Gisella and the City of Fire and Ashes

Chapter 3

My name is Jason and this is my story too.

I am twenty-two. I grew up in Dystopia Demen. It is probably the worst place that I could ever be. It is so unfriendly here. At my job at the factory the other demons tease me. They call me Human Butt Face. This is because I am half human and half demon.

My eyes are black surrounded by a pool of red but my skin is so pale I look like a ghost. I have soft, mushy human features. My teeth are nubbly like little pebbles except for my incisors which are long and sharp.

On the day when everything changed for me I was in a dark alley. I was trying to get home so I wouldn't get punished by my father for being late. But some of the other demons stopped me. Blood Boy blocked my way. He was two feet taller than me and his skin crackled like magma. He had been tormenting me since we were both hatchlings. He was the first of the brood to break through his shell using his horns.

He always hated me because I wasn't born the regular way.

"Heyyyy...human butt face," he said to me.

"Human butt face! Human butt face! Human butt face!" the other demons taunted me.

I knew that the next step was they would hurt me. They would give me a black eye. I always came home with a black eye.

I stepped back into the alley way, waiting for it to happen.

#

But this time it didn't happen.

Instead I heard a giant thud nearby. I could smell something burnt and buttery with my demon senses. I had never smelled anything like it before! Normally demons eat nothing but coal. I can't eat coal because I'm part human so I have to scavenge dead rats from the gutters which have been barbecued by the lava.

So this new smell smelled fantastic. Like something I would actually want to eat!

Blood Boy turned around to approach the source of the smell. Then a scream pierced the air.

"Human.... Attack!" Blood Boy said in his gravelly, lava-like voice.

"Charge!" yelled his gang of demons. They rushed out of the alley way and into the street. All I could hear was the sound of the whole land of demons running.

I peered out but there were too many of them. So I creeped along the walls. I was particularly good at creeping, much better than the other demons. I kept to the shadows until the demons had thundered away from me.

But what I had seen amazed me. My eyes were kind of blurry from all the demons running so all I could make out was orange hair and blue pyjamas. I thought, could this really be another human?