I had been sitting for about an hour before he finally appeared through the portal. I sprang up. "Azen! Finally! What the hell happened? Do you know how boring your home is?!" He looked at me tiredly. "Sorry about that. I had to go talk to a friend of mine, and then beat the hell out of Reyvis. Wait, how can my house be boring? I have so many books!" I sighed. "Which I can't read! I tried, they're in some weird language." He looked at me for a minute, and then his eyes lit up. "Oh, right! As soon as you accept the deal, you will be able to read it with no problem. You will also be able to use mental speech." I paused. Mental speech? "Azen, what the hell is that?" He glanced at me. "Mental speech? You can talk to people using your mind, and they can reply. No sound necessary."

I stared at him for a bit, and then shrugged. This was getting a little too confusing for me. Azen started walking towards his room, looking tired. "I'm going to bed, you go when you're ready." He paused. "Oh damn! I forgot to put your room together! I'm sorry Aris." I grinned at him. "Already done! I'll just head to bed now. I guess we do the partnership thing in the morning?" He opened the door to his room and looked back at me. "Yep!" Azen bared his teeth in a grin. "Sweet dreams!" He went inside and shut the door, leaving me sitting alone on the couch.

I sat there for a few minutes, a bit worried about the next day. I figured I couldn't change tomorrow's events by just sitting and thinking about it, so I went to my room and slipped into bed. It was surprisingly comfortable, and I fell asleep almost instantly.

I could tell I was dreaming. How else would my family all be standing in front of me? I was at our old home in the woods, and it was at my favorite time of day: sunset. My brother walked up to me. "Aris? Finally! We can start the celebration!" I grinned, lost in the dream. "A celebration? What for?" Avis laughed. "Our birthday of course! How could you forget?" I smiled. Of course! How could I forget such an important date? I felt a nagging feeling that I'd forgotten something, but I shook it off; our birthday was much more important! Brother and I sat down at the table, eager to begin the birthday dinner.

"Not so fast!" Mom said, smiling cheerfully, "Your friend is here!" I grinned as Azen walked in, as pale as ever. "Azen! You were able to make it!" He rolled his eyes, which was just like him. "Of course! I'm not a heathen who doesn't come to social events." I smirked at his use of the word heathen, which he seemed to try to incorporate into everyday conversation. "Sorry to say anything!" Mother walked out before Azen could reply, carrying our favorite food: Spiced potato slices. As we all began to eat, there was a knock at the door.

Da walked to the door and opened it. A second later, Da's head slid to the ground, severed from the rest of his body. Mom fainted immediately, and my twin and I jumped to our feet in shock. Reyvis stood there, a long, bloody knife in hand. Avis started backing away, looking scared. As I stepped forward, Reyvis moved forward quickly, catching Azen in the throat with his knife. As Azen started spitting up blood, Reyvis started stabbing him over and over in the chest and shoulders. After he finally let Azen's mutilated body slide to the ground, he turned towards Avis and started moving towards him. "No!" I shouted, trying to run to brother. The faster I tried to run, the slower I went. By the time I was halfway across the small room, Reyvis was already to my twin. He grabbed Avis by the throat and threw him hard against the wall, causing him to cry out in pain. I was almost there when brother was stabbed in the stomach. I hoped he would live, until Reyvis pulled the knife upwards, slicing a huge rent in Avis's body. Brother fell to the floor, which was soon covered in his blood. Reyvis turned to me, grinning maniacally. I felt my heart freeze as his knife went towards my throat. All I saw was blackness.

I woke up, sweating and gasping for breath. As I calmed down, I noticed Azen sitting in a chair a few feet away from my bed. "W...Why are you there?" I asked, still a bit shaken from the nightmare. "I heard you screaming and came in. I didn't think you'd have the dream this quickly..." I stared at him, confused. "What dream? A nightmare?" He gave a small smile. "When humans become a demon's partner, they acquire the ability to take on another form at will. The dream is supposed to give you a hint of what you may become."

I sighed, "I don't know about that. All I saw was Avis, Mom, Da, you, that bastard Reyvis, and of course, myself!" He narrowed his eyes at me, thinking. After a minute, his eyes widened. "You said you saw yourself. Did you really see yourself?" I paused. "Yes, there was a mirror, and I..." He grinned triumphantly. "And you..?" I guess he saw the color drain from my face, because he looked a little worried. "Are you okay? What did you look like?" I looked up at him. "I was very tall, much taller than you. I wasn't just pale, I was as white as fresh snow. I had no face or hair, my head was completely smooth." My voice started shaking as I saw Azen start getting paler as well. "And I had multiple black tentacles growing from my back."

Azen looked at me, eyes wide. "You have no idea what this means, do you?!" I glared at him. "Of course not! I'm freaking the hell out! Please enlighten me!" I saw a grin spread slowly across his face. "That means you will be one of the most powerful demon-helpers in existence."