Friendship, Love, & Death

Before the actual story...

I'll be the narrator of this book. My name is Liu Kaymen. But I go by Asher, my middle name. I'm a demon and before this, I spent my time driving people to the edge of their sanity. Sure it might seem crazy, but it was my job. My (ex-)boss, Lucifer, isn't the man everyone thinks he is. He's actually quite nice, as long as you don't upset him, oh, and don't call him Satan (he hates it). He's loyal, most of the time, he's married and he has a daughter. So... yeah.

For the first part of my life, I was human like most of you. Then, I died. I was hiking in the mountains with my girlfriend and we happened to come across a bear, a hungry one matter of fact. The bear thought we were food, I think, so I defended my girlfriend and told her to get help. She tried to call the Forest Patrol, but she didn't get a signal. So I told her that I loved her with all of my heart and to run away. She didn't listen at first and cried. She then said she loved me too and ran as fast as she could. The bear started with my lower arm, went up to my shoulder, and he ended up chewing my abdomen. That day is still very clear and I even remember what I had eaten that morning.

Anyway, once I was, you now, dead, I saw two doors. The one on the right, was an arched, gray door with a small window that let light shine through, the nob was very detailed and a light shade of blue. The other door, was a bit darker and it was bigger too. There wasn't a window and there wasn't a nob either. I didn't know what any of it meant so I just took a deep breath and chose the left door. I walked up to it and hesitated to walk in. I extended my arm and before I touched the door, I felt the atmosphere change. I didn't know what happened but when I touched it, my back started to sting. My head started hurting too, it felt like a headache. It hurt so bad that I fell to my knees and held on to my neck. I screamed in agony as my gums started throbbing. Nothing made sense then. Until the pain went away. I stood up and tried to catch my breath. The door was no longer there, instead, there was a table, and on it was a hand held mirror. I picked it up and looked at myself. There were horns on my head. Then I put the mirror at an angle to where I could see my back. On each of my shoulder blades, my shirt was ripped and there were three claw marks. I opened my mouth and saw that my canine teeth were a little longer and sharper. I put the mirror down in shock. I looked all around me but there was nothing but emptiness. I took another deep breath and shook my head. I walked forward, without any way of telling were I was going. I stretched my arms out to make sure I didn't bump into anything and I started to see a light. I ran towards it without thinking as it got brighter. Once I reached the light, I stood in front of it. There was a tall man with long horns, pale skin, a black business suit, and red shoes. I starred at him and he starred at me. He finally spoke.

"Hello, Liu," the man said in a cheery voice.

"Uh... hi," I said, "How do you know my name?"

"I know every employee's name. Why wouldn't I?" he responded tilting his head.

"Huh?" I starred with confusion.

"Well Liu, I'm Lucifer. Your new boss. You'll be assigned a job by my assistant, but don't worry, you'll be able to pick between the available jobs," the man said.

"..." I stayed quiet, trying to process all of what happened before all that, trying to connect the dots.

'I died, I grew horns, I came here... I met Lucifer...' I thought.

Alright enough.

Moving on...

"Come this way Liu," he said as he walked to the right.

I followed.

When he stopped, a door appeared in front of him.

I was still speechless.

He opened the door and there was an office inside. Like the kinds of offices a work building would have for the higher ups. He walked in, so did I. The door closed and he sat down in the chair behind the desk. He gestured to sit in the seat across from him, so I sat down too. He smiled, folded his hands on the desk and leaned back.

"So. Liu Asher Kaymen. How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Fine..." I said.

"You're lying. I know that you still feel a stinging sensation on your back," he sighed.

Once he said that, I remembered the scratch marks on my back. They didn't hurt as bad as early but they still stung then.

"Sorry," I said.

"It's fine. Why didn't you go through the other door?" he asked me.

"I... I don't really know. Was I supposed to?" I asked leaning forward a bit.

"You could have. The universe gave you a chance to choose where you went. But you chose the left door. It confuses me," He said.

--Let's skip to the part where I find out what I'll be doing.--

"This is my secretary, Caroline. She'll be helping you choose what department you'll be working in. I'll be sitting right here," he sat down in the seat next to the door.

"Hello..." she started, "What's your name?"

"Liu," I said.

"Alright, Liu," she started typing my name into her hi-tech computer, "Last name?"

"Kaymen," I said.

"Asher, correct?" she asked.

"Yes," I confirmed.

"Interesting name," she smiled, "Well, as of this week, the only jobs available, are... Grave Yard Haunter, or Professional Haunter,"

"So do I just pick one?" I asked.

Lucifer spoke up and said, "Well the first job, you go straight to work, once you pick a spot of course. But the second job, you'll need a little bit of help from some of my most successful Haunters."

I was really confused, "So what do I do?"

Caroline said, "You pick a location and you stay there from dusk until dawn, then you come back to your dorm and rest until your next shift. The second job, as Mr. L said, you'll be trained, put through two tests and when you're ready, we'll let you choose someone to torment."

"The second one seems difficult... yup... I want to do the second one," I said.

"Alright. You now have to choose a location." Caroline said turning the computer towards me.

I tapped a small town named "Swaeford" because I had never heard of such a town. I looked at Caroline and said "Here."

"Great, now I'll let you scroll through a couple of people to haunt," she said as she transferred the data from her computer to a laptop and handed it to me.

I went through men, women, girls and boys of all ages and I finally chose who I wanted to 'haunt'. It was a 14 year old boy who went by the name of "Devan Key." I have no idea why I chose him but I just felt the urge to. I gave the laptop back to Caroline. and put on a really fake smile.

Um. I'm sure this is boring to most of you, so I'll just sum the rest up for you. I went through training, I was pass proficient (my reward for passing was a pair of wings!), then Mr. L and I went to "The Human World" (as he called it) and I met Devan.

Now. Since you have survived the telling of my story, you'll read what happens to Devan's life.