want’s to find a soul of a dead relative?” “How did these humans look like?” “Well, we only got their names.” “Which are their names!?” “Umm, err… wait I have it here somewhere… aha, here it is. Their names were Isabel and Josie Sollis.” “Wait… I know those names…Quickly, get me my Purelander!” “Yes sir… Here he is.” “What is your name, young man?” “M… my… na… name?” “Yes, didn’t you hear me? Your name,” “It… it is… Thomas…” “Thomas what,” “Tho…Thomas Sollis...” “Hah! You were right Mordel, the boy has relatives. So, do you have any sisters?” “Ye…yes…two sisters…” “Their names are?” “Jo…Josie…and Isa…Isabel,” “Do you know where they are?” “…On earth…” “No, you are wrong! Those two critters sneaked into hell to rescue you!” “What! No!” “Yes! But listen up; I will not let them get any closer than they already are to you! I will burn them up in the first stage or drown them or freeze them or do anything to stop them! And it is your entire fault!” “Sir, there is a daemon with them.” “A WHAT,” “A daemon, her name is Lunadrane Ines.” “What type of daemon?” “Blue Daemon,” “But why, do you know this daemon?” “Yes, and she is very powerful! She will destroy you, you monster! Don’t touch my sisters!” “Yes, yes, go on talking, see if I care. In any case, take him to his jail cell and let’s have some fun killing humans!” “Ok Sir, I will join you in a moment.” “Very well Mordel, and bring some champaign.” “Don’t touch them!” “Guards, take him away,” “No! Let me go! Don’t you dare hurt them! Leave my sisters be! Just send them back! I don’t care what you do as long as they are safe ! Listen to me, listen to me you bastard! Come back ! Come back now! You COWARD! No! Come back now! Please… please… don’t hurt them…

Chapter 13: Stage 1 “Isabel!” I hear al of the sudden. I wake up from my dream and look at Josie. She is running behind us and I notice then that Ines is running too. “What? What are we running away from?” I asks, “Look behind!” I look behind her and that is when I notice a giant wave of lave rising from the ground. “Where did that come from?” I yell hysterically, “Do you expect //me// to know?” She barks back. “Be quiet and run!” Ines orders. I sit up straight and look over Ines’s head into the great red sea in front of us. “Look!” I scream. In the distance you see a group of stairs. “Stage 2” It says on the top. “We have to make it there!” Ines screams. The wave is catching up and we are at least a mile away from the stairs. We run and run and I notice Josie is going pale. “Josie?” I ask, she looks up and shakes it off. “I’m fine,” She yells. We run and run and I see Josie starts tripping and I want to tell Ines but Josie just tells me not to every time. Ines doesn’t pay attention, she has her eyes glued on the stairs. The wave’s shadow is upon us and we are 30 meters form the stairs. I feel Ines leaning forward, no, it’s the ground. The wave is taking us in! “RUN!!!!” I yell. We lunge for the stairs and run up the first ten steps when the wave crashes. Josie falls and the wave enters the opening. Ines pulls Josie under her arm and runs up, the lava almost catching her. The smell in the air is odd and Ines is still running for some reason. “Ines, it’s over!” I say, she shakes her head. “It is barely starting! The air is filled with gas; we will be covered in flames as soon as it catches on fire!” She repeats. Then we hear it, the sound of fire. The flames start up and we can hear it coming. “The opening, you have to run! I can’t carry you!” She says and throws us on the floor. We land and quickly start running. The stairs go into a short hall that ends abruptly into a long fall. On the other side there are stairs that go up to a door with a big 2 on it. “Jump, you have to jump!” She orders. The fire comes quicker and quicker. I can feel it behind me. The light is close to us and my feet are numb. My heart races against my chest and my throat is cold because of the hard breathing. We make it to the ending and we jump. I turn around and look at the coming fire. Ines has me around the waist and that is when I see Josie. I don’t know why, maybe she was tired, maybe she tripped, maybe she just couldn’t stand it anymore. But Josie didn’t jump, she jumped too late. She tries to make it across but the fire is too quick. She is consumed by it just as I see her mouth curve into my name, “Isa…” She can’t finish. “No!” I scream. The fire has her completely and when I hit the ground on the other side the fire retreats quickly, but there is nothing of Josie left. “No! Josie! Josie! No! Please! NO!” I scream and try to run back but Ines has me around the waist and pulls me back. “It’s too late! You can’t save her!” She screams. “JOSIE!!” I screech. Her name echoes in the large precipice. She throws me on the stairs and I fall on my knees crying so hard I can barely breathe. “Listen up, I told you it would be risky! I said this could happen! And it did! She isn’t coming back Isabel! Get over with it!” I stand up shaking, “I just lost my sister, and you want me to get it over with! I am HUMAN…” I choke in a sob, “I LOVE, Ines, I am not a stupid feeling-less beast like you!” Ines looks at me as I fall on my knees again and sob. “Isabel, if you don’t want this to happen again, you have to stop and go on. You will have to eventually. Because this is it, there is no going back anymore. If you even try and make it you will be an only child! You have to get used to these things happening. No matter how much you call or ask or prey… she won’t come back! Believe me!” She shouts. It starts raining in this part of the 1st stage. My clothes are wet and our hair sticks to our skin, I wrap myself in my arms. “Why should I believe a daemon? Why in the world… should I believe you?!” I yell. She looks away for a moment and when she looks back she looks at me with those cold blue eyes. But they aren’t mad; they aren’t like I had ever seen them. They are miserable, they are in pain. She runs her fingers through her hair and then places her hand on her hip. She looks at me and swallows hard, “Because I’ve tried,” she confesses. “And, they never come back. They just don’t.” She closes her eyes and swallows again. When she opens her eyes again, they are blank and cold. “Let’s go, your brother needs to be saved.” She whispers. She walks up the steps and I quickly get on my feet and follow her. When we make it to the second door, I slip my hand into hers. She doesn’t hold it for a moment, but then I feel her cold fingers close around my hand carefully. She simply holds onto the knob and whispers, “He needs to be saved.”

