After lugging his bags downstairs, Billy searched around for some paper and a pencil. Better leave a note, he decided, thinking of Grim. Having the grim reaper as a best friend came with many positives—one of them being protection. If something happened to him down in the Earth's core where no one else was around, at least one supernatural being would know where to find him. He couldn't find a pen, so he scribbled down a brief message in crayon: Grim: We are spending winter with Uncle Nergal. You can join us if you want. Oh, and in case I die…bury me with all my action figures so they won't have to say goodbye. Also, the pudding in the fridge is mine! –Billy

There were a few spelling and grammatical errors in the note, but through Billy's eyes, it was legible enough. He knew that despite the side illustration of a killer bunny flying on the moon beside the words, Grim would understand exactly what he meant. His mother and father were waiting in the foyer with his uncle, all packed and ready to go. "Billy?" Nergal called from his spot by the door.

"Coming," Billy called back as he followed the demon's voice. He picked up his bags and loaded them out the door. He saw no car, which made him worry with fear that he would freeze before any transportation came. "Uhm…How are we getting to your house, exactly?" He glanced at Nergal, who was staring intently at his watch.

"Any moment now," he replied in an assuring tone. "I've been teaching Junior how to drive the car." A horn sounded as the ground began to shake. The road in front of Billy's house broke into two slabs of asphalt as the tip of a huge drill protruded from beneath the pavement. A stereotypical family car tailed the drill as it rolled into view with the small form of Nergal Jr. sitting at the wheel, propped on a booster cushion. Nergal had tricked out an average town car to operate underground by attaching a large drill to the hood. For Junior's benefit, he removed the gas and brake pedals and replaced them with a second control stick on the wheel. That way, anyone too short to reach the pedals or with missing/non-working legs could drive it just as easily as anyone else. The car came to a slow stop in the center between the two neighborhood sidewalks. Junior rolled down a window and waved. "Perfect parking, son!" His father beamed. "Right between the lines!"

"Thanks, Pop." Junior returned the smile as he hopped out of the driver's seat. He was wearing his usual winter outfit: red gloves, a matching red scarf, and an all black shirt, pants, and shoes. He approached Billy with shy eyes; he really didn't want to worsen Billy's impression of him, knowing fully well that his supernatural abilities could be very intimidating. "Hey, cousin." Billy just seemed to stare and blink at him in response. Junior's smile ran away from his face as he struggled to find something easy to say. "Uh…Want me to help you with your bags?"

Billy shrugged. "Okay," he quickly answered, dumping his stuff into Junior's arms. Billy's work ethic derived from a saying that his father told him once: "When life gives you an opportunity to be lazy, don't question it."

Junior struggled under the weight until his body naturally adjusted. One of the perks to being a form-shifter was being able to alter body tone and physique, even to superhuman strength, speed, and endurance. He tossed the luggage into the trunk with ease, and then helped Billy's parents with theirs. Simultaneously, Nergal opened up the car doors and—with the use of his expandable snakes—loaded the family into their seats in an orderly fashion and buckled them in. "All set, everyone?" he asked cheerfully as he slid into the driver's seat, Junior taking shotgun.

"Uhh…" the three humans began with apprehension as the engine started. Nergal either didn't hear or plainly chose to ignore them as he locked the doors, shifted the gears, and plunged the town car back into the miles of earth from where it came.

"Nergal," Gladys, Billy's mother, spoke up after a moment had passed. "When you said that you live in the Earth's core, I thought you meant a warmer place. Like Hawaii? Or Arizona?"

"No, no, that was all literal," Nergal clarified as he met her eyes through the rear-view mirror. Gladys fidgeted under her seatbelt, more than a little creeped out by his unblinking stare. "I do really mean the very center, though I'm sorry if you found my words misleading." When she seemed to be at a loss for words, he continued to make conversation. "It is much warmer down here. Think of the volcanoes, dense caves—positively swimming in magma. You will never have a reason to shudder or shiver." He smiled wide, showing off his teeth.

"I don't know about that," she murmured under her breath. Nergal and Junior raised one eyebrow in unison, both overhearing that comment. The larger demon frowned slightly, picking up that his guests weren't too keen on being around him, family or not.

