I always hated hearing alarm clocks, mostly because whenever one went off, it always meant the same thing: that it was time to get up and face the day. While there wasn't anything particularly wrong with that sentiment, I'd really prefer facing the day when it was late afternoon, instead of six in the morning, which was when I was usually forced to meet my eternal foe. This morning wasn't any different, as I hear could the steady, rhythmic, annoying, beating of that infernal machine as it tested my resolve to sleep against the need to get up and end the noise. Eventually the need for the noise to be ended trumped the need for sleep, and I got up and crossed the room, turning the clock off when I go there. I used to sleep with the alarm clock nearby, but after a while I knew it was either move the alarm clock, or face the fact that I was going to be late for school every day. Now, even though I had no qualms with missing my first classes, my parents had a different view. "We didn't move to a different city, and find new jobs in order for you to sleep through your first periods. Now get your ass up and get to school" was one of my father's favorite sayings. In reality I couldn't disagree with them, seeing as they had left their old jobs, and their lives, in order to put me into a better school. Saint Gregory's School for Gifted Children wasn't an easy school to get into, from anyone's vantage point. I worked my butt of trying to get better grades, take harder classes, and show off my skills. My parents had worked their butts off at their jobs, finding a way to pay tuition, and getting everything ready for the 'big move' as they called it. After all, they said, "It isn't every week you move across the country to put your child into such a special school".

As grateful as I was to be going to the school, I really wish the school hadn't been in Maine, as that was basically as far away from Montana, my home, as I wanted to be. Don't get me wrong, I liked Maine so far, but it doesn't hold a candle to Montana, and nothing ever could. At least in Montana there were more than two types of weather, unlike Maine, where it either snowed or rained on a daily basis. Maybe coming in fall didn't really help, but still, back in Montana the trees would all be turning orange and yellow, with the weather beginning to cool down. Here, it just rained. Still, there were far more things to do here then there were back in my hometown of Butte, and for that I was extremely thankful. Otherwise, I have no idea how I would have survived that first month here. Having no friends, and not having school start as of then, all I could do was drive around and look for things to do. Visiting museums, hitting up local parks, visiting the mall. Yes, boring to a degree, and lonely, but still better than doing nothing and being forced to work on gardens until school started, like my mother wanted. Still, once school started things started to pick up. The classes were hard, the work demanding, but it wasn't that bad. The worst part was that I kept trying to be the best, which really added to the stress. After a while, I made a few friends that helped make it all the more bearable. I can still remember when I first met Jenny, one of the, if not the best, friends I have ever had.

Jenny was the first person that I had met when I first came to school, mostly on accident. As I was wandering around looking for a classroom, I bumped into her, spilling my books and her art supplies around. Bending down to help her, I screamed in the most girlish voice I had ever heard and jumped away. Crawling out of her paint can was a spider. And not just some little spider, but a big, brown ugly thing. Backpedaling into the wall, I turned around and screamed " What the fuck is that thing?" She looked and began shushing me. " Shut up, or someone will hear you! It's just a spider for God's sake!" she said, giving me the death glare. I began to calm down a little as she picked the spider up, and set it back in the can. Being afraid of spiders, that nearly had me shitting my pants, and I was more than a little concerned of where that came from. Looking at her and using the last of my willpower, I spoke in a monotone voice. "Where in the hell did you get that fucking monster?" I asked, staring directly at her. She looked up and smiled at me exclaiming, " From the basement silly! There are a lot of big spiders down there! Brown ones, black ones, even a few white ones! They aren't very nice though, because every time I go down there, they try and either bite me, or run away! But that may be because they don't like the light!" I couldn't help but wonder if she had a mental deficiency or two, but still, I did knock her down, so I decided to humor her. " Well, as interesting as that is, I really have to go. So sorry for knocking you down, and good luck with....whatever it is your doing." I spoke hastily, turning to leave. ' Wait", I heard her cry from behind me, " What are you doing out in the hallways after class has started? You're going to be late!" Turning to face her, I finally had calmed down enough to get a good look at her. She was rather short, being maybe 4'7, with light brown hair, and a smattering of freckles dotting her face. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a paint stained tee-shirt. Looking at the art supplies, it was pretty easy to see where all the paint had come from. She had greenish blue eyes, and a cute little snub nose. Cute? Did I say cute? I meant normal .I looked down and muttered " Well, actually I'm lost. I've been looking for my classroom for about twenty minutes now actually." She looked down at the paper I dropped and picked it up. " Oh, you're in room 203-A? Well, you're in the completely wrong place if you're looking for that! It's on the other side of the building!" " Great", I moaned, wringing the paper in my hands, just now realizing I had probably walked past the room about twenty times, " Now I have to walk all the way back to the office and start over!" Jenny looked over and put her tongue out, thinking hard on something. " Oh I know", she said happily, ' I can take you myself!" "Really?" I asked, doubting whether or not I could trust her and her spiders. " Of course silly, it isn't that hard! And if it makes you feel better, I'll even put the spider away!" Smiling, she grabbed her supplies and my books, and handed them to me. " Oh, by the way, my name is Jenny!" Reaching out her hand, I took it and smiled. " My name is Connor, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Ever since then, we had been inseparable. Even though we had only one class together, as we later learned, we spent all our free time during school and after together. Through her I met John and James, two twins who were as opposite as they could be. James had black hair and green eyes, and always wore khakis and a button up shirt. John had blonde hair, and blue eyes, and rarely ever wore anything other than jeans and obscure band tees. James spent a majority of his time studying or reading, while John played video games and acted in the school's drama department. Despite all this, they were as close as two pees in a pod.

