"You are going to cause so much trouble someday."

I clutched my head, rolling it around as it throbbed with pain. "Shut up, Jade!" I narrowed my eyes at her as the three of us walked through an alley pathway to get to the building where all of the histories were located. "You should've let me punch that bitch!" I groaned as I felt blood dripping from my nose, hitting the ground with a burning vengeance. "That bastard had no right..." I gritted my teeth as Avery sighed, shaking his head. "You are your own worst enemy, Troy."

The demon cop narrowed his yellow eyes as he stepped closer to me, that glass screen vanishing. "Skrt, wee, gotbner, glo," He snarled at me in his native tongue, skin darkening as Avery and Jade stepped back, fear of what was going to happen. I glared at him, wondering why he felt the need to get into my personal space. He held up his turquoise gun and I just stood there, waiting for him to kill me. "Troy, get out of the way!" Jade screeched as the crowd hushed and murmured words of fear. "Oh, kee werk thuf nee." The demon guard growled as his nails turned black, the markings of his skin glowing.

I stood in alarm, watching his next move, knowing he promised death upon me. "4,683 offenses." He muttered and before I knew it, he raised his arm and brought the back of his gun down on my face. The sting of pain radiated from top to bottom and I staggered, blood pouring from my nose as I lunged at him. Demon cop or not, he had no right to put his hands on me. "4,684 offenses," He taunted and I sniffled, the taste of iron filling my mouth as I squeezed my hands, readying myself to punch this asshole. I could feel the adrenaline running through me and I didn't care whether or not I was signing away my life.

No one hit me for no reason and got away with it.

Not even these lowlife demon cops.

I stepped on my right foot and pivoted myself with all my strength, the pee eyes of the cop widening as I inched closer and closer to him. "Troy!" I heard a yell and an arm was around my neck, dragging me with away with an insane force, my feet prolonging me. The cop shook the gun and the blood dissipated into nothing. The other cop just stood next to the assaulting one, communicating and notifying sir Alistair. I slapped at the arm, nose still hurting as I glared at that cop. His angular head and beady pee eyes would never leave my memory. He smirked as he soared into the air with a roar, the wind from his departure shaking the crowd.

Shit, that gun hurt.

"The next time that I see them dust maggots, they gon' get what's coming for them," I growled as I stalked inside of the grand building, feet trekking along the linoleum floor. "I wish they would just play in traffic." I rolled my eyes as Avery knocked gently on our classroom door. "Just fucking go in," I pushed past him and busted through the door, a series of fearful eyes darting towards the doorway. Every single one of those boys and girls looked as if they were ready to shit themselves. I stepped in, much to Avery and Jade's shock and embarrassment, making my way to my seat. The class was rendered silent as they stared with wide eyes at me and it was pissing me the fuck off.

"Boo motherfuckers," I mugged every one of the students as I walked down the aisle to the back of the room, feeling the burning stares of the teacher. "How nice of you to join us, Mr. Morelli," A raspy yet sensual voice filled the air and I shuddered, sitting down. "Yea well, don't think I want to be here." I responded, looking into the green eyes behind the purple glasses of Pazul, our short and fair demon teacher who always kept her gold-brown hair in a ponytail. The whole class looked at me as if I was asking for a death warrant.

What they didn't know was that I was.

"Hm," Pazul scrapped her black nails against the desks as she sauntered from the front of the dark room down the aisle to where I was sitting. She was very calm and calculated in her demeanor, but I could see the fury growing within her green eyes as her fair skin slowly reddened. "Is that so?" Her voice slowly turned demonic, the students audibly gulping as they bowed their head, a sign of respect towards the underworld. Her smile turned malicious as fangs elongated from the crook of her gums. She looked as if she was going to slaughter me on the spot. First, she had to get in line with the other people waiting to kill me.

Her aura was blackening as her hair turned gold and black, levitating in the air, floating as the light flickered ominously, the markings on her arms lighting up. "4,865 offenses for you, Troy," Pazul seethed as she hovered over me, her hand raised as if she was going to slap me out of my chair with no remorse. I looked down, bracing myself for the impact. There was no need for me to run, I would just retaliate once she hit me. I heard a sound of cracking as the class stared in pure anxiety, shivering and jittery.

