• My brother use to speak to me about things that I had no clue about. I use to love to hear his stories of demons being destroyed by demon slayers. He would get so into it, there were times that I believed that he was actually there. And when I got older, I found out that he really was in each and every fight that he spoke about. My brother became the man that I looked up to.

    By the time I turned seven, my father got me into this training program. He did the work himself. I never understood why he was doing such a thing. I was so confused. But I worked on it anyway. It was a great training program that got me into shape. I worked on it until my father thought I did good. My brother was always patting me on the back, saying how proud he was to have me as a sister.

    I didn’t understand what they were fretting about until I met Kaharu. He was . . . different. We spoke often down at the park. He refused to go anywhere near the other kids. I found it strange, but accepted it. I was a naïve ten year old at the time.

    One day he asked if he could come over to my house. I found no reason why he shouldn’t. My house was walking distance. I took Kaharu home, walking hand—in—hand with him. My father was instantly angered by the sight of him. My brother looked all too stunned to see me holding hands with a boy.

    At least, that was what I thought at the time.

    Kaharu was never seen again. My brother started to educate me in the arts of demon slaying and how to detect a demon from a human, even when one looked like a human.

    That’s how I found out that sweet, brown eyed, messy black haired Kaharu was not in fact of Asian blood. He was a demon who took me in just so that he could mess with my head, and he never meant a single word that he said.

    Still, there are times during my teenage years that my thoughts linger to him. More than once, Kaharu had told me that he loved me. I wanted to hear him say that again to me. Just to know there was someone out there that knew I didn’t have cooties at such an age still. He flattered me all the time.

    I got older. My brother and I got to know each other better. He was actually the one who got our father to bring me on a real demon slaying business. I defeated two imps that were terrorizing two teenage girls. My father started to recognize my talent and started to take me along for the ride.

    Shortly after I graduated out of high school, I put all the demon slaying behind me. Before I went off to college to start my life a new, my mother sat me down while I was packing and looked serious about something.

    “Sweetie, there are things out there that you may not know about fully,” my mother started. “But I know that you are very talented. Samantha, I think you should know now. I’m a witch. Your brother got nothing of my genes, while you got the sensitiveness to the creatures around you. It will help you one day. When you choose your friends who will be with you forever. Do you understand, Samantha?”

    “Yeah, I understand, mom,” I replied. “Now can I finish packing? I have to do this now or else I could be late for my first day of college.”

    A few weeks into college I got a phone call from my brother. I was taken out of class because he said that it was urgent. I picked up the phone with shaking hands.

    “John? What is wrong? What has happened? Is grandma dead?” I questioned. My bottom lip was shaking. Oh! My poor grandmother, she’s been in the hospital for days on end. Breathing was becoming hard on her, and recently she told me that she just wanted to give up and die.

    “No, it’s not grandma, sis,” my brother said on the other line. His voice was filled with static, like he was outside with the wind blowing. But it was still obvious that something was upsetting him. My hands shook as I set down in a nearby chair as he explained to me.

    Mom had fallen asleep last night and never woke up. The doctors couldn’t explain what happened, but John said that it was something to do with magic overload. Mother barely used her magic for anything. It built up and stopped her heart while she was fast asleep.

    John had seen what happened to our father. He was killed by an oncoming demon. They were slaying a pack of them when it happened. My brother told me that the funeral for them would be soon. Well, the viewing, since it was both my mother’s and father’s dream to be cremated when they died. A demon can take over a body after it has been killed. That’s how most are able to be human. It’s only available to the powerful demons.

    At the viewing, my brother told me that he was going to sell the house without even removing anything inside of it.

    “John, you can’t sell it!” I shouted at him as we sat on the steps of the house. My heart ached as I stared at the old fashioned mansion. My parents were to never return. Maybe that’s why John wanted to sell it so badly. He lived in the house with Mom and Dad. Every day he would see it empty.

    “I have to, Sam. First off, I need to get on with my life. I lived with Mom and Dad because I was in the business of demon slaying. Now that there’s barely any demons here that will do anything to harm the public, I have to go somewhere else. I’ll need to sell it to a demon slaying family, though. This town can get crowded with different kinds of creatures all the time.” John’s brown eyes stared at the ground with a solemn look inside of them.

    “How about I take it off your hands for you?”

    John looked up at me, surprised. “Samantha, no! You have a college life thriving. It would be a burden to have you take care of such a bit house all by yourself. I’ll sell it. People are already come up here asking about it. You don’t have to worry about a thing.”

    “I want to go back to demon slaying. Sure, I’ll be the first demon slayer with an art teaching degree, but I’ll do it. You don’t have to worry about a thing, John.” I rested a hand on his shoulder. “This place was where I grew up. I can’t just let it go so easily, John. I want to live here myself. Okay?”

    He smiled lightly. Tousling my hair, he said, “Alright. Just remember that I’ll be checking up on you every now and then. Do you understand?”

    “Yes, sir!” I gave him a sharp, military salute. He ended up laughing. I stayed the night there in my old room. It hadn’t changed at all for a long time. I never redecorated it during high school. It still had a junior girl look to it.

    The next morning I went to college like there was nothing wrong.