It has been three months since I found out a life was living inside me. At first

 it terrified me. How was I supposed to take care of another life? I couldn’t 

even take care of myself. A run away at the age of sixteen. My family was from

 noble blood. This meant there were so many rules it could make your head

 spin. The day it all happened was right after my birthday party. My father 

came home drunk. He’d always do this on Thursday. No idea what caused him

 to want to drink solely on that day. My mother was angry with him. She was

 yelling something that I couldn’t understand from the living room. That is 

when I heard a loud crash. I ran out of the living room to find my mother on

 the floor bleeding. My father had hit her so hard that she landed against a

 table. I could see the fear in his eyes. Instinctively I checked for a pulse on 

her but found none.

 “You killed her!” 

My father quickly ran over grabbing me up by my arm almost breaking it.

 “Don’t you dare say those words again. Someone else did this is that

 understood?” 

His eyes looked like some crazed monster.

He put me down pinning me against the wall. All I could smell was the alcohol

 from his breathe.

 “Now repeat after me. I was in the living room when I heard a loud crash. I 

ran out here to see my mother laying on the floor. There was a man 

running from our front door.”

 Tears started to fall from my eyes as repeating his words. He leaned back

 walking up the stairs to take a shower. All his years of drinking helped since 

he was able to afford the alcohol reduction medicine. It basically was like

 taking a mere sip of something instead of being completely drunk. Falling 

down to my knees I started to ball like an infant. My father came back down 

with his hair dried in clean clothes. He proceeded to call the police. They 

came quickly as I told the story father forced upon me. They tried to get me 

to remember more details. How can you remember details of something that

 didn’t happen? After the police left my father gripped my shoulder hard. 

“Now remember to be a good girl or else.”

 His eyes still looked like some kind of monster.

How could this be the same man who would cuddle me in his arms as I had 

nightmares? I let myself fall to the floor just looking to the blood setting into

 the carpet. He was already in the kitchen getting something to drink. What 

the hell was going on here? He’d never been a violent man. Getting up I peek

 around the corner to see him lighting a cigar. It was the perfect time to 

check his dirty clothes for some kind of clues. Being as silent as possible I 

climbed the stairs to my parents room. His clothes lay hidden under a pile of 

other dirty stuff. Quickly I glance back to make sure he’d not come up the 

stairs. My heart was racing so fast it could almost implode.

 Looking through his pockets the only thing I found was a card for a club. It 

was named Pisac Club. If I remembered right that meant devil in another 

language. I put everything back into place just going to my room which was

 down the hall. Closing the door I just leaned against it. This wouldn’t help me

 if he tried to come in. After a little while I sit on my bed just crying more, still

 unable to believe what had happened. It was almost midnight when I heard 

the door to my room jerk open. Standing in the door was my father. He had 

only a pair of pants on, his hair looked all messy. If anyone knew his he hated 

having his hair out of place. Thinking back he really was OCD on many things.

Sitting up in bed I only watch as he walks over sitting next to me. He looked 

so lost yet for some reason it felt dangerous. 

“Althea you know I didn’t mean to hurt your mom right?”

 He leaned over pulling my face close to his own. I was staring the monster 

eye to eye. 

“Yes...father I know you would never hurt us.”

 He gave me a smile then leaned in kissing my lips. Instinctively I pushed him

 away then started to run. That is when I felt his grip on the back of my shirt.

“Screw you! I don’t know what really happened but I am not going to be her

 replacement.”

 Quickly I pulled down leaving my shirt running down the stairs. I kept 

running till reaching the door. Swinging it open widely my brain was on auto 

pilot. My father had come running down the stair but stopped at the door. I 

could barely hear him mutter something to himself then shut the door. So 

now I was running in the middle of the night in a bra and sweatpants. I’d been

 home schooled so going to a schoolmate was out. All the people I knew were

 his friends.

When my body was so tired I just let it fall to the ground. This was a 

neighborhood that was completely new to me. A woman stood there looking

 at me with a raised brow.

 “Hey...kid you are gonna die of a cold if you don’t put something on.”

 She walked over then noticed the soles of my feet were bleeding. She quickly

 took her jacket off putting it on me.

 “Come on kid. My name is Trisha. This isn’t the area for a noble born to be

 in.”

 I looked to her with a questioning gaze. Trish pointed to the dragon crest on

 my right side. Each noble family had a crest that their children were born

 with. This was done many thousand years ago. I suppose someone got tired

 of their cheating spouses ways. It was almost funny but this place made me

 think it would be dangerous. Trish lead me inside where several men and 

women sat watching television. 

“Go get me the medic stuff.”

 One of the men gave her a glare as she literally kicked him in the face.

 “I swear to god if you want to stay in my home you better fucking listen to 

me.”

 They all jumped up and took off running. One of the woman laughed as 

walking up with the medic kit.

Trish carefully cleaned then bandaged my feet. I sat there silently until she

 handed me a hot cup of milk.

