“Mm-hmm.” My breath came in small pants. It felt like someone was sitting on my chest. I couldn’t get enough air, and my lungs burned.
“Let’s get down before it hits. We’ll go to the ice cream truck.” He helped me up.
“What’s wrong?” Jen asked. Muriel leaned forward in her seat and looked at me.
“Vision,” Chay mouthed. “We’re going to get some ice cream,” he said aloud. The people around us must’ve thought I lived on ice cream.
We climbed down the bleachers and had just rounded the corner when I doubled over and threw up on the ground.
“I’m so sorry.” My face burned from embarrassment.
“It’s okay.” Chay ran his hands over my hair and gently held it back. “C’mon, let’s get to my uncle.”
We barely made it to the ice cream truck when the vision hit me full force, knocking me backward into Chay.
Sulfur. Heat.
I could smell the sulfur. It was as if the source of the stench was in the truck. It burned the back of my throat and stung my nose.
“Could I have something to drink, please?”
“You can have whatever you want, darlin’,” Chay’s uncle told me. “Whatever you want.”
“What do you see, Milayna?” Chay popped the tab on a Coke and held it out to me.
“Nothing really. I smell sulfur, and I feel heat. But I don’t see anything yet.” I took a big drink of Coke.
Football field. Lily. Hobgoblins.
“It’s going to happen here. I see the field. The stands are empty. Lily.” I spat her name; it was so repulsive to me.
“Okay, Evils, what else? Demi-demons?” Chay rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand.
I shook my head. “I don’t… how do I tell?”
“There’d be a group, like ours.”
“I don’t know. It’s gone. Can’t you tell? Aren’t you getting a sense that there’s danger?” I looked at him and took another drink of my Coke. The carbonation bubbled back up, and I hiccupped. “Oops, excuse me.” I let out a giggle and felt my face warm.
“Even your burps are cute,” Chay said with a chuckle. “Anyway, mine aren’t as reliable as yours. You’re sure the stands were empty?”
“Yeah.”
“So we stick around until everyone is gone and see what happens. Maybe you’ll see more between now and then.”
“Yeah, maybe.” I didn’t really want to see more. The visions drained me. If we were going to have a fight on our hands, I needed to conserve my energy.
It wasn’t long after Chay and I went to the ice-cream truck that the game ended. The stands started to clear and students filed out of the parking lot. They honked their horns and shouted out of their car windows. South Bay had finally won a game.
While we waited for everyone to leave, we decorated our car windows with South Bay blue and gold window paint—declaring our victory. Not just any victory, either. It was a freakin’ blowout. Or, at least according to Jeff and Chay. I just agreed with them like I knew what they were talking about.
“No. Way.”
“Um, Yeah.” I took the cap of the big marker and moved around Chay.
He grabbed me around the waist, picked me up, and deposited me away from his car. “No writing on my windows.”
Putting my hands on my hips, I closed my eyes. I stood there so long that he asked me if something was wrong. “Yes,” I answered, not opening my eyes. “I’m having a vision.”
“What do you see?” He rubbed his hand up my arm.
I pushed him hard in the chest, catching him off guard. He stumbled backward, confused. I ran around the other side of his car and started writing on the back window.
“My vision was that you’d let me decorate your windows and you’d even like it.” I said, laughing. He stalked toward me.
“Write fast, Milayna!” Jeff yelled.
“Muriel, help me!” I said. I was laughing so hard I was surprised anyone could understand me.
“Uh-huh. Nope and no way.” Muriel shook her head.
Chay grabbed for me, and I darted around him to the other side of the car.
“You know you like it!” I said. “Just let me finish this side so it’ll be balanced.” I pointed the blue marker at him.
He shook his head, laughing, and waved his arm at his car. “Continue your coloring project.”
When we’d finished writing our bragging rights on our car windows, we went back and sat on the bleachers.
The concession stands closed, and the people locked up and went home. The football players had changed out of their gear and left for one of the after-game parties. Steven and Jake hurried back outside to meet the group. Soon it was just Uncle Stewart and us.
