Chapter 6

   I didn’t sleep very much that night. Besides the fact that it was extremely cold, Rayne was still in the room. It was uncomfortable in a way, knowing that he was watching me sleep. But eventually my eyelids gave in and I fell into a soothing rest. When I woke up I didn’t know what time it was, but Rayne was fast asleep. His notebook was closed and tucked protectively in one arm while the other hung limply over the side of the armrest, the pen dangling from his fingertips. I shivered terribly, zipping up my jacket and gathering the blanket around my rolled up body.

   I fell onto my side and shut my eyes tightly, hoping that some kind of warmth would come quickly. It took me a while to fall asleep again, and once I had, warmth still hadn’t come.

  When I woke up again I was much warmer, almost too warm. I opened my eyes slowly and saw that two more blankets had been added to my body. I furrowed my eyebrows and turned towards the chair, but Rayne wasn’t there. My eyes traveled around the room but I still couldn’t find him.

  I peeled the covers off of my body and got up. I was completely alone. I looked at the door, aware that it was probably open, and thought about trying to make another run for it. I inched slowly towards the door, grabbed the handle, and threw it open. The door collided with something, and a crash sounded. I nearly screamed at the sound, and then peered around the door.

  There was Rayne, lying on his back on the ground, with a metal platter turned over next to him laughing. He laughed so hard for so long, and I stared oddly at him. I didn’t get what was so funny. Food and some type of liquid were splattered all over the dirty floor, and Rayne just kept on laughing. Finally he seemed to calm down enough to sit up, a smile lit up on his face.

  “Not trying to run again are you?” He asked.

  I turned bright red. “You weren’t in the room….”

  “I left to get food, sorry.” He stood up and wiped some of the food off of his jeans, then bent to pick up the tray. “I’m sad to say the food is gone.” He looked up with a shrug.

  I bit my lip. “Gosh I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hit you with the door.”

  “It’s okay Constance,” He laughed again. “Really, don’t beat yourself up for it.” He turned and began to walk back up from where he had most likely come.

  “Where are you going?” I called after him.

  He held up the tray. “To get more food. You splattered it when you hit me with the door remember?” There was a twinkle in his eye as he turned back around and continued up the walkway.

  I stood there in silence for a little bit, looking at where his body had disappeared. I hardly deserved how nice he was being. I gulped loudly and turned back into the room. I wouldn’t make a run for it. Not today. I searched inside the room for something to clean up the mess with and found nothing. I walked back outside and looked up and down the fire lit hallway, but there was still nothing. I sighed, sat down in the middle of the doorway and waited. It wasn’t long before I heard him making his way back. I sucked in a breath. At least I hoped it was him.

  Sure enough his figure came into view and he smiled at me slightly, a new tray of food in his hand, as well as a roll of paper towels and a trashcan. He handed me the tray and then began to mop up the mess of food and liquid with the paper towels. I shifted uncomfortably.

  “I can clean that up you know.”

  He stopped and looked over at me. “Constance, eat the food please.”

  I sighed and picked up the fork and began to eat the supply of beans, potatoes and raw vegetables. In a cup was a weird purple liquid, and I didn’t want to drink it, but I was thirsty. I looked up at Rayne who had just put the last paper towel in the trashcan and was leaning back against the far wall.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “What is what?”

  “The stuff in the cup.”

  “It’s a hydrating liquid my mom makes. Don’t worry there isn’t poison in it.”

  I didn’t hesitate to drink it down. It tasted like grape juice, and besides, I trusted his mom even if I had only met her once. I set the tray down on the ground and leaned back against the wall by the door.

  “Thank you by the way,” I said after a moment of silence. “For the blankets I mean.”

  “What blankets?”

  I opened my mouth to reply but there was something in the look he gave me that implied he wasn’t supposed to have given me the blankets. I felt something like guilt rise in my stomach but I pushed it down. He wouldn’t want to hear my apologies or thanks. I bit my lip.

