“Hi, Rufe. Wake up, bud. It’s nearly dinner time.” Jezebel shook him a little and he sat up in his unnecessarily large bed, rubbing his eyes.

He gingerly touched his chest, in his fatigue unsure if that morning’s events were real or just another thing he’d dreamed. His chest twitched with a pulsating pain and he recoiled his fingers and held them tight with his other hand.

“Come on. I want you to meet my friends.” Jezebel said excitedly. “They aren’t as awesome as me, but you’ll still like them, I think.”

She smiled and stepped out of his room. He had been far too tired to find pajamas after showering, so he went to bed with the clothes Rekesh had set out for him. He wore them still when he followed Jezebel out of the room.

Jezebel walked him through the hallways and to a set of heavy wooden doors. She struggled for a moment to heave them open, but as soon as she did a gust of loud music crashed through and jumped at them. It was rock music that Rufus could tell Jezebel liked since she mouthed along to all the words, but it screamed in his ears too hard and he had to cup them with his hands.

It looked like the cafeteria at school- crowded and disgusting. He noticed mainly teens, but also a few children and some grown ups that looked like they were still teens inside as well. They were all yelling and eating, throwing food and singing to the music. Some were fighting and others were kissing with their mouths- but they all had red eyes.

“Yo! Jezzy!” Someone called from a table a little off. He waved a big hand, larger than Rufus’ hands were. He’s an older kid, Rufus realized. He hated older kids. They were always mean.

“Luney!” Jezebel smiled and pulled Rufus behind her, heading for the table with the big Asian boy and the girl with the pink hair.

“Who’s this?” The pink haired girl asked as Jezebel sat herself on the bench and picked up a slice of pizza. She must have been the prettiest girl Rufus had ever seen. Her chestnut brown skin was covered in tattoos and piercings, and her hair dyed a faded pink, but that didn’t stop her from looking more beautiful than anyone Rufus had ever met. Her eyes were almond and upturned and he could tell she was Hawaiian by her name and her accent when she spoke.

“Rufus.” Jezebel managed to spit out his name between gulps of pizza. “Name’s Rufus.”

“Rufus.” The girl said. Her voice was hard and rough, and he could tell she tried to make herself seem rough in general, with her tribal tattoos and the piercings on her nose and ears and the thick black eyeliner that made her look somewhat catlike. But still seemed soft in some way. Perhaps it was her lips, which were pillow-y and doughy. Or how long and soft her hair looked as it fell beside her shoulders.

“Kualike Kuleana.” She reached her hand and shook Rufus’ and it was so soft it made him blush.

“Liar. . .” The large boy said in a sing-songy voice. “Her real last name isn’t even Kuleana its actually Kapono-”

She punched him in the shoulder. He seemed far too muscular for it to hurt, but still he flinched away. “Shut up.” She wagged a finger in his face. “How many times do I have to tell you-”

“Oh please, stop being such a baby; I was just kidding around-”

“-Not to go around blabbing your big old mouth-”

Jezebel cleared her through. “Guys.” She swallowed a brick of pizza and pointed awkwardly at Rufus. “We have company.”

“Right.” Kualike said.

“Sorry.” The boy chimed in. “Anyways, Rufus, was it? I’m Lenard. I’m kinda the hot one in our gang of misfits-” He flexed his large biceps and Kualike punched his shoulder again.

“As if. You wouldn’t know hot if I threw you in a volcano.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah!”

They looked at each other with their faces inches apart and Rufus thought they might kiss, but then they didn’t.

“Anywayyy. . .” Jezebel cut in again. “Luney here is the son of Incubus. And Kualy’s ma is Obizuth.”

“Jezzy told me of how your journey to get here went. I mean, with the Black Shuck, and all.” Lenard folded his arms on the table. Rufus could sport at least three girls in the room looking at the guy.

“I hate Black Shucks.” Kualike added. “Trying to fight with your eyes closed-” she raised her voice a little because some people behind them began to really yell. Rufus didn’t care much to turn and look. “-trying to fight with your eyes closed,” she said again, “is incredibly annoying and difficult. I heard that you beat the Shuck at the end, Rufus. Now that is impressive.” Rufus smiled and took a bite of his pizza, after taking all the mushrooms off.