Chapter 14: Stage 2

When we opened the door knob another large gust of wind welcomed us. This time it brought sand. I closed my eyes to protect myself, the wind kept on blowing and I hid my face in my forearm. Slowly, I looked up. Miles of sand dunes were spread before us; there was not a single living thing in sight. “Where…where are we?” I sniff, “Stage 2,” She answers. I look around and notice, the sun is up. “But, how is the sun…” “It isn’t the sun.” she cuts me off, “It’s the 3rd stage.” I look up at the sun, it shines very brightly. “That is the 3rd stage?” I ask, “But how do we get all the way up there?” She just pulls me inside and closes the door. “We climb the clouds.” She says. With those words she spreads her daemon wings and quickly holds me around my waist. She lifts us up in less than a second and we are flying. I grasp her dress as we soar through the sky. We go up and up until we are so close to the 3rd stage I think I can reach out and touch it. I remembered a dream then, one in which I flew. Of course, I had no wings, I was just floating around. I think my mother was there too, she was flying right beside me and we would just laugh. Then I woke up that morning because there was school. I wished I could be in that dream that day, I wished I could escape that reality to the one in my head. We land on a nearby cloud. “This is it, we have to walk now, or rather jump.” I nod; I sniff again and let out a small sob. Ines looks at me with a stern face and then pats me on the back, “Um, there, there… it’s all going to be alright. Don’t worry Izy. I… I understand. What else do you humans say in these occasions?” She says. “Don’t cry,” I say, she repeats that and smiles at me. “I can’t hurt you, it would be my suicide. So it means I can’t let other daemons hurt you. Loosing Josie was too careless. I will take care of you… I promise.” “Ok…” I think of Josie and start to cry but straighten up. “There’s nothing I can do about it after all.” I whisper. “That’s the spirit!” She says and then whacks me on the back. “Ouch,” I whine “Sorry,” she answers. We walk towards the 3rd stage. We don’t notice the clouds behind us rise. There is a small groan and we turn around. “Master has had enough of you. He though you had died with the other girl. But you are still here.” A big blob of cloud says. We see as it grows and grows. It burst out with a scream and next thing I know there is a yellow daemon upon us. I can tell because of how it is dressed. This daemon is has antelope horns. It has fairy wings and eyes with a rectangular pupil the color of the sea. He has vampire teeth and his body is like a cow’s, covered in spots. Except these spots are yellow and black. His hands are normal, but his feet are like a giant and pointy fingered hand. Ines stands in front of me, “Isabel, run to the sun and you will see a stair case that goes straight downwards. Take it and then jump on one to your right that goes up. Run up and there will be the door with the number 3.” She explains and the monster and her circle “Go in but hold onto the door knob of the other side. Don’t fall off, or else the…” She is cut off by the daemon that lunges on her. She can’t dodge and he is upon her. I scream. She opens her wings and throws the daemon over her head. She jumps up and looks at me, “Run!” She yells. I turn around and run. I run and run. My heart beat accelerates. I feel like just throwing myself onto the fluffy clouds and sleeping. Sleeping and waking up from this horrible dream. I didn’t want to fly. I didn’t want to be super woman. I just wanted my sister and my brother back. I wanted my life back! But my legs would not stop, they went on and on. I thought of Ines, what she was doing for us. She was trying, or maybe she didn’t care at all. But she was fighting against a Yellow Daemon and was helping me escape. As long as I had someone by my side, I could go on. I then ran quicker and quicker. I almost ran right past the stairs but turned around just in time. The stairs were steep and since these were clouds I just threw my self over them. I rolled down and down and then I remembered the other stairs and stopped. They were a couple of steps ahead. I get onto the edge and jump to the stairs beside these. I land roughly and almost fall off the other side. “Thomas…” I think, as I pull myself up, “Josie…” I run up as hard as I can. “Forgive me…” I keep on running up the steps. “I should have taken more care of you two.” I see the door. “Josie… I might…” I jump the stairs by two, “I might not be able to save you…” I reach for the door knob. “But I will save Thomas…” I twist it as hard as I can. “I will finish what we came here to do…” I swing the door open and jump in.

Chapter in between “Get me my Purelander,” “Yes master… here he is.” “Say, boy, do you know where your sisters are now?” “No… what… what have you done to them?” “Well… one of them is being chased by a daemon that is killing your other daemon friend.” “And… where is the other one?” “Oh… let’s see… I do believe we received her soul in the first stage!” “You received… what?” “Her soul… taa daa, your sister is gone!” “What…!” “Are you like deaf, she is D-E-A-D. Figure it out,” “No…No! Why! Why did you do that to her! No! Which one? Which one did you kill?” “Well… let’s just say the youngest one is on her way here right now.” “Josie…?” “Aha… you guessed.” “No…No!” “Guards, please take him.” “No!” “Oh Satan, how noisy are these humans?” “Very, Master, but he will shush eventually.” “Very well then, let’s celebrate seeing the two others disappear!”

Chapter 15: Stage 3 “Isabel…” I hear a voice call me. When I opened the door, everything went black. “Isabel… Wake up… please… Isabel…” I don’t react to the voice, it is too far away. “…ISABEL, GET UP NOW!” My body reacts immediately. I sit up and try to breathe in. I can’t. I realize my throat is full of something cold and it just won’t move. Ines whacks my back really hard and all the water that was in my throat just explodes out of my mouth. I cough and wheeze while I try to realize what has happened. “What… *cough* where are we?” I choke out. Ines sits back and takes a deep breath. “I told you to hold on to the knob on the other side.” She says. I look at her, “Why?” “Because that door opens into the frozen pond,” She answers, “We are in the middle of the sun… the freezing hell.” I look at her in astonishment. We were in the snow, in a cave in the middle of the snow. But… we were in the sun all the same. I tried to make sense of it but gave up. This whole mess made no sense anyway. “I’m sorry.” I say, she sighs, “Don’t worry about it. Just listen next time, will you?” I nod quickly. I look outside of the cave and I realize this is just like the desert. There is not a single tree in miles. “This one will be hard. But after this one it is my home, so that we will cross with absolutely no trouble. This place is supposed to represent air, but the air got so strong and my stage tried to stop it so it ended up snow.” She says. She is rocking herself and I realize something about her shirt. “Your shirt… it’s broken.” I say. “Yeah, the daemon pretty much speared his hand straight through me. But nothing I couldn’t heal. I threw him off the clouds in the last minute and closed the door.” She chuckled. I see her chest is red with left over blood she probably wiped off at some point after leaving the water. “I think we should camp. The execution is tomorrow. We are half way through, and the 4th stage doesn’t count. So I suppose we will be alright.” She says. I nod quickly and she smiles at me. “I know you’re listening, you don’t have to nod. Don’t be so scared of me.” I am about to nod, but then I say. “Yep,” She then opens her wings and wraps me in them. I think about Thomas, we must be freezing. I wondered if he was thinking about us. How was I going to tell him Josie had died trying to save him? I worked through this question. I felt like crying but held it in. Thomas would cry a little, and then stop and would get over it like me. I knew he would, he was like that. Josie was somewhere in heaven now. Maybe she was looking at me and Thomas at the same time. Maybe she was calling to me and I just didn’t look up. I look up and realize I am under a rock. So I simply wait and when I see Ines is asleep I whisper, “Good night, Josie.” And I close my eyes.

Chapter 8 “Has he stopped crying?” “No Sir, he still is.” “For Satan’s Sake, what is it with these humans?” “Well, he just lost a sister; I do believe humans take that as a bad thing.” “Oh really, I hadn’t noticed.” “Master, if you wish we will sacrifice him now.” “No… not yet, I want him to really understand this isn’t a dream.” “I think he already knows Sir,” “Oh, do you?” “Yes,” “Well, that is what they want you to think Mordel. That is what they want you to think.”… “Was that him right now? Those screams from inside the jail.” “Yes, he is cursing every word he knows at you, Master.” “Oh, I see.” “But then he grows tired and goes on weeping.” “Humph… Oh well, let’s see how our little friends are doing after we sent the daemon.” “About that sir…” “… What?” “Well… The daemon didn’t catch them.” “……………WHAT!!!!!!!” “He was thrown off sir…” “Why… That... IDIOT!” “Oh dear…” “Send all the daemons of the 3rd stage to get them now! We can’t let them get any closer!” “Yes Master! Right away!” “Oh Thomas, what to do with your sister.”

