Demon Days

Part one

"Tulia nightclub." I said to the driver.

"Isn't it a little early to be heading to a nightclub?" The driver said, locking eyes with me through the rearview mirror.

"Isn't it none of your business." I said sharply back. He scrunched his eyebrows and grunted quietly.

"Fuckin' demons" he grumbled under his breath.

I spent the car ride staring out the window and trying to get hyped for tonight. The first night is always the easiest. We meet with our groups and there isn't usually a challenge involved. We sit through a presentation on what The Volley is but once you've seen one you've pretty much seen them all.

The car slowed to a stop in front of the dead looking nightclub. I tossed the bills for the ride up to the driver and climbed out. I passed a couple of demons smoking up against the building and headed inside. When I got inside I was met with a large room with a couple of employees setting up for the plethora of partiers who would be here later tonight. An employee walking by pointed me to a side door at the edge of the room that would lead me to the basement. I descended the stairs and walked up to a burly man standing in front of an open doorframe.

"Name?" He asked as I walked up.

"Mel Harrington." He flipped through a couple of pages on a clipboard before looking back at me.

"You're not on the list." I sighed before responding.

"Amelia Harrington." He looked again and then stepped aside to let me into the room. I walked in to find rows of metal fold out chairs in the room with cement walls. "The ambiance is amazing in here." I mumbled to myself sarcastically.

"Oh yea, I love what they've done with the rusted metal support beams keeping the ceiling up, I bet the fairy queen has those in her castle too." A voice came from next to me. I looked over to see a tall girl, about my age, with pale skin and dark black hair staring at me.

"I would hope so." I responded giving a small smile. "Rusted metal beams are very popular in home decor right now."

"I'm Jess." She said holding her hand out to me to shake.

"I'm Mel." I said, taking her hand.

"Do you want to sit together?" She asked motioning to some seats nearby.

"Sure." I shrugged. We made our way to the seats a few rows from the front and I looked around at who was already here. The seats were almost full with about 60 people in the room already. There were a couple of youngsters looking excited but nervous scattered around the room and a couple of older demons huddled in the corner talking. I didn't see anyone I recognized but there were quite a few people my age in the room, a few slumped into chairs looking hungover. I didn't know there were even this many demons in this area but I guess it is a pretty big city. I looked back at the women sitting next to me and took in her appearance more. She had big doe eyes and practically perfect pale skin. She was taller than me by about half a foot and wore some jean shorts and a nice blouse top. I came to the conclusion that she was absolutely gorgeous and she fucking knew it.

"So are you excited for this years Volly?" I asked tilting my head.

"Yes!" She beamed back at me. "I love being surprised by each of the challenges and seeing how far I can make it." I noticed she had a very bubbly personality for a demon but instead of being annoyed by it like I usually am I actually felt drawn into it. Maybe it was the underlying tone of cunningness to it that made me excited. "What about you?" She asked back.

"I am. I like watching others fail at challenges I'm good at. It's good for my ego." I joked.

"Ha!" She laughed. "Yea until you fail a challenge." She commented