The Tumultuous World of A Demi-Demon

Chapter One

The idea was simple yet batshit crazy.

"Mom, so for summer break, I am going to be a part-time groundskeeper and Demon Delivery courier at a cemetery."

I was greeted with silence, but that didn't surprise me. That wasn't exactly a high-in-demand job among other college students my age. Well, it wasn't popular among the normal ones to be more specific ...

When the awkward quietude got too loud, I gulped down my anxiety then decided to go on, "That's the post I got, so yeah, and it's good pay - for both the human world and the Underworld - just in case if you were wondering."

A dark-skinned woman - like myself - wearing the long off-shoulder snow-white dress and matching apron stared at me for what felt like a lifetime. With a bloodied knife in one hand and a greasy spatula in the other, she turned away from me, dropped them both into the sink with the other dishes, and then pushed one of the three fancy China plates of steak and green salad my way with a curious "And why would you want to do such, sweetheart?"

"I just said it, it's good pay," I reminded her.

Mom gave me a distasteful glare. "I heard that the first time, Julane Suzie Jones. I'm just asking why you find that job necessary to take when there're over a hundred other jobs here in Large Rapids, Michigan?"

"Well for starters" - I shrugged then with inhumane speed took a quick swipe of lonely green bean, straying at the edge of my plate - "I'm not exactly normal, Ma, and Dad's been gone for work for almost six months now and who knows, maybe with this job, I might bump into him or check on him for a bit, and I can finally see the Underworld! Dad promised me I could when I turned twenty-one, and my birthday was last week ... so can I?"

Those were the kind of discussions a child had with their parents when one of them was a demon and the other a human. Nonchalant, a rough-looking grey-bearded man with a large build peeked up from behind his newspaper and said, "Does that mean you're going to stay with my shit of my son?"

"Grandpa Joe don't be that way. There's nothing wrong with Raj." Mom sighed, took a seat next to mine then turned my way. "Jules, darling, I know you want to visit your father, but couldn't you do something normal like your college friends -- like a waitress or a retailer at that Meijer grocery store? You are part human too, don't forget that. And just a friendly reminder, you know your dad isn't fond of surprises because --"

"Because of his last job. Yeah, I remember." I couldn't help but grunt.

There are two reasons for the awful sound. The first was I knew where this conversation was going, and the second was because Dad never told me what happened that retreat. It was a secret between him and Mom. One I would never know until later when it was too late.

Grandpa Joe sensed the tension in the room and tried diluting it with a cough. However, once he noticed that didn't do anything, he spoke up with a slam of newspaper on the dining table. "Alright, I can feel the discomfort building between the two of you, and I don't need my powers of intuition for that! Your energy is rotting my lettuce, so cut it out before I vaporize you both!"

No one liked grandpa mad. So like a switch, the negative energy lifted a little. Satisfied, he looked my way and asked, "Look Jules, which cemetery did you say you got that job at?"

Defeated, I answered with a dead "St Mary's."

Grandpa Joe raised the two grey caterpillars above his green eyes faster than a bullet. "I know the old fart that works there! Scrawny Sam... it's been forever since I have seen him. Maybe I should give him a visit."

"You know him?" Mom asked with wide eyes. "You have friends?"

"I'm old, not a hermit for Christ's sake, Cheryl," scoffed Grandpa before continuing, "He and I go long back. We used to be in this old motorbike gang before he came to the human world. A good demonic fella that old bloke is. I didn't know he runs a human-underworld delivery service."

"That's good to hear. I've never met him," I admitted, "Just saw a sign up at the dollar store that read 'Demon Deliveries' was hiring and thought it had to be better than being a pizza girl or some Grubhub driver. So, I made a call and, after some in-depth background checks, was instantly offered a position."

Mom looked skeptical. "Hmmm. I don't know..."

"Mom please --" That's when it hits me like a supersonic brick. "I have an idea. I don't start working until next week so what if I go with gramps tomorrow to see how everything goes down."

"Sounds solid to me," Grandpa adds. "And I highly doubt anything will go down and if it does, I can take care of it since little missy here still can't fully control her powers."

I stuck my tongue out at him and he returned the gesture. Mom rolled her big brown eyes to the back of her skull and back. "Fine. Just make sure you're both home before eight for dinner."

I jumped off my seat and wrapped my mother in the tightest hug I could give her without crushing her organs and cooed, "Mom, did I ever tell you how much I love you?"

"Yeah, every time you get something you want," retorted the number one woman in my life; even though sometimes she drove me nuts.

The rest of dinner was spent with grandpa complaining of his salad not having enough tomatoes, and that mother and I were conspiring against him. Mother joked about if he were pregnant that would probably be all he would eat because of his odd cravings for them. We were a pretty normal-looking family from the outside. However, unlike most, we had some serious tricks up our sleeves, and 'Demon Delivery' would be the gateway to showing them.