The field was dark and ominous, eerie without the bright spotlights. We all sat in a row on the bottom bleacher. Drew’s knee bounced up and down as we waited. Chay’s uncle called our parents; they were arriving when the first hobgoblin showed up with a small puff of white smoke. The smell of sulfur filled the air as several more goblins popped out of their portal like little, red hand grenades.
They were in their mischief mode. Running back and forth on the field, screeching and laughing in their banshee-like voices.
It was only minutes later when Lily showed up followed by a group of teens I’d seen around school.
“Chay,” she purred.
“Lily.”
“I see the gang’s all here,” Lily said with a sniff. “I’m surprised your girlfriend let you fight this time.”
“I don’t have a girlfriend.”
I rolled my eyes.
What an ass. He nearly kissed me twice and held my hand during most of the football game.
“Who are your new friends?” Drew asked from the bleachers; his knee still bounced up and down. I didn’t know if it was nervous energy or if he was scared. Either way, the knee bobbing got on my nerves.
I was so fed up with the whole thing already. The visions zapped my energy. I could have laid down in the middle of the football field and taken a nap… while the fight was going on, if I wasn’t so scared. That was the only thing keeping me on my feet.
“Oh, you know. Some family from down south.”
“Demi-demons,” Shayla whispered to me.
I swatted her away. “I know.”
“Well, I suppose we should get on with things.” Jeff kicked his toe in the sandy ground. A cloud of dust billowed around us. “Let’s see. You’re gonna ask us to side with Azazel and turn Milayna over to you. We’re gonna say no. You’re gonna get mad, your friends are going to get mad, and the fat hobgoblins over there are going to get mad. That’s gonna make us mad, and we’ll all end up fighting in the end. So we might as well just get on with the fight now and save our breath.” He walked to stand in front of Lily. “No sense screamin’ and yel—”
Lily round-kicked him in the face. He spat out a mouthful of blood and smiled, his teeth stained pink. “Fighting it is then. You know, Lily, I never did like you much. It doesn’t surprise me that you turned. You’re just that big of a bitch.”
Lily screamed and threw a punch at Jeff’s face, but he easily deflected it. “I really don’t like hitting girls, even if they are Azazel’s flunkies, but if you keep throwing punches, I will defend myself.”
Lily threw a kick aimed for Jeff’s crotch. He caught her foot in midair, twisting it around until she face-planted in the dirt. “I told you. Stop while you’re ahead. Or at least fight another girl. After you turned traitor on the group, I’m not above smacking you around a little.”
“Bite me.” Lily pushed off the ground and wiped the dirt from her face with the back of her hand.
“Oh, for goodness sake,” I said, shaking out my arms and rolling my shoulders, “if she wants to fight, let her fight.” I took a fighting stance. “C’mon, this is what you’re here for right? To have another go at me? You’re jealous—”
She swung, and I blocked the blow easily. “I’m not jealous of yo
u.”
I made a quick jab. I knew I connected with her face when the familiar pain of a successful hit spread through my hand. She glared at me and spat a wad of mucus next to my foot. I made the mistake of looking at that grossness and not watching Lily. She got a fairly good hit in. I flicked my thumb over my lip to wipe away the trickle of blood.
“Oh, Lily, yes you are jealous.” I feigned a right and landed a left. “You’re afraid Chay likes me a little too much. I’ve seen the way you look at him. Looks like yours only mean one thing—you’ve got it bad, don’tcha?”
Lily screamed and landed a nice roundhouse to the side of my head. I stumbled, taking a second to shake it off. She came at me with a jab to the abdomen. I blocked it with a grunt.
I swept her feet out from under her. She fell on the ground. One knee in her back, my head down as I tried to catch my breath, I panted when I spoke, “All those months of secretly wanting him and he never noticed you. Now the new girl is hanging around, and you’re jealous.” I stood and kicked the dirt wet with her mucus at her. “You know what? You should be jealous.”
Lily stood and stepped to the side. I mimicked her movement. My gaze stayed locked on her. We circled each other like a pair of those wind-up ballerinas in a cheap jewelry box. I waited for her tell. I knew she’d make her move soon. I just had to wait her out. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw my group lined up in front of the group that came with Lily. Yeah, they had my back.
