The Short Demon King

Chapter 20

No one bothered me in my comfy, little corner as I read each book. They actually explained a lot of things about this realm I didn't understand previously. One of my favorite books showed some of the most common animals here, with cute pictures of what each one looked like. I traced the shape of them, my mood lifting as I stared at their smiling faces.

By the time Kevin returned, I already had a solid pile of books beside me that I finished reading. He, on the other, only carried two under his arm.

"I'm gonna finish these at home. You good to go? We can wait a bit if you're in the middle of one," he offered.

"Nah, I'm just reading about different vehicles right now. Did you know there are vehicles that make you fly? These airplanes are super cool! Almost makes me wish I had a way of flying around back home."

"Wait, I thought demons and angels had wings?"

"Now THAT would be cool! But no, we are sadly stuck on the ground."

"Well I guess that's just another thing humans made up." He chuckled slightly, happy to see I was in a better mood. "Airplanes are pretty cool though. I can tell you more about them on our way home, if you'd like."

"Really? That'd be loads of fun, thank you!"

Kevin checked out his books from the library. When we left, the sun already appeared lower in the sky. Hopefully we wouldn't get back too late; I didn't want Maya to worry.

Lots of other humans were leaving the town center around this time too. A decently large group of people crossed the street with us, slowly scattering as we passed more houses. When we finally reached Kevin's house, we were some of the last people still outside.

We entered to find Maya sitting on the couch, scrolling through her phone. She watched us enter, her expression unreadable.

"Did you have fun at the library?" she asked monotonically.

Kevin casually answered, "Yeah, I actually found two books that might have some useful information in them. They could even have hints on how Jaye can return to his own realm. I read a little bit of each, but you can look through them too if you want."

"I'll take one to school with me tomorrow."

I didn't even know what to say to her. I hadn't seen Maya since the painful conversation last night. Would she even want to talk to me? She looked over at me, curiosity filling her eyes, but said nothing. They both entered the kitchen and started describing their days like normal as they cooked.

Feeling too awkward to join them, I sat at the counter and listened in on their conversation. Maya had a fairly normal day at school, though news about the boys I attacked spread like wildfire. Apparently, a few people even asked her what happened to me at the party.

"I just told them Jaye wasn't feeling well and needed to go home and lie down. That made most people stop asking, at least," she continued explaining. "Though Alice did approach me and demand answers. In all honesty, I ignored her the whole day. She's the real reason we had any problems to begin with."

"What'd she do this time?" Kevin asked.

Alice clearly caused problems regularly at school. Apparently having lots of money gave these random humans the right to be total nuisances and ruin everyone else's days.

Maya sighed, "She just wouldn't leave us alone. Kept treating him like some sort of plaything too. All around a really uncomfortable situation."

"Well no wonder you lashed out," Kevin said, turning to me. "That couldn't have been easy to handle."