He said he'd meet me there, since he couldn't take chances going out in the open without his disguise; he'd been so recently possessed, we had no idea whether the boss would let him off the hook yet for...well, anything. Uptight theatre nerd Jack Nichols was off the table for now—at least, until he talked things out with whoever controlled the whole disguise thing.

We planned to wait a day or two before we actually went anywhere, and in the meantime I got myself mentally prepared. I made sure to bring minimal supplies on the day of, only packing my bag with a first aid kit, pad of paper and pencil. He hadn't told me what to bring, which annoyed me greatly when I realized this probably wasn't going to be a quick five-minute trip. All he said was, "Don't wear your Sunday shoes," as if I had any. Or as if I'd wear those on a walk through the forest, in the middle of winter, the first few days after a huge snowfall!

I tried wrestling on a coat over my sweater, but the world apparently didn't feel like cooperating with me today. I had a feeling that things were going to get a lot more inconvenient than just that. I was going to the demon realm, the place where Jack supposedly lived, where...well, demons lived. I'd already gotten a strong enough message that his boss, Chernobog or something, didn't like me, and I hadn't even met the damn guy yet. For a moment, I considered putting a cross around my neck just in case, and not five seconds later I was pulling at my hair, wondering how in the world my Catholic grandparents had managed to rub off on me from approximately 1,000 miles away.

By the time I reached the park, my hair felt like it'd been frozen in the shape of a modern-art lampshade. My teeth were chattering, and I realized my fatal error of wearing sneakers outside on a day like this. I spotted Jack sitting on a nearby bench—a real one, evidently—and drumming his fingers on his knees. He hadn't bothered to get dressed for the cold weather, and I asked myself why I was surprised; he probably couldn't even feel it at this point. But as I got closer, I noticed his arms were shaking the slightest bit, his lips paler and bluer than usual, his left eyelid twitching. It was classic Jack, always looking like he was one second away from cold-blooded murder.

He looked up, raising his eyebrows the tiniest bit when his gaze fell upon my hair, though I had no idea what it looked like at this point. He started talking before I could ask.

"So...uh, are you sure you're ready?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" I looked at him quizzically, hoping he wouldn't notice how desperate I was to get out of the cold. He sighed.

"I told you, you're just going to have to get used to some new things. And most of them...uh, they're not pretty."

"I remember that. Can we go now?" At his hesitant look, I reached up to touch his shoulder. "Hey. I'm going to be okay in there. Are you?"

"Yeah, yeah, I-I just get annoyed real easy here. Fuckers in there know how to push my buttons," he mumbled, looking into the forest with a bit of an empty stare. He shook his head with another sigh. "Okay. Let's just go."

We ducked underneath some of the lower tree branches as we made our way...somewhere. Jack seemed eager to take the most difficult path possible, leading me down to an obscured, thick area of trees that felt more wild and unruly than the rest of the forest. I hurdled over overgrown roots, fallen branches, hell, maybe even a few dead animals. At a certain point the trees seemed to get faker and faker, like they were either made of plastic or thin air. Jack walked through what looked to be a sturdy oak as if it were nothing. I remembered the trails and benches that turned out to be holograms the first time we came here, and narrowed my eyes as I struggled to catch up with him.

"Uh—just to be clear, we are going to the demon realm, right—?"

"Shh." One of his hands grazed my shoulder as if making sure I was really there. He squinted through the dark patch of trees ahead of us; if we kept on, we would be walking blindfolded. One of his ears perked up like a dog's, and he took one step forward before flinching back.

"Yep. It's here. Just..." He let out a tired grunt. "One second."

Before I could respond, he lifted me by the waist and set me back down a few feet from where I was, the motion too quick to embarrass me all that much. I still felt an uncomfortable warmth creep into my face, even with the cold air whipping at me from all directions. He didn't bother explaining himself, so I took a chance and looked down.

We were standing in the middle of a circle made of ash. The area inside seemed to burn away the mud and leaves we'd tracked, and the soles of my feet grew uncomfortably warm. I gasped and made to back out, but Jack held onto my arm with a stern look.

