“You…doing okay?” Dominic asked a considerably pissed looking Ulrich.

“Yep. I’m fine. He just wanted to drop this hoodie off. So I’m taking a shower.” He paced up the stairs as calmly as he could, which admittedly wasn’t that calm.

Once Ulrich got in the shower and adjusted the temperature, he turned the shower up as hot as possible, then began thinking. Maybe he was an asshole to Gene. He was just trying to stop the demons, just like he’d be doing soon enough. Maybe a team up of some kind would be good. Maybe he was just tired and frustrated at everything. Maybe letting Gene in the team should shit hit the fan would be a good idea…

…nah. This was Gene’s problem to fix. But more importantly, this was his chance. His chance to finally make something of himself. And hey, saving the world in the process didn’t seem too bad either.

But the next question was whether he’d have to fight any of the others. Vivian was a total bitch, so no real issues with fighting her. But the issue came with the next two ‘Boy with dark hair and girl with incredible backstory.’ That was a further two people he didn’t even know about. He would like to continue his train of thought further, but the showers hot water ran out.

A course of action that may doom the world.

He put his old clothes on, putting on the new hoodie and underwear Gene got him. A white hoodie with blue sleeves. He put the outfit on and headed back downstairs, where Lainey was unenthusiastically watching Gene play Façade 4.

“Nice duds.” Lainey said. “That Gene guy got taste.”

“Thanks.” Ulrich replied flatly. “How’s Dominic?”

“I don’t know, man. I’m just trying to sleep and I keep having to hear a bunch of characters screaming shit like ‘take that!’ and ‘they had that one coming!’ it’s just…how do you manage to tolerate this for more than like five minutes?”

“Look, these games take a while to get going but once they do it’s pure heaven.” Dominic explained.

“How many hours?”

“About fifteen.”

“Dear god.” Lainey sighed, taking her jacket off. “You tired, Ulrich?”

“Not really, I just got dressed.”

“It’s like nine PM.” Dominic interjected.

“Alright.” She said, rubbing her eyes and rolling over to the end of Dominic’s felt couch. “Just try to keep it down, okay?”

“Well, I got a TV in my room. Wanna go up there?”

And so, Ulrich and Dominic decided to move up to Dominic's room, and like his living room, it was littered with random posters and figurines alongside a woodcutters axe with gems on it, and a desk with some paper scattered about it.

“Ah shit, rooms a mess.” Dominic announced, shooing Ulrich out. Ulrich stood outside the room as the sounds of shuffling papers was heard outside, when Dominic stepped out of the room.

“Alright, everything’s clean.” He said, letting him in. It was slightly cleaner, with all the paper gone and the entire room having the scent of cheap deodorant.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Dominic kept playing the game, while Ulrich just lay on his bed, thinking about everything that happened. Eventually, his thoughts turned to mush. He felt himself getting more and more tired, until Dominic was shaking him awake.

“Have you been asleep?” Dominic asked. Ulrich silently nodded.

“Well, it’s eleven. I’m going to bed.”

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Ulrich gave a silent thumbs up and headed downstairs. Dominic snuggled up in his bed, thinking about how good tomorrow will be.

Dominic woke up and checked his clock. 3AM. Must be nerves. He tried going back to sleep, but muffled noises kept coming from downstairs. Just Ulrich or Lainey getting food, probably. But the noises kept getting more intense. It was actually pretty concerning. The only real explanation was them getting it on, and being into some really weird stuff.

Well, there was the option of…demon attacks. But that was hardly likely.

He grabbed a woodcutters axe, polished to a mirror shine, adorned with green jewels in a poor attempt to resemble a weapon from a crappy anime he watched when he was fourteen. He quietly stepped down the stairs and peeked into the living room. The two were still fast asleep on the couch. They were okay. The noises were coming from the kitchen. So he crept in.

And there it was. A demon. The one that wrecked places like Ireland and America. And it was in his house. It didn’t seem to notice him, just casually eating out of his fridge. But if he was right, there would be more demons on the way. So if he killed this one, that’d be the demon assigned to his house dealt with. He stood behind the demon, frozen in fear.

