The boy led Meiko to a house that was smaller than the rest, just away from the others. It looked run down with broken windows, missing tiles and over grown bushes that grew around it. Jumping over branches and up the creaky stairs the boy took her inside. Inside was a little better than outside but it still looked bad. In the back right corner was a mouldy old mattress with large holes in it. A torn painting of a garden full of flowers, hangs above it. Snow lay on the floor under the broken windows. The place made Meiko feel uncomfortable but she was curious why the boy led her here. Speaking up Meiko says "So...why did you, bring me here?" A mouse that appears out of nowhere scurries across the dusty floor, causing Meiko to jump. When the mouse disappears as quickly as it appeared, the boy turns and faces Meiko. He stares at her hard with his dull brown eyes. A little confused Meiko says "Um, what are you doing?" Again the boy says nothing, as he leans his face in closer to her. The boy was seriously starting to freak her out. Before she could turn around and run away from the weird boy, he whispers "You're not a demon, are you?"
The Surprise from the boy speaking suddenly causes Meiko to yelp and trip backwards onto the ground. Worried, the boy asks her loudly "Are you okay?" Rubbing sore her sore behind, Meiko replies "Yeah, but why'd you have to go and scare me like that?" The boy crosses his arms angrily. "I didn't mean to scare you" he grunts. Still rubbing her behind, Meiko stands up and says sarcastically "You could have fooled me" After a while of arguing over nothing, Meiko finally asks "So why bring me here?" Looking a little calmer but with his arms still crossed, the boy replies "I wanted to ask you a something in a private place" Folding her arms with her head on an angle and one of her eyebrows up, Meiko asks "Like what?" Leaning in close to Meiko with his hand close to his mouth he whispers "Like are you a demon or not?" With an annoyed look upon her face, Meiko says "Why would I tell you?"Angrily, the boy says back "Fine don't tell me" before turning around and walking over to the back of the room. A question pops into Meiko's head. "You don't live here do you?" she says as she walks over to the boy. "What no! This is just some random place I like come to sometimes." he yells turning around to face her. "What do you think I am poor?" he adds. "Whatever" Meiko says sighing as she stands beside the boy.
Looking outside through one of the broken windows, Meiko notices that it's starting to get late. Turing back to face the boy she says "Hey, it's getting late, shouldn't you be going home?" Turing to look out the window the boy answers "Yeah, I guess" The boy starts to walk towards the door before stopping. "What about you, where are you going to stay tonight?" Meiko hadn't thought of this. "Um, I'll be staying here I guess" Whipping around the boy yells "You can't stay here, it gets cold at night." Meiko smiles as she says "I'll be fine, you go home" The boy thinks for a while before saying "Why don't you stay at my place tonight?" Moved Meiko says "Really? I can stay at your place tonight?" Grabbing Meiko's arm the boy says "Yeah, come on I'll show you the way." Without any second thoughts, Meiko followed him to his home.
Meiko was relieved that the boy's actual house looked nothing like the one he brought her to the first time. If the boy hadn't offered her to stay at his house, she would be having nightmares all night of mouldy beds the came after her with a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Plus she would have been an icicle when she woke up since she had no blanket and that the windows were broken and letting in snow. Yes she was glad that she was staying the night in the house that the boy now brought her to. Its garden was well kept with pruned, evenly cut shrubs and no branches were scattered across the path. The windows were intact and well cleaned. No threatening sound of the house suddenly collapsing came from it either, and finally a warm, welcoming light, glowed inside it. The sight brought tears to her eyes. "Why are you crying?" the boy suddenly says looking up at her. Shaking her head, Meiko says "It's nothing; it just reminds me of my home." The boy just keeps walking like she had said nothing. When they got to the front door, Meiko was told by the boy "Stay here, I'll ask if it's okay for you to stay here tonight."
