The Life of Caine Zimmer

Start: April 23, 2009 End: N/A
The Life of Caine Zimmer

‘ ’ is thoughts
“ ” is speech

	Long ago, many years before this time, a demon by the name of Arrox ruled over the demons of both the human and the demon world. Few humans knew of his existence and he was easily forgotten with the separation of the demons from the humans. Just as the humans of Egypt once assumed they were close to the gods, the humans currently believe that demons exist only in fairytales and legends. Well, they’re in for a rude awakening…

------Monday, November 2, XXXX------

	I was running through a forest, already gasping for breath, carrying a sword as long as I was tall. What was I running from and where was I going? Hell if I knew. I know one thing though; I don't want that thing to get me. It was catching up to me, that dark creature. I could hear its breath and feel its feet stepping behind me. A cold chill ran up my spine as a sinister laugh filled the air. “You’re not getting away, Caine, not this time!” Did I mention that it knew my name? No? Sorry about that but I’m in the middle of fleeing for my life from something that has been haunting me for the past three nights. “Leave me the hell alone!” I choke out; my throat is so dry from all the air I've been greedily gulping into my lungs.

	I’ve always been able to escape it before but this time I’m afraid it might actually catch me; it’s never gotten so close... a hand grabbed my arm. “Shit!” I yelled as I managed to tear from its grasp but I lost my sword to the ground in the process. I lost my footing and tumbled to the ground. I closed my eyes in pain, praying that whatever it was would not hurt me. “Caine, I've finally got you.” I opened my eyes to see a large dark cloud that was slowly dissipating, my sword a few feet from me.

	As the darkness moved further away, long silver hair caught some of the moonlight and flashed; deep crimson eyes glowed eerily, whoever it was, was wearing a black kimono with a white sash, no shoes, and had a pair of amazing black feathery wings. I dove for my sword and, in a flash; I was pinned to the tree that was behind me, sword too far away for me to reach. I tried to speak but all that came out was a strangled sound. My head was throbbing and my throat felt like it was collapsing in on itself. “Calm down and I'll let you go,” said the creature, red eyes staring through my black ones. I nodded my head weakly and, when 'he' released me, I fell to the ground and coughed, trying to stabilize my breathing.

	Feeling his eyes on me, I looked up and stood weakly, my legs felt like jelly after running so far. “What are you and who are you?” I asked, inching slowly closer to my sword. “I am one of the demon kings, I am known as Arrox. I have been waiting for a strong enough successor to accept my power, my son.” My mind went blank; all thoughts of trying to defend myself or cause this creature harm disappeared. “W-what the hell?” I stuttered out, knees shaking as they strained to hold my weight.

	“I have chosen for you to be my heir, one of the many with some of my blood in them, but the only one with the potential for greatness. You will take my place when it is my time to die.” I stared at him as he stalked closer, my mind too clouded to understand that escaping right now might be a good idea. Before I could fully register the proximity between us, he was within arm's reach and he put a finger to my forehead. A strange white glow was coming from where he touched my forehead. “I’ll give you time to clear your head. See you the next time you fall asleep.” Suddenly, my mind kicked into gear and I stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. I shot up quickly so I wouldn't lose sight of him and-

	-“BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!” It was my alarm. I was back in my bedroom sitting up on my bed. I blinked away the sleep from my eyes and turned off my alarm, noting the time was 6:20 AM. I had only ten minutes to get ready for school. Stupid dream. I always used to write off the dreams as nightmares, but now what? What happened in my dream felt real, something was nagging at me that was telling me it wasn’t just a dream.

	I needed to think about what that demon had said. I'm the heir of a demon king? He wants me to join him? To take on his role as the ruler of his kingdom? I’m only 19 and almost done with my second year of college! The light snoring of my roommate, Teiko Yuushi, brought me back to reality. We had eight minutes to start walking to class or we’d be late. 'I'm just a college student, that’s all I am. There's no way I could be a demon's heir!' I thought in frustration, smacking my face to wake myself up further.

	Getting out of bed and walking over to Tei's bed, I lightly shook my roommate's shoulder “Tei! Come on Tei, wake up! We’re going to be late again if you don’t hurry!” He opened his blue-green eyes slightly, closed them and then mumbled “mmn…morning,” wiping the sleep off his eyes. I tousled his golden shaggy hair and laughed at his frowning baby-face. A pillow smacked me in the face and I shut up. I picked it up and threw it back at him in annoyance. Walking to my dresser and putting on my uniform, I observed myself in the mirror. Plain black pants, a black button-down shirt with white linings on the sleeves and collar. I slipped on a pair of white socks.