Chapter 9 I wake up and the first thing I realize is that Ines isn’t there. Then I realize I am in the middle of the snow and my lips and tip of my fingers are blue. I sit up quickly and realize the pond isn’t there. Something has gone terribly wrong. I steps and try to move, but there is a rope around my ankle. The steps get closer and closer and my heart starts to race. Cold sweat drops fall down my neck and my lower lips starts to tremble a lot. A shadow appears upon me and I can’t scream. “Ines?” I ask. “No,” I high voice says. The snow blows away and there is a human standing in front of me. “Patrick,” His voice was a bit higher than Ines’s and he was barefoot without a shirt, only pants. “Where… where is Ines?” I ask, “She was fighting when I grabbed you. You were very asleep.” “Fighting?” “Yes, a group of daemons… I don’t think she will make it out.” “She won’t… but why didn’t you help her!” I scream, “She asked me to help you!” He simply says. He has dark copper eyes and is tall and skinny. His hair is straight and is short. “You have to come with me… the daemons will be here any moment. Get on my back.” I do so and then I feel the wings bursting out and being lifted from the ground. “What daemon are you?” I ask as we soar into the sky. “A Purple Daemon,” He says. I hadn’t heard of those. They were probably a new breed. I didn’t ask though, just incase he wasn’t. Ines had said it was a terrible insult to be confused with a New Breed. He flies high into the air and everything is white. “But… she told you to take me? Do you know her?” Patrick doesn’t say anything. “Patrick?” I ask. He grinds his teeth and says, “We are brothers.” I look at him confused. “Brothers,” “Yes, we are brothers. My father is her father. Our mothers are different though.” He says, “My mother is a Grey Daemon and her mother is a Blue Daemon. She is pure… I am not.” He says. “She was always the pride of the family. But she never appreciated that. She had a chance to go to earth. But she left me behind.” He finishes. I think of something quickly and say, “You know, I used to think my brother was the house baby. He always got what he wanted and I thought that was unfair. But when he died, the first time, our parents got so crazy when he came back that they wouldn’t let him go. I was happy but mad all the same. I shouted at him… and… now he’s gone.” I say softly. I don’t think Patrick is listening to me so I kept quiet. About 15 minutes later he speaks up al of the sudden, “I missed her… I don’t think she missed me. She always had what she wanted, and I never did. She did know justice, so she would try to share what she got with me. I never took it; I wanted my parents to give it to me. I am mad at myself now, too.” He admits. While we go on across the plains I quickly say. “Ines kind of told me she lost a sibling.” Patrick gasps and one of his wings tips to one side and I almost slide off. He straightens up and his body is very stiff. “Did she tell you that?” He asks. I explain the story, about her telling me she had once tried to beg and prey for a dead person… or daemon. When a finish Patrick is silent again, but this time he answers quickly. “She thought I was dead.” He says. I look at his face. “She thought you were dead?” I ask. “Yes, we meet yesterday night when I found you two. I had sent her a fake card to see if she cared. She never wrote back.” He says. “She explained she didn’t want to remember me because of the pain it caused her.” I nod my head. It all made sense. “So that is why I am helping you.” He says, “Why?” “For the sake of brotherhood.” He proclaims. That is when we hear the flapping of wings. “Oh no,” He says. He flies quicker but I see as shadows surround us. “Isabel, I am going to go to the ground and leave you there. You will hide until I come back. If by the end of the day I am not back, keep on walking south.” He orders. We swoop down and he throws me on the ground. I try to hide myself in the snow but as I do something grabs my leg. I look up and the ground has just sprouted a root on my leg. It grows faster and faster as it covers my whole body. I scream, Patrick is back in a moment. He pulls out his claws and tries to rip it away. Then the shadows lunge at Patrick and they have him pinned to the ground. The root grows and grows and it just keeps on going. It has my arms, my stomach, my chest and my neck. “Patrick!” I yell. I see as they all jump to him. “No!” I yell. But it is too late; the root has consumed me whole. All I know is that I can’t see a thing. And Patrick screams in the distance…

Chapter in between (10) “Ahaha! Oh Mordel, those Brown Daemons were such a good idea!” “I know Sir, the only ones you get.” “I know, am I or am I not a genius?” “No doubt Sir,” “Ha, with Lunadrane and that human out of the way there is nothing that can intervene with tomorrow. I couldn’t be happier!” “Yes,” “Get me my Purelander,” “Right away Sir… he is here Sir.” “Thomas, I have a surprise for you.” “Where… is Isabel?” “Oh, her, well… She is with our beautiful Brown Daemons. Don’t worry, her death was quick and painless. Nothing too bad,” “You… killed her?” “Yes, and so did I kill that little friend of yours. She was eaten alive by them, now //that// was a painful death.” “No… No… this can’t be.” “Face reality boy, you live you die. You reincarnate and die. You go to heaven and die… no, you go to heaven and you turn into a moron!” “Good joke Master,” “Ah, I know.” “No… please, she can’t be dead. She was only 10 years old!” “Oh well, that’s life!” “No! Why do you do this to them!” “My reasons, ok, class dismissed. Tata, good bye!” “No….no…” “Oh great, he’s crying again.” “Yes Master, but he will fall asleep soon.” “He better, I might consider hurrying up the schedule.”

Chapter 11 I don’t cry. I can’t cry. I have to get up and help Isabel. I can’t feel my legs and I my arms are in pain. I have to get up and help Patrick. I have to save //my// brother. I saw him die once; I can’t let him die again. I concentrate and after a good 18 minutes of pain I can feel my legs and my arms are ok. The healing is over. I stand up in my human form. Why didn’t I beat them when I could of? I spread my wings and they crack and snap as I stretch the bones that had been folded on my back all this time and fly. The sun has fallen and I can still remember them clawing at my skin. I remember as I saw them fly away in their direction. I could not have felt angrier at them… and at myself for loosing. I fly and fly, a very slow pace, but at least I’m moving. I could still be on that same place trying to rest after the terrible wounds had frozen me there. After about an hour I see something lying on the snow. The wind makes it hard to see and I have to squint to actually make out the figure. Thin, dark, with purple wings… oh no. I land on the ground and run al the way to Patrick. He lays motionless on the ground. I get on my knees and shake him. “Patrick… please… get up.” I say. He only looks up at me and closes his eyes. I can see his pulse but I know he won’t last too long out here. I pull him on my back and we walk. I know that if this is how Patrick was left, Isabel didn’t have a chance. She was probably taken away or maybe something worst. Maybe she was left here somewhere in the snow and they took her soul. I walk until I see the big number 4 on another red door. I open it and jump into mid air as the door closes behind me. We land in water. I pull him to the surface and tie him to my back as I use my webbed hands to swim. Isabel… you didn’t make it. I am sorry. I have to save Thomas. But I can’t let Patrick down. I swim and swim, and my limbs are numb. Patrick is heavier every minute and I start sinking easily. Even if I sink, Patrick would drown. Even if he could breathe under water, you have to move to use gills. I could barely move. I then can’t stand it and close my eyes. I drift away into sleep. … “Ines? Honey?” I wake up; the first thing I take in is that there is a roof over me. The roof is wooden and the walls are made of stone. I am under a blanket and I have a pillow under my head. “Patrick, Isabel, Josie… Thomas!” I sit up and try to run off the bed but my legs don’t support me. I fall straight on my face. The floor is cold and slippery. I was home. “Ouch,” I mumble into the floor, my nose had broken. Cold hands lift me up. I look up and there is my aunt. She sits me on the bed and I move my nose around a bit before it freezes like that. “The whole hell is looking for you. But fortunately we won’t give you in. Our family would fall apart if we did. Patrick is safe because of you. We will help you escape to earth, sweetie. Don’t worry.” I sit on the bed and all of the sudden Patrick is there at the door. “Hey sleeping beastie.” “Hi,” a thought goes trough my mind quickly, “How long have I slept?” “3 days,” I jump off the bed and this time I grab on to the wall. “No! The sacrifice! Thomas! I promised Isabel and Josie!” I scream angrily. I try to make it to the door but Patrick stops me. “No, it’s been 6 hours. You are a rough cookie.” Patrick says. “Not funny. I have to leave now.” “Nope, you are going to earth.” “But I promised.” “Ines, we are daemons. We don’t follow promises. We follow contracts.” My aunt says. I turn around and burst to them the whole truth I had been calculating the night before. “They are creating a new daemon…” My aunt looks at me with an uneasy look on her face. Then she freezes. Patrick does too. They exchange a look and then stare at me, “They are doing what?” Patrick asks, “Think about the numbers. 100 Purelanders in less than a human year, all of them are being kept in the 6th stage. This isn’t a joke. The maximum before was the black daemon’s number; 80. 100 will create something that, if it works, will wipe out all the other species.” I say. They think and do the math and then look at me. “Oh no, it’s true. We have to stop them.” Patrick says. I look at my aunt, “If you don’t want this to happen you must let me and Patrick leave now.” I hiss. My aunt doesn’t complain. She simply nods and disappears from one moment to the other.