Come on, legs! Move! What was one demon compared to the glory of eternity and history? A sudden bolt of energy reinvigorated his entire body, and he dashed towards the fridge, swinging his axe forward towards the demon. The demon turned around, and he fell face first into the fridge. He plunged a hand into the demon. His hand got stuck in some kind of gelatinous substance, and he tried pulling it out.

This was it. This is how he died.

Wait, no way! He just had to activate his hidden potential. He screamed out, pulling chunks out of the demon, which would just crawl back towards it.

And then the demon turned around.

There was a small noise heard at the other end of the kitchen, and the demon went over to inspect it. Lainey was standing against the doorframe wearing her tank top and black underwear. She inspected the flat underside of the demon, and looked over her shoulder to see him still there.

“You’re dreaming. Get lost.”

Dominic woke up, thinking about his dream. He wasn’t one to remember dreams, but everything about it stuck out in his mind. He looked around his room, and his axe was by the door. But it’s usually next to his desk on the right side, instead of the left where it hasn’t moved for months at least. So, unable to get the concept out of his mind, he headed downstairs.

“Morning all. Sleep well?”

“Yeah.” Ulrich replied. “Thanks for letting us crash here.”

“It’s no problem, buddy.” Dominic said calmly. “Now, a question for the lovely Lainey over here! Care to explain what happened last night?”

Ulrich and Lainey looked at each other in unison, then back to Dominic.

“I…slept?” She asked, with a blank tone and stare to match.

“Nothing involving demons?” Dominic asked, leaning forward slightly.

“I don’t think there were any demons?” Ulrich said. “Seems like something I’d know about.”

“Come on guys, cut the crap!” Dominic yelled. “There was a demon in my fridge last night, and Lainey destroyed it in her underwear!”

“A demon?” Ulrich asked. “It’s never one demon, right? It’s always like, a dozen or something.”

“Look, you had some weird pervert dream about me and the demons. Now, if you wanna cut the crap and take us to Buckingham, let’s get moving. Or we can ditch you and find it ourselves.”

But Dominic wasn't taking it. He looked around, noticing the guitar case. And then it hit him. The flat demonic underside was due to the guitar. He immediately tried to grab it, and Lainey responded by grabbing it back, trying to kick him in the balls. But for such a scrawny looking guy, he was pretty strong, being able to wrestle the guitar case off her, opening it up and taking out the purple guitar. He began inspecting it, but then Lainey began wrestling the guitar off him again, and successfully kicking him in the balls. Dominic yelled out in pain and let go of the guitar, making Lainey lose her footing and fall back. Ulrich dove to try to save her, but the demon came out, turning itself into a makeshift cushion.

“Ha!” Dominic yelled. “I knew you two were hiding something!”

Ulrich merely mouthed the word "Shit" while Dominic celebrated to himself by throwing his fist in the air and letting out a primal scream. When Lainey got up, Dominic stood in front of the door, pointing at them.

"Okay, you owe me an explanation! Why are you carrying a demon with you?"

Lainey looked at him. Sure, pushing him out of the way was certainly an option. But this guy could go out and make a scene to other people to a point she couldn’t contain her demon. Or do something really stupid and hurt himself.

“Fine.” She spoke. “I’ll tell you everything.”

She explained the story of how she got her demon, with Ulrich eventually joining in to explain his gloves and the fire he could shoot from them.

“Alright, let me make sure I got everything. You have a personal demon, and you can control fire. That’s the gist of it?”

“Pretty much.” Ulrich replied.

“And in Buckingham is an ancient relic you need to get to in order to stop this demon thing?”

“Yeah.” Lainey nodded.

Dominic’s face lit up when she made that confirmation. Immediately, he ran into his room. And when he came back down, he had a woodcutters axe with green gems on it.

“Alright. You guys ready for this? Because I’m ready to go!”

“Ready for what, exactly?” Ulrich asked.

“Same as you, duh! Getting into the castle and assassinating the king!”