	Now we had five minutes to get out the door. Tei had just finished getting himself dressed as I walked into the bathroom. I quickly brushed my shaggy black hair, brushed my teeth, put on deodorant, went pee quickly and then checked the mirror to see how I looked. My black eyes stared back at me and for a second I could have sworn I saw some crimson flecks glow. Tei went in to freshen up as well. I grabbed both of our bags, slipped on my black shoes and started walking out the door saying, “I got your bag, okay, Tei? Catch up with me!” I was out a minute early. About two minutes later I heard him running down the steps to catch up with me. “Hey! Wait up!” I handed him his bag as he caught up and we continued our brisk walk towards school.

	School starts at 7:00 am. If you’re not on time, you can kiss your ass goodbye. This was, after all, a prestigious school for talented wizards of all ages (yes, it’s an all-boys school and yes, wizards do exist in our country and are widely accepted, not feared as they had been in the old times, and in other countries), they had no room for slackers. The only thing that sucks about going to an all-boys school is that there are no chicks, none what so ever, it’s enough to drive us all practically insane! I mean, at least in high school it was co-ed! ‘Why couldn’t my parents let me go to a normal school?’ I complained in my head.

	“What are you thinking about, Caine?” Tei’s curious voice asked from my side. “Girls, boobs, sex, and all that…” I answered, nonchalant. “Oh.” Tei wasn’t normally so quiet and I thought he would laugh and say “Me too!” or something like that. “What’s wrong?” My friend was moping and it was downright unnatural. “Nothing,” he mumbled. “Fine, whatever, you’ll tell me when you feel like it, I get it,” I replied casually. We walked along the sidewalk, feeling the nice spring breeze and the freshly risen sun playing across our faces. I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face and I closed my eyes, it was just too much of a perfect morning. Too perfect indeed.

	SKREEECH!!! “CAINE! WATCH OUT!!!” I was shoved hard to the side, landing painfully on the pavement, and a gut-wrenching “CRACK” was heard. I didn’t even have time to scream before the wind was knocked out of me. I heard shouting, yelling, and scrambling and I felt someone lifting me; the sounds faded into background noise and the only thing I could see was the bloody figure of Tei in front of a car. “TEI!!!” I tried to scream. Nothing came out but a spurt of red liquid. Then everything went black.

------At a the Yeaton hospital in Soltis City------

	‘Caine, wake up! Tei needs you Caine!’ A faint voice in my head shouted. Light slowly entered my vision and sounds came into focus. “Be-beep, be-beep, be-beep….” ‘Huh? My alarm?’ I thought as I blearily opened my eyes. ‘Why am I so achy? Is Tei awake? I don’t hear any snoring, where is he?’ As my eyes came into focus, I had to squint from the blinding white-washed walls that surrounded me.

	I was on a hard hospital bed with an I.V. drip attached to my arm. My heart rate was making the soft beeping sound to my left. I looked down and saw I had a bandage wrapped around my middle and my chest, it hurt to move so I decided to lay still. I had a few Band-Aids on my arm and I felt one of those soft patches on my forehead. Then it all came back to me, the screeching of the car, Tei saving my life, Tei in front of the car, in a pool of his own blood. The heart monitor sped up. My thoughts started racing. ‘Where is Tei? Where is he?!’ I looked around frantically, no one was there; just two empty beds and myself in a blinding white room. Then the door opened, revealing a doctor.

	“Where is Tei? Is he okay?” I needed answers. The doctor was bald and he had the traditional white coat on and stethoscope around his neck. “You mean the blonde boy, Teiko Yuushi?” He asked, looking at me with sad eyes. “Yes. Where is he?” Good, he was willing to talk to me. “He’s in critical condition; we have the best doctors and wizards working on him. You have him to thank for your life, you know.” He said this as he did a check-up on my health. “I know,” I mumbled.

	My best friend was probably going to die all because of me. “Well, you may get up and walk around. As long as you don’t strain yourself, I know you would like to go see your friend so just be careful with your ribs, they are still slightly bruised but they should be just fine in a few hours thanks to your quick healing.” He informed me. “Um… how long have we been here?” I asked, wanting to know how long Tei had suffered because of me. “Almost 12 hours, it’s 6:27 PM right now.” He replied, nodding to the clock on the wall above my head.

	“Thank you,” I said, getting up. “What room is he in?” I asked impatiently. “Three twenty four, but you can only look through the window, you can’t go in there.” He said this while writing something on his notepad. “Thank you again, Dr.-” “Noven, Dr. Noven,” he stood straight and shook my hand. “It was nice to meet you as well Cain Zimmer.” “Nice to meet you too, goodbye.” I left with my left hand over my stomach and my right hand on the door handle and I pulled it open. As I walked out into the hallway, the first thing I did was check the room number I was in before. A simple white 52 shone next to the door frame with brail dotting beneath. Okay, so that means I have to go quite a ways. I walked along the hallway until I found someone. It was a nurse.

