They say you represent every person in your nightmare.
They say you can never die in dreams.
They say you can never remember the start of the dream.

I don’t know why. Hell, I don’t even know why I think about something so unnecessary like this. Something, which is philosophical and deep. I mean, I wasn’t dumb. I could talk about deep stuff, but truth be told I was never quite the person to do so. My sister was that type. Definitely. She loved to question the universe and look at a rose and say: ‘We should all stop and smell the roses for a change.’ Yeah, nature freak- that was my sister! Don’t get me wrong, I love her. And I know how geeky that sounds, if her twin brother says so and I won’t ever say that in public. Maybe this will be the first and last time I’ll even admit it, but you should know how I feel before I tell you that I shot her right in the stomach.

She looked down, blood flowing through her fingers and a little smile on her lips.
“Hey bro’- look. It’s all warm and sticky.”
I swore. I swore to her I would never, ever hurt her even if she turned all bad and creepy. Well, I swore it to myself more than out loud to her, but she knew. I bet she knew and I bet she knew it even with a hole in her tummy, blood gushing through her fingers. Maybe that’s why she was so mad at me, when she looked up, her eyes black with a little red glimmer to them.
“Sticky. Like glue. Is your blood also as sticky?”
“We’re sure as hell not gonna try it out, dear sis’,” I hissed, the gun weighing more and more in my hand. It had been so light in the morning when I had put it into my holster. Now, being the weapon that caused my sister pain it was so heavy I almost dropped it. My body ached under the pressure and tension I put it though. Not only that everything inside me screamed Help her, my mind played tricks on my, trying to show me what I needed and wanted to see: golden eyes.
I mean, she seemed so innocent with her black hair, the petit and fragile figure and those big deer eyes- which were now all black and dead instead of gold with a little of green in them. My poor twin sister, trapped somewhere in her own body- fighting a creature worse then any of my nightmares before. But I’ll swear I will have some bad ass ones after this was over. I always do. Every time a demon decides that my sister was a good vessel I got nightmares after freeing her. This demon was harder, though. It would just not leave her body. Like we didn’t have enough problems already.
“Aw, why not? It ought to be fun,” she coughed, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth after falling on her knees. I would’ve helped her, if it wasn’t for the gun in my hand, the demon inside of her always trying to kill me and… yeah, that’s it. But enough to let me hesitate. On the other hand if her body died, her soul died too. With a demon in her or not. And I really wanted to kick her little butt when she was herself again. For that, sadly, the demon had to live.
I looked at her again and I swear slipped through my lips. Fuck. She was dying. Some demons faked it but with a bullet ripping through your insides you didn’t really need to fake the ‘almost-dead’ experience.
“God, I hate me for this.” Mumbling I put away my gun and went to her. She raised her head, still smiling which was creepy as it was even without the demonic eyes. Blood coming out of ones mouth can look pretty scary and could scar you for life. Yay another one of those scares for Jesper Mirror.
“Don’t we all?”
Laughing with a ruff tone to it, she bend over puking what I considered was a mixture of saliva and blood. I grumbled as an answer, pushing her down on the cold stone floor of the kitchen (which didn’t belong to us. Which didn’t belong to anyone I knew of. So in the end it means, we were in a stranger kitchen. At least we left the stranger a nice, big puddle of blood. Nothing raises your appetite more than a little sea of blood in the middle of your white marble kitchen floor) and starting to pull her clingy fingers from the wound.
“Let me,” I hissed at her, but my twin cocked her head a bit away from me.
“No. I wanna die, bro’. Not living in this god forsaken world is much better than living in it with you as a brother.”
How dare she uses Rose’s voice right now! She should be thankful damn it! I was saving her life right now and she… she…
Breathing in the heavy air, I pulled myself together. Over the years arguing with demons one gets used to situations like this.
“Yeah, I suck. Now let me treat your injury or you can say hi to the devil from me.”
Her expression darkened a bit and slowly her hands were removed from the gushing hole in her belly. As I expected. Scaredy Cat.
“Nice shot by the way,” she whispered while I destroyed my favorite shirt to wrap a piece of it around her stomach. “But if you wanted to kill me, you should’ve shot a little higher. It couldn’t be that hard- I was standing two meters away from you.”
“Well, even if that’s so I can’t really sleep with the knowledge that I killed my sister. Sorry- I’m human.”
“No need to apologize. I forgive you- I know how weak your race is.”
“How very kind of you.”
After that silence was all to be heard. I nursed her as good as I could (which wasn’t very good) and helped her to stand. Even if she was possessed, I couldn’t really do anything about it if she was in this state. She knew it too. Maybe that was why she kept smiling, happy about a second chance to kill me that was given to her.
“As soon as you turn your back to me or show any sign of weakness,” she spoke under her breath, the black hair falling in front of her eyes, as I braced her to the car in which Ethan was already waiting, “I’ll kill you.”
