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When Princess Alicia returned, I'd finally regained control over myself, and though my face was still a little red (from my tears that is, because I was not- I repeat, I was not blushing!! At all!!! ...mostly.) I looked fine. Daniel stood up and held out his hand, but I couldn't figure out what it was for. He looked a little discouraged, "You don't trust me?"

I gave him a confused look, "What? I never said I don't trust you, but...um...what are you doing with your hand?"

He merely grabbed my hand and helped me to my feet, much to my confusion. He looked at me for a moment, "So if you fall or anything, no one helps you up?"

I turned my head slightly sideways, "Well why would they? I mean, we can help ourselves up."

He sighed, and ruffled my hair, "Well, you don't have to do it, but it's kind of a courtesy- you know, a symbol of someone trying to be nice to you."

"And messing with my hair like that?" I asked, completely serious.

He shrugged, "It's what people do when they're just playing with-"

"It means he's trying to flirt with you." Alicia smiled.

He turned towards Alicia, and I felt myself blush, just the tiniest bit. "Hey!" He shouted, running at her playfully. She ducked slightly, "Don't say that! Alli, you'll scare her! Come on, we don't even know each other."

She laughed heartily, "Awww, it's love at first sight! And to think you were in the hospital this morning. You seem fine now." He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her down, just a little, and messed with her hair, too. "Oh, brother don't do that! I'm the princess, I have to go out in public with this hair!"

I watched them both laugh and smile, and I swear, I could just feel the joyous aura seething from their bodies that lingered in the air of the most morbid scenerio possibly imaginable- one of them was just stabbed, one of them blamed me for his stabbing, and I was almost executed because of it. I simply could not understand how they could be this happy; were they always this way? And yet, despite my confusion for it, as I watched them goof around, I realized that I was jealous of it. Me! I was a demonic, and here I was, jealous of an always-busy princess, and a powerless human. Because they were happy. Ha! What a great demon I turned out to be.

After a moment, they seemed to remember that I was there, and Alicia asked, "So...oh, god what's your name again? I'm sorry but despite all this, I don't think I remembered your name."

"Ket-Ketsueki." I answered.

"Hmm...well, I mean no offense, but that's a very strange name. Is it normal, back where you live?" she asked.

I nodded, "Yes. Everyone's name has a certain meaning, my name, it um...it means blood. My last name, too- Chishio."

They both hesitated, "Why were you named Blood Blood?" Daniel asked, looking totally serious despite his joke.

I looked at the ground, and squirmed a little, uncomfortable with the question. "I-It's a long story...I'm sorry, but I'd really prefer not to talk about it."

"Well, I mean, you're not dangerous to us, are you? You don't need to like, feed on human blood every few days or so or you die, right?"

I shook my head and looked down and to the left as I spoke, "No, I don't need to feed on people or anything. I mean, all demons need to eat sometimes, but we usually just eat whatever animals we manage to catch. Even if you're Air-lits, you must eat sometimes, too. Right?"

Alicia nodded, "Yeah, we eat too." she laughed, "I think anything that's alive has to eat, so don't worry about that. And Ketsi-" I winced at the name, and they seemed to notice, "Oh, do you mind if I call you Ketsi? I'm sorry, Ketsueki is kind of a long name, so I just thought-"

"No, no, I don't mind if you shorten my name a little, just, um..my aunt calls me Ketsi."

She looked away, looking completely guilty, "Oh, that's right, we kind of took you away from your family, didn't we? Well, what are you going to now? Do you...are you going to go home or...do you still want to stay here?"

"W-well actually-" I started, but Daniel interrupted, "Sis, I kind of offered to let her stay with us. She seems fine, and I don't think she's dangerous. Just make sure she stays inside so none of the guards see her and go berserk, and she'll be okay. Besides, then we know we can trust the information we hear about Demonics, because I know you wanted to know more about them. So if, for some reason, someone twists her words because they don't like her or something...well, we won't have to worry about it."