	“Um, excuse me?” She stopped and looked at me. “Do you know where room 324 is?” I asked her. “Who are you?” She asked, looking me over. “Um, Caine Zimmer, my friend was in an accident and I need to see how he is. His name is Teiko Yuushi,” I replied, looking at her in hope. “Very well, follow me,” she replied curtly as she turned around. I was led to an elevator which took us up three floors. When it opened we were greeted with the stench of formaldehyde, cries of pain, and the sobs of loved ones. I was overcome with the emotions pouring out from that hallway and I'm not even an empath. Silent tears streamed down my face. I looked up at the nurse; she seemed unaffected by it all. My guess is that she was used to it. I wiped the tears away and followed her into the hall to the right.

	We walked a little ways; I counted the room numbers as we walked. ‘317, 318, 319, 320, 321, 322, 323... 324!’ I was finally there. The nurse said goodbye and I nodded in thanks. I looked through the large window and my knees almost gave out from the sight of all of the blood. It was everywhere; towels of blood thrown about the floor, packets of blood attached to Tei’s pale body with long little tubes, little splatters of blood droplets here and there… and then there was Tei.

	His blond hair was dirty and caked with dry blood, his arms and legs were bandaged, his left arm was in a cast, his ribs and stomach were a terrible purple color and the doctors and nurses were working frantically to help him while the wizards did what they could to mend the bones and keep his heart rate stable. The tears that had been falling increased to hiccupping sobs as I stared at Tei. He looked so pale and lifeless; the only sign of life was the small rise and fall of his damaged chest.

	‘You can save him.’ ‘Huh?’ ‘You can save him.’ ‘Arrox?’ ‘Yes, with my power, you could save your friend’s life; there is no way he will survive otherwise.’ “WHAT?!” I said it aloud, causing some dreary eyes to turn to me, and then back to where they had previously been. ‘I mean that he was hurt terribly, how he looks now is far better than before. I saw him on the pavement, his body was twisted everywhere and he most likely had a broken neck. In fact it’s a miracle that boy is still alive. I can lend you my power.’ The sobs rocked my body as I tried to breathe normally and only hiccupped more. He had risked himself, his own life for a stupid roommate like me who was being an idiot for not paying attention to where I was.

	‘It’s all because of me. I should have looked where I was going! I should have reacted faster! Why did I even close my eyes in the first place!? GODDAMNIT!!! I should have been the one to die, not him!’ I was screaming in my head, frustrated at myself. ‘He’s not dead yet, there’s still a chance kid. Just accept the fact that you are my heir, you will have to leave this world behind, but your friend will be alive.’ “Please save him.” I mumbled, leaning on the glass and looking down. The stream of tears had finished and the salty water was slowly drying on my face.

	‘Good, now repeat after me: Eu, Caine Zimmer, aceitar o sangue encarreirar dos meus ancestrais, Arrox, o rei da demônio mundial.'

	“Eu, Caine Zimmer, aceitar o sangue encarreirar dos meus ancestrais, Arrox, o rei da demônio mundial.” I whispered it against the glass.

	Then I felt it; a searing pain throughout my body. I heard screaming… it was me… and fell to the floor from the pain and then I passed out for the second time in one day. I woke up on the floor surrounded by several unfamiliar concerned and confused faces. “What happened?” I asked as I rubbed my aching head, I probably hit it on the floor. “What happened? Didn’t you see what you did?!” A man on my right asked loudly. I felt a weight on my back and was distracted.

	There were new muscles back there that I could feel and when I stretched them, I turned my head to see a pair of beautiful black wings, just like the ones on Arrox’s back. I was interrupted from the examination of my new wings by one of the doctors in the group. “Excuse me, young man, we would like an explanation on how you saved that blond boy’s life.” “What?” I was flabbergasted. “I don’t remember doing anything more than crying out in pain and passing out right here!” I stared at them, they stared at me... a few moments passed as they realized I really had no idea what happened. “Uh…” I said, hoping someone would make a sound. Then; “CAINE!!!”

	A blond haired person ran straight at me, practically tackled me in a hug and then didn’t let go. I only caught a glimpse of his face... “Tei?” I sat frozen in his hug. He pulled back and nodded kneeling in front of me on the floor, “It’s incredible, these people are saying that you screamed and collapsed! And then they say that your body started changing!” He pointed at my wings. “And then you got up, seeming completely fine after your abrupt outburst and you did some kind of new magic! My body was healed in seconds. When I got up, I scared the doctors half to death and they ran a full check-up on me! I got myself cleaned up and they gave me these to wear.” He pointed to his white t-shirt and his grey sweatpants.