Soon the boy returned. "It's okay with my sister, as long as you don't do anything suspicious." The boy said to Meiko. Looking confused Meiko says "Sister? What about your parents?" Looking down at his feet the boy answers "My parents died a few years ago, so my sister takes care of me" "Oh" Meiko says feeling a little bad about herself. Quickly the boy looks up. "Do you want me to show you where you can sleep?" Meiko looks at the boy surprised at how fast he got over his parents deaths. "Um, yeah, I guess" Meiko says before once again being grabbed and led by the boy, this time into the house. Pointing to a door the boy says "You can stay in there" He then points to another door. "That's the bathroom. You can have a shower if you want" he says before gesturing that Meiko smelled by holding his nose. Annoyed Meiko says "Yeah, Yeah, I know I smell" Smiling the boy runs down the hallway and into a room yelling "See you tomorrow morning!"
Meiko watched the boy disappear in the room before opening the bathroom door. "Planning on having a bath are you?" a voice behind Meiko says. Turning around Meiko comes face to face with a woman. The woman had light brown hair that was tied into a bun. She wore a white t-shirt that had the peace symbol on it. She also wore a long skirt that went down to her knees and large, fluffy slippers. "Well are you or aren't you?" the woman asked again. "Are you talking to me?" Meiko asks. Not amused the woman says "Yes, I'm talking to you" Swallowing nervously Meiko says "Um, yeah, if you don't mind" "In that case you'll be needing this" the woman says as she chucks a towel at Meiko. Looking down at the towel Meiko says "Um, thanks, I think" The woman sneers before turning around and walking away. "This whole family is strange" Meiko thought to herself while she closed the door behind her. Meiko slipped out of her smelly clothes and into a running shower. The warm, rushing water removed the filth that clung to her skin and the sweet smelling shampoo returned the shine to her hair. When she was finished having a bath she was squeaky clean and smelt of peppermint. After drying herself off with the towel the woman gave her, she put on her pyjamas, which was a short night gown with a large, red bow around the collar. Yawning, Meiko went into the room she was told she was allowed to sleep in and thumped down into the queen sized bed. Smiling, she says "Finally a nice warm bed" and falls asleep.
The next day, when Meiko woke up she found the clothes that she wore yesterday, clean and folded at the end of the bed. Yawning she got up and went to the bathroom to use the toilet and change into yesterday's clothes. After brushing her teeth with the toothbrush she packed, she went downstairs and towards the kitchen where the smell of food being cooked was coming from. When she enters the room, the lady from before is cooking by the oven. Rubbing her eyes Meiko says "Ah, morning" Without looking around the woman says "Morning" Yawning Meiko sits down at the table, and fiddles with her fork while she waits for the food to finish cooking. Before the food is ready the boy comes down from upstairs and comes into the kitchen. "Good, morning everyone" he says. The woman turns around with a smile on her face. "Good morning Roy" Looking up Meiko says "Is that your name, Roy?" The woman looks at Meiko with an angry face. "Do you have a problem with it? The threatening look on the woman's face causes Meiko to answers nervously "No, I just didn't know his name till now" The woman grunts before continuing cooking. Meiko then realises something. Turning around she sees that Roy has sat next to her and is staring directly at her. "Why are you staring at me?" she asks Roy. Leaning in close to her, he whispers "You do know your tail is out" Slowing looking down, Meiko sees her tail wrapped around one of the tables legs.
Meiko slaps her hand onto her face. "Damn it!" Looking at Meiko the woman says "What?" Waving her hand towards the woman, Meiko says "Nothing" Thinking for a while the woman then goes back to what she was doing. While the woman wasn't looking Meiko quietly grabs her tail and shoves it under her shirt. "So have you heard the news?" Roy suddenly says. "What news?" Meiko asks curiously. "The news that's coming from Japan" Roy says. Meiko shakes her head. Sighing Roy says "People have been seeing things" Leaning in Meiko asks "What things?" "Demons, there has been a lot of activity recently. People say that their looking for something." Roy says. "Looking for what?"Meiko says as the woman places the food on the table. "Stop talking, it's time to eat." She says. Before Meiko could hear an answer from Roy he starts to eat, leaving Meiko to think about what the demons would be desperately looking for.