Young Writers Society

As always, Silas made his rounds through the house that night. It was now just a little after ten thirty, meaning it was plenty dark outside. And as always, he could already start to hear the creatures of the night emerging from their daytime hiding places, now free to roam under the cover of shadow. He locked and bolted the door, then went to the windows and made sure they were locked tightly as well. Just to be safe, he wedged the metal bars he kept lying on the windowsill between the top of the window and the part that could slide open from the bottom, making it impossible for someone to open them from the outside. Satisfied, he then closed the every single pair of blinds and moved on to the next room in the house, which was his younger brother's.

Sithe was sitting in bed and stared at him as he entered, not blinking once. His hair was tucked behind his ear for once so his transparent eye was visible along with his green one.

Ignoring him, Silas went to his window and closed it, blocking out the cold air. "I keep telling you to leave this shut," he growled, locking it. There were ten locks on this window, and all could only be done or undone with ten separate keys. He had tried putting a metal bar in the window when they'd first moved to the house as he did with the other windows, but after Sithe wouldn't stop hurting himself with it he'd been forced to take it away from him and try something else.

"Nooo! Leave it open!" His little brother whined, jumping up and down on the bed. "I was talking! I was talking! Now they're going to think I was rude for leaving without saying good night!"

"They're squirrels, Sithe," Silas groaned, running a hand through his hair in exasperation. "I don't think they'll care."

"Yes they do! They're scared! They told me! The ferals will eat them!" Sithe protested loudly, starting to growl. "We're safe in here but they're NOT!" What little pigment was visible in his transparent eye suddenly vanished, leaving nothing but a milky white orb along with the green eye, which was glowing with furious energy. He doubled over and started coughing hoarsely; flecks of blood dripping onto the covers from his mouth as he shook uncontrollably.

Silas immediately went to sit by his side, taking his brother in his arms as tightly as he could as he continued shaking and coughing. He covered his eyes with his right hand, muttering strange words under his breath in a foreign tongue that to anyone unfamiliar with the language would sound like nothing but a collection of guttural hisses and clicking noises. A light shone faintly from underneath his hand, and Sithe slowly went limp, coughing feebly a few more times before he was silent.

"Breathe, Sithe. Come on, breathe," Silas said, still restraining him. At first Sithe's attempts to calm his breathing were shaky and forced, but in a minute or so he was breathing air normally.

"...There you go," his brother let out a sigh of relief, releasing his hold on him. But Sithe was still clinging to his arm, shaking for a different reason.

"It won't stop. I want it to stop," he whimpered. "Make it stop, brother..."

As much as Silas tried not to show it, it was hard not to be afflicted with a pang of guilt after Sithe was hit by these attacks, which happened whenever he started losing control of his anger. He'd do anything to turn back time so his brother could have grown up with a normal life, but it wasn't easy to heal the scars from years of neglect. That was beyond his power.

"I'm sorry..." he replied quietly, having a million things he wanted to say, to apologize for, but found himself unable to say them. Instead he did something he did often when he was uncomfortable; he changed the subject. "You know we have to lock up at night the best we can. Otherwise-"

"The ferals will get us."

Silas nodded. "Because?"

"Because we broke the law."

"Because Taebbean broke the law," he corrected. "Which is?"

"Never tell bad jokes on Thursdays," Sithe said.

Laughing, the elder of the two shook his head. "Quit stalling and say it."

Reluctantly, Sithe looked down and mumbled, "...Never kill a pureblooded demon."

"...Yeah," Silas answered, hugging his brother again briefly. He couldn't help but wonder: if things had been different, if their family hadn't been so dysfunctional from the beginning, would Taebbean have been driven to that act of desperation in the first place?

.

.

.

.

.

Through the outside window of the Black Lark restaurant, Taebbean rubbed the fog away to look in on the late night dinner crowd, completely unaware of his presence. Of course, his black wings weren't unfurled at the moment, so anyone who happened to look towards the side window would only see what looked like a perfectly normal (and cold) human out in the winter afternoon, but he still was hesitant to enter the establishment. Most humans made him leery, and he stayed away from large groups of them when he could help it. Not because he was afraid of them. He could kill the whole lot of them without even so much as a blink. He was more worried about what would happen if one of them should sense that there was something not quite...normal about him. Even the way he carried himself, slightly slouched and always on the alert, was different from any human. If they called for their law enforcement known as the "Po-lease," not only would the human population be aware of his presence - the ferals would be too. And they were far less forgiving. Their idea of judgement did not involve three weeks of detainment and a fine.

Their punishment was far more permanent than that.

But he'd been working up the courage to do this for weeks now. He'd been so careful, so thorough in making absolutely sure that she was a good choice. She was friendly but not overly so, she was well respected within the human community, and she wasn't hard on the eyes, either. She fit all of his requirements. But most of all, she wasn't the type to be easily scared. That was probably the most important thing. He wasn't going to let the risk of being caught by the demon hunters to scare him away from an opportunity to finally introduce himself to her.

So it was with a deep breath that he told himself, "Act normal. Well, normal like a human. Don't freak her out, and...yeah." He gulped, straightening himself up. "Here goes everything..."

