Stefan

Shadow looks at Wittnor dead in the eye, but falters. She doesn't want to believe it. He starts to stutter. "You-what- you believe them? Shadow, you've known me for years!" Shadow seems frozen, as if trying to hold on to the hope that it was just a mistake.

"Well. Wittnor. Who are you?" Chinglar asks. He swiftly adds, "And don't lie. I can tell you're planning to." Wittnor freezes. I think about what he's going to say. Will he deny it?

"I - Of course not! That's an unfair accusation!" The others have come and started to crowd Wittnor. Chinglar glares at them.

"Give him some space!" he barks. "We can give him his fair hearing. Though I think I know how this will end," the chingle adds. Wittnor's mouth hangs open.

"Wittnor?" I ask. "Just answer the question and we'll believe you. Who are you?" I repeat.

Wittnor looks at all of us, straightens his back, and says, "I'm not who you thought you knew."

Shadow's skin turns an even paler tone, somehow, and Chinglar hisses at him, striding closer to Wittnor.

"If you were trying to kill us, you're not welcome here! We let you into our group - and now you tried to betray us? You're a Leapor. Go! Now!" he says, his eyes flashing ominously. He swishes his wolf tail and flattens his ears. "Or we'll have to act with force." Wittnor clenches his jaw, and suddenly, his whole facade changes. Whatever fear he had displayed is quickly replaced with cold-set arrogance, and he sneers at us.

"Oh, I'll go," he promises. "But you should think about how easily Chinglar took over this. He's a born leader... and that might drive him to take over you. He's who you should be afraid of. But... I'm not leaving here without what I have to deliver."

Wittnor turns around and begins to strut away, and I feel my shoulders relax. I turn to Shadow, ready for what we should do next, when Wittnor suddenly whirls around, something dark flashing in his eyes. Durpner tries to catch him, and Shadow tries to trip him, but he's too quick. Almost instantaneously, his arms are around me, and I feel sickening dread as I realize what he's going to do next. The last thing I see is Shadow's anguished face as Wittnor leaps me away.

* * *

The first thing I feel is pain shooting up my spine as I attempt to move my head. My view is blocked by a rag the colour of blood. I sigh. Everything is red nowadays. Why not turquoise? I actually like turquoise. Whatever. I try to rip it off with my claw-nails, only to find that I have handcuffs. Hmm. This is quite the predicament. "Wittnor?" I ask groggily.

A voice that definitely wasn't Wittnor answers me.

"What do you want, little half-demon?" The voice seems outlandish. I try to protest.

"I'm fully demon! I was just born in the human lands," I protest, my voice sounding kind of... proud? "Though I do think that we demons could be a bit nicer. Um. You know what? We could be a lot nicer."

I snap my mouth shut as my captor - or whoever they are - laughs. They sound young, but I can't tell very well. Maybe they can let me escape?

"Uh... Hello? Mr. Captor? Can you let me free?" I try.

"Ha! First, I'm a girl." I open my mouth to correct myself, and she quickly presses her finger to my lips, making me do the fish face. "Second, I'm not Ms. or Mrs. Echo. Please don't call me that. It's stupid." Hmm. So her name is Echo. "Third. We're in High Cliff already... The demon capital. It's. Um. Dangerous is an understatement. I mean, Rose got stabbed in the arm last week because she didn't like coffee! Who does that? Like, what the friendly elf says does not result in chicken soup. Wait, no. You don't know that proverb. Uh... The sleepy chicken gets the food?"

I laugh. I can barely understand her; she's talking so fast.

"I think you mean the early bird gets the worm. And, no, not the right proverb."

Echo gently peels off my blindfold. I look around and see that I am in a small cell, the metal bars rusted and too far apart. I could probably leave right now if I wanted to. I snort, and Echo chatters on, "There are way too many things you need to know. I just wanted to tell you-" She sticks her face right in front of me- "What kind of reputation are you trying to make yourself here? 'Cause saying stuff like "I'm fully demon" really isn't gonna get you anywhere. Grammar!" I frown. I didn't notice my grammar mistake but- wait, why am I thinking about this right now? "You know, it's terrible stuck here!" She continues, stepping back. "If I didn't know how to eat a whole chicken in two bites, I don't know where I'd be!" Huh. demons must be obsessed with chicken... Or maybe that's just Echo. She looks at me expectantly with brilliant bright amber-yellow eyes almost the same colour as Chinglar. The only difference is her's shines with more intensity. Oh, right. She wants me to respond.

