=::= Melanie's PoV =::=

With the final bell I gathered up my books and stuff then headed for my locker. It was Friday afternoon and normally I couldn't wait to get out of school, but my plans had been messed up and I wasn't very happy about it.

I stuffed my books and everything inside my locker, then pulled out my leather jacket. There was homework, but it could wait till Monday morning before class.

"Hey Melanie!" my girlfriend called as she joined me. "Want to go grab a couple burgers before we head over to your place?"

I looked up and saw the big grin on her face. She was dressed in her typical Touhou-inspired outfit, with a layered ruffled skirt and a fancy blouse and vest. The only thing missing was her enormous witch-hat. The teachers finally got fed-up with it being a disruption to other students, so they forbid her from even bringing it to school anymore.

"Can't," I sighed. "Sorry Marissa. The store texted me just after lunch, they changed my shift and I gotta head over there right now."

She frowned, "Aww. And you're working tomorrow and Sunday too?"

I shook my head, "Not tomorrow. They put me on from four-thirty till closing tonight, but I get tomorrow off. Then I gotta work Sunday."

"I guess that's not so bad?" she tried to sound hopeful. "We can hang out all day tomorrow."

"Yeah I guess," I grumbled. "Anyways I better get going."

I started heading off, but she came with me. As we left the school she offered, "I'll keep you company, least I can do is walk with you right?"

That made me smile. I wasn't sure if she was just trying to cheer me up, or if she legitimately liked hanging out with me enough to want to walk all the way across town to the big box plaza where I worked, but either way it made me happy.

"Thanks Marissa," I grinned. "You're a good friend."

She smirked, "It's pronounced 'girlfriend' silly. And you're welcome."

That made me roll my eyes, but I kept smiling.

At first we were both quiet as we headed out to one of the main streets then made our way south. We had good weather which helped too, it almost felt like summer but today was only may twenty-first. It was supposed to be warm and clear and sunny all weekend though, and I could imagine lots of people would be making the most of it. Probably having BBQ all weekend, maybe doing backyard parties and stuff.

That ended up bringing my mood down, as I realized it was going to be a busy shift tonight. Everyone would want to stock up on food and snacks, folks getting out of work would be coming to the grocery store on their way home. I was going to spend my evening dealing with tired grumpy irate customers who were impatient to get their food home so they could kick back and relax.

"Must be nice not having to work," I commented after a few minutes.

My girlfriend's smile faded as well. She shrugged as she replied quietly, "Not really. I'd have got a part-time job already, but my mom won't let me. Since dad's accident she's paranoid I'll get hurt too."

I sighed, "Crud. I'm sorry Marissa."

Despite her brash outgoing nature, she didn't actually talk much about her home or family. I knew where she lived but I'd never been inside her home and I'd never met her parents.

Over the last few months I learned enough to know her dad got injured on the job a couple years ago, he'd been on long term disability ever since. Her mom worked and they had insurance money from her dad's accident, but it sounded like her dad would never work again.

From the hints and clues I picked up here and there, I got the impression things weren't any happier at home for her than they were for me. The whole thing left me wondering if that was part of the reason Marissa was so invested in her chuuni lifestyle. Like her normal mundane life sucked, so she lived the fun exciting life of a powerful Touhou witch instead.

It reminded me of something she said the day we first met, about how life messed with everyone. It certainly messed with me, and with her. And I knew things weren't great for Brooke either, because of her mom and all. Except as of two months ago Brooke's mom was ok, thanks to Cass's folks. Which led me to a new thought.

"How come you never asked Cass to get her moms to help your dad?" I suddenly asked her.

Marissa shrugged, "Nobody else knows about that stuff but you. And it'd be weird asking them for help like that, considering Cass won't tell us what her moms really are. And my dad's not dying or anything, he just can't work. I don't know. It's complicated."

"I'm sorry," I sighed again.

She shrugged again then held my hand as she said, "S'ok Melanie."

We got to the big box plaza with a half hour to spare, and the two of us headed straight to the cafe so I could get my pre-work venti latte. It was crowded like usual, there was a short line at the counter and all the tables were full. Except as soon as we entered the place I knew something was off.