“I know.”
“So… why then?”
Yeah, why? It would be a hell lot easier if I could just kill her or let her die- bleeding to death. I already had more than enough opportunities. But as told, I’m human, or at least humaner than she was. I wouldn’t just kill my own sister.
“Because I just looove kicking your ass,” I replied sarcastic and let the matter drop.
We walked quite a bit, because Ethan parked the car a few meters away from the house. Safties issue, I guess. He adopted himself a lot of them over the past decades we were on the run.
With the blood loss and injury my sister wasn’t the fastes who walked the earth at the moment. But all the time we walked in silence. No need to talk to a possessed girl or a bad mouthed son of a bitch (literally) like me.
When we finally arrived at the car I had the feeling we walked for hours and hours. I wasn’t trained for long walks. I could run for some time. Swim, climb, cycle. But walking? It was one bitch, alright.
I just opened the door with one hand and dumped her on the seat. She gave a furious growl but nothing more. With that I could live with. A silent klick and a seatbelt was wrapped around her, before I gave her a slight grin. She snapped and looked at the belt, which was engraved with various symbols she knew well from several times before.
“Sleep tight.”
I hoped so hard she got the reference to the belt tightly stretched across her chest.
After slamming the door shut, I got my gun from my holster and sat down in the front seat. Ethan drove off immediately. The white villa, with the white kitchen floor and the red puddle in it disappeared long before Ethan looked back to see my conscious twin struggling with the seatbelt, hissing curses in Greek when she touched one of the symbols.
“You didn’t knock her out?”
With an impatient glace, Ethan drove over the highway leaving the other cars way behind us.
I didn’t want to answer shot at me, so I looked out of the window and tried concentrating on everything else than the man sitting next to me, watching me like I was the demon.
“You want to answer, Jesper?”
“I rather not.”
Folding the arms in front of my chest I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I had her back. Fighting and hissing curses at me on the back seat of the SL 55 AMG (black and always shiny), but at least she was there. Somewhere.
“It’s a very strange world,” Ethan murmured, as he took a second look in the mirror, observing my sister, as she gave up the fight with the seatbelt and lay down, almost cuddling up and sleeping.
“So very strange,” he added, paying his attention at the road that lay in front of us again. I could only agree.


Chapter one: Strange World

“Want to have something to eat?”
All the years that Ethan, Rosalie and I have been on the run and he had never asked me if I wanted to eat something. It only costs too much money and time. But today was different. Today was my birthday- at least it would have been. I didn’t expect any gifts or treats. Hell, I didn’t even want to celebrate my birthday, but Ethan did. He said, that birthdays are, with others, the one thing, which remind the likes of us that we too can be human- are human. At least from the outside.
“Sure. Chocolate cake, cookies, and a bar of Reese’s.”
“Chips it is,” he grinned, getting out of the car and walking towards the gas station. I placed my feet on the dashboard, slipping my hand in the backpack under the chair to get out my iPod. This special day screams for my personal, special soundtrack.
“Happy Birthday, ass.”
I turned around to see those scary looking eyes stare right into my silver ones. Shit, I would never get use to them. It was surprising that she even talked to me, but I wouldn’t see it as improvement. Our race sure could think far, could calculate every step of our enemy. Which is why our wars don’t last very long. Three hours at the most. So I assumed she had planned something evil, during the time I had slept.
“Happy Birthday to you too, bitch. Hope you liked your precocious birthday present.”
I gave an explanatory look towards her injury and she hissed like an angry snake. Shrugging, I put the earphones in my ears, turning up the volume and wiping out every other sound that could distract me from the wonderful sounds that filled my head.

Nothing seems as pretty as the past though
That Bloody Mary's lacking a Tabasco
Remember when he used to be a rascal?

Oh that boy's a slag
The best you ever had

„Jesper! Are you listening to me?”
“No.”
“Then why are you answering?”
I wasn’t. Not anymore, anyways. So I kept silent, waiting until he pulled out the earphones out of my ears and dumping a piece of chocolate cake in my lap. That didn’t take long.
“So much for the chips.”
I gave him a look and he shot one back at me. His one might have been the closest to the one my twin gave me only a few minutes before.
“Eat it or leave it.”
“What is if I leave it?”
“Than your dear twin Rosalie can have it.”
I laughed. No he wouldn’t. Not if I eat it first and so I did. I ate the cake faster than Ethan could have said another tone. Sure, I would’ve given Rose a bit- if she weren’t possessed by an evil demon trying to kill me if it weren’t been for the seatbelt with the magic symbols, preventing her from scratching out my eyeballs- or worse: eating my birthday cake. Ethan bought her one too, though. I wasn’t happy about it- I mean, it wasn’t her birthday if you are exact- but I guess Rose’s body should enjoy a few extra carbs.
