Liam carried me to the exit while shouting at Kyle and Xavier to follow him. He held onto me tightly as I stared at my wrist. The little flame captured my eyes with its' flickering colors. Red, orange, black, and yellow ran through the tattoo as I was being rushed into a tunnel that wasn't open to the public.

Liam slowly sat me down on the ground, and my feet touched the cold grey clay. The walls were beige but had brown plates scattered randomly among them. Up above, pipes traveled to their destination under challenging directions with overlapping confusion.

"Kye," Liam asked for my attention. He was kneeling in front of me, while Xavier stood to the right and Kyle to the left. "Show them what's on your wrist."

My wrist itched at being mentioned, but I showed them regardless. Their reactions were much tamer than Liam's, but I could tell they were equally concerned.

After a moment of exchanged looks and puffs of air being drawn out, Xavier finally spoke.

"Who did you get it from?" Xavier asked.

"A boy who looked my age gave it to me. He said his name is Ember." Kyle took my wrist gently and tapped on the mark a few times.

I looked around for Ember's entrance, but nobody appeared.

"Seems like this little demon knows what he's doing" Xavier crossed his arms. Kyle nodded and took out a small device. Light erupted from it in a flash while he pounded his thumb against the screen.

I pulled my hand out of Kyle's grasp and stared at it curiously. "Why didn't he come? He said to tap the mark three times, and he'd show."

Kyle scratched the back of his head. "Normally, you'll get demons that attach onto things, and anyone can contact them easily. It seems like this demon is attached to you and only you. Which means you are the only one who can call him."

"But there is only one flame- which concludes two things" Xavier held up one finger. "The first is that he's a young demon. Some demons will disguise themselves as children to appear innocent, but they cannot hide the number of symbols that appear on others. Ember may actually be older than he looks, but as a demon- he is young."

"And the second thing?" Liam asked. Somewhere during Xavier explaining things, he grabbed my hands. He felt warm, but his hands were shaking.

"The second thing is his symbol and the amount. If Ember had maybe three or four flames on Kye's wrist, then we would have to worry. But Kye only has one- so he isn't harmless, but he would have trouble taking the three of us down."

I scrunched my eyebrows. "Wait, taking down?"

Liam squeezed my hands, and I looked at him. "Which means that if we ever did have to fight- it'd be tough on our side. Even with him being outnumbered, he has demonic abilities. A demon's abilities are vast, while ours are limited."

I thought about it and shook my head. I don't want them to fight. Ember seemed nice, and it felt nice to have a friend around. Zine left on some rough terms, so I don't know when he'll be back- if he ever does come back. With Ember's arrival- I feel like I could befriend him over sometime.

"I don't think you will fight. Ember is nice and gave me a lollipop to eat."

Xavier sighed loudly and facepalmed, while Kyle chuckled and smiled innocently at me. At the same time, Liam sighed and looked to the floor. "Kye, do not accept food from people you do not know, alright? That is very dangerous."

I nodded as he stood up and patted my head. "I swear you're just trying to give me a heart attack. Confirming a pact with a demon and now food from a demon?" He put a hand over his chest. "My beating heart can't take much more." He jested and smiled down at me. Even though he was joking, I could tell he was nervous and worried for my sake.

"I'm sorry, Liam. I'll try not to cause any more trouble" I didn't want him to worry so much over me. I looked down at the floor that had discolored spots on the floor. My right wrist tingled as blood pumped through it, and I tapped it lightly with my fingertips.

I heard an intake of breath before the sound of flames crackling hit my eardrums. Suddenly I was pushed behind Liam as him, and Kyle stood in front of me, and Xavier closed in on the rear.

I bent down and saw through their legs that a door appeared.

It was solid oak and almost darker than black. It had a golden doorknob and smelled like charcoal. The doorknob twisted and screams louder than the ones in my nightmares collected in the hallway. I harshly covered my ears and looked at the ones around me, but they looked unaffected.

The door opened wider and out stepped a figure. It walked towards us in their hightops, with flames shooting up the side of its long sleeve shirt. A hand was in one of the pockets on the khaki shorts, and the other was attached to the lollipop that was in its mouth. Black hair was ruffled in small waves around the head.

It came to a stop, and the door closed- vanishing into thin air as a fire engulfed it.

It leaned down to the floor and smiled- showing some canines and pearly whites.

"Hi, Kye. You wanna play?"