Normally the smell of coffee drowned out all the other scents, but today there was something else. Something distinctly non-human. I didn't recognize it, but it was similar to a scent I did know. It reminded me of Cass.

I held Marissa's hand a little tighter as I whispered, "Something's wrong. There's something supernatural in here."

Just like that she was all business, as she looked around. She leaned closer and asked, "Do you know where it's coming from?"

I quietly sampled the air as I turned on the spot, and my gaze settled on a table with six young women sitting around it.

There were a pair of identical twins, with dusky skin and long jet-black hair. They even wore matching short black dresses and tights. Next was a tall skinny busty blonde with a tight pink t-shirt and skinny jeans. Beside her was a curvy redhead in a green tee and relax-fit jeans. A tiny mousey-looking girl with messy brown hair in a massively oversized tunic top and leggings was next. And finally a fashionably-dressed girl with curly blonde hair and impeccable make-up was in the last seat.

The twins were both drinking bottles of spring water, while the other four had lattes and iced coffee and that sort of thing. And something about all six just set my skin crawling. I was positive none of them were human.

My girlfriend already figured out where I was staring, and she was watching the group as well. A moment later she muttered, "Oh heck! Melanie use your magic sight. You're not going to believe this!"

That was a trick I'd learned back in March, apparently it was something all witches could do. I focused and concentrated, then blinked on my sight. It would let me see stuff like spirits and ghosts, even some kinds of illusion magic would be revealed.

My heart skipped a beat as soon as I saw it. One of the twins had demonic horns sticking up out of her head, and a long spade-tipped tail grew out of the base of her spine. The tail was looped over her shoulder and the tip gently swayed back and forth where it hung down in front of the demon girl's chest.

None of the others at the table had horns or a tail, but they all had a similar scent. I knew if one was a demon, they all had to be demons. We were standing three meters away from a half dozen demons, who were all sitting there having coffee and chatting as if they were normal humans.

That set my mind racing and my blood ran cold. They were demons, and they smelled sort of like Cassandra. That had to mean Cass was a demon too, or at least part-demon. And the worst part was I couldn't warn anyone about her.

I hadn't forgotten what Miss Hawthorne told me during our private conversation back when I first met her at the start of January. She knew I could tell by scent that both she and Cass were different, and she flat out told me not to say a word about that to anyone.

May's scent was similar to Cassandra's, but I was positive she didn't smell like these demons. I still had no idea what Miss Hawthorne was, but I was pretty sure she wasn't a demon. Cass's scent was somewhere in between, a bit like May's and a bit like the demons. Maybe half of one, half of the other?

That line of thought ended abruptly when Marissa grabbed my arm and gave me a little tug. We were at the front of the line, it was our turn to order.

I stuttered as I ordered my usual, and my girlfriend asked for a flat white. She paid for both, then we stood at the end of the counter and waited for our drinks.

"We have to figure out what they're up to," she whispered. "Time for some eavesdropping."

"How will we get close enough?" I asked quietly. "I mean without being noticed?"

She frowned as she glanced around the busy cafe.

As luck would have it, a couple people at a table next to the demons chose that moment to get up and leave. Marissa hurried over and grabbed the spot, then when our drinks came up I picked up the cups and joined her.

I wasn't entirely sure it was luck, I couldn't rule out the idea that my girlfriend used a spell of some kind to encourage the people to leave. On the other hand I didn't know for sure that she did something, and I trusted that if she did, she wouldn't have harmed anyone.

I also knew better than to ask her. If she did use magic we'd both get in deep trouble if Miss Hawthorne or the rest of the club found out about it, so I was better off not knowing.

A moment later all those thoughts were forgotten as it suddenly hit me. I was sitting less than a meter away from a bunch of demons. There was no mistaking the scent, those girls were not human. I tried to act relaxed and casual as I sipped my latte, but my heart was racing. And I kept quiet, neither me or Marissa said anything as we both listened to the conversation going on at the next table over.