“That was quick,” he pointed out as I licked the last crumbs from my fingertips. New record- 54 seconds. It tasted surprisingly good for a gas station piece of crap cake. Chocolate covered with chocolate. Or at least I hoped so much it was chocolate, that I could’ve tricked my mind into thinking it was chocolate. Oh, hell. My body was damaged as it was already. A few chemicals, that didn’t belong anywhere but into a safety boy with a warning on it, wouldn’t change that.
“What can I say- I am a man with needs.”
Grinning, I fastened my seatbelt again, lowering the music from my iPod a weeh bit, before plugging the earphones back into my ears. Rosalie mumbled something while I did so, what sounded a lot like pig, but I ignored it. It was the one thing I was really good at- except from planting a bullet into the stomach of my own sister, of course.
She ate her cake carefully, as if the chemicals, that didn’t bother me at all, could kill her just by watching them. Or that Ethan may have put something into the waggling cake, that may have been, originally, a chocolate pudding. He didn’t. I knew, he would’ve loved to give the cake an extra taste with a little sleeping pill (safety issues again) but he knew that I would’ve kicked his butt. Instead he just rubbed over his three-day-beard, blinking tired out of the window. He had driven all night, trying to get as far away as even possible from the crime scene. At least I had left something as a welcome gift to those who owned that beautiful white villa.
His brown hair looked as perfect as ever. Nothing, I mean nothing could change that. Whatever happened to him, his curly brown hair was always in place and shape. His eyes, the same color of the lock falling in front of his left eye, were set on the people washing or tanking their cars.
“We should check into a hotel, Ethan.”
He yawned.
“Hmh.” Mumbling, he didn’t sound very convincing or consenting.
I was only a newly eighteen year old guy from California with a way to large gray print shirt on, that Ethan had lend me after seeing me half naked (remember? I ripped my black shirt to help the demon’s wound to heal) but I recognized a man so tired, that he would fall asleep any second from now.
“Ethan,” I urged, cutting down the music from my iPod, “please.”
Ethan opened his eyes to the fullest, stretching his arms, before ruffling though my short, black hair with his big, scared-covered hand.
“It’s okay, champ. Just let me rest a little while and we’re on the road again.”
I didn’t believe him. He needed more than a while to be fit enough to drive again. I could drive (not very good, but I could steer a wheel) but I had also the obligation to watch over my sister Rose. I couldn’t do both, with all my skills I had and made (proudly) mine, I wasn’t superman. I liked to be and will be some day, but right now I’m just happy being half super. I couldn’t watch the road, look after the demonic girl that planted her soul in my sister’s body and (on top of that) made sure, that Ethan got a nice and long nap.
I looked at him shortly before opening the car door.
“Sure. I’ll take a little walk- while you do so.”
“Take the Little Miss Crap-Shine with you.”
I gave him one good snore then closed the one door while opening the other. She stared at me- grinning but I was about to wipe that self-loving grin off her face as I pulled out several cloth-stripes out of the back pockets of my black jeans. That was my safety issue.
Not caring that she tried to bite me, I took her hands, binding them together then wrapping one as a scarf around her neck. I took the end of it in my hand like a dong leach undoing the seatbelt at the same time.
“Come. You have a privilege, no- the privilege- to join me on my little walk.”
Rose didn’t answer. She just gave me an ironic smile as her eyes stayed full of hate.
Ethan sighed thankfully as the door closed and we walked away, taking his coat and transforming it into a blanket. I granted it to him. He really deserved at least a good twenty minutes of quiet and peace. Oh, and dreams full of naked girls.

“How should I call you? As it seems you’re going to be in my sister for a little while.”
She looked up at me, plucking a little flower out of the dry dirt. Sitting on the ground, the white dress spreading around her like a flower itself, she turned the daisy between her fingers, watching it carefully with demon eyes.
We were on a little field near the station, the sun shining on us. It was warmer that I had expected but the look she gave me let me shudder.
“Lilith.”
I believed her. At least so far that she gave me her real name. The rest after that… not quiet.
“I was born human, died human hand came back as a demon.”
Rose placed her head a bit to the side and a little smile appeared again.
“Bet you didn’t know that. We’re the same! So I’m kind of your sister, too.”
No, I didn’t know that as well as I didn’t know why she told that to me. I mean, it wasn’t even slightly true.
“No, we’re not,” I replied immediately, sitting down on the bench the nearest to her. Then I cradled my head in my hands and breathed.
“I was never human.”
Why did I tell her that now? For one, she was so lying. Secondly, well, she was a freaking demon trapped in the body of my twin. Only god knew what she could do with this information. Okay, I could also use her information against her (somehow- I would figure out how) but there was a bigger chance of a volcano eruption killing me than me having something against a demon in my hands.
But the difference, again, was I saw the information I gave her as a weakness. My weakness. Looking human, feeling human but not being human. It was one hell of a weakness; a thought that could make you think you were god which could get you killed in my lovely job.