Alicia looked thoughtful for a moment, and then nodded, "Okay, well if you trust her, Danny, then I trust her. But," she added, turning to me, "If she wants to do that, though, she'll never be allowed outside. We'll have to fetch whatever food it is she wants, or whatever clothes and things she needs, but she could never go outside. I'd think of it more like living in a prison than anything."

"Oh," He said, realizing the truth of her words. He looked disappointed, and turned to me, "Well, you probably wouldn't want that, would you?"

"I'd be okay with it." I said, completely surprising them both, "I said I'd rather stay with the Air-lits than my own kind, and honestly, you two are the only ones I trust. If you brought me anywhere else, the people would be very suspicious of me, and I'd probably be killed anyways because of some anti-demonic guard that doesn't trust I won't hurt anyone. Besides, if I'm in hiding all the time, people will probably forget I even exist and will begin to trust you once more because I know for a fact that some of them are probably doubting your judgement skills right now."

Alicia nodded, "Okay, yeah, I guess I understand that. But are you sure? I mean, you could never go outside. Ever."

I sighed, "I know, and I know it's probably going to bug me sometimes that I won't get to fly, or even talk to people much anymore. Afterall; you are the princess, and well, if he's your brother he is a prince, so you two will be busy most of the day, and..." I saw their expressions, and said, "What?"

"Well actually, even though Danny is my brother, he's not really a prince. You see, he's not really...from here." Alicia said.

"What...what do you mean?" I asked, "He didn't live with the demonics or anything, did he?"

They looked at each other, deciding whether or not to trust me, "N-no, I mean-"

"I'm not...from this world." He said. I looked at him skeptically, and he explained, "I'm not kidding. You see, this world, the one with demonics and Air-lits, is really a world where spirits go."

"Spirits?"

"Yeah. Everyone starts out on a different planet, they live part or most of their lives there, and when they die, their spirits are taken elsewhere. There are two possible worlds their spirits can go. If they've done a lot of bad things in their life, they're sent here, that's why you've seen so many more demonic than Air-lits. But if you've done a lot of good, you're sent to another world, one full of Air-lits with nearly no or extremely little demonic."

I stared at him as he spoke. Now as a demonic, when you grow up, a lot of people lie to you, a lot. And because there are so many people that do so many bad things, like steal from you, or vandalise your property, you learn how to tell when somebody is lying to you, and when they're not. The weirdest thing was, though, was that he was not lying. "But then...what happens when we die?" I had to ask.

"You get sent back to the first world you came from, all your memories from you last life, erased."

I shook my head in disbelief, but I knew that either this was all true, or he believed that it was. "Ket-" Alicia paused, "Suki, can we trust you with this information? You won't go blurting it to any demonic or Air-lits, or anyone?"

"No, I won't say anything." I paused, "Wait, but if this is true, what about you guys, the Air-lits? You're not demonic, what are you doing here? And how did he get here if he's 'not from here'? Exactly what do you mean?"

They both hesitated, and Alicia explained, "About a month ago, back in the world of the living, our family got in a car crash. I died and was sent here, our parents weren't hurt, and Daniel was sent into a coma. His body is in this deep sleep and has yet to wake up. Technically, he's still alive, but his soul has left his body." she sighed, "I love him, and I want to be with him, I mean, he is my brother, but...he needs to leave sometime soon. He still has a life to live, and one day, we'll see each other again." she smiled at Daniel, like she was trying to persuade him.

He shook his head, "No, I'm not going back. I want to stay here with you!"

She sighed, "It was worth a try..."

"W-wait a minute," I said, "So he can go back home anytime he wants?"

"Yes," Alicia said somberly, "But he won't go. He wants to stay with me."

"You can't blame me," he said, "Mom and dad have never understood us. Besides, I promised I would always protect you. Well, here's me keeping that promise."