"Of course, if you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask," he offered. "You might want to think about activities that you all like to do—things that we could do as a family." Junior turned his head to the backseat, his lips quivering at the anxious expressions of his cousin, aunt, and uncle. They reminded him of the way a dog might sometimes look when it realizes that it has an appointment with the vet. Billy's eyes darted to his window a few times, a smile almost appearing on his face as they drove past the bones of an undiscovered dinosaur.

"You can sleep in my room if you want, Billy," Junior told him. "You can show me how to have a sleepover. I've never had one before." That got Billy out of his shell. Only on rare occasions did someone ever ask him for guidance.

"We-ell, okay. But you have to do what I say without question if you want to learn how to have fun." Junior showed a small smile.

"It's a deal," he agreed, giving him a thumbs-up. The house in the center of the Earth was now visible through the windshield. It molded around the twists and turns of the caved space, but it looked well-insulated from the heat and pressure from the weight of the world.

"Here we are, family. Home, sweet home." Nergal parked the car in the "garage" part of the cave and unlocked the doors. All five stepped out and took a deep breath of the thick air clouding like invisible fog around the house.

"Mmm! Something smells good!" Harold exclaimed, licking his lips at the aroma.

"That would be dinner." Nergal smiled happily. "We're having calamari and mahi-mahi."

"Uhh…Smart words mean what?" Billy's head hurt just by listening to words more than three syllables long.

"Squid and fish," Junior clarified, giving his cousin a questioning glance.

"I've never heard of that before," Billy said.

"It's brain food!" Nergal supplied.

Billy grinned at this. "That's why I've never heard of it." Nergal led them inside the house through the garage door and gestured to a couple of unoccupied bedrooms.

"This is where you'll be sleeping," he announced. "Unless you'd be more comfortable in Junior's room," he added to Billy with a friendly wink. Billy looked at the bare bedroom, and then at Junior. It was either sleeping alone in this strange place or sharing a room with the half-demon child.

"Uhh, I think I'll stay with Junior, thanks." Junior smiled meekly and took Billy's bags in his snakelike extensions, leaving his hands free to show him around.

"This way, cousin." The two boys began to meander through the crooked house cave. Billy noticed that everything in this house was either made of marble or stone. The only exceptions were the obvious human-made items, such as a television set and all of the technology for the lighting. Junior talked about the antique items they passed and where in the world his dad found certain pieces, but history was too boring for Billy to take any interest in. Worst of all, Junior kept using big words that he couldn't understand, such as "infrastructure" and "evolutionary" and "transcendentalism."

"This is my room," he said at last, opening a door at the end of the hallway before the kitchen. His bedroom had no walls, but was insulated within a sulcus of the cave, creating a peninsula of sorts with a high rock ceiling. Junior had a simple blue bed on a wooden frame, his only other furniture a wooden dresser with a mirror and a desk and office chair for homework and studying. Little known fact: the most socially deprived people often have too much time on their hands and would gladly do schoolwork to fill the void. Having a nonexistent social life left plenty of space for thinking; no wonder Junior and Mandy were the smartest kids in school. "You can sleep wherever you want."

"Oh! Can I have the bed?" Billy asked, pointing to the lone white pillow propped up against the headboard.

"Uh…I guess?" Junior's black snakelike appendages lowered the bags down beside the bed. He didn't really mind sharing, but he wasn't convinced that Billy would treat his things with the care and responsibility that he did. The curse about common sense is dealing with people who don't have it, and then pretending not to be judgmental. "I guess I could…sleep somewhere else…" he finished lamely, thinking of where he put his sleeping bag.

"Thanks, Junior." Billy passed him a friendly smile, feeling a bit better about staying so far underground. This isn't so bad, he concluded. It might actually be fun!

"Dinner's ready!" Nergal called, his voice reaching every corner of the house. "Come and get it!" The dining table was set for six: Billy and his parents on one side, and Junior and his parents on the other. Nergal even went the extra mile to make little place cards so that everyone knew where to sit. The calamari was on the table first as the appetizer—two pounds of steaming hot deep fried breaded rings of squid sitting adjacent to two classic dipping sauces: sweet tartar and marinara. Everyone is going to love this!

Harold and Gladys came into the room first with hungry smiles. "Oh, everything looks so…warm!" Gladys noted, appreciating the hot food after trying to shut out the cold in their house just a mere hour ago.

"Consider it a warm welcome," Nergal punned playfully.

"Something smells fishy in here," Harold quipped as his sister entered with the main entrée.