"Don't move. It won't burn you...too much."

I shot him a glare with some fresh panic mixed in. "That's not as reassuring as you think it is!"

"Trust me, you'll be fine. Plenty of humans used to come here, most of 'em made it out okay."

"And the others...?"

He flashed one of those annoying, wry grins of his. "Don't worry about it."

"What'd they even come here for, what—what do you mean by 'used to'?"

"I said don't worry about it."

True to his word, the ground had stopped burning my feet. It cooled so abruptly, I was convinced for a moment that if I looked down, the bottoms of my sneakers would be completely intact. "Don't wear your Sunday shoes," huh? Maybe I should just strap cinder blocks to my feet next time.

Hot steam was blasted from the circle's edge, grazing my legs and nearly giving me a first-degree burn. I flinched away, deciding maybe it was better to step further into the circle than try to get back out. My head started to feel...lighter. It took me a moment to realize a warm gust of wind was blowing my hair upward, the moisture it had gathered from the winter air evaporating within seconds. I closed my eyes and felt a shiver travel up my spine, the numbness in my fingertips ebbing away.

"Anything else?" I asked in a mutter. "Or are you going to blowtorch my face off now?"

"Don't be dramatic," said Jack, who looked virtually unaffected by all this. The only difference I could see was that his tar seemed to have gotten thinner, dripping down his face like actual tears instead of the weird goop I'd grown accustomed to. "We're in the realm now. That was basically cleaning you off, we can step out now."

I rubbed my arms and took a tentative step out of the circle, relief flooding into me followed by the sharp coldness I'd been surrounded with before. "Why'd you have to lift me up like that, anyway? You could've just told me to step inside..."

"You might have disturbed it, or something. I don't know," he admitted, scratching the back of his head. "Let's just keep going."

Wait, so we're there now? No door, no portal, nothing lowering us into the ground? What did that circle thing do?

I brushed myself off and continued forward with him, feeling something change in the air as we kept going. It definitely felt like the "demon realm" now, but in a way I couldn't place. Contrary to what I'd expected, we weren't enveloped in a never-ending darkness when we continued through the more obscured part of the forest. It was almost the opposite; our surroundings turned a sandy color instead of pitch black, pillars of stripped wood marked every twenty or so feet on either side of us...

I looked up. There were no more trees, but I still couldn't find the sun. The sky was a dark, muted shade of blue, as if somebody had layered night on day. Something caught in my throat and I miraculously resisted the urge to cough, taking several slow breaths and looking to Jack for some sort of explanation.

"It's so dry here," I said between wheezes. He shrugged.

"That's how they like it best, I suppose."

They really take that whole "no water" thing seriously, don't they? Who even is "they"?

The pillars eventually disappeared, giving way to a series of dark hallways stretching up for what seemed to be miles on both sides. The "walls" of this place, if they could even be called that, funnelled out until there was an even wider stretch of land in front of us, its size akin to a small village. It looked to be as densely populated as one, too; I spotted a total of fifteen individual beings ahead, most of them too disfigured or animal-like to be considered people.

I heard plenty of whispers as we kept forward. Most of them were remarks on me being human, or Jack not being particularly wanted here; I even thought I heard somebody mutter to themselves, "Highest be damned, it's him again." Jack's head snapped in their direction and he bared his teeth, not earning much of a reaction from the other demon but seeming to think it sufficient anyways. None of that bothered me—no, it was a familiar-looking lady and her companion in our path that managed to catch my attention. The woman held a hand to her mouth, mimicking a gasp.

"It's...she!"

I was about to give her a funny look when I noticed her partner had all red eyes, and a chillingly wide smile to boot. A not-so-fond memory snapped back to me from earlier this year, and I pointed to them with my deadliest glare.

"Hey, you're those people-turned-horror-show who made fun of me while I was handcuffed to a bench!"

"People?" The lady giggled like she was watching a dog chase its own tail. "Goodness me, it really is new!"

"Hold on a second, it?"

Jack squeezed my arm. "Just keep walking," he said through clenched teeth.

