<div style="text-align: right;"><span style="color: #08BFFF"><span style="font-style: italic">A man, a woman, and the dream of a family. The hope that things would go well. It could be said that these things started this demon’s story. <br/><br/>A mother and a father, powerful and secretive—a baby girl, pure and untainted. But the world touched everything, and the parents knew that soon even their child would be tainted. <br/><br/>A sweet voice giggling one second at a game of patty cake, next curiously cooing, </span><span style="color: #BF8080">“Why do we hate them so much? What did they do?”</span><span style="color: #08BFFF"> They didn’t have a good answer. It broke their hearts, bit by bit, day by day. The day came when their little girl came home and she burst into tears.</span><span style="color: #BF8080"> “They told me I had to die for my race.” </span><span style="color: #08BFFF"><br/><br/>That night the mother cried for the first time in a hundred years. Her daughter grew not to cry. She grew to be the best fighter in her class. And the mother and the father became traitors, practicing elven magic to send their daughter across the veil, where this war didn’t exist. It hurt to speak in their tongue, but one night they did it, even as their daughter begged them to stop. The event ended in chaos, the older demons on the ground vomiting, and the daughter gone forever. Success sometimes hurt. <br/><br/>Across the veil, a human search party sailed across the ocean. Waves tipped and turned their boat. A small voice cried out from the sea. Human lights swung about, zeroing in on the pale skin clawing at life jacket amongst the wreckage of a cruise ship. The young girl was pulled onto deck despite her resistance. And it started. Flashlights shone into red eyes, filled with tears, and the girl cried. For weeks, doctors shone lights in her eyes. Tests were done. Questions were asked. They clipped her long, sharp nails. The girl cried. She was healthy as could be, but she couldn’t remember anything other than her name.<br/><br/>So they invented her story. Zere. A ten year old girl, sole survivor of a cruise wreckage. No family. Amnesia victim. And she was entered into the system, adopting the last name of the man who pulled her from the sea. <span style="font-weight: bold">Zere Cane.</span> </span></span></div><span style="color: #08BFFF"><br/><br/>-<br/><br/>“Zere Cane?” The guidance counselor glanced from her paper to the seventeen year old sitting before her. </span><span style="color: #BF8080"><br/><br/>“Yes, but it’s Zher-ay, not Zher.”</span><span style="color: #08BFFF"> The counselor cleared her throat and apologized, repeating the girl’s name. Zere nodded in confirmation. <br/><br/>“So, Zere. Why were you trying to sneak out of school?” Reaching up, the teen rubbed her head, losing her fingers in her reddish brown hair. She bit her tongue to avoid sighing. She snuck out of school every day, something was just off with her today and she got caught.<br/><br/></span><span style="color: #BF8080">“I wasn’t going to go far,” </span><span style="color: #08BFFF">Zere explained, her voice calm and slightly sweet.</span><span style="color: #BF8080"> “I just wanted some fresh air. It’s my lunch period. …I’d be back in time for Biology, I promise.”</span><span style="color: #08BFFF"> The counselor frowned. Zere frowned back. What had she said wrong? The woman informed her that leaving school grounds was against the rules. Zere held her mouth and kept it to herself that she broke the rules every day. She never ate lunch in the building. She never wanted to. Right now she wanted to yell at the woman sitting before her. Tell her she didn’t know what she was talking about, and none of this mattered—but Zere didn’t do that. That wasn’t what the other kids would have done. That wasn’t “normal”—and that was all she wanted to be. She never wanted anyone looking at her with suspicion. She had too many doubts and too many questions and too many secrets. So the teen apologized, and held back her attitude. She said she was wrong, and she wouldn’t do it again. She said she was hungry. She said she just wanted to eat. The counselor kept pressing, and, growing annoyed, the teen pulled out her trump card. <br/><br/></span><span style="color: #BF8080">“My foster family just got two new kids, so portions have been cut down a lot. I really am hungry, Miss Cunningham.”</span><span style="color: #08BFFF"> The wrinkled face of the guidance counselor was flooded with pity. Zere looked expertly pitiful, sitting quietly, staring at her lap and holding her stomach. <br/><br/>Standing in the doorway of the loud cafeteria with her escort, she realized that she didn’t know how to deal with this situation. She had been attending this high school for three years. Never once had she eaten in this place, because she just had too much to hide. The security officer next to her cleared his throat. “Well, go in, have a seat, eat up. The hour is almost over.” Zere bit the inside of her cheek, glancing at him shyly and nodding before scurrying in. <br/><br/>She had to sit down like a normal person, or the security guard and the other kids would question her. They would look at her. She knew she could kick their asses, but she also knew that she shouldn’t, if she wanted to be normal. She knew they deserved it, but she knew she <span style="font-style: italic">shouldn’t know that.</span> She shuffled her feet. She adjusted the bag on her back. She felt the security guard staring at her, and she walked hesitantly to the emptiest table she could find. <br/><br/>A single black-haired girl sat there. As Zere sat down, she blinked heavily and felt her honey-brown contacts swirl over her red pupils. She could sense that she was still being watched. She didn’t like that she had that sense, but she did, so she knew she had to look more normal. So, with panic in her heart and frustration in her mind and embarrassment on her face, she looked shyly towards the girl at the table with her. She gave a small wave to her, and she mumbled out,</span><span style="color: #BF8080"> ”H-Hey.” </span><span style="color: #08BFFF"><br/><br/>And she sensed the security guard walk away, but she didn’t look away from the black-haired girl. Something weird started to happen in her chest. Behind her lips, her teeth felt sharper. All of her senses were heightened. And she had no idea what to do.</span>