Earth, a planet once populated with life long ago, has now been completely void of all humans and animals, but the plants remained to flourish. After the man upstairs eliminated his creations for the last time, the demons of Hell were free to take over and claim it as their own. The evil one downstairs sought to cover the planet with his minions after making a deal with the good father.

Countless years later, Earth had been transformed into a futuristic, neon-lit utopia called “Vibe-Wave” ruled by one of the evil one’s top demon commanders, Queen Toxic, a blue music note-headed demon. She began a social class, per the evil one’s orders, that divided the planet between Royalty who were those that were popular and rich, and Commoners who were average or poor. Of course most demons lived on the commoner side and were banned from associating with those higher up within royal territory or else they’d face a brutal punishment, one the queen’s own husband faced after cheating on her with a commoner, resulting in his banishment back to Hell to be punished severely, not like Toxic wanted him around anymore anyway after feeling both betrayed and bored of him.

She had a daughter named Jazz who was the Princess of Vibe-Wave and was also a blue music note-headed demon. Unlike Toxic who was strict and a little stuck-up, Jazz was more outgoing, friendly and a little lazy. Of course her mother spoiled her and had their top bodyguard Max, a blue cat demon, do anything for them and often took Jazz to some stores in the town near their castle. She had a love for video games and playing with people online with her own group of friends, two were royalty, the third one…was a commoner.

“BOOM! BRINGING THE PAIN THIS TIME ASSHOLES!”

“NO! I GOT YOU THIS TIME!”

“Sorry you two, I know all the moves of this one.”

“Don’t mind me, just gonna move on in for the kill.”

Jazz was playing with her online friends once again in a shooting game and was currently dominating. The other three were struggling to avoid her as she shot at them.

“DAMN IT JOSIE IF YOU DON’T HOLD STILL!” Tara, a red demon bat, shouted with a Transylvanian accent.

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game Tara.” Josie, a blue demon shark, teased with a southern accent.

“GGGGRRRRRRR!”

“You’ve been strangely quiet there Albie, you better not be planning something.” Josie said.

Albie, the only male demon of the group and the one commoner, smirked with determination.

“Hmph, too busy concentrating.” Albie said.

“Heh, you’ll lose to us again!” Tara scoffed.

“I wouldn’t count him out, he’s almost gotten me several times.” Jazz said.

“But still failed.” Tara argued.

“Alright leave him alone, he’ll probably get to you before I do.” Josie said.

“I THINK THE FUCK NOT!” Tara shouted.

The four continued playing before Albie performed a sneak attack on Tara and killing her player.

“VHAT? NO! DAMN YOU ALBIE!” Tara said.

She could be heard slamming her fist on the floor and the others laughed.

“Okay cool down, I’ll get him.” Jazz said.

Albie concentrated on getting Josie next but she was too far away from his location, he had to brave the map while avoiding Jazz.

“I’m coming for ya Albie.” Jazz said.

Albie managed to get halfway across the map before Josie appeared and opened fire.

“NO WAY SUGAR!” Josie said.

Albie dodged several times before unloading all his ammo on Josie who tried to bring up a shield but was killed too quickly. Josie sighed and smiled.

“Well done kid, but there’s one problem.” Josie smirked.

“What?”

BANG!

Albie’s character is shot from behind by a bazooka from Jazz and he loses.

“Aw damn it!” Albie said.

“HAHA! THE PRINCESS WINS AGAIN!” Jazz laughed.

“FUCK!” Tara yelled.

“Oh well.” Josie shrugged.

“I’ll get you next time Albie, that’s a promise.” Tara snarled.

“Why don’t you go calm down Tara, geez.” Jazz said.

“Ugh, yeah it’s getting late.” Tara looked at her phone.

They didn’t have video chat settings on the games so they could only hear each other through headphones.

“Okay, same time tomorrow?” Josie asked.

“Fine.” Tara said.

“Not a problem.” Jazz said.

“I’ll be here…” Albie sighed.

The three girls caught his sigh through their headphones.

“Hey Albie, you alright? Did something happen earlier?” Josie asked.

“No, it’s just…”

Albie leaned back in his chair, large yellow horns twitching.

“I wish we could all play together in one place, but I’m not royalty like you three.”

He couldn’t see them, but they were also upset by this.

“Yeah, only us girls can meet up past the barrier. But we’ve been playing together for a year now, and it’s not fair how you can’t join us.” Josie said.

“Jazz surely you can convince your mother to allow him to play vith us in person.” Tara said.

Jazz shook her head.