"You'd probably... be stuck in a locker!" I say, remembering the bullies back at school. I would take them over all this any day. "I'm Stefan." Echo looks at me curiously.

"Stefan? But that's a human na-" Echo pauses as a short female demon, tailed by Wittnor, stomps up to us. Echo sees him and straightens her back. "Uncle Wittnor?" she says. I gasp. Wittnor is her uncle?

"Echo, go home," he orders her. "You shouldn't be here anyways. Did you take off his blindfold? Echo!"

Echo smiles sheepishly and waddles off. Wittnor turns his gaze to me. "Stefan, follow me. You're going to have to turn into a real demon." I glare at him, but he holds my gaze. I trudge after him, dejected. The female demon looks at me.

"I am Jocelyn." she lets out a long, dramatic sigh. "I suppose you don't know exactly who I am." Her skin is frighteningly pale, and I start to examine her hair when she suddenly slaps my face. Her claws leave bleeding marks below my eye. "OW!" I rotate my head to the side, cradling my wound.

"I am to be your new guardian. Do not underestimate me. I am head of our war council, and I wasn't happy to know that I had to turn a brat into a real demon!" she spits at me.

"Oh, great," I mutter sarcastically. I should have stayed quiet. "I will not tolerate disrespect!" screeches Jocelyn. She rakes her claws across my arm. Ouch, okay. Point taken.

"The plan?" Jocelyn stares at my swelling eye and scratch. Wittnor is grimacing, as if he's sorry for me.

"A celebration. An elf-killing celebration."

I gulp, but don't protest. She smiles at this. "You're learning," Jocelyn adds.

...

Red and orange disco lights hang from the high ceiling. Killing games - several killing games, in really odd fashions seem to be taking place in the corner. Not going to be stopping by there anytime soon. Food. Drinks. Songs. And demons. So. Many. Demons. Jocelyn growls at me when I stare. "Demon only party. Go off and do something," she orders. I walk over to the bar, which is a big wooden table with a couple of chairs, and a sign hanging over the whole thing that read: "BAR" in red, messy handwriting. I order a coke. There's coke here? I take it, sit down, and drink. A demon taps my shoulder. His eyes are red.

"Yo, man," he says. "Who are ya? We know everyone... Except ya." There are two pink eyed demons behind him."I'm Ben. This is Julk and Tulk. They're twins." Echo comes out from nowhere and grabs my arm.

"Stefan? Come with me." She orders. Ben's eyes widen in jealousy.

"My man Stefan is with Echo?" he asks. "Whoa, seriously?" Echo pulls me away before I can reply. We hide behind a brown brick wall, and I lean my back against the wall and plop down onto the cold, crimson redwood floor.

"Stay away from them." she advises me. "They may seem nice, but they are not. Trust me." I nod. Then I tell her my story. She seems trustworthy. "Wait," she says. "Where were you born?"

"Russia," I answer.

"Ohhh. That's where a lot of demons not supporting the war fled," she explains. "They were killed, but some elves who had helped them escape here helped them escape again. The ones who survived had to give up their children. You must have been one of them, Stefan. It was for your own safety," Echo adds softly.

"So... The ones who raised me. Who..."

"They were elves. Elves that were friends of your parents, I think. They probably changed their names to those of your parents, so that in a way you would remember them." I stare at the ground. Why did I have to be a demon? Why not my human friend, Jake? He's headstrong, and a leader. I'm not fit for this. I sigh. I wish I could be like that. Suddenly, an idea pops into my head.

"I'm breaking the prisoners out," I declare, not fully aware of what I'm saying. Echo looks at me curiously.

"Then I'm helping. I'm not a fan of this war, Stefan. It's killing Vamcorl. It killed my parents, and it killed yours. And, if I heard correctly, Shadow's." She says Shadow's name as if it's a challenge. I wonder why.

"Shadow's wonderful," I say. Echo glares at nothing in particular, and harrumphs, her cheeks flushing red as she puffs them out. "You're great, too," I add. Echo smiles, deflating her cheeks. I can't understand her.

"Wittnor is my uncle. You probably heard. But I've never liked him. So don't judge me by him. Although you're nice. You wouldn't be mean like that." she adds, glancing sideways at me. "Okay. It won't be too hard to break in, because most of our forces are on the border, guarding and attacking from there. We can dress up as guards, and say that we were sent by Jocelyn because we were expecting a jailbreak."

