My hair flies out of my face, and waves around in the windy night sky. Being a demon should have turned my hair coal black. Or crimson red. But it still contrasts with the blood of all chaos and the night.
"Alice, dear?" And here comes Opal, to say dinner has been prepared for the princess and the queen of the Yuki family. I have honor to uphold as Alice Yuki. I must be the innocent darkness waiting to punish the guilty. The butcher of the wicked, and the queen of the redeemed, all at once.
"I'm coming," I say, and quickly walk down the stairs. The glass stairs that shatter, driving me downward, preparing to scar me. And then a streak of black, and I am levitated just above the glass.
"Sister, are you hurt?" asks Rana in a cool voice. I get up, angered by her nonchalant attitude.
"Fine," I say, and storm out of the corridor. "Not like you'd actually care."
"What's that supposed to mean?" she says, in obvious surprise. "You're my sister. Why wouldn't I?"
"...." I am at a loss. Why wouldn't she care? I just walk past her shocked, startled, and hurt face.
It seems I only hurt everyone. Even my own family, who shelter and feed me every day, and worry over me all the time.
*****
I am dressed in a black and red dress, complete with dark butterfly wings. I am wearing high heels that are almost a pain to walk in.
Being demonic royalty- no - being any royalty is horrible. I can't even show my true colors. Colors of light, not of darkness.
"That's right!" exclaims my best "friend", Klede, when I tell him of my concerns. "You're a demon. And one of royalty to boot. You can't use powers of light."
"Why?! I've had it- all this mindless 'do this and don't ask why.' All this unwillingness to accept that the game has changed. TELL ME- WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME BEING WHO I AM?!!!!"
"The game has changed, but the tokens have their own special powers. Demons of darkness. Angels of light. You can't mix the two."
"Oh fine, Klede. Just all this, there's no hope of unity crap all over again. And I have to be the face of this because I'm an obedient little girl!!! You're like everyone else! You just wish that history would repeat itself all over again!!!!"
"Alice, calm down-"
"SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!" I scream, and all the glass shatters everywhere, and bursts into flames.
"Alice!"
"NO!! I'm done being the face of this bull!" I storm off, my hair flaming, and my clothes burning and singed.
I storm into my room, and I burst into tears. Everyone thinks that I'm a creep for using light. After all, it puts my family to shame. But I don't care.
I put on street clothes. A gray T-shirt and a gray skirt. A pink short-sleeve jacket. This way I can shed the persona of Alice Yuki, at least for a while. The street reporter is calmly interviewing an eyewitness who saw me destroy the glass. Looking at the scene is a teenage girl.
She looks young, carrying a teddy bear and singing to it in a very warm voice.
I walk over to the girl, trying to seem a teenage as possible. Not being able to go to a regular high school, I don't really know how to act. Oh no! She saw me!!
"Oh, hi!" she says with a bright smile on her face.
"Um..hi?" I say uncertainly. I try to put a smile on my face. "Crazy accident over there, huh?"
"Yeah...I just moved here as a transfer student, and it's not very diverse."
Her hair is green. She has a bright, yellow sweatshirt with jeans. I've never seen a kid here wear anything but a suit or a dress. "That is true," I reply.
It's kind of easy to talk to her.
"Hey, what's your name?"
This question catches me off guard. Should I tell her? Or not?
"Um.....Alice.......Alice Yuki."
"Wow! Yuki? The devil family? I'm an angel, but I don't see why it should really matter. We are in a time of peace. I'm Clair, by the way. Clair Lissi."
I probably look dumb right now. After all, I'm talking with an angel who would want to be friends with a devil!
"Okay, Clair. Nice to meet you!"
"Hey, see you at school on Tuesday?"
"Um, sure."
"Okay, gotta-what?" Her phone is ringing.
"Yello?"
The scream is deafening. I can notice people a street away looking for the sound.
"WHAT DID I TELL YOU, IT'S DANGEROUS SO BE BACK AT 6:00, AND IT IS NOW 7:30. SO HELP ME, IF YOU DO NOT GET HOME THIS INSTANT YOU ARE GROUNDED FOR A WEEK- I DID NOT RAISE YOU TO BE LATE!!!"
