• I had never thought it possible. Demon's were never really supposed to exsist anywhere other than in books and television shows. I never believed in them. They were to abstract and improbable. No one had ever really seen one, and it had never occured to me, that they lived among us, taking onhuman forms. Hui Ka completely changed all that.
    "Emily! Get out of bed, you're going to be late!" my mother's shrill voice echoed dully through my head. I groaned and rolled over, slowly opening my eyes to look at the clock by my bed. 5:45 am.
    "Mother! If I go now, I'll be there over an hour early!" I complained. It was my first day of college, and my mother was under the impression I wouldn't be able to remember my route to the school, and I'd end up being late.
    "Well, it'll take you an hour to get ready," she defended throwing open my bedroom door, and turning my bedroom light on. She stalked out without checking I was up, to go check her wieght on the Wii. I shook my head and stumbled out of the bed, tripping over blankets and anime plush toys. 'Mom was so concerned about me spending every waking hour on that thing,' I thought grumpily as I gathered my clothes and headed into the bathroom to change. Thinking that nothing abnormal would happen today, I idiotically chose a bland grey dress and jacket, with white pumps. The most walking I was going to do was from one class to another, right? After brushing my teeth and taking myADDmedication, I slumped downstairs, for a mug of green tea, and to make sure my books and laptop were safely inside my backpack.
    "What are you planning on doing with your hair?" my mom commented from over her strange concoction of a drink. I grabbed a lock of my platinum blond hair and looked at it questionably.
    "I don't know, keep it down?" I asked. I already knew what my mom was going to say before she said it.
    "No. It's your first day of college, at least try and look presentable!" she ordered, looking at the papers on her lap. I sighed and shook my head. Gone were the days where she was gone before I even had to get out of bed. I drearily looked at the coo-coo clock on the wall and tried to gage the time, since the bloody thing was running almost 15 minutes behind. It said 6:00, so I decided to skip out, and maybe grab an icecap on my way to school. (BecauseI don't think that any American's know what an icecap is, it's basically an iced cappicino.)
    "I'm going," I called, rushing to the front door, grabbing my car keys.
    "Drive safely!" my mother called back, tiredly. I shivered and climbed into my black, Hyundai, fumbling around, trying to get the key into the keyhole. I finally got the car started, and I pulled away from the house. As I passed by the Tim Horton's (screw Starbucks, Timmies is so much better!), I decided to skip my icecap, since the line was starting to creep out of the driveway, and into the street.
    "People and their caffiene needs," I muttered. I hated coffee, and couldn't understand why other people were so obbsessed with it. The highway was pretty empty, of course, it was way to early for any sane person to be on the road. I pulled up infront of my uncles house, parking at college was way expensive, and got out, and locked my car. I slowly made the block trek to the busstop, blandly wondering how long I would have to wait for the bus this time, when I saw him. He was standing nervously at the stop, looking both ways for the bus, his long black hair falling neatly below his shoulders. He glanced in my direction for a brief moment, allowing me to catch a glimpse of his gorgeous amber eyes. I diverted my gaze back to the ground, like I've done for the past 7 years of my life, and slid past him, into the bus shelter, and sat down. The young man said nothing to me while we waited for the bus. 10 minutes later, the bus pulled up. He motioned for me to go on first, and I flashed a small smile at him, and showed the busdriver my university pass. I hurridly sat down in the front seat, seceretly hoping that the handsome stranger would sit beside me, or at least across, but, as was usual for me, he walked right by me, with out so much as a sideways glance. I sighed and popped my earphones into my ears, and turned on my mp3 player. There was no way I was going to let some cute guy ruin my day. I probably was never going to see him again.
    When the bus pulled up to the train station, I was the first one off, and I hurried to catch the train, knowing that if I missed it, I'd be stuck waiting outside for another 10 minutes. Normally I wouldn't really mind, but, well, lets just say I'd rather be in the fetal position with a box of extra-strength Tylenol, near a bathroom. I got to the train platform, just as the train was pulling in. I started jogging so I could get on and get a seat, when some middleaged buisness man pushed me out of the way. Of course, me being a complete klutz, stagger to the edge of the platform. My arms flailed like a pair of windmills as I felt my feet give way, forcing my body down, infront of the oncoming train. I squeezed my eyes shut, praying for a miracle, when two strong arms grabbed my waist, pulling me to safety.