The weird thing was their conversation was surprisingly mundane. They were tourists, from out of town, which made sense. I assumed we didn't have a lot of demons living around here, and I figured our small town was probably nothing like Hell or wherever these girls came from.

Then the blonde fashionista said something that revealed they weren't from Hell after all, but from the east end of Toronto. Which... Actually no, that made a lot of sense. I could totally believe that Toronto was the sort of place demons would hang out.

It took a few more minutes before we figured out they were staying at that ski resort in the valley north-east of town, and they had something big planned for tomorrow afternoon. They mentioned it more than once, some kind of serious event was going to happen at two o'clock.

Whatever it was, there'd be a follow-up tomorrow evening, and it sounded like it was going to last till midnight. Even worse, we figured out these six were just the start. They talked about the gathering being crowded once all the others arrived.

I was staring to imagine some kind of huge demonic ritual, with dozens if not hundreds of demons swarming the hills above the valley resort.

Marissa was obviously thinking the same thing as me. She pulled out her phone and started tapping out a message on the club's group chat. A few seconds later my phone buzzed and I pulled it out to have a look at what she'd texted.

"Me and Melanie discovered a group of demons at the cafe near her work!" she wrote. "They're planning a full-scale invasion tomorrow! It's set for two pm at the ski resort!"

She followed that up with a picture of the six girls. I was worried she was too obvious when she took it but fortunately none of them seemed to notice.

It took almost two whole minutes to get a reply back from anyone.

Eventually Brooke responded, "Demons huh? They look pretty terrifying Marissa. Maybe you and Melanie should get clear?"

It was obvious even in text that the club leader was being sarcastic. I knew the others tended to ignore my girlfriend, and to be fair she was a little over the top almost all the time. But she was also usually right. And considering I was sitting right next to the gang of demons with their scent filling my nose, it annoyed me that nobody else in the club was taking this seriously.

My phone buzzed again but this time it wasn't a text, it was an alarm reminding me about my shift.

"Crud," I sighed. I leaned closer to my girlfriend and told her, "I have to get going. My shift starts in five minutes."

Marissa looked torn, but after a couple seconds she nodded. She got up with me and we left the gang of demons behind as we left the cafe.

As soon as we were out the doors I sighed, "I can't believe the rest of the club keeps ignoring you! And as much as I hate to agree with Cassandra, she's right. The others should start listening to you!"

My girlfriend cringed as we set off across the parking lot, "Yeah... To be honest I wasn't always right about this sort of thing? In fact most of last year I was wrong, and I guess they just stopped listening to me. You and Cass have only seen the last few times when I was actually right."

I was about to comment on that when she frowned, "Hey, why do you hate to agree with Cass anyways? You're not still mad at her about the thing at Island Lake last month are you? You know it was an accident. Plus she helped you unlock your wolfgirl form."

"It's not that," I mumbled, though I couldn't help blushing at that memory. After I got over the shock of having her in my head I was left with the embarrassment of knowing that a spell that was supposed to let people talk with animals worked on me. Not to mention it took me all weekend to figure out how to make myself fully human again, which meant I had to miss a shift at work.

A couple seconds later I came up with a plausible answer to my girlfriend's question, "She just acts so shy and awkward and stuff, she's like the opposite of you and me."

Marissa laughed, "True enough. That girl needs to grow a backbone, then she'll be kick-ass like us."

That's what I was afraid of, but I kept that opinion to myself.

By then we were just outside the doors to the grocery store. I sighed, "I better get inside. I don't want to get another lecture from my manager about being late."

"Ok Melanie," Marissa replied as she gave me an awkward hug. Her expression hardened as she added, "I'm going to borrow my dad's car tomorrow. I'll be at your place at one to pick you up. We'll head over the resort together and deal with this ourselves."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "One witch and one werewolf, against six demons?"

"Positive," she responded. "We'll keep an eye on the demons, and if it comes down to it you and me will save the day."

"Right," I grimaced.

Finally I turned and headed into the store. Tomorrow me and Marissa would be facing down a half dozen demons. Tonight I had to spend six hours dealing with impatient irritable humans.

I honestly wasn't sure which was worse.

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