I nod. A solid plan.

"I know where to get the uniforms," She starts, "But you'll have to get them." She bites her red lip.

"Why?" I ask.

"You'll see." On that note, she grabs my hand and we run through the corridor silently. Suddenly, she holds her hands out like stop signs, and motions to the door to our right. At first, I see nothing special about the large, redwood door, until I see a sign hanging over it. "Male Guards Change Room" It reads. "See what I mean now?" Echo asks bitterly.

"Why not the Female Guards Change Room?" I ask.

"Oh yeah, we'll definitely take the risk to go all the way to the other side of the billion-meter-long party room," Echo says, sarcasm dripping from her words.

I sigh. The thought of going into a room probably full of muscular demons did not sound great. I frown.

"It's okay," Echo says. I look at her in confusion. "Duh, the party's still on! All of the guards are at the party!" Oh. I forgot about that. Mentally smacking myself, I pull the gold handle on the door and quickly step into the room. It looks fancy, with polished black floors and clean showers and lockers, but it stinks like crazy! My nose scrunches and I cover it with one hand. Looking around, I approach the lockers, when from the corner of my eye I see a door labeled: "Extra Uniforms". I walk over to the door and open it, grabbing two pairs of silver chest plates, helmets, and kneepads. Slipping out of the change room, I give Echo her armor. She gestures for me to follow her, and she leads me to a lone generator room. It's a little cramped, but we both have enough space to slip the armor on over our clothes, as well as secure the helmets onto our heads. The helmets are a little big on our heads, and we take a minute to quietly giggle about how extremely ridiculous we look. After a little while, I shush her giggles, giving her the fish face, and whisper, "Remember the plan?"

"Oh yeah," She replies, her words muffled from the fish face.

We spend the next five minutes reviewing the map of High Cliff, and mentoring me with my Abyssal-ness.

...

After going over the plan, Echo sits up. "The party should almost be over. Jocelyn is going to think something is up," she warns, pulling on her long, straight purple-flamed black hair from under her helmet, which falls to the ground when she lets go of it. I bite my lip.

"Then we'll have to go soon. To free the prisoners. Are we ready?" I ask her. She thinks for a moment.

"Yes. Come on, we can go now." I follow her until we reach a tall, black gate. Two buff guards are, well, guarding it.

"I thought you said it was going to be easy," I whisper to Echo. She shrugs.

"It is," she declares quietly. "But do not mention something about the demon queen. Nobody knows anything about her, except that she's a woman and hardly ever makes an appearance. And when she does, she disguises herself. And almost no one makes it out alive. There's only gossip," she notifies me. The guards see us and walk forward.

"Guards in training?" one with a grainy voice asks. I look around in confusion, my gaze focusing on my boots. Then, I realize that they're embroidered with the words: Guards In Training, in bold, gold writing. Their boots read, Guards. I nod. "Don't worry," the guard with the grainy voice speaks again.

"We're not," I respond, trying to make my voice sound deeper and full of authority. I wonder what they're talking about. As I study them, I notice they both have the same build and skin tone. One is a woman and one is a man, I realize, as the female has a hole in her helmet for her flaming hair to flow out of. They must be related.

"Huh. Don't hide it. The guarding of the prisons scare everyone. I mean, there are a lot of prisoners!" the woman says, her voice velvety yet intimidating.

"Yeah. It's alright to be scared. The inside of the prison is freaky," the man says kindly.

"Uh-huh," says the woman. Then she adds, "The elves in there are all war-y. What did we do wrong?" I stop breathing. What did they mean? The demons attacked first, not the elves! The war was their -well, I guess our- fault! The thought fades from my head. Echo replies to the guards.

"Yeah, we're creeped out. But we can handle it," Echo replies. They nod, wish us luck, and let us pass. We keep silent until we're in the prison. Everything is gray, black, and white. It's awfully gloomy. I have the eerie feeling that someone is watching us. I shiver. We silently walk for a bit, until we get to the last prison stall. Instead of bars, this cell has a solid gold door. All the prisons require the same key. Not very smart. Echo and I take our keys that were attached to the uniform.

"Let's start," I say. I open the first jail cell and walk in. A metal chair is in the middle of the room. There is also a toilet and a bed in the corners. An elf is sitting on the chair, staring at us. Without a sound, he lifts his head and opens his eyes. They're identical to Shadow's, but with a steel glare. His red lips part to say five simple words.

"Hello. I've been expecting you."