Kernel Fleck

Kernel Fleck is the protagonist of Demon Thief, the second book of the series The Demonata by Darren Shan, and one of the three main characters in the series.

Demon Thief
Kernel Fleck had magical abilities as a child - he constantly saw strange patches of light around him which he could seemingly manipulate through the power of his mind and the motion of his hands. He can make windows out of these patches. However, when he mentioned it to his parents and teachers, he was assumed to be crazy and consequently ignored. As a result, Kernel had no friends and was lonely throughout his childhood.

As Kernel lay restlessly in bed one night, he began to arrange the patches of light without knowing he was slowly assembling a window into the realm of the dreaded Lord Loss, a demon master. As the window formed, he was lured through it. After being brought into the demon master's universe, Kernel successfully transformed one of Lord Loss' demon servants, Artery, into a human child, which he named Art. When he returned, he could not remember any of the trip, but, despite his parents' mystification, they accepted the new baby as his younger "brother". Art is the reason Kernel goes in to Demonata - the universe of demons.

Kernel's parents, disturbed by the coming of Art, moved into a village to start a new life. A year later, an old woman there summoned the demon Cadaver into the universe of humans, who slaughtered dozens of schoolchildren and stole Art from Kernel. Kernel joined "The Disciples" who were pursuing Cadaver, to try to get back his brother. After a long pursuit they went into the realm of Lord Loss again, and it was found that Lord Loss had ordered Cadaver to steal Art back from Kernel. After another long struggle, in the chess board of Lord Loss, Kernel found that he himself was the "Demon Thief" (i.e. the thief who stole the demon).

He returns home and his parents move. They are shocked to see him and over time begin to despise him. He later sees he's not wanted and leaves. Using his ability he locates Beranabus. At the end of the book Kernel realised that he is a piece of the weapon, 'Kah-Gash', which can destroy universes, and shared his insight with Beranabus, the leader of "The Disciples".

After Book 2
Kernal fights demons with Beranabus and loses the tops of two of his fingers. They reside in a cave.

After Beranabus saves Grubbs from the plane, they go to the cave and Kernal meets Grubbs. He doesn't like him.