	“I’m completely healthy, there’s absolutely no scarring or anything!” He was speaking so fast it was hard for my fuzzy mind to keep up with him so I just stared at him in shock for a minute. I didn’t come to my senses until he put his hand on my shoulder and shook it lightly. “Hey, Caine, what’s wrong? Is your body still hurting from the accident or something?” Tei sounded really concerned. “No, it’s not that…” I touched the place where my ribs had been sore and bandaged, no pain. I thought for a moment and then widened my eyes as everything clicked into place.

	“Arrox,” I whispered it; barely audible. Tei gave me a confused look and he said the name louder, “Arrox?” There was a gasp a little down the hall the few people around me moved to the walls to look in that direction. All of us were looking to see who had made the sound. There was a thin boy, standing at an average height, with pale skin, white hair, small glasses and… purple eyes. He looked around himself as if praying that we were not looking at him. “Um... s-sorry,” he said quickly, before he ran off down the hall at an unexpectedly fast pace. No one made a move to go after him, so I did.

	Shouts of “Hey, get back here!” followed me as I got up with Tei still clinging to my neck and left the confused crowd behind. Tei had now latched himself onto my back and I let him stay there as my body sped up to unnatural speeds to keep up with the white-haired boy. “Caine! This is awesome!” Tei shouted from my back. We were speeding down a dreary hallway, startling the gloomy people as we flashed by; first a small boy with a white shirt then Tei and I, with large black wings. I don’t know how we managed not to crash into anyone or anything, and I was catching up.

	We were turning corners at amazing speeds… and he finally tripped. I grabbed him and screeched to a halt. My shoes were a little warm from the friction. The moment we stopped, people began crowding around. I looked down at the purple-eyed boy with a frown and then back at Tei. “We’re going up.” I stated as I opened one of the large windows as wide as I could and hopped out, beating my massive wings as fast as I could and we were flying up to the roof. Once I had landed, I let the boy down and put a binding spell on him.

	“How do you know Arrox?” was my first question the minute Tei had safely gotten off my back. He looked at me, his purple eyes narrowing behind his half-rimmed glasses; “who wants to know?” He asked cautiously. “My name is Caine, and this guy behind me is Tei, what’s your name?” I figured if he was going to make me give away our names, he would give us his. “Soyo… what are you that you know the name Arrox?” He gave us more information than just his name in that sentence; he wasn’t human, not even a wizard. “Nice to meet you, Soyo. How I know him is none of your business. What kind of demon are you?” I figured I’d take a guess that he was a demon. I was right. “I eat human souls, I like to hang out in hospital death wards so I can steal them inconspicuously, and I hate being hunted because of what I eat.” My fists tightened in anger at the thought of human souls being trapped inside his body.

	I growled without actually trying to, bent over him and grabbed his shirt collar in my fist, easily lifting him up. “So, what happens to those human souls that you eat?” “I don't know, I eat them because I can't survive on anything else.” He replied weakly. I threw him down and removed the body bind, “get the fuck away from me before I do something we'll both regret.”

	“Are you okay, Caine?” Tei asked me as he walked towards me. “I don’t know, but we can't stay here.” I replied as I tried to calm myself down; this wasn’t like me, I’m normally a very calm person, I rarely got this mad. Suddenly a thought occurred to me, “Hey, Tei, our professors will care that we missed a day of classes?” He looked at me oddly and then smiled, “Nah, I don’t think they know we exist.” I grinned back at him. “Let’s  get back to our room and get away from this place. I hate hospitals.” I suggested. We checked out of the hospital quickly... well, okay, I grabbed Tei in my arms ran away from the doctors the second they mentioned something about running some tests.

------Back at the dorm room buildings------

	We had some odd looks on the way but no one really bothered us because we went by too fast. When we got to our building, I let Tei down and we walked in after swiping a key card.

	Once we were back in our rooms, I toed off my shoes and collapsed face-first on my bed. “What time is it?” I mumbled the question to Tei from where I was resting my head on my pillow. “Um, about eight thirty why?” He responded. I folded my wings and rolled onto my back before sitting up on my bed, letting my feet -hang over the end. “Too bad we can't go to the mid-spring festival.” I said with a small frown. “We'll get over it, we’ve always gone, since we were in middle school. Nothing really changes, you know that.” Tei said.

