Page 1 of Demon's Desire

1

I gave both of my parents one last goodbye hug and took a deep breath as I left the house. I went around to the passenger side of the truck in front of my house and hopped inside.

“Finally.” Kelly, my best friend, laughed as she started the car. “You ready to go?”

“Shut up.” I rolled my eyes and smiled, waving at my parents standing in the doorway. “Wave so my mom feels better.”

I’d already said goodbye to my little sister this morning before she went to school, and I’d said goodbye to a few school friends over the past few days. All the loose ends were finally tied up, and I was ready to go. Right now, my purse was in my lap, and everything else I owned was in the U-Haul trailer attached to the back of Kelly’s pickup.

“It’s ten thirty,” Kelly groaned as she drove off. “I wanted to leave an hour ago.”

“Yeah, you were also supposed to be here three hours ago,” I pointed out. “You arrived an hour ago.”

“I never said it was your fault.” She chuckled. Kelly had bright red hair, and her pale skin was covered in freckles. Her wide blue eyes made her look like some kind of fantasy character, and her face was sharp and well defined. She had always been the ripped jeans and combat boots type, and that was no different today. “Put on some music. It’s happening! We’re on our way!”

I grinned and grabbed the aux cord. “We’ve only been talking about it for a year.”

“A year too long.” She smirked. “I still say we should have dropped out of UT and gone to Chicago last summer.”

“Right,” I scoffed. “Your mom would have killed you.”

“Which is why we didn’t,” she reminded me. “But when I got my degree, she said I was free to go.”

I put on some of Paramore’s new stuff and leaned my head back. That was really Kelly’s mother’s only rule. As long as she got a degree, Kelly could do whatever she wanted. My parents were far more strict than that. It was one of the reasons I wanted to leave. “I can’t wait to be more than two hours away from the place I grew up.”

“Me too,” Kelly agreed.

After a moment, I turned the music up and looked out the window. I glanced in the side mirror at myself. I had dark blond hair that I kept long, down to around my shoulder blades. It was a little wavy, so I usually curled it at the end. I had green eyes that apparently came from one of my grandparents. In terms of actual appearance, I looked incredibly different from Kelly. Her features were defined, while mine were round and soft. My mom had always told me I had a baby face. That had been cute when I was seven, but by the time I was thirteen, I hadn’t been a fan anymore. I was always hoping my face would change when I got older, that it would look more adult. That never actually happened. I still looked the exact same.

I looked away from the mirror and watched the houses fly by as Kelly drove her truck and the U-Haul trailer attached to it through the residential streets. I knew every street we passed. I knew who lived there, what they did for work, and how their grandkids were doing.

I wanted to go somewhere I didn’t know, somewhere I could see things I’d never see here. Chicago seemed like the perfect kind of place. We had gone to a national track event hosted in Chicago once back in high school, and I’d loved it for the week we were there. And I know, that sounds kind of stupid, but it wasn’t like I’d ever been anywhere else.

Besides, we did have friends in the area. There were about a half-dozen people from college that we could meet up with and who could help us get to know the city, so it wasn’t like we were on our own. We had some connections. We had an apartment in Uptown, right next to the beach. We each had enough money in our savings to last a few months, which was perfect for Kelly, since she already had a job lined up. She was just transferring from one Starbucks to another. For me… Well, I had a nice cushion, but I’d need to work on finding a job almost as soon as we got to Chicago.

“You know, Chicago is lousy with bars,” Kelly said after a while. “You can totally get another bartending job.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” I agreed. “It’s simple. I’m good at it. It pays pretty well.”

“That’s how I feel about Starbucks. Except that most of my customers here are assholes.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m hoping Chicago is somehow nicer.”

I laughed at that and picked up my phone. I went through the photos I’d downloaded of the new place. It was so cute. There was technically only one bedroom, with the other being a ‘spare room,’ but it would totally work as a bedroom, even if it was kind of small. There was a nice dining room, an acceptable kitchen, and a big living room with massive windows. I smiled to myself as I looked at the pictures. This was going to be fun.

We drove for ten hours until we got to St. Louis and stopped for the night. The next morning, we were on the road by nine. The driving itself was uneventful. A lot of small conversions about how excited we were and listening to a lot of pop punk, plus a lot of texts from my mom asking if Kelly was following the speed limit. But after a grand total of fifteen hours on the road, the map finally said we were in Chicago.

It took a while before I really saw anything besides the highway, but when I did see it, I saw it all at once. It was like suddenly becoming aware of a light that had been on since you walked into the room. It was far into the distance, but there it was. I could see the skyline…

My chest got tight when I realized how close we were. Up until now, none of it had felt real. Like, any second, Kelly might say she changed her mind and wanted to go home, or our landlord would call and say that there was a problem and we couldn’t stay there and we’d need to turn around. Like… it wouldn’t actually happen, and I’d wake up tomorrow in my old bedroom.

Instead, I watched the skyline grow bigger and bigger, more real each bit we drew closer. Eventually, Kelly took an exit, then we drove alongside the coast. It was the first thing that pulled my focus away from the skyline. It was so beautiful, and it was full of small boats sailing across the water.

“Wow…” I whispered. “I’ve never seen anything besides the Gulf of Mexico.”

Kelly glanced over. “It’s gorgeous out there. Galveston is pretty too, but you’re right. It’s nice to see something new.”

We drove along Lake Shore for a few minutes. Once we drove past the sets of buildings, a smile pulled at my face. I couldn’t believe this was happening.

Eventually, we turned left away from the shore and down actual streets. We were getting closer to places that I’d seen on the internet, and it wasn’t more than a few minutes before Kelly started to pull into a small alley.

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