Beating that wolf thing didn’t feel very impressive to him. He could almost taste the blood again in his mouth when he looked down at the marinara sauce.

“Do you know why you’re here?” Lenard asked. “I mean- has anyone really explained it to you? Since you were six and your mom had to tell you?”

Rufus shook his head slowly and sipped from the glass of water set before him. There was a sound like something smashing behind him and then there were lots of cheers and yells and clattering of utensils.

“I told him that this is Paradiss; the only place he could ever be safe, bla bla bla.” Jezebel said with a mouth full of food. “I also told him that he can either stay as a Finder or be sent to eternal bliss; whichever the Angels think is best for him.”

“Does he know about the test?” He asked and Jezebel shook her head.

“Okay. You’re going to have a test soon, Rufus.” Lenard explained. “It's meant to find out who your parent is- what demon they are, I mean. I can’t tell you any more.

“We’ve all gone through the test. You don’t always get as lucky with your parents as Jezzy did. Her dad just showed up and told her he was Leviathan. He gave her her own knives himself. I’ve never met my father.” He smiled sadly. “But that might be for the best. I’m not sure I wanna meet him.”

“I do want to meet my mother.” Kualike said. She had a very pretty accent. It made sense to him that there would be people here from all over the world, he realized; this was, at the end of the day, heaven, and not only the Californians went to heaven. “I never have before. But they say that most semi- demons get to see their mom or dad at least once in their lives. Have you seen your parent before, Rufus?”

Rufus shook his head, but he remembered that voice that he heard in his house before. The male voice was yelling at mommy and it didn’t belong to daddy. The noise came back every few months. Sometimes when it came, he heard mommy laughing, which was even stranger than the grunting and squealing that she would make after. The grunts didn’t seem so strange; maybe the other man was playing wrestling with her just like how daddy played tag with her. But hearing her laughing- he had not heard that sound in such a long time . . .

Something smashed fiercely into his back and his chest hit the table. An immediate wave of pain flooded him from his wound, and a hot, sticky feeling warmed his skin. It was the feeling of blood.

He whimpered and hovered his hand over his chest in agony, his fingers shaking in the air.

“Hey!” Lun roared. The boy who had been thrust onto their table didn’t look back at him; he walked forward, to the girl with blood drooling from her nose that stood on the other side of the room.

Lun didn’t think twice; he jumped over the table like an animal, thrusting his body over them all like it weighed nothing.

He caught the boy by the shoulder and pulled him back so that the boy would face him. “Apologise!” Lun yelled and pointed to Rufus. Rufus’ ears were ringing with the pain and he barely heard. But he saw the boy, a boy older than Lenard, turn into a demon with horns and a tail and shove Lenard back with immense force.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Lenard’s eyes widened for a moment, then he also turned red and pulled something from his pocket that turned quickly to a long, Trojan looking spear. His horns were thicker than Jezebel’s had been, and they were larger too, and his tail was shaped more like a scythe whilst hers had a shape resembling a drop of water.

He jumped forward and the older boy laughed. He also pulled a small object from somewhere in his clothes and let it morph into a sword.

Rufus watched quietly. He didn’t want anyone to fight on his behalf. He didn’t need anyone to fight on his behalf.

But Lenard and the older boy were going at it now. Sword clashed into spear and spear shot forward. The boy caught the spear under his arm and yanked Lenard forward. Jezebel and Kualike didn’t do anything. In fact, Jezebel had turned on her seat and, with her pasta plate on her lap, she sat and ate and watched intently. Kualike seemed less amused; she didn’t touch her food, but she nibbled on the corners of her nails and tapped her foot under the table.

The girl that had pushed that older boy relaxed and fell onto a nearby bench, tending to her wounds with some water from her glass and a few paper towels. She was no longer red, but she watched the fight as though she was still fighting it; focusing on Lenard, mouthing what she would do in his place like this was a song she’d heard a million times.

In school, they always said that you should never hit. They said that you should especially never hit girls, but apparently rules were different here.

The boy’s fist collided with Lenard’s jaw and sent him flying to the floor. Jezebel said; “Oof.” and Kualike cussed in another language.

Lenard stood up and rubbed his jaw, wincing. He let the boy come to him, believe that he had the advantage. Then, when that smirking boy was close enough, Lenard sprang up and whipped his leg over that boy’s stomach. Both weapons were discarded at this point; both boys fought with their bodies.