	Then he asked the question that was probably bothering him since earlier “Who’s this Arrox person?” I thought about how to answer that question without making him freak out “He’s sort of my demon ancestor, and he's one of three kings of the demon world.” First Tei gaped at me, processing how that could be possible and then he said the most intelligible thing he could come up with at the time, “huh?” I took that as a sign to explain “He’s been chasing me in my dreams for a while, and he finally caught me last night and told me that he had chosen me to be his successor. I couldn’t handle the information, so he told me to take some time and think about it, but instead we ended up in the hospital.” Tei nodded his head, letting me know that he was following the story and was ready for the next part.

	“When I saw your bloody body on the operating table, nearly dead, I panicked; I cried and prayed that you would survive. Then his voice was in my head; he told me that I would be able to save you if I accepted his inheritance, and I ended up agreeing.” Tei's eyes widened at the new information that I had cast away my humanity for him. “Next thing I knew, I was in severe pain, I blacked out, and then I was waking up with you giving me a hug, the both of us completely unscathed, and me with extra… appendages and that’s all that happened that you don’t know about... more or less” I finished, waiting for Tei’s reaction.

	The first thing he said was not any hysterical accusation, or any tears of sympathy, or disgust, it was a question, “so demons are real?”

	I looked at him with one quirked eyebrow and replied, “yes, Tei, are you sure you didn’t suffer brain damage because your memory seems to be lacking. We did meet a demon in the hospital after all.” It was my lame attempt at lightening the mood. “Oh yeah…” He trailed off into thought. “Hey Tei, would you be okay if I told you I was a demon, or at least part demon?” He looked at me and then asked, “I'm not sure... I need time to think about this, my best friend just sacrificed his humanity for my life.” “You saved my life, Tei; I owed it to you to do everything I could to save yours.” I replied with a grimace. “You can't stay here, can you?” He asked it gloomily, full well knowing the answer. “I don't think people would accept me, and I need to learn how to survive as a demon. Arrox warned me that I would have to live with him.” I answered, trying not to hide anything. “Will I ever see you again?” He asked, looking down at his hands in his lap as he sat on the bed. “I don't know.” I replied with dismay. “But you're the reason I'm alive!” he shouted in frustration. “No, Arrox is the one who temporarily possessed my body and saved you.” I bit out.

	“Why are you so eager to leave?” He pressed, trying to change my mind. “Because I feel like I'm going to lose control and kill someone if I don't learn how to use my new strength properly.” I retorted. We sat in silence for a few minutes to cool down and then he asked, “When do you plan to leave?” “Not sure, most likely within the week,” I replied. “Also, I doubt the school would let me continue education now that I look like this.” I smiled weakly at him, briefly meeting his eyes. “Yeah...” he responded quietly.

	A few minutes passed in which we sat in silence, lost in our own thoughts; perhaps pretending that we could make things go back to normal. Tei broke the silence with a determined voice, “When you leave, I'm coming with you.” “What?” Did he really just say- “I'm going to demon world with you.” - he did. “No way in hell! These are demons we're talking about! Not teachers or students in school! I won't let you die after almost losing you!” He glared at me after I stopped yelling and I shut up. Silence once again reigned over the room.
'Let the kid come with you.' Arrox's voice sounded in my head. 'Why? He's going to die if he goes there!' I shouted in dismay. 'He won't, trust me.' He responded cryptically and I felt his presence leaving my mind. 'Why the fuck should I trust him?' Then I saw Tei staring at me... waiting for me to give up, he would go anyways. I sighed heavily and said in defeat, “You can go with me.” Tei raised an eyebrow in mock surprise. “Don't act so innocent, you know I don't want you to come along; if you end up dead... it will be my fault.” I ended with a whisper. Tei smiled, “So, when are we leaving?” “I'm not sure. We'll have to make sure no-one comes looking for us though, and we'll most likely never see our family or friends again.” I grimaced.

	“You mean we’ll have to make it seem like we’re dead?” Tei asked. “I think that’s our best option…” I replied, “…think there are any spells to make temporary replicas of ourselves?” He looked at me with a glint in his eye. “I’ve used it once before to get away from my step-dad. He thinks I’m long dead, my aunt let me stay at her place for a while and never told anyone differently. It’ll be hard saying goodbye to her, but I think we can trust her with our plan.” I saw multiple flashes of emotion running through his eyes as Tei spoke. “Wow, so that’s why you never talked about your family, huh?” I asked, too surprised to hold myself in check. He flinched and I regretted asking the question. “Yeah, everyone else is gone, out of my life, they don’t care about me. I’m better off without them.” He replied, hatred burning in his eyes. “I’m sorry.” I said quietly. “I’ve already gotten over it.” He said with a clipped tone, meaning the conversation was over.