Lilith stared at me for some time before finding me as uninteresting as a rock. She returned to crushing little flowers on the ground instead. Yeah. That always gave me a kick, too.
“And I don’t kill for fun.”
She didn’t give a sign that she heard me but I knew better. The slightest of smile, the finest curve of her lips gave her away. Oh, Lilith enjoyed killing, alright. As much as I may or may not have enjoyed my birthday cake.
“Well, yeah. But that’s just a minor aspect of our similarities now, isn’t it?”
Her hand went through the long hair, smiling sweetly at the new ripped out daisy between her fingers. I had loved to say ‘If you say so’ but I left it opened, staring at the grayish sky. It was such a moist day that even the birds didn’t want to fly. Poor things. Didn’t know how lucky they were having wings that could lift their fat, chubby bodies of earth.
“You’re particularly quiet.”
“I don’t talk to demons.”
“You’re not talking to a demon. You’re talking to your sister.”
I frowned, still watching the one cloud that seemed to stay at the same place the whole time.
“You’re not my sister, Lilith.”
“I could be- can be. If you let me, that is, Jesper.”
Why do those demons move so damn quick? One moment she was sitting, all innocent and girly (except from killing one daisy after another) the other one she was standing right in front of me, bending down so we were eye to eye.
“What if I don’t let you?”
She came nearer, grinning like the demon she was, putting her hands on my shoulders. My first instinct was to shake them off, but they were the hands of my sister after all.
“Are you flirting with me, Jesper?”
“Oh, god no. You’re just sexually harassing me.”
She tsked me, before sitting down beside me and pulling her dress in the right places.
“How could I possibly harass you?”
“Normally you do so when touching somebody. But with you it also includes talking and looking.”
“Are you always so charming to other girls?”
“Well I believe so.”
“Then it’s really a wonder- a miracle- that especially you don’t have a girlfriend. Or for that matter: girls all over your face.”
Lilith wiped her dirt-covered fingers over the white dress, leaving brown stains on it, then kicking a rock with the slightest of efforts over the whole field. Maybe with no effort at all.
“Why, aren’t you a chatty demon,” I growled. It was true. Lilith was the chattiest of all the ones who decided that my twin was the perfect body for them. Maybe I thought that way because she was the longest to stay around me. Normally I would save the soul of my sister at the instant but with us on the road (and on the run) it was hard to find enough time to exorcise the bitch out of there. It took not less than two or three days. There was no way that it could take less than that. There was no short cut or short way around freeing a body that was possessed. Books, TV shows and movies might tell you otherwise, but believe me: When a demonic soul is in ones body it will not leave freely- or without a good and long fight.
“Somehow I have to distract you, don’t I?”
Irritated, I looked at her. The grin still intact, she eyed her fingernails, which were painted in a light rosé tone. Rosalie had loved pink. A real girly girl.
“Distract me from… what?”
Lilith nodded towards a black Porsche that was standing at the gas pump number three. I swallowed hard and tried to stop myself from getting a heart attack. It could be any black Porsche. Belonging to anybody with money. But I knew better. Fact was I should really stop lying to myself. That Porsche, the black, shiny car belonged to the one person on the planet who made my life a living hell. Without him it would just be… well, only hell on earth what for me personally was better than living in a living hell.
“Better ask who,” Lilith suggested, stretching her fingers and closing them to a fist over and over.
“Bitch,” I muttered. I still couldn’t move myself less than giving Lilith my I-hate-you-with-all-my-heart-and-weren’t-you-in-the-body-of-my-sister-I-would-rip-out-your-entrails- look. I just sat there, eyes locked on the black vehicle. Don’t know how long I stared at it, but at some time a man came out of the gas station shop with a bag of chips in his one hand and a bottle of coke in the other one. Bet it was diet coke. He only drank diet coke. Miserable bastard.
“You wanna kill him?”
Her dead, black eyes now focused too on the man with the chips, who was sliding into the drivers seat. The windows were tinted so I couldn’t see who was sitting next to him. I didn’t need a look, but I was curious about how he looked now. After all he was human. A bit.
“I wish I could.”
“No weapon?”
“No. I’m just decent enough not to kill him in public. We don’t need police looking for us. Ethan would kick my ass if that would happen.”
“Not killing the man who puts you through all the misery because you’re scared of some ass wiping? You disappoint me, Jesper.”
“Good thing I don’t give a rats ass about what you think of me.”
With that I stood, grabbing Lilith’s leach with one hand. Then, like a dog, I directed her back to the car. Twenty-five minutes of sleep should keep Ethan awake until we found a motel. Too bad I didn’t had the chance to wake him properly. Instead, I was standing face-to-face with chips-man. How the heck did he come in front of me so quickly?
“Got a problem?”
I raised an eyebrow, which didn’t intimidate him at all. Or if it did, he was a good enough actor not to show it. With his blond hair bound into a ponytail, the dark glasses sitting on his nose (in which I could reflect myself) and having on a sleek, black suit he looked more like an attorney than a man who could probably do some pretty good ass kicking.