“I wish they didn’t have those stupid rules here.” Kualike murmured.

“They’re for our own protection or whatever other bull the Angels say. Can’t show off our abilities in here and you know it.”

A few years later the semi- demons disregarded that rule to such an extent that it almost stopped being a rule at all. More like a warning.

The older boy toppled to the ground and spat a line of blood, diluted with saliva.

“If he could just-”

“Relax, Kualike. Lunney’s winning anyways.”

Lenard pulled the boy’s head up by the hairs, ready to make the final blow. But then the boy punched him, deep, deep into the stomach. Into that area underneath the ribs, where a single hit can wind you completely.

Lenard toppled over, choking and coughing, collapsing like an unsteadily built house.

Kualike gasped and Jezebel’s jaw clenched down on the food in her mouth. Rufus didn’t do anything. The pain had subsided in his chest by then and he wanted to help, he guessed, but this was beyond anything he could do without being savage. Like he had been with that Black Shuck.

The older boy felt more confident now. He stood up, straightening his back and punched Lenard across the face. Lenards head swung back limply and blood flew from out of his mouth. The boy now held him by the collar of the shirt, punching him again. More blood. No response from Lenard at all. His eyes were open, red and ablaze, but they weren’t looking anywhere in particular.

No. They were looking somewhere, Rufus realized. They were looking at his table. Beyond him, passed Jezebel. They were looking at Kualike.

Rufus was embarrassed by the ideas of love. He was only a child of eight years; he knew nothing of the feelings that separate the human part of a semi-demon from the demon part. He couldn’t possibly understand the attraction between two people; that thing that his people, the people of tribe ‘3rd Grade’, have dubbed ‘A Cootie Crush’. That weird gross thing when two people press their mouths against one another and their spit touches. Rufus thought it was gross. Then again. . . it proposed a strange feeling that he wanted to be rid of but really liked all the same.

Kualike was on her feet, her hands digging into the wood of the table. She had also gone red with her horns and tail, and she looked like she might burst if she had to stand aside a single minute more. But Jezebel had a look about her; like she’d seen this a million and one times and couldn’t possibly care less. She was eating her pasta again, watching with a sad nonchalance.

The boy punched Lenard one last time and then tossed him down on the ground and raised his hands into the air. Most of the kids in the room clapped their hands. They yelled and howled like dogs, stomping their feet on the floor and (for those who sat on top of the tables) on the benches. They banged their mugs on the tables and against one anothers’.

The minority of the children didn’t seem pleased and entertained. They looked either remorseful because they wanted or betted that Lenard would win (like the girl that was fighting before him), or they seemed uninterested by the fight completely. Those kids were very few.

The moment that that older boy had let go of Lenard, Kualike jumped over to him. She skipped over the table, the same way that he had done and rushed to his side. Jezebel took her time. She placed down her plate on the table, cleaned around her lips with a paper towel, no doubt thinking that this made her look fancy, and then casually strode over to Lenard and Kualike. Rufus followed.

“Lenard, you big idiot!” Kualike pulled him to his feet. His skin was back to its prior tanned shade and the horns and tail were gone. He wasn’t really responding and had to lean on both Kualike and Rufus in order to stand. He looked like a drunk man who had been abusing blood rather than alcohol.

They dragged him from that room, with Jezebel walking behind them and picking food from her teeth with a toothpick.

“You do such stupid things sometimes, Lenard. I swear to my mother I would kill you myself if you didn’t already look like a damn- a- a damn-”

“Abused bathroom rug?” Jezebel offered lazily. “A drunk zombie who’d been in an accident and needs you to tell his wife he loves her? An old avocado that someone had marinated inside of a human body? Ooh, ooh! I got one! Is it the Hunchback from Notre Dame?”

“Yes, yes, all of the above. Now shut up and get me bandages from the infirmary, Jezebel, okay?”

Jezebel made a salute and said “Aye aye, captain. Sir, yes, sir. Or whatever else obedient people say.”

Then she hurried out of the room.

Rufus watched as Kualike shoved Lenard onto a couch. They were in a music room, from what he could tell. Jezebel had told him on the way there that the music room was the safest place in all of Paradiss because where there was music, there was peace.