	“Well, my mom and dad will probably disown me as soon as they discover I’m a human-eating demon so…. I think discovering that I’m dead would be better for them.” I said simply. I hated myself, ‘how could they possibly ever love me like the normal human wizard I was again? I wouldn’t be able to live with their silent stares of horror or, in my mother’s case, interest. As a scientist, she would only see me as some type of genetic anomaly to be inspected and experimented on. Even as her son, she would constantly be asking me questions and doing blood tests… I can’t live like that!’ “Caine?” Tei broke my inner monologue. “Hmmm?” I looked up at him from where my eyes had been drawn to the floor. “Will you be okay?” Damn, this is why Tei was such an amazing friend, not caring about his own inner wars of emotion, always worried about others. “Can I answer that in another couple years?” I asked hopefully. “Yeah, but I probably won’t remember to ask you by then.” He replied with his tinkle of a laugh. ‘Or he could be dead.’ Something inside me said solemnly.

	“Alright, where is this super special spell that you’ve discovered that can solve all our problems?” I asked to change the subject. “At my aunt’s house.” He replied with a wink. “Well… we have to make it look like we’re suddenly gone, so what do we take and what do we leave?” I questioned, knowing he had more experience with this. “Well, I think we don’t need any of this stuff if we’re going to another world, right? So just take your most precious things that you can’t live without I think.” He said matter-of-factly.

	I got up off my bed and went straight to my desk, where all my important stuff was. I picked up a necklace from my father; a silver simple but strong chain, and a silver dragon with ruby eyes wrapped around a sword with a small emerald at the end of the hilt. The charm was about 1/4th the size of my hand. I put it around my neck and hid it under my shirt. I also picked up a silver ring my mother had gotten me and slipped it onto the ring finger of my right hand. Engraved on it were runes spelling my full name; Caine Zimmer. I opened up the top draw and snatched out the beautiful knife Tei had gotten me on my birthday. I had yet to use it; I assumed I’d need it where we were going.

	I turned around to see that Tei hadn’t moved. “Don’t you have anything you want to grab?” “Just this necklace you got me for my birthday, and I always wear it, so I’m fine.” He replied happily. It was a similar charm to mine, also on a sturdy silver chain; a silver dragon with deep blue eyes protecting a diamond orb in its clawed hands. I smiled at him and said, “Off we go?” “Yup.” He chirped.

	We walked up the stairs to the roof and I took the jacket off my back and handed it to Tei. He put it on and I told him to get in my arms. He blushed instantly but walked in front of me and I scooped him up. I told him to hold on and he wrapped his arms securely around my middle. I spread out my wings, wondering briefly how I had managed to run with them in the small corridors of the hospital, and then I took off. Tei squirmed uncomfortably when I first took that running leap, flapping my wings powerfully up and down. Thankfully, he settled and looked around at the city below.

	“So, which way to your aunt’s house?” I asked him over the roar of the wind. “See that road over there that seems to keep going and going?” He shouted, nodding to my left. “Yeah?” I said in confirmation. “Go towards it and when you get there, go right. We’ll be following that until exit 32!” He replied. I nodded and looked down at the first exit sign I saw with my new enhanced sight: 26. ‘Good, not too long then.’ I thought to myself. We flew for about twenty minutes before I saw exit 32. “Here we are” I said, flying in the direction of the exit. “Where to next?” “Um… make a left here and go over the bridge! Then go right!” He instructed. I looked down at the roads and flew in that general direction. “Where from here?” I asked. “We’re close enough to walk, go to the park and land in the forest-y area!” He replied. I weaved in and out of trees, slowing down bit by bit. I finally found a clear enough area for me to circle around and land without tumbling around and possibly hurting Tei. I came to a running stop and let Tei down. He gave me the jacket and I pressed my wings against my back before putting it on.

	“The town is that way.” I said, pointing towards the sounds of the cars. He nodded with a smile and we walked back to the road. Walking along the sidewalk, I saw Tei check the nearest street name. “Just a few more blocks.” He said, noticing me looking at him. I gave a brief nod and we continued in silence, watching the cars go by, moving out of the way of other people walking the other direction. At a road named “Golden Glen” we waited patiently for a clear road and walked briskly across towards the left. “What number house is it?” I asked him curiously as I looked around at the fall leaves, only some leaves had fallen and it left a nice autumn look all around.  “Number 71, about a 10 minute walk or so.” He said, seeming happier and happier the closer to his aunt’s house we got. “Lots of good memories?” I asked, noting the far-off look in his eyes. “Yeah.” He said, smiling at me.

