I stared at the front of my house as Mr. Azalea pulled up in front of it. The place looked no different than it had two months ago, back before everything had happened. Someone had put the door back in place, though that had happened before the big confrontation with the emperor. That suggested that it was either the cops or our neighbors, the Hatfields. They had always been keeping an eye on Mom and me, ever since Dad died.

  Despite everything that had happened there, my house always felt safe to me. It was the one place where my demons were most muted. Where they left me alone most of the time. I was never completely safe from them, but I could at least get a few hours of sleep before they came crawling towards me.

  "Maybe we could go in for a moment," David said, as the car came to a stop.

  I glanced over at him for a moment, but his eyes were trained on the window to the left of the door. The one leading to the living room and the kitchen beyond it. There was a light over there, though night still hadn't fallen, which suggested that Heather and Dad were over there. They were no doubt in deep conversation about what we had found at the cemetery, perhaps over a pizza or whatever Earth cuisine Dad was craving lately. But I knew that wasn't what David was interested in.

  "Not tonight," Mr. Azalea said, as he peeked over his seat back to the two of us. "It's a school night."

  "Pfft, barely," David scoffed. "It's the last day of finals. I just have gym, which barely qualifies as a test. I don't think an extra hour will hurt anything."

  "What about you, Maya?" Mom asked. "I'm sure you have some studying to do yourself."

  I glanced over at Mom for a moment as I thought about her question. Of course, the real reason why David had wanted to come inside had nothing to do with me. I'd still be able to study, if I needed to, without it impacting David and Heather slipping off to make out with each other. But then I remembered what that next day was.

  "Just English," I said, shrugging.

  "So, we both have easy tests tomorrow," David said, pointing at each of us. "Not that big of a deal."

  "Not tonight," Mr. Azalea said again. "You can head over after the test tomorrow and hang out. Or whatever it is the kids are calling it these days."

  "Oh, but Dad," David whined, in a very childish way. But he smiled over at Mr. Azalea, clearly indicating that he was just kidding.

  "It's fine, David," I said. "You can spend all day tomorrow with Heather. I don't think she has any plans. I can ask her when I head in, if you're that worried about it. If you're that lovesick that you can't go another day without seeing her."

  "No, that's fine," David said, quickly. "Tomorrow is fine."

  I couldn't help but smile at the quick turn of his tone. But as his eyes lingered on the window in the distance, all I could think about was the two days they had spent together in Hell, safe and sound in that waiting room all alone together. I shook my head, trying to dislodge the thought before worse ones could follow it.

  "I'll see you guys when I see you," I said, my usual parting words, as I opened the door.

  On my way up the sidewalk, I turned back to the car for a moment, waving back at my mom sitting in the passenger seat. She smiled back at me, but I noticed when her own eyes flicked to the same window that David had been staring at. I wasn't sure what she was thinking about. The loss of her husband? The stranger that had returned with his face? Or the fact that her own daughter had chosen to live with that stranger over living with her.

  Of course, it wasn't like that was a hard decision to make. There were only the two bedrooms at the Azalea's house, and it wasn't like I was going to share one with David. Not with the feelings that still lingered between us. And I wasn't about to take that bedroom from him, making him sleep on the couch. But even if there had been more room over there, the relative safety of my house was the only thread holding my sanity in place. And I never felt that safety at the Azalea's.

  "I'm home," I called out, as I came in the front door. No one seemed to notice. No one responded anyway.

  Automatically, I glanced towards the den on the right. The new TV, the replacement for the one that the troopers had broken, was dark, reflecting the light coming in from around the door behind me. My own face staring back at me, with its confused expression in place. It took me a moment to realize the source of that confusion. The fact that Jason wasn't sitting there, staring at some old TV show or playing one of Dad's old video games. Seeing him missing from his usual haunt explained the earlier lack of a response. He was the only one that ever jumped to greet me at my return.

  As I made my way around the house towards the kitchen, Heather's low voice greeted me. It started to get louder as I approached the two of them back there. Just as I had expected, the they were in deep conversation about the body we had seen at the cemetery. The one in Dad's grave. The one with Dad's face.

  "There could be any number of explanations for it," Dad said, in his geek voice. Despite the setback, he seemed thrilled about this latest turn of events. The latest speedbump in him getting his life back. Or what was left of it, anyway. "At least this explains why Paige had identified him as me. Even as mangled as I was, he was, he really did look like me."

  "Still no clue, huh?" I asked, as I came in the room. Dad glanced over at me, over Heather's head. He was sitting in his usual seat, right across the table from mine. Even in the five years since he had died, Mom and I never once changed our seating arrangements. It was like we had kept his chair open for his inevitable return.

  "Oh, I have tons of clues," Dad said, smiling over at me. He nodded, as I came over to sit with them. "Just none that I like."

  "Have a nice dinner?" Heather asked. She looked over at me from her usual seat, right next to mine. I knew she would have wanted to take mine for herself, to be closer to her mentor. Her father figure. But Dad wouldn't have it, insisting that they had imposed enough already.

  "The usual," I said, shrugging. Heather pointed towards the pizza in front of her, but I had no appetite left after the spaghetti I had at Rita's.

  "Tell us again what happened that day," Heather said, as she looked back at Dad. "Something about the emperor summoning a demon?"