Standing in the shower with a dumb look on my face after remembering how I met them wasn't exactly the first thing I wanted my mother to see after she opened the door to the shower. It wasn't the worse thing she had seen, but it might have been the weirdest. " Connor," I heard her say as she opened the door, " I knew you wouldn't notice the bathroom didn't have any....What the hell are you doing?" I stood there, shell-shocked, glad I had closed the curtain for the shower as soon as I got in. While my 6'4 frame stands above the curtain, all you can see is my head, thankfully. " Uh....nothing?" I said lamely, not sure how to explain why I had such a look on my face. " Sure." she said slowly, placing the towels on the floor. " I'm just going to leave these here. Put them away when you get out." Giving me one last look, she ran from the bathroom. Sighing, I finished my shower, and began to put the towels away. After drying myself, I left and got dressed, figuring the quicker I left, the easier I could avoid another awkward situation.

Grabbing some clothes from the closet and getting dressed, I snatched my keys from the kitchen table, and grabbed a muffin for good measure. Upon reaching the doorway, I turned around and shouted, " Have a nice day! I'll see y'all after school!" Not waiting for a reply, I raced outside and jumped in my ride. Starting my Chevy Malibu, I pulled out and made good time to school. As soon as I got there however, I knew it wasn't going to be a good day. My parking spot was taken, and it had begun to rain right as I got there, and hard. Sighing, I found the closest nearby space, which was about three blocks away. " Perfect, I sighed before leaving the car, " Just perfect." Grabbing my bag from the backseat I hightailed it out of there, knowing that regardless of how fast I walked, I was going to be soaked.

Being proven right as I entered the building, I started walking towards my first period class. Writing for College, while fun to a certain degree, really wasn't what I wanted in my first period class. After all, being forced to start your day with an essay can really put a damper on it. Still, I knew I had one thing going for me. Jenny and I shared that class, which may have been the only reason I got through it. Not wanting to keep her waiting, I quickly made my way to class. It didn't take long for me to get there, thankfully, as it was eight when I arrived at school. Quickly finding my seat, I sat down, and waited for Jenny, who, no matter what day it was, always came at eight thirty. I wasn't really sure why, I mean she got up at six, lived maybe two blocks away, but she was always late. Whenever I asked her about it, she would always get a faintly uncomfortable look, and blow me off. One of her favorites was to just laugh awkwardly and say " What's late and what isn't really?", and then run away. I learned my lesson about asking her about the third time she said that.

Class started, and after roll call and the pledge, I sat there and waited for her as the teacher began telling us what our newest assignment was. A twenty page paper on the season?! Is she for real?! Knowing how bad I was at writing and how long this would take me, I pulled out my laptop and got to work. I couldn't afford to do bad on this, seeing as how last quarter I barely managed a B+ after not turning in about three assignments, I decided then and there that I would work as hard on this thing as I could, at least until I got bored with it, which, given what I had to work with, wasn't going to take long.