  “Can I ask questions now?”

  He smirked. “You never give up do you?” He shifted against the wall. “Fine, ask away.”

  “So again, my earlier question. If not all demons can change into animals then what’s the difference between a demon and a human?”

  He wet his lips. “ Like I told you before, we don’t age quite as fast. Well, we don’t age fast at all. Unlike humans, whose bodies decay a lot faster. Coming from that, we can live longer than humans. We’re not invincible, but we aren’t easy to kill either. Our skin is made differently. It doesn’t look any different, but it’s a lot tougher and thicker. Human weapons can kill us, like they can kill any other creature. But guns and knives….” He shook his head. “Stuff like that isn’t quite advanced enough. To kill a demon with one of those you’d have to hit them a lot. Constance demons come from death. We were made, not created.” He paused and then continued.

  “There isn’t really anything else that parts us from humans. We’re a lot more experienced in war because we’ve been around longer. But everything else is pretty much the same.”

  I nodded and then looked down at my hands. “Um, why can only some demons turn into animals?” I was afraid he would get angry that I had asked that question. Before when I had mentioned it he seemed very intent on keeping the conversation steered away from that subject.

  To my amazement, after a slight hesitation, he began to answer. “Constance, you have to understand that there are others out there, ones that are worse than us.” He waited and I looked up to see him looking directly at me. “There are a select few that were ‘chosen’, I guess you could say. They used to be separated from the other demons.” He cleared his throat. “For safety purposes. They were considered a different species; even if the only difference was that they could change into a chosen animal. When a demon is born, they go through a change.” He took a deep breath. “All demons are born human. It’s very uncommon for any demon to actually stay human. Sometimes, a demon can take on…three different species.”

  I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. “Three different species?”

  He nodded. “An animal, a demon, and a human. Constance have you ever heard of shape shifters?”

  I nodded. “Like werewolves and stuff.”

  “Right. Well all shape shifters are also born human, and go through the change. So the human and animal part come from that. When a demon is born human, and it goes through its change to a demon, sometimes…they get caught in the middle. Their body still forces them through the change into the demon, but they’ve been stuck with whatever other changes they faced. It’s really very rare. It used to happen all the time, back when disease was constant everywhere. Disease slows the changing process in demons, meaning they could stop changing suddenly for days, weeks or months, taking in other changes as well. When demons starting fighting in wars all the time with humans and other creatures, they realized that they needed us. So we’ve collided and lived with each other for thousands of years without hatred, because they use us and we use them. They use us for power and battle and we use them for resources.”

  “Wait, did you say that demons used to fight with the humans?”

  Rayne nodded his head slowly.

  “So does that mean that the humans have known all along you guys have existed? But that they’ve done absolutely nothing about it?”

  “Technically humans in general haven’t. More like your government, or whatever. They haven’t said anything about it because for years we never pursued the war.”

  My heart beat fast, and I put my hand on the ground to steady myself. “The war you’re pursuing right now.” I didn’t make it sound like a question.

  He stared at me intensely, and I could see in his eyes that he looked sympathetic. Then something crossed over his features as he recognized the look in my eyes. He reached towards me.

  “Constance don’t-”

  “Don’t touch me,” I said, cringing away. “You monsters! How could you do this? How could you just kill another species like that? You have no right to choose who lives on this world or not!”

  “Constance please I didn’t-”

  “You’re horrible!” I stood up, my back pressed against the wall, as far away as I could get to him. “We have war but not for extinction! You want to be rid of us? What the hell did we ever do to you?”

  “You aren’t one of them anymore-”

  “I don’t care!” My scream echoed through out the corridor.

  “Constance will you shut up!” He yelled. “You don’t know anything about this war! You're making judgments about us because we scare you, because we’re different from you. Your kind could have been the ones who had done something to us!”

  My breathing was hard as I watched him walk towards me. He grabbed my arm tightly and pushed me through the door, closing it and locking it before I even had a chance to turn around.

 

 

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