"That's the mahi-mahi, Harold," said a raspy voice belonging to a middle-aged woman with bright blonde hair, deep red lipstick, and a larger nose. She wasn't the most intelligent person, but she sure wasn't stupid like her brother and her nephew. To this day, she still never figured out a logical conclusion as to why Harold married way before she met Nergal. The best had been saved for last, Nergal liked to tell her, along with several other romantic clichés.

"Oh…right, Sis," Harold lamely recovered himself. "I knew that."

Junior and Billy arrived last to the table and looked at the place cards one by one. Junior took his seat once he found his name, and Billy simply waited until everyone else sat down to take the last available chair. Nergal sat at the head of the table, positively beaming at the reality of having a family dinner. With two pairs of tongs, he dexterously dished out dinner to every plate, leaving a little extra on the platters in case anyone wanted seconds.

Nergal raised his water glass. "Let's eat; eat, and be happy. To…family!" Only his wife, Sis, raised her glass with him and drank to the toast. Junior held up his cup halfway out of respect, but he knew it would take time for his cousin and extended family to accept him and his father. His dad was the most honorable and caring man he knew, and it emotionally pained him to see him in a depressed state. A demon by nature possesses an intuitive mind, able to discern the lies from the truth, and Junior knew a feigned smile when he saw one. If there was one lesson that he learned from going to a human school, it was that people liked you more if you were "normal." He had heard the word "freak" so many times that he forgot where the worth was in being extraordinary.

Dinner took his mind off his dark thoughts for the moment, and it was delicious. Junior lost himself in his senses like taking a soma vacation; good food always seemed to make everything better, from sight to smell, to touch, to taste. He could loll his head to some invisible beat and let it take him to a utopia for a moment or two. And the plate was empty when he came back. "Junior?" his dad asked in a tone that was waiting for a response. "What do you think?"

"About what, Dad?"

"Billy asked if you would like to go to the arcade with him tomorrow." Junior looked at his cousin who gave him an encouraging smile.

"Sure," he agreed. "But what's at an arcade?"

"Games!" the human boy exclaimed with wide eyes.

"Games," Junior repeated. "Like Monopoly? Clue? Chutes and Ladders?"

"Nah, those are stupid board games for losers." Nergal and Junior stiffened at the insult but didn't object. "Arcades have videogames, except that the only scores that get saved are the winners. And if you're good at a game, you get more tickets, which you can use to get cool stuff."

"It sounds like fun," Junior replied softly, envisioning what the arcade might look like. He imagined it to be like a casino with flashing lights and cool sound effects—only on a child's level. Or possibly something like a carnival. They have tickets and prizes in those too, right?

"A very good idea, Billy," Nergal commended. By now, everyone had finished eating. Harold kept eyeing the leftovers sitting in the center of the table, debating on whether he should go for thirds. "Best run along to bed, you two. The sooner you get your rest, the more you'll enjoy game day tomorrow."

"Okay," Junior and Billy said in unison, scooting out of their chairs. They said their "good night" farewells and headed back to Junior's room.

"So…" Nergal leaned in closer to the other adults with an excited grin on his face. "Who's up for some bowling tomorrow?"

Billy yawned as he pulled his pajamas on and climbed into Junior's bed. He felt very comfortable down in the Earth's core, which was one thing that he didn't expect. He also did not count on Nergal and Junior to be as laid back as they were, almost "normal." Almost. Billy reached out from under him and pulled out a fark brown teddy bear with a large pink heart on its tummy. "You still sleep with your bear?" he asked Junior, who was nestled inside a blue sleeping bag on the floor.

"No." Junior's eyes narrowed defensively at first, then relaxed. "Well…sometimes. He…He keeps me company." Billy stifled a giggle. If everyone else at school knew about this, they'd never let Junior live it down. He'd only be bullied more, and that was a terrible fate Billy could understand. He smiled.

"Here you go," he said, holding out the bear. Junior returned his smile and took his stuffed friend, sliding the bear into what little available space the sleeping bag allowed.

"Thanks, Billy." Junior took off his glasses and set them on his dresser. "I think you're a pretty cool friend." A light snoring sound confirmed that the other boy was already fast asleep. Junior sighed and turned on his side. My friend. That night, he slept more soundly than he ever did before.

A Note from CityCat: Hi there! If you are reading this story and you like what you see, please show some love and leave me a review! Comments, questions, and suggestions are always welcome. Thanks, and have a wonderful day!