Citizens Against "Citizens Against Evil"

Chloe's arrival had a serious impact on all the rabble. They howled like animals and frothed at the mouth with their hate. They would run her down and tear her apart if they weren't penned into their designated protest space, or if the police and the media weren't watching so closely.

"LOCK HER UP! SEND HER HOME! LOCK HER UP! SEND HER HOME!"

Chloe smiled and waved. Unperturbed by fact, those people still thought Chloe and her father were responsible for the corn maze incident, still wanted her in the ground. At least she wasn't facing them down alone today. Today, there would be two dueling protests outside of city hall.

On one side, the CAE, who had the gall to call themselves "Citizens Against Evil" when they were in fact an anti-demon hate group. Some of their chants were pretty catchy, especially the one that just went "go back to hell." They wanted demon criminals to be deported, they wanted demon immigration dramatically restricted, and they wanted multiple kinds of demonic ritual either tightly regulated or banned entirely, such as demon summoning and even mere communication with demonic forces. The slogans on their signs were pretty telling. "Keep our children safe!" said one sign, with a picture of a child cowering in the shadow of a horned figure. "A danger to us all," said another sign, with a scary-looking devil on the front. "God hates demons," said a third, without even a trace of irony.

The other side was a growing crowd. Chloe had started planning the counter-protest as soon as she knew the CAE would be here. It was spearheaded by Chloe's Demonic Student Union, but it had grown far beyond that as a social media phenomenon. She was running into people she'd never met before, shaking some of their hands every now and then. Many of them were neither students nor demons. A lot of the people here were her friends or classmates, sometimes even her teachers. They also had a photogenic middle-school kid from the academy with a sign that said "Let me call my mom on holidays," which would be banned if the rules proposed by the CAE became law. Chloe made sure that kid was near the front, where the reporters would be able to see him.

Megaphone in hand, Chloe led them in chanting "EQUALITY MEANS DEMONS TOO!"

As long as none of the lust demons got naked or made out and nobody from her side got violent, Chloe thought, this was going to be an easy victory for her cause. Despite their boldness and their ferocity, despite how quickly they had grown since the corn maze incident, and despite how effectively they had ruined Chloe and her father's life in the last few days, the CAE was a fringe group with extreme positions that would never become law. At least, that was what Chloe liked to think.

On the other side, local business owner Hunter McDougal could be seen, holding a sign that read "WE CAN'T LIVE TOGETHER." Unlike so many of his comrades for the day, he didn't care whether that girl or her criminal of a father had anything to do with the maze. From his years of experience as a Vampire Hunter, he knew that the world this "DSU" was fighting for was one doomed to fail. The corn maze just proved it: Demons and Humans can't live together in peace. Demons spent all of their time in hell for a reason, and that was because they were corrosive to any civilized society. As he saw it, the CAE was this island's only hope to steer itself away from disaster.

Everything was going well so far, for Chloe. Between chants, she made it a point to shake hands with some important recent arrivals. There were a lot of club members and friends and family-friends around, and she couldn't think of getting to all of them.

First, Vinanye, who seemed to be in a male form today. "Hey, man!" she would say, "How are you? I'm glad you could bring FAE out." The exchange would be brief, and she would move on.

She posed for the selfie with Malara before talking to her. "Yeah, I appreciate you coming out! And thanks for doing the social media thing, it's invaluable like you don't even know. Keep it up."

Finally, Dorian and Cecil snuck up behind her. As that round of chanting drew to a close, she turned to them and shook their hands. "This is incredible!" She'd tell them, shaking their hands. "With you guys helping us out, I can see their numbers shriveling." She could see the discomfort on Cecil, so she looked right at him and said, "It really means a lot to us to have you here. Thank you."

Once again, she wouldn't have time to talk. Behind her, a small fight broke out. One of the demons she hadn't met before was getting into a fight with a CAE guy. Many of the other protestors couldn't see this. The two crowds had transitioned into a new set of chants: "KEEP THEM OUT" from the CAE group, "OUR HOME TOO" from the DSU. Chloe didn't know who got that started on her end; probably one of her other club-mates.

It didn't matter right now. As Felix pinned down the CAE guy, Chloe put her hand on the demon's shoulder to get his attention. "Hey! Don't let that happen again," she said. "This is a non-violent protest. Fighting looks bad on the news." A meaningful glance to some of the cameras, most of which hadn't gotten set up quite yet. The demon had a sheepish look about him, and she directed him behind the front lines of their crowd.

Chloe would just trust that her new associate here didn't also deserve trouble from the police, or else one of Felix's colleagues would be on him. It would look bad if the demon had started the fight; it'd seem to confirm some of those stupid conspiracy theories the CAE liked so much.