Life isn't exactly ordinary for Julane Jones, especially since she's half-human and half-demon. When she decides to be a carrier for a human-underworld delivery service and accidentally ends up stuck in Hell, her already unusual world becomes even m...
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Just like any previous well-thought-out plan crafted by the Jones family, things didn't really go to script. Grandpa and I only had time to go on my first day there. We were already late so anxiety had me by the throat.
"Please don't embarrass me."
I had been begging Grandpa Joe since we had left home twenty minutes ago. However, with him in the passenger seat, all he had been doing was looking through his list of elder incubuses to possibly dine with for the night. My patience with him was running thin.
"When have I ever embarrassed you?" spoke Grandpa Joe. "You've got your father for that."
Ignoring his last snarky statement, my jaw dropped. "You don't remember the soccer match incident where you set the other team's coach's hair on fire? How about when you put snakes in my first date's satchel because you thought 'I could do better'?" And the other hundred times he messed up my so-called normal life.
He burst out laughing, wiping a few tears away, then chimed "Ah, those were some good times. So young and naïve."
"Grandpa Joe!"
"What, Juju?"
"Do not embarrass me." I stared my grandpa down until he got the picture. "Promise me before we get out of the car!"
I don't know what got over me but a swarming wave of heat within me bubbled to the surface. Tongue forked; my skin sprouted goldish black scales as my nails grew into claws that dug into the wheel. My eyes were burning which only meant one thing, they were glowing red with rage.
"Okay! Fine." He lifted his hands in mock defeat. "With a temper like that no wonder you've been single all your life."
"Good," I hissed as I reverted into my human form. Pulling into the parking lot, I broke out into a winning smile. Grandpa grew irksomely quiet, so I followed his glance.
Eerie spiderwebs and wet dead leaves decorated the place like dust in an ancient library. The massive moldy bottle-green and grimy 'St Mary's Cemetery" signage above the droopy entrance appeared to be dripping with some sort of unknown dark sticky liquid that made my stomach churn. The smell that infiltrated my poor car when I slid the windows down was the most putrid odor of chemicals yet. Even the bit of sky just above the mortuary had a depressing grey and miserable hue of blue to it. Calling this place dead was an understatement. Heck, it was the epitome of death.
The whole scene hit us harder than it should have. So much so it was as though we were in a different dimension.
Almost breaking my neck, I snapped my head at Gramps and said, "I change my mind. Let's call in and say I died or something."
"Juju?" Grandpa Joe smiled so innocently as he gestured to the funeral home. "They keep records of that shit here."
Without a care in the universe, the man stepped out of the car like he didn't hear me and made his way to the front entrance. As he wrapped his hand around the doorknob, I poked out my head from my window and whisper-shouted "What are you doing? Get back here! Grandpa Joe!"