"I don't want you to keep that promise if it means staying here when you don't have to! Go home, live your life! Mom and dad are waiting for you, please! Finish high school! Go to college! Find a girl! You'll see me again, maybe not soon, but you'll see me." she pleaded.

He shook his head, "No, I can't do that. And you don't know, maybe you'll be killed by the time I get back. I mean, you are the Air-lits leader."

"Wait!" I shouted, "I know she's like, royalty here and all, but she's the leader?! You said you were a princess, that's like, second in line to the throne, but you're the actual leader? And what about all the other Air-lits? What are they doing here?"

"Well," Alicia said, "Firstly, Princess is just a nickname. I like it better than Queen, cause queens are like, all snobby and stuck-up, and princesses are just pampered and cute. But why me and the other Air-lits are here, I don't know. I don't even know why Daniel is here. However; I'm guessing that they've done something wrong and have some sort of regrets, and those regrets have forced them to come here. We'll be able to leave here once we've gotten over it, other Air-lits have seen it happen. And if you're alive and you're here, like my brother, most likely, you're here for the same reason. We can see if you're still alive or not by your ears, though." She pulled her hair back, showing her elvish, pointed ears, "Notice how mine are long and pointed, while his are short and curved at the end? Live humans have those ears, but if you've died, my ears are markings of your death."

"Wow," I said, a little confused, still, "But what about us? I mean, if we've died...well, I don't remember a thing about the past. It explains a lot, of course. I've heard people talking about wives and children, but most of us aren't married, and no demonic can bear children."

"Hmm...curious," Alicia said, "Though, I'm afraid we really don't know almost anything about demonic. That's why I was so willing to take you in. First, you're part Air-lit, which is a first. And second, you're part demonic, and have grown up as such. I thought it would be helpful to get a basic understanding of at least one of the two. Though, the fact that you are half...it just astounds me."

Daniel walked towards me and put his hands on my shoulders, "So hey, now you're with us! Awesome, I have a new little sister!!" Totally surprising me, he wrapped his arms around my stomach and picked me up, and I just smiled and laughed, though I still don't know why. He smile back at me, "Ah ha!! You can smile! You were frowning for so long, I wondered if that was just your natural face."

"Ah ha ha ha ha, okay okay, now let me down!" I laughed.

He put me down and I saw them both smiling, "Okay, so you ready to go? I'd take one last quick flight around the room if I were you, cause you probably won't be doing that for a while."

I nodded, took a simple hop in the air, and flapped my wings about four or five times before I was actually airborne. I did a few flips, and dives, and flew in circles around the room, and just to show off, I hung onto a loose piece of wood on the ceiling, turned my entire body upside down, and shot off for the ground, turning back up right at the last minute, being rewarded with a short encore of clapping. Finally, I knew we should leave, so I did one last flip in the air, and landed on my feet.

"Nice," Daniel commented.

"Okay," Alicia said, "So in case any of the guards spot us, I'll walk to the house on my own. Daniel, wait about ten minutes, and then go the long way with Suki." She looked around, fining a rack of weapons on the wall. Walking towards it, she looked around, and pulled out some hand cuffs and a single key. She handed the key to Daniel, and turned to me, "Okay, just so people won't think something's up if they see you, you need to wear these cuffs. He has the key, so once you get to the house, he'll take the cuffs off of you."

I nodded, and held my hands behind my back so she could cuff them. I didn't like the feel of the cuffs, but I understood their situation, and knew that I had to do this. If anything, I could use my nails and break the cuffs like I did last time. It hurt my fingers a little, like if a human were to scratch against metal, but the difference with me was the fact that I could actually break it. So with that, Alicia left the room, and minutes later, so did we. I followed after Daniel as he led me around a group of houses and shops, and then, and only then did I realize I was following after a stranger in enemy territory, about to play prisoner to the leader of my town's greatest enemy. And the thing was...I was kind of excited about it.