Alice in Demonland

Pam unlocked the door to our room and pushed it open. She appeared haggard and quickly fell onto her bed, crossing her hands over her face.

“Are you okay?” I asked, even though I knew she wasn’t. Neither was I. Images of Eric’s hand dangling from the demon’s mouth kept driving their way into my dreams.

Attending Eric’s funeral had been difficult. I’d seen enough television to know that while they were somber they were supposed to celebrate the life of the person who’d died. We had nothing to celebrate. His whole life had been about training to kill his demon sire or be killed. The latter happened. It was all too common in our world and I hated it.

But as children, once we were found and plucked from whichever foster home we’d been living in at the time, we were brought to the Dark Moth compound and trained from morning until night every single day. There were rarely field trips or birthday parties. We mostly focused on not dying. Our sole purpose for living was to bring down our demon parent and hopefully save several hundreds or thousands of regular Moths in the process.

If we lived, it was to serve.

If we died as Eric had, there was no celebration. His life was just over.

“I’m fine.” Pam sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Or as fine as I can be knowing I turn eighteen in three days.” She paused, sitting up and removing her shoes. “Because what we saw—what happened to Eric—that’s going to be me soon.” She unzipped her black dress and pulled it over her head. “I’m not ready to die yet. I haven’t done anything.” Tears streamed down her face along with her mascara.

I understood exactly what she meant. My birthday was coming up too. “You’re not going to die. I won’t let you,” I said.

Pam smiled, but it was full of cruelty. “I appreciate your courageous words, Alice. But no one believes you slayed that demon because of skill. It was a fluke. You’re no more ready than any of the rest of us.”

She wasn’t wrong.

I kept quiet as she pulled on her gray training pants and matching gray shirt. Then put on her black combat boots. “How did you produce such a powerful shield?”

The rest of the Dark Moths had demon power too, but it wasn’t quite so all-encompassing as mine. I pulled off my black dress and tossed it on the floor, kicking my low heels on top of it. “I really am not sure,” I said and meant it. Sure I knew how to call forth my powers, but without a doubt and for whatever reason mine were stronger than the other trainees.

“Whatever,” she said, slamming the door shut behind her and she was gone.

I went over to my bed and lay down. I wasn’t trying to be difficult or keep a skill from my fellow trainees. In all truth I’d tried to make myself produce the shield several times since that fateful night, but I hadn’t been able to make it happen.

There was a knock at the door. “Alice? Are you in there? We need to train.”

It was Kade.

We’d spent every moment together over the last three days. I’d even slept in the sick bay with him. Coming to my room to dress and undress for the funeral and using the bathroom had been my only alone time.

He was a nice enough guy, but it felt like Wrythe was punishing me for some reason. Had I done something wrong? I wanted to ask him the question on more than one occasion, but there hadn’t been an opportunity.

“Give me a minute.” I jumped off my bed and quickly dressed in a black training outfit. Laced and tied my boots and then went to the door, opening it. “Hi, Kade.”

He was dressed from head to toe in black, like me. Yet on him it looked stylish.

“You ready?” he asked, appraising me.

“Sure.” I shut the door and walked beside him down the hall.

“How was the funeral?” He gave me a sidelong glance.

I shook my head. “Depressing.” Kade hadn’t been invited. Wrythe and the others didn’t trust him. Kade said he was a Moth who secretly trained on his own, and that even though he didn’t possess any demon power, he’d killed his demon sire. He claimed to have grown up in Wonderland, gone to school, and held a job, just like the humans who dwelt above ground.

He also claimed to be twenty-five though it was hard to tell. For all I knew he could’ve been ninety. Moths stopped aging once we reached maturity, which was eighteen. For most it was the year of our death as well.

I was tired and restless at the same time. If I were going to die in a few weeks, I wanted to really live first, like so many of the humans I’d seen in television shows and movies, and in the books I read. I wanted an experience that had nothing to do with demons or Dark Moths. “Tell me something about you,” I whispered.

He raised an eyebrow. “Like what?”

I shrugged. “Anything… A story. Tell me what you did for a living. What was your job?”

He laughed. “It wasn’t all that interesting. I was a mechanic.”

I pondered the word. “You fixed cars?”

“Cars. Boats. Motorcycles. If it’s got an engine, I can fix it.”

“Did you go to school to learn your craft?”

“Not any further than high school. My foster dad was cool though. He taught me about engines, how they work, how to make them go again.”

“It sounds like you enjoy your job.”

He shrugged. “Sure. It isn’t glamorous and I have permanent grease stains on my hands and under my nails.” He held out his hands to let me see. “But it pays the bills and keeps me busy.”

We’d reached the training room. The door slid open and we walked through. Pamela was in the corner shooting arrows into several different targets.

“How did you get mixed up in our fight the other night?” I walked over and selected a katana.

He picked up one of the long swords. “I was there in the club when it all went down.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, even greasy mechanics like to go out once in a while.” He swung the sword with expert skill.

“And you saw the demon?” I’d asked him to tell me about that night more than once already, but something didn’t sit right about his answer.

Kade tossed the blade back and forth between both hands. “As I said, it wasn’t until the demon began fighting the bouncers that I realized what was happening.”

“Why didn’t you try to help?” Doing so seemed as natural as breathing. At least to me.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that it is better to stay out of it.” He went to the center of the room so we’d have plenty of space to spar. “Ready?”

I picked up another, smaller sword and took a place a few feet in front of him. “Always.”

Kade leaned in, but at the last second dove into me, knocking me to the ground.

“What the hell? Get off me!” I shoved him hard, sending him away.

He winced but stood, holding something in his hand. “Sorry. Your roommate shot an arrow our way.” He held it out for me to see.

I scrambled to my feet. Pam was an excellent shot, which meant she sent the arrow at us on purpose. Furious, I stomped over to her. “Do you have a problem? Trying to kill us?”

Her eyes were blurry with tears. “Sorry, Alice. It was an accident. The arrow got away from me.”

I didn’t believe her.

Neither did Kade. “Accident my ass.”

That was my thinking, but I didn’t want to believe it.

Kade placed the arrow in Pam’s hand. “Be careful Moth,” he whispered.

“Or what?” She shoved him.

He was aggravated, but didn’t answer, just walked away.

I followed. “How’s your injury,” I asked. It didn’t seem to bother him as much anymore.

Kade lifted his shirt. The skin where the large cut had been was nearly healed and puckered pink. In a few days that would be gone as well. “Better,” he said, putting his shirt back down.

“Good.” My cheeks warmed and I looked away.

Kade tapped me on the shoulder with the edge of his sword. “So you don’t have to take it easy on me today.”

I faced him again. “About time,” I said.

We sparred for an hour. I finally got the better of him and had him on his back. My knees on either side of his chest and my blades at his neck. “What are you really?”

Kade was breathing heavily and so was I. “I told you already.” He leaned up.

At his nearness, I stood, working to get my restless heart under control.

He jumped up and slid his sword into the wooden case with the rest of the training swords. Then plopped onto the mat, patting a space beside him.

I put away my swords but didn’t sit. “I don’t believe you’re a regular Moth.”

He crossed his legs, resting his elbows on his knees. “Well you might be right about that,” he said, his voice soft.

“Vague much? Why won’t you tell me?” I spread my legs out until I dropped into the splits and stretched, laying my upper body on the mat.

Kade’s eyes went wide and I blushed.

The bell rang indicating dinner.