Demon Hunters: The Beginning

Chapter One

                                                                Human World: Twenty Two Years Later

 "Take your little brother with you outside please."

Amanda turned her head from watching TV to look at her mother.

"What do you mean outside?" she asked and her mothers brown eyes met her blue eyes.

"I mean get up from in front of the damn TV and go outside." she came up behind Amanda and tapped her on the back of the head with her open palm, "And stop talking back to me."

Amanda grunted, not feeling the urge to go outside into the cold weather. It wasn't going to snow or anything, they had lived in South Florida all her life and she hadn't seen snow once, but it was cooler than she was used to this year.

"Watch him while you're out there- he's not allowed in the woods." Her mother said lifting the broom to smack Amanda with it for making the sound.

Amanda stood quickly from the couch to avoid the broom and walked through an arched entrance into the kitchen. Her younger brother sat hovering over something at the wooden table in the middle of the kitchen. When he sensed her presence in the room, he looked up and smiled at her. He had the same brown eyes their mother had and they twinkled as he held up the piece of paper he was coloring.

"Look Mandy, I drew another picture." he announced, coming down from the chair and approaching her quickly.

Amanda smiled at her little brother and looked at the picture he had just handed her. Her smile faded as she saw what the picture was. There was a rough picture of a man and a monster, the man wore a crown and the monster had big, red, crossed eyes. They stood next to a giant blue circle that had been colored in a spiral pattern.

"What's this Sebastian?" she asked pointing at the picture.

"That's the Demon King and his stupid friend Pu." he spoke lowering his voice.

"Now, what did mom say about calling people stupid?"

"I know," he said taking his picture out of her hand and walking back to the table, "But he really is- he steals children from their homes for the King!"

Amanda smiled at him and patted his straight brown hair, the same hair as their mothers. Her younger brother had been drawing similar pictures like that for a month now, but they usually didn't have monsters in it. Amanda listened to his stories of a world where Demons ruled and vigilante justice was common, his own private imaginary world she only assumed. His birthday was in one week, he was turning seven and his imagination ran wilder than most seven year olds she noticed. He was very detailed when it came to the stories he told Amanda.

Sebastian set his paper down on the table and looked up at her, "I heard mom say you have to take me outside Mandy."

Amanda smiled again at her brother "Well of course you did, did you also hear her say you're not allowed in the woods?"

He ran to the sliding glass door that opened to the backyard and started to unlock it.

"Wait- you need to put your shoes on, and a jacket too, it's a little chilly out." Amanda said running to the door to stop him.

"No I don't Mandy, come on let's go!" he exclaimed and slid the door open.

Before she could reach out and grab his arm he darted out the back door and into the yard. Amanda followed quickly, knowing her brother would disappear into the woods where he wasn't allowed to go. Their backyard was a good size but they were surrounded by a pine tree forest, with palmetto bushes scattered throughout it. There were a couple of oak trees that stood out, but there was one in particular she knew her brother would be standing at.

All she had to do was follow the small path to that oak tree. "Sebastian! You know you're not supposed to come back here!" she called watching her feet as she walked to avoid tripping over one of the palmetto bushes.

She finally made it into the clearing where the oak tree was and felt her arms prickle as the wind picked up. The tree was stubby, but full. It looked like at some point it had been split, by lightning most likely, but the tree had continued to grow out in its odd shape. The branches came out and brushed the ground around the back side of the tree but, in the front, where Sebastian was currently standing, it was completely open, like someone had taken the other half of the tree somewhere else. Amanda came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Come on buddy- mom is going to be pissed, and I'm not going to get yelled at, plus its cold out here and I forgot my jacket."

"But wait-" he said pushing her hand off his shoulder, "We have to wait for Rex to come through the Portal. I promised him he could meet you this time."

Amanda rolled her eyes at him and stood in silence as they waited. The wind picked up a little more and Amanda had to push her curly red hair out of her eyes so she could watch Sebastian stare at the middle of the tree.

He turned to look back at her with a frown on his face.

"It's not opening Mandy- what's wrong with the portal?" he asked in a fearful tone.

"Maybe you didn't say the magic word?" Amanda suggested sarcastically.

Sebastian's eye brows shot up and he smacked his forehead, "That's right! I did forget the magic world," he cleared his throat and lifted his left hand in front of him, towards the tree, "Orenda!" he yelled and waiting, his hand still in front of him.

He looked back at her again, a pained look on his face, "It's still not opening."

"Well it's not the end of the world Sebastian, maybe it's in the middle of a remodel or something."

"The portal's never been broken before." he said, looking back at the tree and dropping his hand.

Amanda sighed and knelt down onto one knee so she could look at Sebastian in his eyes.

"Honey you know that when you get older your brain starts to slow down and your imagination will become less and less as fun as it was without people looking at you funny. You don't want people looking at you funny do you?" She smiled at her brother as he continued to frown, crossing his arms against his chest.

"It's not my ima- imag-"

"Imagination."

"It's not that." he said frustrated he couldn't pronounce the word right as he turned to look back at the front of the tree, "The portal always works."