Alice in Demonland

10. After the Funeral

Pam unlocked the door to our room and pushed it open. She appeared haggard and quickly fell onto her bed, crossing her hands over her face.

"Are you okay?" I asked, even though I knew she wasn't. Neither was I. Images of Eric's hand dangling from the demon's mouth kept driving their way into my dreams.

Attending Eric's funeral had been difficult. I'd seen enough television to know that while they were somber they were supposed to celebrate the life of the person who'd died. We had nothing to celebrate. His whole life had been about training to kill his demon sire or be killed. The latter happened. It was all too common in our world and I hated it.

But as children, once we were found and plucked from whichever foster home we'd been living in at the time, we were brought to the Dark Moth compound and trained from morning until night every single day. There were rarely field trips or birthday parties. We mostly focused on not dying. Our sole purpose for living was to bring down our demon parent and hopefully save several hundreds or thousands of regular Moths in the process.

If we lived, it was to serve.

If we died as Eric had, there was no celebration. His life was just over.

"I'm fine." Pam sniffled and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Or as fine as I can be knowing I turn eighteen in three days." She paused, sitting up and removing her shoes. "Because what we saw—what happened to Eric—that's going to be me soon." She unzipped her black dress and pulled it over her head. "I'm not ready to die yet. I haven't done anything." Tears streamed down her face along with her mascara.

I understood exactly what she meant. My birthday was coming up too. "You're not going to die. I won't let you," I said.

Pam smiled, but it was full of cruelty. "I appreciate your courageous words, Alice. But no one believes you slayed that demon because of skill. It was a fluke. You're no more ready than any of the rest of us."

She wasn't wrong.

I kept quiet as she pulled on her gray training pants and matching gray shirt. Then put on her black combat boots. "How did you produce such a powerful shield?"

The rest of the Dark Moths had demon power too, but it wasn't quite so all-encompassing as mine. I pulled off my black dress and tossed it on the floor, kicking my low heels on top of it. "I really am not sure," I said and meant it. Sure I knew how to call forth my powers, but without a doubt and for whatever reason mine were stronger than the other trainees.

"Whatever," she said, slamming the door shut behind her and she was gone.

I went over to my bed and lay down. I wasn't trying to be difficult or keep a skill from my fellow trainees. In all truth I'd tried to make myself produce the shield several times since that fateful night, but I hadn't been able to make it happen.

There was a knock at the door. "Alice? Are you in there? We need to train."

It was Kade.

We'd spent every moment together over the last three days. I'd even slept in the sick bay with him. Coming to my room to dress and undress for the funeral and using the bathroom had been my only alone time.

He was a nice enough guy, but it felt like Wrythe was punishing me for some reason. Had I done something wrong? I wanted to ask him the question on more than one occasion, but there hadn't been an opportunity.

"Give me a minute." I jumped off my bed and quickly dressed in a black training outfit. Laced and tied my boots and then went to the door, opening it. "Hi, Kade."