"So who can tell me the history of our great demon lord?" I furrowed my brow in confusion, looking up to see Pazul back to her regular human look. It was as if her hair never levitated and the marks never goldened. She had that cheery voice in her tone and it made me wonder what the hell just happened. She walked back to the front of the classroom, the students coughing in a bout of awkwardness.

"Sir Alistair, as he is known," Jade spoke up meekly, earning me a glare from Avery. What was his problem? "Ascended to Earth and defeated our then president of the United States in 2114. He then assumed the throne from his original castle that borders the Acheron River in Hell. He is the faithful leader that created the thirteen..." I let her voice fade to nothing. I had no use in listening to something that I didn't believe.

I just snorted and rolled my eyes, staring out of the window. No one knew why he came to this world. No one knew why he did what he did, killing all of those people without a mere reason. No one knew who the fuck he was, what he looked like, what his powers were. We just knew the sound of his voice because that was the only way that he communicated with us.

Couldn't even grant his people a sliver of his real being.

It was no secret that he took our freedom away and wiped out all of the history pertaining to our past presidents and their generations. He wanted future generations to remember everything him and that point on. We weren't even too sure if we would have future generations, to begin with. With all the killing off that his demon code enforcement does on a daily basis and the law saying that there couldn't be any sexual intercourse, our kind was doomed.

Eternally doomed.

I continued to study the raindrops and claps of lightning until class was over. It wasn't that I wasn't smart, because I was. This was just a class that I would oblige in, due to the fact that I would be damned if I ever agreed to anything the demon lord did. Oh, I'm sorry, sir Alistair. After what he did to me, he could come to Earth personally and kiss my ass.

The fearful students began to exit the room one by one, once class was done, leaving Pazul and I. I slowly got up, walking towards her as she tapped the board, allowing it to clean itself.

"Pazul," I stood by her desk, wondering what her motive was. She was a demon, no doubt about it. They were all shitty and dangerous. "Why didn't you hit me?" I questioned, narrowing my eyes as she stalled for a bit. "Did you want me to?" Black claws elongated from her fingernails and I shook my head. "Mr. Morelli," Pazul turned to me, clutching the diamond ring on her ring finger as her face mellowed. "One day, you'll come to see that while you wouldn't want me as your enemy," She chuckled darkly. "It's not me who you need to watch out for."

I stared at her, not understanding what her cryptic words meant but I nodded nonetheless, not believing them. I didn't say a word as I turned to leave the class, glad that I was finished for the day. I had no idea where this degree was going to take me but I was sure it was going to land me in Hell.

I walked outside of the classroom, seeing no one there and feeling the silence consuming me. This was the same routine every single day. It was so fucking odd how people did nothing to question it, but as Avery said, people just want to live. "Hey," I heard a voice as I opened the door to the surge of rain, seeing Jade there with her umbrella and hoverboard. "Oh, thanks for waiting for me," I smiled at her, wondering what Avery had to do. I tapped a button on my smartphone and my signature hoverboard materialized out of air. "Let's go. I'll go halfway with you," The bell on the clock rung throughout the city, letting us know that it was 2 in the afternoon.

But it looked as if it was midnight.

"Troy," Jade whispered as she floated on her hoverboard next to me. "What is it?" The rain around us danced tauntingly as if they were proving the fact that they were free and we weren't. We were nothing but people trapped inside of a cage, our strings pulled unknowingly by some puppeteer. "Do you ever wonder about what life was like before all of this?" She murmured, pointing to a static fire in the distance. Those things were never set, they just ignited by themselves, almost like the burning of our hearts.

"No." I replied in a curt tone, shaking my head as we flew through the streets. "There's no need to," I furrowed my brow, trying to remember who I was before this happened. Before life as we knew it came crashing down around us. "What's the point of trying?" I asked, watching as her eyes widened, head snapping around to make sure no one heard us. "It isn't as if we'll get those lives back." It was true. We could sit around and think about how peaceful our lives would've been had the demon lord not have come to town. What has happened has happened, and there was no need to dwell on those types of useless thoughts.

Especially when you lived in a world as cruel as ours.