"You underestimate me, Jack. I can't get arrested for fighting a demon, and you have no idea how much rage I've been keeping in here for the past couple years."

"You and me both, man, but keep walking." He glanced back as we continued past them, with an expression I couldn't decipher. "Don't make it personal. They hate humans, like to watch them squirm."

Oh, so it's only a problem when I stand up for myself? I scratched my arms and shot him a petty glare. "Like a certain someone I know."

"Come on, I don't hate them that much. Besides, if it's just Vickson and their little pet we're going to be dealing with here, we should be fine."

The demon, Vickson, laughed again and gestured toward us as if to say, oh, stop it. "Good luck, handcuff girl! I wouldn't count on staying alive for long here."

"Shut up," Jack muttered, starting to look just as annoyed as me. Not so easy ignoring people, is it?

"What kinds of things do you usually see here, anyway?" As I glanced around the vast, not-quite-manmade hall, my voice wavered the smallest bit, however hard I tried to keep it steady. "Is...is there anyone like you? Half-demon, or used to be human, or something?"

Jack's mouth formed a thin line. "Not that I know of." He almost seemed to regret saying it. "Whoever feels like trying to cutting me down that day makes it a point to say how special I am, and how there's never been anything like me, and whatever. It's definitely bullshit. They just do it to annoy me." He gave in to a tiny, crooked smile. "It's kind of funny, actually—my boss gets so mad when they say stuff like that, he hisses and threatens them and cuts them down to size, almost catches on fire. The one useful thing he's done for me." His voice dropped to a mutter as he stuffed his hands into his pockets.

"Doesn't seem to have a problem saying all those things himself, though."

I raised an eyebrow. At least he's being defended. I think. "Have you ever actually told me what demons are? Like, what qualifies as one? I never really thought any of those famous, named demons existed, and if they did..." I took one other glance at my surroundings, eyes being toured from giant dark hall to giant dark hall, resting on the very pavement-like ground we were standing on.

"...I'm not so sure this place is where they'd make home."

Jack sniffed. "'Course it is. It's practically a breeding ground for them, it's all dry and dark and lonely. Plenty of 'named' demons live here."

"Like...?"

"Well, I don't know! Just name one. It'll probably come up here, who knows how many religions' demons stay in this place." His nose scrunched up in disgust, and I had to stifle a laugh.

"Okay, uh...Beelzebub?"

Instantly, he recoiled. "Oh, god, I hate that guy. Boss made me room next to him for a year. Never wanted to drink soup again."

I won't even ask.

"So, these beings, they're like people? You can just walk up to them and have a conversation, no weird mist or summoning or anything?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Some of them. There are more things like Vickson here than you'd think, things like...well, just look around. They're the more physical type. Now, my boss? Lord Chernobog? You'll have to do a little work if you even want to see him with your own two eyes."

A small voice gasped nearby. "He said it! He said—"

"Goodness me, don't go around repeating every single name you hear!"

What appeared to be a mother and her child were passing by, looking at us with varying intensities of disbelief—the child wonderstruck, and the mother disapproving.

"Oh, well, look at that. You certainly don't want to repeat a thing this boy says, he's that hybrid the Highest is so fond of. Come along, now, Lucy..."

The kid, Lucy, had to be pulled away as they stared at the two of us, admiration glimmering in their eyes. When they blinked, their eyelids folded vertically.

"What about the human, Ma, it said something about Uncle Beelz—!"

"Come on, Lucy!" the mother said through gritted teeth, tugging harshly on the sleeve of their shirt. She turned to me with tired eyes. "I am so sorry about..." At a second glance, she jumped slightly, and her entire body seemed to glitch and flicker with black sparks. "O-oh! Oh, no, what did he do now? You really are human, aren't you—"

"Hey, how about you learn to mind your own business?" Jack tapped my shoulder and threw a nasty glare towards the mother. After a moment of silence, he looked as if he were fighting back a smile and nodded to the child, Lucy.

"And maybe not be such an asshole to your kid. Ever think of that?"