    "Are you alright?" a soft voice sounded. I swivled around, coming face-to-face with the guy from the bus stop.
    "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Thanks," I said intelligently. The guy nodded, and I noticed his nose was slightly wrinkled, like he smelled something disgusting. I glared at his back as he walked away. I couldn't have smelt that bad. I had brushed my teeth, put on deoderant, and perfume. 'Maybe I put on to much,' I mused, hurrying onto the train. I sighed in relief as I saw a free seat, and I practically ran to it, not realizing, of course, that the same guy was sitting in the spot beside me. 'Aw, crap,' I frowned, staring defiantly out the window ahead of me. I could see his reflection in the window, with the same disgusted look, doing the same thing I was.
    The train ride downtown was longer than my grade 11 chemistry class. I could almost taste the annoyance in the air, and the fact that there were so many people packed into the small compartment, knocking me into the guy beside me, made the trip more than I could stand. I was relieved to get off the train, and into the crisp morning air. I some how knew that I was going to be stuck with this guy all the way to school. My fears were realized when I got to my final bus stop, and the guy sat on the other side of the bench I was on. From the look on his face, I could tell he wasn't particualarly pleased himself.
    "You wouldn't happen to be going to Mount Royal College, would you?" I asked finally, trying to break the awkward silence.
    "And what if I am?" he shot back. His amber eyes bored into my grey ones, making me feel very exposed, and frightened.
    "Well, I was just thinking that if we're going to the same place, maybe we could be friends, or something," I expained, smiling awkwardly. He started at me for a moment, then laughed. Me, being the complete moron that I am, took that as a sign that he would like to be friends. "I'm Emily. What's your name?" I asked, holding my hand out for him to shake. He snorted again and turned to look at me directly.
    "I'm not interested in being friends with you. Got it?" he spat. I lowered my hand, just as the bus pulled up to the stop. I half expected him to let me go first again, but instead, he climbed on first, and went to the back, as far away from me as he could get.
    The trip to school was pretty uneventful, save for a strange girl with very long auburn hair randomly appearing on top of a store, holding a ball of what looked like fire in her hand. She disappeared when I blinked, though, so I contributed her appearance to lack of sleep. When we got to the school, I got off, along with the strange guy from the rest of my trip, who looked more than a little ruffled. I ignored him, and went inside the building where my first class was, leaving him alone in the front, unaware that the same girl that I saw on the bus, was watching me from the roof of the next building over.
    "That was so dull," I complained outloud, as I made my way back to the bus stop after my classes ended at 8:00pm. It was unbelievable how four classes could take up the entire day. I mentally cheered when I saw that the stuck up a** from that morning wasn't there. I'd have a nice relaxing trip home. Again, the bus ride was very uneventful, but when I got off the bus downtown again, things started getting weird. I walked purposfully down the street, keeping an eye out for any creeps that could try and drag me into a hidden doorway or something. As I passed by one of the stores, something caught my eye. I turned around in time to see a large ball of fire hurling towards me. I stood, frozen in shock as the flaming ball came closer. Before it could hit me, some one else jumping between me, and the fire. I heard him mutter something in a strange language, as dark shadows swirled around him, and rushed towards the giant ball, extinguishing it in its tracks.
    "Why is it, that you have to always be where I am?" the man spoke.
    "I should ask you the same question," I shot back, recognizing the voice as the one from earlier in the day. He turned around, annoyance etched all over his face. He was about to say something, when I noticed something different about him; he had horns. And fangs. He closed his mouth when he saw where I was staring and he glanced up. Realization dawned on his face, which was then replaced with horror.
    "This is going to be a hard one to explain," he muttered, stratching the back of his head.
    "Dude, you have horns, that isn't normal!" I screeched, pointing at his head. He quickly grabbed me, and put his hand over my mouth, silencing me.
    "Will you shut up? Yes I have horns. Relax, and I'll try and explain it," he shot. He looked very nervous and frightened as he glanced around. "But before that, we need to figure out why you're being targeted by demons." I raised an eyebrow quizically. Demons? Really? I watchedcuriously as his fangs and horns began to retract into his head. "Come one," he motioned, letting me go, "let's get you home." I had to jog to keep up with him. "Hang on, I told you my name, what's yours?" I questioned, looking at him.
    "Hui Ka," he said after a seconds hesitation, "I'm one of the six great demons, the Great Demon of Shadow."