Consider the following message below a blanket note for the rest of the chapters to come…

Disclaimer: Nope, I'm pretty sure I'm not Cassandra Clare. And if I was, I wouldn't be telling you.

1. Greater Demon in the Garage

Seriously, all I wanted to do was to get something to drink downstairs. That's it. The end. Fin. And so forth.

Yeah. So it was two o'clock in the morning, your point?

Uh huh… And the house was dark, thanks for asking, because everyone was asleep.

Except me, because I was having major writer's block.

So, going down pitch black stairs is not exactly a great thing to do. Especially when you don't have your phone, and you don't want to try and keep your iPod light on because it was running out of power.

All I had to guide me was… well… nothing except the banister.

I managed to stifle a squeak when I almost slipped down the stairs, due to me in a pair of socks and the steps were carpeted. I clung to the wooden banister, my heart pretty much flying out of my throat and down the stairs to where I hard a gushy plop on the parquet foyer.

Okay, yeah, that didn't happen. So let's not freak?

The darkness was soothing, if it weren't so annoying. I stepped on the parquet flooring, making sure my weight didn't make the floorboards squeak. My grandma was in the next room over, making all of my senses on hyper alert.

So this was it. The excitement of my life. I slipped into my favorite pair of electric blue and gray Supra's. I'd just worn them with my outfit today.

Little did I know that I was so lucky as to be wearing clothes that day.

I slowly made my way out towards the garage, since I didn't really want to trouble myself with pulling out a cup from the cupboard and filling it with water from the sink, since the water from the fridge would take too long.

And, seriously, who wants to drink tap water?

I turned on the lights to the garage, and gingerly made my way out since I didn't want to disturb any of the giant spiders that usually threatened me on a daily basis every time I came out here.

The air in the garage was humid, which I kind of thought was weird for the crisp fall day that we'd had. Oh well, who was I to judge on Mother Georgia Nature's bipolar activity? I was here to piss it off.

Meanwhile, Not Afraid by Eminem was blaring through my speakers, the bass amped for my full audio entertainment.

I mean, I liked Eminem and all, but I wasn't really a fan of this song. Maybe I just wanted to show support or whatever.

I pulled open the fridge door, the arctic air giving me little relief from this humidity. Geez, and I was partly glad I just came down in a yellow T-shirt.

The gray skinny jeans, though, were another matter entirely.

Okay, just grab the water, and get out. I thought to myself, Before these creeper spiders start ganging up on you…

As I grabbed a water bottle from the top shelf and closed the door, I turned to the wall where the garden tools were.

But that wasn't exactly what had my attention this time.

No, no, I'm gonna have to guess it's the giant, abnormal looking shadow towering over me and shading me from the garage lights.

Slowly, I turned around.

Either this was a new species of avian, or that is one big bat.

With… muscles and a creepy face, with black liquid pouring out of its mouth and yellow jagged teeth with seriously creepy red eyes. With horns. Did I mention the rank smell? Yep, that's also an issue.

Idly, a new song switched on my iPod. Kill You by Eminem, again.

Ironic…

"What the hell?" I demanded, even though I knew it was kind of useless.

The thing merely screeched in my face, though it was slightly muffled by Eminem's psychotic rapping, and I wondered if anyone was going to hear this.

I scrambled to the side, not even bothering to take out the headphones. I fell on the concrete, oil stained floor, and scrabbled to reach the cobwebbed, rusty tree limb cutter.

I'd always looked at the tree limb cutter on my way back inside, thinking it looked more like a scythe than anything else.

Maybe that would help me.

I grabbed the cobwebbed rod with the rusty metal at the end, ready to face the… uh… thing…

It screeched again at my challenge, and flapped its creepy bat wings to charge me.

Now, a more rational side of me would've screeched to go back inside the house, but it was actually going to be helpful this time, and tell me what exactly I should do.

I swung blindly, aiming to chop the thing's head off.

Only I managed to give a grand whack at its shoulder.

My stomach flipped in knots when I saw black blood, as thick as ink, pour out of the shoulder I'd just nicked, and watched as the thing howled in pain as one grotesque hand reached to grope at its wound.

I looked back at the limb cutter, seeing the metal actually steaming.

Oh shit.

I looked back at the thing, and its red eyes glared back at me with such hatred.

I managed a bemused laugh to escape me. "Well?" I thought aloud. "Kill or be killed."

And I lunged.

But the thing leapt the other way, and dove into the boxes.

"Oh hell no, son!" I yelled as I lunged for it, separating the boxes with the tree limb cutter.

But it wasn't there.

What? There was no possible escape for it. How could it have gotten away?

Maybe it was hiding under the table…

In my brief moment of pure idiocy or bravery, I dropped to my knees and held the blade out, ready to face anything.

Except a swirling blue… thing… against the wall.

There was no way I was letting that thing out of my sight. It could kill somebody else, and I found it my responsibility to personally kick its ass and… yeah…

Suddenly, the tree limb cutter shook in my hands, and was launched off into the blue expanse.

With me hanging on for dear life at the end.

Looked like I was going whether I liked it or not.