“You are the problem. Always living on, never dying when you should. To be honest, you’re a pain in the ass for everybody in this business.”
This business. He let it sound so- what’s the word?- legal.
“I am always the problem.”
Sighing, I reached into my jacket pocket where I hid a 6mm pistol. Nobody can make you trouble if he is dead, can he? Okay, if he is like me or a f-ing zombie than that rule didn’t apply. But please- a man dressed as a lawyer couldn’t make it as a zombie. Zombies were nasty monsters who ate human flesh. They should look like it too. If a zombie in a suit came around, who would take him serious?
“Don’t you even think about pulling your gun or I’ll make sure you regret it.”
I wanted to laugh so badly I started shaking a bit. Lilith had her eyes on the man so she didn’t really bothered with my little almost-outbreak, but I could see the annoyance flash up in her eyes. She wanted to get the hell in the car and drive away. Even if she was a demon, she could get freaked out. And anybody who wasn’t freaked out by him was one tough son of a bitch. This suit guy was a little fly in comparison. Nothing I couldn’t handle myself. Still, Ethan did all the work me. Coming up silently behind him and hitting the blond dude so hard with the end of his gun, that it knocked the crap out of him, Ethan shook his head in disbelieve.
“You kept me waiting because of this?”
“Weren’t you supposed to sleep?”
Ethan frowned.
“Try sleeping by broad daylight in a stinking car. It’s harder than it sounds.”
It didn’t sound hard parse. Just very bloody unpleasant.
“He is the driver from him. I wanted to-”
Ethan looked up from the unconscious blond and narrowed his eyes.
“Don’t play with me Jesper. I had a nightmare of a night behind me. If that should be a joke it’s so bad that even I can’t fake a laugh.”
Frustrated I wanted to point to the black Porsche but thanks to the luck I had in life it was gone. Gaping, that stumping on the ground with one foot like a spoiled little kid I let out an irritated grunt.
“Bastard.”
“I saw him too if that’s important.”
Smiling, Lilith raised her hand. Ethan snored before heading back to the car.
“No, it isn’t.”
“If you hand said that a bit earlier,” I whispered furiously at the demon girl, but she just giggled.
“Then what? I said, I had to distract you somehow, now- didn’t I?”
“Why? If he’s dead a lot of you’re friends would be free.”
Assuming that dear Lilith had any friends. From the look she gave me, she didn’t.
Ethan already opened the door for her, sliding on the seatbelt for her as I took off the cloth stripes.
“What way did he drive?”
“I don’t know. Guessing north.”
It took me one good look at Ethan to notice that he was not angry but really angry. His normally calm face features were tense and his eyes seemed like they could bring ice to melt only by looking at it.
“Then we’ll go north.”
You have to understand: That man- the man in the car- was the one who was tracking me down ever since I took the first breath of air on earth. My mum died because of him. My sister got possessed every second week because of him. Ethan lost his whole family because of him. And only because that asshole had the power to control demons or spirits. Usually spirits, demons or monsters didn’t let somebody control them. They liked to have a free will and kill the ones they wanted to kill. But there were a few creatures who let themselves be controlled by humans or other monsters, so they could walk the earth without having to look for a good and strong vessel. Because as hard it is to get something out of the body as hard it is to get in there in the first place. And demons and spirits are very picky with they vessel due to the concept, that they keep it until the body can’t take no more bad energy from their rotten soul. That could take at the max four ‘til five years. Then the body was drained and the proper soul was gone.
But the more demons that walked the earth the larger the hole between the worlds (hell and earth) get and the more can come over. So my duty is it to close that freaking hole for once and for all and leave all the bad stuff to the lunatics and crazy people. Because what the demons and spirits do is so much worse than what a normal human could do. Trust me.
Oh, I didn’t know all of this until I was sixteen. So it’s pretty new to me as well. I never understood why Ethan was moving places all the years or why we had fake ID’s or why Rose would behave very strange at some days. Now I know. Now I know that it is all because that son of a bitch that keeps the demons and spirits on earth, so he could get power. So he could- some day- find a way to be immortal and walk the face of the earth for ever, terrorizing everything that lived.
Yeah, it was a strange world alright in which I lived. Where I traveled with my always possessed sister, a guy with more weapons than all American civilians together (who I wasn’t even related to) and a gun in my pocket, trying to hunt down the same person, who keeps stalking us, hiring demons to kill us (well, mostly me).
And I know how stupid it sounds. We could just wait until he comes for us ourselves you think, right? Well it isn’t that easy. Because we (well, I) have the duty to save mankind. Believe me: It’s a heavier burden than the ones normal people have to deal with. Not only am I fighting demons everywhere I go, there is a demon going everywhere I go. Pretty freaky. The freakiest thing is yet to come: The person who wants me dead is the same person who was even responsible for me living in the first place: That person was my ever so lovely dad.