At exactly eight thirty, I heard the door to the classroom open, and a voice announce " Ms. Holowiter, I'm... I'm sorry I'm late." Recognizing the voice, and the fact that the voice sounded like it had been crying, I turned and looked up. Standing in the doorway was Jenny, and she didn't look good. Usually she came in with paint stained clothes and a pair of jeans. And while she wore those today, there was a subtle difference. You could tell they hadn't been washed, and neither had she taken a shower. Furthermore, her eyes were red and swollen, the make-up around them being smeared from the tears. Shuffling over to her seat, she sat down, and had an expression of misery on her face. Grabbing a tissue, I turned towards her and called her name. " Jenny, I whispered quietly, " Jenny, look at me." She turned, and I began using the tissue to clean her face. She smiled at me, then began crying again. Concerned, I gently brushed her hair out of her eyes, thankful that our seats were in the back of the class. " Jenny, tell me what's wrong."

Just as she opened her mouth to tell me, a loud bang reverberated from the hallway, and the door flew wide open. Standing there was a man, around six feet tall, greasy black hair, and wearing what could only be called rags, holding some sort of rifle in his hands. Screaming with rage he snarled, " Everyone, stay the fuck down, and keep quite! If you even so much as blink or make a single noise, I'll blow your fucking head off!" I quickly decided that doing what he said would be for the best, and so did Jenny. However, one of our classmates, whose name I never had bothered to learn, decided that standing up and glaring at him and running his mouth would be the best option. " Oh please, look at you, you look like a bitch-AUGH!" Suddenly, a hole appeared in the middle of his chest, and a fountain of blood blossomed out of him. The man with the gun laughed, and began to point the gun at other people in the room. " Still think that I'm messing around, huh? Still wanna run your mouth!?" Any semblance of sanity he may have had disappeared quickly. He stood there, waving the rifle around, a snarl stuck on his face. He turned towards Jenny and I and smiled. " Well, well, well, look at what we have here. A little girl and her boyfriend, hm?" Jenny and I looked at each, fear very present on both of our faces. The man just stood there, smiling. Suddenly, his eyes began twitching, and his smile slipped momentarily. He began to quickly mutter to himself. " If He wants him, then He is going to get him. There isn't any choice. But, maybe I can have a little fun first." His smile returned, crueler then before, and sending a shiver down my spine. " You two, stand up and get over here. NOW!" he yelled.

" Now, he said with a sadistic smile on his face, " We're going to play a little game called 'Who Gets What?' The object is simple: one of you decides who lives and who dies. I'm going to let you choose, turning the gun towards me, " you have thirty seconds to pick." I stood there, dumbfounded for what felt like forever, finally turning towards Jenny. She stood there, gripping my hand, her eyes pleading with me to choose myself. Something deep inside me however, knew that that wouldn't happen.

I closed my eyes, and lowered my head in shame. I heard the man raise his rifle, and I barely managed to choke out my response. " Her, pick her!" I shouted at the man, refusing to raise my head. Ripping my hand away I turned, and heard her scream my name once before she died. I could feel the blood as it washed over my back. The man laughed at me, and said " Well, isn't that interesting. He said you'd do that. Still, I have one more trick up my sleeve." Turning towards him, I tilted my head and began to open my mouth. "Sorry", he said to me, " I don't get to explain, I just get to shoot!" All the sudden I felt a massive pain in my chest, right where my heart is. Looking down, all I could see is my blood.

Using the last of my breath, I looked at the man, and whispered " Fuck you, asshole."

He laughed at me and said " See you later, jack-o boy!"

Feeling the last of my life leaving me, I closed my eyes and thought to myself. Well, that's a fucking great way to end my life. Getting shot after getting someone else killed. Fuck my life. Heh, too late for that. Wait, why am I still able to talk? Shouldn't I be singing in some choir in Heaven, or floating in a void? Or, Heaven forbid, in Hell? Actually, just floating along like this is going to get rather boring after a while, Hell almost seems better.