The older demon's face contorted in anger—literally. It was like somebody printed her features onto a sheet of paper and crumpled it up into a tiny ball. My eyes widened as I took a step back and held my arms. Her gaze traveled shiftily between Jack and me.

"I'd stay away from this one if I were you, human. Gets too involved with your lot."

My lot?!

Something seemed to shift in Jack's gaze, though you couldn't tell from just looking at his face. I didn't get the chance to pull him along and tell him to forget this lady before he shrugged with a blank expression.

"Okay."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What are you—"

"I guess you'll just have to roam for a bit. Sorry, human," he said, turning to me with an unusual smile. A smile that looked as if it were on the verge of something much, much worse. I opened my mouth to ask him what in literal hell he was doing, but he leaned close and muttered, "Just walk around a couple minutes, I'll be with you. I think I'm going to have some fun here."

The way he was smiling still put me off, but I knew better than to argue on his home turf. I backed away slowly, watching with shriveled confidence as he cracked his knuckles and said in a mocking voice, "Alright, Mamma Elskan, if you want to talk about me like some rotten teen..."

—

The last thing I'd expected, or wanted, was to be left alone in a realm full of demons who probably wanted me dead. Jack had abandoned me, temporarily or not, for the sake of some petty fight with a lady named Elskan (if that was even her name; it could have been an insult, or something else) and told me to "roam a bit" as if I'd know what to do with that. I just ended up backing further and further away from the two of them bickering until I bumped into someone and felt my heart jump into my throat.

"Oh, my god, I'm sorry—!" I practically squeaked as I turned around, finding to my surprise...

"No, no need to say all that," the human said, holding up her hands and smiling awkwardly. "It's my fault. Really."

I didn't hurry to respond; honestly, what could I have said? I ended up stepping back in the other direction, looking her up and down just to make sure she was really human. Her clothes didn't help much—a simply decorated, high-necked dress with flowing, translucent sleeves that made her look either like a menacing nun or a cultist—but everything else was able to make up for it. She had silky black hair pulled into a bun on the top of her head, warm eyes that seemed to change color the longer I looked at them...it wasn't enough information to know for sure, but I felt something in my gut telling me she was a person. A real, normal, human person.

I had to snap myself out of that little trance and focus back on what was really happening. The girl (well, she was probably a good few years older than me, so woman) was looking at me with an unsure frown. I quickly pulled myself together and stepped back again.

"I—um, sorry, I just didn't think I'd see another human here. That was weird of me, to stare, I—"

"You're quite alright. Here—Nyx Smith. Healer of the occult." She held out her hand to shake, but I was hesitant. Before I could explain myself, she tilted her head with a sympathetic look.

"Oh, don't worry, it won't hurt you. No claws here," she said, half-joking, wiggling her fingers in the air. I forced a laugh and shook her hand. Something in the back of my mind found that name, Nyx Smith, oddly familiar.

"Healer?" My brow furrowed. "Occult? So...you work on demons?"

"I suppose that's the lot of them. Though you have no idea how many walk into my office, can't stand when I say that word in reference to them. Find it too harsh, too evil-sounding. You know, many of the beings who end up here, it's not their fault." God, those eyes were about to swallow me whole. They were caring. Empathetic. Too empathetic. I felt like at any moment, she could crawl into my body and walk around in it just for a taste of my life. Nyx cleared her throat when she saw I was getting lost again.

"And you are...?"

"Sawyer. Rafael." For whatever reason, I trusted her so much that I couldn't have cared less whether she knew my name or not. It might have been the need for human interaction that was growing in me like a wildfire by the second; I internally scolded myself for getting this desperate this quickly. It hasn't even been an hour! For all you know, this lady is some sort of skinwalker who'll tear you to bits at any moment!

I shook myself of that thought. "You're a healer," I repeated like an idiot. "That's...cool. It's perfect, actually, that's kind of what I came here for."

"Oh?" Nyx tilted her head again. "And what are you in the human world? I'll tell you what I am; wanted."

I wasn't sure whether to laugh or not. I wasn't even sure exactly what she meant by that, but based on her face, she found it hilarious. She was practically biting back laughter. I let out a weak chuckle and scratched the back of my neck.