Chapter two: Hellbucks

Everything is confusing at first but you’ll understand it soon enough. I did, too. Okay, honestly I had to because if I didn’t my sister and I would be dead as the chicken I was eating right now.
Munching, I turned up the radio feeling better than this morning. It was still my birthday (but it would be over in 21 minutes) and Ethan didn’t take a nap in a motel like I hoped and wanted for him. He decided to drive as long as it was light outside. Then he would stop at the corner of the highway and dozed off for a few minutes before driving again. That man could go countless days without sleep and still be intact for a bar fight. Still, I wanted him to sleep. To really sleep, dream pornographic dreams and wake up with a perverted smile on his lips like he did a few months ago when we all thought that my father was dead. But as a new demon linked itself to my sister Ethan and I knew that it wasn’t over.
Trying not to do it so obvious that Lilith would notice I looked over my shoulder to study her. Her eyes were closed and she was curled up against the seat. The black hair we inherited form our mother covered the most of her pale face. Burned in her flesh the symbol under her collarbone seemed to glow a bit in the sunset light, which made everything look peaceful and dreamy. The very opposite of what the world really was.
“You’re disgusting- staring at your sister’s breasts.”
“Why? Ew! No! I stared at- …forget it.”
“I’m afraid I will never forget,” Lilith snored with her lip corners turned down, glazing one badass look at me, before staring out the window. She looked more human than ever.
“Why can’t you let her go? Freely?” I pressed out between my teeth, hoping that my neck won’t stay so weirdly twisted as now. Lilith turned her head towards me and I think something like regret flashed through her dull eyes, before she grinned.
“’Cause I’m a demon and not your average spirit with a bad temper.”
Well go fuck yourself. Before I could punshthe demon out of Rose’s body Ethan grabbed my shirt collar with one hand and tugged me back into my seat.
“Put,” he growled and reminded me more than ever of a the big, bad wolf. As I wanted to move he stared at me furiously.
“Don’t even think about it.”
“Thinking about it.”
“Don’t do it then, dumb ass.”
I wanted to do it. Badly. Just turn around, slapping Lilith so often that she left the body out of free will. But I knew I couldn’t. I wouldn’t be that strong. With the gun it was faster. You hadn’t had time to think about it so long and clearly.
“My sister is somewhere in there,” I hissed, now letting the disturbed feeling of fear and longing get inside my tone.
“Yeah, well she has to wait. I think killing your father is more important.”
How creepy this conversation had to be for an outsider. Killing the father, sister trapped in her own body like a transvestite. Happy family it is!
“But Rose-”
“She’ll understand. Trust me.”
“She understands,” Lilith said happily clapping.
“She says that you should hurry, though. And that I- hey!”
Lilith’s eyes went real black now, while her face went all blank and expressionless. Demons did that from time to time- shutting off the body and talking to the soul they tried to overcome.
“And now she’s gone.”
“So now we can have a little chat. So, Jesper, I know you have problems with yourself- sister being possessed and all- but concentrate. My revenge should not be stopped or prevented by a teenage boy fearing for his soul.”
“It’s not my soul I’m afraid about,” I mumbled and Ethan yanked the wheel so far to the right, throwing me against the window.
“Stop these nonsense thoughts! Man up and don’t talk like a puss.”
God, how I wanted to slap him right now. Even if he was the son of a good friend from my mothers (who kept her safe even though she was haunted by spirits and demons) I wouldn’t go easy on him. Or exclude him from a major ass wiping.
“Sorry if I care about my sister.”
Saying several insults under my breath I turned to the window and watched the landscape we passed by. I wasn’t even hungry anymore even though the chicken sandwich smelled damn fine.
“She loves you, too.”
The sudden sound of Rose’s voice without the dark undertone made me shiver. Rosalie.
“Thanks, Lilith.”
“No need to thank. So, you should take your time but remember that you only have maximum four years to free her.”
“Ah, I only need a few weeks.”
Lilith blew out air between her teeth, which sounded a lot like a hiss, but I ignored it. Like Ethan’s glare in my direction. I’m sooo scared. Weepy jerk.

Stopping at Starbucks was a really bad idea. One of my worst so far and not that I’m proud of it. Not out loud at least.
But I really had to pee after five hours in the car and Lilith was so hungry she accidentally ate one of the fries we picked up a few hours before at McDumb. Demons hated salt- that at least from all the books and movies was true. Coughing and giving weird noises, which sounded like she was choking to death she held her throat.
“W-Water…!”
“Want some holy water?”
She looked at me with a mad smile and I swear- if the seatbelt hadn’t been there I would be a dead man.
“I swear to everything you humans consider holy and worth dying for- if I don’t get water this instant I will kill the lot of you!”
I believed her more than anybody else. And because I had to go to the toilet anyhow-
“Ethan?”
