Chapter 1: The First Demon
I waited Underground and watched the train go by. A train that I might have been on had I the nerve. A train heading away from Ikebukoro, from all of my nightmares. Somewhere in my heart, I knew I wouldn't leave yet. The furious wind from the speed of the train clawed at my face and sent my hair unfurling into the unforgivingly cold air, I held my suitcase tightly and squeezed my eyes shut.
Something worse than having no way to escape at all is having your way out as clear as day, but being chained down by invisible regrets, being forced to the ground under impossibly heavy burdens.
Nobody really boards the midnight train, anyway. No one would know if I just vanished, I smiled to myself and opened my eyes. Maybe that would be a nice way to go. When I opened my eyes, the train was long gone and I was alone again.
I cursed under my breath. I swore that it'd be tonight, and I'd lost my nerve. Again.
"What are you afraid of?" A voice behind me chuckled, I froze- the hair on the back of my neck stood on end, "I've seen you here every night for two months. It's not safe for a girl like you to be out so late, especially in Ikebukoro." I turned around slowly to meet the perpetually bemused and lazy stare of Izaya Orihara.
My eyes narrowed, "Thanks for your concern, but mind your own business." I refused to lower my gaze as I walked past him.
"Oh, my!" He said dramatically not at all phased at all by my attempt to blow him off, "here I was being a gentleman, and the lady doesn't want my help!"
I ignored him and kept walking. Everything had to be a psychological production for Orihara. He's a cold-hearted, fiendish bastard- the only thing on his mind was his own agenda.
"Wait, wait!" Izaya called after me, I clenched my fists and broke into a sprint. I didn't want to hear anything that low-life had to say. I knew what he wanted to talk to me about, and it was going to be about my friend, Saki Mikajima.
It's always about Saki.
I'd been friends with her before she started dating Kida Masaomi, and before she'd ended up in the hospital for something gang related. I was a horrible friend. It was my fault. Of course, that was only one of my demons.
I slipped through the throngs of people that were polluting the square. I wasn't safe until I had locked the door of my apartment, though- even still. Danger was always knocking on the other side of my door or throwing pebbles at my window, or speaking cloyingly into my ear as I slept like a lover whispering sweet nothings to his beloved. Even though I knew that I would never be truly safe as long as I was in Ikebukoro, all of my mistakes kept me here. Ones I knew I had to fix.
Ikebukoro was a maze. The longer you were there, the more complicated things became. The further in you got, the harder it is to ever get out. I took the backroads to my complex, it was the fastest way- hopefully, I could loose Orihara in the crowd.
I should have known better.
