CHAPTER 1

Angel or sumthin

Pepito looked out his bedroom door as he heard the soft 'click, click, click' of his mother's designer heels on the hardwood floors, it was Tuesday. Every Tuesday his mother will take fresh flowers into the only locked room in the house, lock the door behind her and emerge about an hour later with the last week's flowers. The only person who ever entered the room was his mom. He himself didn't understand what lied behind that door. Pepito sometimes heard sobbing from the room, but never asked. Well he did once, when he was little…

Flashback

A young woman left the room at the end of the hall, carrying a vase of wilted pink daisies. A four-year-old Pepito, (who actually looked rather normal with his horns only slight bumps, not yet breaking the skin) tugged lightly on the woman's dress. "Madre?" asked the boy. His mother crouched down to eye level, "yes Pepi?" asked the woman in a fake-cheery voice. "Where do all the flowers go?" he asked, she chuckled "they don't go anywhere, they just… wilt, nothing lasts forever" answered Mrs. Diablo as she stood up and began walking towards the kitchen, Pepito in tow. "Madre?" Said the boy a second time, the woman glanced over her shoulder "hmm?" Pepito shifted nervously "what's in that room, uh, you know, at the end of the hall? That you put flowers in all the time?" rambled Pepito. His mother just pulled him into a tight hug and quickly walked away, muttering something about laundry. Pepito went back to his room, just in time to see his mother lock herself back behind the door, she hadn't emerged again that evening but in the morning she was smiling and making breakfast as usual, so he decided to drop it.

Return to present

Pepito's father was in the basement 'working' and his mother was making one of her extensive dinners, he had an hour or so… he went to his desk and retrieved an old 'Toys R Us' gift card with only about ten cents on it, checked that his parents weren't around, and slid the card in between the door and frame till it creaked open. 'Fricking crap this is creepy, I'm fourteen I should be able to handle this… not to mention the whole anti-Christ thing' he took a breath and closed his eyes, turned on the light, 'okay, this room has been hidden from me for as long as I can remember, now I'm probably going to be eaten alive by some angel or something' he opened his eyes and, was fairly disappointed. It seemed to be an ordinary… little girl's room? There was a bed with a flower quilt and a white vanity covered in drawings. On the walls there were numerous paintings, mostly of roses, others more abstract. "Holly Shit"

Pepito put the photo album back on the table before going back to his room. He was sure he heard that name before at school, but could have been mistaken for another spooky mutter of 'dooooom' he turned on his computer to do what any intelligent person would do… google it.