Inferno Above

The Beginning

The Demon

In a world growing with iniquity, one can forget what it means to live in peace and harmony. Joy and happiness quietly wither away. It has been 30 years since the first attack of the demons, otherwise known as the shadows. Only major cities have survived the shadows onslaught, building enormous and impassable barriers that enclose the entire town, above and below. Although the human's technology is advancing to keep the shadows at bay, the demons are becoming much stronger with every passing day the humans fail to counter their onslaught. That is why the humans are now preparing, the young and old, to become slayers. And for the first time, they are ready.

Madison, who recently graduated from the city's slayers establishment, dolefully waits inside the parked car on the side of the street for her older brother to return. The bright sky was beginning to fade as she looked through the cities transparent demon barricade. Her brother informed her that he would be in and out from the market before she knew it. Yet, it has been over half an hour.

Impatiently, Madison began to look for her phone in her red athletic bag to call him as the night sky was impulsively expanding. The moment her fingers slid across the phone's cold case in her bag, however, her brother deviously walked out of the store as the automatic doors closed behind him. As she watched him, she let the phone slip pass her fingertips and lobbed the red bag back down to the car's floor.

Her brother quickly got in the driver's side of the car and carelessly threw the four full plastic bags of items he had just purchased in the back seat.

Madison scowled over at her brother. "What took you so long, Alex?" She irritably asked him. "You know we can't stay out past dusk."

He caught the warning in her voice and knew precisely what she meant. "Just relax, would ya?" He started the car and the engine roared to life. "We have plenty of time." He looked forward and drove the car away from the sidewalk and onto the deserted street.

"Hmph." Madison grumbled and sat back in her seat, taking in the familiar scenery as her brother drove them back to their apartment. For the remainder of the ride, they both sat in silence. Only the soft tunes from the stereo played in the background.

After parking the car under the apartment building in the municipal garage, Madison quickly reached behind her for the four plastic bags in the back seat and got out of the car. She immediately began striding away from the car. Alex sighed and hurried to catch up to her, locking the car's doors behind him.

"Let me take those, Mads." He moaned, trying to grab the bags from her shaking hands.

"No, I got it." She pulled the bags away from his reach and kept strutting towards the elevator on the far end of the parking lot.

Alex exhaled loudly once more and put his hands in his pockets and looked down for the rest of the walk.

Once they made it up to their apartment, Madison went to unpack the contents of the four bags which happened to be full of food and other necessary items into the cabinets in the kitchen.

Short of word, Alex paced unswervingly to the bathroom to wash his face with cold water and then to glance at himself in the mirror for an extensive amount of time. After, he apprehensively grabbed a towel off the nearby rack and dried his face. He then walked out of the bathroom and back into the kitchen only to find that Madison was missing. His heart skipped for only a second until he heard a soft sob coming from the other side of the counter. Now at ease, Alex leisurely sauntered around the island in the middle of the kitchen and noticed Madison on the stone floor firmly clutching her knees to her chest. Alex soundlessly crouched down next to her and wrapped his an arm around her trembling body, holding back his emotions which were dying to join her.