Clair seems like she would totally like to evaporate on the spot. "Um, Alice-"
"Nonononono it's okay, I don't want you to..." but she's already flown into the sky on wings of white.
What a day. But at least I met someone I can ditch Klede for. He's annoying. But how do I say it?? It's not like we're dating, Dad would never allow it, but....
WOW, I sound like a teenage girl. Sweet.
*****
"Public schooling?" my father asks. I just asked him if I could go to the school that everyone else goes to for my fourteenth year.
"Yes, please???"
"Father, I'd like to go too," says Rana and Roxi at the same time.
"Why, though? Aren't the tutors at the school you currently go to good enough?"
"The kids there bore me to death. Kids at the school here are so diverse.
"Which school do you mean?" he asks. Of course he does. The three of us want to go to the school in the middle class neighborhood.
"The one near where you work."
"Absolutely not!" Dad would never do that.
"Please-"
"NO!"
It's too boring to remember all of it, but he eventually said yes. We haven't seen him since that minute, he's probably been crying the whole time. Luckily a lot of my childhood friends go there, so I won't be alone and Clair's going to be there. My sad life as a devil is starting to look up.
*****
The first week of school is over, and I am blown away by recent events.
I tried keeping my devil heritage secret from pretty much everyone, but Clair decided to blab to this kinda cute boy named Kazuya. Okay, not kinda cute, totally hot. But I don't think he was listening, so it's okay.
Tenka, Celia, and Niko are all there, but they seem so different. Tenka's really quiet, but if you get into a fight with him, or smart mouth him, I don't know who's worse off. The guy he attacked, or the people who watched. That's how powerful he is. Like me, he's a demon. Purebred, I think, just like all his siblings.
"Alice!"
And there's Celia, running towards me with a smile on her face. My life's been really good for me.
"Hi, Celia," I say, beaming. "What's up?"
"I was wondering if you wanted to come over to my house for dinner." She seems a little nervous about my answer. Not that she needs to be.
"Sure!" Then she starts beaming.
First, we head to the roller rink, where we find Tenka skating quietly. So quiet, no one even notices he's there.
Celia tells me he's very good at sneaking up on people. I know that well, because he did it to me once and I was sent flying. Literally.
I start to call out his name, but Celia tells me not to. We start skating after that. Tenka still refuses to notice us.
"He seems put out," I tell Celia.
"It's okay. He just wants to be left alone."
A while later, we head back to the school.
"Do you want to stay at my place tonight?" Celia asks. "My friend Lilli's coming over."
"Sure! I'll go right now."
"But don't your parents need to say yes?"
That's not a problem. My mom's away at work, and my dad...... He hasn't come out of his room in days.
One Year Later
Tenka's thirteen now. His sister Cassie is eleven. I spend alot of time with them because their father wants them in their house a lot. Well, only Cassie. Tenka simply stays inside to train in the ways of swordfighting.
He's gotten really good. I lose everytime. He's powerful. Inhumanly powerful.
Clair is more bubbly than ever. Celia's improving her magic.
Everyone's happy, so why am I not?
My demonic powers are growing stronger and stronger. And they pop up at the wrong moments. Almost always during my furies at Klede. I don't want to hurt anyone with them. I want to stop being a monster.
"You want to shut out your history."
This drives me out of my reverie. Tenka looks at me, a blank, no somber expression on his face.l
"What? You heard me?"
"No. It's written all over you." Tenka stands up. "Why do you want to tear yourself apart?"
"You don't get it. I could hurt aomeone.... I can't let that happen."
"I do get it. My powers are far more dangerous and unstable. If anyone's a monster, it's me."
He's right, even though I don't want to admit it.
"But I'm changing. I'm better at controlling them. I won't stop training until I master them, and neither should you."
I stand in silence. For a minute. For two. For an hour, maybe. Maybe forever..........
I LIKE HOW THE STORY is like clair's father started to yell at her in the phone that she was late.
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