Darek could feel himself becoming conscious as he heard the sounds of his blaring alarm steadily grow louder in his room. He softly grunted and turned over in his bed to peak at the time—5:23 am. "It's time already?" he groaned. Darek knew he should've been up at 5 like he said, but a part of him now was starting to regret making the decision. Outside was still dark and his room was pitch black, practically inviting the man to go back to sleep. Five more minutes. Darek buried himself in his pillow.

Just then, Darek heard the sounds of vibrations in front of him. He opened one eye to see his phone subtly moving across his nightstand. Within three seconds, the phone became still. A relieved breath overcame Darek as he shut his eyes once again. It wasn't long before his phone hummed on his nightstand again. Darek grunted his annoyance and reached out to snatch the phone. He took a peek at the caller ID before finally answering the call. "Hello?"

"Rise 'n' shine, D! You still sleep?" Ice asked.

Darek rolled his eyes. "Nah, I'm dead."

"You betta resurrect yo'self before me and the gang come by yo' crib. We'll be there in 30!" Ice hung up.

Darek made an annoyed grunt and tossed his phone to his nightstand. He had flung it a little too hard and the cell ended up smacking into the wall and crashing to the carpet floor. The noises from the fall combined with his ongoing ringing alarm made Darek's face sour. Every little detail of the early morning so far was pulling him to get up and it was working. Darek slowly propped himself up in his bed and rubbed his eyes. He stared in the dark in silence for a good minute, then mustered some energy to move to the edge of his bed, stop his ringing alarm, and place his phone back on his nightstand. He rose on his feet and let out a deep rolling yawn as he went into his nightstand drawer to grab a bathroom towel. "I hate my life," he grumbled as he threw his towel over his shoulder and went to the bathroom.

The air gently nipped at Darek's exposed skin as he undressed and placed his clothes in a small pile on the floor. He went into his walk-in shower, turned the faucet to the left into the hot zone, and moved out the way for the cold water from the showerhead to fall first. As soon as the water turned warm enough, Darek moved under the showerhead and shut his eyes, letting out a relaxed moan as the warm water fell down his body. At this point, Darek felt comfortable decompressing for a little while before washing himself.

"Your girlfriend, genius. Jade, was it?"

The question had sprung into his mind, which distracted Darek into gripping his body wash that was slowly oozing onto the floor. He'd forgotten that Seymour was the only family member who was semi-aware of what went on in his life in San Francisco. The other family members rarely checked on him, only if they needed something from him. Only Hsi Wu would, without warning, pop up by Darek's house or his job bored and looking for company. The thought of Seymour telling the family of Jade graced his mind and Darek shuddered. Seymour'd better keep his mouth shut, he glared at the shower wall and continued to scrub down his body.

Darek turned the shower off and grabbed his towel to dry his hair and his upper half, then tied it around his waist. He went back to his room and turned to his clock to see it was 5:39—enough time before his ride arrived. Darek threw his towel on his bed and went into a drawer to pick out a black pair of underwear. He checked for any stains and brought it up to his nose to sniff. "Good enough," he said as he put them on. He moved to his closet to skim through his hung-up clothes and grabbed a grey shirt, a black sweater, and a pair of dark grey sweatpants to throw on.

Darek went downstairs into the kitchen to fix himself a full cup of black tea and a banana as his breakfast; he wasn't particularly hungry this morning anyway. He sat on his couch in the living room and idly played on his phone as he ate his breakfast. Here, Darek could enjoy his last moments of peace before he would go off to see his family thousand of miles away, who would offer him nothing close to peace. He scanned his living room with a defeated sigh. Darek was already missing the comforts of his home and being alone and he hadn't even left home yet.

Ding-dong!

Darek ticked his head behind him at the sound of his ringing doorbell. He let out a sharp exhale through his nose as he rose from his seat to answer the door.

"Mornin' boss. We ready to roll," Ice said with a salute. Two men were standing beside Ice and all three men were dressed in black bodyguard-like uniforms. On his left, there was a tall and bulky man with spiky hair and a headband across his forehead. His name was Damian Soto and his moniker was DJ Fist. On Ice's right, there was a shorter man (still taller than Ice) with purple hair and piercings on his nose and ears. His name was Michael-Cristiano Costa, his moniker being MC Cobra. The three men together made up the Ice Crew, Darek's most trusted employees.

"Gimme a minute." Darek half-closed the door and left the doorway to head upstairs. Two minutes later, the Asian man appeared back at his door with both arms full of bulky suitcases. Altogether, his bags were quite bulky and a little difficult for Darek to steadily carry in one go. "Alright, let's go."

"Don't sweat it, D-man! We got it," Cobra said as he and DJ simultaneously took a suitcase from their boss' arms and carried it towards the car, leaving Darek to carry his smaller bags to the car in the driveway, a black caravan with tinted windows.

"If the early morning rush hour don't catch us, it'll take an hour to the airport," Ice said to Darek as he sat in the backseat.

"That's the plan," Darek cynically replied. He placed his smaller bags in the car's trunk, then moved to sit down in the van's backseat. He went into his pant's pocket to pull out a set of keys and handed them to Ice. "I expect you three to watch over my place like a hawk. That means no hanging out, no company over, and no parties. Got it?"

"Loud an' clear, yo," Cobra said and saluted his boss from the front left passenger side. DJ looked into the mirror to meet Darek's eyes and nodded as he turned on the ignition. He put the van in reverse and steadily put his foot on the brake pad as he moved out the driveway.

"C'mon, D-man, you don't need ta worry 'bout us. We wouldn't do you bad like that," Ice said with a grin.

Darek gave a hard glare at Ice and huffed. "And I don't need to remind you what happens when you disobey me. All of you."

"Like we said, D," Ice spoke up again, shifting in his seat as DJ maneuvered the vehicle into 'drive' to head off on the road. "We got yo' back!"

Darek's scowl lessened and he nodded to Ice to mean he took his word for it. Despite his stern and harsh attitude towards his men, Darek had confidence that his men weren't completely incompetent. It wasn't 100%, but enough where Darek felt comfortable giving the Ice Crew the responsibility of making sure everything was still orderly when he returned.

Darek propped his hoodie over his head and leaned onto the window. The steady passing sights of the road and lights were slowly putting the man into a restful mood again, despite all the noise coming from his men chatting and joking away. Soon, Darek noticed his eyelids were feeling heavier to keep open. "Wake me up when we get there," Darek muttered.

A/N: Yeah, I spoke too soon when I said the other demons would be introduced. It may take some chapters to get to them, but don't 100% take my word for it. I'm still playing around with ideas on how to set everything since I made this story without having a set plan for events to happen as I do with Gemstone.

DJ Fist = Damian Soto (DJ)

MC Cobra = Michael-Cristiano Costa (Cobra)