“He’d never touch you,” she ground out between clenched teeth.
“Oh, but you’re wrong.” I pouted. “Poor Lily. He has touched me, and now that you’re out of the picture for good, I’m gonna get everything you wanted.”
She started to circle faster. Her eyes darted from my eyes to my side and back again.
Yeah. Go for it.
She screamed and threw a kick at my right side. I sidestepped, but I still caught some of the impact. It was enough to make me eat dirt. I rolled and scissored my legs, knocking her legs out from under her. She fell next to me with a grunt. We recovered and jumped to our feet almost simultaneously. She threw a jab. I blocked it just before I made contact with a palm-heel strike to the head, knocking her on her ass, dazed.
“Milayna, if you keep knocking that poor thing on the head, you’re gonna give her permanent brain damage,” my dad called as he and Chay’s dad walked toward us from the parking lot.
“Dad…” I threw my arms out at my sides before letting them drop and smack against my thighs. “She doesn’t need a brain to work for Azazel.”
He shrugged. “True.”
“Damn, girl. What are you, a black belt?” Jeff looked at me with wide eyes.
“Brown.” I smiled at Jeff just as a flash of blinding white light lit up the football field. I shielded my eyes with my hand. “What was that?”
“Just Azazel having a little temper tantrum, that’s all. We might have a demon or two show up,” Chay’s dad said behind me. I glanced at him over my shoulder. His hands fisted at his sides.
“Great. I can’t wait.” Goose bumps broke out across my skin, and I shivered.
He looked at me and smiled. “No worries.”
“Well, since I’m new at this stuff, what do we do now? Do we fight? Do we run?” I looked at the group of teenagers that arrived with Lily.
One burly boy with fists the size of Christmas hams gawked at me and smiled. “We fight until you give up and join us. Azazel needs you.”
“Then I guess it’s going to be a long fight.” I opened my mouth to say something else, but the ham-hand guy punched me. If Chay hadn’t knocked into him, I’d have been laid out next to Lily in the dirt.
Oh, is this over yet? Can we just agree to disagree and go home? I want to curl up in bed and forget all about this. I already hurt. I’m such a baby.
That one hit was all it took to start things, and for a second, I froze. It wasn’t at all like the small tiff I had with Lily. Nope. They didn’t fight one at a time. A tangle of arms and legs kicking and punching covered the football field. The hobgoblins ran with glee through the maelstrom, cheering the demi-demons on.
Oh crap. I’m so not ready for this shit. Remember my training. Empty my mind. My body knows the moves. Let it take over. Don’t overthink. React. Protect. And get the hell out.
My brain stopped working. There was too much. Where did I go? Which person did I fight? Who did I help first? There were too many thoughts… too many bodies tumbling over each other… blood, grunts, the sound of flesh hitting flesh. I swallowed down the bile that rose in my throat.
Get it together. Your group needs you. You can’t stand here like a wuss. Do your job.
And then she walked up to me with her pretty, blonde hair and a small smile. I couldn’t believe someone who looked as sweet and innocent as she did could be one of Azazel’s army… until she launched a round-kick to my head that sent me to my knees. My ears rang from the hit and the side of my face throbbed. I decided she didn’t look so sweet and innocent, after all. Anger bubbled from a place deep in my belly. I shook my head once and forced myself to move. Swinging my arms, I jumped to my feet.
Once I was standing, I didn’t waste precious seconds returning her kick. She fell back a few steps before advancing again. I deflected two of her strikes before she landed another across my jaw. I was all at once thankful for the years my parents forced me to take Tae Kwon Do and every other type of martial art instead of the piano lessons I wanted to take.
The next time she tried to kick me, I was ready. I grabbed her foot and yanked her forward, knocking her off-balance. As she fell toward me, I landed an uppercut to her nose, knocking her backward. Blood spurted, and she screamed in pain. I winced. I really disliked physical violence, but I wasn’t going to stand on principle and get my butt handed to me either.