"Um, honestly, not much different? I'm in med school. Studying to become a doctor."

"That sounds wonderful! Uh, if you don't mind me asking, how did you get—"

She took one glance over my shoulder and stopped cold, her face white as a sheet. After a good five seconds passed and I was about to ask her what the hell she was looking at, she mustered a polite smile, the corners of her mouth twitching, and folded her hands. "...Jack. What a pleasure," she said, the spaces between each word like a sharp, white stamp. I turned my head and sure enough, Jack was standing there, one hand in his pocket and one hovering over my shoulder like at any moment he would have to drag me away in a hurry. He was plenty bloodied up, his aggressive high having been long exterminated. I wondered with frustration and worry what had happened back there with him and the lady he was berating. He hunched his shoulders, eyelids narrowing.

"Nyx," he said, his voice almost a hiss. I remembered with haste what he'd said a couple nights ago when he dropped by my house, all drunk and horribly wounded:

"My mask goes to Nyx Smith, so she remembers all the shit I had to go through because of her."

The silence that followed was unbearable, and I had no choice but to look back and forth between the two with an eventual "...oh."

"Let's go, Sawyer. I'm sure there's some other, better healer around here that can teach you," Jack said, grabbing onto my sleeve and pulling in one direction. I stayed adamantly in place while Nyx folded her arms with a bitter look.

"Sawyer, is he bothering you? I'd be happy to take this conversation somewhere else, if you—"

"No, no, it's okay. I'm his friend, I kind of signed up for this." I held up my hands with what I hoped came off as a reassuring smile, before turning to Jack and giving him a stern look. "But we're not going to be rude, now are we?"

"Rude?! She—" he cut himself off and took a breath, barely holding it together. "I'll tell you later, okay?" He ran a hand through his hair before pointing at Nyx accusingly. "If you touch a hair on her head, I swear..."

"Jack, shut up and chill out. I can take care of myself," I said, a tad bit more confident than before.

"Maybe back home, you can. This place—"

"I'm fine! You two hate each other, you'll tell me why later, I get it. But I'm not trying to have my day ruined right now, so can we just..." I made a few vague gestures with my hands before shooing him away. "Talk? Please?"

"Fine, fine, okay," he muttered, walking away to be sulky somewhere else. I shook my head and sighed.

"Sorry about that. So you guys have...uh, history, I take it."

"He listens to you?"

I caught a glimpse of Nyx's surprised face before she tried to cover it up. I shrugged.

"I mean, yeah. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised he went away at all. Sticks around a little too long sometimes."

Nyx tilted her head. "He likes being around you," she said, as if in disbelief. I laughed nervously.

"I wouldn't say that." After a moment, I glanced to the side in defeat. "Well, okay, I would kind of say that. What are you gonna do, I'm a people magnet," I said as ironically as I could. She widened her eyes in sympathy.

"He really has changed, hasn't he?"

"Eh. I wouldn't know. How do you two know each other, anyway? Did you spill your drink on him at a party or something?"

"Sawyer, you know neither of us can really—"

"That was a joke."

"Oh. Well, if you want to know the truth, we never actually...knew each other. Not like that. He's angry at me purely by association. Jennifer was my younger sister."

I wasn't exactly sure how to feel about that. It took me a while to even understand what she meant, I had to rack my brain for a clearer answer.

"...of course. Nyx Smith. Wait, how are you still alive? Didn't he...you know." I considered making the throat-slitting gesture, but figured it might be a little insensitive. Besides, she was already talking again.

"I was unbelievably sick that day. Bedridden, it was some strange disease that none of the doctors could identify. It's sort of ironic; there I was, the one that had introduced Jenny to our savior, our ruler, and she was summoning with everybody else on the big day while I could barely leave my bed. In a way, I suppose I should be thankful, but..." her eyes wandered to the spot where Jack had been standing, and she looked the tiniest bit disgusted.

"Well. If I'd known I was going to have an enemy like him for the rest of my life, maybe I would have chosen to die like all the others. Let's leave it at that, shall we?"