	We got there about 10 minutes later, which made me glad; I could finally relax a little. We walked up the driveway and up the steps to the front door. Tei pressed the doorbell and we heard it go off inside the house somewhere. There were some bustling sounds and then we heard “Who is it?!” from a trilling, motherly voice that sounded near the door. “It’s Tei and I brought a friend with me from school!” Tei answered happily. The door opened to reveal a slightly plump woman with sandy-blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She wore a deep purple button-down top with simple black slacks and dark blue slippers. She smiled openly at us and Tei looked at her with a toothy grin. She held out her arms saying “Welcome home Teiko!” and he jumped into them saying “I missed you so much!” –which was muffled slightly by her clothes when he buried his face against her shoulder.

	He stepped back and introduced me, “Aunt Catherine, this is Caine Zimmer; he’s a close friend of mine.” “Welcome, Caine, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” She held out her hand and I took it and shook it. “Thank you so much, it’s great meeting you too, umm...” I paused, not sure how to address her. “You can call me Aunt Cathy if you’d like.” She interjected. “…Aunt Cathy” I finished with a smile. She stood back a little ways and said, “Well, come on in, or my dogs might think it’s time to go out or something.” She laughed heartily as two sets of paws came running down the steps. I was greeted by their sniffing noses and hesitant closeness. “What are their names?” I asked with a smile, crouching down to get a better look and to let them sniff my hand. “The black lab is named Coal, he’s the playful one, about 2 years old, don’t let him jump up on you.” She said pointing out Coal as he tried to lick my face. I backed away and laughed. “Nice to meet you too, Coal.” I said, patting his head. “Ah, and the shaggy golden retriever is named Minx, she’s about 5, very well behaved.” She chirped. I looked at Minx as she was pointed out and smiled, holding out my hand. She sniffed it and came closer, letting me scratch her ears and back.

	“Well, you’ve caught me off-guard; I wasn’t expecting company, why the sudden visit?” She asked, getting to the heart of the matter as she led the way to the living room. The dogs walked in with us. Minx stretched and lay down on the carpet and Coal sat by Cathy, getting her attention with a nudge of his nose. “We’re err…” Tei hesitated, not sure how to break the ice properly as we sat down on the comfortable couch and she sat on a nearby squishy leather lounge chair. The television was on some cooking channel and sufficed as background noise while I shrugged in response to Tei’s pleading look. Cathy looked between the two of us, settling back on Tei as he opened his mouth once more. “…we’re going to go to another world.” She furrowed her eyebrows together in confusion and he stuttered at first “w-well there’s u-um... this other world full of demons and Caine recently found out he’s some descendant of a demon and so now that he’s half-demon, we’re going to go to demon world so he doesn’t end up hurting anyone.” He ended quickly, looking at his aunt’s face for a response. I had watched her during the whole exchange. She looked curious at first, confused again, and then understanding and upset by the end.

	“And why does he have to drag you along?” She asked indignantly, looking at me. I gave Tei a pointed look and he looked down, mumbling “because I want to go with him.” “Honey, I know it may seem like a great idea, going off on an adventure with your friend to some crazy other world but it’s a demon world, I don’t want to lose you!” She apparently was completely okay with the fact that demons existed… “Do you know something about demon world?” I asked quickly, ending the fight before it could go further. “I know what I read in history books. Myths and legends always start from some sort of truth, right?” I nodded for her to continue. Coal had by now given up on trying for attention from any of us and joined Minx in lying down on the carpet.

	“When I was around my 20s or so, I had an interest in where many of these myths and legends came from, so I decided to do some research. Things like the demi-gods, mythical creatures, and monsters. The monsters were sometimes referred to as ‘demons’, so I looked further into that. I found that, at one time, demons lived in the same world as humans. I found documents, journals, and other strange things in old library books. The library had it in the Fiction section, giving them no special care other than stacking them with the older books and leaving labels on the sides of the shelves saying ‘Not to be removed from library.’ Go figure. Anyways, I came to the conclusion that demons were real, at least at some point. Then, for seemingly no reason what-so-ever, all records of their existence vanished, leaving a year-long blank in their history before disappearing.” She said, looking at me with scrutinizing eyes. “The next record I found referring to demons was around a decade later, turning demons into that of meaningless gossip and story-tellers’ stories.” She sighed and leaned back in the chair.

	“All the other things, mythical creatures and such, were simply exaggerations of story-tellers minds. Horses running so fast, they seemed to fly. A man with a large head and a big nose, whom was locked away in some labyrinth to keep him away from the city; there were a few records of people going in and never coming out but the story of that guy killing the ‘minotaur’ was just some over-exaggerated response to someone finding out that the ‘beast’ was dead, and had been for quite some time.” She finished with a wave of her hand, showing that she wasn’t going to explain more of what she found and that she had made her point. I nodded my head thankfully and pleaded “if at all possible, please get Tei to reconsider going there with me.” I didn’t want him to die there!