I looked to my side and saw Jen had her fight under control. Shayla seemed fine too. I turned in a circle, looking for Muriel. I couldn’t find her and worried she’d gotten separated from the group and needed help, but I couldn’t go look for her.
I saw my dad get hit so hard that he fell to the ground. A huge guy bent over and hitched him up by the arms, holding him for a second guy—who was built like a model for a bodybuilder magazine—to land another hit.
Dad! Two against one. I’m coming. Hold on… hold on.
Anger shot through my veins, and I sprinted toward him. Heat ran through my body. I could feel the map of my veins as my fiery blood shot through them. But a weight sat in the middle of my chest, heavy and painful. As hot as my blood was shooting through my veins at an inhuman rate, the rock in my chest was just as cold, freezing the area around it, constricting the tissue, hardening the muscle it touched. But it was there, from my ice-cold center, that I tapped into the rage that zinged down each nerve, turned my sight red, and cleared my head of everything but the fight and protecting my group—my family.
My dad’s attacker’s back was to me. When I kicked my foot up between his legs, he crumpled to the ground.
Doesn’t matter how big they are. A swift kick to the frank and beans does the trick every time.
“I didn’t think you’d be the one saving me,” my dad said with a wry smile. His lip was already swelling, blood trickling from the side of his mouth and a cut high on his cheekbone. The demi-demon still held him from behind. “This is gonna hurt,” my dad muttered before he bent his head forward and threw a wicked head-butt into the guy behind him.
“Think of it as teamwork.” I threw a jab at the guy still holding my dad and his hold loosened enough that he slipped from his arms.
“Milayna!” my dad yelled, his eyes wide.
A pair of strong arms wrapped around me from behind and lifted me off the ground. Helpless, I watched as the two much younger demi-demons regained their strength and attacked my dad, throwing punches and kicks so quickly and often that my dad wasn’t able to keep up. His knees crumpled beneath him, and he collapsed against the sandy ground.
I strugg
led against the person that held me. I kicked and screamed, but my arms were pinned and my feet didn’t connect. I tried to head-butt him, but he anticipated the move and kept his head tilted and out of reach.
I looked around the football field. Everyone was in the middle of their own fight. I was alone with the kid, locked in his iron grip. He dragged me to the middle of the field and tossed me down on the grass. The hobgoblins ran over, jumping up and down on their short, stumpy legs.
“Milayna,” they called. “Finally, you’ve come to play.”
I looked around, frantic. “Chay!”
“He’s busy. It’s just you and me.” The gigantic boy smiled and rolled his shoulders.
I screamed again. But no one could hear me over the noise of the fight.
“Come with us, Milayna, and all this ends. Your friends walk away and live normal lives. We’ll let your parents live in peace, and Azazel will treat you like a princess. You just have to say the word.”
“Go to Hell,” I whispered.
“You first.”
The earth started to shake, and the ground vibrated under me. I’d have thought it was an earthquake if we’d lived in California, but we didn’t get many earthquakes in Michigan. The ground swelled beneath me, and I tried to pull myself to my feet. The boy grabbed me by the hair and kneed me in the stomach. The breath rushed out of my lungs, and I fell to the ground on my hands and knees, coughing and gasping for air.
What the hell is going on? Doesn’t anyone else see this?
The earth moved, dipping and rising, tossing me to and fro like the tilt-a-whirl ride at a carnival. I tried to steady myself, but the rippling movement grew larger and more intense until the earth caved in, like a sinkhole. A yellow light shone from the bottom of the crater, piercing through the darkness.
I screamed and tried to scramble away. The boy tried to kick me back toward the hole, but I grabbed his foot and yanked as hard as I could. He lost his footing on the unsteady ground and slid down into the gulley, disappearing into the hole. I cringed at the sound of his screams.
I pushed up from the ground and crawled on all fours away from the hole. The ground was still rippling, like clothes hanging in the wind, and I slid backward. Desperate, I grabbed for whatever I could get my fingers around. I hitched my arm in a deep crevice. My arm stretched down and dug into the packed dirt. I held on, hoping the dirt wouldn’t give way and send me sliding down the side of the bowl-like depression and into the glowing hole at the bottom—and straight to Hell.