As he walked into the restaurant, no one looked up at him. They were all too busy eating to pay another customer any attention. Wondering what he should do, Taebbean stood by the sign that said "Please Wait To Be Seated," feeling self-conscious and very out of place.

"Table for one?" A human with messy brown hair asked him. Startled, Taebbean looked at him and nodded without really thinking. He was so busy looking towards the back of the building, keeping an eye out for her, that he hadn't even heard him approach.

"One sec," said the human. He walked towards a door nearby labeled "Staff Only," and opened it so he could yell at whoever was inside. "Yo, Jaybird! Come and get a table ready!"

"It's JAY!" An angry female voice echoed from inside.

"Whatever you say, tweety bird. Just get to work," the male human chuckled. "She'll be right with you," he told Taebbean before going to wait more tables.

Taebbean didn't have to wait even five seconds before the girl he'd come all this way to see stormed out of the "Staff Only" room, tying on her apron as she went. Her dark brown hair was done up in a ponytail, but her bangs still fell in her face and she blew them away out of the corner of her mouth. He stared at her and smiled, extending his hand as he'd seen humans do when they greeted each other.

"I'm-" he started to say, but 'Jaybird' cut him off.

"Mister, do you want a table or are you just here to annoy me?"

He blinked in surprise. "Um..."

The girl sighed irritably. "Follow me," she said, turning on her heel. Dazed, Taebbean got up and followed her, almost forgetting not to slouch. She pointed to a table with a single chair in the corner of the restaurant. He sat down.

"Okay, sir, what can I get you today," Jay asked, flipping open a notepad. Vaguely Taebbean wondered if this was really the same girl he'd been watching for so long. She was definitely not in her normal mood.

"Ah...well," he said, opening the menu lying in front of him to the first page and picking a dish at random, "I would like some steak."

"Rare or well done?" she asked.

"Er...what?"

"How do you want it cooked?"

He blinked. What kind of a question was that? "I want it...cooked until it's done?" he answered hesitantly, then quickly added, "If that's not too much trouble, Jay-bird."

"It's Jay. Just Jay. Derrik is an idiot who always forgets that," Jay growled. "And if that's all, I'll make sure it's well done."

"Yes, that would be nice," said the confused demon.

Jay muttered a 'be right back' before going back to the 'Staff Only' room, leaving the door swinging. Bewildered, Taebbean sunk lower in his chair and allowed his mind to wander.

He wondered what in the name of Hades he was even doing in this place. Loneliness was a terrible thing, if it led people to doing insane things like trying to blend n with humans. Most of all, it had driven him to longing for companionship so badly that he was trying to get a bad tempered human female to warm up to him.

"Insanity..." he sighed, remembering his brothers he'd left a week or two ago. One was over-controlling, the other barking mad and plagued by violent attacks that neither he nor Silas could explain. And even when he was calmed down, he still had more energy than an erupting volcano and a dangerous fascination with metal objects.

Taebbean smiled, thinking of the 'birthday present' Sithe had given him last year. It was wrapped in newspaper and weighed a ton. When the paper was torn away it had revealed the weirdest and most grotesque-looking statue he'd ever seen in his life, made entirely out of aluminum foil.

"It's you!" Sithe had said, beaming proudly. Taebbean had struggled to force out a thank-you through his sudden fit of laughter.

He chuckled to himself, then stopped as the memory faded and he was pulled back to the reality of things. He'd left without even saying goodbye...and he missed them terribly.

But...what else was one supposed to do, when he had broken the most ancient law in the recorded history of their race? What else was one supposed to do, when it was all his fault that he and his siblings were on the run from the most ruthless creatures imaginable?

"What else can I get you?" Jay asked, dropping the steak in front of him. Startled, he jumped and looked at the steak - it was so well done it might as well have been burnt.

"...I don't have any money," Taebbean admitted.

Jay looked furious. "You don't have any money?" She said incredulously. "Then what the heck are you doing here, mister?! As if I didn't have enough to deal with right now!" Snatching the plate of food away, she walked to the nearest table and started scrubbing it with a wet cloth angrily with her free hand.

"...What do you have to deal with?" Taebbean asked timidly. He expected her to turn around and start yelling at him, but she surprised him by dropping the plate on the table with a clang, standing with her back to him. Then her shoulders started to shake, and he knew she was crying.

"I can't do this...!" she sobbed, slouching over the table. A number of people were starting to look their way now, muttering to each other. "I cant do this anymore! If I don't pay him...if he doesn't get what he wants..I...I'll..."

But she couldn't talk any more, and broke down into more sobs.

Taebbean was at a loss of what to do. He wanted to go comfort her, but he didn't even know what was wrong, and besides that she didn't even know him...what good would the comfort of a stranger do? He was growing more and more uncomfortable the longer she cried and the more people started to look at them.

He was saved from having to decide by the male human, Derrik, who came over as soon as he heard Jay's crying. "Hey, what's going on here? This guy bothering you?" he asked in concern, putting an arm around her. Jay didn't try to push him away as Taebbean thought she might. Derrik glared at him over his shoulder before he led the distraught girl away to the staff room, leaving Taebbean sitting there in confusion once more.