Chapter 12 “It was nice being in the village again.” I say. “You were missed, much missed.” He says and I smile; it’s always nice to know someone is thinking about you. No wait that is what humans think. The village had daemons in their real form. Purple and Dark Blue and really Pale Blue almost white and Green. Those were the New Breeds. Other than that only Light Blue Daemons roamed the streets. I was in my normal form for the first time in a long time. I suppose there aren’t many pure females because someone put my name in the Looking for Mate board and 14 Pure Blue Daemon males signed up. I didn’t like that. It was like treating me because of the race I was. If I were purple like Patrick or green, just little people would sign up. I try to think of something less disturbing. “Patrick, how did I get out of the water?” I ask, “Well, your boyfriend found you and brought you home.” “My //what?”// “Boyfriend, you know. That Blue Daemon from earth? Aquion.” I think and remember that daemon that was in the same academy as me. “Oh, him, I already told you he is not my boyfriend. We don’t love Patrick; we only care for our species.” I said, he nods, “But he’s still your boy…” “Shut up.” “My lips are sealed.” I remember him; he was a blue daemon with golden eyes and sharp spikes. His wings were really long and his fins were very strong. Of course, in human form he wasn’t so attractive. He was pale with black hair and about half a foot taller than me in my human form. I beat him by 2 cm in our real form. He wore glasses but was a good mate by what my mother had told me. “You two would make a very good family. You both are smart so your children would continue the wonderful family line.” I had agreed. We are swimming to the bottom of the big black hole that sits in the center of this sea. It has a door with a big number 5 on it. The village was the same. It had houses made of dark stone and the floor was wet and slippery. The same fishes were sold and the same mollusks imported form earth. There was a lot of Nori. The daemons with Japanese clients brought them all the time. My aunt was one. “Taste delicious,” she had told us, “It’s incredible these humans can eat things so tasty. It’s the only thing we are behind in!” She exclaims as she swallows a big Nori roll. Like always the daemons were sliding on the slippery sidewalk with their webbed feet to they wouldn’t fall and Patrick had to help we the first couple of miles because I just wasn’t used to it. The village was hidden in a bubble underwater. The tortured people were in the other side of the stage. The villages were always hidden from sight in the stages. I reach out and grab the knob, when I twist it a bubble of water forms in the door way and we go in. When we close we feel the pressure of the water banging against the door again. I had never been in the 5th stage. Only in the hell train, when I was young me and Patrick and my cousins had came here for a small visit and all we saw was the red hallway. It was a hallway that was slimy and very hot and it had vapor escaping it in every little hole. I never really knew what element it represented. “What should we expect from here?” I ask. “Souls and growing daemons,” He answers. Growing daemons? So this was the nursery. We walked ahead for about 3 hours. We talked about how hell was and how earth was and if anyone had died recently or stuff like that. I had really missed my brother, I don’t know why. I wasn’t supposed to love, so how was that possible? Did he miss me? Probably not, “Shhhh,” he says. I stop; I grow out my daemon ears and listen. They are extra good because they have to catch sound waves in water. Daemons are coming this way. We turn around and run. We try to make as many turns as we can so that they can’t see us. We duck under a sign and Patrick follows. We run through the hall quickly and Patrick grabs my arm and pulls me into a dark room. We stay there and listen as a group of creatures walks past us. I wait for another 10 minutes. I can hear Patrick’s heart beat, it is much quicker than mine. He must be scared, I had gotten used to this a long time ago. “Here,” I whisper and turn the light on. Suddenly a thousand lights beam at me and I am blinded. When I open my eyes I see Patrick. He looks at the light with great eyes and I realize what they are. There are thousands of water capsules all over the walls. The hall way is so long you can’t see the end of it. “What are these?” He asks. I open my mouth to answer but words fail me. Little daemons are inside the water capsules. “It’s…” I start, “It’s an incubator.” I finish. Red and Blue and Grey daemons were all over the place. Orange, Purple, Pink, Green, Yellow, Brown, and all the colors you could imagine. I walk down the aisle and look at the beautiful little creatures that sleep in the water with umbilical cords connected to the wall. “This is where we were born.” I say. Patrick is also walking down the hall. He places his hand on the capsule of a little purple daemon. “This is where we all come from.” He says. I don’t know why we were so surprised. It had been explained to us before, but this was a different way of seeing us daemons. I walk down and down and then my eye catches something. I stop. Something isn’t right. I look at the capsules one by one, “Red,” I whisper as I run my fingers across the capsule of a red daemon with little rolled up horns. “Green, Blue, Blue, Grey, Red… Hum…” I freeze. A human is curled up inside the capsule. It has brown long hair that is floating around the place and pale skin. “Oh my…” I start, “Patrick!” I yell. He runs to me and see the human. “Why is she…?” “I don’t know,” “But she’s grown,” “I don’t know! Just help me get her out!” I scream. We snap the capsule open and the water flows out. The human slips out and into my arms. Patrick gets a towel nearby because the clothes she had on are soaking wet. I pull all the hair away and look at a pale freckled face. Josie is lying unconscious in my hands. “Why was she here?” I whisper. “Ines!” I hear Patrick, I look up. He is staring into another one, “I found another one.” He opens it with another medical suit and catches Isabel from the capsule. “Oh no,” I say. “Why? Why are they here?” Patrick looks at me, “I don’t know, but I do know we aren’t going to leave them here.”

Chapter in between (13) “The execution is in 6 hours sir,” “My favorite number,” “Yes Sir,” “Can I see my Purelander?” “Yes, except his is rather tired.” “Do I care?” “Here he is, Sir,” “Thomas, Thomas, how are you feeling today?” “…” “Thomas please answer,” “…” “I hate boys like you,” “I hate you,” “I know you do, but don’t worry. You will join your sisters in 6 beautiful hours.” “Why…?” “Because I want a child, Thomas, I want a strong and healthy child. I want a child that will beat all the ones less than them. I want a child that only your soul can give me.” “I won’t help you,” “I believe you don’t have an option. Take him away,” “I hope you die!” “Hah, good luck with that!”

Chapter 14 “I feel strange,” Josie said. I had been hugging Ines since I had woken up. “Josie!” I say when I see her. I ran over and hugged her. “Let’s see,” Patrick said, he goes over and fells her forehead. “Wow, you have a pretty bad fever!” He exclaims, “I do?” She asks and she feels her forehead with her pale hands. “You are pretty warm Josie. I missed you so much!” I sigh. Ines had given us the same clothes we had one before. It ends up the closet is full of them. “I am happy to be dressed, good thing Ines got me out of the capsule.” I say. Ines clears her throat and Patrick blushes, “What?” I ask, “I did,” Patrick whispers. I blush too and hide my face in Josie’s red corset. “Hey, Isabel, hold still.” I hear Ines say. I feel her cold skin on my back, “You’re full of sand! How did that happen?” She asks. I shrug. I just hug Josie. “Ok, look, I know you two are happy and all but you won’t be if in less than six hours we aren’t at the 6th stage. We need to get here.” Ines says. “Ok, I know a short-cut!” Patrick utters. We run after him out of the room and into the hall. We turn down at a door that says “Trash Disposal”. “Now, we all have to hold hands, no one let go.” He states, we hold hands and he guides us into the dark room. I am at the end of the line and I can’t see a thing. It is pitch black and I can’t even see Josie or my own arm. The smell here is terrible. It smells to rotten meat and gasses and piss all together. Then we stop. Patrick slides a window open and golden light pours in. “Here we are.” Patrick whispers. We slide out of a small window in the wall. We are in a hallway pretty much the same as the one we entered the room in, except there is a red door with a big number 6 on it. “When we go in, there is no coming back.” Patrick says. We nod. Then Patrick opens the door and we run in towards what ever is waiting for us.

