Apparently, we were going for a ride.

As we settled into the expensive leather of the car, I noticed a blood red eye peeking back at us from the passenger’s seat.

I say eye because she only had one of them. Her other eye was covered with a square white eyepatch. It was the kind they gave out at hospitals, but I doubted she had demon pinkeye. Judging by the purple bow in her hair, the eyepatch was probably part of her look or something.

The contrast of the girl’s ghostly pale skin and shoulder length black hair shined in the moonlight. Her facial structure told me she was probably 18 or 19. Legal. Not that I cared or anything, of course. Just a side note.

After the wavy haired man got into the driver’s seat, the girl finally spoke. “I’m glad you decided to come.” Her voice was a little deeper than I had expected, and it had a sort of excited glee in it that aired on the creepy side.

So yeah, another weird-ass demon girl

“Hello!” Violetta said as chipper as ever. “You must be one of Ryley’s friends.” Oh my god.

“Violetta, friends don’t ask you to get in their car at gunpoint,” I said, keeping my eyes on the girl. “Besides, when the hell would I have had time to make friends? I’ve been working non-stop ever since I ended up in this stupid world.”

“Hey, wait a minute!” Violetta grabbed my bicep and shook. “You made friends with me, didn’t you?”

“Yes, fine, sure.” I really didn’t feel like dealing with this. “These aren’t my friends though. I have no idea who they are or where they’re taking us.”

Violetta sat quietly for a moment. “But if they’re not your friends then that means… Oh no! Noooo!” she screamed.

She was finally starting to see how fucked we were.

My eyes drifted back to the girl as the car jerked into motion. “So what are you going to do with us?” I asked.

Fuck. My legs had already turned to jelly. Why did I ever agree to this stupid law expert thing? I mean, I did it to save my neck, but still. I didn’t sign up to be kidnapped by an eyepatch wearing demon girl.

The girl kept staring, letting the sound of the car’s engine fill the silence. Then… after a few seconds passed, she spoke. A lot.

“Oh my god, it’s totally the real Ryley. It’s totally him!” She looked over at the driver with a huge smile on her face. “Look Nair, it’s the real Ryley!”

“Madam, it would be unsafe of me to take my eyes off the road,” the man responded. Well at least the guy that threatened us with a gun was a safe driver.

Completely unfazed, the girl continued like she couldn’t wait to puke words out of her mouth. “So Ryley, what made you think to challenge McGee to bocce, huh? That was pretty crazy. Was it hard? Were you totally freaking out? Was it all according to your plan? Do you like cats?”

How the fuck was I supposed to answer any of those if she didn’t slow down? Also, cats? Demon cats?

I decided to drop the cats and ask her something myself. “You were… at the trial?”

“Yeah, I was. Nair was there too.” She pointed her thumb to the driver. “This guy’s Nair. He’s kinda like my bodyguard. He protects me. He would take a bullet for me and stuff. Pretty cool, huh?”

“…Cool.” What else was I supposed to say to that?

“Seriously though, that was fucking awesome!” The girl clenched her fists. “And then Sidkik was all, ‘Aww man, I totally killed my best friend and this sucks’! And coach Coach was like, ‘Oh no, don’t open my safe and stuff’! And then…”

“Ryley…” Violetta whispered to me, pure terror in her eyes. “What’s happening?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“Lyili was so fucking cool! Hot too! Fire everywhere!” the girl’s mouth diarrhea continued. “I wanted to get her, but I figured she probably wouldn’t come without a fight. So I settled for you guys.”

Lame. We weren’t even at the top of her kidnapping list.

Alright, enough of this. I could try asking what she wanted with us again, but it would be better to ease into the question. “Hey.” I put my hands up. “Uhh… What’s your name?”

“Oh me?” The girl completely dropped whatever she was rambling about and smiled, her one visible eye opened as wide as physically possible. “I’m Hadria.”

“Hadria...” I exchanged a cautious glance with Violetta. “Err, Madam Hadria?”

“Just Hadria.” Okay then.

“Hadria. You said you… settled for us? What did you mean by that exactly?”

“Huh?” Hadria tilted her head. “We need your help with the murder that happened at my house last night. Didn’t Nair tell you?”

“No.” He sure fucking didn’t. And why would she want Lyili for that anyway? I might not have had the boobs, but last time I checked, I hadn’t lost two trials in a row. Roasted.

“Nair!” Hadria punched the man on the arm.

“Madam, I thought they might decline your invitation if we asked them directly,” he said matter-of-factly. “I could not allow them to disrespect you like that, so I did not give them the option.”

“Oh.” Hadria’s smile returned, revealing her sharp canines. “Well I’m glad you two agreed then!” Didn’t she understand that we literally had to? Still… this meant I had an opening to get out of this.

“Hey Hadria,” I cleared my throat. “You saw the trial, right? We’re both really tired.”

“Yes, very tired.” Violetta nodded her head way too haphazardly for someone with horns that also happened to be sitting right next to me. Seriously, I didn’t need to start having to wear an eyepatch too.

“So we can help you out,” I said. “But we’d work a lot better if we could get some sleep first… and then come see you in the morning.” Yeah right. The second I got out of here, I was going straight to the king to have these psychos arrested.

“Yes, in the morning,” Violetta echoed. She was turning out to be a better assistant than I ever expected. It was clear she was thinking the same thing I was. We needed to get out of here at all costs.

“Oh, is that the problem?” Hadria laughed. “You can stay the night at my place. It’s a mansion! We have lots of rooms.”

“Wow, a mansion?” Violetta perked up. “Well that solves everything!” God damn it, Violetta.

Before I could say anything else, the car suddenly came to a stop. “We’ve arrived,” the wavy haired asshole said. “I will notify the Count.”

I looked out my window to see a huge gated entrance flanked by two hanging paper lanterns. In their dim orange glow, I could make out a name plate. It read… ‘Acula’

Oh shit. This was the same family that Coach said paid him to cheat. The one he said would kill him if he talked. We were fucked.

Wait a minute; he was going to notify the ‘Count’?

As in… Count Acula?

Come on.