	Tei turned to me, looking hurt. I winced at the expression and Cathy seemed to take note of it. “You two care about each other, don’t you?” Tei nodded, blushing. I nodded as well and said, “Well, he’s like a brother I’ve never had.” She smiled and said, “I don’t want him going, but he’s as stubborn as my older sister, must be a family trait.” She laughed bitterly. The room fell silent out of respect for Tei’s mom, whom had died two years after marrying Tei’s step-dad, his real father had died when he was very young. “So, how can I help you two?” She asked with a sigh. “I just need to grab that spell I used to make myself ‘die’ so no-one looks for us.” Tei replied, nonchalant. She frowned in thought. “I think I put it in my filing cabinet upstairs, I’ll be right back.” She got up when we said “alright”. Minx and Coal looked up at her curiously and she walked out of the room, her footsteps could be heard receding up the steps. They noticed she wasn’t going towards the front door and lost interest, settling back down.

	We sat in the living room, staring blankly at the cooking channel as it described how to cook a clam dish; “… the shells will be easier to open if you freeze them for 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from freezer and let sit a few minutes before attacking the shells. As they warm up, the muscles relax and the shells will open slightly-” “Here we are.” Cathy said as she came back in, holding a folder with a bundle of papers in it. “It should be in here somewhere.” She put the folder down on the low table in front of the couch and sat in a chair. Tei reached for it and opened up the folder. He muttered to himself as he flipped through it, scoffing at some things and smiling at others. I leaned over his shoulder to get a look and saw some pictures, notes, and other little things. I noticed Tei stiffen when I leaned near him but paid it no mind because he relaxed again quickly. He finally stopped thumbing through the papers when he got to some strange page full of scribbled foreign writing. He picked it out, closed the folder, and put the folder back on the table, reading over the parcel in his hand. I had no idea what it said but apparently he did.

	I looked at him after something came to mind again, “I’ve been meaning to ask… how exactly did you get the school to accept you if you were ‘dead’?” “I gave them a different name, one of my friends from the neighborhood. He’s not a wizard or anything, but I let him know that I’d be pretending to be him at the wizard school in the city. He was fine with it and has been forwarding me all the mail from the school, it’s set up to be done automatically, the mail from that school goes to this mailbox, not his.” He smiled happily. “I’m sure he’s forgotten about me by now.” “Wait.” I looked at him, trying to process what he had said. “Your real name is Teiko Yuushi, right?” “Err… no, that’s my borrowed name. My real name is Daniel Ether, why?” he asked in response. “Well, then why don’t you just say you’re resigning? I’m the only one who has to fake his death.” I said simply. “Oh yeah, didn’t think about that.” Tei … um… Dan said looking a little embarrassed. “There’s that and the doctors never actually said your name you know.” I thought out-loud.

	Tei/Dan winced at that. I was about to ask why when Cathy made herself known in the room, “what doctors?! Were you two hurt?!” Coal jumped up and barked. “Shush you!” Cathy said with a frown “everything’s fine.” Coal came over to her and whimpered, licking her hand. She chuckled and scratched his head affectionately. I looked at Tei/Dan who shook his head and I responded, “It wasn’t that bad, honestly. I had only a few cuts and bruises, which are all healed up, and they fixed up Tei quickly too.” I didn’t want to out-right lie, but I also didn’t want to let her know how close she came to losing her nephew. “Good thing they don’t care about running blood-tests as much these days, right? They just checked our school IDs and were satisfied.” I said with a grin. “Yeah, they would have found out that they had a dead guy in their care.” He laughed at the thought. “Their faces would have been priceless!” Cathy seemed satisfied with the answer and settled down again; Coal’s head was in her lap as she scratched his neck and ears. I sat back down in my seat.

	“So what are we doing with this spell?” I asked, gesturing to the parchment in … Tei’s hand. “Also… what should I call you now?” I looked at him in confusion. “Teiko, Daniel, Tei, Dan… makes no difference to me.” He shrugged. “Alright, how ‘bout Tei so I don’t get confused?” I smiled. “That’s what I decided to do when he and our neighbor came up with that crazy idea so he could go to school.” Cathy said from her chair, smiling in understanding. “Yeah, makes life easier.” Tei mumbled, and then, in a louder voice he asked, “You wanted to know what we’ll be doing with this spell here?” He waived the parchment around in front of me. I raised an eyebrow at the abrupt change of subject but nodded none-the-less.

[Congrats on reaching the end of the story-thus-far! Hope you enjoyed the read, send any comments to @Kircala on Twitter! - Calli L/Kircala]