“So, who's going to die today?"

Lucas looked up. He was in a dark, hollow room, with just a single lightbulb shining down in the middle of the room. In front of him just a few feet away stood a man facing away from him.

It was his own father.

Hé thought that when he left Earth for the Magic World with his friends, he would not have to see his dad again. Lucas wondered where he was and why his father was there too.

"Dad?" Lucas spoke softly.

He didn't look back at his son. Instead, he seemed to be looking down at a group of people, all crouched down, huddling up against one another. Who was he looking at? Lucas squinted his eyes to try to figure it out but he couldn't see who the people were.

Someone spoke up. "Lucas, stay there!"

They knew him. The voice sounded familiar…

"Be quiet." Lucas finally heard his father speak. He hadn't heard that voice in years. It made him feel like shit.

"Don't hurt him!" The same voice screamed back. Lucas finally knew who it was: his childhood best friend, Zack.

His other friends must have also been there.

Lucas stood up frantically. He ran towards his father in rage. As he got closer, he could see that he was right; his friends were right there.

“Dad, stop! Don’t hurt them!”

But Lucas knew that wouldn't stop him. He was a conservative Christian man who hated anyone who was different and raised his son to be the same way. Lucas knew that his friend group was diverse and that they all had magical powers, both of these things his father would not approve of, but he never expected for them to find out that they were creatures. It had only been a week since they all got the news. A werewolf, a dark angel, a mermaid, an elf, a fairy, a vampire. A perfect team. But not for Joseph, the father of a poor boy who needed his friends by his side.

And then there was Lucas, the demon. The worst, most evil creature to ever exist. Or at least to his dad.

No, his dad’s name was Joseph, and he was the real monster, not Lucas' friends.

Not even himself, and that was hard for him to believe.

Lucas then heard his girlfriend, Maren. "Lucas, no!"

Even though Lucas would probably die, he wasn't going to sit there and watch one, three, or all of his friends die in the hands of Monster Joseph.

“I won't let you hurt my friends!" Lucas knew that would be it for him.

''‘Friends?'" Joseph spoke once again. He chuckled before his head snapped back to face his son. His blood-shot eyes bugged out of his face and that ‘nice guy' smile that he always had was exaggerated from level 9 to 9000. “Oh, but Lucas, you can't be friends with these heathens!

“That's preposterous!"

~

Lucas bolted up from his bed, sweat pouring down his face and his bare back.

It was just a stupid dream.

Maren woke up from next to him. "What happened? Are you okay?"

He couldn’t say anything. He could only cry at this point. Maren held him as he sobbed away his feelings of fear, guilt, pain, and anger. For Joseph and himself.

Lucas began to see his nightmare as a sign of things to come.

He dreaded the day that Joseph found him and his friends and killed them all.

He knew it would be soon.