It was a little funny to see how Lenard, the boy who had looked so handsome before, the boy who had caught the eye of most girls in the room and a few boys, now looked like all of the things that Jezebel had described.

Rufus was sure that the injuries weren't really that bad, but the blood was simply exaggerating them, making him look like he had seen a bomb explode up close.

He lay on the couch, breathing hard and turning every once in a while to spit blood off the side of the couch and onto the very expensive looking carpet. Then he began to laugh very hard, pointing at Kualike. Rufus didn’t understand what was so funny. And apparently neither did Kualike because she started to slap his arm and screech; “This isn’t funny, Lenard! Look at yourself! You look like a mess! This isn’t funny! What in the world is so funny to you?!”

Lenard stopped laughing, though he was still smiling, and spit off the side of the couch again. “I just love how . . . worried you are. . .” It sounded like it hurt him to speak and he stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. His face was heavily bruised, with purple spots and cuts from where the other boy’s fists had hit him so hard that they ripped through the protective layers of his skin.

Kualike slapped his arm again. “This is not funny!” her face was red with rage.

“Yes it. . . ugh. . . yes, it is.”

“No! It's not! That guy’s literally leaving Paradiss in a year! He’s pretty much an adult! You fought an adult! What did you expect would happen?!”

“I. . . ow. . . I don’t care. He hurt my new friend. . . I had to make him pay. . .”

“Oh, make him pay?! How? By letting shove his foot up your-”

Jezebel walked into the room and Kualike stopped short. “What?” Jezebel asked and handed some bandages and other medical supplies to Kualike. “Why did you stop? I would have loved to hear where that dude shoves his foot. Don’t let me ruin your festivities.”

Kualike was bandaging Lenard up on the couch and Rufus and Jezebel were sitting on another couch a little farther away. Jezebel had picked up a guitar and was plucking the strings in a simplistic, rather repetitive manner that still sounded very nice to him. Rufus didn’t know how to play an instrument, but he had always thought that the piano was a very beautiful one. There was a piano in that room. There was pretty much every instrument possible there, but that piano in specific was very luxurious and pretty.

Jezebel didn’t need to look at her guitar as she played, her eyes zoned out into some far off spot and her lips were pursed into a very thin line.

Rufus was watching Kualike bandage up Lenard. It occurred to him that she could have simply taken him to the infirmary, since she didn’t really know what she was doing herself. But she decided to take care of him herself. How strange.

She was lecturing him as she cleaned the blood off of his face with some cotton balls, but she was whispering, which made Rufus think that she was probably cursing a lot and talking very quietly so that they, the “little kids”, wouldn't hear.

Then she said something and Lenard grabbed her by the arm. She stopped talking and looked at his face. And they were both very quiet now. He lifted his hand up and brushed a strand of faded pink hairs from her face and moved it behind her ear. His throat bobbled and she blushed.

“Hey! No smoochy smoochy in the music room!” Jezebel yelled very loudly, startling everyone, especially Lenard and Kualike. She hadn’t even been looking at them; her eyes were still dilated, focused on a spot in some far off land that only she could see.

Rufus thought that he should probably thank Lenard. He didn’t really know what for since, even if Lenard had won the fight, Rufus had felt the pain and that was the end of it. But he still thought he ought to thank him. Then he realized that Lenard hadn’t fought that fight for him. He had fought it for someone else. Maybe he could have even won. Maybe he lost on purpose. Because if he had won, then he wouldn’t have gotten Kualike to bandage him and hover over him the way that she did.

“Well.” Kualike summed up the whole evening. “It's been a long day. I’m sure we are all tired. I’m going to help Lenard back to his room-”

“-you best be going right to your room after that, young lady-’

Kualike ignored Jezebel and went on. “- and Jezebel is going to help Rufus find his way back to his room. Tomorrow we’ll show you around, Rufus, since you’ll have a few days before your test due to your injuries. It was nice meeting you.”

Rufus smiled at her and waved.

“Yeah. . . bye, little bro. . .” Lenard grunted. “Bye, Jezzy.”

“Bye, guys.” Jezebel placed the guitar she had been caressing gently down, with extreme care, and stood up, stretching her back. Then she walked to the door, opened it for Rufus and brought the evening to its end.