  "Well, that was his story, I think," Dad said, shrugging. "It was fifty years ago, mind you. Not exactly yesterday. He said something about summoning a demon to bring him here. To this world. And he somehow ended up with me instead."

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  "So, what if what is in that coffin was the demon?" Heather asked. "That's possible, right? We know for a fact that demons are real." She pointed towards the two of us. Both clarifications weren't necessary.

  "Oh, the existence of demons was never in doubt," Dad said. He couldn't help but glance over at me, though his eyes turned down to the half-eaten pizza quickly. Anywhere but looking at me. Anything but reminding me once again of my own demons. The ones that I had brought with me from Hell.

  "But a demon that looks like Dad?" I asked, supplying the next part in the same conversation that had been rehashed often those past few days. Ever since the suggestion had first been made, even before having the coffin opened. "Well, I guess anything is possible with magic, right?"

  "So... a shapeshifting demon?" Heather asked. This was a new suggestion, something none of us had come up with before. But given the body in the coffin, it was the only one that made sense.

  "You know... now that I think of it..." Dad said, hesitantly. "I think... I think I remember seeing myself out there, in the middle of the road. That was right before I ended up in Desparia."

  "You mean right before the accident?" I asked.

  I was seeing this from a different direction. The one that people had seen from Earth. The accident in the middle of the highway, where Dad's car was hit multiple times by those around him. According to the news, it had been some sports car, driving across lanes, that caused the accident. But if that wasn't the case, if a demon had suddenly popped up in the middle of the road, he could have stolen Dad's face right before sending him through the portal back to Desparia.

  "Yes," Dad said, nodding.

  He sat there in silence for a moment, tapping his finger on his bearded chin, as he thought about this latest theory. It was the only one that made any sense at all. The only one that took everything that we knew about that day and didn't miss anything. Well, anything but the sports car. But that might have just been from the placement of the car in the middle of the pileup.

  "So, a shapeshifting demon, arriving on Earth right before your accident, when you were pulled through to Desparia," Heather said. "I have to say, I like the simplicity of the explanation. But what do we do from here? I doubt your authorities will take that as an explanation. We still need to do something to get your identity back."

  "What about your identity?" I asked, motioning over at Heather. "If you still want to start at high school next year, you're going to need an identity yourself."

  "Well, with Desparia blocked to us, joining your society does seem the logical path to take from here."

  Whenever Heather started talking about her future, she had a habit of sounding like a Vulcan. But given the fact that she was, technically, an alien, I guess that made sense. It was a delicate situation for all five of them. At least Jason managed to find a way around it. Then again, the twins had decided to just ignore it, as they headed off on their own little adventure.

  "I'm still thinking we're going to have to find someone that can get us fake identities," Dad said. He reached over to the pizza in front of him, grabbing another slice. After taking a bite, he dumped it down on his plate. "I just hate to think of the expense of that sort of thing," he said with his mouth full.

  "We wouldn't need to worry about this sort of thing back on Desparia," Heather said. "No one bothered to track their citizens like that. Tina, Serena, and I were able to go all over while on the run from the emperor, and no one thought twice about us. Not until the troopers showed up with their wanted posters."

  "That's kind of the point of it, though," I said. "Well, not the political refugees, but the other criminals out there, hiding out in plain sight. People coming into the country illegally. It's not really a problem on Desparia because the population is so low. Work was readily available. But if everyone in Fandor made a rush towards Norenia, they might have done something about it."

  "I doubt it," Dad said, shaking his head. "They just don't have the technology for that sort of thing. Forgeries would be a lot easier to do back there. Plus, there's the added benefit of the five of us being from there."

  "Uh, Dad, you're not from there," I said. It seemed like something that he needed reminding of from time to time, despite his continued work to get his Earth identity back. But seeing as how he had spent more of his life on Desparia than on Earth, in a way he really was from there.

  "And I guess we did have something like that back there, too," Dad said. "It was just more word of mouth, sealed documents, and the like. For the important roles, like mayor and regent, people checked for that sort of thing. But, yes, the lesser roles, the work that anyone could do, those no one cared about. And most of the work there fell into that sort of thing. Get a plot of land, whether by buying it or stealing it or just claiming it from the wilderness, and you can be a farmer anywhere. On Earth, farm work just doesn't pay the bills."

  "It's because you have too much stuff," Heather said, pointing around at the kitchen. I couldn't help but glance towards the game room on the other side of the house from us, though it wasn't in view around the corner. "Back on Desparia, I'd be perfectly happy in a house the size of this room. This world is just full of extravagance and distractions. I'd love nothing more than to escape it for good."

  "And David?" I asked, reminding her of her boyfriend. The one that had promised to always go wherever she went, and had. The one that probably wouldn't last long on Desparia without Heather and the others to help him.

  Of course, neither would I. Not the real me. The one that wasn't just my strange astral projection of myself. Or whatever it was that I had been doing to travel there all those years.

  "David can be a quarterback anywhere," Heather said, waving off my concerns for my friend.

  "Uh... That's not really how it works. He needs a team to play on. A league to play in. I don't think anyone on Desparia even knows about football."

  "Or the fact that there are two of them," Dad said, laughing a little at his little joke as he finished his pizza.

  Heather looked between Dad and me for a moment, looking thoroughly confused.

  "I'll explain later," I said. "Or maybe you can talk with David about it."