Demon Games

Chapter 1

"Devi! Wake up or I swear I will pinch you so hard you won't be able to move your arm all day." Unwelcome light was filtering in through my eyelids. I made an incoherent unhappy sound in Fifi's direction and rolled over to bury my face in my pillow. Interrupting my attempts to sleep once again, a pair of hands grabbed me under my arms and hauled my backwards out of the warm comfort of my bed. I peeled my eyes open long enough to glance at the alarm clock (in a room our size we only really needed one). 

"It's not even six yet!" I yelled. Though I don't think anyone heard me judging by their reactions. Fifi, whose offending hands had disturbed my sleep just dumped me on the floor and joined Sephy who was trying and failing to wake up Felicity. I crawled back into my bed but it was useless0 once I was up, I was up. Muttering under my breath about early mornings and best friends jacked up on coffee, I made my way to the bathroom.

The first day back after the break was always the worst, probably because we all stayed up extra late the night before just to prolong the holidays. We only got four weeks off a year so we had to make them count. But even with all our procrastinating, our fifth Teen year had now begun here at the Kingdom of Night. The Kingdom is where all us with demon blood live, both royals and normals- although in different sections, the royals wouldn't want to live too close to us barbarians. No they looked down on us from their sophisticated little world across the border. All the babies were born in the communal hospital we had, but after that our lives go in completely different directions.

As soon as your born, you're whisked away from your mother to the incubator room to take the test that decides your future. You either become a royal or a normal that day depending on the results. No one apart from the government knows what it tests for, not even the nurses. If you come from a royal family but have been selected as one of the normals or vice versa then your family have a choice- they can either cut the cord completely so the baby goes to an adoptive family and is never told about their real parents or if they wish to stay in touch with their child, the baby goes into the care of the government officials that run the nursery on the other side of the border and they get to visit every other weekend. Fortunately children tend to take after their parents so this doesn't happen much.

It can get pretty messy if they try to keep in touch- after all there's a reason they keep us in different living quarters. The royals believe that the inner demon is savage and vulgar. They think that our inner demon shows itself during the hunt and so they refuse to take part. But they still need to eat and that's where we come in- we hunt for the whole Kingdom. I imagine it would be pretty difficult as a royal to watch your child grow up letting their demon in purposefully and turning into everything you think is wrong in the world- that's why most parents with a switch baby choose to cut the cord.

“Hurry up in there!” yelled Sephy through the door. Sephy wasn't her proper name- she had picked it for herself seeing as we were all given numbers not names, she was actually Teen 632. Most of the norms in our classes did this, it was just too hard with about two hundred students in every year to remember that many numbers. I was Teen 666- unfortunate right? So I wasn't given the opportunity to pick my own name, everyone would just call me Devi anyway.

I finished up in the bathroom and came out with my crazy curly, elbow length hair tied in a fish tail plait over my shoulder (it was the only way to restrict it). It was a golden brown colour. I shuffled over to the wardrobe still in my pyjama’s and picked out an oversized “Strokes” t-shirt that covered my ass and a pair of black stretch leggings with fake leather panels down the sides.

Sephy was still in the bathroom doing her extensive make up routine she did every morning, leaving Fliss banging on the door impatiently. We all found it annoying, I mean she may look like a supermodel with her long legs and glossy blond hair but that didn't mean she had to act like one- I swear sometimes she thought she was a royal, the amount of product she owned. Looking around the room I saw Fi, actually Teen 551, who had already showered, managed to make her dark black hair dead straight (with the help of thinning haircuts, anti-frizz spray, de-tangling brushes and ghd's- it was kind of an obsession), gotten dressed and packed everything for the day was waiting for me. I quickly grabbed my kit and threw the books I needed for that day into my bag, following Fi out the door. Shouting through the door

“I'll see you guys at breakfast!” to Fliss, who hollered back

“If we ever get there!” and proceeded to bang on the bathroom door.