Demon Girl by Penelope Fletcher Page B

pounded double time as every instinct I had
screeched at me to run and hide. They really were looking for me,
and knew the one they sought was a Disciple. The Lady Cleric’s gaze
slowly passed over every female face in the group as she replied to
Cleric Tu. My stomach clenched and sweat beaded my brow. Did her
gaze linger on me? Did she hesitate to move on, or was it my
imagination?
    I wanted to scream at her that it was an
accident. That I had no idea what all the crazy stuff happening
around me meant, nor did I want to. I wanted to rewind a day, back
to when things were simple. Where my life made sense and where boys
spoke and acted normally. Where Clerics were the good guys who
protected us from demons and my teachers were not heartless
murderers.
    The Lady Cleric scanned our faces once more
than shook her head once. She left with Tu close behind her,
whispering something to him.
    What did I do? Surely if they had identified
the Disciple in the forest was me, they would have hauled me out
the class.
    Alex glanced over her shoulder at the
retreating Cleric, but was otherwise uninterested. Ro was more on
ball, and his eyes narrowed as he watched me. Too messed in the
head to try and be subtle, I glared at him, daring him to comment.
Well, there was nothing I could do. I’d had enough of being
stressed out. Slouching back into my chair, I kicked up a leg on
the empty seat opposite and mud fell off my soles.
    “…Are you even listening to me?” Alex
asked.
    “I’m sorry, what? Oh, yes,” I said. “Yes, I
do remember.”
    The Rupture was a global slaughter that had
nearly wiped the entire human race of the face of the planet. It
had changed everything. Vampires had emerged from the shadows one
winter dragging all manner of wicked with them, and in one clean
sweep had consumed the earth. Shapeshifters had prowled the streets
in daylight. Hunting were-bears, were-lions and
were-whatever–the-hell-you-can-think-of had feasted on human flesh.
Goblins tore people limb from limb and roasted them in
dumpster-sized stew pots. Raped the screaming women, and produced
more deformed offspring. Powerful witches cast spells that stopped
the hearts of entire cities, made all things in a thousand-mile
radius just stop.
    Within weeks governments had fallen.
Monarchy’s had been eliminated, a warped genocide, madness. No one
but the crazies who had believed in such things was prepared. They
knew how to protect themselves with stakes and silver, hiding
places underground. Otherwise only the strong, quick and the smart
had survived. The barbaric culling of the human race left us
scattered across the world in tiny pockets of civilization.
Communities of people who put aside old hates based on colour and
religion, and blended together until the human race was a
convergence unlike anything ever predicted. We lived in an
overcrowded region of land surrounded by electricity, a patch of
city untouched by the horror Outside.
    At least, that’s what the Priests told us in
their sermons. Most people alive now-a-days were too young to
remember what had happened, and the old ones who had experienced it
had died of old age years before. Against all odds endangered
humankind had survived and had the Sect to thank. A group of human
men and women had erected the Wall, and set the strongest of us as
guardians. Determined to keep fighting and to survive at all costs,
they selected new protectors from the masses seeking sanctuary and
trained them to hunt the monsters that had stolen the planet. Those
protectors were the Clerics. They hunted down any demon that dared
step on our territory. Of course I remembered the Rupture; it was
something I, nor any other being, would ever forget.
    Clicking her fingers in front of my face,
Alex flicked my nose and I recoiled. She smirked, happy to have
broken into my down time. “You wanna end up like the people who
lost their lives for nothing?”
    “Wouldn’t call marching up to the closest
demon and trying to