Chapter in between (15) “Master,” “Yes?” “I have been informed that two capsules were opened in the Nursery this evening.” “Oh, well, too bad. I don’t have time to feel bad today Mordel. I couldn’t be happier.” “Um, Master.” “Yes?” “There is one bad news.” “Which one,” “Well, Lunadrane Ines is still alive.” “…………… what?” “She is…” “WHAT!!!!! WHY THAT @#! #%$^!!!!!!! I HATE HER!!!!!” “Ummmmm, you know, I’ll be leaving now.” “AHHHHHHHHHH!” “Yep, so, see you soon Sir.” “Kill Her! Do it now! We have to speed up the execution. Get me my Purelander and I shall see you in the Spiritual Whirlpool in 15 minutes!”

Chapter 16 “So I ran… I ran so far away… Yes I ran…” I sang that stupid song as we ran down the rocky hall way. This stage had rocks that hung like icicles from the ceiling and some that stuck out from the ground. It was like a cave and it was cold and humid like the ones on earth. Patrick ran in front of us and Ines behind. We had picked up some weapons from a group of daemons we had confronted (Patrick and Ines confronted and I threw a rock at… and missed) and I had a spear and Josie a sword she said she could carry but was really slowing her down and I was scared of running too close to her because of how it swigged everywhere. I also had a dagger and Josie had a shield, but Ines carried that for her so she wouldn’t get too tired. When we were about to turn to the right in an opening where a bit of light was coming from, a group of about 4 daemons came to fight us. Patrick then faced completely and he looked like Ines but he also had a red daemon’s horns and no fined tail. He had no spikes but he had webbed hands still. “You run, I will take care of this!” He hissed in a voice a bit like Ines’s but without that second one in the back that was monotonous. He lunged at the daemons that then threw themselves on him. I could hear clawing and hissing and roaring as we turned right into the opening. But as I ran, I didn’t realize how my legs were all of the sudden so tired. I didn’t realize how my skin had turned thin as paper. As I ran, I didn’t realize a trail of sand I was leaving behind.

Chapter in between (17) “Did you bring the Purelander?” “Yes, here he is,” “Where are you taking me?” “To your doom,” “No…” “He’s very tired, Master,” “Well, better, I can’t stand his whining any more. Bring him here.” “Is this the right spot?” “Yes,” “Very well then,” “Now make sure no one interrupts,”  “Too late…” “… Who said that?” “… Who is there?” “Me… *hiss* your worst enemy for today…” “Ines?” “No… impossible…” “Give him back!” “Yes, Isabel is right! Give him back!” “Isabel! Josie!” “Thomas! Hold on, we will save you!” “I’m sorry but I can’t let that happen, I shall stop you at all cost!”  “Hmm, try too…”

Chapter 18 “Thomas!” I see Isabel yell. She runs towards Thomas with Josie. In the middle of the way they trip. “Isabel! Josie!” I screech. I am in my real form and they are tiny to me. I jump to them and examine them. They are out cold. I don’t know what to do. I can’t leave them here unprotected. I think quickly, I try to find a solution. I don’t realize they are shaking. Isabel groans and Josie lets out a muffled scream. I look down at them and realize Isabel’s skin is turning brown and Josie is turning red. Two lumps come out on both of their heads and back. Josie’s eyes flip. The pupil is now white and the brown circle is black. Her hands grown out long black claws and her body grown long and thin. You can’t see her rib cage but you can see black lines that come out form her skin like a tattoo. The lines run all over her back and towards the front of her body. They stop abruptly before they reach the front, they cover all her back, but you can only make out the edges on the front of her body. The lines also grow on her face and give her three lines on each check, making them look like cat whiskers. Her back catches on fire and small shark like teeth appear in her mouth. A pink snake tongue slithers out of her mouth. Her feet stay the same but now her nails are black. Her hair is a shiny black and her wings spread out. They are curved like an angel’s but have iron red feathers. The lumps on her forehead pierce her skin and the grown backwards and spin inwards. They curve and curve until they are a spiral of a mountain goat’s horns. An arrowed tail grows out and it catches on fire too. “What is happening?” Master hisses. Isabel’s pupil and colored circle turn into a dim grey, almost fading them into the white of her eyes. Her arms grown long and her legs pinch back wards and curve. She also has lines all over her body. grows huffs instead off feet and she grows very tall, taller than Josie but still two meters beneath me. But she is thinner, she spreads wings like a butterfly except they are a metallic color and have no pattern. She has stripes on her body. Stripes like a candy cane except she is the same color all over. She has lines that drop form her shoulders like drops of water and run down her body all the way to her legs. Some of them start on her forehead and go down her neck to them did a sharp turn to go around her body like a belt right above her stomach. Her fangs were different, the bottom ones were large and stuck upwards as if you had grabbed a vampire’s mouth and flipped it over. Except these teeth were much larger and sharper. The rest of her teeth were shark like too. The lumps on her head grew into the same shape as Josie’s except they stop at the first circle and then grew straight forward. She not only had one arrowed tail, she had three. They stop shaking and stand up. They examine their hands and feet and hair and gasp when they see their wings and quickly reach up to touch their horns. “You two are… daemons?” I ask. They turn around and look at me with giant eyes full of curiosity. “But… how?” Josie asks. “I don’t know, but we can’t think now.” I said. Master still couldn’t believe what he saw, but he shook it off and called his daemons. 20 daemons came out and lunged for us. Josie screamed and tried to run away as 8 daemons chased her. Thomas took advantage and hurled himself at master, he tried to bite and kick but Master is Master and you just can’t beat him so easily. Master defended himself and was pushed back a bit. But he had Thomas against the floor quickly. Josie was trying to escape the daemons still. As she did she breathed some dust and her nose got tickled. “Ahh,” She said, “AHH!” She quickly turned around towards the daemons. “ATCHOO!” She sneezed harshly. But she didn’t spit out saliva; instead a giant wave of fire escaped her mouth and covered the daemons. She sniffed and looked at what she had done. “Oops…” she whispered. Isabel didn’t hesitate. She ran to the daemons that came after her and gave them a punch. Many of them dodged and tried to grab her. She screamed as they jumped on her and the same roots that had captured her in the snow wrapped themselves around the daemons and pulled them down. I scratched with my long nails and screamed so hard the cave would shake. This would give me an advantage and I would attack them while they tried to keep on fighting after the shock. “No! Go on fighting!” Master yelled. These daemons were simple shadow daemons. They weren’t even considered daemons sometime, only small and weak devils. Master knew he wouldn’t be able to get through this with his Purelander. So he did what any Devil or Daemon would have done in the situation. He turned around and with one swing of his hand threw Thomas into the whirlpool. I looked at him, “NO!” Isabel shrieked. He reached up and grabbed onto the side, Master put his foot on his fingers. “You have brought me enough shame and misfortune, you human!” He hissed. I was across the place in 8 strides. Then 3 things happened so quickly I could barely remember them. 1st, Patrick came into the place and with a gun that he had stolen from one of the guards and shot Master. 2nd, Thomas slipped after Master squished his fingers. 3rd, I was stupid enough to jump in after him. I could hear the bullet hit Master, he gasped harshly and clutched his chest. The fall to the whirlpool was a good kilometer or so. We were still falling as I reached my long arm towards Thomas. He was about to fall unconscious, but I could see how he tried to stay awake. I was heavier so I was able to fall quicker and reach up to him. I carefully wrap my hand around his waist. We were 50 meters from the floor when I did it. I did what a Daemon NEVER does. If you are a daemon you kill yourself before doing this terrible sin. We give our lives for this and we spend our lives doing it. But I didn’t care. I just thought about getting Thomas out of there alive to his sisters. I snatched the bottle that had their spirits in them, the one with the contract rolled up in it, and I smashed it against the wall. The contract was broken… and they were free.