 “My name is Althea Rozen’Heart.” (name pronounced as Rose-in-heart)

 They both looked at one another with pure shock. It was easy to forget that

 my family was considered the highest of the nobles. People had killed to 

become part of the linage. Yet at the moment I wanted nothing more then to

 be a normal person. 

“Do you want to tell me why the princess of all the nobles is here in this 

place?”

 Could I tell her everything? Letting out a sigh I start to explain everything

 that went down. Trish just sat down staring at me.

 “Althea you need to disappear. That club is bad news. Anyone who goes in 

there does nothing but cause havoc on the ones they had truly loved.”

 She spoke like someone close to her was affected by this as well.

 “I don’t even know how to do that.”

 Trish walks over pulling me into a hug. The other woman still was too 

dumbfounded by everything to even speak. 

“I’ll help you get passage out of the country. Demi is to dangerous for you

 at the moment.”

 I wanted to ask more but she made me go to a room to sleep.

In the morning she gave me fresh clothes to wear. I noticed a bag full of more

 clothes and some credits. It was really pathetic that I’d never even used a 

credit unit before. She has me sit down putting the credit to my arm as it 

placed a number to my wrist. 

“I could only get to two thousand credits. I know it isn’t enough really but

 trust me you will need it all. You will board the ship at port B. Look for a 

man who is covered in scars, his name is Darren. He is a friend of mine.”

 I gave her a huge hug as she walked me almost to the port. I started to cry as

 she told me to go the rest alone. I wanted my mother so badly right now.

 This was pointless thinking about that right now. As walking up her 

description of the man was dead on. She forgot to mention he was really

 scary looking.

 “Um..are you Darren? Trish sent me here.” 

The man walked over giving me a gentle smile.

 “Yeah I am him. Come on this is a smuggler ship so we better hurry.”

 He lead me onto the ship. It was really nice to be honest. I sat down on box 

hoping that nothing in it would explode or be alive. Darren laughed seeing

 my tension. 

“Calm down kid. We smuggle goods out to the humans. Don’t know if the

 nobles teach this or not but Demi is the country for those called the

 descendants of the devil.” 

My eyes open wide not even knowing this about my home land. How blind 

had I been all these years? I remained silent for the next six hours.

Many times Darren tried to get me to talk although he meant well it wasn’t 

going to happen. I’d fallen asleep during the trip since I felt a gentle touch to 

the shoulder. Darren was trying to wake me.

 “We are here. I hope you are able to live a good life here.”

 Walking from the ship was like another world. The people here didn’t have

 flying cars nor ships. I could actually see someone with a horse drawn 

carriage. What have I gotten my spoiled ass into? Turning back I can see that

 Darren is waving to me. The air here smelled like smog and horse shit. It was

 better then being raped by my father so I took it. It took a few hours before 

finding a place to rent to me. They were cautious of me. I’d learned that 

people here didn’t have blue hair nor pink eyes. Guess my homeland really he

 the blood of the devil it seemed. Letting out a sigh I fall back onto a the bed.

 The woman said she would let me work for her if need be.

The next year went by so fast that it felt un-real to me. The people around 

this city grew accustomed to me. Although there was a few who still tried to 

pull shit with me. While living here a man who found me amusing came up 

with a way to hide my hair color. He couldn’t do anything about my eyes 

though. If I had been in Demi it would had been easy to change them. 

Although I wouldn’t have since pink eyes were highly sought after. It was time

 for the festival that had the shop owner excited. It seemed a little off to me 

but I wanted to enjoy myself too. We closed up the shop going into town. It 

had such festive music playing. Their was dancing, shadow puppets, food,

 stall vendors of every kind set up. As the night went on they yelled it was 

time for the maiden sacrifice. Huh..I thought I was hearing things at first.

 That is when the shop owner pulled me over to see. 

“These are the young women we send to Demi to appease them. If they 

enjoy them they will leave us all alone.”

 Again I thought how could I know so little of my homeland. The young

 women all looked scared out of their minds. I watched as a huge noble ship

 fly over the girls. They were transported onto the ship before our eyes. 

“This isn’t right. No one should have to do this.”

 The shop owner had a sad expression.

What would happen if these women didn’t sacrifice themselves? Was this 

whole festival a way to tell them good-bye or something? 

“I had a daughter thirty years ago who was chosen as well. She tried to run

 away but they caught her. I was forced to watch as they ripped her limb

 from limb.”

 I turned to her with a horrified expression. Now I understood their hate 

towards me when I’d arrived. Standing there watching the ship leave made 

my heart ache. There had to be a way to stop all these lives from being lost. I

 still wanted to know about Pisac Club as well. In the next few months I spent

all my time researching anything about my homeland. In one of the books it 

said that the Devil himself lived among his descendants hidden. He would

 rule everyone making humans give sacrifice or be punished. Most of the 

books didn’t go into detail about what the punishment would entail. That is 

when I hatched a plan to be chosen as one of the maidens next year. When

 Darren’s ship arrived at port next time I asked him a favor. He thought it 

strange I wanted to change my eye color but went with it. The contacts were 

special made to not be noticed even by our own.