Seventeen year old Jay Sasaki lives in a world where corporations spend millions of dollars to exploit superpowered children and the media defines good and evil. Cursed with the ability to steal souls, Jay leads a double life as both a normal high s...
I wandered around the castle, uncertain of what to do. As I walked through the hallways and between the many floors of Ellen's castle, I looked at one of the clocks hanging in the hallways and saw that it was nearly noon. No wonder I was starving. However, I had no clue where the kitchen was, so I kept wandering.
After about twenty minutes of wandering, I found Percy and Vanessa lounging around in a spacious office, complete with a large desk with piles of paperwork on top of it and an open window that was letting the fresh air from outside into the castle. There were three swivel chairs in the office, and Percy was spinning one of them in circles while typing on a laptop and eating a package of Red Vines. Vanessa was seated across the room, writing in a notebook.
All of a sudden, Vanessa looked up from her notebook. "Wait a second," she said. "You're Jay, right? The kid who stole Terry's soul?"
"That would be me," I said, wishing that Vanessa knew me for something other than stealing souls.
"Come take a seat," Vanessa said. I took a seat in the third swivel chair as Vanessa said, "I'm Vanessa Lyons, and that's Percy Warner. We're Ellen's apprentices."
"Not for long," Percy interjected. "I don't know about you, but I'm going to be a full time supervillain after Ellen retires."
"And how exactly are you going to make that work?" Vanessa asked. Percy shrugged, and Vanessa turned back to me and said, "I'm going to go feed the Jersey Devils. Would you like to come with me?"
"Sure," I said. There was nothing better to do in this place anyways. I followed Vanessa as she left the office and headed back down to the lab. Carmen gave me a quick wave as we passed by, but I didn't have time to wave back. Vanessa continued to walk and didn't stop until we reached a room filled with strange creatures. They looked a little bit like kangaroos, but their heads were more goat-like, and they all had leathery wings folded up on their backs.
One of the devils let out a scream, and Vanessa wandered over to it and stroked its head. "It's okay, Velvet," Vanessa said. "I know it's a little scary having a stranger here, but Jay's nice, or at least that's what Ellen said. She's usually right about these things, but he did steal Terry's soul, so maybe you're right not to trust him."
The devil stopped screaming, and I said, "You named these things?"
"Of course," Vanessa said. "They make wonderful pets once you get to know them."
"What do they eat anyways?" I asked.
"Honestly, they'll eat anything you give them," Vanessa said. "Usually we feed them excess food from the kitchen."
My stomach growled again at the mention of food. Vanessa pulled out a bucket of overripe vegetables and tossed it towards the Jersey Devils, who wolfed it down immediately. She tossed a few more buckets into the room, and when the devils were done eating, she said, "Let's go back to the office."