Chapter 19 The bottle broke and the spirits went to each one of them. Thomas’s spirit came back and when it entered his body was shining with a blue light. We were still falling and I though, this is it… we are dead. But one meter from the floor it all changed, Thomas turned to light himself and the light burst up the tunnel, carrying me in front. His spirit dug right into my stomach and I could feel as I was carried up and out of the long pit. Thomas slid past me all of the sudden and I grabbed onto him. Isabel and Josie were a red and brown light that had rushed past Patrick and I snatched his arm as I passed by. The lights went through the door and burst through all the steamy walls of the 5th stage. We burst through the door and water of the 4th stage and into the next door. Through the snowy hills of the 3rd stage and across the yellow sand dunes of the 2nd stage and across the sea of lava of the 1st stage, and we entered the Main Entrance. It was in chaos. Giant soul catchers were all over the entrances and exits. But for some reason I couldn’t explain we went right through them with no problem at all. The only problem was that it turned them back into human. As soon as we were going up the tunnel someone shot at us and an explosion appeared right behind us. We stopped. Josie grabbed Thomas and Patrick grabbed onto the wall of the tunnel. Isabel and me also grabbed on and climbed up as quickly as we could. I had to help her because she was human and her hands were now too weak. “Go on! We have to move!” Patrick screamed. Then I hear it. No one else did. There was a gun shot and then I could hear the hissing of rope moving very fast. I could hear the metal gear ripping through the air towards us… towards them. I didn’t know why, I wasn’t thinking straight. But I did what no daemon had ever done before.

Chapter 20 I heard it only afterwards. I looked down and there she was. The bullet was intended for Thomas and Josie, it was a bullet tied to a rope. Ines jumped in front of them in the last minute and the bullet went through her. The bulled then opened its metal claws, holding on to her body and she didn’t look at it. She only looked up at me. “Ines!” I screamed. I reached my short arm and grabbed her hand. Patrick came down to help me pull. The rope was pulling her down; the bullet was pulling her stomach down with her. Josie went on with Thomas. The hole was closing, “Isabel!” She screamed. I pulled and pulled and I could feel myself slipping. Ines did too. Patrick tried also to keep us up but it was too much, she was sliding out of our hands. She then let go, she didn’t hold on to our hands and then she looked up at Patrick and said, “Don’t let them die.” Then she pushed herself form us with her legs. She fell into hell and I couldn’t see her anymore. “NO!!!” I screamed. Patrick had me around the waist and pulled me to the surface. We made it out just as it closed. We threw ourselves on the ground and when I look at Patrick he is weeping. He is weeping tearless sobs. Josie and Thomas are sitting not far from us and I see her weep too. Thomas is breathing deeply and I can see his chest shake when he breathes out, he doesn’t want to cry. I look and hole is gone, and since I can’t do anything about it… I cry.

Chapter 21 “Thomas?” I hear Josie’s voice question. We look up. Thomas is surrounded by a black smoke. “Thomas! Please, what is happening to him?” Josie screams. Patrick runs over and looks at him. That is when Thomas’s skin turns black, pitch black like oil. The two lumps appear on his back and forehead. He turns into a daemon right in front of our eyes. His wings are like a bat’s wings except it had a claw at the end like Ines. He had two tails instead of one and his eyes were like a snake’s eyes, except red. His claws were long and snow white like his teeth that were like a piranha teeth. He grew scales out and on his back he had stripes like a zebra. His feet grew long nails and in the middle of his chest a red sphere appeared. He grew tall, taller than Patrick and my daemon form. He grew taller than Ines by about 5 feet. Patrick backed up. He was thin and you could see his rib cage. His horns appeared and they grew forward and towards each other, then they grew upwards parallel and then they pointed forward. When he stopped shaking and stood up taller than most of the trees, he looked at us and then gasped. “How did you get down there?” He asked, “That’s what I should be asking you! What are you doing all the way up there?” Josie yells. Thomas looks around and notices the trees. “Hah, I’m a giant!” He said with a smile. He looked down. Patrick is staring up at him with such a terrified face you might think his eyes are going to pop out in any moment. “Oh snap, oh snap, oh snap, OH SNAP!” He yells, “You’re a BLACK daemon!” Thomas back away, “Aha, I noticed, what about it?” He asks, Patrick takes his hands to his head and then slides them down to his cheeks and pulls them down making him look like a hush puppy. “That’s the strongest kind there is! Master is going to be SO furious!” He screams, “There are only like 100 Pure Black daemons, I had never even seen one!” He admires. Thomas stares at Patrick and then at us, “Hey, Ines looked blue in the cave but now she looks purple.” He says pointing at Patrick. “And he talks like a boy,” he laughs, “I’m not Ines, I’m his brother.” Patrick says. Thomas looks around then behind himself and even under his feet and then all around the tree tops. “So… where is Ines?” I feel a lump in my throat and I can see a Patrick starting to shake a bit. “She’s… she stayed in hell.” Josie whispers. Patrick’s hands ball into fists, “Why would she do that?” Thomas asks. Patrick explodes, “Just tell him! She’s dead; she was shot with the bullet we were supposed to take and dragged back to hell. She was probably already dead before she hit the floor!” Patrick screams. Thomas looks at him, “She was shot?” He asks, “With… our bullet?” He looks at me. “Isabel, is this true?” I nod my head. “The bullet had a string and pulled her down. There isn’t anything we can do.” I say, the lump in my throat just getting bigger. Thomas stares blankly at the floor and then sits down. “You need to turn back to normal, you might want to practice.” Patrick says. He concentrates on his own and I walk over to Patrick and ask, “Are you alright?” He nods, “Just a bit shaken, but that’s all.” He says, he turns human and stands there with a blank look. “The tables were turned, between her and me,” he whispers. Thomas finally goes back to normal. His clothes still fit, incredibly. “Can’t we save her?” I say. Patrick shakes his head, “We would have to go into the Spiritual Whirlpool with one pure daemon of each kind.” He says, “We would need a Blue Daemon, a Yellow Daemon, and a Grey Daemon. And all the daemons on the world are hidden, or dangerous, or they are against us.” Patrick says. Thomas sighs, “So this is it?” He asks. “Yes,” Patrick answers, “this is it.”