“She won’t allow that no matter what. It’s too dangerous to have him come here, he could be punished and I can’t let that happen. Mom will have to see that some commoners are just as important as royalties.” Jazz said.

“Does she know about Albie?” Josie asked.

“No, she can’t know. Who knows what will happen. He can’t even give me his number without it being scanned by our royal computer every 10 seconds.”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind playing with you guys from home, besides…”

He trailed off looking out his window where he could see the castle not too far from his house, just over a few hills and blocked by a large blue transparent energy barrier that separated him from the royalty area on the other side of the castle.

“Tara and Josie come down here sometimes, perhaps I’ll see you one day at the store or something Jazz.”

“I guess that’s true.” Tara said.

“We need to get out more ourselves.” Josie said.

“I got to have Max with me at all times.” Jazz muttered.

“Makes sense, you’re the princess after all.” Albie said.

“Well sometimes I wish I wasn’t, sometimes it’s not fair that I can’t hang with all my friends. I mean shit, my 21^st birthday is coming up next week. Maybe after that I’ll have more freedom.” Jazz complained.

“Ve’ll see.” Tara said.

“Well, we should get some sleep.” Josie yawned.

“Alright we’ll talk tomorrow.” Jazz said.

Everyone said their goodbyes, Tara and Josie logged off first, but Jazz caught Albie before he did.

“Hey Albie?”

“Yeah?”

“I really want to see you one day, maybe I’ll find a way soon.”

“That would be nice, just be careful.”

“Heh, I’m always careful.”

“True.”

“Goodnight dude.”

“Goodnight!”

After they logged off, Albie went to sit on his average-sized bed looking down at his average t-shirt, shorts and shoes, his horns drooped and the pale skull strapped and fused on his face needed to be adjusted. After that he looked back outside at the castle, his bright yellow eyes and black slit pupils looked all over the land.

Vibe-Wave sure was beautiful at night, a clear blue sky, a large moon, the neon-lit city and castle in the distance with the amazing green hills that separated him from Jazz. He lived on his own and was making good money as an author, but for as long as he loved writing books, he longed for the life of royalty, but it wasn’t part of his destiny, and he had to accept that…or did he?

“I’ll meet Jazz one day, I’m sure of it.” He thought.

Jazz was sitting on her own large bed surrounded by a lot of expensive furniture and even a walk-in closet nearby. Unlike most princesses, she dressed in normal clothes that would make her fit in easily with the commoners. She dug into the pockets of her dark blue overalls for her phone, fingerless gloved claws began tapping away rapidly at the screen.

While scrolling through a few things, Max knocked on her door.

“Everything okay in there princess?” Max asked.

“I’m fine, just about to go to bed.”

“Okay, I’ll let your mother know.”

Jazz rolled her eyes while examining her glowing pink claws.

“Thanks.”

Then Max slowly opened the door earning an annoyed glare from Jazz.

“You know, this is the third time in a row you’ve never gone to tell your mother goodnight in person, is everything alright between you two?”

“Yeah, I’m just too tired to go do it myself.”

“Well you play a lot of games and wear yourself out.” Max teased.

This earned him a shake of the end of her long ponytail shaped like a spiked fist which acted as a third hand and had a fingerless glove over it. Max backed off quickly knowing she could cause serious damage with it.

“Alright my bad. I’ll go tell her, goodnight!” Max said.

After he shut the door, Jazz decided to switch to a tank top and some pajama pants and head to bed, but not before looking out her window, from her viewpoint she could see Albie’s house, his bedroom light was off. Sighing she waved a hand at his house in case he happened to be looking before getting into bed.

“I hate being a princess sometimes.”

The next afternoon, Albie decided to head downtown to the local game store to pick up a new game he had been waiting to play all year. The town was pretty small, everyone knew everyone but only on occasion would you catch royalty coming into some of the stores. Nothing was divided so commoners and royalties could freely speak to each other if they wanted to. Albie was used to seeing royalties walking around in fancy clothing or expensive cars. He’d roll his eyes at such things knowing his royal friends weren’t like that at all. He has met up with Josie and Tara before but their conversations would have to stay short as their parents would quickly haul them away from talking with commoners.

“Well at least it’s not crowded today.”

Heading in, he nodded to the demon at the register before browsing the games. He had noticed the shelves that housed the new games were mostly empty. It seemed others had beaten him to the game first.

“Aw man…well I can check back tomorrow. Guess I can look at…huh?”