It was then that I learned that boring is better than Hell. Quickly flames began to spread over my body, causing a searing pain all over. Even worse, I could feel some sort of pain deep in my soul, something that I had never felt before. It felt like everything that had made me, well me, had left, except for a small portion, and I was dead inside. It felt as though all the love , all the caring, all my empathy had been burned away, left to be only a fragment of their former selves. I could feel a presence deep with-in myself leave, and it was then that I knew I was in Hell. All I could do was scream inside the hellish void, until all the air left my lungs, and wait for the pain to cause me to black out. It felt like I was there for an eternity until it went away, all except for the loss inside me. Even so, the place I found myself wasn't any better. I was on a cold floor, in the middle of a giant, cavern like room. A fire was in a nearby corner, though it seemed more like a decoration, as it didn't give any heat. Standing before it was a man, even taller then I was. He stood around seven feet tall, naked except for a small cloth around his groin. His skin was a pale white, and his air fell to his shoulders in a black cloud.

" It's about time you showed up here." he said quietly, his voice cutting like the edge of a knife. " I was almost tired of waiting for your worthless soul to get here." He turned to me, and my breath caught in my throat. He stood there, his eyes burning holes of darkness, and his mouth full of razor sharp teeth. He glowered at me from across the room, laughing at my expression. " What, don't like what you see? What did you expect to see, hm? A bunny?" I tried to shake my head, to speak, to run away, to do anything, but I could only sit there and stare. " Don't worry, he said, his voice thick with scorn and hatred, " I don't need you to understand, or really listen at this point. After all, you're going to have plenty of time to figure out why you earned your stay here.", punctuating his monologue with a clap of his hand, causing a roar of flame to emerge from the fire place. What appeared to be a demon emerged from the fire. Its skin was black, with lines of dark red running over its body, creating unique patterns. Small spikes jutted from its body at random points. Its mouth was a pit of teeth, blackened from below the noise to just above the chin. Four horns shot out from its head, and a small hole filled with fire rested in its head. Its eyes were burning red, like the flames from the fire it came from. " Ah, it's about time you showed up. Connor, this is a...special demon. To be specific, it's your demon, who will show you all the wonders of hell! Grifith here is going to be with you for a very long time. I'm sure you two will have a great time.", he said with a venomous smirk.

" Wait", I cried out suddenly, " This isn't right! I never did anything wrong, why am I here?!" He turned suddenly, giving me a glare that scared me to my core, and I knew I wouldn't ever forget what he said next.

" You don't deserve to be here? Do you have any idea what you did? You killed a girl, and not just any girl, but your best friend. As if that wasn't bad enough, this girl was taking care her younger brother. Ever wonder why she was always late? While her father wasted his life drinking, her mother was forced to take a second, minimum wage job. Jenny had to get a job as well, in order to stay in school, and keep her family going. She didn't get a free ride, and so she had to work. Even more than that, she was the only one who take care of her younger brother, as she was the only one who had any time during the day."

" Please", I begged, " Give me one more chance. I'll do anything you want, just don't make me stay here!" He looked at me, and then at the demon next to me, and gave me smile.

" Ok, I'll give you another chance at life, but here is the deal: Grifith goes along with you, in place of your soul. I get to keep my connection with you, and you don't fade away from your lack of a soul. If you fail to live a better life, you come back to Hell. You live better, then you get to pass home, and go to Heaven. Deal?"

He reached out his hand, but I hesitated for a moment. Why would he help me, after all he could just ignore me and send me to Hell. Better yet, what did the man that killed me mean when he said that " he wasn't there to explain"? And why bring the demon back with me, I'm sure I could get my soul? Still, I didn't have much of a choice, so I shook his hand. " My my, someone must have been desperate for a chance at life, seeing as how you never agreed to where you would be sent." he said, giving me a smile.

I began to panic, attempting to pull my hand out of his, but his grip was to strong. " Then where am I going?!" I shouted at him, terrified that I would be stuck here, or some equally terrible world.

He just stared at me, until he finally spoke. " Oh, I think you'll love it." Releasing my hand, he looked towards Grifith, and nodded at me. Grifith launched himself at me, and I screamed. As he struck me, it felt like a bell had been rung inside my head. My vision began to double itself, and I felt his presence inside me, burrowing deep inside. The pain I felt made me pass out, and I missed the last words that the Devil spoke to me.

" Oh, my little human, I'm so glad you're going to be my pawn for this little game. For to long I've been coped inside here, no way to get out and let my children have some fun." He turned away from me, and began speaking again. " From you, my children will get to see the world, and get to have some fun. And you, you shall be tested like you've never been before." Turning back to me, he smiled, and muttered " Enjoy your deal."

Author's Note

Sorry for re-doing it, just didn't like the original idea, I suppose.