Chapter 22 “Try not to give us that scare again,” Dad said, he smiled and turned the lights off and left. I didn’t answer, I was still thinking about how we were daemons now. I was still thinking about Ines. I was still thinking how it had happened; I wondered how we ended up in the capsules. “Josie,” I whisper when I hear the light flick off in his room, “Yes?” “I wonder how we turned to daemons. I mean, we are still half human but… I just don’t understand how it happened.” I whisper. “Maybe it was an accident, I don’t know Isabel. I can’t think right now.” She answers. I bite my bottom lip as I look up at the ceiling. “This is my fault; I wanted to go save him and I just didn’t help her at all. She had to save me all the time. I want to say I’m sorry.” I say, “None of this was your fault, I should have moved out of the way so Thomas would not have gotten hit.” She says. “I suppose it is everybody’s fault.” I whisper, “Yes, I suppose it was.” She answers. Patrick was now in Ines’s bed and taking her place. The family didn’t want a New Breed, but they welcomed him. I hear the door knob twist and we both turn to see Thomas slide into the room. “I wanted to talk to you,” “Thomas, we are all tired, we had a very hard day.” Josie says, “Just listen to me for one minute. Tomorrow you guys must see me behind the school when class is over.” He says. “Ok,” I say, “One last thing,” He asks, “Yes?” Josie says, “Can I sleep with you guys today, I tried to sleep but I still get nightmares with… Master,” He says. I then see he has his blankets in one hand. We agree and Thomas sleeps on top bunk bed while Josie and I sleep on the bottom. “Good night,” Thomas says, “Good night,” we both answer. I wonder how he feels. He had been there for 3 more hours than us and had been chained up all that time knowing they were going to sacrifice him at any moment. I still wondered how he could be so calm when we found our parents after leaving the forest. “He sure is tough… for a human.” Ines would have said. I am too tired; I can barely keep my eyes open. I place my arm around Josie and then I close my eyes and dream with sand dunes and volcanoes and snow hills.

Chapter 23 “Finally! I thought you guys would never come!” Thomas exclaims as he sees us, “Well, sorry, we don’t have classes on the first floor you know. Also the traffic jam was terrible for being Friday.” Josie defended. We walked up to him and noticed Patrick standing behind him. “Hello,” He said, “Hi,” Josie and I say simultaneously. There is an awkward silence for about 3 minutes before Patrick whispers, “Tell them already,” Thomas shoved him with his large elbow, “Not yet,” he whispered, “I don’t know how to put it in a way that doesn’t make me sound crazy,” “But you are crazy,” Patrick answered. Josie broke the silence, “Tell us, we didn’t come here for a staring competition.” She whined, Thomas looked at the ground for a moment and then Patrick blurred out an answer before he could be stopped, “He want’s to go back to hell!” Thomas quickly tried to cover his mouth but the answer was out. Josie gasped and my jaw dropped open. “What!?” I yell, Thomas looks at us with a startled look and quickly says, “I have a reason!” We freeze and look at him, “What reason is there?” Josie yells, “Will you calm down and listen to me?” Thomas answers. We stop for and moment to cool down and he begins to speak, “Ok, look, we are daemons. I am a Dark Daemon and Ines’s cousins are all of the rest including you guys. Isabel is earth like Alejandro, Josie is fire like Gus, Arani is Blue like Ines and Daniel is air and so is this far away cousin of them that is on earth too. They have these cousins that are electricity. They also have lots of lots of contacts. If we get enough daemons on our side we can break into hell, get Ines’s soul back, and then just return to earth.” He concludes, it sounds reasonable to me but Josie doesn’t give up so easily. “Listen Thomas, you were locked in a cave of the 6th stage when we had to cross all of hell. I died in the 1st stage, the 1st! Isabel died in the 3rd and Patrick was almost killed there too. Or at least that is what I was told. For some reason we ended up in daemon capsules and now we are like this. You were almost killed in the 6th stage and you didn’t even go through the first five!” She yells, I change my mind, she is right. “You might think it is easy, but getting there was already hard and besides they are going to be hunting us and won’t have mercy because we are children.” She whispers. “I know that and I have seen how merciless master is, ok? He would talk about killing you two as if he did something like that all of the time.” He answers. “Then you will know why we don’t want to go,” Josie responds harshly. “But we have to do it, Ines sacrificed herself for us. At least we can free her soul!” “No! She did that for us! If we die down there her death would be in vein!” “But we won’t die!” “How can you be sure?” “How can you be sure about us dieing?” “I am sure because Isabel and I died there!” “But you were human! Now you are half daemon!” They continued throwing whines and responses to each other. I sighed; this wasn’t going to end up nicely if it went on like this. I look at Patrick that has his arms crossed and stands silently behind Thomas, “She isn’t dead,” I hear him whisper. Josie and Thomas don’t listen to him but I do. “She isn’t?” I yell. Patrick looks up at me with a startled face and Thomas and Josie stop and look at me. “Who isn’t what?” Thomas asks, “Patrick just said…” “Hey, you know what I should get going so I will see you tomorrow! Bye!” Patrick blurs out but Thomas grabs the back of his collar and pulls him back. “What did you say?” He asks, Patrick gives me an annoyed look and whispers, “She isn’t dead,” Thomas and Josie exchange a look and then look closer at Patrick, “Ines isn’t dead? But we saw her get pulled and with that bullet thingy and…” Thomas trails off, “I know but that doesn’t mean she is dead. You humans sub estimate us daemons. We are very resistant and Ines was able to survive 500 Negatives beating her up for almost 8 hours when you took the bell out. She has been trained because of her name as heir of the family. She is probably being tortured; master would not be so nice to her and just letting her die. And by the way daemons don’t have souls.” Patrick says. Thomas thinks about this and says, “Hah, another reason to go,” “No! Another reason to stay! She is alive and we don’t have to free the soul she doesn’t even have.” Josie exclaims. “Oh will you just stop!” I scream, they all look at me, “I have had enough of just sitting here and listening to everyone make decisions for me. That I have to go to hell for one thing and I have to keep Thomas safe and I have to follow such rules and I have to be home early even if I am trying to save someone. I have life!” I stand up straight and fill my chest with air, “I decide a combination of both of the ideas, and we will go to hell,” “Hah,” Thomas teases with a satisfied smile, “But we have to plan it and this will take a lot of time before we can,” “What? But I wanted to break in like in movies,” Thomas whines, “I don’t care,” I say, “We will save Ines and we will get back the honor we lost in Hell and show master who is boss of who!” I say. Patrick starts clapping after I finish, “Well, that was inspiring and I agree.” Josie says, “But Thomas has to slow down, this is going to take more time than just jumping straight into Hell.” “Ok, as long as I can show off my dark daemon form I am fine. And there has to be some action.” Thomas says. “I will help in anyway I can, the family will support you guys. We did loose our honor too so Ines’s original plan of the trip was a big failure.” Patrick said. I smiled, “So it’s decided,” I whisper, “We’re going back to Hell.” Josie had to smile at this. She was in. “But we need the family’s help,” Patrick interrupted, our smiles faded. The family would never do us a favor. “They won’t listen; we killed their heir and youngest daughter.” Thomas says. Patrick sighs, “We have to try,”