Albie noticed a girl with a long threatening ponytail looking at a game she picked up, her back was to him. Albie thought she looked familiar, he had seen pictures of Jazz on posters as well as some newspapers and this girl in front of him did look like her. Albie couldn’t help but look at her clothing, it was so ordinary like a commoner but still expensive like royalty. He was confused by her blue overalls and fingerless gloves that she mixed with her pink and black high-heeled boots and stockings.

“Could it be?”

For a brief moment, the tall pink antennas on her head connected to the fused headphones on her head lurched back like dog ears. That’s when Albie felt the presence of someone else much bigger than him coming over, a shadow covered his body as he looked up to his right.

“You got a problem little punk?”

Albie gasped at the big demon cat who stared down at him with a menacing glare.

“Oh uh…I zoned out.” Albie lied.

The cat cracked his gloved knuckles.

“Don’t fool around, you’re in the presence of Princess Jazz, show some damn respect before I-“

“Max! ENOUGH!”

The spiked hair fist on the girl’s ponytail lunged at Max but stopped a few centimeters in front of his face making the guard back off quickly. Albie turned to where the hair had come from and saw Jazz staring right at him, her pink glowing eyes never leaving his, her sharp pink teeth and fangs forming into a smile. Albie stared back unable to speak, he knew who she was…but did she know him?

“Uh…s’up?” Albie suddenly blurted out.

“S’UP? WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? Now she’s gonna deck me!” Albie thought.

But Jazz’s smile never faltered, she looked even more curious.

“I think I know you from somewhere.” Jazz said tilting her head.

“Oh really?” Albie gasped

“Max, would you be a dear a move away, I want to talk to him privately please.”

Max wanted to object as he wasn’t a fan of commoners, but seeing Jazz batting her dark blue eyelids at him made the cat groan.

“Okay fine, just be quick.” Max said.

As Max backed off, Jazz moved closer to Albie who was glad they were the same height as he could stare back into her eyes.

“You’re Albie right?”

Albie’s eyes widened, his skull face going crooked and he had to adjust it.

“Yeah…and you’re Princess Jazz.”

“Dude just call me Jazz, you don’t hear Tara or Josie saying that.” She snorted putting her hands on her hips.

“Oh, sorry. But it’s so great to see you in person!”

“Same here, better than being distances away from each other’s houses. Heh, I know you’ve never had to deal with a small house being the princess and all.”

Jazz’s smile shrunk a bit.

“It’s okay, but mom is so strict, it’s annoying. The fact that I can’t hang with people like you is not fair. We can barely speak here.”

“I know, but one day the rule will have to be lifted.”

“It’ll be hard to change her mind. But hey, at least we can play together online.” She said cheerfully.

Albie thought she was cute, her pink fangs bending with her smile.

“Yeah, we can hear each other’s voices.” Jazz shrugged.

“Tara and Josie still go over there?”

“Yeah we have a lot of sleepovers, ugh they can be annoying sometimes. You know them pretty well too.”

“Yeah, their constant arguing and competitiveness, it’s honestly funny.”

As the two talked, they didn’t notice Max still trying to pay attention to their conversation.

“So they do know each other huh? Playing online together?” He figured.

The few customers in the store often glanced over, both commoner and royalty, surprised to see Jazz and Albie talking to each other like it was nothing.

“So we still on for tonight?” Albie asked.

“You got it!” She winked.

“Too bad they’re out of the game.”

Jazz had been holding onto the new game the whole time and looked down at it.

“Don’t worry, I’ll…I’ll find a way to bring it over. There’s something I need to discuss with my mom first, then I’ll let you borrow it in a few days, think you can hold off until then?”

“Yeah no problem, I got a few games on my backlog right now anyway.”

“Cool, well it looks like we’re getting a small audience.”

The two eyed all the looks they were getting. Jazz then growled swinging up her ponytail fist making everyone quickly look away nervously.

“Ugh…being a princess can be a pain.”

“I see.”

“Well, I’ll see you online tonight with the others.”

She held up a fist for him to bump, much to Max’s horror. Albie eagerly bumped it before Jazz quickly turned away, something dropping from her ponytail hand, a small slip of paper that Albie grabbed. It was her number and this made him blush as Max walked over.

“Max it’s time to go, I got what I wanted.” Jazz announced.

Max nodded before eyeing Albie again.

“You’re lucky.”

He let Albie go before joining Jazz at the counter. Albie backed away trying to slow down his fast-beating black heart. He looked away and waited for them to leave, unknowingly missing Jazz’s frown as she looked back at him before leaving.