“I’m hungry,” he excused himself for listening to the demon and drove into a parking lot with patrol station.
“Look- there’s a Starbucks.”
“And look there’s a dog with a little girl,” Ethan said ironic and parked the car near the patrol station.
“Anybody up for a sandwich or sweets?”
“Not hungry,” Lilith and I replied automatically and I almost had to smile. Almost being the key word here.
The black-haired man shrugged and stepped out of the car.
“Stayed put- both.”
“It’s not like I can go anywhere,” Lilith coughed looking down at the seatbelt with engravings on them.
“You’ll be sorry if you forget my water McGrody.”
Ethan McGrody smiled childish before slamming the door shut and walking to the shop.
After a while- Ethan was still in the shop I guessed- Lilith gagged.
“My body is burning.”
“Then take your hands away from the fries.”
I got out of the car although Ethan didn’t allow it. Well, I was eighteen now. And even though night was falling and the sun had gone down, I was determined to ease my bladder and stop my sister from burning up from the inside. I mean in Europe I would be a full fledged adult.
“Okay. But we have to hurry.”
“Scared of a human,” Lilith whispered, as I undid her seatbelt and helped her out of the car.
“Half human who could finish you off faster than I could pee.”
“You sure have a full and large bladder, then.”
“Just shut your moth and come.”
I held out my hand towards her. Stunned, she gazed at it, as if she had never seen a human hand before then grabbed it. I could swear she blushed.

When we walked into Starbucks everything seemed normal. Approx. a thousand teenagers dressed in Hollister and Abercrombie with Starbucks- cups in their hands chatting loudly, making unfunny jokes and laughing about them so hard it could only be fake. And it was six o’ clock in the morning. Okay, they had school but this Starbucks was neat a highway. What did they do here?
At the counter stood a pretty blond with freckles all over her slim nose.
“What can I get ya?”
“Water… please.”
Always be polite. My mom had raised no rude jackass.
The blond- her nametag revealing her as a Beth- smiled and after a few seconds pushed a plastic glass full of water over the counter.
“Here. One dollar forty.”
I gave her two dollars and told her she could keep the rest during the act of giving Lilith the cup. She took it the instant her fingers closed around it and drank it out in only a few sips.
“Didn’t you have to go to the toilet?”
Oh yeah, I knew I forgot something. Now that my sister was taken care of my bladder made itself felt, urging me to empty it in this moment.
“Stay here, don’t go with strangers and don’t, you know, kill anybody,” I said from the stairs leading down to the restrooms. Lilith nodded, while asking for another cup of water.
“Will try.”
A will do would’ve been better but what do you expect from a demonic girl?
The restrooms were as clean as my grandma’s whole flat a.k.a. it was spotless. Zipping up my trousers I washed my hands and looked at myself in the mirror. The black hair was a bit chaotic and my skin looked pale and sick. Under my eyes were unnatural dark circles and neck had more bruises on them than Jacky Chan would ever have after a fight. Curling my nose and drying my hands sighed. Sometimes I don’t want to live like this anymore. Why don’t just settle down, get a girlfriends, kill the demons that went after you and eat dinner in a normal and homey kitchen. Pizza, fondue or a hamburger didn’t sound bad. Maybe I was hungry after all. But the illusion of hunger wasn’t my big problem. Well, it was big but a bigger problem waited for me, as I came out of the toilet. Everybody was… gone. And it looked like chaos everywhere I turned my eyes to. Nothing stood where it had been a few minutes ago.
“What the…”
In the middle of it all Lilith stood- or Rosalie. How you put it. The white dress what a bit ripped and her hair waved in the wind, which came through the broken window.
“Where is everyone, Lilith?”
She didn’t turn herself towards me, so I only heard her voice as a whisper.
“Gone. Dead. I don’t know.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“Wha-? Oh that. Isn’t my blood.”
“From whom is it then?”
“Some dude who tried to pull me into the Abyss. I cut his hand off. And after that the arm and then… he was gone. Thought it would be nice if he had at least one good arm down there.”
“How considered of you,” I said, trying to hide my concern. Rose with blood on her woke up bad memories. Bad, bad memories I will never let go.
“You didn’t really explain what happened here.”
“Somebody opened the Abyss, sucked everybody in here in there to make it more powerful and I cut off somebody’s hand.”
I had more questions. Lots and lots of questions but for now I wanted to save my body from seriously kicking, because when Ethan came into the destroyed Starbucks his eyes were as dark as from a demon.
“I said put or are you two deaf?!”
Lilith shrugged.
“His fault.”
“Thank you for nothing bitch,” I growled and became a victim of Ethan’s hate stare. It wasn’t so intense like the one I’m used to from Lilith but it was enough to let the guilt wash over me like a wave. A very huge wave.
“So what in Satan’s name happened here?”