“Ok, well, this is kind of awkward.” I mumble as the whole family stares at me. Daniel sits with his body leaning forward and his elbows sat on his knees. His hands met with his fingers interlacing. Alejandro sat straight with his feet flat on the floor and his hands on his laps. Gus sat leaning back with his hands in his pockets and his legs crossed. Their father, who I had found out, was called Francis, sat with his legs crossed and his hands sat on his crossed knee. Arani had her legs together and diagonal across her and her hands on her knees and last of all was the mother. She was a petit woman of short hair and a very aristocrat attitude. She sat up higher than any of them and had a very neutral look on her face, almost like the Mona Lisa’s smile. I couldn’t tell if she was mad or happy or maybe she was just not interested at all. “I am pretty sure you all hate me and I understand perfectly why. That is why I wanted to offer a solution to that.” I say but they still look at me with those cold eyes. “We want to go save Ines.” I finish. Then the stress hits. They all stiffen and the atmosphere turns twice and bad as it was before. “Are you mad?” Arani asks, “Do you have any idea what you are saying?” “Yes, I do, I went there myself in a human form.” I hiss, “Well now you are daemons and are wanted all over the place it would be harder. Much harder,” Daniel says, “Why are you even asking us? You go yourself!” Gus yells, “We are asking because we need one daemon of each kind! And we only have three.” I whisper. “Isabel, I admire your courage to save our daughter but please understand you will only make that small good thing that came from her death in vein. Your lives,” Francis says. “No, it won’t be in vein. She isn’t dead!” I yell, “What do you mean? Of course she is! She was perforated by a bullet!” Alejandro shouts. I look at Patrick and he looks at the floor. “No, she is alive!” I scream. They all jump up and start yelling the reasons why she was dead and why we had to stay. I feel like crying and I can tell Thomas is already turning around to head out of the door. There is then a sudden hush in the room and everyone freezes. I feel the tension and stop too. They are all still and looking at the mother, she has her hand up as if she is trying to get everyone’s attention, and she has. “I do believe this lady has a point,” she whispers in a silky almost transparent voice, it was like listening to someone speaking through a radio, really faded but soft and soothing all the same. “We are telling her that the daemon that lasted 8 hours without her bell and was alright the next day was killed by a simple bullet.” Thomas turns around and listens to her, “We are telling her that our heir that was able to guide 2 human girls and one daemon across the stages and made all the way back alive died without giving a fight.” She stares blankly at her family with black eyes like the night. “We are saying that the daughter and heir of the Antoine family on earth actually died because she could not stand the torture of hell.” She now gave a clear smile to us, “Now, let’s all think, is this really the same daemon, because I thought my daughter was harder to kill.” She finishes. The family stops for a moment and then Gus whispers, “No, not the same daemon at all.” She smiles, “I agree, so I do believe we should start packing.” She looks at me, “We will go of course, but not without training. You shall train with Alejandro, Josefina, or Josie, will train with Gus, and finally Thomas will train with me.” I smile at her and feel warm inside. For some reason she seems human and caring. I didn’t understand how Ines could be afraid of her, or even the rest of the family. “Why do I train with you?” Thomas asks, she looks at him sweetly, “Mainly because only a dark daemon can train another dark daemon,” She rumors. She stands up and the whole family sits down. They look at her with attentive eyes, “Gus, call Miriam, your sister must come of course and tell her to bring the Veirans Family. They owe me for that one time,” She whispers, “And also start packing up, one of the reasons Ines ended up as she did is because she didn’t plan. She depended only on her actions.” Gus darts out of the room but steals a small glance from Josie before he disappears. “Alejandro, get Diego and rest of the Dukes family which do need to return that certain something to us anyway.” Alejandro bows and rushes out. “Arani get your mate and the Hubertus sisters, they will come too.” Arani nods and leaves, “Daniel, the Petersen family,” He leaves too, “Oh and honey, I would like for you to get me a cup of our wine. You know how being in this body is very hard to bear.” Francis smiles at her and softly kisses her cheek, “Of course my dear, I will be right back,” He leaves for what I think is the kitchen. She looks at us, “Now, you three sweetie pies go home and sleep. The whole crew shall be here tomorrow, I know they will. You must rest very well for tomorrow’s training will not be easy.” She said, “Especially you Thomas, I wouldn’t stay up on the computer today. I am not an easy coach.” We nod at the same time, “Patrick, love, come here and give me a hug.” She whispers, Patrick walks over to her and shakily gives her a hug with a nervous smile. “There, now I feel much better. Patrick, call our family and rest of the cousins will you?” He nods quickly and is out of there before we know it. As we leave she smiles at us and Francis arrives with the cup of wine. I smile back and she waves as she takes a sip. The wine is a dark red, and I had never seen such a thick wine. It was almost like… no, not possible. We arrived home and mom and dad were waiting with dinner. That night the moment we touched our beds at 9:30 pm, we fell a sleep.

“My name is Miriam,” the girl with black hair said with a smile, “So you are the half ones,” “Yeah, that’s us,” Josie says, Gus’s sister looked a lot like him. You could really tell by the shape of the face and the hair color. She was very pretty but one thing that kept on bothering me was her eyes. They were red like rubies. “Oh, it’s because of my daemon type.” She had answered when I asked her, “I am fire daemon, like Gus, but since he lives on earth he has to use contacts.” She mocks. Josie looked at herself in a mirror and Miriam laughed, “You are a half one, your human form is your native one so your eyes aren’t like ours.” Josie sighed in relief. Gus also brought the Veirans family children. They were two kids too, one boy and a girl. The girl was older and the boy seemed our age. His name was Sidney, Gus and him got along really well. The spoke the same language in a way, just like their sisters, “Yo, wassup Gus?” He had asked, “It’s all good,” He had answered; they hit their fists together and nodded with satisfied looks. Sidney had black short hair and pale skin. He wasn’t as strong as Gus but you could see the muscle. His eyes were yellow. The sister also looked a lot like him, her name was Melanie. They had a younger sister but she didn’t come because she was too small and the family didn’t want to risk another heir. She also had yellow eyes. Then came the Dukes family. They were Laura and Gustavo A. which was the same as Gus except for the A. They were siblings and also blue daemons. Then there was Mariana which had two other sisters but one of them was too young and the other was already a heir of the family souls. She was a fire daemon. There was also Diego that was an only child and was a New Breed. He was a green daemon. Finally there was Mathieu and Gaby that were siblings too and were brown daemons. Daniel brought the Petersen family that consisted of Erin, a very rare and pure grey daemon, and Eva, an orange daemon (also new breed). There was also Daniela, a yellow daemon, and Leila, a dark daemon, and Maria Fernanda, a red daemon. They all sat in the overcrowded living room and there were still a couple to come. Arani came in with her mate, a blue daemon named James, and two sisters. They were red daemons and their names were Susan and Estefania. Patrick came in with two tall ladies. One of them his mother and the other his aunt. His mother was a red daemon and was named Patricia. The other lady had two children under each arm and she was 2 meters something of height. They were non identical twins, one named Evert (the one that was smaller) and then was Nicholas (that was taller than Thomas but the same age, which really got him mad). They were all talking and saluting and bragging about the contracts they had made and all the rest when the mother walked in. They all went silent. She smiled, “Thank you all for coming, you all know the reason we are here. Now, this is the day that we will decide what to do to save my daughter Ines. Thank you for cooperating.” She smiled, some smiled back and some just looked at their feet. “Now,” she continued, “All the red daemons will work together for the weapons section. The brown will take care of the armor section. Blue daemons will mark the maps with the dark daemons, the blue the routes on earth and the dark the routes in hell. The yellow will find shortcuts through the stages and also plan the battle strategies. The grey will take care of distractions and plans of entrance and the new breeds will help along all of us.” She concluded. “The trainers will take their half ones and teach them the ways of the daemons. We will start today and won’t stop until the day comes. That day is in exactly 2 weeks. We have that much time before Ines is taken to sacrifice.” She finishes. “How do you know that madam?” Josie asks trying to sound polite. Everyone looks at her with horrified eyes and then back to the mother. She smiles sweetly and whispers, “I just do, and please call me Leida.” Everyone sighs in relief. She claps her hands the daemons pour out into the garden and take their stations. She smiles at the working mob and looks at us. “We shall start soon enough, but I just wish to thank you Isabel. You took initiative. That is more than I thought any human with a contract would be able to do. You also have enough here,” she said tapping my head, “and here.” She said tapping my heart. “So this is it,” Josie says, “This is more like it.” “Yeah, and we are going to make it,” Thomas exclaims, “I’m not letting those fools take advantage of me again!” “Yeah,” I whisper looking at the whole family that had united just to help us. To help their sister and cousin, perhaps daemons could love. Perhaps there was more to them than just natural instinct. This was going to work, this time we weren’t going to loose. I took Thomas’s hand in one hand and Josie’s in the other and whispered, “This time, it’s for real.”

Two days later… Situation: A new daemon was born in the 6th stage of hell. Name: Paulina Age: 9 hours Purelanders: 99 and one blue daemon.