"How can you be so carefree like this?" Jade questioned, biting her lip. "It's like you don't care about your life." She whispered and I lifted my umbrella up, peering at her closely. She was deep in thought. "Like I said, there's no point in thinking about what we lost, who we were before us. I can be carefree because it's the opposite," I explained, the crack of lightning brightening the dull sky. "I care about my life so I'm not going to let someone else tell me what I can or cannot do. I'd rather kill myself before I let some dumbass lord tell me how to live." I folded my arms, knowing that she was looking around to make sure that no one was near us.

"Like you right now," I pointed to her. "You're constantly looking around like a fucking idiot to make sure that your words are safe. Fuck that. I say what I want and when I want. If that shithead of a lord doesn't like it, then he can bring his bitch ass up to Earth and let it be known." I folded my arms, hating how people could be so small-minded.

"If I can't live my life the way I want to, then there's no point in living."

I let those words sink into her brain, knowing that she wouldn't believe me. She didn't from the moment we were placed together in housing, and she didn't to this day. Not my fucking problem. You do you, boo.

"I'm scared," The little girl shivered in the corner of the room as it rained for the first time since we arrived in No Man's Land. This place was unruly and dead. There was no one governing over the city like it was back in my time. It was a chaotic hell and that's how it would continue to be. "I don't like this. I want my mom!" 15-year-old Jade McKinley whimpered and I sighed, looking at her with a straight face. "Stop crying," I complained, trying to figure out the situation. "If you don't see your parents, chances are they're dead!" Her mint green eyes widened with tears and I groaned in annoyance.

"Look dude," I too, had my own fair share of problems. She wasn't the only one who was looking for her parents. She wasn't the only one who wanted to cry here. She wasn't the only one who wished that they could rewind time. "Who knows what will happen to us? Who knows what will happen to the world?" I asked and the girl sniffled, looking at me. "All that matters is that you're here and I'm here, so will you please stop crying and help me figure out a way that we will survive?" I raised a brow. "I don't know about you, but I ain't planning on dying here." I folded my arms, the brain of a 14-year-old coming to play as the girl slowly crawled over to me.

"I'm Jade." The girl held out her hand and I looked at it before begrudgingly shaking it. If I was going to have to live with this girl until the day that I died, I might as well get to know her and become a friend of hers.

"The name's Troy."

There was a moment of silence, save for the boom of thunder that came every now and then. It always rained in No Man's Land. "When will you be home?" Jade asked. "9 is the curfew." She stated and I rolled my eyes, not wanting to hear that fuck shit. "Then I'll be home at 9:03. Stop bitchin'." I waved a hand at her and she scowled at my choice of language. If she wanted to preach to me about the religions of the demon lord, she could stifle it. I was a free bird and this bird did what the hell he wanted.

I turned my head, the clarity of the rain allowing me to see the hills of Toronto. This city was all I had ever known. I had a vague recollection of the place I came from. I couldn't recall No Man's Land ever being peaceful as something was always happening every day. I ran a hand through my blonde hair, wishing that I could see what lied beyond the walls keeping us in. It made me wonder if there was a clear sky on the other side.

If there was, would we be able to see it?

The answer was hell to the no. The demon lord, whatever the fuck his name was, kept us secluded for a reason. If there were other people besides us here, we wouldn't know. He was that paranoid.

"Heh," I chuckled to myself, drifting away from the usual path as I waved to Jade, heading to my part-time job. Us citizens could get jobs, no pressure, but 100% of it went to the demon lord. His underlings came to collect the money bi-weekly. They didn't get any from me because I didn't register my job in with my file. As far as they knew, I was just a lazy bum and that was going to stay. I wish that red sack of shit would take what I earned. If he did, we were gonna have to take it to the streets.

It was no surprise that people called me selfish or said that I often acted out for attention. The whole city thought that I had a death wish because I was constantly fighting against everything. I always acted bad and out of control even if I wasn't in the presence of demons. People who believed didn't know me. They didn't walk a day in my shoes. They didn't know what I went through, what I lost. They were in the same predicament as me and they had the audacity to tell me to stop being me? No. I had years of rage sitting inside of me and one way or another, it was going to come out.

And who was to say that I didn't like being explosively angry all the time?

I hunkered into Sunrise Records, a store that sold movies, music, t-shirts, anything people wanted to get their hands on. It was odd that we had jobs, considering that we had no money to buy things. I guess it was because the demon lord put a certain amount of money into stores like these and whoever was the lucky one chosen to work, was paid a narrow amount from the machine that looked similar to an ATM. However, its purpose was for you to log your hours in and at the end of your shift, you were paid, only to have the money return to the demon lord. Circle of life shit.