“Her fault,” I murmured, ducking away as Lilith tried to knock me over. Revenge is always sweet. It had to be because when Lilith struck out and punched right after I survived the first one the blood in my mouth tasted oddly like chocolate mixed with salt. Much and much of salt.
“It may be her fault but that doesn’t explain the lack of people and the destruction in freaking Starbucks!”
“More Hellbucks,” I said under my breath. Still, I was pretty sure that they both heard me.
“The Abyss opened,” Lilith included Ethan casually into the incident, looking slightly more annoyed by minute from minute.
“It tried to swallow me, killing everybody in return.”
“What for a f-ing demon are you that the Abyss is after you?!”
Disbelieving, I stared at her. Of course I couldn’t make out what differs her form the other nasty ones who possessed Rose but now nobody could say I didn’t try.
“The question which bothers me more than the species of that… thing there,” Ethan gestured briefly at my sister, “is where the heck you were, Jesper.”
He scowled at me, but I’m not sure if he really wants an answer. I mean, the truth was ridiculous. And I hated to be the bad guys in his eyes because they didn’t live long.
“Peeing.”
“You sure peed a hell of a lot and loud if you didn’t see and hear anything.”
I turned away, pretending to look at a piece of broke wood on the floor.
“My bladder was full,” I mumbled, “and I had that chocolate thing for breakfast. Was that supposed to be a piece of cake or a pudding? I think even my stomach couldn’t really figure out what he was digesting.”
“Don’t you dare mock the gas station cake. It’s the best you could of have as a birthday cake,” Ethan said, picking up a little rock from the floor, before throwing it as far away as possible.
“We should go.”
“What was that for?”
Following the flying rock with my eyes until it hit the ground, I put my hands into my jeans pockets and upturned to Ethan. He was already on his way outside.
“Hey! Wait! Shouldn’t we first, like, investigate this area? The Abyss doesn’t open up anywhere.”
Lilith snored, stepping over a left over arm with a certain disgust gleaming up in her eyes.
“Oh, dog poo. Let’s get outta here and talk about it in the cat before either one of them comes back.”
“Who do you mean?”
“You big ass daddy or the Abyss. Both are bad enough, don’t you think?”
If a demon compares the hell of all evil- the Abyss- with ones power and money obsessive dad, that meant something really bad. In terms for you, if you had the plan to kill daddy.
“Sure. Let’s just drive away from the only clue we have to get redemption. Good plan. In fact, it’s the best plan since Ethan suggested to me that we should kill my dad while he was sleeping.”
Now it was- finally- my turn to glare at Ethan, who had stopped and turned back around to wait and listen to us.
“I said I’m sorry countless times, kiddo.”
“Yeah, well I still have nightmares from all the blood and walking dead. Oh- and I shouldn’t forget the burning scars on my back every time I shower.”
“Luckily that isn’t that often now, is it?” Lilith sneered gleefully while stepping over another human body part so deformed, I’m not even sure if it was a leg or an arm.
Ethan coughed to cover up the laugh but I still saw the amused glitter in his eyes, as we walked back to the car and drove off before the police arrived. It didn’t look good for us if we were seen at the crime scene. Not to mention all the blood on Lilith’s (Rose’s) dress.
“So,” I broke the silence in the car, as we were driving. Neither Ethan nor Lilith said something to interrupt me.
“The Abyss tried to swallow my sister and my daddy is still now where to be found.”
“Good observation, Holmes,” Ethan sighed and turned down the radio, which filled my head with even more annoying catchy songs than Rose’s favorite singer Taylor Swift.
“Thanks, Watson. But what I don’t understand- why is Satan after Lilith?”
Looking over my shoulder to watch Lilith I was a bit amazed. She was really sleeping. Eyes closed, snuggled against the window.
“She’s sleeping,” I whispered, still astonished. Ethan smiled shortly before pressing down the gas pedal.
“Bet she had a lot on her mind. Maybe she can’t figure out herself, why the Abyss is after her.”
Still observing my sister sleeping, I titled my head a bit to the right.
“Do you think I’ll get her back any time soon?”
“You want me to be honest?”
“No.”
“I’ll be it anyway: I don’t think so, kiddo. Lilith seems to be the first high class demon and I think she isn’t giving up the body.”
I understood that. But it was still annoying. At last, I had a useful clue to where my father was heading (north proved to be right, as Ethan asked at the gas station if they saw a big, black car with a scary looking men inside and they confirmed it) and my sister had to be taken over by a high-class demon. With every other demon I would be finished by now, having my real sister back.
“Why does everything have to get complicated when you’re short before winning?”
It was a rhetorical question, so Ethan saw no need to answer. Still, he looked at me quite confused.
“Winning what?”
Slowly I turned around again, leaning against the chair and closing my eyes.
“The game of life.”
Which, by the way, sucked as hell for me. I have never been a good gamer.

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Texte: Josie Jones
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 09.02.2011

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