The only good thing about it was that the former boss of the store was nowhere to be found, so I assumed his identity during my shift and logged in as him. That way, I got more money and the information in my file was accurate. I chuckled mischievously as my smartphone dinged, letting me know that I had messages. It was a good thing that the demon lord had no idea how to access cell phones because I would be dead if he did. I had a lot more than texts from friends stored in this ;)

Avery Carmichael: your stunt today was uncalled for, Troy.

Troy Morelli: Please don't spout useless words at me.

Avery Carmichael: Troy, you're so selfish. You need to start thinking about how this makes others feel.

Troy Morelli: but do I care about how others feel? Definitely not.

I remembered when I first met Avery.

I was sixteen and I was jumping from house to house, running through backyards with the illegal food from the hole-in-the-wall market. I was trying my hardest to stay out of the vision of the demon cops. They didn't inflict violence on children, but I wasn't taking any chances. "I'm sorry!" I heard a pleading voice that sounded as if it was about to burst into unholy tears. "I didn't mean to bump into you!" It was the sound a girl and I furrowed my brows, crouching in the grass, inching closer to where the sound was coming from.

"Please, officer. My sister didn't mean it. Please don't do this." I heard a boy's voice and I lifted my head up, seeing a little boy about my age, holding his hands up at the demon cop, a little girl crying behind him. "No." The cop growled, deciding on how he should kill them, pulling that gun out of his pocket. I cursed to myself, not wanting to bear witness to a murder. I had two things that I had to do. I secured my bag of food under a chair, making sure that no one would touch it. No one knew I was out here in the first place, roaming through the early morning.

The officer aimed the gun at the two children, finger on the trigger, and I hopped over the makeshift fence, yelling at him to stop. "You'll be fucking wrong if you kill two children for no reason." I narrowed my eyes, running to guard the kids. "Just give me their offenses and I'll deal with the penalty," I said, standing my own in front of the intimidating red man. He squinted as if he was analyzing me and I was quivering in my boots, unsure of what was going to happen.

He could kill them or kill us all.

"Hmph," He hissed, that long tongue scraping across the front of his teeth. "Troy Morelli," The glass screen scanned my figure. "You have taken two offenses from Avery and Ayara Carmichael." He slid the gun back. "Consider this your lucky day," He hovered the children, his yellow and black eyes staining their memories. That was all he said before he vanished into thin air. I took a deep breath, panting as I turned to the boy. "Get the hell out of here before you run into someone much worse!" I pointed to the back alleyway and he nodded frantically, promising that we would meet again before running off.

I shook my head. Enough was enough.

I went back and got the food when I was sure no one was there.

We had been friends for a while and like Jade, he too possessed the will of the weak. I wasn't saying that anything was wrong with being mindful of your actions and compliant, but trying to stop someone else was irritating. I knew what I was getting myself into. I knew it from the day I stepped off of the bus, entering this destroyed ghost town. I sighed as I wiped the dust off of the records, hoping that no one came today.

"Attention," The crisp voice from the loudspeakers stationed all over No Man's Land began to travel throughout the city. "At this time," I checked my phone, smirking at the time. "All inhabitants should be inside of their lodging." Just one singular line was enough to invoke fear in everyone in the city. Why?

That crisp and dark voice belonged to our very own demon lord.

Sir Alistair, as he is known by his underlings and the people here, only made himself known and present through that radio. No one else had ever seen him. There were often many inquiries that he was an old man and contact with others would kill him. I didn't believe it because the voice sounded young, rich with vigor. There was that sense of command hidden beneath his tone and it was compelling enough for people to listen.

They were too afraid to break the rules.

Because when provoked and angered, Sir Alistair once wiped out an entire city 100 miles away from us with a beam that was shot out of the palm of his hand. No one had seen it but the bright light that shot from the ground up was enough to render them compliant. He was dark and he was mysterious, no doubt about it.

But that compliance wouldn't last too long. If he wanted to make sure that his people were obeying him, he had to make an appearance. For all we knew, he could be a fraud.

Ha.

I'd like to see this demon lord myself.